On Thursday, The Denver Post reported that a woman flying from San Jose to Denver was stopped by airline personnel and police, who she claims profiled her as a possible human trafficker because her daughter was not the same race.

"Mary MacCarthy, who is white, and her 10-year-old daughter, who is Black, flew from San Jose, California, to Denver on Oct. 22 to be with family after the sudden death of MacCarthy's older brother the night before. When they arrived in Denver, they were met on the jet bridge by a Southwest Airlines employee and two Denver police officers," reported Elise Schmelzer.

"The two officers started talking to MacCarthy and her daughter, Moira, separately. The officers wanted to question MacCarthy and her daughter because a Southwest Airlines employee had reported them as suspicious and MacCarthy as a potential human trafficker, according to a Denver police report and MacCarthy's account."

MacCarthy is enraged at the incident, which reportedly reduced her daughter to tears. "This is the type of situation that mixed-race families and families of color face all the time while traveling," she said.

According to the report, the original complaint was made by a flight attendant on their Southwest Airlines flight, who "told police she was suspicious because the two were the last to board the plane and because MacCarthy asked other passengers to move so her daughter could sit next to her ... [and] also reported that the pair did not speak during the flight."

https://www.rawstory.com/mixed-race-family-human-trafficking/

The great Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire died today after prolonged suffering, following injuries to his shoulder in a street fall two years ago. A close friend, the French writer Alain Lompech, was notified of the death by his household this morning.

Nelson was the lifelong best friend of Martha Argerich and himself a performer of the greatest subtlety and inwardness.

He shunned publicity, recorded copiously and never let an audience down. His companion Rosana Martins predeceased him last year.

…The French pianist Philippe Cassard writes: ‘A giant has just left us. And everyone with him. A virtuoso with an incandescent velvet touch, great wildcat of the piano with devastating effect in Rachmaninov and Liszt, lyrical in Chopin, Beethoven and Brahms, luminous in Bach and Mozart. And what about the most extraordinary duo in history that he formed with 4 hands and 2 pianos with Martha Argerich? He was a kind, shy, humble man and away from the media noise. He will remain for a long time an example of musical and professional integrity raised to the highest point. All of us respect him, admire him, love him.’

https://slippedisc.com/2021/11/mourning-for-a-piano-giant-77/

Fourteen men, including a former president Compaore, will go on trial in Burkina Faso from Monday over the assassination in 1987 of Thomas Sankara, the country's revolutionary leader and a pan-Africanist icon.

It will be nearly 34 years to the day since Sankara was gunned down during a putsch led by an erstwhile comrade and close friend -- one of the most shocking episodes in a country well-versed in political brutality.

Suspicions have long been directed at Sankara's successor as president, Blaise Compaore, who ruled the impoverished Sahel state for the next 27 years. Compaore was toppled by a popular uprising in 2014 and fled to neighbouring Ivory Coast, which granted him citizenship. He is the chief accused among 14 figures in the trial, which will unfold at a military court in the capital Ouagadougou.

…A young army captain and Marxist-Leninist inspired by Ghana's Jerry Rawlings, Sankara came to power in a coup in 1983.

Aged just 33, he embarked on a campaign of radical change.

He renamed the country Burkina Faso (the land of honest men) from the colonial-era Upper Volta, carried out a wave of nationalisations and banned female genital mutilation, polygamy and forced marriages.

Four years after Sankara took the helm, he and 12 other leaders were dead.

More at https://www.africanews.com/2021/10/08/burkina-faso-tries-alleged-killers-of-revolutionary-icon-sankara/

And Barmak's protagonist truly is helpless, in a way that films rarely have the courage to convey. This is no wishful feminist parable about a strong-willed young woman facing tough odds. "Osama" is a weak, confused, foolish girl, a pawn not only of the Taliban but of her mother and grandmother as well. She passively watches her life unfold as if she were outside of it, but with a constant fear in her eyes that shows she knows she's not. Those eyes are perhaps the greatest marvel in this somber, eloquent film. Golbahari, like the rest of the cast, is not a professional actor, yet her face is as evocative as that of any movie star. When she is silently watching, her eyes have an almost disconcerting intensity. Now fourteen years old, Golbahari was one of thirteen children and begged in the streets before Barmak found her. She reportedly witnessed the death of one of her sisters in a rocket attack. It is hard not to wonder, with sadness, what else those young eyes may have seen.

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2004/05/the-movie-review-osama-and-kandahar/69427/