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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.

The word ‘desert’ creates an image of desolation and emptiness. These spaces are not empty; there is huge potential for growth, nourishment and vibrancy. It is rather the obstacles of settler colonialism, white supremacy and segregation that stand in the way of food justice. < Back Death by Design: Food Apartheid from Nunavut to Palestine By Huda Javed for Environnementon November 30, 2023 In Nunavut, North Canada, home to the indigenous Inuit communities, 70 percent of homes face severe food insecurity in one of the richest nations in the world. A liter of milk in Nunavut costs over CΑΝ$7 and a handful of fresh vegetables costs almost CΑΝ$40. The few grocery stores scattered across the territory predominantly sell unhealthy and non-nutritious food. The remoteness of the territory requires fresh produce to be flown in due travel restrictions by boat and road. By the time fresh produce makes it to grocery store shelves, it is often expired, sold at extremely inflated prices and situated amongst multiple rows of processed foods that are considerably cheaper and higher in caloric energy. Territories like Nunavut are often referred to as ‘food deserts’ – places where access to affordable, healthy and nutritious food is restricted by social and geographical constraints. The term ‘food swamps’ is often used alongside this to describe areas where highly processed ‘junk’ foods are densely concentrated, namely in low-income urban neighborhoods with majority racialized or minority groups. While these terms certainly recognize the pressing issue of food accessibility and adequacy, they are severely ignorant and passive to the fact that these so-called ‘deserts' and ‘swamps’ are not naturally occurring phenomena, but they have emerged through a discriminatory process and deliberate government policies. Even so, the word ‘desert’ creates an image of desolation and emptiness. These spaces are not empty; there is huge potential for growth, nourishment and vibrancy. It is rather the obstacles of settler colonialism, white supremacy and segregation that stand in the way of food justice. So, food apartheid seems the appropriate term. In the U.S., the majority of farming subsidies go to white farmers. White neighborhoods have at least four times as many grocery stores as African-American neighborhoods. Housing subsidies largely go to rich, white Americans, while ‘redlining’ policies have also restricted mortgage lending to minority homebuyers, preventing those in low-income areas from moving to neighborhoods with adequate access to nutritious food. This has created the knock-on effect of ‘supermarket redlining’ as companies view wealthier neighborhoods as more profitable and safer from crime. As with the spatial segregation of minority and racialized communities in the US, the isolation of the indigenous Inuit communities in Canada is a product of forcible expulsion and land theft. The traditional food systems, environments and ancestral crop lands indigenous communities depended on, were destroyed by settlers. Consequently, native communities were forcibly relocated to isolated reservations, which are currently being impeded upon as well. Offshore oil exploration in the Arctic by major companies, endorsed by the Canadian authorities, threatens marine life. In 2008, seismic testing caused the death of up to 1,000 narwhals . Rising global temperatures due to climate change are also impacting the migration patterns of these marine animals, which the Inuit depend on for food. The Navajo Nation, spanning 17 million acres and the largest reservation in the U.S., has a total of 13 grocery stores, where the average resident has to drive three hours one-way to reach a grocery store that predominantly sells processed and non-nutritious products. The USDA’s Food Distribution Programme on Indian Reservations supplies some food to indigenous communities. However, the products tend to be highly processed and have little nutritional value. Along with the few job opportunities and the rarity of affordable fresh food in indigenous reservations, this leads many to resort to cheap, unhealthy processed foods. It does not stop there. As a result of limited access to healthy and culturally appropriate foods, health issues, in particular type 2 diabetes, are becoming increasingly prevalent in Black, Indigenous and other minority and low-income communities. On top of this, harsh discrimination and negligence within healthcare systems are a regular occurrence for these groups, and as a consequence, they experience higher fatalities and poorer overall well being . Achieving food justice and sovereignty for communities of color is more than simply living near a grocery store, but rather about having agency over their local food systems. Similarly to Black, Indigenous and minority communities in the US and Canada, Israel’s system of apartheid has wholly denied Palestinians their right to food sovereignty. Forced displacement, land expropriation, restrictions on free movement or even access to markets have led to severe food insecurity. The control of 80 percent of West Bank water reserves is one crucial way that Israel enforces food apartheid upon Palestinians. Israeli authorities, between 2012 and 2021, demolished 572 Palestinian water structures in the West Bank. These structures are often small-scale traditional rainwater cisterns and wells. The demolition of an entire water system severely impedes the ability to cultivate land and create a sustainable food system. Other discriminatory policies include requiring Palestinians, under military orders 1015 and 1039 , to be granted permission to plant certain crops like eggplants, tomatoes, and onions. Additionally, Israeli agricultural policies enforce the use of commercial seeds in an effort to erase Palestinian agricultural heritage. The traditional Jadu’i watermelon has been lost due to this. Simply foraging for Palestinian diet staples, such as zaatar, sage and akoub, is punishable by fines and three years in prison . Taxing ‘legal’ requirements and restrictions are piled one on top of the other, not only creating huge economic losses but hindering even basic subsistence agriculture within Palestinian communities. In 2020, Israel rejected 73 percent of farmer permit requests to access their farmland and tend to crops. The crops that are able to grow in spite of all this, as well as the increasingly dry and scorching summers, are often ruined by Israeli military aerial spraying of herbicides . Simultaneously, cheaper, ‘second-class,’ and harmful produce is introduced by Israel into markets across the West Bank, undermining the efforts of Palestinian farmers. In 2020, 72 percent of vegetables sold to Palestinians by Israeli producers were found to contain high levels of harmful pesticides. The Israeli destruction of up to 1 million olive trees since 1967 and the continuous vandalism and theft of harvests defines the nature of food apartheid as the deliberate effort to occupy or erase a people and their cultural heritage, regardless of environmental damage. Israel has even banned the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, which protects traditional Palestinian heirloom seeds that have the potential to increase biodiversity and minimize the environmental impacts of farming. The examples are endless. Food apartheid is one of the most instrumental ways in which the Israeli government has been slowly starving Palestinians. There is no question that this is all by design, from every policy and legal measure to the outright destruction and expropriation of land, it is as deliberate as North America’s utilization of food apartheid against racialized communities. Efforts of localized agroecological organizations among these communities are growing – farmers markets, community gardens and food sharing are autonomizing marginalized populations from their oppressors. However, complete food sovereignty, the right to affordable, fresh and culturally appropriate food for African Americans, the Inuit people, Palestinians, and marginalized communities all over the world, cannot be fully achieved without recognition of their humanity first.

In the West Bank and Gaza, where de facto democracy has long been out of the question and the destructive implications of war continue to devastate, a technocracy may be the only viable solution to address the needs of a population in ruins. < Back Constructing a Technocratic Government in Post-War Gaza By Lara Harmankaya March 31, 2024 Amidst debates on democracies and their discontents, technocracies often appear as a viable alternative model of governance. In the West Bank and Gaza, where de facto democracy has long been out of the question and the destructive implications of war continue to devastate, a technocracy may be the only viable solution to address the needs of a population in ruins. The Palestinian Authority (PA), which was inaugurated following the Oslo Peace Process between the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Israeli government, governs the West Bank under the banner of Fatah, a faction of the PLO. Born from the Gaza-Jericho Agreement, which promised the Palestinian populations residing in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip the future creation of an independent Palestinian state, the Palestinian Authority has lost any trace of domestic democratic legitimacy over the years. Following Hamas’ victory in the 2006 general elections and subsequent conflicts with Fatah, Gaza has been under the rule of the militant-terrorist group Hamas. This has led to the fragmented political system that is found today, where the two territories are under the control of two rival political groups. For many Palestinians, this fracture has been among the most harmful obstacles to the Palestinian cause, leading to disunity in the movement for nation-building. The potential for democratic rule in the PA, although promising at the start, has diminished tremendously over the years. The cancellation of the presidential and legislative elections in 2021 by the President of the PA, Mahmoud Abbas, is a recent example of the stymied space for political plurality. His four-year term was meant to have ended in 2009. Yet, with his rule by decree, strict control over the judicial system, dissolution of the legislative council and purging of rivals, he continues to dominate the PA and the PLO. To make matters worse, the opposition candidate for the 2021 elections, Nizar Banat, is said to have died in police custody, sparking popular outrage from within the Palestinian population. In general, the PA is viewed by many Palestinians with suspicion; according to a study by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), more than half of the Palestinians surveyed in June 2023 were in favor of the dissolution of the PA. The proliferation of illegal Israeli settlements in Area C of the West Bank, alongside PA cooperation with the Israeli Defense Forces to repress internal Palestinian opposition, have been the final nail in the coffin for the PA’s popular legitimacy. With the Israeli government’s increasing control over the administration and civil affairs in Areas A and B as well, the PA has come to be perceived as complicit in Israel’s actions. In the eyes of many, it is no longer a real autonomous authority capable of governance. It is also dependent on international and Israeli funding, leading critics to wonder whether it can ever truly take a resolute stance against these foreign actors. Especially after the chaos that superseded Oct. 7, the PA has proven one thing: it is unable to effectively deal with Hamas and ease the plight of Palestinians. In the name of political survival, the PA has not remained as the one true representative of the Palestinian general public. The West Bank’s fragile democracy thus suffers from a double blow on legitimacy: it is ruled by an authority that is deemed ‘authoritarian’ by the Freedom House and is under Israeli occupation in certain territories. However, calls for a reform, emerging from both internal and external actors, seem to have resurfaced now with the resignation of the Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and his cabinet. This arrives at a time of “international orientation supporting the establishment of a single Palestinian Authority over all of the Palestinian territories,” according to Minister of Social Affairs, Ahmed Majdalaini. The United States’ vocal approval of such efforts to “reform and revitalize” evinces this, having long been preceded by pressures for political unity and the restructuring of the PA. It is still unclear whether the resignation is a move to preserve the existing structures rather than revitalize the system itself, but if the proposal for technocracy is truly meaningful, then the necessary reconstruction of the Palestinian Authority may follow through. Amidst the uncertainty of the current state of the Hamas-Israel war, envisioning reconstruction in Gaza under a technocratic government offers a glimmer of hope to the disillusioned populations of the Palestinian territories. The technocratic government would not only end the political and territorial split of the PA but could also overcome the problems of ‘corruption, nepotism and inefficiency’, in the words of former PA official Ghaith al-Omari, that it has been associated with over the past few years. Although sources offer varying visions of what the technocratic government would look like, or how long it would last for, the basic consensus is that the negotiation process would represent different factions and different regional players, including Egypt. It would operate outside the realm of politics and would be governed by nonpartisan experts until the time is right for elections. A popular example of a technocratic government in recent years was found in Italy, where the Prime Minister post was taken up by economist Mario Monti. His 13-month government has been applauded for plunging Italy out of a crisis of credibility through its decisive structural reforms. Technocracies have been deemed in a positive light in parliamentary democracies, especially when appointed for a limited time horizon to respond to emergencies. Despite lacking the legitimacy that comes with a democratic vote, these governments have proven to be successful in getting things done. Particularly in a place as embedded in failed governance as Gaza, the chance of depoliticizing administration and establishing a government that is not inherently attached to the complex politics of the region must be grabbed. More importantly, the civil and social rights of the residents of Gaza, which have been persistently violated, can finally be protected. Foreign minister Al-Maliki articulates the goals and needs of the Palestinian people in the following words, “We want to be accepted and engaging fully with the international community. We want to get contribution[s] that help in order for us to be able to provide first of all the necessary services to our people, emergency services, then to talk about how we can reconstruct Gaza after such devastating destruction." The technocratic government can re-establish international ties to bring these to life. The endorsement of the United States, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states for this technocratic government, however, does raise questions about sovereignty and the role of these foreign powers in its establishment. Moreover, it is uncertain whether Israel will be equally willing to relinquish control over Gaza at the end of the war; the Knesset recently voted against “unilateral” recognition of a Palestinian state. The very survival of the PA appears to be precarious. But it is worth noting that the talk of the formation of this technocratic government can itself be construed as part of a larger strategy of reaching a ceasefire. Politically uniting the leadership of Palestinians also brings them closer to the prospect of a Palestinian state in the years to come. It is undeniable that the stakes are high for the future politics of Gaza. The viability of a technocratic state can also be questioned. Nevertheless, it is now evident that the international community is prepared to conceive of scenarios for a long-term resolution. A plethora of points for contemplation arise from this new proposal, starting with: to what extent will the international community be involved in post-resolution Gaza? Will a true democracy follow the technocratic government? Or will it follow the precedent of Mahmoud Abbas’s 19-year presidency? Could collaboration in reconstruction efforts mitigate tensions between Arab states and the United States? Can stability ever exist in Gaza? A statement by the Chinese premier Zhou en-Lai, made when responding to what he thinks of the French Revolution of 1789, is equally valid as an answer to these questions: “It is too early to tell.”

