#hostipitality

and this is what the fuckety fuck day:

«Au-delà du caractère désagréable de voir un triangle jaune apposé sur les vêtements de certains de nos concitoyens, je veux dire qu’il n’est pas acceptable que l’état de santé, les pathologies des cityoyens soient inscrites noir sur blanc sur leur poitrine», a réagi à Marseille la ministre de la Santé Marisol Touraine, en marge d’une visite pour les assises des CHU et le salon professionnel HopitalExpo Méditerranée. «Cette démarche me paraît absolument contraire à toute l’éthique qui doit présider à la prise en charge sanitaire de nos concitoyens et je souhaite que les initiateurs de cette démarche y mettent fin le plus rapidement possible», a conclu la ministre.

EPILOGUE [of the Pushed Back report by PROASYL available here]

In lieu of a conclusion we will present a complete interview which entails almost all of the findings relevant to push backs presented in this report, as experienced by two European (French) journalists.

C.B. (journalist), O.J. (photojournalist) / pushed back from Samos 28.7.13

C.: We are working for a magazine and we had been following some Afghan refugees from Afghanistan, for about two months. We were following them, posing as Afghans, so we didn’t show our identities to almost anyone. We went on a zodiac, an inflatable boat with 28 refugees, mostly Afghans and Iranians.

O.: There were two women and no children.

C.:We tried to go from Kusadasi in Turkey, to Samos island. We took this boat late at night, the smugglers were actually only putting the boat in the water. Then we jumped inside and they left. It was one of the passengers who was sailing and we went all the way towards Samos. It’s about 15km away from the (Turkish) coasts. And after approximately 2-3 hours we arrived.

O.: After two hours.

C.: We were for two hours on the boat, which was quite crowded and the engine was small, when a Greek coastguards came. They started shouting at us, they told us not to move in broken English. Then, they threw a rope to tie the inflatable boat to their own patrol boat. It was a white and a grey boat that was not too big. It’s quite a small one and it had a back stand where you could walk. And then, you could walk on the ladder, on the back of the boat.

O.: When they arrested us, we were close to the island of Samos. We could see it, we were really close to it, I would say, maybe at 1km.

C.: They were wearing uniforms and black masks. Black uniforms.

O.: Just one guy was not wearing a mask. He looked like an officer.

C.: We could not tell if they were officers or not. One was speaking English. His face was uncovered.

O.: He was saying ‘Don’t cut the rope or we’ll kill you’.

C.: They had guns, they pointed at us, those in black uniforms. But they weren’t pistols. They were big guns (she showed with her hands extended how big these guns were, ed.). They pointed their guns at us and they shouted quite angrily, that if we cut the rope, they would kill us and then refugees climbed one by one from the ladder up on their vessel. Refugees had to kneel down with their hands behind their neck and those who didn’t do it, were punched and kicked. They kept us for about an hour. They tied the zodiac onto their vessel and started leaving the area with their own vessel. We didn’t say we were journalists, they didn’t see us as journalists. They thought we were Afghans. And then they said they didn’t have time to take care of us and that a white big boat would come and take us to Samos island. Then they asked the migrants to get off the vessel one by one and get back onto the zodiac. And when it was done, they untied the boat. They shouted ‘Welcome to Greece’ and they left towards another direction. When we got back into the inflatable boat, the engine was gone. We were left adrift. And we didn’t know what to do, the refugees tried to use their mobiles.

O.: I think that he (the one without mask) is the same one who said ‘Welcome to Greece’, the one that spoke English.

C.: I saw on my mobile, that there was Greek network connection and after about one hour?

O.:One hour or two.

C.: After one hour or two, it’s not very clear, a white vessel came, but it was a Turkish one and so the Greek coastguards had pushed us back into the Turkish waters and the Turkish gendarmerie rescued everyone and took us to the shore. The Turks arrested us, they counted everyone, so we waited in the boat, until they took the refugees and they recognized that we are foreigners, journalists. They took everyone to the police station. Downstairs, on the basement there was sort of a jail. On one side there were the men and it was very crowded. On the women’s section, we were just three women and it was quiet. We were interrogated for a while, for more than two hours. They fingerprinted us and took photos and then they detained us for three days. They did what they could to proceed faster with us, in order to expel us, to deport us. And the refugees that were with us, the ones we had been following, after 15 in Aydin’s detention, on the 18 of August 2013 were deported to Afghanistan. They had no access to any lawyer.

The waves kept push­ing the body into the rock. I remem­ber think­ing: “This man has finally arrived to Europe”. I was think­ing about his fam­ily. (...) This was the first time I asked myself why I was doing this, tak­ing pic­tures of dead bod­ies in the water. I still don’t know the answer. (Giorgos Moutafis)

Link here

Η Βίλια ζει είκοσι χρόνια στην Ελλάδα, μιλάει απλά ελληνικά, μαγειρεύει απλά ιταλικά φαγητά (...) κι όταν κάνει τις δουλειές του σπιτιού σιγοτραγουδάει στη μητρική της γλώσσα. (...)

