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During this time of the year, the internet is always full of unsolicited advice on surviving the holidays with our families without harming either them or ourselves. As someone who enjoys a good “tip from a therapist” video on Instagram, my for-you page is always full of posts like this. Although I sometimes find the advice too vague or unfitting to my situation, I almost always watch it. So this year—purely to entertain myself and without any real hope for getting along better with my relatives—I decided to implement, besides my real-therapist-approved tricks, some of the advice that the gurus on Instagram had revealed to me. < Back Christmas: The Cheerful Holiday of Stress Viktorie Voriskova January 31, 2025 The Christmas Break. Although a long-awaited time for many, it is rarely the happy, calm and peaceful time that we wish for it to be. Despite being able to hit pause on academia and work, kicking back with a cold glass of eggnog and luxurious Christmas candy, many people experience stress and anxiety during this time. Oftentimes, the capitalistic whirlwind is what goes hand in hand with Christmas—making sure that you are giving a present to everyone who is giving one to you, ensuring that the gifts are nicely packed and ready to be exchanged at an appropriate time. However, for better or worse, our families also create stressful and anxiety-filled atmospheres that embody the opposite of what the ideal Christmas spirit represents. Be it contrasting political opinions, intrusive questions about personal life, unhelpful comments on how much one is eating, or just the overall stress of having so many people in one room. As a child of divorce, I have what some might call the luck—and others the horror—of getting to celebrate Christmas twice. Although I do not consider any of my relatives my lethal foe and have a working relationship with all of them, sometimes (too often) I find myself in interactions that make me question the sanity of both of us and have me searching for same-day flights to anywhere else on earth. During this time of the year, the internet is always full of unsolicited advice on surviving the holidays with our families without harming either them or ourselves. As someone who enjoys a good “tip from a therapist” video on Instagram, my for-you page is always full of posts like this. Although I sometimes find the advice too vague or unfitting to my situation, I almost always watch it. So this year—purely to entertain myself and without any real hope for getting along better with my relatives—I decided to implement, besides my real-therapist-approved tricks, some of the advice that the gurus on Instagram had revealed to me. “To engage or not to engage?” That is the question. A classic, and one of my family’s favorite conversation starters, is the “Oh, but have you heard?!” These arguments are usually kicked off by a relatively innocent “They want to increase taxes!” which then turns into “They are stealing our jobs!” and which can spiral as far as “There are chips in vaccines!” Most of the time I have just answered with: “Sure, Grandma, I am too convinced that the government has a deep desire to know what we talk about at Christmas dinner.” Not that telling her this has ever stopped her from conspiring further. I tried. Multiple times. Personally, these interactions have always been painfully irritating because it is obvious to me that these fears and anxieties are the result of populist and extremist propaganda they have encountered and naively trusted. For someone who has always tried to check my sources and stay as objective as possible, this has always been hard to deal with. For years, I used to argue, trying to show them that they were being manipulated and free them from their fabricated illusions. Unsurprisingly, this has never worked. It only made them resent me or laugh at me. This year, I tried out the Instagram advice: “ Don’t engage, don’t reply, change the topic.” Although at first this was very difficult and frustrating since I felt that it was my responsibility to try to help them see things as they were, once I embraced this strategy, I felt better. At the end of the day, if they were open to hearing me out and changing their opinion, they would have done so many Christmases ago. Me trying to argue with them made no difference. Even though it was frustrating, it felt freeing. 9/10. “Your body, your choice” Food is one of the core elements of any holiday for my family, deeply rooted in all our celebrations. Therefore, unsurprisingly, it—specifically the amount which we consume—is a common topic around this time of the year. “ Are you sure you really want to eat another piece?” is repeated like a broken record. For many years, these types of questions sent me into a spiral. But, yet again, Instagram therapists rushed in with advice on how to deal with this. Besides applying the previous advice of not engaging, “I will honour my cravings” and “I will respect my hunger cues” became my daily mantras. Even though I was not capable of fully enjoying my Christmas candy after someone commented on me eating it, I mostly managed not to spiral or have my day ruined. To be completely unaffected by these comments, I would need to practice setting my boundaries for longer, but I was pleasantly surprised nonetheless. 8.5/10 (+0.5 if you eat the candy while keeping intense eye contact with the relative who asked the question—that did actually make me feel pretty great). “Fighting the crazy opinion with an even crazier opinion” As I already mentioned, some of my relatives are, unfortunately, easily manipulated by populist and extremist politicians, making my Christmas full of radical opinions. Arguing with them is pointless, as well as trying to debate with facts and reason. Therefore, although not a therapist but a comedian , Dan Donohue shared the advice “If they say something crazy, say something even crazier” on Instagram a couple of days before the holidays. As already made clear in earlier parts of this article, I am not above teasing (i.e. making fun of) my relatives, and so I did try this advice out a couple of times. Mostly, I was successful in ending the discussion, which felt quite gratifying. However, once or twice, I just spurred my relatives on, which was quite horrifying. Nevertheless, it was quite entertaining and effective. 7/10. The long-awaited happiness, calmness and peace At the end of the day, I love my family, and I was happy to get to spend Christmas with them, although, like most of us, I did not enjoy every single minute of our time together. Despite everything, I did manage to relax this Christmas, watch all my favourite fairytales and savor all my favorite traditional foods. My ability to set my boundaries and not be affected by the emotions and opinions of others is still developing, occasionally leading to frustration and upset during the holidays. Nevertheless, some of these tips did make a difference when the conversations got too heated or when I felt too overwhelmed. Although I do not know how I feel about having to thank a social media platform for making my holiday break more survivable, the tips I gathered there did make a difference; I am obliged to give credit where it is due. Thank you, Instagram Gurus. Photo credits: Creative Commons

Although more than a hundred years have passed since its publication, the recycling of this tale, the tale of “The American Dream” but also the tale of a life without love—the tale of a life full of yearning—continues to this day, even after the pages of Fitzgerald’s novel have been turned to their very end. < Back A Hundred Years of Gatsby Viktorie Voriskova April 30, 2025 Disclaimer: Spoilers ahead! It is not just a single thing that makes a novel “timeless.” The majority of novels which have the honour of having been described as such usually resemble each other in one way or another—their themes are often seen as universal, the writing style is provocative, and the main characters are usually relatable and multi-dimensional. However, a few books have been as popular for as long as The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald. This book was initially published on April 10, 1925, when Fitzgerald was just 28 years old. He was already an established author, having published two popular novels just a few years earlier. Despite the popularity of his two previous books, The Great Gatsby was a much smaller success, with only 20,000 copies being sold in the first edition. The novel chronicles the life of Jay Gatsby, written by his neighbour, Nick Carraway, a Yale graduate, with inclinations to romanticize his own life as well as the lives of others. Nick Carraway moves to New York in 1922 to learn about the bond business and rents a house in West Egg, which is right next to the grand villa of the mysterious and wealthy Gatsby, whose real name is James Gatz. Unlike his flashy neighbours, Nick has connections to East Egg, where his cousin Daisy lives with her unfaithful husband, Tom, who is a philanthropist with notable violent tendencies and is the embodiment of “old money gone bad.” Nick discovers Gatsby’s deep love for Daisy, whom he had known before the First World War. Gatsby throws lavish parties in hopes of rekindling their romance. Nick helps reunite them and they begin an affair. Tensions rise and Tom exposes Gatsby’s criminal past. Daisy ultimately chooses Tom. After Daisy accidentally kills Tom’s mistress, Myrtle, Gatsby takes the blame. Myrtle’s husband kills Gatsby, then himself. The novel ends when Nick, disillusioned, returns to the Midwest, where he ponders Gatsby’s dream and the moral decay beneath the glittering surface of the American upper class, and quintessentially, the “American Dream.” Although more than a hundred years have passed since its publication, the recycling of this tale, the tale of “The American Dream” but also the tale of a life without love—the tale of a life full of yearning—continues to this day, even after the pages of Fitzgerald’s novel have been turned to their very end. Playwrights, filmmakers, cartoonists, rappers and numerous novelists have taken their shots at turning Fitzgerald’s text into something new, all while paying tribute to its unparalleled influence. At least four feature films, countless television episodes, an opera, two musicals, and—especially since it entered the public domain four years ago—a whirlwind of fan-fiction sequels, prequels and retellings have emerged. One of the key reasons for the eternal success of The Great Gatsby has been its raw approach to money, love, power and reputation. How we imagine him has much to do with how we see ourselves. Gatsby and his interpretation have gone through numerous transformations. Various generations have interpreted the text according to their perception of Gatsby—his glamour, his melancholy, or his parties being analyzed and celebrated for what they are, as well as for what they are not. Despite its initial lack of success, after Fitzgerald died in 1940 and especially after the end of the Second World War, The Great Gatsby became the most published book in North America, a sign of its major success. We can't be sure why this happened, although many would agree that it was probably due to post-World War II sentiment: nostalgia for the 20th century, because it symbolized a time of optimism. This period saw Gatsby as the “Jazz Age Man,” based on the novel that became a symbol of this optimism. His story was repeated on TV and in the movies and the character became an archetype. Meanwhile, knee-length pants and cowboy hats, art-deco and dissipation paraded across screens, in “Singin' in the Rain” and “Some Like It Hot,” as well as movies like Funny Girl and Chicago, and in the fashion pages. This was the era of The Great Gatsby . In the 1950s, Gatsby started to be seen from a more existentialist perspective, commencing the phase of Gatsby as “The First Existentialist.” After the Second World War, thanks to the growing readership of The Great Gatsby , the readership of the novel widened. Paperback editions proliferated, and the novel was cited by young authors including J.D. Salinger. Hollywood, which first brought the book to the screen in 1926, made further adaptations. It came to be seen less as a satire of the '20s than as a commentary on the predicament of modern man, a precursor to popular contemporary novels such as Albert Camus's The Stranger , Saul Bellow's The Dangling Man and Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye . In the 1950s, people started to recognize that the book was not only about glamour, money and parties; Gatsby's life was marked by alienation and nostalgia. His death, an act of senseless violence, is a textbook case of the absurd. The character of “Snoopy” is another example of the shift in the perception of this novel. Snoopy, who represents Gatsby's quintessential existentialism, is world-weary, constantly tired and quiet. This bow-tie-clad alter ego of Gatsby appeared for the first time in 1998, as part of a series of Gatsby-themed Peanuts strips, embodying Gatsby’s existentialism, which had risen to acclamation at this time. “Hip-Hop Gatsby” is yet another example of the timelessness of The Great Gatsby . How can the epitome of glamour become the embodiment of existentialism and then Hip Hop? This version of Gatsby owes its popularity to the 2013 film “The Great Gatsby” by Baz Luhrmann, as well as the memes created by Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby. Besides memes, music is another quintessential part of the formation of “Hip-Hop Gatsby.”The soundtrack is a collage of contemporary pop and rap, from Lana Del Rey, Florence and the Machine, and Beyoncé, among many others, and was produced by Jay-Z. Like jazz in the 1920s, hip-hop is a black American musical idiom that has become the soundtrack of the age, a complex, fast-evolving art form loaded with aesthetic possibilities, perfectly reflective of The Great Gatsby in its own, innovative, modern way. The Great Gatsby owes much of its success to luck, as many literary pieces do, in the world of publishing and advertising. However, it is inevitably Francis Scott Fitzgerald's genius, which lies in his ability to describe a dynamic world and characters that are unique and specific, but also ordinary enough to be realistic. Generating feelings of grandiosity but also sadness and melancholy, this work is timeless and relevant across centuries, from the Jazz Age to the era of Hip Hop. The Great Gatsby is open for everyone to interpret as they wish. As Fitzgerald, through the personification of Gatsby, says at the end of the book: “ And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." Photo source: Urban Romantics on Flickr

