🔅 The Disappearance and Reappearance of K'naan
Israel's Controversial African Asylum Scheme
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Douala, Cameroon
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The Disappearance and Reappearance of K'naan: From "Waving Flag" to Waving the Director's Flag
Remember K'naan, the Somali-Canadian rapper who took the world by storm with his unforgettable anthem "Waving Flag" during the 2010 South Africa World Cup? Yeah, that guy.
Well, he vanished from the limelight faster than a vuvuzela after the final whistle. But fear not, friends, because he's been up to some pretty cool stuff.
K'naan's love for cinema goes way back to his childhood in Mogadishu, where he would sneak into movie theaters as an 8-year-old. Fast forward to pre-COVID times, and you could find him at a New York movie theater four times a week for a decade.
Now, he's taking that passion to the next level by writing and directing his first feature film, "Mother Mother." The story follows a mother who loses her son and finds herself in a position to decide the fate of her son's killer. Heavy stuff, right?
The idea for the film came to K'naan in 2020 when his aunt was dying. His mother and her sister, Qalifo, had different opinions on whether to prolong her life through surgeries. They left the final decision to K'naan, which got him thinking, "How do I put a challenge on her as excruciatingly as she put it on me?" And thus, "Mother Mother" was born.
K'naan started writing the story in October 2020, and principal production began in September 2023. The film was made primarily in Northern Kenya, with some parts shot in Somalia.
Israel's Controversial Scheme: Trading Asylum Seekers' Lives for Permanent Status
Imagine being a young African asylum seeker in Israel, desperately seeking a better life and a chance to call this place home. Then, out of the blue, you get a mysterious phone call from someone claiming to be a security official. They offer you a deal – risk your life in the war against Gaza, and in return, they'll help you obtain permanent status in Israel.
It sounds like the plot of a Hollywood thriller, but according to personal accounts obtained by Haaretz, this is the reality for some of the 30,000 African asylum seekers currently living in Israel.
Defense officials claim that the project is conducted in an organized manner, with the guidance of legal advisers. But is it morally justifiable to exploit these vulnerable individuals' desire for permanent status as an incentive to risk their lives in a war that is not their own?
The Recruitment Process
A., a young asylum seeker who arrived in Israel at age 16, shared his experience with Haaretz. He received a mysterious phone call from someone claiming to be a police officer, instructing him to report immediately to a security facility without any explanation.
Upon arrival, he realized he was meeting with "security guys" who were recruiting asylum seekers for the army. They told him it was a "life-or-death war for Israel" and promised that if he enlisted, he could receive documents from the State of Israel.
After initially agreeing, A. had second thoughts. "I wanted to go, and I was very serious about it, but then I thought – just two weeks of training and then to be part of the war effort? I've never touched a gun in my life."
The Broken Promises
Despite the promises made by defense officials, to date, no asylum seekers who contributed to the war effort have been granted official status.
It seems that the government is willing to exploit these individuals' desperation for a better life, but not willing to follow through on their end of the bargain.
This controversial scheme is just one example of the complex and often fraught relationship between Israel and its asylum seeker population.
With no clear path to permanent status and limited rights, many asylum seekers find themselves in a state of perpetual limbo, unable to fully integrate into Israeli society.
The fact that the government is now exploring the possibility of drafting the children of asylum seekers, who were educated in Israeli schools, into the IDF in exchange for granting status to their immediate family members only adds to the ethical quagmire.
Dinosaurs Footprints Found in Brazil and Cameroon: A Tale of Two Continents
Looks like some dinos took a stroll across continents back in the day… A team of intrepid paleontologists has discovered matching dinosaur tracks in Brazil and Cameroon, two countries that are now separated by 3,700 miles of open ocean.
The researchers found more than 260 fossilized footprints, which they believe belong to a type of Early Cretaceous dinosaur. This incredible find pinpoints the last time land-living dinosaurs were able to cross between Africa and South America before the continents started to drift apart around 140 million years ago.
Analysis of the tracks revealed that they are similar in age and geological context, and almost identical in shape.
So, who were these globe-trotting dinosaurs?
Apparently, the majority of the footprints were created by theropods – three-toe dinosaurs with hollow bones and claws on each limb. And a few of the other footprints were likely made by enormous, long-necked sauropods and bird-like herbivorous ornithischians.
Louis L. Jacobs, a palaeontologist from SMU and lead author of the study, explains that the footprints were made 120 million years ago on a single supercontinent known as Gondwana.
"One of the youngest and narrowest geological connections between Africa and South America was the elbow of northeastern Brazil nestled against what is now the coast of Cameroon along the Gulf of Guinea," says Jacobs. "The two continents were continuous along that narrow stretch, so that animals on either side of that connection could potentially move across it."
Food for Thought
“Beauty isn’t wisdom.”
— Burkina Faso Proverb