But the lucrative business evaporated overnight after the EU and the government of Niger moved to stop the pumping of people through the northbound population pipeline.

https://mondediplo.com/2019/06/07niger

The problems started after the fall of Gaddafi in 2011. He had acted as a coastguard for Europe, and in his time it was almost impossible to reach Europe by sea from Libya. But migrants could stay in Libya as long as they wanted. There was no shortage of work, and it was well paid. Boss recalled, ‘When Gaddafi fell, the doors to Europe opened. It was like a magnet. More and more migrants arrived.’ The number passing through Agadez is estimated to have quadrupled between 2013 and 2016, when the local police counted nearly 70 ghettos.

Now Boss faced competition. Many Nigeriens living in Libya fled the war and chaos, and moved into the migrant transport business. They didn’t all follow the established rules. According to one social mediator they were ‘shameless bandits’, who did not hesitate to extort money from migrants in the middle of the desert, abandon them at the slightest sign of trouble, or sell them to militias (who would extort more money) on arrival in Libya. It was these crimes, along with trafficking in drugs, tobacco and weapons, that drove the authorities to cooperate with the EU.

Boss’s ghetto emptied, as did the house on the outskirts of Agadez operated by Mohamed, another people smuggler. The walls of its courtyard still bear traces of former clients: names, telephone numbers. ‘I’ve got nothing left,’ he said. ‘Both my trucks have been seized. I spent six months in jail. I’ve got no income.’ What had happened to the money he earned during the years of plenty? ‘It’s all gone. We had to live.’

On our way to the beach on Cape Cod.

Happy birthday to me.

Have a beautiful day and weekend, folks!

journey are abating. As for writing people off, like everything else, repetition of futile behavior is or at least leads to insanity. There are those I find that I must interact with on a moderately regular basis, with whom I cannot converse intelligently or rationally on any subject whatsoever. I therefore do not try, and we limit our discourse to cars, sports,ahces and pains and shit like that. I refuse to try meaningful discussions with them, and evade any attempts by them at all the topics where they have irreversibly internalized utterly irrational arguments and afactual beliefs. There is really no point in doing otherwise.