< Back 3 Ans Après le Meurtre de Mahsa Amini, un Bilan sur la Situation des Femmes en Iran Bronwen Sutcliffe September 30, 2025 Le 16 septembre 2025 marque le troisième anniversaire du décès de Mahsa Amini aux mains du régime iranien. La politique répressive envers les femmes perdure. Cependant, l’Iran a connu d'importants bouleversements à la suite de cet outrage, notamment portés par le mouvement international Femme, vie, liberté. Ces mobilisations ont-elles réellement amélioré la condition des femmes ? Trois ans après, faisons le point sur la société iranienne depuis le soulèvement Femme, vie, liberté. Le meurtre de Mahsa Zhina Amini En septembre 2022, Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, jeune Iranienne kurde, se rend à Téhéran avec son frère. Elle est arrêtée sur place par la « police des mœurs » (gasht-e ershad), connue pour contrôler arbitrairement les femmes ne respectant pas les lois strictes sur le port du voile. Selon des témoins, les agents l’ont violemment poussée dans un fourgon et battue avant de l’emmener au centre de détention de Vozara. Les autorités ont déclaré qu’elle devrait y suivre une « séance éducative » pour corriger son comportement.Quelques heures après son arrestation, Mahsa Amini est victime de coups à la tête et perd connaissance. Après trois jours dans le coma, elle meurt, le 16 septembre 2022, à 22 ans.Le gouvernement parle de causes naturelles, mais la famille de Mahsa affirme qu’elle était en parfaite santé avant son arrestation. Suite à la mort de Mahsa Amini, trois mots—femme, vie, liberté—ont rythmé un mouvement de manifestations de masse. Son meurtre a choqué la communauté iranienne et internationale et a montré une réalité effarante : la répression systématique et la violence envers les femmes par le régime iranien. Des milliers de personnes se sont mobilisés dans les rues pour contester la loi rendant obligatoire le port du voile, dénoncer les abus de l'État et revendiquer les droits des femmes, le tout accompagné de gestes symboliques forts, tels que ôter le voile, le détruire, ou couper ses cheveux. Aujourd’hui, entre répression et résistance Après le mouvement Femme, vie, liberté , la repression s’intensifie. En 2023, la rédaction de VICE News, un média américain, a obtenu de rares visas pour se rendre en Iran et couvrir la situation des femmes. Dès leur arrivée, les journalistes ont été confrontés à une forte surveillance : leurs déplacements étaient limités à des lieux approuvés et ils ont été arrêtés à plusieurs reprises, leurs images étant parfois supprimées. L'équipe a toutefois pu monter un documentaire présentant des fragments de la réalité : étudiants contraints de signer des engagements pour respecter le code vestimentaire et ne pas assister aux manifestations, cafés et commerces fermés lorsqu’ils permettaient aux femmes d’entrer sans voile, quartiers centraux des manifestations étroitement surveillés et jeunes enfants formés à soutenir le régime à travers des organisations religieuses et sécuritaires. Une intervenante anonyme a même révélé que la police lui avait tiré dessus avec des balles en caoutchouc lorsqu’elle était au parc avec ses amis. S’entretenant avec la seule femme du gouvernement iranien, celle-ci a répeté les revendications du gouvernement, affirmant que Mahsa Amini n’avait pas été tuée et que le gouvernement est plus démocratique que dans d’autres pays. Selon elle, le gouvernement considère le hijab comme un moyen de protéger les femmes et affirme que si, un jour, il estime que ces lois leur nuisent, il les supprimera. Des propos nettement trompeurs. Les jeunes interviewés dans le documentaire ont été nombreux à demander l'anonymat. La peur est palpable. Un article publié dans la revue La Pensée écologique en 2023 décrit comment de nombreux Iraniens et Iraniennes vivent depuis leur plus jeune âge dans une « schizophrénie généralisée ». Ils doivent adopter des comportements contradictoires selon le contexte—à la maison, à l'école ou dans l’espace public, naviguant entre les exigences du régime et leur vie privée. La politique répressive du gouvernement, mêlée à la corruption, à l'hypocrisie, aux mensonges et aux détournements de fonds, exerce une pression quotidienne. C’est à travers de gestes simples mais profondément courageux que, malgré la répression, les femmes s’offrent des gouttes de liberté et contribuent à transformer progressivement la culture de l’espace public : elles se rendent à leur école ou sur leur lieu de travail sans porter le voile obligatoire et roulent à vélo ou même à moto (ce qui est interdit aux femmes). Selon Sedigheh Vasmaghi, théologienne et universitaire qui a elle-même été arrêtée pour être sans voile, « le système politique [iranien] ne peut plus remonter le temps ». Elle précise que L’État, confronté à d'énormes problèmes de politique intérieure et étrangère, n’est plus en mesure de contrôler les femmes à travers le pays, en particulier les adolescentes et les jeunes femmes, qui ne veulent plus porter de voile. De nombreux témoignages suggèrent que les policiers détournent le regard des femmes sans voile, soit par épuisement, soit par crainte d’attirer davantage de mauvaise presse, mais certainement pas par volonté de remettre en cause le régime en leur accordant plus de liberté. En décembre 2024, le Conseil national de sécurité d’Iran a présenté un projet de loi draconien sur le hijab, prévoyant de lourdes amendes, jusqu'à 15 ans de prison pour les récidivistes ainsi que l'obligation pour les commerces de signaler des contrevenants. Face à des protestations publiques et aux objections des organismes de surveillance internationaux comme Amnesty, ce projet a été suspendu . Toutefois, la suspension de la loi ne reflète pas forcément une libéralisation des conditions des femmes, plutôt une continuation du statu quo qui pourrait s’aggraver à tout moment. Toutefois, la surveillance des femmes se poursuit à travers des applications de signalement, la reconnaissance faciale, la surveillance aérienne et le contrôle des réseaux sociaux, créant une pression constante. Même si de nombreuses femmes non-voilées échappent à des sanctions directes, les militantes féministes, journalistes et femmes dans l’espace public—comme Vida Rabbani, Saeedeh Shafiei, Niloofar Hamedi, Elaheh Mohamaddi ou Narges Mohammadi—vivent en péril, emprisonnés ou poursuivis pour des accusations comme « propagande contre l'État » ou « rassemblement contre la sécurité nationale », en représailles à leur travail et à leur engagement public. Un futur incertain L’afflux de femmes revendiquant leur liberté dans l’espace public signale une transformation graduelle de la société vers l’émancipation des femmes. Toutefois, une amélioration réelle du statut des femmes ne pourra se faire sans un changement du gouvernement et la réforme, voire la sécularisation, du code civil, qui, entre autres, d ispose que le mari détient l'autorité exclusive au sein du foyer, que l'épouse a un devoir de soumission sexuelle (tamkin) et qu’il peut contrôler son lieu de résidence ainsi que l’exercice d’une profession. Ces lois institutionnalisent une réalité profondément sexiste ne pouvant être déconstruite sans de profonds changements institutionnels. Ce n’est pas pour minimser les contributions des manifestants que mon article a mis un accent sur la répression par l’État ; les Iraniennes et Iraniens qui ont soutenu le mouvement Femme, vie, liberté ont eu un impact enorme, étendant la cause iranienne à l’échelle mondiale et exerçant une pression sur le gouvernement iranien. De nombreuses femmes ont pu en profiter pour jouir, quoique illicitement, de davantage de libertés dans leur vie quotidienne. Toutefois, le comportement oscillant du régime iranien pour appliquer des lois répressives révèle un désir profond de maintenir son pouvoir et sa légitimité en se pliant le moins possible à la pression populairee. Après le conflit israélo-iranien de juin 2025, le débat sur la stabilité du régime islamique a été relancé. Étant donné sa longévité, certains le qualifient d’un retour du religieux, mais des enquêtes non-gouvernementaux du GAMAAN (Groupe d’analyse et de mesure des attitudes en Iran) révèlent une sécularisation croissante et un large désir de changement au sein de la majorité de la société iranienne. Si les trois ans suivant le meutre de Mahsa Amini n’ont pas mené à une révolution, ils ont porté la situation à un point de rupture imminent. Photo Source: Loco Steve, Flickr

Sometimes growth begins in places we do not expect. Not after a life changing event, or a dramatic turning point, but during a movie scene that lasts only a few seconds. A moment so small that, if you were distracted, you could miss completely. Yet for those of us, these seconds can stay with us for longer than entire conversations. They settle in quietly, becoming part of how you remember, feel, and reflect. They touch something inside you before you can understand what is happening. And those few seconds, those tiny pieces of art, can become the beginning of who you are slowly becoming. This is how movies have helped me grow, not through dramatic lessons, but through quiet moments that slowly shape who I am becoming. < Back The Art of Becoming: How Movies Help Us Grow Layla Mesk February 20, 2026 Sometimes growth begins in places we do not expect. Not after a life changing event, or a dramatic turning point, but during a movie scene that lasts only a few seconds. A moment so small that, if you were distracted, you could miss completely. Yet for those of us, these seconds can stay with us for longer than entire conversations. They settle in quietly, becoming part of how you remember, feel, and reflect. They touch something inside you before you can understand what is happening. And those few seconds, those tiny pieces of art, can become the beginning of who you are slowly becoming. This is how movies have helped me grow, not through dramatic lessons, but through quiet moments that slowly shape who I am becoming. I have always been someone who is easily moved by movies. It does not take a dramatic plot twist or an internet-famous scene for something to stay with me. Most of the time, it is something small: a look, a sound, a moment when the music rises at just the right time. In those seconds, the world seems to pause, leaving only me and the scene in front of me. What stays is not just the image itself, but the feeling it creates; the lighting, the music, the expression on an actor’s face, all coming together in a way that quietly shapes how I think and feel. These moments may be brief, but they are the ones that linger, forming a connection between the viewer and the film, and slowly influencing the way we understand ourselves. Personally, these seconds have changed the way I experience myself. They do not arrive as clear realizations, but as feelings that linger and slowly ask for attention. A scene can make me pause, recognize an emotion, or question something I had taken for granted. In that sense, it opens a door, not to answers, but to awareness. I carry these moments with me, and they quietly influence how I think, how I feel, and how closely I listen to my own inner world. I still remember the first time this happened to me while watching Little Women (2019). It was not just a single scene, but the way the entire film held me from beginning to end. I was mesmerized by how emotion lived in every detail; the lines, the soundtrack, the silences, the restrained intensity of each moment. As I watched, I found myself drawn to the sisters not because they were similar, but because they were so different. Each of them carried her own ambitions, her own dreams, her own way of loving and believing, and none of these paths were treated as less meaningful than the others. As I watched, I began to think about faith in a way I had not consciously reflected on before; the kind of trust that things will unfold as they are meant to, even when the future feels uncertain. That feeling stayed with me. So did the way the film portrayed love: not as a single ending, but as something layered and complex. Being second in one story did not mean being less, but simply being first in someone else’s. And by the time the film closed in on itself, becoming a book within the story, something shifted in me. I did not leave with answers, but with a different way of seeing. I began to think about how we become who we are, and I realized that it doesn't happen through grand victories, but through small, deliberate choices, patience, and faith in our own paths. Little Women did not tell me who to be, but it changed the way I understood love, ambition, and becoming, and I carried that shift with me long after the credits rolled. What stays with me most is how often these moments are shared, even when they are felt differently. I see it clearly during screenings with Cinémenton. We sit in the same room, watch the same film, and then stay afterward to talk about it. And somehow, the same scenes always come back up… but never for the same reasons. One person remembers a line. Another is stuck on a silence. Someone else can’t stop thinking about a character they recognized themselves in. And I truly love listening to those conversations. They make me realize how cinema creates a common space without producing a single reaction. We are all watching the same story unfold, yet each of us leaves holding onto something different, something shaped by our own memories, fears, desires, and experiences. In those moments, I understand that what connects us is not agreement, but recognition. The film gives us the same images, but what we carry away from them is deeply personal — and that is what makes the experience feel both shared and intimate at the same time. This is what makes movies so powerful. They give you space to be vulnerable without judgment. They allow you to sit with your emotions and see them reflected in someone else. They show you that you are not alone in your confusion or your fear or your desire to grow. They stay with you years later, reminding you of who you were and who you are trying to become. Sometimes we do not realize how much they helped us until much later, when we look back and understand why something shifted inside us after a scene that lasted only a few seconds. Those small scenes matter. Not because they are dramatic or popular, but because they reach the deepest parts of us. They might last only a moment, but they can change everything. They show us the art of becoming. And in their own tender way, they help us become who we are slowly learning to be. Photo Source: Al Case, flickr

On that evening, when I was casually texting my relative as we discussed Lebanon’s situation, he sent me a photo that my Tweet was shared on TV < Back Never Give Up on Your Voice: My Tweet Went Viral in Lebanon By Riwa Hassan November 30, 2021 Expressing my voice in Lebanon, a country that has been collapsing Nothing uncommon, just some videos of militias terrorizing the country with their legal and illegal arms. Over the years, this has become a norm for me and for everyone who lives in Lebanon, one of the most politically complex and divided countries in the MENA region. For decades now, our citizens have stood by political warlords and religious extremist figures, which has weakened Lebanese unity and allowed for corruption to infiltrate almost all governmental and non-governmental organizations. Today, with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the economic crisis, the Beirut explosion, and the overall socio-political situation compounded, people can no longer afford their basic necessities. On October 14, 2021, although the scene was not very different from today, the backstory was in fact more threatening, as it seemed that the country was on the verge of a civil war. Hezbollah and Amal Movement, known as the duo-Shiite, protested against the judge for the Beirut explosion investigation, Tarek Al Bitar, and accused him of being biassed after he involved some of their leaders in the investigation. As the protestors approached Ain El Remmaneh, where the residing majority are Christians who follow the Lebanese Forces Party, the clash, which soon became a bloodshed, began. This Tayouneh-Ain El Remmeneh bloodshed was called a “mini-civil war” as it also started in the same area where the Lebanese Civil War began in 1975. During that same time, I was in French class, trying to process all the news and the videos while texting my loved ones to make sure they were safe. The whole clash was not as disappointing to me as the youth supporters of these political parties, whose dreams and daily lives have been destroyed over the past two years. The protest, which was clearly not peaceful, was defended by Hezbollah and Amal supporters, as they backed it up with their right to protest and express themselves freely. They only recognize such human rights when it is in their interest. This sentiment was expressed in a Tweet I shared, which compared Hezbollah and Amal’s reactions in protests against a judge doing his job to the protests which demanded justice, equality and basic life necessities. In the former, they clearly supported the protests, but in the latter, their reaction was opposing and full of violence. As I normally do, I wrote a Tweet, “Remember when they called us ‘ate3een tor2at’ and ‘ze3ran’ and accused us of threatening civil peace when we were protesting for our basic rights #العدالة أقوى_من_ترهيبكم #الطيونه .” ‘Ate3een tor2at’ and ‘ze3ran’ can be translated to bandits or crooks. The hashtag under which I shared my Tweet is translated to “justice is stronger than your terrorism.” Suddenly, my Tweet was trending, and while some were threatening and cursing me, others showed their full support. On that evening, when I was casually texting my relative as we discussed the whole situation, he sent me a photo that my Tweet was shared on TV, on Lebanon Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI). I received a lot of messages that encouraged me to continue voicing my opinion. At the same time, I got messages to be careful, and warnings that being bold about my stance is not safe. Later this year, on November 22, Lebanese Independence Day, while I was supposed to be studying for my finals, I could not help but think of how our lives have flipped upside down during the past two years, and reflect on what independence I was supposed to celebrate. I poured the words from my heart onto a post on Instagram. In almost an hour, my post was shared on numerous Instagram stories, especially within the Sciences Po community. For that, I cannot explain how safe it felt to be living in such a supportive community. I cannot thank you enough but I am forever grateful for your effort to help share my voice. I am writing this article on the plane on my way back to Lebanon and I have never felt this afraid yet excited at the same time. I know that I have only been away for around three months, but the situation in the country is changing very fast and, sadly, for the worse. On the bright side, this is the first time I have seen this amount of people going back to Lebanon, which explains how much love all the Lebanese diaspora hold for this country despite all the traumas and losses it has caused them. Sharing my stance and explaining the situation in Lebanon means a lot to me, and I will always express my opinion regardless of the consequences. Freedom of expression might only be found in our constitution, on paper, but we have the duty to share our concerns and turn it to action. The latter is one step forward towards change which Lebanon is in dire need for.