It was Feb. 6: the weather was cold, the sky was dark and the streets were silent. Many were asleep, unaware that life was never going to be the same after 4:17 a.m. < Back A Year After the Earthquakes in Turkey: Has Anything Changed? By Selin Elif Köse January 31, 2024 It was Feb. 6: the weather was cold, the sky was dark and the streets were silent. Many were asleep, unaware that life was never going to be the same after 4:17 a.m. It was Feb. 6: it lasted for 1 minute and 5 seconds, with a magnitude of 7.7, and it was fatal. It was Feb. 6 when everyone thought it was over, yet the ground started shaking again. And it was around 1:24 p.m., with a magnitude of 7.6, when it all happened once more. Then it was silent again, and everything was left under the rubble: photographs of distant memories, newly bought books and toys, unlived lives, and unfinished stories. It’s been a year since the two deadly earthquakes struck the southeastern part of Turkey, which also affected northern Syria, Israel, and Lebanon. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the death toll reached 50,500. Yet this number only includes the identified bodies; needless to say, the actual number is expected to be significantly higher. Turkey had previously experienced destructive earthquakes as it lies in the seismic zones and is categorized as one of the most earthquake-prone countries, yet this was the deadliest in history. For comparison, other earthquake-prone countries like Japan don't get nearly as affected by earthquakes. Most recently, on Jan. 1, 2024, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 and a depth of 10 km (the same as the earthquakes in Turkey) struck Japan’s Noto peninsula. As of today, 202 deaths have been reported and 102 still missing. However, these numbers are strikingly low compared to that of Turkey. This brings the question: why? The answer is simple — the lack of precautions, not the earthquake, kills. The Turkish infrastructure and buildings were not ready to endure an earthquake, and the government failed to handle the crisis. Both of these issues boil down to politics essentially. The two main reasons were the delay and insufficiency in sending aid and construction amnesties. After the initial destruction, thousands of people were stuck under debris. The temperature fell below zero in most cities in the southern part of Turkey. Those trapped under the debris were racing against time, facing the dangers of hunger, thirst, and freezing. At that point, the most crucial action needed was the delivery of supplies such as food, drinkable water, and blankets to those injured and trapped under the rubble. The first three days were extremely critical to ensure that the victims could survive. People were sharing their locations on Twitter as a desperate attempt for aid . However, right at that moment, the government imposed a ban on Twitter. This ban aimed to prevent the public from witnessing and criticizing the government's inability to manage the crisis effectively. By doing so, the government also took away the only means of communication for those under the debris. Additionally, the search and rescue teams in the region were not adequately prepared for such a devastating earthquake and proved insufficient. Despite identifying the locations under the rubble, many individuals were abandoned to death due to the danger of collapse and the inadequacy of rescue equipment. Meanwhile, other cities sent numerous trucks loaded with aid, but due to the government's lack of organization, this effort also failed. Unplanned trucks hitting the roads created traffic jams, compounded by heavy snowfall closing roads. As a result, during the crucial first three days, essential aid couldn't reach the injured, leading to the loss of many lives under the debris due to hunger, thirst, or freezing. Following the earthquake, construction amnesties became a heated topic of discussion. More than 20 laws related to construction amnesties have been enacted since 1948 in Turkey. Yet, the most comprehensive one occurred in 2018 through an omnibus law passed in the Turkish National Assembly just before the presidential election. The construction amnesty, enacted by the AKP government to garner votes in the election, resulted in the registration of a total of 294,166 unlicensed houses in the ten cities most affected by the earthquake. Legalizing buildings not constructed in compliance with earthquake regulations was a major contributing factor to the collapse of 36,932 buildings. What is the condition of the southeastern region of Turkey today? Following the earthquake — according to the damage assessment report of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change — 90,609 buildings were either determined to be in urgent need of demolition, heavily damaged or collapsed. The number of residences in these buildings was identified as 269,051; this, unsurprisingly, led a significant portion of the affected individuals to migrate to the western part of the country. However, despite rental assistance provided to earthquake victims, the amount was insufficient to cover the high rents in the country, signifying that those unable to afford these rents and find housing had to continue their lives in tent camps established for earthquake victims. These tent camps faced flooding during cold weather conditions and still serve as a home for many who couldn’t find or afford housing. President Erdogan failed to accomplish his promised goal, which he had stated to be “to build 650,000 houses within one year to revive the earthquake-stricken region." Additionally, Taner Yüzgeç, Chairman of the Board of the Chamber of Civil Engineers, commented on Erdogan's ambitions: "These are dangerous statements. A city is not merely composed of houses. For a housing project, its plans must be drawn up. Disaster risk plans and geological studies must be conducted, and plans should be developed accordingly. The issue is not only about housing. Certainly, housing is a burning need, but claiming that I can build houses wherever I want means determining the lives of those who will live there from now on." Yüzgeç emphasized that professional organizations, including the Chamber of Architects, were not involved in the reconstruction process of the earthquake-stricken region. He further pointed out that the approach to the issue was solely through the lens of construction and housing production. Currently, there is an increasingly widespread fear among the citizens regarding a potential earthquake in Istanbul. Turkish geologist and professor Naci Görür has warned multiple times against a possible earthquake with a magnitude above 7.0 centered in the Marmara Sea, highly affecting Istanbul and surrounding cities. This would be even more deadly as almost 20 percent of the country's population resides in Istanbul, and there are serious questions about the durability of the buildings due to construction amnesties. Görür emphasizes that there is an energy accumulation in the North Anatolian Fault, as the last major earthquake was in 1999, in which more than 17,000 lost their lives. As a result, the majority of the buildings today are damaged and not durable enough to withstand another earthquake. Yet, there are still no proper long-term measures taken as precautions. Observing the lack of necessary planning once again signals the potential repetition of history. Last February's events should be a lesson, urging the need for change in the country and hoping that misguided policies and neglect won't cost any more lives. In loving memory of the 2023 Earthquake Victims

Même les leaders politiques les plus charismatiques de l'histoire de l'Argentine n'ont pas réussi ce que l'équipe dirigée par Messi a réussi : imprégner l'âme de près de 46 millions d'Argentins de la fierté d'appartenir à la nation argentine. < Back Le Football, Source de Miracles Pour l'Argentine? By Amalia Heide January 31, 2023 Argentine: un pays brisé, divisé entre anti-Kirchneristes, anti-Macristes, anti-libéraux, anti-caste politique, anti-IMF... en général toujours anti. Un pays plongé dans une forte crise économique, politique et sociale. Argentins : toujours insatisfaits du présent, toujours pessimistes quant à l'avenir. Aucun homme politique, aucun événement historique, aucun ennemi commun, aucune lutte sociale, aucune célébration collective n'a réussi au cours des dernières décennies à unir ce peuple, plein de ressentiment et vide d'espoir. Même le conflit sur la souveraineté des Malouines entre l'Argentine et l'Angleterre ne fait pas l'unanimité ou ne suscite pas de passion profonde parmi les citoyens. Mais en sept matches et en l'espace d'un mois, l'équipe nationale de football argentine semble avoir réalisé l'impossible. Je ne parle pas de la victoire de la Coupe du monde, mais de ses conséquences : plus de 5 millions de personnes sont sorties dans la rue pour fêter la victoire. Même les leaders politiques les plus charismatiques de l'histoire de l'Argentine n'ont pas réussi ce que l'équipe dirigée par Messi a réussi : imprégner l'âme de près de 46 millions d'Argentins de la fierté d'appartenir à la nation argentine. Pauvres, riches, hommes, femmes, citoyens de gauche, citoyens de droite célébrant et scandant en chœur le même slogan. Il a déjà été décrété que c'est la plus grande fête de l'histoire de l'Argentine. Et pour une fois, il n’y a pas un parti politique impliqué, il n'y a pas de principes idéologiques en jeu. Désormais, puisque nous avons été témoins qu'en équipe, nous pouvons atteindre nos objectifs, pouvons-nous apporter ce nouveau sentiment d'unité dans l'arène politique ? J'ai des doutes à ce sujet. C'est précisément cette absence d'arrière-plan idéologique qui a permis cette union fraternelle. Le fossé politique est si profond dans notre pays que je doute fort que cela nous permette de réduire de manière durable nos conflits politiques internes, nos différences idéologiques, notre aversion mutuelle. Il est évident que le fait d'être champions du monde restera un point de référence commun, une source de joie et de réconfort, et pourra donc contribuer à désamorcer les tensions, mais de là à les éliminer, c'est une autre affaire. D’autre part, on peut se demander si ces célébrations ne montrent que le meilleur côté du peuple argentin. Ces célébrations, qui en théorie semblent très poétiques, romantiques, libératrices, ont fini par révéler en pratique notre penchant presque morbide pour le débordement, la sauvagerie et la destruction. Personnes blessées et tuées en tombant de ponts, de monuments ou de biens publics. Au lendemain de la caravane de l'équipe nationale argentine, les alentours de l'obélisque, l'emblème de Buenos Aires, étaient pitoyables. Les feux de signalisation, les panneaux indiquant le nom des rues, les stations de bus... tous détruits. Avec quel budget tout sera-t-il réparé ? Sans parler des ordures dans les rues que d'autres devront ramasser. Après tout, comme l'a dit un joueur de l'équipe nationale, ce n'est que du football. Mais espérons que le football permettra de réaliser le miracle d'une véritable unité. C'est mon seul souhait.

The value of intangible cultural heritage lies not only in the cultural event itself but also in the richness of the skills and knowledge it conveys from generation to generation. < Back For Posterity’s Sake: A Reflection on a UNESCO Parcours Civique By Samy Bennouna September 28, 2022 What did your Parcours Civique entail? I interned at the permanent delegation of Morocco to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). My internship allowed me to understand the functioning of this UN body from an internal perspective, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how active the organization was. I had the opportunity to participate in many conferences within the headquarters of UNESCO — Fontenoy — aiming not only at protecting heritage but also at promoting cultural, scientific, and educational cooperation. I was able to participate in drafting several reports on conferences such as “Strengthening the Fight against Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property,” the “Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission,” the “Man and Biosphere Program,” and the “Transforming Education Pre-Summit.” I also had the pleasure of meeting three other interns — including a doctoral student at Sciences Po Paris — and we learned how to divide the tasks more efficiently while collaborating in the report-writing process. We also had the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with various other people with backgrounds and influence on the fight for humanitarian and social causes, such as Corrado Catesi, Coordinator of the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) Works of Art Unit, and Ernesto Ottone, Assistant Director General for Culture at UNESCO. Through this internship, I approached this organization from multiple perspectives, all of which have been equally enriching. It turns out that the Moroccan delegation was elected to the presidency of the Intangible Heritage Committee of UNESCO for the year 2022, a coincidence that allowed me to participate in the organization of an international symposium on the universal scope of the prehistoric heritage of Morocco in the presence of the Minister of Culture, Youth and Communication of the Kingdom, Mr. Mehdi Bensaid, as well as the Moroccan Ambassador to France, Mr. Mohamed Benchaaboun. Why did you choose this Parcours Civique? The value of intangible cultural heritage lies not only in the cultural event itself but also in the richness of the skills and knowledge it conveys from generation to generation. This knowledge transfer has a certain economic and social value for all actors within a country and is equally indispensable regardless of the territory’s economic development level. To this end, I wanted to join the Permanent delegation of Morocco to UNESCO for a month-long internship headed by His Excellency Ambassador Samir Addahre. Did you have trouble finding your Parcours Civique? It took me approximately one month to find it, and I contacted the Moroccan delegation by mail to apply and send my motivation letter. Was your Parcours Civique paid or unpaid? My civic course was a month-long, and I was not paid as UNESCO is an international organization. Did you get a lot out of your Parcours Civique? Despite the short duration of the internship, I had the impression that I had been handy to the delegation because of my involvement in all sectors. Perhaps my utility was derived from the particularly hectic June schedule for the delegation this year. My only regret is not having been able to organize a training workshop on the importance of intangible heritage in schools in Morocco since it was not logistically possible to arrange. If you could offer one piece of Parcours Civique advice to a 1A, what would it be? If I could offer one piece of advice to the 1As, it would be to optimize the small amount of time you have to do internships. Get involved in activities you are interested in while ensuring that these pastimes add value to your academic and professional projects.

