Here is another set of stories footnoting coverage of ad-hoc / military / fortress / squatter / carceral urbanism. We've got human canonballs soaring across the US/Mex border, myopic insight into the politics of walls, a peak at the terrain of an omniscient satellite industry, complexions of a militarized New Orleans, massive flows of prisoner / laborer / refugee / evacuee ('s) scooting around the world, as well as all those other things found hovering at the border....

Post-Katrina complexions
Cruz control: How Katrina will reshape borders
William Richard reviews Teddy Cruz's keynote address for the "Growing Urban Habitats" symposium at the School of Architecture September 2-3.. Cruz talked about the border being less a political and physical means of control, and rather an ad-hoc urbanism where cultural identity is constructed of discarded parts and forms an informal economy, a "critical threshold" where the formal and the informal are at constant odds, where political boundaries are visible, but social exchanges are invisible. Ad-hoc urbanism may not be appropriate for N.O., but, Williams asserts, perhaps the goal of reconstruction "is to maintain the inclusive identities of Gulf cities while excluding natural threats. Will it be possible to construct borders and barriers among the cities of the Gulf Region­ and then make them socially invisible."

Nevertheless, questions still remain...

Is New Orleans a Victim of the Iraq War?
Did the Bush Administration try to Blackmail the Louisiana Governor into handing New Orleans over to the Feds?
Do the Real Looters Wear Pinstripes?
How Much More Money Does Disaster Mean for Halliburton?
How will the US Military Role in Relief be Examined?
Virtual martial law in the Big Easy

A Look at Refugee Situation Around U.S.
How San Francisco (and other cities) Should Help Hurricane Victims
Hurricane evacuee arrested in Atlanta for panhandling??


more border context

US/Mex - US_Mex

Just before the Mexican army sent its first ever Aid convoy to the U.S., as part of inSITE05 and all the border-crossing art projects happenining in Tijuana and San Diego, one man took the border checkpoint scenario to the extreme.
Human Cannonball Soars Across U.S. Border | Pics: 1, 2

deleteTheBorder is a coalition "towards a global network of movements against borders" They are currently mobilizing for an action in San Diego to shut down the Minutemen Project. But first, read this article to get you fired up: The Minutemen Project and the La Reconquista Lie. And if you think the US/Mex border is just some poor people trying to slip into this country and the US Border Patrol politely turning them around and sending them back, guess again. A U.S. border patrol helicopter was downed by illegals. And here's a report:
Illegal re-entry cases increase in eastern Wisconsin (Some $200 million a year is spent to keep illegal re-entrants in prison). Here is Bush on border control. But check out how these barrios in Venezuela are fairing at the hands of government support, perhaps our Prez could take some better notes next time he ventures from his fortress for tours of the barrio. And for more academic reading on the subject check out Barrio Urbanism: Chicanos, Planning and American Cities by David R. Diaz.

ISRPAL

No discussion between the two seems possible without reference to the WALL.

A fence too far
BBC: In pictures: Picturing Israel's wall
Another good write-up: Well-known UK graffiti artist Banksy hacks the Wall
The end of “graffiti news” in Gaza
U.S. gave the Israelis a wall, and New Orleans gets Flooded!
The Old City of Hebron, which just seven years ago was restored to its former glory, now stands neglected and vandalized
The demographics of radical Islam
Expert says Palestinians don't need financial aid, Ex-International Monetary Fund official says investments, not donations, needed more to rebuild economy of territories.

EU

Check out this project: FADA'ÍAT>> Through spaces at Fortress EU´s southwest border.: Transactions/fada'íat (http://fadaiat.net) was an event that happened in June 2004, between Tarifa and Tangiers: i.e. on the border between Fortess Europe and North Africa. Continuing with the Multitude Connected project, (La Rabida, Huelva, 2003), it was a social, political, technological and artistic laboratory that brought together a wide group of activists.- migration, labor rights, gender, communication...-, political theorists, hackers, union organizers, architects and artists to think about the relations between freedom of knowledge and freedom of movement in a society of globalised information production.

The UK introduces what it claims to be the most comprehensive database ever assembled on immigration. Read | View

On a related tip, some businesses are testing web applications ofr Homeland Security that aim to check immigration and illegal status online. "The idea is to stop illegal immigration in the workplace, not at the border."


military urbanism

Iraq: Work will be stopped on some utility plants, officials tell lawmakers, because security costs are depleting funds.
THE HUMPTY DUMPTY PRINCIPLE: "The perpetual collapse of Iraq brings up an important philosophical debate. Is the state an ascendent or descendent institution?"
The Arithmetic of America's Military Bases Abroad: What Does It All Add Up to?
BRAC Behind base votes: skepticism of Pentagon
Military bases aren't a jobs program
Northrop Grumman is patenting a way to mark vehicles and buildings so that they are avoided during a precision missile strike
Weapons Sales Worldwide Rise to Highest Level Since 2000
Army Contract Official Critical of Halliburton Pact Is Demoted
US and Japan plan floating runway
Call this civilisation? By Edwin Heathcote
Great Wall, Shame About the Hotel


surveillance: satellite edition

Too Many Players Still Shadow Satellite Industry
Mini Satellites Could Revolutionize Space Industry
Satellite firms agree $3bn tie-up
Laser Sat's Big Pipes
When Bricks Become Pixels - Screen-Wall
David Brin on Our Omni-Surveilled Future
History of Video Surveillance
US spy satellites aid Hurricane Katrina recovery


born squatter, died refugee

Russian Squatter Demands $600,000 for Starbucks Trademark
How Zimbabwe blocked UN aid
U.S. Poverty Rate Rises to 12.7 Percent
Cambodia: The UN special rapporteur on adequate housing, Miloon Kothari, recently acknowledged that rich and powerful interests were taking land in the country, leaving thousands of people dispossessed.
Living in squalor by the Eiffel Tower
Mauritania's deadly daily poverty
Life keeps getting 'worse for world's poorest'
Environment key to helping poor
Mission Australia's Campbell House homeless shelter in Surry Hills


the carceral landscape

Israeli prison conditions ranked worst among developed nations
Nuclear rivals to free prisoners
Aceh rebels released from jail
China to close 7,000 coal mines
Rwanda's freed prisoners go home 22,000
Guantanamo hunger strike staged
Should Architects Stop Designing Prisons? By Stephen A. Carter