< Back Organized Crime, Migration, Prostitution: A Hidden Link or an Obvious Collaboration? By Greta Murgia November 30, 2021 When it comes to organized crime – or mafia – and migration, it is commonly known that there is a hidden yet indissoluble connection between the two. What is the extent of the link between migration and organized crime? How can the phenomenon be explained? What are the different fields affected by this phenomenon? From migration to prostitution Migration is one of the most profitable sources of gain for the mafia, since it represents a persistent and flourishing business which involves different agents and actors. Since immigration towards Europe and, more specifically, Italy is constant, the mafia is extremely present, as it is easy for parties practicing organized crime to build connections with Northern Africa’s communities, and play a major role in human trafficking. The Juju’s Ceremony – Nigeria and sex trafficking One of the most lucrative aspects of mafia’s business around immigration is prostitution. The main country from which the girls originate is Nigeria: here, major importance is given to the Juju’s ceremony, still quite unknown in Europe, but relevant when it comes to the flow of immigration related to prostitution. Between ages 12 and 17, girls living in the Edo State and the Delta State in Nigeria, and belonging to the Juju religion, go through a ceremony led by the town’s priests. The priests collaborate with the smugglers operating in the region, as well as with “ madams ” (women, who have been prostitutes themselves), and conduct the ritual to get the girls’ loyalty and full support. This all relies on the power of superstition and religion. The fear that the dead will chase and kill them – or make them crazy – if they ever try to escape from their protectors or refuse to pay a debt makes these girls prisoners of the smugglers and the madams . This is the process that pushes them, consciously or not, towards the world of European prostitution. Once under the protection of human traffickers, who promise the girls a better future and a good job in what is presented as the “promised land,” there is little chance for the girls to improve their situation or reconquer their lost freedom. Without accessing money nor savings through prostitution, the girls are in the hands of the traffickers, who take them through the exhausting and frequently deadly travel to an unknown land. During this journey, the girls have no way of going back to their hometown nor asking for help. Only once they arrive – if they arrive – to Italy or to the other European countries, they find out they have been lied to: the promised land with the numerous possibilities of success turns out not to be as promised, and the hard reality is that they find themselves alone, in an unknown and often unwelcoming country. Moreover, they have no documents nor knowledge of the language, but they have a debt to the traffickers of about 30,000 euros. They are therefore forced to work for the smugglers who paid for the trip, as well as the food and shelter they are provided with. They are aware that because of their illegal condition they can’t rely on external help and the Juju ceremony makes it unthinkable for them to denounce their protectors. Most of them end up living in buildings usually owned by criminal associations for years, without any real possibility of change. The role of SPHR and Caritas in Ventimiglia When SPRH (Sciences Po Refugee Help) goes to Ventimiglia to provide food and support, girls and women are almost never alone: they are accompanied by men who define themselves as cousins, boyfriends or husbands, and the volunteers rarely have the chance of talking to them alone. This is because the protectors know that, being alone, the girls might ask for help, and succeed in getting out of their situation. Caritas is an organization that takes care of women who are embedded in prostitution. In Ventimiglia, it offers women and their children shelter and food, and provides them with the help they need to get out of their critical situation. No men are allowed in the buildings offered to women by Caritas, and victims slowly gain confidence and find the courage and the mental strength needed to reach the practical independence to get out of their condition. The main criminal organization dealing in the immigrants’ business in Ventimiglia is called ‘Ndrangheta, as Rocco Ciarone states in the essay “Mafie del Nord.” Non-profit organizations and Law Another interesting fact is that those who are attempting to make a difference while working on the ground and truly engaging in the cause are volunteer-based non-profit organizations, and not the authorities, the State, nor the police. In fact, the system in France allows immigrant women to ask for citizenship only if they can provide proof of not having been part of the prostitution network – which is, even if true, extremely hard to provide. For this reason, some associations help women in the process by providing them with testimonies attesting that they have never seen them in a prostitutions’ environment. Such organizations are very few and hard to find, and this kind of solution cannot apply to every case and woman: this shows how flawed and desperate for change the system is when it comes to migration policies. A sense of fear and gratitude Another factor that makes it difficult for women to get out of the prostitution network is a sense of gratitude towards their guardians, even if unjustified and unneeded. The awareness that protectors represent the only option of safety, and the fact that the authority will not help them and could instead work against their situation, pushes the women to contribute to the vicious circle of submission and resignation. Organized crime and mafia – denounce or support? And what is the role played by criminal organizations, and especially by the mafia, in the field? It is hard to determine, as there are multiple ways for organized crime to profit from immigration – this ranges from prostitution, to the dealing of drugs, to forced labor – and immigrants have no reason nor incentive to denounce such organizations. If they do, they will lose the protection they are being provided with by their smugglers: on the other side, the State will not provide them with help nor support. On the contrary, it will most probably condemn and expel them from the country. In fact, these women are not only illegal immigrants, but they have also collaborated with the mafia in illegal businesses. How do we detect the presence of organized crime? Another factor that makes it difficult to detect the presence of mafia on the territory is its fluidity: especially on the border, migrants move suddenly, and people who are in one place one day, might be hundreds of kilometers away shortly afterwards, complicating the process of detecting how and where organized crime behaves. The problem does not rely on the immigrants themselves, as it is not their wish to become drug dealers or prostitutes, but it lies in the European Union and in states’ inefficient and unsuccessful handling of the immigrants’ crisis. If nations unite themselves in order to find a common and efficient solution, a lot of progress could be made, and such extreme situations would be rarer. Through cooperation, a solution could be possible.

While viewers might think Trump has exhausted the myriad anti-immigration rhetoric, his comment at the most recent debate appeared to be a particularly bizarre innovation. The idea of immigrants eating residents' pet animals encapsulates both the image of invasion of property and barbarity. But this myth of foreigners feeding off domestic or protected animals is not new, and it has long been used to fuel xenophobic feelings. < Back They Are Eating the Pets: Animal Consumption as an Anti-Immigration Myth Pedro Meerbaum September 30, 2024 "In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating, they're eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what's happening in our country, and it's a shame." Former American President Donald Trump uttered these words during the 2024 presidential debate on Sept. 10 2024. In this jarring comment, the Republican candidate referred to a recent viral claim that illegal immigrants from Haiti who had settled in a small city in Ohio had eaten domestic pets. The assertions originally stated that the Haitians were slaughtering ducks and geese, and the discourse online "reports" that the city is a locus for the settling of illegal immigrants. The reports mainly originate from social media platforms, such as Reddit and Facebook groups, and were confirmed as not credible by BBC Verify. Trump's comment was followed by immediate laughter from the Democratic candidate and current Vice President, Kamala Harris. It was clear to Harris—and the viewers—that Trump's remark was preposterous. Most of the former president's campaign, both recently and in his other electoral years, has surrounded the topic of immigration to the U.S. His coining of the term "Illegal Aliens" is consonant to his aggressive approach to migration and border control. He is particular in his use and emphasis of language; he differentiates the people that came in from the people that live there . Trump actively constructs a narrative of “othering,” one where the "American" people are endangered by the "alien" and "undesired" foreigners. While viewers might think Trump has exhausted the myriad anti-immigration rhetoric, his comment at the most recent debate appeared to be a particularly bizarre innovation. The idea of immigrants eating residents' pet animals encapsulates both the image of invasion of property and barbarity. But this myth of foreigners feeding off domestic or protected animals is not new, and it has long been used to fuel xenophobic feelings. 20 years ago, Nick Medic, a Serbian ex-patriate and journalist, published an investigation into a dubious article from the British tabloid newspaper The Sun: "Swan Bake - Asylum Seekers Steal the Queen's Birds for Barbecues." The Sun’s article consisted of an exposé of East European asylum seekers poaching, stealing, and eating protected royal birds. It went on to assert that "To these people [Eastern Europeans], they [protected royal birds] are a perfectly acceptable delicacy." As one of "these people," an Eastern European former asylum seeker, Medic reminded his audience in the Telegraph that Swans and Geese are not a part of their cultural diet, nor is it considered a "perfectly acceptable delicacy." It does not come as a surprise that 20 years later, the streets of Britain would be occupied by far-right protesters who scream their hatred towards the "barbaric" immigrants. The anti-immigration feeling has dated roots that fed under this precise rhetoric of barbarity and invasion present in sensational faulty stories. But this issue did not begin 20 years ago. In 1904, soon after the US victory in the Philippine-American war, a "world fair" was hosted in St. Louis, Missouri, "exposing" different cultures and customs of the public, carnival-style. The main attraction of the circus-like event was a replica of a village with "authentic" Igorot people, an indigenous Filipino group. The Igorot people were instructed to grill and feed off dogs to an international audience during the fair. The exhibition aimed to celebrate the "civilizing" effect the U.S. would have in the Philippines post-victory. 120 years later, the dog-eating stereotype is still the most ubiquitous form of anti-Asian discrimination in the U.S. The East Asian dog-eating discourse took on a new shape during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the outbreak's initial locus in Wuhan, China and its association with the consumption of bats in local markets. According to the Pew Research Center , "about one-third of U.S. Asians know another Asian person who's been threatened or attacked since COVID-19." Additionally, federal-recognized hate crime incidents of anti-Asian bias increased by 372.15 percent from 2019 to 2021. It was former president Donald Trump himself who coined the term "Chinese Virus" to refer to COVID-19, fostering a hostile environment amidst the global crisis. Trump's language use during the COVID-19 pandemic is a prelude to his comment during the debate. The attempts to antagonize immigrants as "the people that came in" and position them against "the people that live there" is a dangerous narrative. History is stained by moments where groups of people who were labeled as “others” and dehumanized fell victim to unprecedented violence. The narrative that "pets are being eaten" is an indiscrete and dissonant effort to, through significant international broadcasting, degrade and generalize a group of individuals who are already at a high level of vulnerability. None of the Haitians were illegal immigrants or savages, and the pets were safe and sound. The truth is barbarity is not found in Ohio. Instead, it knocks on the doors of the White House and asks to reinstall itself again.

