The renowned Egyptian novelist Ahmed Khaled Tawfik, in his novel Utopia, offered an unfortunate vision of Cairo’s future: “They will leave the old capital to burn with its people, to fade away in oppression, poverty, and disease, while they move to their new capital, sparing their eyes from witnessing all that destruction.” Expanding on his words, it is clear that without intentional intervention in Cairo, Egypt is on the verge of a divided reality—a city burdened with poverty and decay on one side, and on the other, an astonishing new capital established with skyscrapers and lush green spaces. This is the future that hangs in the balance and only decisive change can prevent such a strife. < Back Cairo in a Yellow Filter Marwan Shawwara for Environnementon October 31, 2024 While the government implemented an energy blackout project during one of Cairo’s hottest summers—leaving some of the city’s most densely populated districts without power for up to four hours—residents were shocked by a simultaneous new wave of aggressive tree uprooting across the city. The removal of green spaces, particularly in historic districts, appeared neither reasonable nor explained by authorities. By June 2024, the destruction of these green areas had become a widely discussed topic, trending on social media, covered by talk shows and drawing concern from environmental activists and NGOs. Many sought answers from the government, raising concerns that in Egypt, it is not only the humans, but also trees are facing ongoing hardship. Over the past decade, statistics and visual observations of Cairo’s public parks reveal a systematic reduction in green spaces, driven by the regime’s push for urbanization projects. According to Green Forest Watch, the government cleared over one million and six hundred thousand square meters of trees between 2013 and 2023 to make way for wider streets, bridges and commercial developments. However, the destruction is not always linked to specific urban projects: In neighborhoods like El Zamalek, where no new projects have been announced and tree removal continues unabated, raising questions about the government’s intentions. This wave of uprooting in June sparked widespread speculation. Many activists on social media started wondering where the trees were going, given that no new construction projects were announced in several areas. Some speculated that the government was selling the wood to Israel—there has been increased demand in Israel as, especially after Colombia stopped its wood exports to Israel in protest of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. However, Dr. Reham El Morally, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Administration at the American University in Cairo, offers a different perspective. She described that the government has a clear strategy to shrink public spaces where people can gather and mobilize. And the new urbanization projects are a “new form of public control.” Without the shade of trees and the cooling effect of green spaces, Cairo’s streets become unbearable in the summer heat, effectively discouraging public activity. With average temperatures reaching 45°C and little to no tree cover, the city’s ten million residents are left to endure an environment that lacks basic amenities like oxygen-rich air. Consequently, the public health situation consequences are also becoming dire. Ibrahim El Meligy, a consultant at Helwan Fever Hospital, links the increase in lung fibrosis, respiratory allergies and pulmonary diseases—particularly among children and non-smokers—to the loss of oxygen-producing trees. He explained that many children in densely populated areas now require nebulizers and oxygen therapy and are at higher risk of asthma and poisoning due to elevated levels of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Yet, not everyone is impacted equally. The government’s urban development projects, such as the Green River Park and New Central Park in the New Administrative Capital, demonstrate their ability to create green spaces. According to Dar , the official partner of these projects, these parks will cover an area twice the size of New York’s Central Park, totaling 6,200 acres. However, these green spaces are being developed in gated communities, accessible only to a privileged minority—those who can afford to live in high-end developments targeting exclusively the upper and middle-upper classes. The government’s “Egypt Vision 2030” project, announced in 2018, promised that by 2020 Egypt would offer an average of one square meter of urban green space per capita. This figure was expected to increase to three square meters by 2030, but the vision remains largely unfulfilled. Similarly, the “Go Green” initiative, launched by the Ministry of Environment in 2022, appears to have little practical impact. As electricity blackouts began in the summer of 2023, residents became even more vulnerable, struggling with the lack of natural cooling sources like trees and green spaces, making the situation increasingly unbearable. Egyptians took to social media to share before-and-after images of green spaces near their homes, highlighting the ongoing destruction of the city’s already limited green areas. The uprooting of trees is not only an indicator of the broader environmental and public health crises that the government must urgently address, but also raises a critical question: to what extent should a citizen’s socioeconomic status determine their access to a natural public good like green spaces and trees? The renowned Egyptian novelist Ahmed Khaled Tawfik, in his novel Utopia, offered an unfortunate vision of Cairo’s future: “They will leave the old capital to burn with its people, to fade away in oppression, poverty, and disease, while they move to their new capital, sparing their eyes from witnessing all that destruction.” Expanding on his words, it is clear that without intentional intervention in Cairo, Egypt is on the verge of a divided reality—a city burdened with poverty and decay on one side, and on the other, an astonishing new capital established with skyscrapers and lush green spaces. This is the future that hangs in the balance and only decisive change can prevent such a strife.

These past ten years have been a time of unprecedented challenges for the Alliance. < Back Speculations Abound as NATO Awaits New Chief By Michał Barszczak for European Society March 31, 2024 The head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is the Secretary General – a chief civil servant responsible for directing the organization. NATO chose its Secretary General for the first time in 1952, after long negotiations leading to the appointment of a British official. Since then, twelve distinct diplomats have officially held the position, representing eight countries in total. Among them, three chiefs were from the United Kingdom, three from the Netherlands, two from Belgium, and one from Italy, Germany, Spain, Denmark, and Norway. Since 2014, this position has been held by Jens Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian prime minister. Even though the usual term of office lasts four years, he has been at the top of NATO for almost a decade. Last July, member states again agreed to prolong his presidency, this time only for one year. We shall then know the name of the next Secretary General by Oct. 1, 2024 when Stoltenberg officially should step down as chief. These past ten years have been a time of unprecedented challenges for the Alliance. One of them is the ongoing armed conflicts in the Middle East, where the U.S. plays a crucial role. Other challenges include the detachment from the possibility of engaging in war shared across the continent and confusing and worrying communication coming from the former POTUS Donald Trump, who is today more than ever likely to make a big return to the White House after the November election. Trump’s statements and social media activity neatly show that there are reasons to be worried about NATO’s future and integrity. Those should raise concerns, especially while there is ongoing Russian bloodshed at the borders of NATO in Ukraine. Furthermore, Donald Trump is known for his rather friendly approach to Putin. Nevertheless, it may be hard to demand from American society, never directly touched by the bombs and war, to fully see a threat coming from the Kremlin and cordial relations with Putin’s Russia. What is surprising is that there is no official procedure regulated in treaties concerning the appointment of the next Secretary General — usually, it’s done through hours of multilateral negotiations. As of today, Mark Rutte, an outgoing Dutch prime minister and the president of the Democrats66, is leading the race, held behind closed doors with unwritten rules. However, even though favored by most of the Western European governments, Rutte is not the only contestant. Many names have been mentioned, only to withdraw from the race later. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and former U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace reportedly even discussed his candidacy with U.S. President Joe Biden. However, both subsequently withdrew from consideration without providing any explanation. For now, there are two other candidates openly expressing their willingness to run NATO, apart from Rutte, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, currently wanted by Russian officials; and Latvian Foreign Minister Krisjanis Karins. In the unwritten procedure, there is no specified set of qualities required to become the next Secretary General. As Rutte is considered a more stable and ‘safer’ choice for the alliance, it rightly raises the question of state equality in NATO. Rutte is the second longest serving Prime Minister in Europe (right after Viktor Orbàn in Hungary). However, his years in office are not even close to being described as stable for Dutch politics, as the public had expressed it in the last parliamentary elections, giving the biggest number of chairs to Geert Wilders’ right-wing, populist Party for Freedom. Rightly, Rutte’s assumed appointment raised questions of the equality and balance of powers in the Alliance – are the Baltic States, Poland, or any other country that joined NATO after the fall of the Iron Curtain equal in the race, after more than 20 years of partaking in its existence? When asked by journalists if there still is a desire to participate in the race, Kallas without a moment of hesitation responded with one word: “Yes.” She explained that she believes the next chief of NATO should be somebody whose country has spent two percent (or more) of its GDP on defence, as required by the North Atlantic Treaty. She also said it would be beneficial to see a woman in the role. While Estonia is spending more than three percent of its GDP on defense, the Netherlands is not quite close to hitting the two percent target. Kallas has been Estonia’s Prime Minister for more than three years now. She leads the Reform Party and served twice as a member of the parliament ( Rigikogu ) and was a member of the European Parliament. Upon the conclusion of her term, Politico recognized her as one of the forty most influential MEPs and one of the most influential women in Brussels. Already as an acting Prime Minister, she was recongized as a leading voice in international support for Ukraine attacked by Russia, for which The Statesman called her the ‘Europe’s New Iron Lady’. Regarding this conflict, Kallas rejects any possibility of a peace deal that would cede part of the Ukrainian territories to the aggressor and hold onto strong and unconditional support for Ukraine. She, as most of the Eastern European and Baltic leaders, sees Russia not only as an invader in Ukraine but as an existential threat to their state and nationhood. After last year’s elections in which Kallas led her party to another victory, she formed a coalition with the Social Democratic Party and Estonia 200. One of the first bills passed in the new parliament legalized same-sex marriage and secured the right to adoption for same-sex couples, making Estonia the first post-Soviet, and Baltic country to do so. In February, Russian officials announced that Kallas had been included in the Russian interior ministry's list of individuals wanted on criminal charges. Allegedly, the charges were linked to the removal of Soviet World War II monuments in Estonia, however, she dismissed the warrant as a ‘scare tactic’ of the Kremlin. If it will not be for the next NATO chief, her candidature to replace Josep Borrell, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs, is discussed behind closed doors with a strong expectation she would be supported in that race by Emmanuel Macron. However, as Politico points out, that topic remains sensitive in a few EU capitals, as not every member regards an aggressive anti-Russian approach as the right way to handle today’s geopolitics. Despite the obvious consensus arising, Rutte’s candidature may be headed to clash with clear opposition coming from the Hungarian prime minister, as it is not a secret that the Dutch politician has not quite been on the same page as Budapest’s Orbàn. There is a strong possibility of a new candidate appearing out of nowhere which would completely change the rules of the game. Unless something is surely decided, every other thing uninterruptedly remains an option. What is expected of the next Secretary General? Keeping the peace in Europe, which may be harder than at any time in history before (and hopefully reaching agreements ending the war in Ukraine) and, of course, making sure the U.S. stays on board. It will be a time of a hazardous game, with opportunities of great gain and loss placed on two opposite sides of the balance scale. And rightfully so – ill-considered and irresponsible decisions could redefine the trajectory of European geopolitics.

Qatar’s movement towards a more democratic political system highlights the country as a progressive force in the region, which can help it gain assistance and recognition by important international actors such as the United States or the European Union. < Back The First Democratic Elections in Qatar- Democratic or Diplomatic? By Emilia Kohlmeyer November 29, 2021 On October 21, the Gulf emirate Qatar held its first elections for the government’s legislative body, Majlis Al Shura (commonly referred to as the Shura or Advisory Council). The monarchy has been continuously delaying its elections since 2007 — although the Qatari constitution outlined the first elections to commence as early as 2004. The Shura is composed of 30 popularly elected seats and 15 seats appointed by the Emir. It is responsible for approving the national budget as well as drafting, discussing, and voting on proposed legislation — however, with some legal restrictions. Eligible to vote are native Qatari citizens over the age of 18 — excluding a large number of naturalized citizens. While Qatar has a population of almost three million residents, only about 10% hold citizenship — and an even smaller portion is of 'native' descent. The controversial electoral law, outlined in the 2005 Nationality law, requires proof that one’s grandfather was born in Qatar. This led to backslash over the exclusion of the prominent Al Murrah tribe, sparking multiple arrests of members. Independent candidates over the age of 30 are permitted to run for an office term of four years, given that they are recognized native citizens, have no criminal convictions, exhibit good character, and are fluent in written and spoken Arabic. Political parties are banned in the emirate. Furthermore, foreign funding was strictly prohibited and a maximum budget of two million riyals, equivalent to 500.000 euros, was set for a maximum campaign of two weeks. The vote was divided in 30 electoral districts with a total of 284 candidates distributed on 30 seats. There were 28 female candidates, however none were successful. The elected candidates were largely composed of former government officials and influential businessmen. The functions of the Shura Council According to the constitution, Qatar has a democratic system which is based on the separation of powers. Furthermore, Article 76 states, “The Advisory Council assumes the Legislative Power, approves the State's public budget and exercises the function of ‘watchdog’ over the Executive Power, according to the manner stipulated in this Constitution.” The Majalis Al Shura has the power to approve the national budget and to draft, discuss, and vote on proposed legislation. In ordinary circumstances, the Cabinet would propose laws which are then passed on to the Shura Council for verification. Once the Advisory Council passes a bill by majority, it must be passed to the Emir for approval. If he rejects the bill, it must be resubmitted to the council within three months with a given explanation. However, if the Council passes the same bill again by a two-thirds majority the emir is required to pass the law. The emir, as executive power, also has the right, according to Article 70 of the constitution, to issue laws in ‘exceptional circumstances’ for a limited period of time – without consultation of the Council. However, to extend this law, the Shura Council must approve it with a two-thirds majority within 40 days of submission. Hence, constitutionally, the executive’s power is limited by the requirement to consult the Shura Council. Elections in Qatar: Progressive or Utilitarian? Qatar is one of the wealthiest states of the world, possessing the third largest natural gas reserve, which provides the state with 70% of government revenue and 60% of the GDP. This has allowed the country to provide generous benefits to its citizens, such as free healthcare, education, no taxes, and a monthly income. Therefore, while neighboring states such as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia faced political turmoil in context of the Arab Spring protests, Qatar faced essentially no opposition by its population. The Arab Opinion Index of 2019/2020 affirmed that 98% of the population believed the political situation in Qatar was either good or very good. Furthermore, the level of democracy was assessed as 7.5/10, ranking remarkably higher than other countries in the region. This can be mostly attributed to the rent the population receives, but as well due to their size. The government is known to have historically made concessions with tribal figures, which largely dominate the civilian political discourse. Qatar’s political sphere is therefore largely run under the notion of ‘no taxes, no voice.’ However, the elections can be seen as an anticipatory effort by the government to decrease the number of natural resources while the population increases. This will inevitably reduce the economic rent, and limit the government's leverage over the population. To maintain the social contract on which the monarchy relies, an increase in popular political participation reduces the responsibility of providing rent, and potentially facilitates the implementation of policies such as taxation. Furthermore, the elections can be regarded as a move to appeal to international powers. Qatar has been increasingly acting as a mediator in conflicts, such as in Middle Eastern countries during the Arab Spring, as well as negotiating with Israel on behalf of the Palestinian cause. This has conflicted with Saudi Arabia’s anticipations as the guard and mediator of the region. Its movement towards a more democratic political system highlights Qatar as a progressive force in the region, which can help it gain assistance and recognition by important international actors such as the United States or the European Union.