Η Άννα είναι από την Αλβανία. Συστηματική, τακτική, εργατική, εχέμυθη. (...)

τα πιο ενδιαφέροντα πράγμα που διάβασα στο μπουκ τζέρναλ (αδικία αυτό που λέω, δε διάβασα τίποτα, δεν είχα όρεξη) ήταν αυτές οι αγγελίες, γραμμένες στο τρίτο πρόσωπο. Θα μου πεις ποια ξένη εργαζόμενη θα έστελνε μόνη της τέτοιες καλογραμμένες αγγελίες και δη στο μπουκ τζέρναλ; αλλά σε συνδυασμό με το δίχρονο παιδάκι (αγοράκι; κοριτσάκι;) που στην προπροηγούμενη αγγελία, σε πρώτο πρόσωπο, παρουσιάζει τον εαυτό του αναζητώντας μία κυρία να [το] προσέχει, Ελληνίδα ή ξένη, που να μιλάει όμως καλά ελληνικά με έκαναν να νιώσω κάπως περίεργα... τι γίνεται με τα πρόσωπα και τις φωνές των ανθρώπων, ξένων ή μη;

ΣΤΑΘΜΟΣ from ospite on Vimeo.

όταν ήμουν μικρή, στις πρώτες εβδομάδες στο νηπιαγωγείο ζωγράφιζα μόνο ράγες του τρένου. σκεπτόμενή το τώρα αναρωτιέμαι αν είχε να κάνει με τη γοητεία που ασκεί το τρένο σε όλα τα παιδιά (ο ανηψιός μου μέχρι τα 3.5 ζητούσε επίμονα κάθε φορά που μας επισκεπτόταν να τον πάμε στη γέφυρα. όταν ο οδηγός του κόρναρε, όπως πολύ ευγενικά κάνουν κάθε φορά για τα πιτσιρίκια που χαιρετάνε τα τρένα, ήταν ο πιο ευτυχισμένος μικρός του κόσμου). Ζούσαμε σε μία γειτονιά που η γραμμή του ΗΣΑΠ ήταν σημαντική, χώριζε τον κόσμο μας στα δύο, οριοθετούσε τις βόλτες και την ελευθερία μας αλλά δεν γίνεται οι ζωγραφιές να οφείλονται εκεί, ήμουν πολύ μικρή ακόμα για να τα ξέρω αυτά. Θυμάμαι αντίθετως να ζωγραφίζω τις ράγες γιατί σκεφτόμουν πως μόνο αυτό θα μπορούσα να κάνω σωστά, τέλεια, ίσιες γραμμές οριζόντια και κάθετα. Πέρυσι στην τελευταία εκκαθάριση βρήκα μία τέτοια ζωγραφιά από το φθινόπωρο του '82.

Τις ζωγραφιές αυτές σκέφτομαι σχεδόν κάθε φορά που βλέπω ράγες σε φωτογραφίες ή στο σινεμά. Το ίδιο και με αυτό το βίντεο στην αρχή και ξανά στο 11ο λεπτό, εκεί που λέει πως "όλα αυτά που θέλω να κάνω είναι για τους γονείς μου, για να είναι περήφανοι και χαρούμενοι για μένα. (...) Τους λέω πως έχω χαρτιά, λεφτά, τα πάντα".

Jim Goldberg got the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize last week for his Open See project.

Initiated through a Magnum commission, Open See documents the experiences of refugee, immigrant and trafficked populations who travel from war torn, socially and economically devastated countries to make new lives in Europe. Fusing Polaroids, video, written text, ephemera and large and medium format photographs (taken in places as varied as Iraq, Bangladesh, China, The Balkans and Congo), Goldberg uses his varied and experimental approach to photographic storytelling to reflect on issues of migration and the conditions for desiring escape.

Yesterday, arriving at the Ambika P3, the underground parking of the university of westminster where the photographer's gallery has moved and exhibits until its own building is expanded and renovated, just 30' before the exhibition closed down for good, I was moved and shocked and saddened and moved again and again at each photograph and especially by finding out that at least one third of his photographs were taken in Greece.

GREECE. Lavrio. 2005. Two detained Afghani refugees point to the refrigerator on which they wrote (approximate translation) 'The Sea of Sadness has no shore'. (Their English translation is 'in the open see (sic) dont have border') Lavrio Detention Center. © Jim Goldberg / Magnum Photos

ένα μήνα μετά, ο Γιάννης Χάρης δημοσιεύει "μερικά πράγματα που πρέπει να κρατήσουμε" από αυτό που έφτασε να συμβολίζει η Υπατία. Εκεί σημειώνει πολύ σωστά πως

επείγει να μιλήσουμε ιδεολογικά, με τις διαφορετικές ιδεολογίες μας, που σίγουρα κάπου, διάολε, συναντιούνται, και όχι με σηκωμένο φρύδι και ευφυολογήματα. Αν θέλουμε, εννοείται, να μιλήσουμε.