[ Ce sont des périodes difficiles pour des rêveurs ]

im a bit put off that my friend who i covered for in a car accident last month has yet to return my emails, phone calls, texts, yada yada...  i took the the whole blow for the accident -- crap from her parents, ticket, points on my license, .... and i didn;t say anything.  i saved her from going to jail & losing her license.  all i want to know is if she took care of everything?!  i don't want unnecessary points on my license because of stupidity.  i mean fuck i'll pay & take the driving course,  i just want to make sure its done & if its not done to see about getting it done.  avoiding me isn't helping anything.  and i haven't been overbearing by any means.  i swear her dad hates me & thinks god knows what.. but it could have been worse.  what else can i do?  is there another way to find out if she has taken care of the ticket & course?

well i landed an internship for february in amsterdam. little catch though.... finding a room.  things to think about: a) getting 300 euro stipend/month, b) housing is already scarce in amsterdam, c) prices high, d) exchange rates are super low, e) great opportunity with a small firm & a guy who knows everyone there is to know in design/architecture world.  i've been hunting for a room all day... i sent out a ton of emails & im hoping this week i get some follow-ups.  this has all happened so fast, but it seems to feel so right.  out of every firm which has replied back so far, this one has the best feeling to it.  they guy is super attentive & really likes me & my work... which only boosts my nagging doubts about working in an office & screwing everything up.  so we shall see.  it wont interfere with the peace corps since i will finish by the time they want me in august... and if need be, i can leave a week earlier.  keep your fingers crossed this week... i gotta land something asap so we can go through with all my paperwork.

soo jello biafra did some spoken word action at studio a thursday night, and can i say it was engaging, shocking, hilarious, and just altogether amazing.  3 hours +, we left after 3 hours mainly because we were famished & those stools weren't the most comfortable things in the world, but he was yet to finish.  he talked about the current administration, the war, idiots in power, ...  and the finger puppets of bush, cheney, ashcroft, & rice were an added bonus.  needless to say, i feel more educated, more aware, & frankly a bit more paranoid of this country's direction.  if these legislators really pass all these laws/bills that they want to pass & are passing, we all as americans are fucked & doomed.  (look him up on youtube.com)

i wish more of these things were going on, forums where people can gather & be educated....  its a thought. 

The massacres in Tiero, where Tagalo lived, and the neighbouring village of Marena, near the Sudanese border, killed about 400 people. The numbers are unclear because many of the bodies are still lying in the bush. The killings are a blood-red signal that the culture of mass murder as a weapon of war has found its way to Chad, after four years in Darfur uninterrupted by the global community.

The widening of the conflict threatens, in turn, to trigger a new humanitarian disaster. The shock of the Tiero and Marena attacks sent more than 10,000 villagers from the immediate area fleeing into the bush, bringing to about 140,000 the number of Chadians uprooted by the violence. Many - particularly women and children - died of thirst on the road, having left in too much of a hurry to take water.

Those that survived will have to share the available food aid with quarter of a million Darfuri refugees, and there may not be enough to go round.

Pauline Ballaman, Oxfam's programme manager in the area, described the situation as "catastrophic", with barely two months left before the rainy season makes food delivery impossible.

"Even if the international community gets mobilised to provide the funds to bring in the food, it's going to be a logistical nightmare to get it to the right place at the right time," she said.

Massacres

Oxfam is launching a public appeal today in the race to cope with the crisis, which is growing with every passing day. The massacres at Tiero and Marena took place two weeks ago but there are still stragglers arriving at the relief camps, after days walking in temperatures of 45C (113F).

Now, the survivors are telling the story for the first time, giving some clues as to how the violence is spreading westwards.

"First the Janjaweed came, on horse and on camel, and then the rebels, with heavy arms and vehicles," said Tagalo's father, Hassan Ahmed Abubakar. He was reunited with the wounded boy a few days ago in Goz Beida hospital, a squat concrete block with just a handful of wards for the most urgent cases.

After being bandaged up, Tagalo was consigned to a canvas tent outside, where his father sat fanning the flies from his face. The three-year-old winced and writhed from the discomfort, and cried for his mother, who is in a hospital hundreds of miles away.

Other survivors in Goz Beida and at the camps that have sprung up around the town of Kou Kou 20 miles to the south-east, all agree that the attack came in coordinated waves.