Although many countries have designed written legal documents, such as the U.S. Constitution and France’s Fifth Republic Constitution, restricting the state from utilizing cruel and inhumane forms of punishment, reservations regarding the efficacy of contemporary punishment have been voiced as high incarceration, and recidivism rates persist. < Back Crime and Punishment: U.S. and France By Julien Zeman March 31, 2023 Punishment has existed since the birth of humankind, and though its application has evolved over time, from unregulated bloody revenge feuds to complex criminal prisons, its existence continues to maintain a pivotal role in the conduct and organization of modern societies. Today, legal scholars generally define punishment as “the imposition of something that is intended to be both burdensome and reprobative, on a supposed offender for a supposed crime, by a person or body who claims the authority to do so.” Although many countries have designed written legal documents, such as the U.S. Constitution and France’s Fifth Republic Constitution, restricting the state from utilizing cruel and inhumane forms of punishment, reservations regarding the efficacy of contemporary punishment have been voiced as high incarceration, and recidivism rates persist. In 2021, for instance, the U.S. incarceration rate reached 639 for every 100,000 people, possessing the highest rate globally. France’s incarceration rate for the same year was 106 for every 100,000 people. Further, according to t he most recent and complete data collected , the U.S. recidivism rate on a two-year follow-up was 60 percent in 2005, while in France, the rate for the same follow-up period was 40 percent just one year prior. Though high incarceration rates are important considerations in gauging societal failure, this article will focus on recidivism as it provides a more concrete measure of the failure of current punishment principles governing the criminal correctional system. Recidivism, more generally referred to as repeat offending, is a pervasive issue that continues to trouble both academics and the general populace alike, and though the issue is of no less importance in France, there exists a strikingly large statistical disparity of 20 percent between the two countries. By comparing these two countries, we can attempt to identify the elements which have led the U.S. to have a higher prevalence of recidivism. Once these elements are identified, it may become possible to tackle the more difficult task of isolating possible solutions that may reverse the high recidivism rates that seemingly plague contemporary modern criminal justice systems. In order to uncover solutions to such a complex issue, it is first necessary to analyze and compare each country's punishment philosophy. Unsurprisingly, there is a common consensus among France and the U.S. that those who inflict injury upon other members of a community should be punished. However, consensus diverges concerning the justification for punishment and, thus, how it should be implemented. Theories justifying punishment fluctuate with time, and it is, therefore, pertinent to understand what these theories are to comprehend how they impact the prison systems, or other forms of punishment, in their historical and societal contexts. For the purpose of this article, there are generally two different theories of punishment most frequently advocated for: utilitarianism and retributivism. Utilitarianism revolves around the principle of deterrence — one should only be punished if it provides the future societal utility of reducing crime. Utilitarians believe humans are rational beings and will avoid criminal activity if they believe the punishment will outweigh the benefits of committing a criminal act. For instance, a perceived utility of punishment under this theory is the avoidance of private vengeance-based feuds. It is important to note that there exist several sub-theories of utilitarianism, and the forms of deterrence that are stressed vary from general deterrence to the less common theory of rehabilitation utilitarianism, also known as reform utilitarianism. Whereas general deterrence adherents defend punishment on the grounds that it teaches a lesson that dissuades others from committing similar crimes, reform utilitarianists “prefer to use the correctional system to reform the wrongdoer rather than to secure compliance through the fear… of punishment.” In stark contrast, retributivists’ basic principle is that punishment is justified when it is deserved. Retributivists believe that humans possess free will. Therefore, if an individual freely chooses to violate society’s rules, it is morally justifiable that they be punished. The severity of such punishment should be proportional to the harm they caused. Retributivists are not concerned with whether or not others will be deterred from committing crimes or reform. Though, again, here it is important to stress that within the retributivist theoretical frame of punishment, there is nuance among the different subforms of retributivism. French punishment theory pivots more firmly around utilitarianism as it emphasizes the mitigation of the harmful effects of crime. While those working in the U.S. criminal correctional system claim to preach and apply utilitarian practices, a plethora of evidence suggests that, in practice, a retributivist form of punishment is more typically employed. The example of capital punishment can be used to illustrate this fact. Whereas France has abolished and prohibited the use of capital punishment, the US continues to utilize it in six states. In a comprehensive document debunking capital punishment myths, Amnesty International emphasizes, “Evidence from around the world has shown that the death penalty has no unique deterrent effect on crime. Many people have argued that abolishing the death penalty leads to higher crime rates, but studies in the USA and Canada…do not back this up.” Thus, capital punishment more closely serves to fulfill a retributivist approach to punishment. If it were true that the American justice system promoted a strictly utilitarian theory of punishment, the death penalty would, like France, be abolished in all states. Furthermore, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs itself admits that “Sending an individual convicted of a crime to prison isn’t a very effective way to deter crime,” reasoning that “Prisons actually may have the opposite effect: Inmates learn more effective crime strategies from each other, and time spent in prison may desensitize many to the threat of future imprisonment.” Yet, in spite of this admission, an New York University School of Law report suggested nearly 40 percent of the U.S. prison population is behind bars with no compelling public safety reason, illustrating that the U.S. correctional justice system promotes retributivism. More than just failing to deter crime, the U.S. retributivist philosophy of punishment may actually encourage recidivism. Though factors such as wage, neighborhood and education do contribute to the susceptibility of an ex-convict to recidivate, this is only exacerbated by the application of a retributivist prison culture that emphasizes punitive measures rather than rehabilitation. Research has affirmed that increasing funding for rehabilitation in the criminal justice system correlatively reduces the propensity for an inmate to recidivate. In 2009, the French Act of 1987 relating to the public prison service was amended to grant inmates the right to “obtain identity papers, to vote, to get married or register in civil unions, and to obtain public assistance funds while incarcerated,” all of which reduce the criminogenic nature of prisons and further eases inmates’ transitions into society. In comparison, the American justice system is far more restrictive when it comes to issuing prisoner’s rights that will ease their reintegration into society — a difference that manifests itself in the higher rates of recidivism in the U.S. Furthermore, according to the American Psychological Association, “a combination of strict sentencing guidelines, budget shortfalls and a punitive philosophy of corrections has made today's (U.S.) prisons much more unpleasant — and much less likely to rehabilitate their inhabitants…,” a fact that is made abundantly clear when investigating U.S. correctional prisons’ disturbingly common and harsh use of isolation. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics found that on any given day in 2011-12, approximately 7.1 percent (approximately 11,200 inmates) of all inmates may be subjected to solitary confinement. This figure does not even take into account people held in solitary confinement within jails, military facilities, immigration detention centers or juvenile justice facilities. Being subjected to extended periods of solitary isolation has been proven to have significant detrimental effects on inmates' mental health, as demonstrated by the fact that just over 50 percent of jail and prison inmates suffered from serious “psychological distress.” Christopher Wildeman, a professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell University, asserts that “Being placed in solitary confinement substantially increases the risk of committing more crimes after getting released from prison, and may decrease the probability of employment.” Wildemen found that solitary confinement increased the risk of reconviction within three years by as much as 15 percent. Despite correctional officers justifying the use of solitary confinement on grounds of protecting the inmates and staff, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that, based on their empirical findings, “prisons with higher rates of restrictive housing (also known as solitary confinement) had higher levels of facility disorder….” The term “facility disorder” accounts for fighting within the facility, inmate-officer trust, inmates’ level of concern about being assaulted, reports of inmates yielding weapons, gang activity in the facility and more. Thus, in addition to negatively impacting recidivist rates, solitary also doesn’t achieve its intended goal. Though France does utilize solitary confinement as a mode of punishment, its use is far less routinized. A City University of New York research paper examining the French prison system observed that “The pervasive use of isolation in American prisons is disturbing to French correctional officials.” This does not that the French correctional system is without its share of problems. It is readily apparent that a 40 percent recidivist rate suggests a flawed law enforcement approach. Yet, while France has demonstrated a willingness to take concrete steps to mitigate recidivism by applying reform utilitarianism, little progress has been made in the US. The question that subsequently emerges is thus, what can be done to reduce recidivism? The simple solution is to emphasize rehabilitation over punishment. Research has demonstrated that improving mental health care, establishing educational programs and providing released prisoners with the necessary skills and connections to be successful in the work environment can significantly lower recidivism. For instance, inmates who participate in educational programs are 43 percent less likely to recidivate, while inmates who are provided the proper support to acquire valuable work skills and are given a job while incarcerated are 24 percent less likely to recidivate. Shifting prisons from punitive to rehabilitative institutions is, of course, easier said than done. A complete shift in national punishment philosophy is not an easy endeavor. However, as an American Civil Liberties Union research study observed , there is already a general inclination to reform the U.S. justice system given that “71 percent of Americans agree that incarceration is often counterproductive to public safety, since ‘sending someone to prison for a long sentence increases the chances that he or she will commit another crime when they get out because prison doesn’t do a good job of rehabilitating problems...”’ Conceding that the US populace is ready to make such a change, why has it not occurred? Though there have been efforts in the U.S. to reform prisons into rehabilitative institutions, such instances where concrete change was implemented are scarce. Essential to the reduction of recidivism is considering prison reform indivisible from broader criminal justice reform. Seriously reconciling the presently dominant principles that govern the way punishment is exacted is the first step to abating criminogenic institutions.

Be it ‘evil-eye themed parties,’ jam sessions on the beach or ‘Aparathons,’ Sciences Pistes have a way of keeping things interesting. Somewhere along the creation journey, with no definite date demarking it, the Sciences Po Menton wedding tradition was born. < Back The Babel Initiative's 'Big Fat Cypriot Wedding’ By Maria Eirini Liodi February 29, 2024 As the 2As well know and the 1As are surely discovering, Menton is not your conventional university location. Being one of the most charming, crown jewels of the French Riviera, both students and locals are blessed with marvelous landscapes. However, with the buzz of city life only a distant whisper, Sciences Pistes are often tasked with the generation of fun-making, as things can get a bit monotonous around here. Be it ‘evil-eye themed parties,’ jam sessions on the beach or ‘Aparathons,’ Sciences Pistes have a way of keeping things interesting. Somewhere along the creation journey, with no definite date demarking it, the Sciences Po Menton wedding tradition was born. Just like Aphrodite, the tradition emerged amidst the foamy waves, in the sea of Sciences Pistes’ imagination —or excessive boredom. Despite little knowledge as to its exact roots, the whimsical event has been an eagerly anticipated one annually since its creation, adding a touch of humor and celebration to our busy academic calendars. Exclusive, mysterious and exciting, this year’s wedding was one for the books. Two Sciences Pistes were secretly selected, following serious deliberation and thoroughly strategic matchmaking. With a host of flower girls, a priest, family, and even wedding crashers, the Ummah came together to witness one of this semester’s most thrilling, and shocking, events. With the bride and groom only invited to the event merely hours before the ceremony, the suspense was real. Who were the chosen two? Our very dear Leo was the dashing groom, and our bride… Our bride is a person that knows how to make an entrance and steal the show – Kousai. This year's 'Fake Wedding,' hosted by the Babel Initiative took on a unique twist as it embraced the vibrant spirit of a 'Big Fat Cypriot Wedding.' Sablettes was transformed into a lively scene, filled with colorful decorations, traditional Cypriot music, and the unmistakable ambiance of the Mediterranean celebratory spirit. As one of Babel’s central aims is cultural awareness and the bridging of communities in the MENA region, the wedding needed to bring as many real-life elements to the table as possible. We had traditional Cypriot music played live, a Cypriot casted as the parent of the ‘bride’ and the impeccable celebratory spirit necessary. Beyond the entertainment value, the 'Fake Wedding' serves as a testament to the opportunity for diverse cultural experiences on our campus. Such traditions can provide a platform for students to break away from the rigors of academia and embrace a sense of camaraderie while promoting acceptance and diversity within the campus community. As this year’s festivities came to a close, the 'bride' and 'groom' could be found at the post-wedding celebrations at the ‘Black Out’ party at Soundproof. As a cornerstone to the Sciences Pistes of Menton, Soundproof was the perfect location for a Saturday night, post-wedding celebration. Now, as the echoes of traditional Cypriot music fade away, and the Mediterranean breeze continues to dance with the stars, Sciences Pistes are left with more than just memories. The festivities hosted by Babel, served as a vivid reminder of the creativity and cultural richness that define our Ummah, and make our university experience so distinctive. Here's to breaking free from the monotony, embracing diversity, and crafting stories that add a touch of laughter to our academic journey. Until the next whimsical event, cheers to Sciences Pistes and the wonderful memories we weave together!

< Back Introduction to the Cyprus Problem: History and Attempts at Solution Feidias Psaras February 28, 2025 Just this month , President Christodoulides of the Republic of Cyprus and President Tatar of the TRNC agreed to meet in May of this year under the aegis of the UN to kickstart another round of talks for the reunification of the island. Even though this marks the first attempt at political negotiations in an eight-year hiatus, it’s only the latest in a long series of attempts at reunification ranging back almost to the very inception of the Cypriot state itself. So what has created what the leaders in both communities, despite their sizeable ideological gaps, see as an opportunity for reconciliation? The answer lies at the tail end of a confusing, contested and troubled history How did we get here? The roots of the Cyprus Problem manifest around the beginning of the 20th century. In 1930, amidst a climate of rising anti-colonial political action and driven by a solidifying Greek nationalist identity promoted primarily by a highly influential Orthodox church, Cypriots under British rule demanded the unification of Cyprus. In the 1950s, Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus, later to become its first president, organized a plebiscite on the issue of unification, which received a 95.71% vote in favor with an 89% turnout . But the vote took place in Orthodox churches, so only Greek Cypriots’ voices were heard ; the Turkish Cypriots, who at the time made up about 18% of the island, did not have a say. With the budding political movement for the unification of Greece (Enosis) being met with a moot by the colonial government, the Greek Cypriots eventually took up arms. In 1955, with the help of a Greek military officer Grivas, the Greek Organization of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA) was formed . As discerned from key documents, the Turkish Cypriots were not expressly targeted; the objective was to shake the colonial rulers and dismantle their police force regardless of who was serving. Continued pressures from Cyprus’s religious-political echelon and EOKA, as well as changes in the geopolitical climate—a series of bloody decolonizing wars that stretched the ailing Empires even thinner, the loss of the Suez Canal which signified their waning influence in the Middle East especially— culminated in a compromise agreements between Turkish and Greek representatives in Zurich. The result was not what the EOKA fighters had wanted; in 190, Cypru had officially become an independent state, not a part of Greece. Since then, Cypriots were thrust into a political project that few of them or their leaders had the will or wherewithal to carry out, and the Republic of Cyprus, a nation-state built around a constitutionally mandated bi-communal executive and representative parliamentary quotas, sputtered forward. Very early on, the divergent interests of the Turkish and Greek Cypriots sent the government into a paroxysm, and frustration brewed at what was increasingly seen by both sides as an untenable political arrangement. In 1963, when Makarios III proposed a set of constitutional reforms purportedly to break the governmental deadlock but which weakened the role of Turkish Cypriots in government, intercommunal violence broke out in Nicosia and spread to the whole of Cyprus. Attacks against Turkish Cypriots escalated—the violence in Kokkina provides a standout example—and the enclaves that formed around Kokkina and Lefke marked the end of Turkish Cypriot participation in the government of the Republic of Cyprus as well as the first steps toward self-determination. And yet the violence continued, and violence in Kophinou and Ayios Theodoros only served to heighten the political divides. In 1971, the initial goal of Enosis was revived under EOKA B, but this time with an important operational shift. In the absence of colonial rule, the governing authority that needed to be dismantled would have to be Makarios III’s democratically elected one. And, this time, the Turkish Cypriots were a target too. Cyprus had gained its independence in 1960 under a guarantor agreement signed by Britain, Greece and Turkey—which, among other things, allowed those countries to intervene militarily if the safety of any ethnic group was in danger. So when EOKA B, backed by Grivas and the main political figure, Sampson, staged a coup and forced the democratically elected president out of Cyprus…. Soon after, Turkish troops entered the island and took control of around 36% of it. The decision to enter Cyprus was condemned internationally as an invasion because, instead of leaving after peace was restored, the Turkish army reinforced the politically independent enclaves until, in 1983, when the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus declared independence. And thus, not long after it had taken off, the Cypriot national project came crashing down. How we’ve dealt with it Ever since then, finding a solution to the ‘Cyprus problem’ has been the central issue in Cypriot politics. Talks have revolved around the establishment of a unitary Republic of Cyprus revolving around five major points : two self-governing states ( bizonality ) that are inclusive to both Greek and Turkish-Cypriots (bicommunality); political equality between these two major ethnic communities; creating a central federal government with an international personality and single citizenship for its citizens. To achieve this, the Greek and Turkish-Cypriot political leaders—since Makarios and Denktaș—have engaged in a tug-of-war. The closest the two sides have come to a solution was just after the turn of the century, under UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, a strong proponent of the European Union (EU) and pursuant of accession talks . Then-President Glafcos Clerides faced strong pressures from the bloc, which demanded an agreed-upon plan for the unification of Cyprus as a necessary prerequisite for membership. After two years of negotiations and five drafts, an agreed-upon Annan Plan was sent out to both the Greek and Turkish Cypriots to vote on in separate referenda. While the Turkish-Cypriot vote amounted to 65% for the plan, a 76% vote against the plan by the Greek Cypriots marked the end of talks for reunification, at least for a time. This was until 2015, when political forces on both sides started to gain new traction toward a solution. The victory of Mustafa Akinci in the North brought to power a Turkish Cypriot politician known for his conciliatory stance, opposite Nikos Anastasiades in the Republic of Cyprus, who had publicly stated that he would like to undertake processes for unification. The two leaders began frequent correspondence, building on past frameworks and making significant progress on foreign policy issues and EU-related matters. Despite occasional setbacks, talks developed until the final conference attended with representatives from all three guarantor powers—Greece, the UK, Türkiye—in Crans Montana, where the final agreement would be made. However, after a dramatic UN-led session, the talks collapsed . Akinci lost all his political capital while Anastasiades emerged relatively unscathed, and Türkiye distanced itself from support of any reunification process. The election of Ersin Tatar, a right-wing separatist, following Akinci, showcased the Turkish Cypriots’ diminishing political will for unification. Some say that the situation bodes less well for the Greek Cypriots, who have grown complacent with the status quo of a divided island. Post 2017: how do we proceed? Since the failure in Crans Montana, the election of a new president, Nikos Christodoulides, has brought renewed efforts for a solution. But there are many that doubt that this president, like his predecessor, has any real intention of changing the current status quo. Still, Christodoulides has met with both President Erdogan and Tatar, and is speaking of beginning talks in the first quarter of 2025. Whether these will be successful remains to be seen. Photo credits: DJ Mapping on Wikimedia Commons

