Portside

Shortly after turning 90, Hedy was arrested in a demonstration over the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson. She has also visited the Israeli-Occupied West Bank five times, and been turned away from visiting Gaza the same amount of times by Israeli authorities. “It’s part and parcel of my entire political philosophy, when there is something wrong being done I can’t stand idly by … I have to be out there.”

The people stuck in Calais are caught between two major colonial powers which must bear responsibility for much of the violence and destruction which has driven refugees from their homes in the Middle East and beyond. Their awful situation is relevant in trying to understand the colonial legacy and Europe's obsession with borders and fear of the immense efforts by civil society to help, even as they are curbed by Europe's governments. Why is Europe so scared these days?