The Ummah is not fulfilled without the campus cheer team. Beyond [being] a sport, the Um-Miauu fosters an immaculate spirit rendering cheer sessions the highlight of my Menton quotidian.” < Back ‘The Highlight of my Menton Quotidian’: Reflections from the Campus Cheer Team By Lilou d'Inca April 30, 2022 Picture the cliché, Netflix-series archetype of the cheerleader: she is shaking a pair of pom-poms with an artificial smile incessantly stamped on her lips; her pretty face conceals nothing but a frivolous, flighty personality; and the “sport” she practices is little more than a light-hearted introduction to the “real” games in sports tournaments. If you have not yet witnessed our unmissable Christmas show and BDE performance, the Sciences Po Menton cheerleaders are as far as possible from such a typecast. Yes, our cheerleaders are indeed incredibly smiley and ebullient — in the gym, on the stage, and even in their daily lives — but not because they are shallow; rather, because they are proud to boast the skills, lively character, and decidedly united spirit of their team. And, no, their bonds have not just been forged (or ruptured) by the permanent scars they share — from a stunting practice that dramatically ended with stitches for 1A Angeliki Vytogianni to the countless nose bleeds and bruises resulting from a few failed pyramids and backflips. The so-called “Um-Miauu” has also reinforced itself over the past eight months thanks to the unyielding dedication of its captains, 2As Frida Hellen and Nikola Avramović, whose vibrant, bubbly personalities have fostered the team’s intrinsic dedication and energy. Avramović affirmed, “the [most apt] word to describe the cheer team this year is motivation. I know it’s quite common to say, but we really have a team which is consistently up for anything and everything. Very often, I have found myself super energized after training, no matter how shattered I could have been before it, simply because of the energy our cheerleaders bring.” Hellen agreed that the team is “an energetic and resilient group [that] shows support for each other and pushes through the many challenges we have faced together this year as a team.” Such enthusiasm is not only shown by the captains, but by all cheerleaders. 1A Lise Thorsén said, “The Ummah is not fulfilled without the campus cheer team. Beyond [being] a sport, the Um-Miauu fosters an immaculate spirit rendering cheer sessions the highlight of my Menton quotidian.” Cheerleading is indeed an integral part of its athletes’ routine since training is organized twice a week in the College Vento gymnasium and by the sea at Bastion — yes, even on the most piercingly windy nights. With such frequent sessions, a significant obstacle for the team has become, according to Avramović, “ensuring that everyone could make time in their busy schedules to attend practice. Many elements of cheer require the group to function as one, which is both marvelous for a motivated team, but also a huge drawback if even one member of the team is missing.” Hellen added that, “practicing and teaching each other stunting skills and dance routines for minicrit” requires all athletes to be present at practice, hence why “the biggest challenge has been to find a way to make the time demand feasible with everyone’s crowded schedule, as well as the lack adequate training facilities in such a small town.” Speaking of facilities, Hellen and Avramović had to display utmost perseverance and creativity to complement the team’s drive and maintain the team’s professional appearance. “After Minicrit [was] canceled for two years, Nikola and I started almost from scratch with no equipment and little experience,” said Hellen. “We faced material and consequently institutional challenges, to say the least,” added Avramović. Due to poor financing and the overlap between the Sciences Po optional sports courses, the captains relied on their Um-miauu’s original initiatives to subsidize the purchase of pom-poms. As 1A Felipe Boitard — the team’s darling gossip boy — explained, “the cheer team turned to the students on campus and organized a fundraising auction, where members of the cheerleading team would auction out a date experience with them. Dates varied from making pizza with Viola to going on a scooter adventure to Italy with Greta. The night was filled with high-intensity auction battles between friends and potential love interests to get a date with a cheerleader! With the help of all the students who showed up in support of the lovely cheerleaders, the team made much more than was expected and was thus able to buy the supply for the pom-poms. As much as it did not get the official support of the campus, cheerleading is what brings life to the campus with their energy and enthusiasm, succeeding in gaining the support of the students on campus and funding their road to Minicrit!” Cheerleading will play a central role in the upcoming intercampus competition in Nancy alongside other sports including football, volleyball, thèque, and more. The Menton cheerleading team is thrilled to perform the fruit of its effort and resilience in an eight-minute upbeat, acrobatic choreography. In Hellen’s words, “the [personal evolution] of each member with regards to their dancing, gymnastics, and stunting skills, as well as the solidarity and hype among the athletes, continues to blow my mind, and I am beyond excited to show everyone the product of our hard work at the end of May.” Avramović said, “However cliché it sounds, it was thanks to the cheer team’s enthusiasm that we felt confident to fight for what the team needed. I am certain this has left our team much more tightly bound than ever, and really drives us to carry the Menton spirit at minicrit!” As per Thorsén’s words, Menton cheer is “not only a perfect creative outlet outside academia, but it has also most definitely equipped me with motivation and cheerfulness —” values which she looks forward to displaying in Nancy. Thus, allow yourself to be transported by the cheer team’s entrancing dance battles and hypnotizing canon movements. But, above all, remember to appreciate the unified and enriching fusion of cultures, personalities, and backgrounds that will emerge from our dances, from the unique and friendly community that is Sciences Po Menton cheerleading team!

Aujourd’hui encore, l’art, parce qu’il est un instrument de contestation pacifique qui revêt une efficacité prouvée, est un objet soumis à une menace de musèlement que la population algérienne n’a de cesse de défier. < Back L’Expansion de l’Art Engagé en Algérie By Raja Madani April 29, 2022 “C’est pourquoi il faut que les artistes, les écrivains et les savants, qui ont en dépôt certains des acquis les plus rares de l’histoire humaine, apprennent à se servir contre l’État de la liberté que leur assure l’État” - Pierre Bourdieu À l’occasion de la Semaine des Arts ayant récemment eue lieu à Sciences Po, cet article s’intéresse à l’utilisation de l’art comme moyen d’engagement politique, en prenant pour angle d’étude la place prépondérante occupée par l’art engagé en Algérie, dans la quête de liberté et dans la manifestation des espoirs. Trois ans maintenant. En un vendredi ensoleillé de la fin du mois de février 2019, la jeunesse algérienne avait gagné les rues des villes principales du pays pour protester contre l’éternelle reproduction d’un système politique qui l’étouffe. Ce moment de symbiose qui a progressivement réuni les multiples spécificités de la population a donné lieu , par sa répétition chaque mardi et vendredi, à celle que l’on qualifie aujourd’hui de « révolution du sourire », ou autrement dit: de Hirak. La population algérienne, encore très marquée par la violence extrême qui l’a touchée au plus près lors de l’épisode de la décennie noire des années 90, a dû s’armer d’outils lui permettant de faire circuler en puissance ses revendications, tout en plaçant la paix en véritable maître mot du mouvement. L’art est alors apparu comme le moyen de combiner ces objectifs. L’art et la dénonciation, des éléments qui s’auto-génèrent Paroles extraites du chant de supporters, devenu chant de manifestants algériens, lui-même inspiré de la chanson de lutte des ouvrières des rizières de la Vallée du Pô Bella ciao : « La Casa Del Mouradia » , Ouled El Bahja. نقولوا جازت، حشاوهانلا بالعشرية » « Le premier {mandat}, on dira qu’il est passé. Ils nous ont eu avec la décennie {noire} فالثانية الحكاية بانت "La Casa Del Mouradia » Au deuxième, l’histoire est devenue claire, La Casa d’El Mouradia {= commune à Alger} فالثالثة البلاد شيانت مالمصالح الشخصية Au troisième, le pays s’est amaigri. À cause des intérêts personnels « فالرابعة البوبية ماتت، ومازالت القضية Au quatrième, la poupée est morte… Mais l’affaire suit son cours ». Via le mouvement de protestation du Hirak sont nés au sein de la société algérienne des artistes qui ont su puiser dans leur inspiration de quoi servir la cause de la dénonciation. Le mouvement s’est présenté pour chaque algérienne et chaque algérien comme une véritable occasion de développer une fibre artistique jusque-là peu encouragée. C’est par exemple le cas de Liasmine Fodil, habitante de la ville de Tizi Ouzou, qui a vu dans le mouvement du Hirak l’occasion de se reconvertir en photographe, afin d’être d’une utilité à la communauté des insurgés. Elle expliquait il y a quelques mois son choix au média Web Arts Résistances par un devoir d’information et de mémoire envers les futures générations : « Je sentais que c’était urgent de dire que ça se passait partout et pas seulement dans la capitale. {…} Dans quelques années nos photos seront des archives, elles montreront comment des citoyens anonymes se sont mobilisés » . Parmi les talents méconnus révélés par le Hirak, on retrouve également Mohamed Kechacha, chanteur de chaâbi: un genre musical algérois. Ce dernier s’est fait connaître par son vidéo-clip intitulé 1000 milliards , en référence aux rentes pétrolières du pays. Enfin, et surtout, la foule en elle-même a constitué un corps d’artistes à l’unicité foisonnante. Par la création de chants et de slogans, de pancartes, de danses, ou encore de peintures : de semaine en semaine, l’expression artistique a su se développer au fur et à mesure que le mouvement évoluait. En parallèle à ce foisonnement de nouvelles voix artistiques du Hirak, des artistes algériens affirmés de plus longue date ont su faire de leur art un instrument en faveur de la lutte pour la liberté et la démocratie en Algérie. C’est ainsi qu’en 2019, dans son célèbre titre intitulé « Liberté », le rappeur Soolking chantait le ras-le-bol des algériens envers le caractère sans issue de leur système politique. Il a fait de son morceau une véritable ode à la liberté, à laquelle il aspire pour l’Algérie. Mais impossible d’évoquer la combinaison du mouvement de contestation du Hirak avec l’art sans avoir une pensée particulière pour les caricaturistes. Sous le ton de l’humour, ces derniers ne manquent jamais d’exposer leur point de vue et de partager avec les Algériens des dessins de presse toujours plus engagés. De cette manière, des dessinateurs de presse comme Le Hic, Nime, Dilem ou encore Slim, en n’ayant de cesse de mêler art, humour, et conscience politique, se sont érigés en véritables symboles d’une autodérision voilant à peine un sens profond. Un phénomène enraciné Bien qu’il ait connu un essoufflement particulièrement important avec l’épisode sanglant de la décennie noire, il serait erroné de croire que l’art engagé était inexistant avant sa montée en puissance au moment du Hirak. On a en effet tendance à oublier que ce dernier a joué un rôle considérable dans la construction et la consolidation de l’identité nationale algérienne dans la période 1952-1970. Face à ce constat, l’historienne Anissa Bouayed, dans son ouvrage L’art et l’Algérie insurgée. Les traces de l’épreuve : 1954-1962, s’est donné pour mission de traiter la Guerre d’Algérie à partir des productions artistiques de peintres internationaux et algériens. De Issiakhem, à Khadda tout en passant par Fares, l’autrice de ce livre d’art particulièrement novateur tend à expliquer que «l’’œuvre est sans doute au-delà de toute catégorie englobante. Elle rend compte dans un condensé fulgurant, des positions critiques majeures contre la guerre, et des aspirations à la liberté, à la fois en dénonçant la torture dans plusieurs tableaux et en représentant les manifestations algériennes » . Une menace de censure qui demeure Le 16 décembre 2019, l’artiste bédéiste Nime a été condamné à un an d’emprisonnement pour ses dessins politiques. Le 10 août 2020, c’est le journaliste et activiste Khaled Drareni qui a été condamné à trois années de prison ferme pour des activités liées à son métier. Plus récemment, le 4 janvier 2021, le jeune artiste Walid Kechida a été à son tour condamné à trois ans de prison ferme. Pas plus tard que dans son rapport annuel 2021-2022, l’organisation de défense des droits de l’Homme Amnesty International dénonçait l’arrestation et la détention de « centaines de militants politiques et de la société civile, ainsi que des journalistes, simplement parce qu’ils avaient exprimé leur opinion ou fait leur travail » . La liberté d’expression se voit alors particulièrement menacée en Algérie ces dernières années et les artistes n’en sont pas moins épargnés. Aujourd’hui encore, l’art, parce qu’il est un instrument de contestation pacifique qui revêt une efficacité prouvée, est un objet soumis à une menace de musèlement que la population algérienne n’a de cesse de défier.