Beirut, known as the “Paris of the Middle East” in the 1950s, and arguably the region’s financial hub, is slowly relapsing into its war-torn state. After hearing of yesterday’s events, I felt as if someone had stabbed me in the heart — the country’s collapse has never seemed so clear and obvious. < Back A Beacon of Light for a Country in the Dark: Lebanon’s Untiring Resilience By Maria Kouteili October 30, 2021 October 14, 4:38 pm. My phone does not cease to ring: photo flash, gunfire, smoke, chaos. The photos on my device are the same ones you would find in a history textbook about the civil war; the same militias that terrorized my mother and my aunts, are now terrorizing my friends and my cousins. Today’s attack is just another example of a crumbling nation; what was supposed to be a demonstration in Beirut calling for the removal of a judge who led a probe into the deadly August 2020 port blast quickly became a blood-bath. Thursday’s attack falls within a context of national crisis on all scales: Lebanese citizens have been in the dark since 2019 and are gradually being stripped of all human dignity. The needs of the Lebanese people have been ignored, brushed off and frankly stepped on. I remember going to the pharmacy with my grand-father, a diabetic with heart failure, I remember him having to beg the pharmacist (who was a close friend) for his prescrip-tion. My grandmother, who lives in Central Beirut, wakes up in the dark every morning. Lebanon is in the dark. These are not isolated examples, every single Lebanese citizen has seen his or her way of living crumble. To quote the World Bank, this is “one of the worst financial crises in centuries.” Beirut, known as the “Paris of the Middle East” in the 1950s, and arguably the region’s financial hub, is slowly relapsing into its war-torn state. After hearing of yesterday’s events, I felt as if someone had stabbed me in the heart — the country’s collapse has never seemed so clear and obvious. However, it also made me think of how special the country is. Lebanon is undeniably a crossroad of civilizations; to quote an Oxford article on the matter “Modern-day Lebanon is like a mosaic, characterized by a diversity of cultures, traditions, and religions. Because of its location at the crossroads of Asia, Europe, and Africa, Lebanon has been shaped by many civilizations throughout its long history.” The streets of downtown Beirut tell the story of Lebanon’s history themselves: you will pass domed mosques and steeply churches on your right, French cafes and Arab “Souks” on your left. Lebanon is also the home of arak, an alcoholic beverage made from raisins and aniseed and many other delicacies enjoyed worldwide. This example of cultural heritage is particularly interesting as it first appeared in the 12th century from the Arab invention of alembic distillation and later spread to the Balkans and eventually Indonesia and Malaysia. Similar to Lebanon, arak is a cultural mosaic and an emblem of Arab-Islamic history. And just like arak, Lebanon has a heritage almost as old and as diverse as Arab civilizations and an incontestable influence on a global scale. Generally speaking, the country’s geographical location at a crossroad between Arab and Asian civilizations has made it a cosmopolitan power. As most Lebanese proudly state: “Lebanon is small in size but huge in its influence.” Finally, let this article be a celebration of Lebanese culture rather than another cry of despair: let us remember the joys of Lebanese mezze, kahwa, and Fairuz!

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

< Back A Guide to Menton’s Places of Religious Worship Stanimir Stoyanov While relatively small in size, our beautiful town of Menton has a significant number of various religious sites. We all know about the picturesque basilica in the old town and we all hear the church bells ringing throughout the day. Have you ever wondered why those bells ring at specific times? What about other religious denominations? This article will look into the world of religion within Menton, providing answers to these questions and adding interesting information about its religious sites. Religion is a multifaceted topic and this article does not have any purpose of discussing different religious practices; its goal is to simply showcase information on different places in Menton affiliating themselves as religious. In France, secularism is a constitutional principle and the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State ensures the freedom of conscience and guarantees the free exercise of religion. While the majority of the population doesn’t identify as religious, the most prevalent religious affiliation in France is Catholic, with a sizable population of people following religions such as Islam, Judaism and others. Our town of Menton also reflects this diversity to an extent and, despite its small size, has a total of ten places of religious worship. These include seven Catholic churches and chapels, an Orthodox church, an Anglican church, a Mosque and a Synagogue. So, what is there to know about them? Basilica of Saint-Michel-Archange Probably Menton’s most famous attraction, the basilica was constructed between 1619 and 1819. At the time, Menton was part of the Principality of Monaco and Prince Honoré II commissioned it in order to affirm the role of the Catholic faith at the time of the Reformation in Europe. The basilica’s baroque architecture was heavily influenced by the Genoese style and is exceptional in its detailed and intricate facade and interior. The church bell, locally known as the “Campanin” was erected in 1701 to serve both a religious and functional purpose, acting as a watchtower over Menton. Until Dec. 31, the basilica is open to the public from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. everyday except Sunday, when it is accessible only for mass at 11 p.m. It is located on Place de l’Eglise in the old town, admission is free and when visiting you even have the possibility to climb up the tower for a one of a kind view over Menton. The Mosquée Taqwa in Menton Located on 113 Avenue de Sospel, Menton’s Mosque offers the Muslim population of Menton a place of worship. It is open five times a day for the different prayers throughout the day, with opening times varying each day according to the changing times of prayer. Even small in size, the mosque has separate praying spaces for men and women. It is associated with the Association Culturelle Mentonnaise and also engages in cultural events and community activities, such as offering guided tours for Europe’s Heritage days on Sep. 21 and Sep. 22. Synagogue de Menton “Centre Altyner” This synagogue, found on 106 Cours du Centenaire, was founded in 1964 by Holocaust survivors who discovered that there was quite a significant Jewish population in Menton. In 1987 they decided to construct this synagogue with the help of donors, whose names are inscribed on a marble plaque in front of the synagogue. One of these names, interestingly, is that of the renown fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, who lived nearby at the time and was moved to donate by a friend of his. The synagogue offers regular Shabbat services and observes Jewish holidays, its open hours are Friday, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. and at 5 p.m. and on Sunday between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. The synagogue also facilitates cultural events and celebrations, organizing events for the local Jewish community. The Orthodox Church “Our Lady's Church, Joy for the Afflicted and Saint Nicholas the Miracle Maker” This church is located on 12 Rue Paul Morillot and serves as a place of prayer for Christians following the Orthodox denomination. It is operated by the Russian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate and its history spans from 1884 when a Russian duchess found its establishment important, recognizing the expanding Russian presence in the region. Originally, it was housed in a small chapel that can still be found at the old castle cemetery on Mnt du Souvenir. In 1892, the current church was built in an unconventional architectural style blending Eastern and Western designs. During WWII, the church was damaged from bombings and, in 1958, it was renovated. It is frequented by the surprisingly large Orthodox population of Menton and the region as both a place for prayer and cultural exchange. It is still worth a visit by anyone interested due to its unique appearance in contrast with the local architecture. Unfortunately its working hours are not clearly set and vary each month with the specific times for mass being posted at the entrance of the church’s garden. The Saint John's Anglican Church Found on 31 Avenue Carnot, this is the neo-Gothic church that you see when walking near the city center. Established in 1867 to service the growing British community in Menton, this church nowadays serves the Anglican population of the town. It regularly holds Sunday service in English starting at 10:30 a.m. The church also houses the St John's English Library, offering around 4,500 books, open to the public on Wednesday afternoons from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday mornings from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. It is also equipped with a pipe organ, used during services and concerts, enhancing the musical experience for congregants and visitors. It is part of the Diocese in Europe, often collaborating with other local churches and organisations for events and celebrations. Its fascinating blend of Gothic elements and Italian influence makes it a unique site worth paying a visit to. Other Catholic churches and chapels Menton also houses another three Catholic churches and three smaller Catholic chapels, more notably the Église Saint-Joseph, Église du Sacré-Cœur, Église Notre-Dame du Borrigo, Chapelle des Pénitents Blancs, Chapelle des Pénitents Noirs, Chapelle Saint-Roch . While the listed chapels do not have working hours and are rarely open to the public, the two churches are often open during mass hours and can be accessed for visits if you have the interest. As we can see, even our quaint Menton has a vast list of places of religious worship and hopefully now you are a bit more familiar with them. If this article has sprung your interest you can feel free to visit and enjoy them so long as you remain respectful to the people who may be practicing their religion there. They all have their unique architectural characteristics and religious significance. As a person who has had the fortune of visiting all of them, I truly recommend the aforementioned places if you want to experience Menton in all its character. Previous Next

By aiming toward a future where we can harmonize environmental policies, Cyprus can pioneer a path toward a sustainable and resilient future that serves to benefit all its citizens, preserves the island’s biodiversity and ensures controlled development with minimal environmental risks. < Back Beyond Borders: The Environmental Imperative in Cyprus By Maria Eirini Liodi December 28, 2023 With an increased push for environmental sustainability and climate crisis awareness, the European Union calls upon its member states to work hard on reducing their emissions to meet the Fit for ’55 goals. According to EU Climate Law, EU emissions must be reduced by at least 55 percent by 2030 with the prospects of climate neutrality in 2050, meaning environmental action must take a front seat for member states. So, as the Republic of Cyprus attempts to stride into this greener future laid out by EU and U.N. goals, it is vital to consider the unique physical and environmental landscape the state grapples with, as an additional factor of utmost importance for why negotiation talks for the ‘Cyprus Problem’ need to be resumed. First, let’s start with some context. Following the creation of the U.N. buffer zone in Cyprus in the 1960s and what we can call its formal division following the 1974 war, the island is partitioned in two – as is its capital, Nicosia. We have the Republic of Cyprus, an EU member state, which makes up about 59 percent of the island’s area (henceforth south), and then we have the self-declared ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’ (henceforth north), which makes up about 36 percent of the island’s area. Notably, the ‘TRNC’ is not an internationally recognized state; it is only recognized by Turkey. The two sides have separate administrations and little to no shared actions, posing a problem regarding Cyprus' work toward true environmental sustainability. The only way to work toward sustainable goals is through consistent actions and accountability, be it on the national or international level. However, only the south of the island, the Republic of Cyprus, is held accountable under internationally binding agreements, while the north of the island lacks international accountability since it is not part of the EU. Therefore, it is not bound by EU environmental regulations and is not subject to potential sanctions meant to deter negative environmental impact. This leaves the heavy load of work to NGOs, implying minimal positive change, and unaccounted damage. Bringing the focus to the capital, Nicosia, the city’s layout post-divide is at best, suboptimal, given it is literally split in two. Having to construct new transportation links on the fabric of pre-existing infrastructure and transport networks meant to serve the purpose of a country-wide, non-divided map, is challenging and necessitates a skewed logic of urban planning. Therefore, the addition of pavements, even some cycling paths in certain locations, have only been few in number, disallowing many that want to opt for more sustainable travel options – e.g. cycling, from making it their primary mode of transport in the city, as it is neither properly accessible nor fully safe. This leaves the south with an underdeveloped public transportation system and a very high vehicle per capita ratio compared to other EU countries, especially considering the size of the country. Adding to these issues, there is a severe lack of priority given to the creation of green corridors in urban spaces to mitigate the urban heat island effect and promote decreased car usage in the city. In the north, similar problems prevail, with an all the more unregulated spurt of urban development with little environmental regard, and a public transportation system that is even more underdeveloped and leaves people mostly reliant on private vehicle use. In a utopic future of some form of collaborative administration, talks on sustainable urban development, preservation of green spaces, and creation of more efficient modes of public transport could be on the table, but as of now, that is not the case. With the added layer of the island’s bustling tourism sector and foreign investments, urban development cannot be discussed outside the context of sustainability and regulation. Rapidly sprouting and multiplying, the skyscrapers built on both sides of the island are emblematic of that. As highlighted in the recent International Consortium of Investigative Journalists investigation and the 2020 Al Jazeera Cyprus Papers, we should be skeptical of the urban development we see, as the unregulated nature of certain investments can easily pertain to the marginalization of environmental concerns and the economic gain of only a select few. Moreover, Cyprus consumes generously, wastes extensively and disposes inadequately. This is why aside from reduction, sustainable waste disposal methods are critical in minimising negative environmental impact. In the south, some municipalities have taken impressive strides with the implementation of ‘pay as you throw’ schemes, compulsory recycling and even providing families with free composting bins. However, these actions should not be limited to merely one or two municipalities and should be more widely implemented to promote accountability in the way all citizens manage their waste. Some villages do not even have access to recycling bins. In the north, efforts were made to introduce an organized waste management system according to EU standards in 2012, at the Gungor Dumpsite. Unfortunately, these endeavors quickly ceased after this dumpsite was privatized. In recent years, the dumpsite has begun posing risks to soil, air quality and human health due to incorrect operating methods and a lack of inspections to maintain accountability. With all kinds of waste being handled, including construction and hazardous byproducts, fires have repeatedly begun, posing alarming health risks to all citizens in the area. The air we breathe is not divided, and the environmental degradation of our island will not be either. With such issues in mind, the people of Cyprus need to be able to demand change, and not have the environment treated as a trivial afterthought. Right now, more than 100 countries have a constitutional right to a free environment, also safeguarded by the U.N. Human Rights Council. Cyprus is not one of those countries. Hence Cypriots on both sides of the divide do not have an explicit right to live in a healthy environment. These are just some of the problems the island faces environmentally, and they should not serve as a divisive excuse of ‘us’ versus ‘them,’ but instead, contribute to peace negotiations and discussions of shared responsibility. By aiming toward a future where we can harmonize environmental policies, Cyprus can pioneer a path toward a sustainable and resilient future that serves to benefit all its citizens, preserves the island’s biodiversity and ensures controlled development with minimal environmental risks. The journey transcends borders, echoing the principles of accountability, sustainability and partnership. Negotiation talks are critical if there is to be any progress on the island of Cyprus on any front.

