by Simon Jones | Dec 29, 2021 | Opinion
A Facebook feed memory stopped me in my tracks. Normally these things are innocuous — posts about meeting friends, delivering a talk, something funny heard on the bus — but this cast me back six years to a wintry afternoon in the so-called “Calais jungle,” listening...
by Simon Jones | Jun 5, 2017 | Opinion
A heavily armed CRS, or Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (the French National Police), officer brought his baton down on my hand as he prevented me from carrying a box of food to a group of refugees. This unnecessary aggression reinforced a total prohibition on...
by Simon Jones | Jun 2, 2017 | Opinion
I visited again in mid-May the site of the so-called “Jungle” in Calais, France, where refugees had created a makeshift camp. I caught up with friends in the warehouse, met new people in the Catholic worker house and went shopping with my favorite monk....
by Simon Jones | Nov 7, 2016 | Opinion
The last bus has left the refugee camp in Calais, France, known as the “jungle.” Closing the camp has reminded me of a second curse of today’s world (the first is too few people doing important jobs): our apparent commitment to brinksmanship. We...
by Simon Jones | Oct 28, 2016 | Opinion
It is the curse of today’s world that companies and organizations, even governments, think it is efficient and cost-effective to run any operation with the minimum number of staff. It isn’t. I arrive at a virtually empty house to be invited to take a young...