Maki Yacoub Bourma, also from Tiero, said the village's small self-defence force had held off the first Janjaweed attack, but was then overwhelmed when the rebels arrived in military vehicles with heavy weapons, including multiple rocket launchers and jeep-mounted machine guns.

"The Janjaweed came at 5.30 [am]", Mr Bourma said. "The rebels came at eight and by 10 it was over."

The attackers worked their way through the village killing anyone they could see. Mr Bourma's younger brother, Hassan, was shot in the head.

Factions opposed to President Idriss Deby have long been active in the east. Last year, they almost took N'Djamena on the other side of the country.

The people in this part of Chad, the Dajo, refused to join the rebels and so in theory made themselves targets too. But brutality on this scale still came as a shock.

The new bloodlust seems to have been forged from the volatile alliance between the well-equipped rebels and the Janjaweed, who have made scorched earth their trademark in Darfur. Similarly, the villagers say they coexisted peacefully with the local Arab herders for generations until they too were recruited into the Janjaweed militias over the last few years

"The problem is brought from Sudan. Everybody knows it comes from Sudan," Mr Bourma said.

A UN investigation has found substantial evidence that the Sudanese government is supporting the Janjaweed, while the Chadian rebels operate with impunity from inside Sudan. Meanwhile, Khartoum accuses the Deby government of sponsoring a Darfur-based rebellion against its rule.

In short, Tiero and Marena were caught in the middle of a proxy war, exploiting the chronic tensions between farmer and herdsman, African and Arab.

There are no more Arab faces to be seen in the markets of eastern Chad. An Arab encampment by Kou Kou now lies abandoned, after its inhabitants fled in fear of reprisal killings.

Shelter

As the ethnic cleansing gathers pace, their place has been taken by African villagers from Tiero and Marena and other wrecked villages, taking shelter under the thorn trees and the dull silver of UN plastic sheeting.

The aid appeal will help keep them alive but it will not prevent more massacres. The negotiations over a UN protection force have dragged on for months as President Deby and his Sudanese counterpart, Omar al-Bashir, have dragged their heels. The Libyan leader, Muammar Gadafy, is also manoeuvring to stop UN troops, fearful they might turn out to be a Trojan horse for western influence. He has sent his own expeditionary force to the region.

The French also have a 1,200-strong garrison in the area, but they have so far done nothing to stop the killing.

There are no shortage of national interests being represented in this chokingly hot, dusty corner of Africa, but none seem interested in stopping the slaughter.

Backstory

The wave of killing in the heart of Africa has its roots in 2003 in Darfur, where ethnic African tribes staged a revolt against Khartoum, after years of neglect and discrimination. In its response, the Sudanese government mobilised and armed Arab herders in raiding parties. The raiders called themselves Janjaweed, which is roughly translated as "devils on horseback". Using rape, pillage and mass murder as weapons of war, the Janjaweed killed 200,000 people, mostly civilians and drove about 2.5 million from their homes and villages. The Janjaweed have now followed the refugees into Chad, and made alliances with anti-government rebels there. Both forces have now started targeting villages that they view as being supporters of the regime in N'Djamena. There is a small African Union force present in Darfur, but it has no mandate to intervene. Negotiations on sending UN peacekeeping forces to Darfur and Chad have met with resistance from both Khartoum and N'Djamena.

Copenhagen police caught the residents of Ungdomshuset youth collective off guard this morning, as they launched an early morning raid to clear the building.

The action began at 7.00am when a helicopter set police in riot gear on the Nørrebro building's roof. Minutes later, a crane lifted a shipping container against the front windows of the building, allowing more officers to enter the building.

According to eyewitnesses, police sprayed water and foam into the building before sweeping in.

After less than 30 minutes, the building had been emptied. According to Ungdomshuset representatives, as many 100 people can be in the building at any one time.

Police have set up roadblocks in a 50 metre radius around the building on the busy Jagtvej thoroughfare. Police have reportedly removed the teens from inside the cordoned off area without the incident coming to blows.

The surprise action and the early hour helped to avoid violent confrontation between the police and the residents, but a number of the young people and Undgomshuset supporters have gathered outside the barriers and are yelling in protest.

In addition to their chants of 'Hands off Ungdomshuset!', the leaders of the group have realeased a statment saying, 'This will not be forgotten.'

the copenhagen post

bbc world news: protests & riots

more from bbc world news