Istanbul —  a home to a range of civilizations from the Byzantines to the Ottomans, an inspiration for the most beautiful songs and poems, and a bridge for connecting continents and cultures. < Back A Local's Guide to Istanbul By Selin Elif Köse November 30, 2023 Istanbul — a home to a range of civilizations from the Byzantines to the Ottomans, an inspiration for the most beautiful songs and poems, and a bridge for connecting continents and cultures. There are hundreds and thousands of ways to describe Istanbul, yet words remain inadequate for explaining the art of living in the city. Running to catch the ferry from Üsküdar to Beşiktaş, reading a book while listening to the sound of waves and seagulls, feeling the warmth of hot tea in your freezing hands and talking about Turkish politics with a random taxi driver. Not a single day is quite the same in this overcrowded but lively city. To properly experience the unique spirit of Istanbul, visiting the tourist attractions is barely enough – but don’t worry, this guide is here to help you discover the must-see parts of Istanbul from a local’s perspective. Where to Stay Taksim : Taksim, located on the European side of Istanbul, is one of the most central and lively parts of the city with its various restaurants, shops, and lively night-life. From Istiklal Avenue to the Galata Tower, this district serves as a fusion of history and modernity at the same time. Whether you take the infamous tram in Istiklal, the M2 metro line with a sea view or the funicular from the Beyoglu Tunnel, it is extremely easy to use public transportation to traverse Taksim. Taksim is also a popular spot amongst tourists thanks to its wide range of hotels. If you are looking for a historical experience and have a flexible budget, Pera Palace Hotel might be a good choice to consider. Initially built in 1892 to host passengers of the Orient Express, Pera Palace welcomed many historical figures including Shah of Iran Reza Pahlevi, King of Great Britain Edward VIII, and American First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. The hotel also has museum rooms of authors Ernest Hemingway, Agatha Christie and founder of modern Turkey Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, which are open to visit. The exterior and interior design of Pera Palace reflects the architecture of the late 19th century and the live jazz and swing music from the 1920s in the lobby takes you on a one-way trip to the past. Pera Palace is definitely one of the historical places that warrants a visit even if you are staying elsewhere. Beşiktaş: Even though it’s not as crowded as Taksim, Beşiktaş is also one of the most central areas in the European side of the city. As this district is located near the seaside, ferries are the easiest and most common public transport. Since there is no direct metro line from Beşiktaş, dependence on ferries and taxis may be a problem for a tourist staying there. Still, if you choose to stay in Beşiktaş, there is a huge selection of Airbnb options varying in price – finding an accommodation close to Akaretler Avenue would be a smart choice. Akaretler, with its renovated architectural design from the Ottoman era, is a popular neighborhood amongst local residents of Istanbul due to its variety of restaurants, coffee shops and bars. At the same time, it is close to the most important museums like the National Painting Museum, the Naval Museum and Dolmabahçe Palace. Beşiktaş is also the home for a fan-favorite football team carrying the same name. So, if you see a bunch of people in black and white jerseys chanting “Gücüne güç katmaya geldik/ Formanda ter olmaya geldik/ Beşiktaş seninle ölmeye geldik, Beşiktaş!” , don’t be scared, there probably is just a match. Just tag along with the crowd and enjoy the enthusiasm of our beloved national sport. Kadıköy: Also known as the most liberal district of Istanbul, Kadıköy is the heart of youth and free spirit. Located in the Asian side of Istanbul, it is the most popular hang-out spot for people ranging from the age of 13 to late 30s. The Street of Bars is the best place to drink beer and eat french fries on a Friday night and Moda Coastal Park is the best place to have a picnic with your friends or read a book by the sea. When searching for an Airbnb in Kadıköy, Moda will definitely be the neighborhood you would want to choose. Although it should be noted that there are not many historical monuments to visit in Kadıköy, so it’s more of a favorite spot for local residents, rather than tourists. However, it’s extremely easy to access other parts of Istanbul by ferries and metro. Must-See Places & Monuments Galata Tower & Istiklal Avenue: Galata Tower, one of the most well known symbols of Istanbul, is located in Taksim. The Turkish myth is that you will marry the person you visit the Galata Tower with, so be careful about who you take there! There usually is quite a long queue to get inside and I would say it is not worth the wait. Rather, I would recommend having dinner at a rooftop restaurant with a view of the city and Galata Tower, such as the Barnathan Cafe Brasserie or Simone Beyoğlu. Istiklal Avenue is the most lively pedestrian street of Istanbul. Just take a walk down the street and you will see various passages (Çiçek Passage, Suriye Passage, Atlas Passage, etc.), historic churches (St. Anthony of Padua Church and Roman Catholic Church of Santa Maria Draperis) and many vintage shops. However, to truly experience Taksim, just take a quick turn from Istiklal and enter a random street. The narrow streets around Istiklal are truly mesmerizing – walking around spontaneously and aimlessly is the best way to explore this district. Sultanahmet Area: The Sultanahmet area, also known as the Old City, is where most important historical landmarks are located. This area is located in Fatih district near the Sirkeci station of the Marmaray metro line. Sultanahmet can be a bit overwhelming with the huge crowds of confused tourists and stressed locals, so it is important to know your way around. I would recommend starting with Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. Hagia Sophia was originally built as Christian Church under the Byzantine Empire, but after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Mehmed II ordered it to be repurposed as a mosque. When you visit Hagia Sophia, you can notice both the Byzantine and the Ottoman architecture. Today, it is listed under the UNESCO World Heritage List just like the Blue Mosque, located directly across Hagia Sophia. After visiting these two mosques, take a four minute walk to Basilica Cistern. This newly renovated underground water reservoir has 336 columns and two Medusa Heads. It takes around 15 minutes to walk around the Cistern, but it definitely is one of the most breathtaking historic sites in Istanbul. And you cannot skip Topkapı Palace, the main residence of Sultans and the administrative center of the Ottoman Empire. Topkapı Palace Museum is famous for its collections of porcelain, robes, weapons, Ottoman miniatures, Islamic calligraphy manuscripts, jewelry and more. Moreover, it houses the most important remains of the Ottoman Empire, so you should spare at least half a day to spend in the Palace. Where to Eat: Pubs, Restaurants and Bars Çiya Sofrası: Location: Kadıköy Concept: Traditional Turkish food Recommended Food: Lahmacun Recommended Drink: Ayran (traditional yogurt drink) Minoa: Location: Beşiktaş Concept: Book store and restaurant at the same time Recommended Food: Mücver (vegan) Recommended Drink: Red Wine Varuna Gezgin: Location: Taksim Concept: A chill pub with great interior design and a menu with different cuisines around the world Recommended Food: Kajun Basket (Fried chicken with french fries) Recommended Drink: Efes Beer Karaköy Duble Meze: Location: Karaköy Concept: Dinner with rakı at first and then turns into a club after 11 pm (feel free to stand up in your chair and dance along to some 2000s Turkish pop) Recommended Food: Fixed menu of traditional meze (like tapas) Recommended Drink: Rakı (Beylerbeyi Göbek Serisi) A quick Get-Away from the City: The Prince Island It is not commonly known by tourists that Istanbul has five little islands. Whenever you are overwhelmed by the noise and the stress of the city, it is always a good idea to take a day-trip to the Prince Islands, or at least Heybeliada and Büyükada if your schedule is tight. Start your day with a hike in the forest to the Halki seminary where you will see lovely donkeys, peacocks, and horses. Then find your way through the abandoned Heybeliada Sanatorium, which was the first pandemic hospital in Turkey. After that comes the best part of the day; dinner, and by that, I mean Rakı and Balık (traditional Turkish alcohol and seafood). For that, take the ferry to Büyükada and make sure you make a reservation for Loc’ada Restaurant by the sea. With old, gloomy Turkish music, accompanied by the sound of crashing waves, Rakı Balık is the best way to bond with people on a deeper level, seeing as this whole tradition is based on trauma dumping. Believe me, you are going to feel so much better when you are drunk and running to catch the last ferry on a random Thursday night.

I was given the chance to speak to Golshifteh Farahani, an individual I grew up watching, hearing about and admiring for her courage, intellect and heart… Allow me to share accounts of perhaps the most mesmerizing conversation I have ever had the pleasure of engaging in. < Back Interviewing Iranian Actress and Activist Golshifteh Farahani By Sarina Soleymani January 31, 2023 As the new year approached, each of us partook in our own plans, spent time with friends or family, ate 12 grapes or sat under the table and celebrated what is supposed to be a new beginning. We shared the same yearly thirst for change which is indeed never quenched, at least not for most. Yet, a group of people who did immediately experience this shift was the Iranian population. On Jan. 1, 2023, six of the most influential Iranian figures created a coalition group against the Islamic Republic, an important display of solidarity with the revolution. Among them includes one exiled and noteworthy actress who refuses to stay silent and continues to shed light on the events happening in our homeland. I was given the chance to speak to Golshifteh Farahani, an individual I grew up watching, hearing about and admiring for her courage, intellect and heart. From “About Elly” to “Paterson,” Golshifteh Farahani has earned her place as a leading Iranian actress. In 2008, she was exiled from the country due to her refusal to wear the hijab during the premiere of her film “Body of Lies,” directed by Ridley Scott. Preceding the current movement in Iran, Farahani expressed that she did not publicly articulate her political opinions, which oppose the Islamic Republic. Yet, after witnessing the fearlessness of the Iranians who protested the regime following the 2022 morality police killing of Mahsa Amini, the Iranian actress was inspired to use her freedom to amplify their words, predominantly through social media. As an exiled Iranian actress living in the West, Farahani has a unique voice, encompassing not only those who have lived in Iran but also those in the diaspora contending with survivor’s guilt. Additionally, being able to share her personal experiences of being harassed by the Iranian secret service, grappling with mixed public reactions to controversies and navigating industry secrets provides her with a unique perspective. Therefore, allow me to share accounts of perhaps the most mesmerizing conversation I have ever had the pleasure of engaging in. Soleymani : Considering your work in the film industry and your political activism, do you believe that film and politics are intertwined? If so, how do you believe that your role in film contributes to this, and when did you first become aware of this intersection? Farahani : Following a short pause, she replied, “Well, I think you must know. You are Iranian. Your life is very intertwined with politics without even wanting it to be. When you are born, you are born into a politics which you don’t even know about, but, you are part of. Same, as another Iranian, I was born and raised in Iran (...). The theocracy became part of our existence: wearing the hijab since you are six to go to school, not being able to sing, watching your parents have to fight for their existence, and so becoming part of that fight.” This is a common phenomenon felt across the Iranian population, as my friends and family in Iran, myself included, have felt the burden of having an inherently political identity, both on the global and domestic stage. Yet, somehow her explicit acknowledgment and voicing of said burden was particularly striking. Indeed, within this fight — as she explained to me — art becomes crucial, acting as political statements instead of merely creative outlets. Actions that may not be considered political elsewhere become political in the Iranian context. Farahani elaborated, “If you are a woman singing in Europe, you are just a woman singing, but in Iran, that act becomes a political act. I also realized that whatever we are and whatever we do as artists, whether we like it or not, becomes political, especially as women, because our existence is a position; we are opposing something when we are born.” S : I have noticed that Iranian women are often presented in one of two ways: as pitiful/repressed beings in need of being saved by the West or as side characters whose sole purposes in life are to submit to religion or the male protagonist. Do you feel similarly, and do you believe that there is a discrepancy between how Iranian women are portrayed abroad and in Iranian media? F : “The media, both ways, are always trying to make things black and white. They don’t like the middle way — the grayness of life. Especially the media in Iran, which is like propaganda, a staged media which is trying to show things that are absolutely theater scenes. Not even so, because most theater scenes are honest when this one is not. The goal of the Islamic Republic is to portray Iran as very Islamic.” However, she pointed out that they have lost this battle with the presence of social media as it allowed a window into the real Iran, the living habits of the younger generation and their true interests. In the same way, Iranian cinema, with the emergence of directors such as Kia Rostami, who have put a spotlight on the Iranian countryside to the Oscar-winning metropolitan wave, notably the works of Asghar Farhadi. “I think a reason that Iranian cinema became so popular is that it was one of the only representations of Iran with image and sound that actually wasn’t part of the media (...).” Her words indicated the irony that Iranian cinema contradicted messages that the media tried to push within their portrayals of mundane interactions of Iranian daily life, that “in Iran, we are not going around in camels, we listen to the same music.” The significance of Iranian cinema boils down to allowing Iran to be discussed outside of political tensions with other countries, sparking curiosity in our culture and almost humanizing the perception of the Iranian people, which in turn allows greater empathy to be given to our cause. Farahani has several recollections of her time in Iran. One striking memory occurred when she was young — she used to shave her head and pretend to be a boy, a seemingly drastic act of rebellion that would allow her the simple pleasure of playing basketball. Once I broached this with her, she replied: “I think it is funny that you mention that because when you are born in a very harsh climate, the only way to survive is to be brave. Because, in a harsh climate, say the North Pole or the Desert, where the environment is neither convenient nor normal, you need to have certain abilities to survive as a human or as an animal. Literally as an animal. You need to take risks because you cannot have food if you don’t take risks. In the same way, in Iran, when you are born under a dictatorship, your existence depends on certain bravery. Otherwise, you somehow give in, and you rot in (fear). If you want to live the life you want, you must take risks, and those risks could be perceived as bravery, but for us, it is just how we survive. For me, I only realized they call me a rebel when I left Iran. In Iran, I was a normal teenager just breaking limits because only certain laws, I believe, have to be respected — only the laws that make sense and are logical.” She related this survival instinct to the bravery of young people today in Iran — those who take to the streets, who are ready to sacrifice their lives for the freedom of others, who dare to post on their social media, aware that doing so could be fatal. While admiring the courage of the modern youth, she notes, “as a teenager, life is something you can play with much more easily. I’m not sure how to explain it because I was at that age where I would play with my life, but now I would not do what I used to do.” S: As somebody who works within the film industry, what insight could you offer regarding censorship in Iran? F : “Censorship comes under the great umbrella of theocracy (...) it becomes a part of that law where you constantly have to become more creative to find ways to break it. The thing is that nothing in Iran will stop people from doing what they want to do — impossible is the only impossible that we can imagine,” Farahani expanded that making something off-limits would only make us want to show it more. That rebellion is in Iranian blood, giving examples of how Iranian cinema always found methods to break censorship. For instance, physical intimacy between couples is highly censored, and Farahani highlighted how instead of showing couples kissing on film, “in some movies you can see the man biting an apple and moving the apple to the woman and the woman biting the apple.” This was a reference to her own film, Boutique — a fact she left out during the interview. Nonetheless, Farahani also warned about the danger of breaking censorship rules, namely in reference to the deadly nature of recent protests. S: Considering the high toll of censorship in Iran, how should the international community support them? Are they doing enough, and what more could they be doing? F : “The international community came in very late, almost two months after hundreds of people were killed, arrested, tortured, raped…The great feminists of the world came very late, but of course, it is never too late, and they are always welcome. We have a very ingrained fear of foreign influence inside Iran because whenever they did something inside Iran, it was always a mess, and it was never for the benefit of the people, like the 1953 coup d’état against Mossadegh or even the Iranian Revolution. So the only thing the foreign community can do is outside of Iran; they cannot interfere inside Iran, but they can ban Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and they can ban all the people who crackdown on the people of Iran. Those people should be banned from the world and shouldn’t live so easily outside of Iran. We need to put as much pressure on the Islamic Republic — because now we find that Iran is being held hostage by the Islamic Republic. We need to squeeze them outside of Iran so they cannot do business and easily live in foreign countries. They have a lot of investments elsewhere; they took the country’s money outside of Iran. We need to find and ban (Islamic Republic officials’ funds), literally exile the people who have created hell in Iran to where they came from.” On Dec. 17, 2022, another Iranian actress, Taraneh Alidoosti, was arrested for courageously publishing herself on Instagram without wearing a hijab and publicly supporting the movement. Before her arrest and immediately following her post, Golshifteh Farahani also posted on Instagram supporting Alidoosti and expressing that she feels hopeful for Iran. Her hope is founded in the notion that when Farahani took off her hijab in 2008, she was confronted by reactions of disappointment, yet in 2022, Alidoosti was applauded. I told her I had only encountered Iran in a more contemporary context and, coming from bustling Tehran, I had more exposure to this open-minded side of Iran. I asked her if she believed whether my Iran is different from the one she left 15 years ago. “The main difference is that when I left, Generation Z was four, five, six and now they are 17, 18, 19 — teenagers and young adults.” She explained that this generation and the possibility that they can live in a free Iran is the motivating factor that inspires her to spread awareness and join the fight. Farahani also highlighted social media’s positive role, which mounts Iran on the global stage. S : When it comes to such a turbulent political movement, what do you consider deserves the most attention and is there anything you would like to shed light on? F : After a pause of reflection, she articulated, “every part of it: the people in prisons, the people killed, raped, tortured, those who lost their eye [referencing Ghazal Ranjkesh—a girl from Bandar Abas of Iran was shot in the eye by security forces after coming home from four hours of class and nine hours of work], artists such as Toomaj Salehi, who is close to facing execution. The tragedy is a humanitarian crisis but, because it is happening in the geopolitically complex region of the Middle East, it is not getting enough attention which makes us powerless when we do everything in our power.” S : To perhaps end on a lighter note, do you have any film recommendations for the readers? F : “Patience Stone.” Brilliantly following the story of a woman in Afghanistan who sets herself free, Farahani finds the story told in this film deserving to be heard and explains that she often follows the theme of women’s emancipation in her movies. Golshifteh Farahani provided brilliant insight into not just our country’s history and the evolution of social mindsets but also the distinction between media, cinema and tools used by directors to escape censorship. She even taught me about some shared experiences within the Iranian identity. This exchange fuelled hope that humble, intelligent and empathetic figures like herself can guide and shape the narratives needed to ensure that our upcoming revolution will be successful.