Cette crise est donc révélatrice de défis de taille, mais également de discordances profondes concernant la politique agricole : alors, comment concilier ces revendications, comment satisfaire à la fois les agriculteurs qui souhaitent augmenter leurs productions et leurs revenus, tout en prenant en compte les enjeux écologiques du siècle, mis en avant par les partisans d’une transition agroécologique ?  < Back « Ce n’est pas l’Europe que nous voulons » : entre protectionnisme, libéralisme et écologie, l’explication d’une crise agricole européenne By Maëlys Malaboeuf-Lasselle for European Society February 29, 2024 Ces dernières semaines ont été marquées par de violentes contestations des agriculteurs dans toute l’Europe : Allemagne, France, Italie, Belgique, Pologne, Lettonie… ont été le terrain de grandes manifestations et blocages de la part du monde agricole. Leurs revendications sont nombreuses : hausse des revenus, améliorations des conditions de travail et de vie, suppression de certaines normes contraignantes en matière d’environnement, et amélioration des politiques nationales. Mais ils témoignent surtout d’un mécontentement général autour de la PAC, la politique agricole commune, qui ne date pas d’hier. Revenons à la mise en place et l’évolution de ce marché agricole européen, source première de la crise. C’est en 1962 que naît la PAC, suite aux ravages causés par la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Première politique commune de l’Union européenne, ses objectifs sont clairs : accroître la productivité agricole, assurer un niveau de vie décent aux agriculteurs, garantir la sécurité des approvisionnements, stabiliser les marchés, et harmoniser les règles de concurrence. Un système économique de soutien des prix et du marché est donc instauré, afin de relever le défi de l’autosuffisance alimentaire à l’échelle du continent. Réunissant les six pays fondateurs, elle est aussi un moyen de placer l’Europe sous le signe de la paix et de l’unité. Les résultats sont bénéfiques : la productivité alimentaire et la disponibilité des denrées ont augmenté. Néanmoins, les revenus restent faibles. C’est alors qu’un certain Mansholt, alors commissaire européen à l’agriculture, propose un plan modernisateur pour résoudre le problème. Appliquée en 1970, cette réforme passe par l’optimisation des surfaces cultivées, et la fusion des exploitations pour agrandir les unités. L’évolution de la PAC se poursuit en 1984 avec l’instauration de quotas afin de ralentir la surproduction et gérer l’offre, alors supérieure à la demande européenne. La PAC opère un revirement six ans plus tard, lorsque le soutien du marché est abandonné au profit d’une aide directe aux agriculteurs. Toutefois, des premières déceptions se font ressentir : le marché européen s’ouvre aux marchés internationaux, la concurrence s’accroît, ainsi que les pressions économiques qui effraient les agriculteurs. Malgré une volonté d’élargir les domaines d’actions de la PAC, à la dynamisation des zones rurales ou à l’écologie, elle est le sujet de fortes tensions, exprimées lors des blocages de ces derniers jours. Des divisions émergent au sein du monde agricole. Certains dénoncent un abandon de la part de l’Union européenne, qui, en dépit de la pression croissante des industriels et de l’accroissement compétitivité mondiale, multiplie ses traités avec les pays producteurs à bas coût, comme le CETA avec le Canada ou le traité avec le Mercosur, vu comme un véritable couteau dans le dos pour les agriculteurs européens. Le 1 février 2024, des milliers de manifestants de plusieurs pays et 1200 tracteurs ont envahi les rues bruxelloises, faisant entendre « ce n’est pas l’Europe que nous voulons », « sortons l’alimentation du libre-échange », « moins de normes ». Les lourdes procédures administratives de la PAC sont aussi visées par le mécontentement. D’autres en revanche, partisans d’une agriculture biologique respectueuse de l’environnement et de la biodiversité, reprochent à la PAC son laxisme en matière d’écologie. C’est aussi le reproche fait à la France, déjà condamnée pour inaction climatique en 2021 et pour non-respect de ses engagements environnementaux en 2023. Suite aux violents blocages en France, Gabriel Attal a décidé de stopper le plan Ecophyto, dont l’objectif était de réduire les usages de produits phytopharmaceutiques de 50% et de sortir du glyphosate, ce qui réveille la colère des agriculteurs écologistes et des ONG environnementales : c’est un « cadeau empoisonné fait aux agriculteurs » selon Marie Toussaint, « à contre sens de l’urgence écologique » selon Agir pour l’environnement (via Le Monde). Des agriculteurs sensibles aux questions environnementales interrogés par Le Monde disent vouloir conserver la production biologique et les traditions agricoles, mais l’abandon progressif de l’Etat, qui a supprimé une aide pour les exploitations biologiques en 2017, complique les choses. Alors que l’agriculture est confrontée aux défis du dérèglement climatique, aucun moyen n’est mis en place par l’Etat pour repenser nos productions et évoluer vers une agriculture plus durable. Toutefois, l’écologie est un sujet qui divise les agriculteurs. La FNSEA, la Fédération Nationale des Syndicats d’Exploitants Agricoles, s’indigne quant aux normes environnementales comme le plan Ecophyto, qui limitent la production massive et donc favorisent les productions des pays à bas coûts, peu chers, facilement importables par les pays européens, et plus accessibles financièrement aux ménages dans les supermarchés. Elle alerte également sur la dureté du quotidien des agriculteurs, indispensables à notre alimentation, travaillant sans compter, et dont les revenus et les rendements restent pourtant faibles. Or, selon Guilhem Roux, agriculteur économiste, la question n’est pas d’accroître la production mais le profit. Incités par le marché international et la pression en amont des emprunts à rembourser et en aval des distributeurs, ils sont poussés à vouloir toujours produire plus. L’important reste la marge, et un changement de modèle est nécessaire à l’augmentation des revenus des exploitants agricoles. Mais encore faudrait-il un consensus au sein de la communauté agricole, ce qui est loin d’être le cas. La FNSEA ne semble pas faire l’unanimité : sa négligence des questions environnementales lui vaut des critiques, vue comme ayant « sacrifié le bio » (via Le Monde). Les blocages ont finalement été levés après l’appel du syndicat, mais les revendications n’ont pas toutes été entendues : des efforts de la part de l’Etat français sont attendus, sans quoi les manifestations pourraient reprendre de plus belle, risquant à terme une panne agricole sans précédent avec des répercussions à l’échelle européenne. Mais la France n’a pas été le premier pays à se mobiliser : effectivement, le mouvement allemand dure depuis janvier, avec le blocage des autoroutes menant vers les grands ports ou les aéroports Les causes sont semblables à la France : ils s’insurgent contre la décision du gouvernement de supprimer les avantages fiscaux sur le gazole agricole, en place depuis 1951, et de taxer les véhicules. Or, cette décision suscite la colère car les agriculteurs n’ont aucune autre solution électrique pouvant remplacer le gazole. Tout ça en subissant de plein fouet les conséquences du dérèglement climatique : sécheresses, gelées tardives, pluies diluviennes qui bouleversent les récoltes et n’arrangent donc en rien le souci des revenus des agriculteurs, à la différence des distributeurs qui en profitent pour s’enrichir. Les subventions, estimées à plus de 9 milliards d’euros par an, alimentent la dépendance des agriculteurs envers l’État. D’autant plus que celui-ci tend à favoriser les grandes exploitations au détriment des petites. Ces révoltes fragilisent directement le gouvernement, jugé déconnecté de la réalité et incapable de répondre aux demandes, alors qu’il mène simultanément un combat depuis quelques semaines contre la montée de l’extrême droite en Allemagne. Même chose dans les autres pays européens : l’Italie, troisième puissance agricole de l’Union européenne, a vu ses agriculteurs aux portes de la capitale, rejoint ensuite par les syndicats espagnols, puissance exportatrice de la plupart de nos fruits et légumes, et portugais qui bloquent contre la Politique Agricole Commune, la précarité et la sécheresse que le secteur connaît depuis maintenant 3 ans. Mais aussi Belgique et Pays-Bas où des feux ont été allumés ; Pologne, Bulgarie et Lettonie qui dénoncent une concurrence déloyale de l’Ukraine ; Grèce où les agriculteurs déplorent le retard des indemnisations suite aux feux de forêts et inondations qui ont ravagé le pays l’an dernier. Enfin, contre toute attente, les agriculteurs suisses rejoignent le mouvement le 3 février, avec une première journée de mobilisation contre le maintien des importations de céréales et de denrées alimentaires russes dans l’Union. Cette crise est donc révélatrice de défis de taille, mais également de discordances profondes concernant la politique agricole : alors, comment concilier ces revendications, comment satisfaire à la fois les agriculteurs qui souhaitent augmenter leurs productions et leurs revenus, tout en prenant en compte les enjeux écologiques du siècle, mis en avant par les partisans d’une transition agroécologique ?

Earlier this month, notifications from Instagram and Facebook Messenger about an incident at Le Havre flooded the phone of every student at the Sciences Po Paris campus of Menton. In the middle of finals week, students were busy discussing the mistreatment of a fellow student by the Le Havre administration. < Back Le Havre’s Administrative Scandal: Student Disillusionment Transcends the Boundaries of Sciences Po Paris’ Different Campuses. By Celeste Abourjeili December 30, 2021 Note from the Editor: The Menton Times and the general Menton student body stands in solidarity with the campus of Le Havre and all those affected. We remain open and available for any action required on behalf of our campus to help. Earlier this month, notifications from Instagram and Facebook Messenger about an incident at Le Havre flooded the phone of every student at the Sciences Po Paris campus of Menton. In the middle of finals week, students were busy discussing the mistreatment of a fellow student by the Le Havre administration. While complaints of administrative failures are common to all campuses of our esteemed institution, very rarely do they transcend the borders of our respective campuses. This time was different. This time was drastic, and it is clear that students have had enough. It all started on December 5, 2021. A student residing in the Centre Régional des Œuvres Universitaires et Scolaires (CROUS) campus housing, who has since resigned from Sciences Po Paris, was violently and physically attacked just outside his public, state-subsidized residence. He reached out to his administration for help and was met with disinterest and exasperation. In a later email from the campus director Catherine Droszewski to another administrator, which was accidentally forwarded to the student himself, she responded sarcastically to an email from his parents “sympa, le mail des parents!” (meaning, “nice, the email of the parents!”). The student was not only ignored by administrators but met with mockery. Additionally, the Bureau des Élèves (BDE) of Le Havre was tasked with taking care of the student. Let me re-emphasize this matter: elected student representatives were told they were responsible for meeting the medical, psychological, and logistical needs of a student who had been brutally attacked, all in the middle of finals week. We received a comment from the Menton BDE President Ada Baser, who said that she was “heartbroken at the situation in Le Havre.” She indicated that she has contacted the Le Havre BDE and offered to stand with them as members of the same extended student body. She further commented on the role and expectation placed on the BDE at Le Havre. “I think that the BDE stepping up in this situation is applaudable for the support and effort they put into helping the student. However, such a responsibility should not be up to students themselves to solve, as that kind of a burden on young adults does not foster a healthy student environment for anyone,” she said. “The role of the BDE in the very rules of the organization is to provide links between the administration and the students. In line with that, I think it is in part the responsibility of the BDE to aid their fellow classmates, but not the extent that we saw in Le Havre,” said Baser. This idea — that the administration needs to start caring about our well-being outside of academic matters and the university setting — is a central part of student concern. The director of the Menton campus, Yasmina Touaibia, did not respond to our request for comment. Our Le Havre counterpart, “Le Dragon Déchaîné,” has done the service of publishing the written version (full version accessible here ) of the letter read by students at the General Assembly which followed this scandal. The letter is a collection of points that was produced from a discussion of more than 160 Le Havre students, and we have summarized the main points expressed by the students here: Disgust towards the indifference of the director, who, in addition to her sarcastic exchanges with other members of the administration, downplayed the severity of what happened, citing the fact that the student was “not killed in the event.” Disappointment at the lack of assistance for international students who, in addition to facing a language barrier, face a “hostile bureaucratized administrative apparatus both inside and outside the campus microcosm.” They assert that the administration, it seems, is unwilling to take on the responsibility of recognizing and assisting international students’ special needs. “No effective support, neither institutional nor emotional, was provided” in this case — the student was left helpless while the institution looked the other way and maintained an overly “sarcastic and disrespectful attitude.” The BDE and other associations were expected to take on the needs and grievances expressed by students, leaving those students with little support. “We cannot reasonably expect them to be accountable for the protection of the students in the city. That is not something they have been trained to do… the incompetence of the administration has ultimately burdened our associations and health ambassadors with additional responsibilities on top of their day-to-day duties.” This is not an isolated incident, but a pattern of behavior on behalf of the administration. Similar incidents of administrative indifference and contradiction, for instance, one student was refused time off or an excused absence after suffering a concussion and was forced to attend class. Fellow students and the teacher had to help them walk home, and Ms. Droszewski responded to this situation in a condescending manner, stating that the student should have stayed home (even though the student had deliberately not been excused from class). The message from the administration was perceived to be that “whatever happens outside of our campus walls is not the responsibility of the administration. They tell us, ‘we are not your parents.’” Towards the end of the letter, the students sorted their grievances into five categories: (1) lack of empathy on behalf of the administration; (2) mutual trust and responsibility; (3) pedagogical failures; (4) lack of medical support; (5) lack of support for international students. They further listed their demands as follows: (1) administrative recognition of wrongdoing and formal justification for their actions; (2) transparency, accountability, and support for future incidents; (3) create a position within the administration for international students; (4) address academic short-comings. Finally, the listed actions that the student body is willing to pursue to see actual change: (1) make the administration in Paris aware of the lack of systematic support and procedures in Le Havre; (2) extend this cause to the other Sciences Po undergraduate campuses. While we have not yet been asked to take action with the other campuses as a part of a Sciences Po-wide movement, many members of our Mentonese ummah seem ready to do more. There is already a Google form circulating by Mentonese 2A Basile Rochet to collect students’ thoughts and feedback on the administration across campuses. (If you are a Sciences Po student who has not filled out the form yet, contact Rochet for more information on how to do so). On a Messenger group chat for Menton, one student said, “honestly I think it’s time the students actually start protesting the incompetence of the admin[istration]… it could’ve been any of us and [the] Menton admin[istration] wouldn’t do sh*t. This needs to change.” These complaints are not new, either. I published a controversial article nearly one year ago in the campus journal, “Le Zadig,” expressing a variety of complaints put forth by students about the Menton administration. In fact, when I had asked for opinions on the administration, my inbox was flooded with messages, not one of them positive. Mentonese students felt similar to those at Le Havre about having to fill the gaps left by administrators, and they were especially fed up with the pedagogical failures. The article also touched on the lack of medical support with regards to COVID-19 (in fact, until March of 2021, the campus’ COVID response was entirely run by the Social Service Pole of the BDE). The article is a product of the anecdotes and testimonies that I received. Although members of the administration had either declined to comment or failed to respond to my request for comment, one administrator contacted me personally several times requesting that I take down her name from my article. At one point, she even linked my article in an email chain CC'd with the entire administration concerning problems with my account access. She wrote, “We are all sure about your investment and how much you care about your studies at Sciences Po. You also expressed and share[d] your opinion on the blog recently: [attached link].” We received a comment from “Le Dragon Déchaîné” that “the general mood of the campus has rather simmered down for the moment, mostly due to finals and later the beginning of winter break. It is also partly attributable to the fact that the campus struggled to channel the original motivation into concrete, collective measures or demands from the Paris administration.” Besides the letter and a few signs of protest, no other forms of demand had taken place. Director Catherine Droszewski “wrote an email to the students in response to the letter which very briefly mentioned her intention of having further dialogue with the students, but nothing else of substance.” Only time will tell what the future holds for the undergraduate community of Sciences Po Paris, but if one thing is certain, it is that students across campuses are running out of patience with the remiss administration.