“If you want to eliminate values from past societies, you have to eliminate the artists.”, reflects Prince Norodom Sirivudh of Cambodia, in the 2014 documentary “Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll”, recounting the systematic erasure of music from Cambodian society under the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. < Back “When They Tell You to Sing, You Just Sing.”: The Khmer Rouge’s Musical Manipulation of Cambodian Society Loowit Morrison November 10, 2025 “If you want to eliminate values from past societies, you have to eliminate the artists.”, reflects Prince Norodom Sirivudh of Cambodia, in the 2014 documentary “Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll”, recounting the systematic erasure of music from Cambodian society under the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. “[A]rtists are influential. Artists are close to the people,” says Sirivudh. Music is inherently political, used for centuries as a mechanism of control and mobilization. Throughout history, music has shaped public opinion and regime legitimacy by both producing and limiting access to music. From 1955 until 1975, Cambodia’s music experienced what is known as its “Golden Era.” Thanks to increasing global communication, the rise of clubs, bars and nightclubs, and the United States’ Armed Forces’ radio , Cambodian music became infused with Western, Latin and Afro-Cuban pop influences, creating a distinct style of modern music. Traditional Cambodian styles were electrified; garage and surf rock took root in Cambodia’s art scene. Stars such as Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Sereysothea and Pan Ron gained massive popularity. Cambodia’s musical backbone was not only thriving — it was vital to the nation’s social life. A mere 17 years after gaining independence from France, Cambodia entered into a period of civil war. In 1970, an American-backed coup ousted Prince Norodom Sihanouk’s regime as part of their larger war against communism. Sihanouk fled to Beijing, becoming a figurehead for the rising Khmer Rouge, a group of communist insurgents. The years that followed were marked by tensions between communist guerrilla fighters and Lon Nol’s anti-communist government. 1973 saw massive devastation at the hands of U.S. bombardment. The civil war came to an end in April 1975, when Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge toppled Lon Nol’s government and seized the capital, Phnom Penh. 1975 was declared “Year Zero” by Pol Pot’s regime and the country was renamed “Democratic Kampuchea”. The regime, stretching from 1975–1979, was marked by a radical strategy of agrarian communism and strict isolation. Civil and property rights, religious practice and Western influence were completely eradicated, and urban citizens were forced into the countryside to labor in agricultural projects. Any intellectuals, artists or elites were sent to work or killed. Cambodian society was effectively “decapitated.” As part of the eradication of artists, musicians were among the first targets of the Khmer Rouge. All music, other than propaganda of the Khmer Rouge, was banned in an effort to eliminate “old” identities linked to Western culture. At the time, Cambodian musical culture was deeply influenced by the French colonial period, beginning in the 19th century. French colonizers brought Western instruments and genres to Cambodia, infusing Cambodian music with Western designs. The Khmer Rouge, in opposition to anything Western, sought to destroy this Westernized musical identity and create a “new,” yet staunchly traditional, Khmer identity. Although the majority of existing music and musicians were destroyed by Pol Pot’s regime, part of the strategy to mobilize the new Khmer identity was through music. The Khmer Rouge’s re-education program rearranged traditional hymns and melodies, such as basak and mohori , to serve their ideologies and push forth the new agrarian society. Despite the fact that most musicians were targeted in the regime’s early days, others were recruited by the Khmer Rouge to serve as regime musicians. Touch Chhatta recounts that the only “reason I survived was because I knew how to play music.” Chhatta was enlisted by the Khmer Rouge to serve in a band that played at meetings, at which music was played with only traditional instruments, including the khim , tro , and takhe . Chhatta describes that at the beginning of the regime, he purposefully memorized the propaganda music, maximizing his utility to the regime and thus his chances of survival. Children were also recruited by the Khmer Rouge as musicians. “We were like a blank piece of paper. When they tell you to sing, you just sing,” describes Chhom Charvin, who was a child singer under the regime. Easily persuaded and indoctrinated, children were the perfect candidates for the Khmer Rouge’s new musical strategy. “Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll” presents footage of the Khmer Rouge’s child singers in a performance, reenacting farmers, chanting “the day is hot and dry / smoke is coming from the earth / but we can take it / we are resilient / we serve Angkar until results are produced.” Undying loyalty to serving the new, agricultural and communist state is conveyed curtly through lyrics, fashioning a new emblem for the nation of the laboring and nationalistic child. Music was also used as a mobilizing tool. Thida Buth, who was a child during the regime, remembers that in the work camps, the national anthem would blare over the speakers each morning, at 4am. The first lyrics are “the bright red blood spilled in the lands of kampuchea / our motherland / the blood of our good workers and farmers / of our revolutionary soldiers / of both men and women / we will make our Motherland / the most prosperous, magnificent, wonderful!”. Every day in the Democratic Kampuchea began with music -– propaganda music. Music which was manufactured specifically to promote the idea of a new nation. The musical construction of Democratic Kampuchea contains a dual nature: one of radical return to tradition yet a complete transformation of society. The Khmer Rouge attempted to erase the existing musical culture in Cambodia while simultaneously promoting a musical culture that was ‘traditional’, thus blurring the line between “new” and “old”. This phenomenon highlights the contradictory nature of the Khmer Rouge regime, which attempted to use old, traditional Khmer music to promote a new, revolutionized identity, which in and of itself reflected a traditional past. Whether restoring an “old” or creating a “new” identity, it is clear that music was a critical tool employed by the Khmer Rouge to carry out their transformation of society. Despite the supposed “eradication” of music in Democratic Kampuchea, it was frequently mobilized by the Khmer Rouge to legitimize their regime and build the foundation of a new national identity. Music, as any form of art, is fundamental to the skeleton of society. Music transmits values, histories and identities; its mobilization by elites in society has the power to structurally, radically reshape what a country is, how it functions and what it stands for. Despite the weaponization of music by Pol Pot’s regime, when the Khmer Rouge fell on January 7, 1979, music was what revived Cambodian society. Sieng Vanthy, a Cambodian singer, was one of the first to return to the capital city of Phnom Penh, which had been emptied at the start of the regime. With much of the nation hesitant to return to the city, Vanthy describes that she sang “Oh, Phnom Penh” on the radio, in an attempt to reassure the displaced that it was safe to return. “Oh, Phnom Penh” seeps with yearning, nostalgia and memories of a place once called home. The first lyrics state, “Oh, Phnom Penh / For three years / I never stopped missing you / We were separated / and my heart was broken.”, and later, the song says, “the Cambodian soul lives on / Oh, Phnom Penh / I meet you again.” While music may have been a tool of manipulation in the Khmer Rouge regime, it was also a unifying factor. Music is what brought Cambodians back together to collectively rebuild their nation physically and culturally. In spite of their efforts, the Khmer Rouge was not able to abolish the musical roots that run through Cambodia. Music continues to flourish, decades after the country was musically sanitized. Dengue Fever, a band formed in the U.S. in 2001, brought Cambodian music back to the global forefront. Lauren Yee’s 2016 play, “Cambodian Rock Band,” recounts the story of a Cambodian American woman and her father, a survivor of the genocide, exploring a history of music and memory. The revival of music in Cambodia is a testament to the nation’s ability to overcome a difficult past and to their cultural resilience. Photo Source: Emile Gsell, Picryl

The chilliing news about Ukraine, struck me – I felt that I wanted to discuss the situation with others from our campus, and inform those who were less up to date with the events leading up to the invasion. Half an hour after I woke up, the group chat was born. < Back How Students Are Keeping Up With Ukraine By Markus Vaher March 30, 2022 A Student Perspective on the Russo-Ukrainian War Estonian second year student, Markus Vaher, created a group chat following the Ukrainian invasion, in which students share information and updates. In five responses, he sums up his experience. 1. Why did you create the Ukraine group chat? What is the purpose? The day that the war broke out was very cloudy and depressing here in Menton. I remember waking up in the early morning, way before my alarm. The war had started a mere two hours earlier, but my parents and close friends had already texted me. Just a few minutes later, I found myself plunging into the news, making coffee and breakfast on the side. What I was seeing really struck me differently. I felt that I wanted to discuss the situation with others from our campus, and perhaps inform those who were less up to date with the events that have taken place in Ukraine in the last decade. Half an hour after I waken up, the group chat was born. 2. How have you been following the invasion so closely? Are there any apps or sources you would recommend? Following a live war from a distance is always quite exhausting, it is very emotionally draining. It takes up a lot of your time, and distracts you from whatever else you might be doing. But if it matters to you, then you will keep following the events. My sources vary quite a bit. In a large part, especially for information about battles and bombings, I follow Ukrainian Telegram channels like the Kyiv Independent, Политика страны, Украина сейчас, and Киев сейчас. For information about Russian and Belarussian internal opposition, NEXTA Live and Осторожно новости are quite good. A lot of information also comes through Estonian media and the Estonian Council of Foreign Relations, of which I am a member. And Twitter, of course, but as a source it is not very reliable. 3. As an Estonian, how do you feel about the safety and security of your country and family? How does being Estonian impact your perception of the invasion? 24 February, the day that the war started, was also Estonia’s 104th independence day. The speeches and celebrations that day took on a very different, darker tone. Our people remember history. We remember the battles, the killings, the deportations and carpet-bombings of World War II. We remember - my parents from first-hand experience - the silent terror of the [Russian] occupation [of Estonia]. So, of course, the symbolic meaning of this conflict is very deep for us. We remember how our people, language, and culture were being erased, and we are now seeing a revived attempt at that. I have never stepped foot in Ukraine, but we have a lot of common historical experiences with the Ukrainian people. Today, I do not see a direct threat to the safety of my friends and family. Our country is a highly committed member of NATO and the EU, our society is heavily opposed to any form of Russian domination and influence. Compared to an attack on Ukraine, an attack on Estonia would be even more costly for Putin’s regime. We have already proved this with the level of military support we are offering to Ukraine: proportionally to population size, Estonia has provided the largest amount of military aid of any country, and in absolute terms, we are in third place after the United States and the United Kingdom. 4. What do you think has motivated Putin? Do you think he has an upper hand? For a long time I was skeptical about the narrative that Putin just wants to rebuild a Russian empire in the former territory of the Soviet Union, perhaps because I expected him to be more rational. Since the war started, however, I have begun to give more credit to this view of him as an imperialist. After all - attacking Ukraine was a very high risk, but low reward endeavour. And he still went for it. I do not think he has an upper hand, however. As of my writing this article [March 28, 2022], the war on the ground has come to a stalemate, whilst Putin is losing on the information and economic fronts. He has won very little so far, and even if he can drag the conflict out, there is little for him to gain. On a more personal level, he seems to have lost a large part of the legacy he sought to make for himself. Even the judo belt was taken away. There is an important historical comparison. When Poland was attacked by Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939, it took the invading forces 36 days to occupy the country. It seems highly likely that Ukraine will pass that mark, albeit at a great cost to human lives. Yet it is nowhere close to losing the war. The question is whether Ukrainians can win back their land. 5. What have been the biggest outcomes and challenges of the war thus far? Do you see these persisting? How do you feel about the international response? The biggest positive outcome is that Ukrainian society has been reoriented toward the West. If Ukrainians and Russians might have gotten along well a decade ago, the animosity between them, between normal, everyday people, has grown very large. And so Ukrainian unity and commitment to Western values have never been as large as today. After all, Ukrainians are the only people who have died fighting under the European flag. The biggest negative outcome is, obviously, the cost in human lives and livelihoods. This war has already resulted in more than a thousand civilian deaths, including the confirmed bombings of three hospitals and nine schools. There are up to four million people that have left the country, just as many have been displaced within. It is very hard to tell today how the health and well-being of these people can be ensured, or how they could safely return to their homes in a relatively short time-frame. A lot has been done, but nonetheless the international response should be stronger, especially regarding a lot of low-risk measures, such as humanitarian aid, military intelligence sharing, limiting Russian disinformation, and working on ending the European dependence on Russian fossil fuels. The slow response in many of these areas is perhaps behind technical challenges that the public is not aware of. But in other cases it might be a lack of political will or real commitment. The proposal of a NATO-backed no-fly zone, however, is a technical question. Too often, it is seen as a symbolic or diplomatic question rather than a purely military one, but at the end of the day, it is the military calculus that matters. As of now, it is unlikely it will ever be established.