The critical state of Lebanon’s cultural sites calls for the international community to guarantee the preservation of cultural heritage as a crucial component of peace processes and post-conflict resilience. < Back Lebanon’s Cultural Heritage at Risk: How International Frameworks Attempt to Safeguard It Saimi Hartikainen for MEDMUN November 30, 2024 The escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has had a destructive impact on the lives of millions. Since October 2023, Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed over 3,000 and displaced an estimated 1.2 million people. Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel have led to the death of 72 people, with more than 60,000 displaced in Northern Israel. In addition to the tragedies inflicted upon human lives, international concerns have been raised over the state of Lebanon’s cultural sites. On October 23, Israel launched air strikes on Tyre, known as ‘Sour’ in Arabic, one of the cities with the oldest, continuous human habitation in the world. The strikes have continued in nearby areas in southern Lebanon. On October 30, Israel targeted the ancient city of Baalbek, known for its unique Roman citadel. The attacks on Baalbek have since damaged three historical buildings, including the Gouraud Barracks and the Palmyra Hotel, in the proximity of the Roman temples. The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has classified both cities as World Heritage sites. Damages to these cultural sites fracture Lebanese history for the country’s identity, further disrupting cultural continuity and collective memory in times of crisis. These events and their consequences have thus raised alarm domestically and globally, positioning international protection frameworks of cultural heritage in the spotlight. UNESCO’s classification of World Heritage sites attributes ‘cultural heritage’ with “outstanding universal value from the historical, aesthetic, ethnological or anthropological point of view.” UNESCO has nominated both Tyre and Baalbek based on different criteria : Tyre , the antique Phoenician metropole that ruled the Mediterranean and founded the colonies of Cadiz and Carthage, is home to ruins from the Roman period. It fulfills UNESCO’s criterion III of being “a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared” and criterion VI of being “directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs… of outstanding universal significance.” Baalbek , the Phoenician city that maintained its religious significance throughout the Hellenistic and Roman periods is considered to comply with criterion I of “represent(ing) a masterpiece of human creative genius” and criterion IV of being “an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history.” UNESCO pays special attention to safeguarding World Heritage sites as it considers that they constitute a foundation that can be later used “to rebuild a broken community, re-establish its identity, and link its past with its present and future.” These considerations illustrate the potential of international frameworks for the protection of cultural heritage in Lebanon. The crucial need for protection of cultural sites was echoed by Lebanese lawmakers who noted that it “ goes beyond physical preservation; it is about safeguarding the traditions, stories and values these sites represent, legacies that connect our past to our future.” Indeed, cultural heritage sites act as a material reminder of the historical phases of a country and its civilization. They function as points of reference for understanding one’s position in the world and the historical advancements made as a people. These shared experiences and memories foster a clearer sense of community and identity, anchoring a people to a place. Cultural heritage can also attract tourism and bring about economic opportunities, thus serving as a platform for sharing cultural experiences and livelihoods. In addition to the cultural, social and economic value heritage sites generate for local societies, they also enrich humankind. Destruction or damage of cultural sites hence “ impoverishes humankind.” Since cultural heritage is an integral part of national identity, offenses on a nation’s sovereignty are often accompanied by attacks on culture. Israel has been accused of targeting Lebanon’s cultural heritage, a charge that Israel has denied, and instead claimed that its strikes have been aimed at Hezbollah targets in nearby areas. Experts have warned that strikes might hit off-target and unintentionally damage important cultural sites. Either way, the impact on Lebanon’s collective memories and identity is shattering in case of such strikes succeeding. UNESCO and other international actors thus aim to protect World Heritage sites through a variety of international frameworks. The Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, known as the 1954 Hague Convention, commits states to preventive measures against damage to cultural heritage in conflict and to “refraining from any use of the property and its immediate surroundings… in the event of armed conflict” and “from any act of hostility, directed against such property.” The 1999 Second Protocol to the Convention established the notion of ‘ enhanced protection,’ under which World Heritage sites shall be granted “high level immunity from military attacks as well as threats of making it a military target.” Lebanon has appealed to UNESCO for a swift process of inscribing the country’s Heritage sites under enhanced protection in light of the recent near-misses of Israeli strikes. UNESCO will discuss this in an extraordinary meeting in Paris on November 18. The agency is assisting local authorities in the transportation of World Heritage site artifacts to safety and has conducted remote assessments of the damage caused to the cultural sites. Lebanese lawmakers have noted the urgency of “the protection of these historic sites by mobilizing UNESCO’s authority, securing international attention and advocating for protective measures.” Ideally, UNESCO’s efforts will guarantee physical protection of the sites and raise international awareness that puts global pressure on the initiation of a peace process. However, the effectiveness of UNESCO’s work has previously been questioned . In 2019, Israel withdrew from the organization along with the United States, accusing the organization of anti-Israel bias. UNESCO had previously criticized Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem and, in 2011, made Palestine a member of the agency. Following this, Israel and the US stopped paying the required fees to UNESCO, signaling reluctance towards contributing to UNESCO’s mission of preserving culturally significant property. Due to such handicaps of UNESCO, some experts put their faith in other international bodies, such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The Court set a global precedent in a 2021 Armenia v. Azerbaijan landmark case that attributed destruction of cultural heritage with racial discrimination under the Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Hence, the international community is working slowly but steadily towards better protection of cultural heritage and accountability of actors. The Israel-Hezbollah conflict has, without doubt, put Lebanon’s cultural heritage at risk, with World Heritage sites such as Tyre and Baalbek suffering damages that have raised grave concern over their significance for national identity as well as humankind’s collective memory and heritage. International frameworks aim to provide protection of these sites, highlighting their importance and the responsibilities of states. For example, UNESCO is considering placing Lebanon’s sites under enhanced protection. However, the effectiveness of these frameworks has come under question amid geopolitical tensions, as demonstrated by Israel’s retreat from UNESCO. The critical state of Lebanon’s cultural sites calls for the international community to guarantee the preservation of cultural heritage as a crucial component of peace processes and post-conflict resilience.

Dans son ouvrage Arab Cinema : History and Cultural Identity (1998), Viola Shafik affirme que l’Egypte était le premier pays arabe à produire une industrie cinématographique dont la production était supérieure, en quantité, à celui des autres nations arabes. < Back Quand le Caire faisait rêver le monde arabe, l’âge d’or du cinéma égyptien. Habiba Lala November 11, 2025 Dans son ouvrage Arab Cinema : History and Cultural Identity (1998), Viola Shafik affirme que l’Egypte était le premier pays arabe à produire une industrie cinématographique dont la production était supérieure, en quantité, à celui des autres nations arabes. Surnommé le ‘Hollywood sur le Nil,’ le cinéma égyptien demeure, en termes de production et de popularité, le plus influent du monde arabe. Pendant trois décennies, du milieu des années 1930 à la fin des années 1960, les écrans du monde arabe étaient dominés par le cinéma cairote. D’Alger à Damas, les mélodrames, les chansons d’Oum Kalthoum, et les performances de Faten Hamama rythment le quotidien des spectateurs du monde arabe. Mais cette effervescence ne relevait pas d’un simple divertissement. Le cinéma égyptien joue un rôle à part entière dans la formation des imaginaires collectifs, dans la diffusion de valeurs sociales et dans la construction d’une identité arabe partagée. Une ambition nationale et industrielle L’essor du cinéma égyptien repose sur deux principales fondations. D’une part, elle s’explique par une volonté économique nationale de bâtir une industrie culturelle. D’autre part, elle incarne une aspiration panarabe pour rassembler le monde arabe autour d’un langage symbolique commun. En 1935, Talaat Harb, fondateur de la Banque Misr, crée le studio Misr, premier studio national qui vise à rompre avec la dépendance culturelle européenne et à rivaliser avec les importations hollywoodiennes afin d’affirmer la souveraineté culturelle de l'Egypte. Au-delà d’être un studio de production, Misr est une véritable école technique : Harb fait appel à des équipements et des techniciens allemands et français pour former les premières équipes locales tout en envoyant les jeunes Egyptiens étudier la cinématographie a l’étranger. Le premier film à être produit sera Wedad en 1936, dans lequel jouera la légendaire chanteuse Oum Kalthoum, déjà célèbre et qui instaurera la tradition égyptienne des stars cinéma au centre de l’intrigue, souvent bien plus importantes que l'histoire. C’est une tendance qui se poursuivra avec des chanteurs et chanteuses de renom qui seront placés au centre de l’intrigue tels que Abdel Halim Hafez, Asmahan, El Atrach… Dès la fin des années 1930, les réalisateurs souhaitent refléter une société égyptienne authentique. Le film fondateur de cette période est Al-Azima , considéré comme le premier film social réaliste du monde arabe. En décrivant la vie quotidienne d’un jeune couple de la classe moyenne cairote, il pose les bases d’un cinéma ancré dans la réalité sociale et porteur d' un idéal d'émancipation. Représenter de manière authentique l'Egypte passe également par la langue, c’est pourquoi le dialecte égyptien ( amiyya ) s’impose majoritairement dans le cinéma cairote. Son usage, en particulier dans sa forme cairote, conférait aux dialogues un ton naturel, familier pour une meilleure identification du public aux personnages afin de renforcer le réalisme recherché par les cinéastes. Par ailleurs, la musique constitue un lien culturel entre l’Egypte et le reste du monde arabe en facilitant l'exportation régionale des films égyptiens. Ainsi, dès les années 1940 et 1950, l'Egypte exporte ses films vers le Liban, la Syrie, la Tunisie et le Maroc, loin de viser un public européen. L’industrie est colossale : alors qu’elle produisait annuellement une vingtaine de films au début des années 40, à partir de 1948, avec la création de six nouveaux studios, la production moyenne s’élève désormais à environ 50 productions annuelles. Du miroir social à la conscience politique. La puissance industrielle est indissociable d’un projet civilisationnel : A travers ses films, l’Egypte diffuse une vision de la modernité arabe. Les personnages des films de Henry Barakat, Abou Seif et Kamal Selim, incarnent les tensions et les espoirs d’une société en mutation avec des motifs qui reviennent souvent : la mère qui symbolise la patrie, la femme moderne qui est le visage de la vertu, l’homme travailleur qui devient l’archétype de la dignité. L’écran devient alors un ou outil de formation morale et de fierté collective où l’identité arabe se pense et s'invente. Sous l'influence du néoréalisme italien et du climat révolutionnaire installé par Nasser, le cinéma égyptien devient un outil critique et politique. Dans Gare Centrale, Youssef Chahine raconte la vie d' un vendeur de journal handicapé et marginalisé qui est obsédé par une vendeuse de boissons dans une gare du Caire. Par ce drame intime, le réalisateur pointe du doigt la marginalité et la misère des classes populaires. Le cinéma de cette période met également en avant la figure du féminisme comme symbole de modernité. Par exemple, Doa Al Karawan , film de Henry Barjat dans lequel joue Faten Hanama, raconte la rebellion d’une femme contre l’ordre patriarcal. Ce récit incarne un tournant majeur du cinéma arabe où la femme n’est plus simplement un objet de désir ou une figure maternelle : elle est un sujet sensible, actrice de sa propre libération. Ces films participent à la construction d’une conscience collective arabe. Chahine y associe le mélodrame, genre populaire par excellence, à une réflexion idéologique sur la justice sociale, la nation, l’identité et le genre. Le cinéma de cette époque n’est pas neutre, il s’engage dans la représentation des luttes, des espoirs et des contradictions d’une société en pleine transformation. Quand l’art se heurte au pouvoir politique, la fin d’un rêve La révolution de 1952 et l’avènement du régime de Gamal Abdel Nasser ouvrent une nouvelle ère pour le cinéma égyptien. Conscient du pouvoir culturel de l’image, Nasser entreprend de faire du cinéma un instrument de cohésion et de rayonnement régional. Dès 1956, la nationalisation partielle du secteur bancaire, dont la banque Misr propriétaire du studio éponyme, permet à l'État de prendre le contrôle des principaux moyens de production cinématographique. Cette politique s'amplifie en 1961 avec la création de l’Organisation générale du cinéma qui centralise la production, la distribution et l’exploitation des films. Cette structure étatique absorbe également les studios tels que le Studio Misr, Al Ahram Studio et Giza studio qui sont intégrés dans un réseau placé sous tutelle du ministère de la culture. Cette intervention étatique garantissait une stabilité financière et culturelle mais elle imposait une censure préalable et un contrôle idéologique strict aligné sur les valeurs du socialisme arabe et du nationalisme nassérien. Face à ces nouvelles contraintes, les cinéastes apprennent donc à contourner la censure par la métaphore et le symbolique. Youssef Chahine est excellent dans cet art : avec Al-Asfour en 1972, il dépeint la désillusion d' une génération confrontée à la corruption et à la faillite morale du pouvoir à travers des plans symboliques (cafés, espaces clos, …) et des dialogues ambigus; les histoires intimes sont des allégories politiques… Ainsi, la censure conduit paradoxalement à l'enrichissement du langage cinématographique où les cinéastes doivent perfectionner l’art du sous-entendu. La guerre de 1967 marque un tournant. Le panarabisme s’effrite, la confiance en l'État décline et le cinéma égyptien, qui était autrefois le symbole d’unité, reflète désormais les fractures d’une société désenchantée. La bureaucratisation du secteur, la montée de la télévision et la fuite des capitaux privés entraînent un déclin progressif de la production. L’ouverture économique ( Infitah) lancée par Anouar el Sadate dans les années 1970, introduit de nouveaux modèles de financement. Il favorise surtout un cinéma commercial plus léger et moins engagé socialement. La grande époque du cinéma réaliste et politique s'achève et laisse place à une industrie davantage tournée vers la comédie et le divertissement populaire. Ainsi, ce que le Caire a offert au monde arabe n’a jamais été qu'un simple divertissement. Il s’agissait d'un véritable laboratoire culturel et politique. Durant cet âge d’or d'un Hollywood sur le Nil , le cinéma égyptien a su allier ambition industrielle, réalisme social et engagement idéologique pour donner naissance à des œuvres qui reflètent les espoirs, tensions et contradictions d’une société en mutation. Dans son ouvrage Popular Egyptian Cinema: Gender, Class, and Nation (2006) ,Viola Shafik affirme que c’est la capacité à produire des significations culturelles et sociopolitiques qui confère au cinéma un intérêt en tant que champ d’étude.C’est à travers les images, les stars, les musiques et les symboliques que le Caire a façonné une conscience collective arabe. Même confronté à la censure, à la bureaucratisation et au déclin du panarabisme, cet âge d'or laisse un héritage durable, celui du cinéma qui articule l'identité, la mémoire et la politique d'une nation. Photo Source: ل م يكن في الحسبان : flickr , author: Zeinab Mohamed