As everyone returned from a long vacation looking forward to starting the new year, students were apprehensive about the 18-hour-long intensive course named “Ecological Literacy.” < Back Are We Desensitized to the Environmental Crisis? By Ghazal Khalife March 31, 2023 As everyone returned from a long vacation looking forward to starting the new year, students were apprehensive about the 18-hour-long intensive course named “Ecological Literacy.” The Sciences Po Menton administration sent an email containing three required readings for this course, each explaining a different angle of the environmental crisis — from the associated inequalities, to the economic challenges posed by it, to its devastating repercussions on our survival. A common attitude towards the course was that of nonchalance, not towards the question of climate change itself, but rather regarding the need to study such a widely explored and “redundant” topic. As a student who insisted on attending each one of these long — at times triggering — lectures claimed “I have noticed that perhaps this course links to a greater overarching theme — desensitization towards the climate crisis as a whole. Maybe we know the facts and we know the repercussions but just cannot bring ourselves to do anything about it.” The course’s main professor, Nathan Marom, was able to harness students’ interest, especially impressive considering the long hours of class in the early morning. Students posed questions, interacted with the teacher and shared their own opinions on factors that exacerbated this existential problem. The class followed a thematic structure alternating from a purely scientific approach to a historical account of the environmentalist movement and, finally, an overview of the economic and hence political undertones of the fight against climate change. These approaches highlighted the multidimensionality of this issue. Among the debates in class that caused the most controversy is the idea around the individual’s role in combating climate change as opposed to government and industry agents. What all students shared, however, was a strong opinion on the crisis, either strongly in favor of radical, systemic changes or in favor of free-market reforms. Everyone knows about the environment’s problems, to differing extents, but not everyone shares the same passionate engagement. In my opinion, the course itself did not introduce any powerful revelations. As Sciences Po students, we have more than likely been exposed to the urgency of climate change and the various economic and political policies aimed at tackling climate change. Nonetheless, the courses serve as a reminder — especially to those of us prioritizing political goals and economic growth — that beyond all the immediate dangers of diplomatic conflict, power imbalances and economic competition are the imminent dangers of global warming, pollution and the depletion of natural resources. Domino Morris, a former environmental sciences International Baccalaureate student, pointed out that the course was interesting and largely coherent in the way it presented the topic. The need behind taking this course and the general attitude towards it coincide as telltale signs of general desensitization towards this pressing topic. Whether on social media or TV, outlets are saturated with content on the crisis. For the average citizen, this could cause a monetary shock or sense of disappointment but not necessarily an impetus for change.

This summer acutely felt the effects of an ever changing climate. From the French Riviera to Somalia, the lives of millions are being transformed. < Back Biting Fish & More: A Summer Marked by Climate Change By Peyton Dashiell October 31, 2022 Rising Sea Temperatures on the French Riviera Over the last summer, tourists and locals enjoyed the beaches in the South of France. Yet, lovers of sun and sand dealt with an unprecedented concern while spending the day at the beach: fish bites. Triggerfish, a thirty to forty-five-centimeter-long fish, are searching for food in the shallow waters. The French Mediterranean coast is usually between twenty-one and twenty-two degrees, but it is now twenty-eight degrees. Triggerfish are now daring to bite humans swimming close to the shore as they search for food closer to shore with the warming temperatures. Unfortunately, this is just one minor danger of climate change in our world today. Flooding in Pakistan In Pakistan, people are facing crises because of constant flooding , another consequence of climate change. In April, Pakistan reached its record-breaking temperature: 49 degrees Celsius. Higher temperatures cause glaciers to melt, making it harder for flood water to be absorbed. The monsoon rain season will continue for twice as long this year. Extreme floods have killed 1,600 people and 800,000 livestock. Roads and bridges are also collapsing, and infrastructure and livelihoods are being destroyed. Drought in Somalia Somalia is experiencing a severe drought. Because of it, many households suffer from food insecurity; one-third of families have at least one member they cannot afford to feed. Due to the death of livestock, over 700,000 camels, goats, sheep and cattle, many people have lost their farming capabilities. Somalia has always had droughts, but now, they are lasting longer. Families with children are fleeing their homes, hoping to find water, food and land with livestock. Rising Temperatures and Heat Waves Threaten Livelihoods In certain parts of Iraq, temperatures are currently 125 degrees Fahrenheit. Skyrocketing temperatures are being felt globally. The United Kingdom and America experienced unprecedented heat waves last summer, causing health issues for people worldwide. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres believes that the extreme temperatures will continue to rise due to climate change, and humans are “firmly on track towards an unlivable world.” Recent studies have shown that dire temperatures are in the near future, and the human body will not be able to survive through the usual mechanisms such as sweating. Humans will not suddenly die tomorrow, but soon, we will have to base our routines on the climate. For instance, going for runs outside will not be bearable in afternoon heat. Therefore, any exercise must be done in the morning or late at night. Crops that require manual labor will be nearly impossible to tend to, as the workers would not endure the heat. Therefore, rising temperatures will affect the most vulnerable first. This will be an equally challenging issue for workers in the United States and farmers in less prosperous countries. Takeaways From rising temperatures in the sea and land to droughts and floods, climate change is affecting the globe. There are simple ways that SciencesPo students and their families can contribute to the disasters that come with climate change. For example, using solar or wind-powered energy in our houses, using mass transit or an electric vehicle, and replacing old electrical appliances with more energy-efficient models. Little changes make a significant impact. Climate change is not an issue for 2050; it is a lethal issue today.

To be Algerian-French means learning about your history through the voice of the colonizer. And it is more often than not immensely glorified. < Back The Celebration of Oppression Ibtissem Remdane To be Algerian-French means learning about your history through the voice of the colonizer. And it is more often than not immensely glorified. This is a realization I had when I dug a bit deeper than merely just French history books, specifically on the figure of Marcel Bigeard. A man whose statue has stood proudly in Toul, a city in the North-East of France, ever since it was inaugurated on the 24th October 2024. Marcel Bigeard, who died in 2010, was a French army officer who rose from a modest background to become one of France’s most infamous paratrooper commanders. Most of Bigeard’s adulation within the French army comes from his part in the French Resistance in 1944. After that, he actively took part in two major colonial wars: the First Indochina War and later the Algerian War. During the latter, he became one of the central military figures in France’s attempt to suppress the independence movement. His role consisted of dismantling the Algerian nationalist resistance network in Algiers, placing him at the heart of a counterinsurgency strategy built on coercion, brutal surveillance and fear. During these operations, he became a symbol of systemic torture, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and the execution of prisoners without trial. Though “trial” itself was a hollow concept under the French colonial rule in Algeria. Indeed, for instance, registered ground forces files count 1 415 convicted et 198 executions, from the 1st January 1955 to the 15th of September 1961, SHAT, 1H 1097/6. (Professor Thénault). This adds to 198 official executions in only 6 years. Whereas in France, as a matter of comparison, 61 convicted were sentenced to death from 1950 to 1977. Still, one of the most inhumane and plainly cruel practices linked to Bigeard during this period was what came to be known as “death flights.”. This form of extrajudicial killing was used during the Battle of Algiers by the occupying French army to effectively get rid of troublesome dissidents. Whatever one may think of when thinking of the term “death flights”, the reality of what it actually was is probably worse. From a helicopter off the coast of Algiers, with their feet encased in a basin of cement, untrialed independentist detainees were thrown into the void to crash in the Mediterranean. Then, the bodies, most of the time poorly weighted due to insufficient cementation of the feet, would not sink properly and end up washing up on the beaches of the bay surrounding the capital. The many victims of these operations would later be called by the French les crevettes Bigeard , the shrimps of Bigeard. Until the end, Bigeard refuted the reports ordering torture or executions, often stating he opposed such methods, while qualifying them of a “necessary evil.” The military man seemingly disliked the term “torture” and prefferd using words like “rough interrogations”, a statement he made in a interview not long before his death. Yet, numerous testimonies from victims as well as former soldiers describe the torture as routine and organized, not accidental. Some French historians agree that these practices were structural, embedded in the system, rather than the result of a few “bad actors.”: “In conclusion, if there is one area in which the armed forces in general – and Marcel Bigeard in particular – have no lessons to learn from politicians and their cronies, it is certainly that of morality.” said Colonel (h) Christian Châtillon in an open letter to Bigeard. Indeed, as a commanding officer Bigeard operated within, and most importantly managed a machinery where brutality was the norm, and even the rule. And yet, despite all this, his legacy remains deeply divided. In parts of France like Toul, he is still celebrated as a war hero for his “bravery” and “brilliance” in his missions in Indochina and Algeria, remembered as a symbol of discipline and resilience. Everything he profited from after that, from the 25 military commendations like the Legion of Honor Great Cross to serving as Secretary of State for Defense under President Giscard d’Estaing, is a direct reward for his “exploits” abroad. Then in 2011, after Bigeard’s death, previous president Sarkozy’s government advocated for his ashes to be placed at “Les Invalides”. Today, many streets bear his name and political figures continue to praise his military career. To some politicians , survivors, descendants, he represents something entirely different. Not resilience but impunity. His name is tied not to glory but to trauma, abuse and a violence that has never truly been acknowledged, let alone repaired. The cleaving discourse that resurfaces every time he is publicly honored is not accidental. It is the result of a history that remains unresolved. France has long struggled to fully confront the reality of the Algerian War, and most of its victims have never received justice or even recognition. In that context, celebrating figures like Bigeard is not neutral, it is an assumed continuation of denial.Because to call him simply a “hero” is not just incomplete, it is an absolute distortion. It turns violence into valor and the oppression he proudly perpetuated into legacy. About 3000 dead, and 1000 missing, what a dignified way to be remembered by. Denouncing Bigeard is denouncing one of the several forms of political instrumentalization of history orchestrated by the French government. Figures like him serve in furthering its aim of reconstructing a nationalist mythology and greatly appeals to those who are nostalgic for French Algeria, a group whose presence and ideology seems to remain significant today. No statue, no speech, no selective memory can separate him from that reality. His “legacy” is not just a matter of history, it is a matter of truth. And for the children of those who suffered at the hands of men like him, that truth remains a battle yet to be won. Photo source: wikimedia commons edited with use of public domain vector

It is inconceivable to imagine any Holocaust movie that is not controversial. Even The Zone of Interest in its minimal narrative storytelling has failed to escape the debates – is it fair to exclude the victims when discussing the Holocaust? Is the movie adding anything, really, to the construction of our knowledge of the events? The questions are not up for me to answer, and yet I find them crucial. < Back Zone of Conflict: Controversies and Dilemmas in Holocaust-Cinema By Pedro Meerbaum March 30, 2024 The Zone of Interest follows a historical family drama. The mother, played by Sandra Hüller, wants to raise her family in their current house — outside of the big city where she can grow her garden and spend Sundays by the lake with the children. Meanwhile, the father, played by Christian Friedel, is forced into a personal dilemma as he is promoted in his military career and must now move to Berlin. Except Friedel's character wasn't just any military personnel and the house wasn't in any city. They lived in Auschwitz, Poland, and the father, Herr Höss, is the commandant of the concentration camp that shares its walls with the family garden. Director Jonathan Glazer takes an unconventional approach to portraying the Holocaust: he expects his audience to be aware of what is happening in the backgrounds of his passive landscapes without explicitly showing the violence of the concentration camps. Unlike other movies on the same topic, including Schindler's List or The Boy in the Striped Pajamas , Glazer spends no time exploring or dramatizing the struggles of the victims, he rather focuses completely on the routine of this specific family. The movie's ability to discuss such a weighted historical event has been a heated topic as award season continues to highlight the mastery of Glazer, leading it to be considered "controversial" in online discussions. But what is clear is that it once again brings up an important question: how can one produce a movie about the Holocaust? The risk of trivializing, minimizing or even abusing real stories haunts filmmakers whenever they are tasked with producing art on one of history's biggest regrets. Austrian director Michael Haneke, famous for works like "Funny Games" and "Piano Teacher," posed a scathing critique of Spielberg's Schindler's List in an interview with the Hollywood Times : "The idea, the mere idea, of trying to draw and create suspense out of the question of whether out of the shower head, gas is going to come or water — that to me is unspeakable." He then proceeds to describe the 1994 Oscar-winning movie as a film with "24 lies per second at the service of truth, or the service of the attempt to find truth.” It is difficult to accuse Spielberg's movie of being exploitative of the Holocaust when its production surrounded a conversation with real victims and an attempt to rejuvenate the popular memory of the event. At the same time, it is not possible to distance Spielberg's production from the mere fact that it is a Hollywood production, a movie bonded by the economic and ideological needs of the culture industry and the necessity to keep the work entertaining to its audience. Thus, when Spielberg creates a Hollywoodian adaptation of Schindler's List, there is a legitimate concern about whether he has, like in his classic Jurassic Park, made the Holocaust into a theme park . It is true, however, that newer generations have been socialized through these works. As we distance ourselves, chronologically, from the 1940s, and as the memories of older generations begin to fade, the role of transmitting Holocaust-related stories lies within movies. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas has become a staple in Western education systems and a necessary addendum in history classes. Understanding, then, that Holocaust-related movies go beyond their statuses as films and transcend into a tool for public memory, another question is raised: What should be the aim of Holocaust cinema? The Zone of Interest engages with this dilemma and focuses instead on the other side of the wall. Sandra Hüller mentions to W magazine that during the filming process, the actors had to stay void – even as they played with kids in the garden they had to actively demonstrate little to no dramatization. A direct response to traditional Hollywoodian cinema, where the directors attempt to juice out drama out of all scenes and create entertainment above all. This is reflective of Glazer's attempt to produce a movie that showcases the ordinary aspects of a Nazi family. It is contradictory to decades of film-making where Nazis were portrayed as "cardboard villains," with no characteristics but their evilness – a portrayal that is both fair and counterproductive. The audience is led to believe that the evil present in the Holocaust was an exceptional case. The Nazis are presented to them as nothing more than villains, as individuals who are so distanced from the viewers that their lives become unfathomable in the 21st century. The Zone of Interest reminds viewers that this is not true. As Glazer puts it himself: "I wanted to dismantle the idea of them as anomalies, as almost supernatural. You know, the idea that they came from the skies and ran amok, but thank God that’s not us and it’s never going to happen again. I wanted to show that these were crimes committed by Mr. and Mrs. Smith at No. 26.” Glazer reminds the viewers of just how dangerous movies on the Holocaust can be. They are, ultimately, vessels for narratives on the event, shaping how we view this piece of history and how we understand the processes that lead to it. Once it becomes enthralled by the culture of entertainment, Holocaust cinema turns itself into a counteractive tool – it distances us from what happened even further. It makes us forget that Auschwitz is not only a museum. It is inconceivable to imagine any Holocaust movie that is not controversial. Even The Zone of Interest in its minimal narrative storytelling has failed to escape the debates – is it fair to exclude the victims when discussing the Holocaust? Is the movie adding anything, really, to the construction of our knowledge of the events? The questions are not up for me to answer, and yet I find them crucial. Holocaust cinema only works when it poses questions, rather than answers – when it leads the audience into the uncomfortable position of questioning: "What would I have done," or more importantly "What am I not doing now."

