The News Review:

- Saving Senegal’s sons by forgoing a dream
- Growing Food Crisis Strains UN
- The Art Presenter Ken Foster and his Big Ideas forge a new identity…

Saving Senegal’s sons by forgoing a dream
Toronto Star – May 25, 2008
Thousands die on the way. When Spain had no formal extradition treaties with West African countries says Jo-Lind Roberts a spokesperson at the Dakar office of the UN’s International Organization for Migration there was no way to deport them. Such a treaty now exists with Senegal but most arrivals picked up by authorities claim to be from the Ivory Coast or another country and may be detained for a few weeks but then are let go. "What you see is countries such as Spain and Italy every few years granting amnesty to undocumented migrants" says Christian Dustmann of the London-based Centre for Research and Analysis on Migration "giving them resident status in the hopes they will then move on to other countries in the European Community. " Europe also spends billions patrolling the waters off Africa but this only pushes the traffickers to find other often longer and riskier routes and to charge more for the journey as much as $1000. "Whatever policies the EU sets to stop immigration" says economist Chérif Sidy Kane a professor at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar "Africans will go to Europe. Young Africans are conscious of one thing: that if they stay here life will become more and more difficult for them… "It is among those families where there is an émigré where you really see investment in terms of housing in terms of a better life" he says. "For that reason young people are motivated to leave. "In Senegal where small plots of land barely support the families who live on them and unemployment is high the siren song of life in Europe is powerful. The Diouf household is a good example: 22 people in a series of small rooms with no running water ragged sheets tied to the open barred windows and a dusty courtyard cluttered with firewood and low wooden tables for vending. The Muslim custom of polygamy is another spur for migrating says Diouf. "If a woman sends her son to Europe and if that son succeeds there and starts to send money to the family at that moment you can see the reaction of the father" she explained. "He goes to the bank to Western Union or to the post office to pick up this money.
dressmakers mannequin

Growing Food Crisis Strains UN
Washington Post – May 25, 2008
"They will be ready for anything — for anarchy — because they have nothing to safeguard or to fight for. "The Haitian experience has been playing out around the world. Food protests and riots have erupted in more than 30 countries bringing unrest in places as diverse as.
Muscle Gloss

The Art Presenter Ken Foster and his Big Ideas forge a new identity…
San Francisco Chronicle – May 25, 2008
Foster may be the least well-known important person in the Bay Area arts scene. Since taking the center’s top job in 2003 Foster has presented an impressive range of performing artists from across the world spectrum a number with African provenance or roots who had rarely or never been seen here. The 2007-08 season has featured the Bay Area premieres of works by Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula Vietnamese choreographer and performer Ea Sola the Dutch theater company KASSYS the Ilkhom Theatre of Uzbekistan and a fervent collaboration by the Brooklyn-based Urban Bush Women and Compagnie Jant-Bi of Senegal. Many of the shows have sold well. A key innovation of Foster’s leadership are his “Big Ideas” – broad themes laid out in the center’s program books and other publications that invite the public to make connections between the various performances exhibitions films and other programs. Foster has also funded and helped facilitate important collaborations between local and international artists. One of them linked a San Francisco dance troupe with a company from Kolkata India.