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. < Back The Invisible Wars: Yemen, Sudan, and the Selective Outrage of the World Amena Elkayal 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. Some conflicts dominate global headlines for months, shape foreign policy debates, saturate our screens and even household conversations. Others, equally brutal and equally tragic, barely surface. Yemen and Sudan stand among the world’s worst humanitarian disasters of our time, yet they remain trapped on the margins of global attention. Their absence reflects a deeper hierarchy of suffering, one where geopolitical interest, emotional convenience and media priorities determine whose suffering is worthier of visibility. When wars are not seen, they are unfelt. And when they are unfelt, they are abandoned. Since April 2023, Sudan has recorded more than 20,000 deaths and 4.9 million displaced people. That is besides 25 milions facing hunger and at least 36 women and girls raped only between April 2023 and October 2024. Yemen, meanwhile, has seen at least 1,742 civilians killed since late 2022, alongside 4.8 million internally displaced people and 17.1 million people living in acute food insecurity. Despite these figures you could count on one hand the number of times you’ve stumbled upon these crises in global headlines—especially when measured against the omnipresent coverage of Gaza or Ukraine. The inequality of attention becomes impossible to ignore. To readers around the world, Sudan and Yemen’s violence often feels distant, confusing, or inaccessible—and that is partly by design. These conflicts are frequently described as “invisible wars”, a label rooted in the chronic absence of sustained human-centered coverage. Yemen, for example, receives consistently low global media attention. This pattern is documented by outlets such as the BBC, who examined why the country’s humanitarian catastrophe fails to appear in headlines. Humanitarian agencies operating in both countries have long warned that donor fatigue, shrinking aid budgets and the near-impossibility of accessing active conflict zones make it difficult to draw global attention to unfolding crises. Doctors Without Borders note that in Sudan, warring factions regularly restrict the movement of aid workers and journalists Further, they frequently cut communications, diminishing visibility in international media. The result is that these wars become “uncoverable,” and therefore, unseen. By contrast, conflicts like in Ukraine and Palestine receive sustained attention, while Sudan and Yemen fall into a blind spot shaped by power dynamics rather than humanitarian urgency. This is not because the former conflicts are inherently “more tragic”, but because they benefit from clearer political narratives, stronger advocacy networks and direct Western involvement. Wars that intersect with Western foreign policy priorities are more likely to receive sustained attention and sympathy than those unfolding in regions perceived as geopolitically peripheral. Coverage follows power. Outrage follows proximity. And empathy follows the stories people are given the chance to see. Analyses of global news patterns repeatedly show how conflicts tied to Western interests remain amplified, while others quietly fade into the background, marked by a general feeling of less humanitarian urgency. The imbalance is staggering. Media monitoring platform Meltware found that between Jan. 1 and Sep. 30, 2022, Ukraine received five times more media coverage than all ten of the most dangerous conflict zones for children combined. Sudan— now considered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis—occupies only a narrow and fragile space in international news reporting. This isn’t just a media gap; it’s a moral one. Emotional engagement itself is greatly shaped by the narratives people encounter. An article by Prismreports.org points out how the public’s capacity to care is directly influenced by the stories they are offered: when journalists don’t cover these wars, audiences don’t feel them. And when audiences don’t feel them, governments don’t act. Silence becomes distance. Distance breeds apathy. The consequences are not abstract. They are fatal. In Sudan, most hospitals in active conflict zones have collapsed or shut down, leaving entire cities without medical care. In Yemen, famine, cholera outbreaks, and widespread infrastructure collapse continue unabated, as detailed by the U.N.’s humanitarian updates. Despite the severity of these crises, the flow of aid remains insufficient and inconsistent—an outcome that might result from their invisibility . The disparity becomes even more glaring through the legal and humanitarian lens presented by Opinio Juris . Their analysis shows that Sudan’s civil war, which resumed in April 2023, has resulted in more than 150,000 deaths, displaced over 12 million people and left nearly half of its population facing famine. Across the African continent, over 45 million people were displaced by conflict in 2024 alone—an astonishing 14% increase from the previous year—yet these crises rarely dominate international headlines. This selective attention creates a “hierarchy of suffering,” where victims of high-profile wars are perceived as more deserving of empathy than those trapped in the invisible conflicts of the global south . Data from the 2025 Global Peace Index confirms these patterns. Vision of Humanity report that civil conflicts—like those in Yemen and Sudan— receive dramatically less coverage than interstate wars. On average, interstate conflicts generate roughly 870 news articles per civilian death, while intrastate conflicts (which make up the majority of global wars) generate only 37. The least visible are internationalised intrastate conflicts, at just 18 articles per civilian death. Notably, even when comparing 2014 coverage, the Gaza war and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict received far more attention than the Central African Republic’s civil war, despite the latter experiencing higher mortality rates. This disparity does not arise in a vacuum. While the imbalance is stark, it is also shaped by the geographic and political orientation of major news organisations: the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as a European war, directly implicates European security, economies, and populations—the primary audience these outlets serve. The pattern nonetheless endures: attention follows geopolitical proximity and interest more readily than human need. The report also highlights rising negativity in news consumption, audience fatigue from long-term crises, and a growing tendency to avoid emotionally draining topics—all of which contribute to the systematic erasure of certain wars from public consciousness. Addressing this erasure requires far more than fleeting sympathy. Humanitarian groups like CARE note that sustaining global attention demands innovative media strategies. For example, local partnerships, long-form reporting and storytelling rooted in lived experience rather than abstract geopolitics. Coverage that prioritizes people over politics can counter public fatigue, a point echoed across reports from NPR, showing how individual narratives can revive empathy. Similarly, analyses by the International Crisis Group call for increased foreign aid, renewed focus on forgotten conflicts, and diplomatic pressure tied to civilian protection. Media watchdogs such as the Committee to Protect Journalists urge deeper investigative work and collaboration with local reporters who can safely document realities on the ground. Advocacy organizations including Human Rights Watch add that supporting grassroots campaigns and independent digital platforms—especially those operating from within Sudan and Yemen—is essential to bypass censorship and ensure these wars are not erased simply because they fall outside geopolitical priorities. Because at its core, selective outrage isn’t just a failure of the press. It is a failure of our shared moral imagination. Yemen and Sudan are not invisible because their people are less worthy of empathy. They are invisible because the world has chosen to look elsewhere. If international law, governments, the media and global institutions are to retain integrity and maintain any moral consistency, they must dismantle the hierarchy of suffering that governs which lives are seen and which are allowed to simply fade into silence. Every war demands to be witnessed. Every victim deserves to be mourned. Until all human suffering is met with equal urgency, justice will remain uneven and peace will remain painfully out of reach. The world cannot claim ignorance. It can claim only silence. And silence, in these wars, kills . Photo Source: UNMISS, Flickr

Le désir d’aller contre tous les pronostics, de rendre fier tout un campus, de montrer que le cholismo n’est pas mort, en bref ; montrer aux yeux du monde (ou au moins quelques centaines de sciencepistes) que oui, Menton n’est pas mort, Menton ne baissera pas la tête, Menton va rivaliser et bien plus que cela, que nous n’avons jamais été aussi forts qu’aujourd’hui, plus qu’hier et moins que demain. < Back Association Feature: l'Équipe de Foot By Samy El Maloui April 29, 2022 Le bruit du ballon en cuir qui roule sur le terrain synthétique. Les éclats de voix, pour exprimer la désapprobation face à un geste raté ou l’émerveillement suivant un dribble chaloupé. La sueur stigmate de l’engagement des joueurs sur le pré (ou le cardio aberrant de certains, mais c’est un autre sujet). Les premiers automatismes qui se forgent et les premières affinités qui se créent. Le temps était doux en cette soirée qui marque la fin du mois d’août et tout doucement celle de l’été. La semaine d’intégration, les rencontres entre 1A et 2A (voire 3A un peu trop accrochés à la perle de la french riviera), l’agitation estudiantine dans la cité mentonnaise, mais surtout, la reprise de la pratique du sport roi pour les lions des Alpes. La rareté du fait donne de la valeur à la chose. Après quasiment un an d’arrêt en raison d’une pandémie qui avait mis un terme dès octobre 2020 à la rencontre, à l’interaction, au contact, à la vie en somme. Mais enfin, c’était le moment. Nous étions fringants. Après deux mois de vacances où certains traînèrent leurs carcasses à Dubaï et d’autres en Franche-Comté (grand respect pour le Football Club de Sochaux Montbéliard nonobstant), les mines étaient pleinement revitalisées, les jambes fourmillantes à l’idée d’un objectif. Le seul, l’unique, celui qui prenait toute la place dans les esprits et surtout celui du néo-capitaine : le Minicrit. Devenu un mythe pour certains, la compétition fétiche des campus de Sciences Po avait semblé avoir disparu pendant deux longues années estampillé COVID-19. Les joueurs étaient donc logiquement surmotivés à l’idée de se frotter aux dijonnais, havrais, nancéiens, parisiens, poitevins et autres rémois. Mais avant cette perspective excitante, il s’agissait de s’entraîner dur pour arriver prêt et ne pas être frauduleux à Nancy, ville d’accueil du Minicrit pour cette année. Ainsi s'enchaînèrent les séances, montrant le talent exacerbé de certains, destinés aux plus grandes carrières mais qui se retrouvaient sur ce terrain de foot à 5 miteux dans une ville peuplée en majorité de vieillards séniles. Les semaines passèrent, au gré du passage au temps automnal puis hivernal, l’obscurité de la nuit qui arrivait de plus en plus tôt, la présence de certains qui se faisaient de plus en rare, en corrélation avec le froid mordant qui avait remplacé la brise chaleureuse de l’été révolu. Le mois de novembre marquait un match contre l’école de commerce niçoise de l’IPAG dont vous connaissez sûrement l’épilogue : rappelons que ces cuistres de futurs dévots à la start-up nation ne méritaient sûrement pas de l’emporter mais sans rancune, nous avions un joueur de champ et accessoirement danseur émérite dans les buts. Mais alors que l’année battait son plein et que nous nous approchions tout doucement de la fin du premier semestre, un constat clair et net s’imposait dans les esprits. Pourquoi diable ne pourrait-on pas s’entraîner sur le non moins célèbre stade Lucien Rhein, celui-là même que El Pibe de Oro, Diego Maradona, avait foulé de ses pas en mai 1995 ? Notre capitaine, fort de ses talents de persuasion et négociation, se lançait alors dans ce qui serait un bras de fer avec celle-dont-on-ne-doit-pas-citer-le-nom, la terrible, l’infernale, la coriace… administration. Par respect pour ses membres qui ne sont pas tous à blâmer dans cette affaire, nous utiliserons uniquement ce terme plus général désignant l’institution à l’origine de tous nos atermoiements. S’enchainèrent un premier mail, deux mails, trois mails, quarante, deux-cent cinquante, trois-mille quarante… mais toujours pas de réponse satisfaisante et la lassitude commençait tout doucement à faire son lit. L’administration ne semblait pas vouloir répondre à nos revendications légitimes, celles de perpétuer l’héritage pré-Covid de nos prédécesseurs qui s'entraînaient lors des matinées du cinquième jour de la semaine. Le créneau était même en temps normal entièrement alloué à cet effet alors que nous avions, pour notre part, l’obligation d’assister à des cours plus ou moins monotones. Alors que l’espoir semblait mort et enterré, et que le rêve de se mouvoir sur le terrain synthétique du plus beau stade de la ville s’éloignait de plus en plus, le deuxième semestre avait apporté son lot de miracles. Malheureusement, M. Amouri n'était pas toujours pas venu nous gratifier de ses talents intergénérationnels sur le terrain mais nous avions enfin eu des échos positifs et obtenu un créneau après tous ces efforts. Nous allions enfin pouvoir avoir accès à ce qui semblait être l’impossible, avec un entraîneur spécialement réquisitionné pour nous afin de nous préparer dans les meilleures conditions pour le Minicrit. Après de nombreux aléas et imprévus, qui ne l’étaient parfois pas vraiment, nous nous retrouvions dans une position difficile avec de nombreux absents avant cette compétition. Mais qu’à cela tienne ! Nous étions motivés, ragaillardis, prêts à croiser le fer avec des Dijonnais inconnus, des Poitevins forts de leur préparation digne d’une équipe professionnelle avec de (très) nombreux matchs de préparations (en même temps, que peut-on faire de mieux à Poitiers…) et des Havrais que nous étions prêts à rétamer, pour leur montrer que la mer Méditerranée sera toujours meilleure que la Manche. Face à toutes les difficultés que nous avions pu rencontrer cette année spéciale, nous avions toujours cette fougue au fond de nous, celle du feu sacré. Le désir d’aller contre tous les pronostics, de rendre fier tout un campus, de montrer que le cholismo n’est pas mort, en bref ; montrer aux yeux du monde (ou au moins quelques centaines de sciencepistes) que oui, Menton n’est pas mort, Menton ne baissera pas la tête, Menton va rivaliser et bien plus que cela, que nous n’avons jamais été aussi forts qu’aujourd’hui, plus qu’hier et moins que demain. « Le sport va chercher la peur pour la dominer, la fatigue pour en triompher, la difficulté pour la vaincre. » Pierre de Coubertin