< Back The 51st State? Trump, Absorbing Canada, Sovereignty and American Foreign Policy Téa Breedon March 31, 2025 “ What he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that’ll make it easier to annex us,” a statement told to the news media by Prime Minister Trudeau following President Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Canada on March 4, 2025. While Trump’s threat was seemingly baseless and a mere attempt at fearmongering, his recent imposition of trade tariffs on Canada has triggered a vicious trade war between North American neighbours. While initially characterized by cooperation, Canada-U.S. relations have become increasingly fragile as Trump undermines the longstanding stability between the two nations. Like his threats to annex Greenland, Trump’s recent shift toward interventionist policy has raised questions surrounding whether he will maintain the strict non-entanglement stance he assumed in his first term. Between 2017 and 2021, Trump shied away from a number of foreign conflicts; will his second term reflect the same legacy, or is the U.S. in for a dramatic shift toward interventionist strategy? At the risk of stating the obvious, Trump’s recent change of approach reflects his commitment to American exceptionalism—or the belief that the nation is superior in its political, social and economic aspects. This commitment is not a new phenomenon to the Trump administration, manifesting itself in his Make America Great Again slogan throughout both his presidential terms. Historically, Trump’s stance mirrors that of the seventh president of the U.S., Andrew Jackson. Notable for his strict unilateral approach to American foreign policy and identifiable by his part in enabling the unlawful acquisition of Native American land, Jackson’s exceptionalist tendencies are best characterized by his pursuit of territorial expansion. Viewing American primacy as central to the nation’s success, Jacksonian thought argues that national success owes itself to the ability to expand a state’s influence through physical expansion. In this sense, Trump’s recent action satisfies both criteria for success outlined by Jacksonian thought. His America First approach, coupled with his recent interest in its northern neighbour, indicates a revival of Jacksonian strategy. The revival of Jacksonian thought cannot be understood without first appreciating the current manifestations of Trump’s America First approach. Trump hardly lasted 24 hours in the White House before signing an executive order to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization . His eagerness to withdraw from international agreements and organizations reveals that Trump has structured his future plans for U.S. foreign policy in alignment with his pursuit and maintenance of American primacy. Beyond the implications of Trump’s America First approach on its own policies, his calls for annexing Canada represent a distorted view of sovereignty that may pose significant consequences to any nation it comes in contact with. Rather than viewing sovereignty as a demonstration of mutual respect for territorial integrity and diplomatic cooperation, Trump’s rhetoric points to his tunnel vision of U.S. dominance. The significance of practicing respect for individual state sovereignty is best articulated by Brookings scholars Bruce Jones, Carlos Pascual and Stephen Stedmen, with their notion of responsible sovereignty urging nations to recognize the integrity of other states in order to facilitate cooperation across borders. Contrasting this suggestion, Trump’s territorial ambitions in Greenland and Canada not only symbolize his commitment to American exceptionalism but also a failure to respect the sovereignty of independent nations. Trump’s skewed stance on sovereignty could have profound implications for his approach toward Ukraine’s struggle against Russian annexation. If he views borders as malleable and sovereignty as hinging on reciprocative benefit, his approach to territorial integrity may prove problematic. On February 28, 2025, President Trump and Vice President Vance publicly chastised Ukrainian President Zelenskyy for not expressing enough gratitude for U.S. financial aid. Moreover, his later comments about Ukraine— choosing to halt its extension of U.S. military aid—suggest that he may not see Ukraine’s sovereignty as absolute. Regardless of whether these comments are driven by pettiness or genuine discontent, it is evident that Trump’s willingness to defend Ukraine is contingent on Zelenskyy’s expression of appreciation for U.S. aid. Trump’s threat to annex Canada may suggest a shift away from the strict isolationist stance he assumed during his first term and toward an outward-facing view focused on expanding U.S. influence through territorial ambitions. In his first term, Trump exemplified American exceptionalism by prioritizing economic nationalism and disengagement from foreign entanglements, such as withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—only three years after it was established in 2015. Trump carried strict economic goals into his second term, imposing trade tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico to help stunt immigration into the U.S. While his economic nationalism persists, Trump’s threats of annexation peel back a new layer of his foreign policy plan. His statement about absorbing Canada, much like his past interest in pursuing Greenland, suggests an itch toward challenging borders to serve U.S. interests. This rhetoric signals a shift from merely shielding the U.S. from international threats through a strict non-engagement policy to expanding U.S. power by challenging state sovereignty. Such a stance is reflective of Jacksonian interest in expansionism while remaining selective of entanglement in foreign affairs unless there is a perceived advantage for the U.S., reinforcing his view that sovereignty is transactional rather than absolute. Photo source: White House on Flickr

< Back A Facebook Reckoning: Revelations from Frances Haugen’s Senate Testimony By Saoirse Aherne November 30, 2021 Former Facebook employee Frances Haugen left the company in May of 2021. She subsequently handed over thousands of pages of incriminating internal documents which she had collected during her time at Facebook to The Wall Street Journal. On September 13 of 2021, the Journal rolled out “The Facebook Files:” a collection of 11 major articles detailing the contents of Haugen’s leak. On October 5, Haugen testified before a United States Senate committee on commerce, science, and transportation, and asserted that Facebook harms children, sows division and undermines democracy in pursuit of “astronomical profits.” Who is Frances Haugen Haugen is a 37-year-old computer science and Harvard Business School graduate. She has worked for Google and Pinterest, and co-founded the dating app Hinge. Haugen began working for Facebook as a product manager in 2019, just three years after the Cambridge Analytica scandal when Facebook allowed the British consulting firm to collect data from millions of users without their consent for use in political campaigns. In light of Facebook’s reputation at the time, Haugen reportedly aspired to change the company from the inside. After two years at Facebook, Haugen felt her goal to rectify the ethical issues in the company was going nowhere. She came to realize that Facebook was aware of the harm of its products and was intentionally concealing this knowledge from users and investors. Haugen began to collect evidence of this through Facebook’s internal social network: Workplace. Employees share product research and discuss company strategy on this platform, thus making confidential information available to all company members. As Haugen encountered documents detailing unethical conduct, she took pictures of them and compiled a collection of evidence which exposed the role of Facebook products in aggravating a number of social and political issues across the globe. Haugen released the documents with the hope that they might increase public pressure for Facebook to change. She underlined that Facebook cares more about profits than public safety in an interview with 60 Minutes in spite of its claim that it does not “build services to make money.” Haugen has filed a whistleblower complaint with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). If the agency attempts to take civil action against Facebook, Haugen could receive between 10 and 30 percent of any fines Facebook is forced to pay. What did the documents contain? Over a dozen news organizations have reviewed the redacted versions of the documents and identified a number of key takeaways. As reported by CNN, the documents show that Facebook was fundamentally unprepared to deal with the January 6 “Stop the Steal” insurrection movement. This contradicts Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, who stated that the company “took down QAnon, Proud Boys, Stop the Steal, anything that was talking about possible violence” in the weeks before the attack on the U.S. capital. In fact, the documents reveal that, leading up to the insurrection, almost all of the fastest growing groups on Facebook were related to the Stop the Steal movement. One of the leaked documents contains a picture of a table labelled “US2020 Levers, previously rolled back,” referring to the guard rails on misinformation and harmful content that Facebook removed before the 2020 presidential election. It is unclear from public statements why Facebook rolled back these measures, and Haugen asserted that the measures were only reimplemented after the insurrection flared up. The Washington Post commented on internal documents surrounding body image, teen mental health and appearance-based social comparison on Instagram, a social media network owned by Facebook. One document found that “social comparison is worse on Instagram,” and that “social comparison journeys mimic the grief cycle.” In response to this, the document said that the company must “engage at each step of the social comparison journey by creating targeted product interventions.” The documents noted that “mental health outcomes related to [social comparison] can be severe,” acknowledging the role of Instagram in prompting or exacerbating eating disorders, body dysmorphia, body dissatisfaction, depression and loneliness. Another document blatantly stated, “we make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls.” The Atlantic reported on another shocking revelation from the documents. In 2019, a BBC report found that a broad human trafficking network for domestic workers was facilitated by Facebook and Instagram, aided by algorithmically boosted hashtags. The internal documents released by Haugen make clear that this issue was known to Facebook before the BBC inquiry, and that the company only took action when Apple threatened to pull Instagram and Facebook from the App Store. According to the Atlantic report, the documents show that Facebook has the most harmful impact in vulnerable and unstable areas of the world. Facebook is aware that its products “facilitate hate speech in the Middle East, cartels in Mexico, ethnic cleansing in Ethiopia, extremist anti-Muslim rhetoric in India and sex trafficking in Dubai.” In an internal report from March 2021, Facebook admitted, “we frequently observe highly coordinated intentional activity… by problematic actors:” that is, “particularly prevalent… in At-Risk Countries and Contexts,” yet it stated that “current mitigation strategies are not enough.” An internal Facebook report from the winter of 2020 found that only 6 percent of Arabic-language hate content on Instagram was detected by Facebook’s systems. According to the documents, only 13 percent of Facebook’s misinformation-moderation staff hours were devoted to non-U.S. countries in spite of the fact that more than 90 percent of Facebook’s users do not reside in the United States. Despite at least 160 languages being spoken on the platform, Facebook has created AI-detection systems for only a fraction of those languages. Speaking to the Observer about her decision to come forward as a whistleblower, Haugen said, “I did what I thought was necessary to save the lives of people, especially in the global South, who I think are being endangered by Facebook’s prioritization of profits over people.” The Senate Hearing On October 5, Haugen testified to a United States Senate committee. Haugen emphasized that Facebook knows that its algorithm is harmful to users. She stated that Facebook's advertising-based business model needs people to stay on its platform for as long as possible, and the company exploits negative emotion to accomplish this. Lawmakers at the hearing were particularly concerned with the impact of Instagram on children. Subcommittee Chair Richard Blumenthal said, “Facebook exploited teens using powerful algorithms that amplified their insecurities.” Haugen also spoke to the structural issues faced by the company, stating that, “Facebook is stuck in a cycle where it struggles to hire. That causes it to understaff projects, which causes scandals, which then makes it harder to hire.” During her time at Facebook, Haugen “worked on the counter-espionage team, and at any given time… could only handle a third of the cases,” due to lack of manpower. Haugen does not believe Facebook should be broken up, but instead encourages more stringent regulation of the platform. Chair Blumenthal is discussing the proposal to allow private citizens to sue Facebook and other social media companies for harm caused by their algorithms. Currently, a law known as Section 230 immunizes social media companies from being sued over what users post, however Blumenthal is interested in “curtailing that legal shield and immunity so as to give victims… some recourse.” Other legislative responses currently being considered include a national privacy law and stronger safeguards for children online. Lawmakers insist that Haugen’s leak of internal documents and Senate testimony have motivated Capitol Hill to take action against Facebook. In response to the Senate hearing, Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said, “we continue to make significant improvements to tackle misinformation and harmful content.” Stone also questioned Haugen’s credibility on matters pertaining teen mental health, stating that “Frances Haugen did not work on child safety or Instagram, or research these issues, and has no direct knowledge of the topic from her work at Facebook.” However, Samidh Chakrabati, the former leader of the Civic Integrity Political Misinformation team at Facebook, said on Twitter, “there are countless other integrity professionals with experience on the issues raised today… who similarly agree with the substantive points shared at the hearing.” Going Forward This leak may inspire other whistleblowers to come forward. According to Haugen’s legal team, inquiries from other potential whistleblowers have been raised, and another SEC complaint was filed in October. The damning evidence brought to light by Frances Haugen has ignited a push to regulate Facebook and other social media giants. Haugen herself has expressed a desire to “start a youth movement,” to restore power among a portion of the population whose lives to date have been unquantifiably influenced by social media. Hopefully, this most recent leak will be enough to actualize Haugen’s desire for large-scale change.