Une rue commerçante bondée, un cri de détresse surgit. Pourtant, personne ne réagit. Cette situation hypothétique avec des comportements à première vue impensables est une réalité bien plus répandue que l'on ne le croit. < Back Le silence de la foule : comprendre l'effet spectateur Elsa Uzan September 26, 2025 Une rue commerçante bondée, un cri de détresse surgit. Pourtant, personne ne réagit. Cette situation hypothétique avec des comportements à première vue impensables est une réalité bien plus répandue que l'on ne le croit. Cela est causé par l'effet spectateur, un effet psychologique qui pousse les spectateurs d'une situation nécessitant une aide extérieure à ne pas agir. Ce phénomène est provoqué par le nombre important de témoins, de spectateurs de la scène. L'effet est théorisé par deux psychologues sociaux américains, John Darley et Bibb Latané, à la fin des années 1960, en utilisant le cas de Kitty Genovese pour proposer leur concept. Catherine dite « Kitty » Genovese est une jeune femme de 28 ans employée dans un restaurant new-yorkais. Le 13 mars 1964 , alors qu’elle rentre à son domicile situé dans le Queens après son service, elle réalise que quelqu'un la suit. Elle se dirige alors vers une borne d’urgence pour alerter les autorités. L’inconnu la rattrape et la poignarde de deux coups de couteau. Kitty hurle de douleur, un voisin crie par la fenêtre et l'agresseur prend la fuite. La jeune femme agonise pendant d’interminables minutes, réveillant plusieurs habitants du quartier. Personne ne lui vient en aide: elle arrive tant bien que mal à se déplacer dans un hall d’immeuble. L'agresseur revient pour la liquider: de neuf coups de couteaux, il lacère sa poitrine et son estomac. Il la viole et lui dérobe tous ses effets personnels. Les secours arrivent finalement trop tard : Kitty Genovese a déjà succombé à ses blessures. Ce qui est frappant et symptomatique dans cette affaire, c'est l’indifférence totale dans laquelle Kitty Genovese est décédée. La police fait état de 38 témoins directs ou indirects, de la détresse et l’agonie de la jeune femme. Témoins qui n’ont bien évidemment à aucun moment porté secours à la jeune femme. Certains affirment à l’instar de Catherine Pelonero , journaliste que “C'est un nombre aléatoire. Des gens ont sûrement vu des choses et ont refusé de le dire. Le chiffre de trente-huit est sûrement plus élevé en réalité.” En effet, ce chiffre a été déterminé de manière entièrement arbitraire et sous-estimerait le nombre avéré de témoins. Cette affaire a permis, outre la conceptualisation de l’effet spectateur en 1968, l’accélération de la mise en place du 911 à la fin de la décennie—un numéro unique qui permet d’alerter les secours et les autorités. Les psychologues sociaux vont ainsi essayer de déterminer ce qui cause cette inaction totale des témoins dans une situation nécessitant pourtant une intervention immédiate. John Darley et Bibb Latané distinguent trois processus différents qui expliquent cette absence d’aide. Le premier est l’influence sociale : dans des situations ambiguës, le spectateur va tout d’abord observer les réactions des autres témoins afin de décider s’il a bien compris celle-ci. Cela résulte en une inaction—au moins pendant un certain temps—qui peut se poursuivre en cas de multiplication de ce comportement. Le second processus à l'œuvre est celui de l’appréhension de l’évaluation : le spectateur va, à l’échelle individuelle, prendre le risque de se tromper devant les autres témoins. Ce risque s’accompagne d’une crainte importante du jugement que les autres portent sur notre propre comportement. Cela entraîne ainsi une inaction du spectateur, l’appréhension du regard des autres prenant le pas sur la volonté de prendre un risque et donc d’aider la personne victime de la situation. Enfin Darley et Latané mettent en avant un troisième élément, celui de la diffusion de la responsabilité : dans une situation où il n’y a qu’un seul témoin, l'individu se sent en quelque sorte obligé d’agir étant donné qu’il est le seul à pouvoir le faire. Toutefois lorsque le nombre de témoins augmente, une dilution de la responsabilité se met en place: le spectateur se demande ainsi pourquoi devrait-il être le ou la seul(e) à agir ? On assiste à une forte répartition de la responsabilité dès que le spectateur est conscient de la présence d’autres témoins: l’inaction devient ainsi l’option privilégiée. L’effet spectateur est un phénomène qui a été constaté de nombreuses fois depuis sa théorisation en 1968. Le meurtre d’Iryna Zarutska fin août 2025, une jeune réfugiée ukrainienne à Charlotte, une ville de la côte Est des États Unis en est un exemple. Dans le métro la jeune femme s’installe en face d’un siège occupé par un homme. Ce dernier se lève brusquement, poignarde Iryna et sort de la rame. Elle perd connaissance et s'écroule sur elle-même. La jeune femme décède alors en l’espace de quelques minutes. Les autres passagers semblent indifférents au sort de la jeune fille: il faudra attendre plus d’une minute pour que quelqu’un aille la voir. Malgré l'identification il y a près de 50 ans du phénomène, il demeure bien présent dans nos sociétés. Une question demeure: est-il possible de lutter de quelque manière que ce soit contre cet effet ? Peut-il tout du moins être atténué ? Il existe plusieurs situations où l’effet spectateur ne rentre pas en jeu. Tout d’abord, les spectateurs peuvent agir lorsqu’ils se sentent concernés par les conséquences de la situation ou l’action elle-même. Cela a pu être mis en évidence avec l’expérience de l’escabeau: une chercheuse se blessait en tombant d’un escabeau. Une seule exception demeure avec ce test: les élèves infirmières intervenaient de manière constante, qu'elles soient seules ou en groupe. Leur formation leur permettait donc d’intervenir sans subir les processus habituellement à l'œuvre avec l’effet spectateur. Le phénomène peut également être atténué lorsque les individus sont amis, l’appréhension de l’évaluation est moins forte et permet aux témoins d’intervenir, non pas à une échelle individuelle mais en tant que groupe. L’effet spectateur est donc un problème social contre lequel il faut lutter en citoyens informés. La sensibilisation est le premier pas à faire pour atténuer les effets nocifs du phénomène. Elle passe tout d'abord par un effort personnel de documentation sur des articles de recherche (notamment celui de Bibb et de Latané). Des actions concrètes peuvent être également envisagées comme des cours de premier secours, ou des campagnes de sensibilisation. S' informer ne se réduit pas à une pratique passive mais aussi à une pratique active de la vie quotidienne. Faire le premier pas vers la victime devient dans ce sens un réflexe: cela permet non seulement d’apporter une aide immédiate, mais aussi de réduire voire d’éliminer le phénomène. Photo Source: Pedro Fait de La Photo, Flickr

This holiday season make sure to prepare these sweet, sweet treats with a bucket-load of love for those you appreciate, which of course, means first and foremost, yourself! < Back Sweet, Sweet Love: Desserts to Prepare During this Holiday Season By Angela Saab Saade December 31, 2022 Fellow Sciences Pistes, in the spirit of festivities, love and joy, allow me to share with you a cherished moment dear to my heart that I experienced just this month. As I was procrastinating revising for my final exams by aimlessly scrolling through social media, my lovely roommate knocked on my door and replenished my taste buds with the delicious scent of apple crumble, escorted into my room with a side of vanilla ice cream. Kindly take the time to place yourselves in my shoes to be properly immersed in the experience. The degree of warmth and love I felt in that particular moment is one I cannot describe in words. Though, I could assume that “heavenly” was the closest description of my experience devouring my plate of apple crumble. Although you may unfortunately not have incredibly sweet and supportive roommates as I thankfully do, I hope to indirectly shower you with warmth and love by equipping you with the recipe of the apple crumble that made this entire heart-warming story amid a cold and rainy night possible. Given that I was not the one to bake or come up with the recipe of the hour, the apple crumble recipe provided to you today will be taken from multiple online sources and tailored to replicate exactly the plate prepared by my roommate, which involved some of her creativity and choice of recipe modifications. Further, to make up for this circumstantial exception, which is alien to the regular character of my articles — usually based on my personal knowledge and experiences — I will also bestow upon you the recipe for my own Bomb Dessert. This holiday season, make sure to prepare these sweet, sweet treats with a bucket-load of love for those you appreciate, which of course, means, first and foremost, yourself! Apple Crumble Heaven This recipe includes the filling, the crumble and the topping. Begin by preheating your oven at one hundred and eighty degrees Celsius. For the filling: Chop seven medium-sized apples into small cubes and toss them in a bowl. Add two tablespoons of white sugar, one tablespoon of all-purpose flour and half a tablespoon of ground cinnamon. Mix everything well. Butter a baking pan and add the mixture. Flatten it using your hands or a spoon to create a smooth base for your crumble. For the crumble: Sift two cups of flour into a bowl. Add a cup of brown or white sugar, a pinch of salt and half a teaspoon of baking powder. Add half a cup (or one hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty-five grams) of melted unsalted butter onto your dry ingredients and mix them all using your hands to make sure you break any big pieces and reach a “moist bread crumbs-like” consistency. Pour your crumb mix over your apples in the pan. For the topping: Sprinkle a cup of rolled oats and your choice of nuts onto the crumble. Lastly, place your pan in the oven for thirty to forty minutes. To know when to take the pan out, insert a small knife into your apple crumble. You should look for soft apples and a golden top as your queues. Serve with vanilla ice cream and bon appetit! Bomb Dessert With no more than forty-five seconds of preparation and forty-five seconds in the microwave, this Bomb Dessert will satisfy any sweet craving. It involves two base ingredients: marshmallows and chocolate. The recommended toppings are whipped cream and ice cream. You could also add anything from walnuts and almonds to oatmeal, and, for an ultimate bomb experience, Oreos, M & M’s, and — my personal favorite — peanut butter and chocolate chips. You do you. Place a handful of marshmallows into a bowl. Top them with pieces of chocolate, choosing the chocolate-marshmallow ratio that satisfies your taste. Place the bowl in the microwave, set the timer for forty-five seconds, et voilà! Take the bowl out and add whatever toppings you like. You can thank me later.

You can love them; you can hate them; you can claim that you’re above them and so much better than others for not enjoying them. But, in reality, we all have things to learn from Reality TV. The way we choose to portray our “realities” to the world, and more specifically to the West, tells a lot about the extent to which countries stand with our values. < Back The Real Eastern Question: Reality TV and Soap Operas Melissa Çevikel November 30, 2024 As a reality show fan, I often find myself questioning why I, and many others, who seemingly had nothing to do with these, were so invested in white Americans searching for love on low-production online television platforms. But, after my recent discovery of “Love is Blind Habibi,” I was able to look at reality television from a completely new perspective. “Love is Blind Habibi” is a self-proclaimed “social experiment” reality show where a total of twenty participants (ten men and ten women) communicate with each other inside “pods”—rooms with walls separating the two participants from each other—until they eventually decide to take the next step and get married. The participants have ten days in the pods to choose the person they wish to marry, and around three weeks until their marriage ceremony to split between a “honeymoon retreat” and their actual lives. Up to this point, there is nothing differentiating Love is Blind Habibi from any of its other adaptations around the world,such as Sweden, UK, Brazil and Japan. However, beyond the technical aspects of the work, there are things as simple as the mannerisms of the participants and the hosts that make the viewer feel captivated. The show presents participants—or actors—from all around the Arab world that live seemingly similar lives but each possess very different characteristics. For example, there is the character of Simo, who is a retail business owner, and can only marry a Moroccan woman, later dumps his match because he believes she can’t handle him. There is also Chafic, an entrepreneur who proudly stated in an interview, “I've been single because I was too focused on looks, but looks fade and personality stays ” yet realized that his second option from the pods was an Instagram model he once hit up. He then introduced the viewer to a stereotypical model of Middle Eastern men that is funny yet familiar to ordinary people in their day-to-day lives. While Love is Blind Habibi possesses the element of relatability that no other Love is Blind had arguably captured before, with mothers and aunties giving advice being a key point in the show progression, it also made me wonder (as someone who grew up at the prime of Turkish reality shows) if all Middle Eastern show adaptations were as successful at getting the same feeling across, or if most just felt forced and phony? One of the first very unsuccessful—and henceforth generally unknown—attempts of adaptations that came to mind was Turkey’s recent take this summer on “Love Island,” named (and directly translated to) “Aşk Adası.” At first glance, Aşk Adası may seem like just a very low-budget reality show filmed at a villa which is being framed as a luxury island gateway retreat. But upon closer inspection, the viewers can come to realize that the show is much more than that. If one can get past how bad the production truly is, the first thing any experienced Middle Eastern reality media enjoyer will notice is how oddly everyone is dressed in comparison to the location where the show is filmed, where the actors are dressed in clothes that would not be found in a piece of Turkish media especially under the censorship of RTÜK, which will be discussed later. Compared to Aşk Adası, Love is Blind Habibi has nothing to prove to the world. It lays out before the viewers eyes the naked reality of toxic masculinity, conservatism and family ties in the Middle East. Aşk Adası, on the other hand, seems like a very forced portrayal of Turks as— surely in the eyes of the producer—modern and European. Every ten minutes or so, the viewer is faced with a very forced “sexual tension” scene, which is most likely as difficult to watch for the viewer as it is to act, as the actors look very uncomfortable throughout the entire show. However, forceful over-sexualization and objectification of women in the show are not new to Western media, and the Turkish media has not shied away from this either. While these aspects are also the main catchpoints of popular U.S shows such as “Too Hot to Handle” and “Perfect Match,” the fact that they’re higher production and that they’re owning up to this reality distracts viewers from its flaws. Though Turkey’s attempt to move away from its conservative connotation is noticeable, doing this through oversexualization of women disregards the long history of women’s rights movements in the country, especially when looked in the context of the country's recent struggles on the topic. Not to mention these attempts will not prove to be successful as long as there remains a very strict inspecting body for Turkish media (RTÜK). An example of a good Turkish reality show, however, would be “Kısmetse Olur” (2015) which translates to “If it’s Fate, it will Happen.” While I’m not sure if it was because of itsmid-2010s production or the randomness of its cast selection—which ranged from American men posing as machos to women claiming to be “ivent” (a new translation of the word “event” that emerged during the peak of the profession) organizers— there was something that made this show feel excessively Turkish. It was the only reality show which, in my opinion, is qualified to label itself as a “social experiment.” It revealed to the viewers the worlds of early 2010s bachelors and bachelorettes, how they spent their days, and how relatable their simple lives were. In 2022, the show made a comeback with a modern-day adaptation titled “If it’s Fate, it will Happen: The Power of Love” (Kısmetse Olur: Aşkın Gücü), with a first season that didn’t disappoint either. The 2015 version was a reign of personal trainers and event organizers as well as aspiring fashion designers, while the 2022 version showed a range of influencers, singers and entrepreneurs (unemployed). It perfectly portrayed the new generation of bachelor Turks we saw around ourselves and maybe even personally knew, despite being painfully obviously scripted. 2017 marked a very saddening legal decision for reality show enjoyers when marriage programmes were banned in Turkey. This was a rare moment when media censorship, in fact, breeded innovation, and the world got introduced to a very colorful selection of newly produced soap operas. If the West had reality shows and nudity, the East now had one thousand-episode-long plotlines and adaptations where no LGBTQ+ got to see the light of day. Erkenci Kuş, Sen Çal Kapımı and Aşk-ı Memnu are just a few of original soap operas produced around this time. And though cliches were one of the strongest points of these works, there were also many adaptations from Western media such as Grey’s Anatomy (Doktorlar), the O.C (Medcezir), Gossip Girl (Küçük Sırlar) and Desperate Housewives (Umutsuz Ev Kadınları). These received more international attention than they did locally, but were still enjoyed by the Turkish viewers. More recently, screen adaptations of prominent Turkish literature themes from the late 19th and early 20th century novels, such as Westernization versus traditionalism, became a big hit for screenwriters. One of the most viewed Turkish TV series currently, titled “Kızılcık Şerbeti” follows the life of a young woman, Doğa, from a “modern and Western” family who, after becoming pregnant, has to get married to the father of the child, Fatih, coming from a religious and conservative background. The series follows funny and unfortunate events Doğa has to face living in a new environment and her culture shock. Despite how simple and uneventful it sounds, this is arguably the most progressive piece of media recently created in Turkey and it still seems unbelievable that it is able to air despite its scandalous and caricature-like portrayal of such topics in the country. Though these might be helpful in encouraging everyone to take a step back and realize how silly such differences are, many pieces of media aiming to achieve what Kızılcık Şerbeti has done were criticized for promoting abuse culture. Unfortunately, abuse and violence are staple plotlines in soap operas, and despite popular belief that they aid in raising awareness, they counterproductively normalize cycles of marital abuse often lived out in Turkish households. You can love them; you can hate them; you can claim that you’re above them and so much better than others for not enjoying them. But, in reality, we all have things to learn from Reality TV. The way we choose to portray our “realities” to the world, and more specifically to the West, tells a lot about the extent to which countries stand with our values. Love is Blind Habibi showed that one does not have to appeal to Eurocentric values to be enjoyed by viewers outside of Arab states. Turkish adaptations of Western soap operas, on the other hand, showed where they chose to draw the line with Westernization.