< Back Eulogy to Joy Kerem Demir Karahan April 12, 2026 In March 2025, the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, revealed to the world that American national-security officers discussed highly classified information in a group chat in which he was accidentally included. While American media focused on whether the leak risked American lives, European leaders got the chance to see how America’s most powerful talked about Europe behind closed doors. Vice-president JD Vance, texted on the group chat “I just hate bailing Europe out again.” when discussing the potential strike on Houthi forces. Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, for his part called “European free-loading” “PATHETIC”. Across the Atlantic, it was not news that Trump held Europe in low regard. It was however news how gleefully the Administration talked about the continent behind closed doors. In an interview with Politico in September 2025, Trump called the European countries a “decaying” group of nations with “weak” leaders. He bluntly declared that Europe is clueless in the face of global turmoil, saying that “Europe doesn’t know what to do.” The White House’s new National Security Strategy (NSS), published in November 2025, went further, saying that Europe is in a “civilizational erasure” because of uncontrolled migration, limits on free speech and its regulations undermining creativity. Luuk van Middelaar, writing for Le Monde, said that America has started “ideological assault” against Europe with the NSS. For their part, European leaders refuted this characterization of a dormant Europe. Emmanuel Macron wrapped himself in Gaullism, championing French independence from American influence. On March 2nd the French président jupitérien declared at Ile Longue, home of the French naval nuclear arsenal, that he wants “Europeans to regain control of their own destiny,” acknowledging the fact that Europe has grown too dependent on the United States. Earlier in 2025, Macron had said that Trump was the “electroshock” Europe needed to awake from its 30-year-long self-induced sleep of “strategic dependence.” While Macron took Trump’s comments as a wake-up call, other leaders across Europe went on to deny Trump’s claims. Kaja Kallas, the European High Representative for Foreign Affairs, said that “ ‘Woke Europe’ [is] not facing civilisational erasure”; Ursula von der Leyen and Friedrich Merz joined her in highlighting Europe’s importance for the United States. Donald Trump’s view on Europe is not completely wrong. Europe perhaps is not facing “civilizational decline” or is “PATHETIC,” but its role in the global order is fading and its economies are facing an incredible test in the coming years. Europe, accustomed to its long dinners paired with specialty wine, is too focused on the plate to see what lies ahead. The European economic system for too long relied on three simple postulates: cheap exports to China, cheap energy from Russia and cheap security from the United States. First, China became competitive both internally and internationally with European companies. German automakers, the engine that turned Germany into Europe’s largest economy, benefitted from exports to countries such as China, Japan and Russia. However, China’s rapid rise in the automobile industry starting from the early 2010s put German automakers who could not compete with the low prices in a hard position. Companies like BMW, symbols of German economic success, began to scale back local production, contributing to higher rates of unemployment in the country. Germany’s trade surplus began to erode and the German automobile industry began to rely on high tariffs on Chinese imports to stay competitive within the European market. Across Europe, the fate of the German automobile is too common; the European trade deficit with China, between 2015 and 2024, quadrupled in volume. Second, the Russian pipelines that carried the cheap energy fueling European growth closed with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor between 2005 and 2021, spent the better part of her career ensuring the flow of cheap Russian gas into Germany and Europe. She championed the building of the Nord Stream pipeline even during the invasion of Crimea while critics warned that she would make Germany, and Europe, dependent on Russian gas. In the end, Merkel was successful, she schafft das and cheap Russian gas resulted in more than ten years of consecutive growth for Europe’s largest economy. However, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, her decision to pursue closer ties with Russia has proven that Europe indeed grew too reliant on Russian gas. Now that the cheap gas that supplied Europe’s manufacturing sector is gone, Europe finds it even harder to develop and harder still to compete. The final blow to the European model came from Donald Trump, who, in his second term, decided to hold Europe more accountable for its own security. After his repeated demands for European NATO members to meet the alliance target of 2 percent GDP spent on defense, not only did European countries finally meet it, they also increased the alliance target to 5 percent by 2035. Previously European countries enjoyed spending less on defense to fund their extensive social nets, but now their social welfare systems are under more pressure than ever. However, America’s decoupling with Europe does not end with economic ramifications. Arguments over Greenland, Trump’s dealing with Putin without consulting the EU and support for Eurosceptics across the continent all signal that the relationship Europe enjoyed with the United States is coming to an end. JD Vance declared at the Munich Security Conference in 2025, as far as America is concerned: Europe’s largest threat is the “threat from within.” The European dependency on these three pillars is the most visible symptom of a far deeper problem with the continent’s model of growth: There never was a Plan B. The AI boom made this apparent. China and the United States innovated as Europe grew complacent. Companies like America’s Anthropic and China’s DeepSeek promise to transform work and increase worker productivity to levels previously thought impossible. European leaders, too, recognize the strength of the AI boom in inspiring economic growth. Macron, in the Paris AI Summit, declared that now is the “time for innovation” to avoid getting left behind. However, despite speeches and promises of innovation, Europe still is woefully behind not only the United States, but also China in the AI race. American start-ups and Chinese tech giants are racing to innovate, whereas the European economy is still carried largely by legacy brands such as LVMH and Novo Nordisk. Isabel Schnabel, who is on the executive board of the European Central Bank (ECB), noted that the problem is not that Europe is incapable of innovation, but that there simply are too many regulatory measures limiting productivity growth within the bloc. Mario Draghi, in his well-known Draghi Report, highlighted this exact problem. There is a patchwork of regulatory systems, sometimes contradictory , within the EU, limiting the ability of businesses to compete with American or Chinese companies. As the EU hesitated to act on the Draghi Report, ECB President Christine Lagarde went on to state that Europe is in an “existential crisis” where “internal barriers are stifling innovation, productivity, and investment across the bloc”. Europe’s lack of advancement in productivity put it on a path of economic stagnation at levels hardly seen in any other part of the developed world. Between 2008 and 2023, notes the Wall Street Journal, Europeans saw their real wages drop or stagnate, whereas Americans saw theirs increase. A common European refutation, one to which Paul Krugman too subscribes , is that Europeans simply live better lives than their counterparts across the Atlantic. Indeed, Europeans live for longer and are happier on average than Americans. Furthermore, they have more free time and social security. In this view, American higher wages and GDP mean little, because they hardly translate to economic welfare for American citizens. Krugman is not wrong. The European system did not have a fatal flaw. It simply was for a different world with a different economic order. The collapse of the European system is further accelerated by demographic crisis. Europe's social welfare and early retirement rest on the existence of many young people who can pay taxes and participate in economic life. Concurrently, the European Union’s old-age dependency ratio hit 37 percent in 2024, a record high, meaning that there are fewer than three working-age adults for each retired person. Meanwhile, the EU's low birth-rates mean that it has to rely on immigration in order to keep its economies working. However, increased immigration has led the far-right to take hold in various European states, limiting immigration when the continent is in dire need of a working population. The OECD’s Tax Policy Reforms 2025 report found that some countries in Europe are instead resorting to increasing taxes on young professionals. Increased tax burden, combined with Europe’s already complicated regulatory scheme, is driving young entrepreneurs away from Europe to places like the United States where business-friendly economic policies encourage innovation. The Trump Administration’s rhetoric on Europe may be crude, and the European way of life may be more sophisticated. Still, the fact remains that the old European economic system which helped the continent create its welfare states is no longer there. To those of us who enjoy real bread and good wine: We need to ask whether those are valuable enough to sacrifice the security of Europe. Photo Source: Onno P., Flickr

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.  < Back Singing through Grief – Collective Memory through Music Rebecca Canton April 30, 2025 “Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart / And you’ll never walk alone.” Such words, sung by thousands in harmony at Anfield, the home of Liverpool Football Club, and beyond, are more than just lyrics—they are a cultural memory, a form of resistance and a promise of togetherness. Football, especially concerning fans, can be described as tribal—rooted in geography, loyalty and collective passion. Alongside this, it is also inherently musical. From the cacophony of chants of a favorite player on the stands to the quiet suspense before a penalty, football culture is a sonic landscape. These sounds create a unified identity, binding thousands of strangers into one voice. In this way, football matches resemble a form of ritual: they are repetitive, emotionally charged and have deep symbols. When tragedy strikes, it is often such rituals that remain. Nowhere can these concepts be felt more than in the context of the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, a tragedy that undoubtedly changed football but also transformed grief into music and then identity. In the wake of loss, one of the world’s greatest football anthems— You’ll Never Walk Alone— became something altogether more potent. As a Liverpool fan, Hillsborough, or the Hillsborough Disaster of Apr. 15, 1989, is the darkest day in our club’s history. Forget the infamous Steven Gerrard ‘slip’ of 2014, or the 2022 Champions League Final, Hillsborough overshadows even the most notorious incidents. Four years after the Heysel Stadium disaster, where 39 fans died in a collapse following clashes between Liverpool and Juventus supporters, another tragedy struck. On Apr. 15, 1989, 97 people died in a crowd crush at Hillsborough Stadium during an FA Cup semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest—94 on the day, with the death toll later rising to 97 by 2021 due to related complications. These people died because of a lack of stadium control. 97 died because of police errors, not because of the fans. Yet what followed the disaster was not just heartbreak, but injustice. In the days following, fans and victims were smeared by the press. The infamous The Sun article — ‘ the Scum ’ or ‘the S*n’ if you’re from Merseyside—‘ The Truth’ accused the dead of looting, drunkenness and even urinating on police officers. Such allegations were not just lies, but acts of systemic violence, designed to discredit the grieving and shift the blame away from the authorities, who let down the very people they were meant to protect. Despite such a tragedy, Liverpool didn’t stay silent. Instead, it sang. You’ll Never Walk Alone didn’t originate from Hillsborough—it’s actually from a show tune from the 1945 musical Carousel by Rodgers and Hammerstein. It was later covered by the Liverpool band Gerry and the Pacemakers in the 1960s. Before Hillsborough, it had already been adopted by Liverpool fans, yet in the wake of such a profound loss, it became something else—an anthem not just of loyalty, but of mourning. Of protest, and of survival. Singing You’ll Never Walk Alone for Liverpool fans became much more than tradition. It became an act of resistance. In a society that refused to believe they were wronged, Liverpool fans created a sound that couldn’t be ignored. Singing became a way to grieve together, but also a refusal to forget the injustices imposed upon them. There’s a sort of rhythm to football, both on and off the pitch. Whether through home and away fixtures, the same 36 matches each year, or the Saturday rituals. The same pubs, scarves, the same voices raised in unison. Football is, in many ways, religious. Stadiums become cathedrals. Chants become prayers. And at Anfield, the home of Liverpool, You’ll Never Walk Alone transformed into something more than a hymn—it became sacred. It’s undeniable that when you bring 50,000 voices together, it’s euphoric, but what gives the song its power isn’t just its melody, but the words . “When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high…” In the aftermath of Hillsborough, these lyrics no longer were a metaphor, but an instruction and reminder to walk on, even through grief. The storm was the disrespect, the interviews, even by famous figures like Wayne Rooney, blaming Liverpool fans for the deaths of their own. Likewise, “though your dreams be tossed and blown” such words speak to what was lost—the lives, the futures, the hopes and dreams of the 97. “Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart” is a rousing call for togetherness and thousands promise that “you’ll never walk alone.” There’s a phrase often heard in Liverpool: Scouse, not English. To outsiders, it perhaps sounds exaggerated, or even cheeky. Yet it's more than regional pride—it’s defiance, a declaration of cultural independence. As someone who isn’t Scouse, I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand what it truly means to be Scouse— that is with a capital S. The phrase captures it better than anything else could: Scouse, not English. It reflects a deep-rooted identity in politics, pride and pain. Liverpool, as a city and as an identity, has long stood apart from the rest of England. With its Irish heritage and history as a working-class port city, alongside its long-term loyalty to the Labour party, the city has often been distant from Westminster, especially under Margaret Thatcher. During the 1980s, under Thatcher’s Conservative government, Liverpool was treated not only with neglect but also hostility. Deindustrialisation ravaged the city, reducing jobs and futures. Later disclosed cabinet documents showed government ministers even considered a policy of “managed decline”—effectively letting the city fall apart rather than supporting it. Any sort of neglect Liverpool suffered was not accidental, but a deliberate attempt to reduce Merseyside’s livelihood. In the face of this decline, rising unemployment, social unrest and the 1981 Toxteth riots, Thatcher’s response only increased policing and blame. Liverpool, already proud and politically stimulated, became vilified in the press as angry, dangerous and self-pitying. To be Scouse was to be othered—culturally, economically and politically. Thus, when Hillsborough occurred, and the government chose to ignore the victims, it wasn’t a shock but a confirmation. When Thatcher visited, she sided with the South Yorkshire police. When The Sun printed lies, the state stayed silent. Normally, in tragedy, people would be allowed to mourn their dead, yet Scousers were forced to defend their character instead. As such, Hillsborough is more than a tragedy for Liverpool. Instead, it's a culmination of years of being ignored and misunderstood. It’s why the song You’ll Never Walk Alone cannot be reduced to just a song of grief. It’s an anthem, a refusal to be erased, a declaration that Scousers will not be ignored. It took 23 years for an official apology. In 2012, the Hillsborough Independent Panel released a report confirming what had always been known. The police were to blame, the victims were innocent. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, issued a formal apology in Parliament. Yet apologies mean nothing and Liverpool does not forget, with the S*n being banned in all of Merseyside. This does not take back the suffering inflicted, and justice is never simple. Trials have dragged on with little to no resolution, and no senior police officers have been convicted. Despite this lack of accountability, Liverpool has stayed strong, and You’ll Never Walk Alone has continued to be sung. Every year on the anniversary, Anfield falls silent—and then erupts in one voice. The wails of this legendary song sound louder than ever, a reminder that justice does not end with headlines, but only when the truth is known. When the dead are honored as people and not just as statistics. 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. To put it simply, it is more than music. It is a memory that cannot be erased, a resistance that cannot be silenced or reduced. You’ll Never Walk Alone began as a ballad of hope and then a cry for justice. It reminds us that grief can be public, that mourning can be political, and that justice can be demanded outside the courts. Yet above all, it shows that when people come together, they can never truly be alone. The importance of remembrance is clear. For the victims of the Heysel and the Hillsborough stadium disasters, we should not and will not forget. Victims of the Heysel Stadium Disaster, Mar. 29 1985 Rocco Acerra, 29 Bruno Balli, 50 Alfons Bos, 35 Giancarlo Bruschera, 21 Andrea Casula, 11 Giovanni Casula, 44 Nino Cerullo, 24 Willy Chielens, 41 Giuseppina Conti, 17 Dirk Daeninckx, 38 Dionisio Fabbro, 51 Jacques François, 45 Eugenio Gagliano, 35 Francesco Galli, 24 Giancarlo Gonnelli, 20 Alberto Guarini, 21 Giovacchino Landini, 50 Roberto Lorentini, 31 Barbara Lusci, 58 Franco Martelli, 22 Loris Messore, 28 Gianni Mastroiaco, 20 Sergio Bastino Mazzino, 38 Luciano Rocco Papaluca, 38 Luigi Pidone, 31 Benito Pistolato, 50 Patrick Radcliffe, 38 Domenico Ragazzi, 44 Antonio Ragnanese, 49 Claude Robert, 27 Mario Ronchi, 43 Domenico Russo, 28 Tarcisio Salvi, 49 Gianfranco Sarto, 47 Amedeo Giuseppe Spolarore, 55 Mario Spanu, 41 Tarcisio Venturin, 23 Jean Michel Walla, 32 Claudio Zavaroni, 28 Victims of the Hillsborough Stadium Disaster, Apr. 15 1989 https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2024/apr/15/hillsborough-disaster-the-97-people-whose-lives-were-cut-short Jon-Paul Gilhooley, 10 Philip Hammond, 14 Thomas Anthony Howard, 14 Paul Brian Murray, 14 Lee Nicol, 14 Adam Edward Spearritt, 14 Peter Andrew Harrison, 15 Victoria Jane Hicks, 15 Philip John Steele, 15 Kevin Tyrrell, 15 Kevin Daniel Williams, 15 Kester Roger Marcus Ball, 16 Nicholas Michael Hewitt, 16 Martin Kevin Traynor, 16 Simon Bell, 17 Carl Darren Hewitt, 17 Kevin McGrath, 17 Stephen Francis O’Neill, 17 Steven Joseph Robinson, 17 Henry Charles Rogers, 17 Stuart Paul William Thompson, 17 Graham John Wright, 17 James Gary Aspinall, 18 Carl Brown, 18 Paul Clark, 18 Christopher Barry Devonside, 18 Gary Philip Jones, 18 Carl David Lewis, 18 John McBrien, 18 Jonathon Owens, 18 Colin Mark Ashcroft, 19 Paul William Carlile, 19 Gary Christopher Church, 19 James Philip Delaney, 19 Sarah Louise Hicks, 19 David William Mather, 19 Colin Wafer, 19 Ian David Whelan, 19 Stephen Paul Copoc, 20 Ian Thomas Glover, 20 Gordon Rodney Horn, 20 Paul David Brady, 21 Thomas Steven Fox, 21 Marian Hazel McCabe, 21 Joseph Daniel McCarthy, 21 Peter McDonnell, 21 Carl William Rimmer, 21 Peter Francis Tootle, 21 David John Benson, 22 David William Birtle, 22 Tony Bland, 22 Gary Collins, 22 Tracey Elizabeth Cox, 23 William Roy Pemberton, 23 Colin Andrew Hugh William Sefton, 23 David Leonard Thomas, 23 Peter Andrew Burkett, 24 Derrick George Godwin, 24 Graham John Roberts, 24 David Steven Brown, 25 Richard Jones, 25 Barry Sidney Bennett, 26 Andrew Mark Brookes, 26 Paul Anthony Hewitson, 26 Paula Ann Smith, 26 Christopher James Traynor, 26 Barry Glover, 27 Gary Harrison, 27 Christine Anne Jones, 27 Nicholas Peter Joynes, 27 Francis Joseph McAllister, 27 Alan McGlone, 28 Joseph Clark, 29 Christopher Edwards, 29 James Robert Hennessy, 29 Alan Johnston, 29 Anthony Peter Kelly, 29 Martin Kenneth Wild, 29 Peter Reuben Thompson, 30 Stephen Francis Harrison, 31 Eric Hankin, 33 Vincent Michael Fitzsimmons, 34 Roy Harry Hamilton, 34 Patrick John Thompson, 35 Michael David Kelly, 38 Brian Christopher Mathews, 38 David George Rimmer, 38 Inger Shah, 38 David Hawley, 39 Thomas Howard, 39 Arthur Horrocks, 41 Eric George Hughes, 42 Henry Thomas Burke, 47 Raymond Thomas Chapman, 50 John Alfred Anderson, 62 Gerard Bernard Patrick Baron, 67 Keith McGrath, 17 Photo source: Mark Lowen on Wikimedia

