Tag: refugees

Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday! I’ve been waiting to post about anything but the current situation, but somehow everything I read leads back to it, so now I am just going with the flow. It’s back to the office day in Hungary (for most of us anyway) tomorrow, that could really make me believe we’re out of the woods already, if I haven’t been following international news as well. To be honest, I could be believing a lot of things these days that are not true if I didn’t pay attention (so could you). But perhaps we will talk about this some other…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday! This week seems to be all about referendums of a highly sensitive nature. One can only guess whatever today’s Spanish vote could mean for the broader world order. The referendum in Catalonia, explained Here is what you need to know about Catalan referendums past and present. Let’s hope all parties will keep cool for the next several days. What’s Next for the Bundestag, Merkel and Germany’s Security Policies? Chancellor Merkel won the election last Sunday but found herself in a difficult political situation. The Trump Administration Will Dramatically Lower Refugee Admittance Based on a Totally False Premise And…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday! It is summer in full swing with another heatwave in Hungary. Today is also the day of a New Moon, which they say is a great occasion to start carrying out plans. I would argue that any day is a great day for that, but since here we are today, let’s review our yearly plans and make sure everything is in order. I sure have a lot to think about on that front. Anyway, my favorite bloggers must be on vacation, because there was significantly less posts this week to choose from. Here’s some for you to read,…

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Sunday Smack

Happy July, everybody! And happy long weekend for those who are enjoying one now. Aren’t these cyberattacks more and more worrying? Sometimes it feels like some hackers could really do anything if they wanted to. I mean at the level that everything is computerized now, they could literally stop the world if that was what they wanted. World affairs are not on holiday yet, many things happened this past week. Great posts of great bloggers are a plenty on each topic, I provide you with only a handful to check out. The Supreme Court Just Blocked Vetted Refugees from Starting…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday! This week was incredibly heat-wave-y in most of Europe that may or may not be a result of climate change. I am fully aware that I wrote the same about extreme cold a few months before, these are just the times we’re living. I admit I like this weather, but many countries in Europe are just not used to this kind of heat, not to talk about the  health implications of extreme temperatures. I hope you are all safe. Let’s do a little Sunday reading. Is ISIS conceding defeat? And even if it would be, would this be…

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What does it mean to be a refugee?

teded: teded: About 60 million people around the globe have been forced to leave their homes to escape war, violence and persecution. Those who have crossed a border and sought shelter outside of  their  own  countries–and  they  are  commonly  referred to as ‘refugees’, but what exactly does that term mean? The world has known refugees for millennia, but the modern definition was drafted in the UN’s 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees in response to the mass persecutions and displacements of the Second World War. It defines a refugee as someone who is outside their country of nationality, and is…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday, all! I just love this time of the year around the summer solstice, when the days are the longest. I could spend all night outside reading and taking advantage of even the very last and faintest rays of daylight. I wish I could take the summer and do just that. Read books, sleep and enjoy the sun. But then there are stuff to attend to… Amidst an all American political circus show, many seem to be competing on the who gets blocked by Trump sooner on Twitter race. If only it could really lead to “Trumplessness”, I swear…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday and Happy Summer! This week Britain managed to pull off yet another election where practically everybody lost an no-one knows what to come after, this seems to have become the new standard over there.  Also, political turmoil is mounting in the US, but the President still doesn’t seem to be worried. On this week’s episode of The West Wing Weekly (S03E09 Bartlet for America) there were a lot of talk about Congressional hearings and what they are all about. I happened to listen to it the morning after #ComeyDay, and again, I just love when entertainment really adds…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday! Wow, what an eventful week!  I couldn’t agree more with the Monday cover of La Razón, thank you France for voting inclusion and democratic values! Vive la France! The most turmoil of course was in US politics this week, as is kind of usual these days. It’s also kind of usual for me to refer you to late show clips, because these guys are doing their jobs amazingly no matter how hard it is these days (*coughs* #fakenews). Nothing proves it better than the fact that they actually irritate the president. On a lighter note, U2′s #U2TheJoshuaTree2017 Tour…

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Loretta Napoleoni talked about her book “Merchants of Men” before screening of the documentary “Fire at Sea”

This Monday I attended a special event in Budapest organized by the Hungarian publisher of Loretta Napoleoni’s latest book “Merchants of Men:  How Jihadists and ISIS Turned Kidnapping and Refugee Trafficking into a Multi-Billion Dollar Business”, that just came out in Hungarian. Loretta Napoleoni talked about the essence of the book which is the evolution of the financing of terrorist organizations. After 9.11 ransom paid by foreign governments for their kidnapped citizens became the most important source of funding for terrorist organizations throughout most the Arab world. It involved kidnapping of tourists, journalists and aid workers in countries like Libya (where…

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