Haunted by the past with no end in sight — Sabir’s Story
Today's Document

Kiana Khansmith
ojovivo
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
Jules of Nature

Kaledo Art

oozey mess
Monterey Bay Aquarium
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d e v o n
KIROKAZE
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me

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Sade Olutola
dirt enthusiast
Misplaced Lens Cap
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YOU ARE THE REASON

Janaina Medeiros
seen from United States
seen from Iraq
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seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
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seen from United States
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seen from Germany

seen from South Africa
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seen from India
@storiesbeyondborders
Haunted by the past with no end in sight — Sabir’s Story
Of books and stories
A mobile library for Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong
Lulu set up a mobile library in 2012 to provide books for Indonesian domestic workers because the Hong Kong library doesn’t cater for their needs.
Towering above Victoria park sits the Hong Kong Central Library, Hong Kong’s largest and main library was built at a cost of HK$690 million. The Library’s collections count up to one fifth of the Hong Kong Public Libraries System, which is 2.3 million items out of the total 12.1 million items.
The arch-shaped doorway at the facade altitude of the Hong Kong Central Library symbolizes the “Gate to Knowledge”.
These gates to knowledge are only welcoming to English and Chinese speaking Hong Kongers. If you wish to rent out a book in Tagalog or Bahasa, you won’t be able to do so.
Lulu sits under the flyover just across the road, where two years ago she set up the “Bai Perpustakaan” a mobile library to provide books for those looking to read in Bahasa Indonesian.
Now that Hollywood has told the story of Woody Allen’s long career in film, Dylan Farrow, his adopted daughter, is ready to have her say.
“That he got away with what he did to me haunted me as I grew up. I was stricken with guilt that I had allowed him to be near other little girls. I was terrified of being touched by men. I developed an eating disorder. I began cutting myself.”
Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes in the US, and experts say the #SuperBowl is the single largest event where trafficking might occur. Women, men and kids forced into human slavery will be brought in for #sextrafficking and still others might be at risk for recruitment into the sex trade.
600,000 - 800,000 trafficked across US borders. 50% are children and 80% are female
As a live-in housekeeper, Angela Alvarez quietly worked 15- to 18-hour days; She ate her employer’s throwaway food; She stayed up late after her boss’s parties to clean up the mess.
Peter Seeger and his Banjo, “This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender,” Great Hudson River Revival 2011. (Flickr/Jim) When some of the greatest musicians in the world gathered five years ago to celebrate the 90th birthday of the musician who inspired them all, Bruce Springsteen told Pete Seeger: "You outlasted the bastards, man.” And so he did. ...
The state of being a refugee is temporary, in theory, but without a place to go back to — a nation, a city, a home — limbo begins to look permanent, a designated space carved out of someone else’s country, where the basic needs of physical survival might be provided, but the rights of citizenship are forfeit, and human aspirations lose both their means and their direction.
The case of the tortured Indonesian domestic worker in Hong Kong is an apparent offshoot of policies that have become increasingly anti-migrant over the years
Not even the subsequent arrest of the employer, albeit on a complaint filed by one of her earlier maids, has completely appeased Sulistyaningsih’s supporters. (READ: Employer of Indonesian maid arrested)
They say authorities in Hong Kong should not treat this as just another case of an evil employer inflicting harm on her hapless domestic helper, but as an offshoot of policies that have become increasingly anti-migrant over the years.
Two such policies are often mentioned.
The first is the so-called two-week rule, which requires migrant workers to leave Hong Kong within 14 days after their contracts are terminated ahead of time. The second is the one that compels all foreign domestic workers (FDWs) to live with their employers.
Sugardi has worked in Hong Kong for 18 years. When we spoke to her we thought we finally had a success story on our hands, a woman who has worked with two employers in Hong Kong, been here for nearly two decades and has been able to build a life for her family back home. She was chirpy and spoke at length about how she is now planning to go home, even though the family she works for her feels like home too. Then we asked her if she has worked elsewhere, before the on camera interview she had mentioned working in Saudi, we did not ask her details of the work in Saudi. Her story is a true "stories beyond borders story", abuse is not limited to a certain race, culture or religion, therefore we should never allow it to be justified in those names.
Erwiana's case is now at the center of an investigation and protests by thousands of people who rallied in Hong Kong on Sunday to demand justice for the young Indonesian maid.
Allegedly beaten by her employer in a case that has sparked outrage and a police investigation into accusations of torture, Erwiana's plight has drawn attention to the risks faced by migrant workers in Asia and the Gulf regions.
Syria in ruins
(via reuterspictures)
Tens of thousands of African migrants protest in Tel Aviv against Israeli policy and efforts to round them up and send them to a detention facility.
The official campaign page of Justice for Erwiana and All Migrant Domestic Workers Committee (Hong Kong)
Over 5000 people marched to demand justice for Erwiana. Susi came forward today, she is the second worker to come forward following abuse at the hands of employers. This is the beginning of the recognition that domestic workers are often abused by their employers in Hong Kong.
Erwiana Sulistyaningsih is a domestic helper who was tortured by her Hong Kong employer. Support her with a donation here or join the fight for justice.
In a two-day conference in Geneva on Monday, Syrian women’s rights activists demanded equal involvement in their country’s peace talks set to begin January 22. Syria’s civil war has created 2 million refugees and claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people. "We cannot remain silent regarding events unfolding in Syria such as daily death, massive destruction, starvation of people and displacement of hundreds of thousands of Syrian families, in Syria and abroad, as well as the spread of terror, of violence, ongoing detentions, acts of kidnapping," said prominent Syrian activist Kefah ali Deeb.
Read more via Al Jazeera
After years of propaganda and dehumanization, the acts of brutality towards the Rohingya are almost beyond belief. A story is beginning to piece together of terrible atrocities that have happened this week in the village of Duchiran (also known as KilaDong) in the township of Maungdaw, beginning on Sunday 12th December, that includes amongst other things we have received reports of Rohingya taken as slaves, tied up, killed, chopped into pieces and dumped in the gutter, women who were raped and had their breasts cut off before they were killed, a grandmother age 103 years old and her grandchildren slaughtered before the eyes of the police, as well as sweeping arrests of men, women and children of all ages.