The sheer joy that usually accompanies the World Cup approach has been tainted this year. Qatar, the next World Cup site, continues to raise human rights concerns. < Back The 2022 Qatar World Cup Has a Dark Side By Arian Akrami September 30, 2022 The sheer joy that usually accompanies the World Cup approach has been tainted this year. Qatar, the next World Cup site, continues to raise human rights concerns. Evidence of labor exploitation and poor working conditions in unbearable heat has led to accusations of modern slavery. These tensions have been ever-present since the controversial decision by the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) in 2010 to award Russia and Qatar the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, among corruption allegations. According to Amnesty International, around 2 million migrant workers (mainly from Africa and Asia) have been employed to construct roads, metros and eight remarkable stadiums. More will be hired for the security, hospitality and transport industries during the event itself. Labor importation is understandable given Qatar’s meager population of 2.8 million and the world’s 5th highest GDP per capita ($84,510 according to the International Monetary Fund). The lack of pre-existing stadiums and infrastructure in a nation that has almost no significant sporting history or need for public transport further justifies the necessity for foreign workers. However, the issue comes with the “Kafala” or “sponsorship” system, which binds foreign workers to a local sponsor, or “Kafeel,” which is often their employer. A similar system is employed by all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as well as by Jordan and Lebanon. At face value, this does not appear to pose any particular problems, and it is essential to note that some of the issues within the Kafala system in Qatar have seen improvements during the last two years, the efficacy of which will be later examined. But these organizations cleverly fall into the category of interior ministries as opposed to labor ministries, meaning that labor laws cease to apply to migrant workers. Consequently, laborers lack the right to join unions or freely enter the labor dispute process. While these sponsors provide “housing,” it is more akin to overcrowded dormitories, posing a particular risk during the pandemic. Furthermore, workers require the explicit permission of their sponsor to leave their job, or even the country, since the “Kafeel” reserves the right to invalidate residency status without reason. Not adhering to these terms spells potential imprisonment or deportation. Employers regularly confiscate passports, visas and phones to enforce this. Such terms are often stipulated in contracts written in languages the migrants do not speak. Qatari employment is also rife with “debt traps.” This means that recruitment fees, which host countries require from sponsors, are handed down to workers who, before recruitment, cannot afford the fees. As a result, they are obliged to take out loans which indebt them to their Kafeel. According to the Guardian , there have been 6,750 migrant deaths in the 12 years since Qatar was awarded the right to host the World Cup. Many of those deaths are traced to subjecting workers to continual labor for up to ten hours a day in summer temperatures of 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius) or more. Could the World Cup be perceived as a force for good in the Middle East, a region that has never hosted the tournament? U.S. Soccer spokesman Neil Buethe argues that “Qatar has made more progress with respect to human rights in the last four years than it has in the last four decades because it is hosting the World Cup.” While, to some extent, this is true, the lives of so many innocent workers are not a justifiable means to the ends of fundamental labor rights. Kuwait and Qatar have gone as far as imprisoning female workers under “Zina” laws (an Islamic legal term referring to unlawful sexual intercourse) concerned with extra-marital sex, even in the case of rape. Why do migrant workers accept this work? Simply put, the pay is higher than in their country of origin. According to the World Bank, remittance payments help combat poverty in lower-income nations. While some countries like Kenya and Indonesia have prevented workers from emigrating to GCC nations. This can often have an adverse effect since workers with no alternatives will seek human smuggling gangs as a means of achieving what they perceive to be superior employment opportunities in the Middle East. Qatar has managed to implement some reform following global condemnation. Last spring, new regulations were adopted that banned work outdoors between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. from June to mid-September. In August 2020, Qatar revoked the rule requiring employers’ consent to switch jobs and implemented a monthly minimum wage of 1000 Qatari riyals ($274). However, many workers still experience delays, harassment, threats, imprisonment and even deportation during the job-switching process. A Qatari government spokesperson claimed that the reforms had “transformed” the labor market, contributing to over 78,000 successful job transfers in the final quarter of 2020. The delays were supposedly due to the sudden high volume of transfer requests. More recently, the BBC reported that on Aug. 14, 2022, 60 workers protested, reportedly having not been paid for seven months. An unconfirmed number of protestors were instantaneously detained and deported. The Qatari government confirmed this event, which insists that they had been detained for “breaching public security laws.” Concerns about discrimination are not limited to the workers. Homosexuality remains illegal in Qatar, incurring up to three years in prison, and a possibility of the death penalty for Muslims under Sharia law, although there are no known cases of the application of the latter. The Qatari government does not recognize same-sex marriage nor permit campaigning for LGBTQ+ rights. On Dec. 8, 2020, Qatar announced that rainbow flags would be allowed in stadiums at the 2022 World Cup in line with FIFA regulations. The World Cup Chief Executive Nasser Al-Khater stated, “when it comes to the rainbow flags in the stadiums, FIFA have their own guidelines, they have their rules and regulations, whatever they may be, we will respect them.” Nevertheless, in May 2022, some hotels on FIFA’s official list of recommended accommodations forbade room reservations for homosexual couples. Others agreed to host homosexual couples if they agreed to hide their relationship publicly. FIFA has since pledged to remind Qatar of its obligations to ensure a tolerant welcome to all fans. In an interview in Germany on May 20, 2022, the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, stated that the LGBTQ+ visitors would be welcomed to the 2022 World Cup but that they need to respect the nation’s culture. Foreseeable issues such as these put into perspective the ignorance of FIFA to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, respectively. Perhaps it is time for the Middle East to finally host the World Cup; however, this would have been better suited to a nation with at least some of the infrastructure necessary for an event of such scale. FIFA also missed a golden opportunity to transform the region for the better by holding Qatar to stringent human rights standards. Spectators should not carry guilt for this iteration of the World Cup. They have a right to enjoy the world’s greatest sporting spectacle. However, FIFA bears a responsibility to have sufficient foresight in matters of ethical conduct when awarding such a monumental event.

Among lawyers, graphic designers, and writers, could imams be the next professionals fearing artificial intelligence taking their jobs? < Back Tech vs. Tradition: Could AI Oust Islamic Leaders? By Colette Yamashita Holcomb December 30, 2023 Among lawyers, graphic designers, and writers, could imams be the next professionals fearing artificial intelligence taking their jobs? On Sept. 8, the Egyptian cabinet’s media center denied rumors that the government planned to use artificial intelligence to prepare Friday sermons, replacing the imams who write them. These rumors were spurred by comments made by Muhammad Mukhtar, the Minister of Religious Endowments, who declared that he had experimented with using artificial intelligence to write a Friday Khotba and rated the output an “8 out of 10,” but acknowledged that the output included religious mistakes. While the rumors in Egypt may have been disproven, the nation isn’t the only one exploring using artificial intelligence in religious practice. Across the Islamic world, government and religious leaders have grappled with the question of whether technology has a role in religion. While Iranian religious leaders have emphasized that artificial intelligence efforts are simply to add to “the toolkit of Islamic leaders,” in the United Arab Emirates, the government discontinued the Virtual Ifta program within two years, electing to focus on applying artificial intelligence in business. Iran has faced increasing pressure to modernize on the heels of the mass protest movement that began last year, evolving to a broader call to replace the Islamic republic with a modernized, secular state. The nation’s religious establishment views technology as a potential avenue of development, all while strengthening Islamic national identity and values. The head of Qom Seminary, located in the Iranian holy city of Qom, has warmed up to artificial intelligence, primarily focusing on how it could accelerate the Islamic studies of senior clergy and communication with the public. The seminary has partnered with the city’s leading AI research center. “The seminary must get involved in using modern, progressive technology and artificial intelligence…we have to enter into this field to promote Islamic civilization,” the head of Iran’s seminary, Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, said this summer. Most clerics follow the traditional approach to religious study and adapt Islamic rulings to modern life, analyzing lengthy documents that can take weeks to prepare. The top-ranking clerics, the majority aged 80 to 100, aren’t expected to divert from this traditional style. However, younger clerics may be more open to utilizing technological advances. Yet, some doubt whether a quicker process would benefit Islam. Many figures caution against the use of artificial intelligence for interpreting religious texts because interpretations of religious teachings require a deep historical, sociological, and theological understanding beyond simple linguistic knowledge; some have advocated concerns that artificial intelligence may oversimplify or misinterpret nuanced religious teachings. Artificial intelligence would also challenge the principles of the Islamic educational system, such as strong teacher-student relationships. The Journal of Islamic Studies highlighted that supplementing, let alone replacing, these relationships with artificial intelligence platforms could erode the essential human element in religious teachings since it cannot provide the same emotional and spiritual guidance. Moreover, if students lack personal connections to the text, often found through these teacher-student relationships, it could weaken both their understanding and relationship to the text and their faith. For non-clergy Muslims, artificial intelligence has more apparent benefits. Artificial intelligence could strengthen an individual’s understanding of Islam and the Quran because programs can explain concepts and passages differently based on individual learning styles and a personalized 24/7 learning experience that is impossible to find in a traditional setting. Additionally, the increased global reach appeals to those who want to spread Islam worldwide; artificial intelligence platforms can make Islamic teachings accessible to a global audience through in-depth explanations and real-time translation. Yet, like with clergy members, the impersonal nature of artificial intelligence could create a disconnect with faith. The risk of bias and misinformation is still prevalent, which could harm the understanding of Islam through misinformation. For some, the integration of artificial intelligence by imams is not a departure from tradition but an evolution that aligns with the needs of modern society. Meanwhile, others view artificial intelligence as a pressing risk to Islamic values and traditions, representing a decline in society's faith and moral fabric. In some countries, such as Egypt, this exploration has exacerbated tensions between state overreach into clerical roles and the question of how Islamic states may be redefined and reimagined in the coming years. While the jobs of imams may not be up for grabs quite yet, it is clear that artificial intelligence is no longer a hypothetical future; it is the reality in every area of our lives.

< Back Romania: East or West? Amer El-Ibrahim December 31, 2024 More and more Eastern European countries are swept by liminal illiberal parties and rulers, which alienate themselves more and more from the European sphere of influence and tend, vicariously, toward Russia. Slovakia, Bulgaria and Hungary have shown that they sympathize with the Federation, especially through their actions during the ongoing Ukrainian conflict. Following the latest presidential elections in Romania, saying that this statement applies to it as well will increasingly be more difficult. Will it fall prey to the vying tentacles of the Kremlin and join the aforementioned list of countries? The first round of the presidential elections was held on Nov. 24, and the surprising results came out on Nov. 25. The clear winner of this election was Calin Georgescu, a seemingly independent candidate whose main form of publicity was through TikTok. The second candidate in the hierarchy was Elena Lasconi, coming from an ex-anti-system party that strives for anti-corruption. The candidates for the main political parties that have dominated Romanian politics over the last decade, The Social Democratic Party and the National Liberal Party, shockingly failed in getting to the second round of elections. Going back to the winner, Georgescu has made his campaign almost exclusively on TikTok, where he posted himself saying general, mostly false, statements that would greatly appeal to the public, such as the fact that the Ukrainians are getting too much help from the government. His mystical-nationalistic utterances aimed at stirring a very primordial and nonsensical patriotism in his viewers. Additionally, he portrayed himself as a new man, who was not part of the system and who would save the precarious economic and social situation of Romania—in short, a Messiah, another Il Duce on the panoply of history. What is important to observe that the Romanian diaspora has voted mostly for him, and this action/protest became the utter expression of the disgust towards the current political class I state this because Romania is the 17th globally at emmigration rates, with almost 6 million Romanians having decided that living abroad is better than home. However, after the results were released, a considerable amount of incriminating evidence surfaced about Georgescu. He has been a man of the political system since the fall of the Iron Curtain, being part of important ministries, enjoying strong connections with neo-fascist groups and having a campaign funded by foreign state powers, namely Russia. According to Romania’s Secret Services, he also used bots and influencers to secretly promote himself on TikTok. The general consensus regarding his win is the fact that the majority of the population, at home or abroad, is sick and tired of the usual suspects of Romanian politics: the two aforementioned parties and their people. They wanted something new, far away from the perpetual corruption and callousness of the main parties (their candidates refused to participate in any debate, betting on the fact that one of them will get in the second round of elections by default). It was a vote against the system. The ineffectiveness and incompetence of institutions of all kinds have also played a role in this affair. The utter expression of the failure of the Romanian state was the fact that the extremely generously funded Secret Services could not find—or did not want to publish them in due time—any link between Georgescu and the Russians during the presidential campaign, revealing such information three days before the second round of elections. Subsequently, the Constitutional Court of Romania decided the following day to cancel the elections and redo the whole process once again. On a second level, this decision evinces officials’ lack of connection and tact regarding what one would call the “obvious reality.” By cancelling the elections, the Constitutional Court allowed more radicalization and division in society. People who were already disappointed with the state of the nation felt, and that is the best word one can use in this context, that the current power—the status quo— was doing everything in its reach to prevent a transfer of power, thus leaving the impression of an authoritarian kleptomaniac rule and not a democratic one. Regardless of whether the decision to cancel the elections was dictated or not by the government, this impression will last for all subsequent elections. The average citizen feels lost, lied to, abused and distrustful of all information sources and quite justifiably so, since almost all major media outlets have received millions of euros from party coffers. Change was what was wanted, but is this the change we all are striving for? I doubt that.