How the repatriation of 17,000 ancient objects can restore collective memory in a war torn country. < Back From Hobby Lobby to Iraq: The Historic Repatriation of Ancient Objects Restores Collective Memory By Lara-Nour Walton October 30, 2021 You may think that the connection between the craft store chain, Hobby Lobby, and the ancient Mesopotamian Gilgamesh Tablet could be tenuous at best. But you would be mistaken. In 2017, the Evangelical Christian owner of Hobby Lobby, Steve Green, opened the Museum of the Bible, a project that seeks to document the history of the Holy Book. Up until recently, many of the institution’s collections featured ancient Near Eastern art with questionable provenance. In 2010, Hobby Lobby combatted smuggling allegations after sneaking clay cuneiform slabs and seals (falsely labeled as Turkish tiles) into the United States. Green was warned prior to the purchase of these artifacts that they were most likely unlawfully looted from Iraqi historical sites. However, this warning went unheeded and Hobby Lobby became subject to a civil complaint. In 2019, one of the museum’s highest profile acquisitions, a fragment of the Dead Sea Scroll, was found to be a forgery. And now, the company is yet again under national scrutiny as it atones for its art-collecting sins in a major repatriation campaign. Amid power vacuums during both the Gulf War and American invasion, Iraqi museums, unexcavated caves, and monuments were looted. These thefts fueled the antiquities black market and resulted in the displacement of thousands of ancient objects. To return these objects to their motherland is, according to UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay, a triumph “over those who mutilate heritage and then traffic it to finance violence and terrorism.” But, the return of these ancient artifacts means so much more. It represents the restoration of Iraqi history and the rehabilitation of our collective memories. Since August of this year, some 17,000 looted artifacts hailing from both Museum of the Bible and Cornell University collections have been returned to Iraq. Among the restituted objects is the storied Gilgamesh Tablet whose tumultuous journey back to Iraqi soil is emblematic of the unpredictable nature of antiquities trafficking. The clay fragment that recounts an ancient Sumerian tale of a bull-slaying demigod was stolen from the Iraqi museum during the 1991 Gulf War. UNESCO reported that it was then allegedly bought by a Jordanian antiques dealer, who passed it onto a coin dealer in London. Later, it served as the centerpiece of a Museum of the Bible exhibit in Washington, D.C. before being seized by homeland security agents. Today it resides in the Baghdad Museum. For many, the return of these ancient objects is not merely about “rightful” ownership. Rather, it signifies a reunion between Iraqis, whose heritage has been subject to immense erasure over the last three decades, and their cultural pasts. U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Fareed Yasseen, described the repatriation as “a culmination of years of effort to heal Iraq’s cultural heritage wounds.” But many of these wounds cannot be mended. Several archaeologists discourage research into potentially looted objects because it deprives countries of origin from the opportunity to study the pieces themselves. However, the artifacts returned by Cornell University have been thoroughly studied without the consultation of Iraq. “We missed this great opportunity to study our tablets, our heritage,” lamented Hassan Nadhem, the Iraqi minister of culture, tourism and antiquities. “This is a kind of bitterness in our mouth.” Other wounds that emerged as a result of political instability and American neo-imperialism are manifested in the robust terrorist organizations that operate within Iraq. The destruction of Nineveh, the shameless rampaging of the Mosul Museum, and the dynamiting of centuries old Muslim and Christian shrines in recent years by the Islamic State are the most tragic cases of all. The art that was destroyed at the hands of extremists is irretrievable. Not even the repatriation of 17,000 Iraqi artifacts can restore the history that has been lost as a result of iconoclasm. The Gilgamesh tablet was returned on September 23, 2021. The repatriation was dubbed “a major victory” by UNESCO. But Hobby Lobby and Cornell’s return of these artifacts should not be viewed as a favor to Iraq or as some unforeseen joyous homecoming – it was simply a matter of national responsibility. The United States played an instrumental role in the destruction and pillaging of Iraq. During the 2003 invasion, U.S. soldiers were documented looting museums alongside disillusioned Iraqis. The de-baathification policies and America’s systematic dissolution of the Iraqi military directly led to the formation of the terrorist organizations that continue to chip away at Iraq’s already-dwindling cultural heritage. However, when news of repatriation campaigns hit media outlets, or when black clad men defacing lamassus appear on American television screens, it seems so far, as if the U.S. had nothing to do with the displacement of Iraqi objects or the subsequent defacement of ancient artifacts. But this is to be expected. Scholar Hamid Dabashi once said: “imperial cultures thrive on their intentional amnesia.” His words ring true as the U.S. feigns blamelessness, incredulity, or even sympathy when acknowledging the conflict in Iraq — a conflict that rages on as an immediate result of American disregard for the histories of other nations. Thus, it is art, the fight for its repatriation and its mere existence, that helps create the framework for collective memory. It is art that is the ultimate antidote to an empire’s amnesia.

The Menton Times is the independent student newspaper of the Paris Institute of Political Studies, Menton campus. We Watch, We Feel, We Scroll: Susan Sontag’s ‘Regarding the Pain of Others’ and the War in Iran Images emerge from Iran with unsettling regularity: mothers mourning their children, bodies of Iranian martyrs killed by the IRGC during the crackdown in black bags, and quasi-apocalyptic scenes of explosions in Tehran. And then, just as quickly, they disappear from collective attention. Not because the suffering ends, but because the audience moves on. This Week @ The Menton Times The Question of Palestine as a Feminist Issue Les périls de la culture compétitive dans l’éducation The Invisible Wars: Yemen, Sudan, and the Selective Outrage of the World التعليم في تونس: بين المساواة المنشودة والواقع الجندري في الصفوف الدراسية Menton's Senior Citizens Won't Bite: Go Talk to Them! Le True crime: quand l’horreur devient divertissement Eulogy to Joy The Celebration of Oppression The Reinvention of Coachella Since the beginning of the year, 2026 has been dubbed “the new 2016” across various social media platforms. Young people online seem to be yearning for a resurgence of how life was ten years ago. The rose-tinted social media filter has been revived and 2016 pop music is having its moment, with Zara Larsson’s hit “Lush Life” reentering the Billboard’s Top 100 for the first time in years. But while Coachella 2026 may have looked like Coachella 2016, it was fundamentally very different. التعليم في تونس: بين المساواة المنشودة والواقع الجندري في الصفوف الدراسية American Patriotism at the Milan Olympics in the Age of Trump Every Olympic Games opens with a patriotic parade featuring all the athletes, each team entering the stadium waving their national flag. At the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, the United States of America athlete delegation was greeted with cheers and applause. However, when the cameras cut to Vice President JD Vance in the stands, the audience’s sounds of support quickly morphed into prolonged boos and jeers. L’abolitionnisme pénal : repenser le contrôle social au-delà de la punition Dans toutes les sociétés, des règles existent pour faire tenir les individus ensemble. La question centrale est celle de leur respect : comment faire pour que ces normes soient effectivement suivies ? Historiquement, la réponse a souvent été la punition. Le système pénal moderne, à travers ses institutions – police, justice, prison – incarne cette logique : dissuader, sanctionner, réprimer les comportements jugés déviants. La prison, en particulier, s’est imposée depuis le XIXe siècle comme la peine de référence, au point de sembler aujourd’hui indissociable de l’idée même de justice. The Iranian Judicial System: Institutionalizing Fear and Repression Feature: Amnesty International Menton As mass protests continue to spread in Iran, understanding how the system of arbitrary detention is maintained is crucial in order to determine how it can be addressed. Arbitrary detention encompasses not only illegal detentions but also deprivations of liberty that, even when lawful, are disproportionate, unreasonable, or lack due process. One of the many goals that the Islamic Republic of Iran, like other states that resort to it, hopes to achieve through arbitrary detention is to silence dissenting voices. And it therefore cannot be ignored. Être élève à SciencesPo quand son pays est en guerre Interview with Lenka Králová for the International Trans Day of Visibility Feature: Menton Loves Lenka is a trans woman, an activist, a parent, a podcaster with two shows called V Tranzu and TLK–Talkshow with Lenka Králová, a person with an incredible sense of fashion, an artist, former IT developer and a new member of the Czech Pirate Party. The Invisible Wars: Yemen, Sudan, and the Selective Outrage of the World The Question of Palestine as a Feminist Issue Feature: Feminist Union War is war. No matter when it starts, where it is or who ends up carrying its weight. I’m usually the first to argue that suffering should never be compared, but in the cases of Sudan and Yemen, comparison becomes almost unavoidable. Not to decide who suffers more nor to rank tragedies, but to confront the world’s selective outrage and the chilling apathetic silence that allows some wars to disappear from collective memory. Palestine is often discussed as a geopolitical conflict. Yet it is fundamentally a feminist issue. Palestinian women face violence due to the genocide Israel is committing , seen through reproductive violence and healthcare deprivation. This leads Palestinian women to be disproportionately affected by different forms of violence fundamentally shaped by the occupation. The Celebration of Oppression To be Algerian-French means learning about your history through the voice of the colonizer. And it is more often than not immensely glorified. “When They Tell You to Sing, You Just Sing.”: The Khmer Rouge’s Musical Manipulation of Cambodian Society “If you want to eliminate values from past societies, you have to eliminate the artists.”, reflects Prince Norodom Sirivudh of Cambodia, in the 2014 documentary “Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll”, recounting the systematic erasure of music from Cambodian society under the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Points sur l’Actualité du Moyen-Orient « Le Moyen-Orient. Moyen par rapport à quoi ? Orient de quoi ? Le nom de la région est fondé sur une vision eurocentrée du monde, et cette région a été façonnée par un regard européen ». Tels sont les premiers mots figurant dans le manifeste de la géostratégie publié par Tim Marshall, spécialiste britannique des relations internationales. Prisonnier de la géographie, comme le suggère le titre de son œuvre, le Moyen-Orient l’est aussi de ses frontières tracées au gré des intérêts européens, qui l’ont enfermé dans une spirale de haines et de tensions sans fin. Les périls de la culture compétitive dans l’éducation Theres No Place Like Home I have always felt that way because “home”, to me, has always been a patchwork. There’s the place you were born, the one you grew up in, the countries tied to your heritage, and now a campus far away from everything you ever knew. Each one of them feels like “home,” but then again none of them quite do. They overlap and argue with each other—they coexist like siblings fighting over the bigger room. Vlogging Live From Kabul: The Insights and Absurdities of YouTube Conflict Tourism In the past few years, an increasing number of intrepid content creators are documenting their journeys to places of conflict. They acquire rare visas, hire local tour guides, and point iPhone cameras through the streets as they seek to capture the ‘real’ version of these countries—places whose very essence is often reduced to fearful headlines and apocalyptic imagery. This phenomenon, known as conflict tourism, ranges from visiting historically troubled areas to entering zones of active conflict, and has taken on an entirely new significance in the age of vlogging. Cocteau’s Azur: Exploring Queerness in Menton At first glance, Menton appears to be a quaint and peaceful town on the French Riviera—a place of leisure, history, and, of course, lemons. But is Menton truly as fruity as it seems? Singing through Grief – Collective Memory through Music Music has a strange sort of power; it can outlive the moments it was originally made for. You’ll Never Walk Alone has transcended Liverpool. Celtic fans sing it in Scotland, as well as Dortmund fans in Germany. It’s been sung in times of crisis—after terrorist attacks, during the pandemic and other acts of remembrance. But it will forever belong to Hillsborough first. It is sacred in the way a national anthem can become sacred, or a funeral hymn. You’ll Never Walk Alone began as a ballad of hope and then a cry for justice.

K-pop, kimchi and Samsung likely come to mind when one thinks of this small country of 52 million in East Asia. I recently traveled to the country of my heritage to rediscover the nation my family had left over half a century ago. < Back South Korea: A Colorful Nation of Contrasts By Colin Lim September 28, 2022 K-pop, kimchi and Samsung likely come to mind when one thinks of this small country of 52 million in East Asia. Similar in size to Iceland and Indiana, the Republic of Korea is perpetually dwarfed by its larger neighbors — China, Japan and Russia — and its hostile and secretive, estranged northern brother. I recently traveled to the country of my heritage to rediscover the nation my family had left over half a century ago. Then, it was an impoverished, war-torn country whose citizens faced both repression and tremendous economic growth under a series of military dictators. It was a country that, amid its post-1945 recovery from Japanese colonization, was forcefully and arbitrarily divided by outside forces with little understanding of the peninsula or its people. Today, however, as a result of the relentless development pursued after the Korean War armistice, signed in 1953, South Korea is among the most developed nations in the world and produces countless cultural exports, including K-pop, K-dramas and K-beauty. In traveling to Korea, I hoped to reconnect with my heritage and acquaint myself with the country beyond the borders of its shining megacity capital. Across Eurasia The twelve-hour flight from Warsaw to Incheon was uneventful, although the circuitous flight path that avoided Ukrainian, Russian and North Korean airspace was a poignant reminder that not everyone has the privilege of living in a peaceful country. Although I had visited South Korea before, I was still mesmerized by the endless subdivisions of plain, identical twenty-story concrete apartment buildings that dominate the skyline as I arrived at my grandfather’s apartment on the outskirts of Seoul. For lunch, we had Korean barbecue — something every visitor must experience. Seeing the ajumma (an archetypal middle-aged woman) swiftly and expertly cooking strips of samgyeopsal (pork belly) on the table’s built-in grill made me truly feel like I had arrived in Korea. The refreshing bowl of naengmyeon (icy Pyongyang-style noodle soup) that accompanied the meat provided respite from the heat and humidity. Seoul Seoul is built for efficiency, and yet, it is a city of unique contrasts. It manages to blend tradition and modernity almost seamlessly. Centuries-old Buddhist temples and royal palaces abut glass skyscrapers and congested city streets. Citizens demonstrate against their government when they are dissatisfied, while, 30 kilometers to the north, doing the exact same would consign three generations of one’s family to a lifetime of hard labor at a Soviet-style gulag. Advertisements featuring K-pop singers with flawless makeup and surgically perfected facial features overlook Seoulites as they métro-boulot-dodo and while farmers tend to their rice paddies just beyond the city limits. The Seoul metropolitan area houses 25 million residents — half the country’s population — and is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. It inundates the senses. Even as a repeat visitor, I was overwhelmed by the city’s cleanliness and efficiency, given its size. The low violent crime rates allow neighborhoods to buzz with people at all hours of the day and night. One could spend a lifetime in Seoul and still not have explored every one of its neighborhoods in depth. Sokcho: Seaside Sleepiness As a non-resident, I could not buy a ticket to Sokcho online. I showed up at the bus terminal in Seoul, clueless yet unfazed, and managed to purchase a ticket. An hour later, I was on a luxurious coach bound for Sokcho, a city on the northeastern coast of South Korea. Upon arrival, I wandered around the central market — a massive seafood and produce hub with dozens of varieties of live fish, handmade kimchi and dalgona, the saccharine toffee-like snack introduced to the outside world by “Squid Game.” I ended the day by enjoying grilled seafood and sikhye, a refreshing beverage made from rice and pine nuts, as I overlooked the sea. The pace of life was slower than Seoul’s, but it was nearly impossible to escape the urban hustle and bustle. The next day, I boarded a bus bound for Seoraksan National Park, which houses Sinheungsa, a large seventh-century Buddhist temple complex, and congregations of jagged granite peaks that jut defiantly toward the sky. The lush mountainsides and perilous vertical drops provide the perfect scenery for the 10-meter-tall bronze Buddha statue and the colorful wooden temple buildings with intricately painted eaves. When I entered the temple, it felt as if time had stopped; the only audible sounds were chirping birds, bowing Buddha-followers and streaming spring water from the temple’s granite fountain. A stone lion guards the bridge over the parched riverbed below as the unrelenting sun beats down on visitors. Busan, Boseong, and Jeonju: A Southern Adventure After a few days back in my home-base and the country’s transportation hub, Seoul, I boarded a high-speed train to Busan. Nestled in the southeastern corner of the peninsula, Busan is only 50 kilometers from Japan’s Tsushima Island. After a swift two-and-a-half-hour journey, I visited Haeundae Beach. It was a typical sandy beach, replete with families, high-rise resort hotels and palm trees. I did not linger for too long since I had gone to Korea to experience Korean culture, not Miami Beach. In pursuit of this, I headed to Jagalchi Market, the largest seafood market in the country. The utilitarian five-story building with fluorescent lighting is full of live and dried seafood, along with dozens of restaurants that prepare seafood however the customer desires. I was in a less adventurous mood, so I settled for some hearty pork bone broth soup, the regional specialty. The next day, I boarded a bus bound for Boseong, a small village along the rocky southwestern part of the peninsula. The bus exited the freeway and sped down charming country roads lined with rice paddies. The roads grew narrower and the towns smaller. Four hours after departing the seaside metropolis of Busan, I arrived at my accommodation and prepared for the next day’s journey. Boseong is renowned for its green tea; its mild climate and location along the coast supposedly create distinct aromas in the tea leaves. The green tea fields did not disappoint; dozens of rows of lime-emerald green tea tree terraces line the hillside, teeming with city-dwelling weekenders hunting for the perfect selfie spot. After having some green tea ice cream and extremely bitter tea leaves, I headed to Jeonju — a city where the authentic Korea is still proudly on display. I slept in a hanok (traditional home) in the Jeonju Hanok village — a massive collection of minimalist yet elegant wooden homes with curved roofs and handmade paper windows. The juxtaposition of the traditional houses and the modern city surrounding it are quintessentially Korean. U.S. Army Yongsan Garrison and the DMZ: A Country Divided One of the most impactful parts of my visit to South Korea was my trip to the U.S. Army’s Yongsan Garrison. The two-square kilometer facility in central Seoul served as the headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1910 to 1945. Subsequently, it housed the U.S. Army until 2018, when the American base migrated to a site outside of Seoul. Despite the garrison not being active anymore, the barbed wire and threatening signs stating “U.S. government property, no trespassing” have still not disappeared. A small residential part of the army base was open to the public. It was bizarre to see people so eager to pose for photos inside a former military base that had been off-limits to everyday Koreans for seven decades. Blackhawk Village’s rows of two-story brick townhouses, parks and a Little League baseball field enclosed by a chain-link fence were somewhat reminiscent of an American suburb. A few days later, I visited the Odusan Unification Observatory, located at the confluence of the Han and Imjin Rivers to the northwest of Seoul. Being only 2.1 kilometers from one of the most secretive countries in the world was a surreal experience. South Koreans used binoculars to catch glimpses of their brethren in the north, separated by a forgotten proxy war. Visitors took selfies on their Samsung phones and sipped on iced Americanos while gazing at the North Korean farm workers who would never be able to experience the capitalist, consumerist lifestyle of the south. As students in Menton, we cross borders regularly — be it from France to Italy or France to Monaco . But it will be decades, if not an eternity before the people of the Korean Peninsula will be able to cross the Demilitarized Zone that strangles their homeland with the same sort of relative ease and convenience. The duration of the separation — over 70 years — and the extreme disparity in development between the two countries make a German-style reunification ever less likely. Final Thoughts This trip was a sort of homecoming that was not truly a homecoming. At times, I felt at home in a country I had only visited twice before; after all, the cuisine and the traditions — and to some extent, the language — were the ones I had grown up with in cosmopolitan California. But, being told by Koreans that I am a foreigner and repeatedly experiencing people in Europe telling me that I am not really American leaves me in an uncomfortable position. Those who are part of a diasporic community are perpetual foreigners in their birth countries and ancestral lands. My mediocre Korean language skills, combined with the general dearth of English proficiency in Korea, frequently impeded communication and often elicited confused looks from locals. It took some time for me to adjust to the Korean “ppalli-ppalli” (quickly-quickly) lifestyle — a far cry from the azuréen lifestyle that blends the French “joie de vivre” and Italian “dolce far niente” philosophies. The ppalli-ppalli growth mindset caused the country to develop at a breakneck pace under military dictator Park Chung-hee’s series of five-year plans in the 1960s and 1970s. However, this same attitude, combined with a deeply ingrained Confucian hierarchy, creates the conditions for acute inequality — where the upper class lives in posh Gangnam apartments and the less well-off struggle to make ends meet. Intense academic pressure, long working hours, and dominance of the economy and government by too-big-to-fail conglomerates (chaebols) — including Samsung, LG, and Hyundai — contribute to South Korea having the highest suicide rate in the first-world. These societal dynamics were portrayed in “Parasite” (2019) and “Squid Game” (2021), and while people have a tendency to romanticize other cultures, they often fail to recognize that nowhere is perfect. The tremendous growth South Korea has experienced is incredible, and I genuinely enjoyed spending three weeks there earlier this summer. I appreciated being able to reconnect with my heritage and experiencing what several provinces had to offer. I highly recommend it to those who wish to visit Korea—you will enjoy this gem of a country. Don’t be afraid to go beyond your comfort zone, especially with food, learn some of the history before visiting and have an open mind!