The global energy crisis began in October 2021 with the backdrop of resurgent demand from the re-opening of economies following the Covid-19 pandemic. There is no doubt that recent energy politics has certainly provided a fair wind for both Egypt and Israel. < Back Egypt and Israel: Quiet Beneficiaries of the Energy Crisis By Noor Ahmad October 31, 2022 The global energy crisis began in October 2021 with the backdrop of resurgent demand from the re-opening of economies following the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, China’s post-Covid recovery led to a demand for gas that is said to have risen by 8.4 percent. Gas imports are set to increase by 20 percent to satisfy this demand, resulting in less gas available for import to many European countries from gulf countries, such as Qatar, who could not ramp up natural gas supplies to Europe, as they were committed to their long-term contracts with Asian countries. The other major event that undoubtedly catalyzed the energy crisis was the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia supplied around 40 percent of the European Union’s gas consumption by pipeline, and the 75 percent cut to supply has significantly affected European countries which have relied on Russian gas for years. Russia started to reduce its supply of gas in 2021 on the pretext of maintenance to its major gas pipelines into Europe. This accelerated in the early part of 2022, when gas flow reduced by about 40 percent through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, one of the major conduits of gas from Russia to Europe. By July of this year, the flow of gas through Nord Stream 1 was reduced to 20 percent of its capacity. On Sept. 30, a series of under-water explosions damaged both Nord stream 1 and 2 pipelines, most likely the result of sabotage. The union has not published its findings, but many suspect Russia to be the culprit. Amidst this chaos, two unexpected beneficiaries have been Egypt and Israel. The benefits have not only been economic but also political. Egypt, following the major discovery of offshore gas in 2015 by the Italian company ENI in the Zohr gas field, has been investing in its scope for exportation through the development of its gas liquefaction capacity. Liquefied natural gas has become a major method of transporting gas where piping gas is not possible. According to reports, Egypt now ranks in the top ten countries in the world with gas exporting capacity. Part of this success is due to its links with Israel through the Arab Gas Pipeline, which is used by Israel to export piped gas to Egypt for liquefaction and then is re-exported. Israel has become a significant gas exporter in recent years. It relies on its two major gas fields, Tamar and Leviathan, both offshore fields off its coast. Leviathan, which was discovered in 2010, has the capacity to supply Israel’s domestic needs for the next 40 years. Tamar gained significance around the same time. Most recently, in 2022, 60 billion cubic meters of gas was discovered in the Olympus Area, also in the Mediterranean. By some estimates, Israel, which currently exports 10 million cubic meters a year, has the capacity to more than double this in the coming years by investing further. For both countries, the rising price of gas and their export capacity have provided much needed hard currency to support their economies. Egypt’s economy has been severely impacted by rising commodity prices, particularly wheat, which is a mainstay for its population’s bread consumption. At the same time, sanctions on Russia have affected Egypt’s tourism industry, which relies on Russian tourists. In Israel’s case, a recent report published by the Ministry of Energy showed Israel’s profits from natural gas increased by almost 50 percent. Eleven percent of royalties from revenues from natural gas go directly to the treasury to fund state expenditure. Beyond this, Israel set up its own sovereign wealth fund, The Israeli Citizens’ Fund, to benefit from the increase in gas production; it raises its revenues from taxing excess profits. After a disappointing start, the fund, according to the Israeli Tax Authorities, was expected to collect between 300-$500 million dollars a year over the next decade. This turned out to be very conservative given that it raised 500 million dollars in less than three months in 2022. This fund will be invested for future generations, in line with how other sovereign wealth funds operate around the world. Beyond economics, the two countries’ geopolitical situations have also benefited. The European Union signed a trilateral Memorandum of Understanding between Egypt, Israel and itself in June 2022 to increase the export of Israeli gas. What has surprised many has been the union’s silence on the values it has held so dear for many years. Both Egypt and Israel have been targeted for various humanitarian issues – the Egyptian military regime’s treatment of dissenters is well documented. Moreover, the union has been historically vocal about Israel’s settlements and occupation of Palestinian territories and. It has been widely noted that the memorandum signed was the first in which the union failed to mention the Palestinian territories. A question was raised on the matter in the union’s parliament to the European Commission on the subject. A response on July 28, 2022 to the question, given by the Vice-President of the commission, Borrell Fontelles, stated that as this is a non-binding agreement, no territorial clause was deemed necessary. And while the union recommitted to abiding by United Nations Security Council resolution 2334, which calls for its member states to distinguish between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967, the omission in this instance is unusual. There is no doubt that energy politics has certainly provided a fair wind for both Egypt and Israel.

Face au défi climatique, les Jeux d'hiver italiens transforment les sommets alpins en un territoire où le prestige sportif tente de s'affranchir des limites biologiques du massif.  < Back JO d’hiver de Milan-Cortina : le prestige olympique face à la crise écologique Noémie Tropée-Arbos Face au défi climatique, les Jeux d'hiver italiens transforment les sommets alpins en un territoire où le prestige sportif tente de s'affranchir des limites biologiques du massif. Alors que les projecteurs s’éteignent sur les Dolomites, le bilan de Milan-Cortina 2026 laisse une empreinte contrastée dans le paysage alpin. Si l'Italie a tenté d'imposer le laboratoire d'un olympisme « nouvelle génération » plus sobre, les semaines de compétition ont mis à nu une tension irréconciliable entre la sanctuarisation des sommets et les exigences industrielles du sport de haut niveau. Entre la réussite de l'héritage urbain milanais et le traumatisme d’une « montagne éventrée » pour des infrastructures éphémères, cet événement restera le révélateur des contradictions d'une époque où le prestige international se heurte violemment aux limites planétaires. Vers Une Sobriété Structurelle : Le Pari De La Réutilisation Le premier pari de Milan-Cortina a été celui de la « flexibilité » opérationnelle, une réponse directe aux critiques sur le gigantisme des éditions passées. Selon le Comité International Olympique (CIO), cette stratégie marque une rupture nette avec le modèle du « tout-neuf » de Sotchi en 2014, où près de 51 milliards de dollars avaient été investis dans des infrastructures sorties de terre ex nihilo, ou de Pékin en 2022, qui avait nécessité la création d'un pôle de sports d'hiver entier en zone aride. Cette approche ne se limite pas aux infrastructures sportives ; elle s'inscrit dans une logique de régénération urbaine profonde. Le village olympique de Porta Romana, construit sur une ancienne friche ferroviaire milanaise délaissée depuis des décennies, a été conçu dès sa genèse pour combler un déficit social chronique. À l'issue des compétitions, les quartiers des athlètes seront convertis en une résidence universitaire de 1 700 lits , la plus importante du pays. L'objectif est de transformer l'investissement olympique en une solution pérenne contre la précarité immobilière qui frappe la jeunesse italienne. Cette approche de « seconde vie » est soutenue par une stratégie de décarbonation des opérations. En s'appuyant sur des partenaires énergétiques, l'organisation garantit une alimentation 100 % renouvelable pour l'ensemble des sites de compétition. Ce recours aux énergies propres, couplé à une logistique favorisant l'économie circulaire, où le mobilier et les structures temporaires sont loués ou réutilisés, fait de Milan-Cortina un laboratoire du nouvel Agenda Olympique 2020+5, visant des Jeux à impact positif . L’enneigement Artificiel Et Le Défi De La Gestion De L’eau Pourtant, la géographie alpine ne suffit plus à garantir la viabilité des épreuves. En effet, les Alpes ont enregistré une hausse de température de 2,5°C depuis l'ère préindustrielle , contre une moyenne mondiale de 1,1°C à 1,2°C. Cette accélération thermique réduit drastiquement la durée d'enneigement naturel, qui a perdu en moyenne un mois de présence au sol en cinquante ans. Ainsi, malgré des sommets dépassant les 3000 mètres, l'organisation de Milan-Cortina 2026 a dû recourir à une production massive de neige de culture pour couvrir près de 90 % de ses surfaces de compétition . Si Pékin 2022 avait marqué les esprits par l'usage d'une neige 100 % artificielle en zone aride, l'Italie fait face à un défi climatique tout aussi complexe : la gestion d'une ressource en eau de plus en plus rare dans un massif sous tension thermique. Pour maintenir l'épaisseur réglementaire des pistes face à des hivers de plus en plus erratiques, les organisateurs ont déployé une infrastructure industrielle lourde. La production d'un mètre cube de neige nécessite environ 500 litres d'eau, ponctionnés directement dans les réserves collinaires et les nappes phréatiques locales. Selon des experts en hydrologie, ces prélèvements massifs entrent en concurrence directe avec les besoins de l'agriculture de la plaine du Pô, déjà fragilisée par des sécheresses hivernales chroniques. Au-delà de la consommation d'eau, c'est la morphologie même de la montagne qui est altérée de façon irréversible. Pour optimiser l'efficacité des canons à neige, les pistes subissent un terrassement intensif où les reliefs naturels sont rabotés pour permettre une accroche maximale de la neige artificielle. Cette « neige technique », plus dense et abrasive que la neige naturelle, agit comme un isolant thermique inversé, maintenant le sol gelé plus longtemps et perturbant la biodiversité souterraine. Cette transformation change les massifs des Dolomites en une véritable infrastructure technique sous perfusion, où le sport ne dépend plus du climat, mais de la puissance de pompage. Les Infrastructures Olympiques Face Au Droit Environnemental Un des aspects les plus critiques de ces Jeux réside dans l'aménagement physique lourd d'un territoire pourtant classé au patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO. La montagne a été littéralement "éventrée" pour permettre l'élargissement des axes routiers et la construction de parkings géants, nécessaires pour relier des sites de compétition éclatés sur plus de 22 000 km². Cette fragmentation géographique, si elle permet de réutiliser des stades existants, impose paradoxalement une « mise en infrastructure » agressive des vallées alpines. Le cas de la piste de bobsleigh Eugenio Monti à Cortina est devenu le symbole de ce que les militants appellent un « déni d'histoire ». En investissant 81,6 millions d'euros dans la reconstruction d'une infrastructure dont le CIO lui-même avait initialement jugé le coût excessif, l'Italie reproduit les erreurs de Turin 2006. La piste de Cesana Pariol, construite au prix de 110 millions d'euros, gît aujourd'hui à l'état de friche industrielle abandonnée , son coût d'entretien ayant été jugé insupportable. À Cortina, ce choix a nécessité l’abattage de 500 mélèzes centenaires en février 2024. Pour les experts juridiques, ce dossier illustre la fragilité de la protection des écosystèmes : en s'appuyant sur des décrets gouvernementaux d'exception, les chantiers ont pu contourner les études d'impact environnemental classiques. Cette pression sur le territoire a cristallisé une fracture profonde. En février 2026, des milliers d’Italiens ont manifesté à Milan contre ce qu’ils qualifient de « scandale écologique » et social. Entre dénonciation de la vie chère et gentrification du village olympique, la tension est devenue politique : alors que les manifestants fustigeaient un événement déconnecté des réalités, le gouvernement a durci le ton, qualifiant les opposants « d’ennemis de l'Italie ». Ce bras de fer montre comment l'urgence de l'événement a fini par s'affranchir des cadres démocratiques de préservation de la nature et du dialogue citoyen. Des Sponsors À L’encontre Des Enjeux Écologiques Enfin, l'intégrité écologique de l'événement se heurte à la réalité de son modèle économique. Un rapport récent dénonce une contradiction profonde : alors que le CIO prône la durabilité, Milan-Cortina reste largement financé par des géants des énergies fossiles . Si Paris 2024 avait tenté d'écarter certains sponsors polluants, l'édition italienne marque un retour à une dépendance assumée envers les industries carbonées. Ce phénomène, qualifié de « sport washing », permet à des entreprises pétrolières d'associer leur image à la pureté de la montagne, tandis que l'empreinte carbone réelle reste massive. L’exemple du géant énergétique Eni est particulièrement révélateur. Tout en finançant la fourniture d'énergies renouvelables pour les sites de compétition, le groupe continue de développer des projets gaziers et pétroliers à travers le monde. L'essentiel de l'impact climatique, environ 80 % des émissions totales , provient des vols longue distance des spectateurs et d'une logistique complexe. En multipliant les déplacements en hélicoptère pour relier des vallées isolées, l'organisation génère un bilan carbone que les mesures de « compensation » ne parviennent pas à neutraliser. Ce modèle de sponsoring invite à se demander s'il est réellement possible de se revendiquer défenseur de l'environnement tout en acceptant le soutien financier de ceux qui contribuent à sa dégradation. Pour de nombreux observateurs, cette « durabilité de façade » masque l'incapacité du CIO à se réformer réellement, préférant des ajustements techniques marginaux à une remise en question globale du format des Jeux. Milan-Cortina 2026 laisse un héritage assez ambigu. En effet, si la réutilisation intelligente des sites milanais prouve qu’une forme de raison urbaine gagne du terrain, l’industrialisation forcée de la haute altitude et le poids des sponsors fossiles rappellent la puissance des anciens schémas. Alors que le climat impose ses règles avec une brutalité croissante, la survie des Jeux d'hiver ne dépendra peut-être plus de la prouesse technologique, mais de notre capacité à accepter des formats plus sobres, voire décentralisés. La flamme olympique peut-elle encore briller sans consumer la montagne qui l’accueille ? L'expérience italienne suggère que la réponse se trouve dans un changement de regard sur notre rapport au sauvage. Si le format olympique refuse de s’adapter au monde qu’il prétend célébrer, il se condamne à n’être plus qu’une fête dont le prix écologique est devenu supérieur à la valeur du rêve qu’elle propose. Photo Source: Dispe, Wikicommons