Domenico Lucano was the mayor of the small Italian town, Riace. Now he is facing up to 13 years and 2 months in prison and a €700,000 fine for his lifelong devotion to the integration of migrants and refugees. < Back ‘If Humanity and Solidarity Have Become Crimes, He Is Guilty’: The Case of Dominico Luciano By Viola Luraschi November 29, 2021 On October 1, Maurizio Zavaglia started a message to his friends with “ti rispondo ora perché non ho più lacrime da cacciare fuori” — I am only answering now because I no longer have any tears in me . This message came following the events that took place in the small town of Riace, a commune of the city of Reggio Calabria, south of Italy. Since 1998 the community of Riace has been practicing what has come to be called “l’ospitalitá diffusa,” or widespread and spontaneous hospitality . The term describes the system of inclusion and integration that the community has implemented with regards to migrants and refugees; the hosting of families and individuals in the infrastructures available. In fact, one afternoon in 1988, the arrival of a boat overcrowded with Kurdish refugees first mobilized the town. The community made itself available to host the people who had abruptly arrived. For this reason, the concept of hospitality was not seen as a choice but rather as part of daily life in the town of Riace and its neighboring area. This initiative was led by Padre Giancarlo Maria Bregantini, who built all possible housing structures, and allowed Mimmo Lucano to start volunteering as a child. Zavaglia then refers to the period that followed as a time during which “no ci si é farmati” — they couldn’t stop — and for many years until 2004, they practiced “l’ospitalitá diffusa,” not only through housing but also through craft workshops that gave the refugees and migrants a chance to become involved in the community with a form of employment. Migrants and refugees were making glass utensils, ceramics, clay and textiles, and people started using Riace as a travel destination, making the town grow in numbers. In 2004, Riace became part of the system of accoglienza (hospitality) of the state, the same year Mimmo Lucano became mayor. Riace experienced a turnaround: it went from a town at a very high risk of being underpopulated, to a town that was full of life. In fact, in Riace and the contouring areas, the ‘ndragheta (organized crime specific to the region of Reggio Calabria), “il malaffare” ( ill deal ) and violence had been causing young people to flee towards other areas of Italy. As the years passed, more migrants as opposed to refugees started arriving in Riace, and with the integration of young people into the town, the school — previously at risk of being closed — was kept open. Schools and shops became areas of local development. The more Riace became known as “il luogo dell’anima e dello spirito,” or the place of the soul and the spirit , the more the place, which was previously depopulating, had a growing population of young people working for the local economy. For many, Riace stood as a symbol of hope, and potentially a new and improved life. The town became a place that housed more migrants than local citizens, and Maurizio described the older citizens coming back out onto the streets to sit and interact as a community. Statistics showed the rates of robberies, and general violence to have decreased, and the word “tranquilitá” ( tranquility ) was the one used by Maurizio to describe the town. It was not long before Riace had attracted national attention that, according to Maurizio, it started bothering some because it did not adhere to the notion that “gli immigranti rubano il lavoro,” or that migrants steal jobs ; the attacks against Riace and Mimmo Lucano began. The judiciary case that has been ongoing since 2016, when Mimmo was first arrested, came to a decision in September of this year when the sentence of 13 years and two months, along with 700,000 euros, was announced. The first degree sentence came as a shock to many as 13 years was seven more than the prosecution had asked for from the court. Judges within Italy have also disagreed with the sentence imposed on Mimmo Lucano, and it is a shared belief that the sentence was too harsh. In fact, the prosecution had asked for seven years less than what was given in the final sentence, creating dispute on the fairness of the judges and the judicial system in Italy. Journalists, magistrates and the public were all shocked by the sentence awarded. The sentence claimed that Mimmo misused public resources, these resources being 35€ awarded by the state, daily, per migrant. Mimmo believed this amount to be too much and said that hospitality could have been granted with a lot less money. Therefore, part of this budget was used for projects that he believed would better lead to the inclusion of migrants, including artisanal shops, collection of recycling, and fattorie didattiche, which is an educational program which attempts to promote a connection between the city and countryside. With this money, an oil sanctuary was also realized, and Maurizio said that, “i soldi sono stati usati per includere, no separate” — the money was used to unite, not separate . Mimmo was also accused of organizing a marriage of convenience between an Italian citizen and a refugee woman in order to help her obtain citizenship. Furthermore the accusations included a belief that he gave a four year-old an identity card. Maurizio describes Mimmo as “una persona che ha dedicato la sua vita agli altri, ai piu deboli, a chi non ha voce, a chi arriva dalle guerra, fame, poverta, a chi scappa da situazioni terribili rischiando la loro vita in mare, povera gente,” or a person who has dedicated his life to others, to those weaker, to those who have no voice, to those who come from war, hunger, poverty, to those running from terrible situations risking their life at sea, poor people . To Maurizio, Mimmo is a person who “ha dedicato la sua vita in termini di stabilità del suo nucleo familiare” — has dedicated his life in terms of familial stability . Maurizio says that Mimmo lives a spartanic lifestyle, at the limit of poverty but “é un idealista, una persona che ha sempre inseguito i valori della pace, del’egualianza, lui non ha mai commesso reati; l’unico reato commesso è il reato del’umanita” ( he is an idealist, a person who has always followed the values of peace, of equality, he has never committed any crime; the only crime committed is the crime of humanity ). Today, Riace is a community which has been bent but which wants to react, said Maurizio. Riace is not to be spoken of in the past tense, Riace is a part of the present and future. The current idea that holds the 60 people who decided to stay in Riace is that of not letting hope die. Maurizio finished the interview with this message: “Se l’umanitá e la solidarietá diventano un reato, lui è colpevole" — If humanity and solidarity have become crimes, he is guilty .

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

In January 2022, the United States Supreme Court announced that it would hear two cases, one against Harvard University and one against the University of North Carolina, seeking to ban affirmative action in university admissions. The potential end of affirmative action would dramatically transform the framework of college admissions. < Back The End of Affirmative Action? By Magdelena Offenbeck March 30, 2022 In January 2022, the United States Supreme Court announced that it would hear two cases, one against Harvard University and one against the University of North Carolina, seeking to ban affirmative action in university admissions. The conservative Supreme Court majority is likely to overturn a legacy of race consideration in college admissions. The history of race as a factor in college admissions begins in the 1960s when Harvard University announced concrete measures to increase the percentage of African American students in its cohorts. Harvard’s plan of action was then adopted by many of the major institutions for higher education in the United States. Aiming to counter the inequality caused by the history of racial segregation, the policies have effectively promoted upward social mobility and diversified cohorts at US universities. Since its implementation, affirmative action has faced criticism by those who favor admission procedures that are entirely based on academic merit. In the landmark 2003 Supreme Court case Grutter v. Bollinger , the constitutionality of affirmative action was confirmed in scenarios when race is one of many factors considered in the admission process. However, in the same year, the court declared points-based admission systems that grant extra points to minority applicants unconstitutional and contrary to the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourth Amendment. Both Harvard University and the University of North Carolina are now accused of discrimination by giving race overwhelming importance in admission procedures. The difference between the cases is that Harvard is charged with discrimination against Asians while the University of North Carolina is accused of favoring Black and Hispanic applicants. The plaintiff, Students for Fair Admissions,' argued that Harvard’s disproportional consideration of race violates the Equal Protection Clause and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The case was tried in 2018 in the state of Massachusetts but, after a 15-day bench trial in 2018, a lower court in Massachusetts found Harvard not guilty of “race balancing,” otherwise known as admission quotas for racial groups at the university. Many consider it unlikely that the Supreme Court has taken on the case to reaffirm the ruling of the state court. What would the end of affirmative action mean for university communities in the United States? Deans of Yale, Columbia, and Harvard University have spoken out against the lawsuit. In a statement released on the Columbia University website, President Lee Bollinger Broad asserted that “public awareness of the unrelenting impact of racism demands a recommitment to affirmative action, not its abandonment,” deeming affirmative action essential considering the nation’s history. He further described a ban on affirmative action as “calamitous for universities and for the ideals embodied in the Constitution.” The end of affirmative action could significantly decrease the number of Black students admitted to elite universities in the country as Black and Hispanic students have lower average standardized test scores and are subjected to structural obstacles that are not encountered by their white counterparts. However, the plaintiff argues that affirmative action comes at the expense of Asian students, who have lower chances of admission with equal or higher test scores and are consistently ranked lower on the personality scores of the admissions process. Public opinion seems to confirm the plaintiff’s view. A 2019 survey by the Pew Research Center concluded that 73% of Americans think that race should not be considered in college admissions. However, there is stratification between racial groups, with 78% of Caucasians opposed to affirmative action compared to 65% of Hispanics and 62% of Blacks. This gap persists with political leanings. While 88% of Caucasian Republicans are against the consideration of race, this number falls to 66% among Caucasian Democrats. The consideration of other factors such as legacy status, gender, or athletic ability is equally deemed inappropriate by the majority of survey participants. Therefore, the case puts into question a number of controversial admission practices, especially the elitist concept of legacy admissions. If affirmative action is found to be unconstitutional, the question of feasible alternatives arises. The benefits of diverse student cohorts in university environments and the positive effect of upward social mobility in the larger society have continually been emphasized by university administrations and the Supreme Court. Especially the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a major proponent of the policy. Yet, a similar degree of diversity could be achieved by taking into account the socio-economic background of applicants. Black and Hispanic communities are generally more socio-economically disadvantaged. According to a US government census, the median income of Black households in the United States is $28,000 and $41,000 below that of White and Asian households, respectively. The gap is slightly smaller for Hispanics. Considering household income and access to education resources would hence have similar effects on student diversity to affirmative action. This is not to deny the intersectional experience of members of the Black or Hispanic communities that face disadvantages compared to whites with a similar socioeconomic background. Rather, it acknowledges that the individuals who experience similar levels of poverty equally merit a chance in the higher education system. It further takes into consideration the racism and systemic discrimination that Asian communities are victim to, and counters stereotyping in admissions where the achievements of Asian students are not valued equally because of their ethnic background. While the official judgment will only be released in 2023, the end of affirmative action will bring changes to the framework of college admissions. However, it may not be necessary to equate this to the end of student diversity in higher education. A range of alternative tools could continue to protect the interests of socially disadvantaged students.

What really is the role of a journalist, a war journalist in particular? Well, on a basic level of analysis, war journalists offer information—factual updates on a conflict and an analysis of evolving situations. Scraping beyond the surface, a war journalist’s role is far greater. War journalists are the torch-bearers of the truth, chronicling human suffering, influencing public perception and shaping historical memory. With that, almost inevitably, journalistic pieces offering unique insights will often be underscored by biases; after all, that’s why we get all sorts of different headlines on a given event. < Back A Delicate Balancing Act: Journalism in Conflict Zones Maria Eirini Liodi December 31, 2024 My recent experiences both in the Youth4Regions program for young journalists, as well as last month’s event I coordinated with Sciences Défense, have prompted me to really think about the role of journalists, particularly in war-struck regions. Before delving further into it, I should give some context for the above. Youth4Regions is a unique journalism program happening in Brussels every year, presenting young journalists the opportunity to hone their craft and expand their network. The former event refers to Sciences Défense’s first virtual conference of the year, hosting Ukrainian war journalist Alyona Martiniuk and presenting a great chance to gain insights into the background of the war in Ukraine through a personal perspective of a citizen and journalist experiencing the war. It was very interesting to learn about her role as a journalist during the war in Ukraine, aiming to bring to light stories of soldiers who were killed during the war or those left disabled. Her work’s artistic and literary style vividly captures the human aspect of war—a necessity in a world where information overload often strips the humanity from the political realities of conflict. Both of these experiences got me thinking: what really is the role of a journalist, a war journalist in particular? Well, on a basic level of analysis, war journalists offer information—factual updates on a conflict and an analysis of evolving situations. Scraping beyond the surface, a war journalist’s role is far greater. War journalists are the torch-bearers of the truth, chronicling human suffering, influencing public perception and shaping historical memory. With that, almost inevitably, journalistic pieces offering unique insights will often be underscored by biases; after all, that’s why we get all sorts of different headlines on a given event. Take these two headlines covering the events of October 7th of last year: ‘History Didn't Begin or End on October 7th’ or ‘October 7: A terrible day, a tragic year.’ Same topic, different message; we can tell that just from the title. Some would argue this a malady of modern media, others an inevitability, or perhaps a vital component of modern media. For me, it begs the question: do journalists owe it to their audiences to be objective, or is subjectivity important in giving different perspectives? Is subjectivity inevitable either way? This comes to mind especially in light of the conflict in Gaza, which has drawn a lot of attention to controversies over media bias in the reporting of the war. I agree that media bias is something we should be aware of and wary of. Yet, I also wonder whether any media can truly be stripped of bias, and whether it is desirable to strive for ‘objectivity’ in media at all. I think as long as the information delivered is factual, and reflective of the true reality of the conflict, receiving news from various sources offering different perspectives is valuable; it can be even more informative of the nature of the conflict, as the news itself reflects political ideologies and hence the biases often at the root of the conflict. Beyond this idea of journalistic perspective and bias, I also pondered over the ethical weight of the role of a war journalist, as the bearer of information. If you think about it, aside from information delivered or leaked directly from independent individuals on social media platforms, journalists directly deliver the information we have on current affairs in war zones. That reality comes with great power in shaping global perspectives, making the role of a war journalist a double-edged sword of privilege and burden. Reporting on war zones, particularly for on-site reporters, demands great courage. It also demands an acute awareness of how news stories are delivered. Accounting for the impact their stories have on audiences, policymakers, and potentially even the course of the conflicts themselves, are crucial. Hence, there are a lot of questions journalists must ask themselves when publishing stories for the whole world to see, but also scrutinize: how much detail is too much? When does a story cross the line from informative to sensational? Is this reporting serving the public good through its transparency, or is it exacerbating existing tensions and perpetuating harm? These are things I thought about a lot during Youth4Regions, where I delved into the ethics of journalism. Although I do not hold the exact answers to these questions, they certainly helped me appreciate the delicate balance journalists, particularly those working in conflict zones, must strike in their work. For instance, according to the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics , a journalist must “balance the public’s need for information against potential harm or discomfort,” avoiding unnecessary intrusiveness where possible. This principle can be relevant when deciding whether it is ethical to post images or videos depicting violent content, showcasing individuals who may not have consented to their private person being used for public distribution, or when considering the consequences of posting unverified accusations—both of which we have seen a lot of this year. Finally, the role of a journalist, especially during times of war, is not simply to inform people but to provoke critical thinking, evoke empathy and inspire action. To restate this once more, a war journalist holds great power and responsibility. Their stories not only shape the present understanding of conflicts but also the way they are remembered. We, as consumers of news content, also carry a responsibility: we ought to be critical of what we read and seek out diverse perspectives that can challenge our preconceptions, not merely confirm our beliefs. By doing so, we can be active participants in the political discourse of global developments, and hopefully foster a more nuanced, critical and empathetic understanding of the conflict-ridden world we live in.