The trend of "sassy-man politics" shows a shift in politics, where personality and showmanship often take priority over serious policy discussions. Politicians using humor, boldness, and sarcasm to connect with the public are gaining attention, especially on platforms like TikTok, which favor short, attention-grabbing clips over deeper conversations. < Back Sassy Man in Politics Nil Çelik October 31, 2024 Donald Trump infamously stated in the course of his 2016 presidential campaign: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose voters.” This audacious assertion explicitly exemplifies what has come to be known as the “sassy-man in politics.” In this approach, male politicians shift away from profound, thoughtful debate and instead depend on arrogance, sarcasm and stage performance, leading to significant social and cultural changes. The rise of media-influenced political leaders is often seen as the root cause, starting with television and later amplified by social media platforms. These platforms award politicians who amuse viewers and provoke controversy instead of concentrating on significant issues with screen time. Political figures such as Trump and British statesman Boris Johnson have evolved into the symbols of this initiative. This transition in political discussion indicates a concerning deviation from established principles of leadership like skill, morality and responsibility. With it, the priority has shifted to politicians who behave in a manner resembling performers who strive to gain “likes” and “shares” instead of the trust of the public. The social media platform TikTok, renowned for its short and entertaining videos, has contributed greatly to this transition. The TikTok phenomenon “ Sassy Man Apocalypse ” is a projection of men who are often referred to as flamboyant and emotional, accepting and celebrating their “sassy” characteristics. The term “sassy” was originally utilized to ridicule men who displayed non-traditional masculine manners. Nevertheless, TikTok creators such as Prayag Mishra have begun to reshape it, shifting being sassy toward a more positive demonstration of self-confidence, and emotionality. These characteristics are now established as acceptable, instead of being seen as a weakness. Although this development has led to crucial debates about toxic masculinity, critics argue that trends alone do not lead to actual social change. Even though the “sassy-man apocalypse” began as a joke on the internet, it has now impacted real-world politics, with male politicians integrating this demeanor to relate to meme-loving younger viewers. A relevant example is Mustafa Sarigul, who is currently serving as the member of parliament in Erzincan, who used a playful and non-traditional style of campaigning during the 2023 elections. Sarigul posted several theatrical and entertaining videos on his TikTok and Instagram, including one where he drove a tractor on the Erzincan fields, addressing local voters while combining political messages with everyday life. His over the top delivery where he humorously, combined with relatable humor led to the videos going viral, allowing him to connect to younger audiences. His social media presence through this approach led to him being erected for parliament. This approach shows Mustafa Sarigul utilizing internet culture to remain relevant in Turkish politics. However, young viewers have also utilized this internet phenomenon to ridicule the bold statements that male politicians make. The result of this change has been consequential. Sassy-man politics decreases the importance of governance, downplaying substantial subjects in the interest of self-centered acts. This action resonates with a public that concentrates more on personality than policy. This produces a series of politicians who must constantly outperform each other with controversial arguments to stay relevant. Since social media platforms gradually change the cultural environment, this manner of politics may continue, drawing concern about whether future leaders will be determined by their skills to lead or by their skills to entertain the public. As politics becomes more about spectacle, there’s a danger that the focus on governance and long-term solutions will be replaced by short-term popularity contests, potentially leading to leaders who lack the necessary expertise to effectively manage public affairs. The 2024 presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump openly displayed the concept of sassy-man politics, characterized by sharp discussions, interruptions and sarcastic remarks. Trump didn’t withhold from delivering sarcastic and offensive statements. At a particular moment, he stated , “Biden doesn't even know that he’s running for president.” This mocked both Biden’s age and cognitive capabilities. Biden retaliated, claiming, “I’ve been doing this longer than you’ve been making money off bankruptcies.” These sassy remarks entertained some viewers but transitioned the debate from profound policy discussions to personal insults. This led to viewers seeing viral moments of the debate instead of having a concrete understanding of the candidates plans for governance. The overall result of this “sassy” back-and-forth was a debate that was concentrated more on personal drama instead of real policy issues. Short clips of this debate circulated on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, strengthening the view that sassiness in politics is seen as a main way to achieve the attention of the public. Likewise, the 2024 presidential debate between Vice President Kamala and Former President Trump followed a similar sassy style. Trump stated that “Harris was the worst Vice President in history” and that “she’s so good at being invisible, I forget she’s even on the ticket.” These indicated Trumps’ strategy of attacking Harris by using sharp and repeatedly mocking comments. Although his sassy attitude and remarks resonate with his fan base, it demonstrates the more profound issue of how women, specifically women of color, are treated in political debate. This pattern becomes even more distinct when political figures face attacks that question their competence and authority through demeaning humor or stereotypes. While these tactics may rally Trump's base, they also serve to reinforce harmful gender and racial stereotypes, diminishing the legitimacy of women, particularly women of color, in positions of power. This evolution in Trump's approach signals a broader issue of how women in politics are not only undermined in their capacity as leaders but also weaponized as subjects of ridicule, demonstrating the intersections of misogyny and racism in modern political discourse. Harris rebutted his statements firmly, but it was difficult to overcome Trump’s offensive language. This trend of shifting political discourses into witty interactions is altering American politics, promoting entertainment instead of profound debates, and influencing political norms and gender roles. The trend of “sassy-man politics” has also affected the Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis , who has become a primary target on TikTok after the phenomenon of the “sassy- man apocalypse.” While the TikTok trend didn’t start politically, DeSantis has been the topic of millions of views on TikTok, as users developed and shared content ridiculing his character. Recently videos of an irritated reply from DeSantis concerning a Guantanamo question have led to hundreds of viral contents, gathering over two million views. His aggressive standpoint as a savior of traditional values, especially with the anti-LGBTQ+ legislation such as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, has made him a figure of mockery for young progressive Americans. Polls in the beginning of the year showed that DeSantis had one of the most negative ratings among Republican candidates between the voter age group from 18 to 34. The given age group could be said to respect diversity and expression of gender and sexuality more, driving DeSantis to be a primary target for critics due to his policies. As he is known for being defensive and sensitive, this leads to the creation of the “sassy man” and “short king panic” memes that are commented on posts that involve him. However, Ioana Literat, an associate professor at Teachers College Columbia University who studies the civic engagement of young people, stated that these videos indicate a more comprehensive critique on what acceptable actions are in today’s politics. The trend of "sassy-man politics" shows a shift in politics, where personality and showmanship often take priority over serious policy discussions. Politicians using humor, boldness, and sarcasm to connect with the public are gaining attention, especially on platforms like TikTok, which favor short, attention-grabbing clips over deeper conversations. Leaders like Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, and Mustafa Sarigul show how this entertaining style appeals to certain groups, but it can also distract from real issues. This trend has also highlighted stereotypes and, at times, undermined the authority of women and people of color in leadership. Overall, "sassy-man politics" raises concerns about whether leaders are more focused on gaining popularity than effectively addressing important problems, potentially weakening trust in the political system.

In such delicate moments as those that engulf the West right now, its position is far from being unitary and clear. It hesitates to help Ukraine and to have a rigid position about the Israeli-Palestinian situation. It quarrels with itself to the highest degree and it always finds a way to take a stance too late. In this context, the West is divided as never before in recent history. < Back The Fall of the West Amer El-Ibrahim November 30, 2024 In recent times, the idea that the West is declining has repeatedly been vehiculated in media, articles and books. Such timidly apocalyptic visions have always plagued the West, especially when it finds itself in periods of crisis, be it moral or economic. Nonetheless, one can wonder: is today’s presupposed decline a real threat to our civilization, or is it just paranoia? The idea of the decline of the West was born during the Enlightenment. Rousseau was one of the first to raise concerns about civilization's debilitating effects with his idea of the “noble savage.” Later in the 19th century, thinkers such as Karl Marx and Nietzsche expanded on this idea. Nietzsche regarded European culture to be in spiritual decline, undermined by a Christian morality that, according to him, outlived its utility. Marx and Engels offer a materialistic interpretation, attributing this deterioration to the exploitative forces of capitalism, which should at one point bring the societal collapse that would be followed by socialism. In the 20th century, two other writers delved into this presumed perpetual downturn: Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee. Spengler predicted the fall of Western society by comparing it to a living organism that is subject to growth, maturity, and decay. Meanwhile, Toynbee, in his book “A Study of History,” examined cycles of rise and fall across civilizations, regarding Western decline as part of a cyclical pattern of history. Both theoreticized that this fall is not temporary and curable, but an inevitable stage within a broader system. Additionally, there was a growing pessimism that took hold of post-WWII Western thought, marked by two World Wars, the Holocaust and nuclear war anxieties. Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer were key figures in establishing a culture of critique of modernity and the West, with phenomena such as mass consumer culture, technological alienation and bureaucratic rationalism being seen as dehumanizing forces. In the 1970s and 80s, a new declinism made its way onto the stage—present until now—which critiques Western industrial progress for leading to ecological destruction. All of these iterations of decline across centuries show that declinism has become a mode of Western thought, not lacking in biases. However, this declinist outlook usually displays the spiritual, cultural or economic turbulences of an epoch and not the whole West across centuries. Writers who critiqued the West were driven more by subjective perceptions than objective realities. Nonetheless, the “idea of decline” is serving as a mirror into anxieties of each era rather than an inherent decay of Western civilization. Moreover, the West’s obsession with its own deterioration seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, born of philosophical pessimism that blinds us to our achievements. On another note, Hegel noted 200 years ago, civilizations perish not because of external reasons, such as war, famine or economic crisis, but due to internal disputes. Enemies from the outside, regardless of their nature, cannot prevail if there does not exist a profound internal scission. Petty rivalries and endless scandals drain the spirit of a particular nation and not wars. In such delicate moments as those that engulf the West right now, its position is far from being unitary and clear. It hesitates to help Ukraine and to have a rigid position about the Israeli-Palestinian situation. It quarrels with itself to the highest degree and it always finds a way to take a stance too late. In this context, the West is divided as never before in recent history. Even though the West has far more economic power than its main opponents—Russia, Iran, China, Syria, etc—this power is useless if it is not animated by a combative spirit that fights for its values and principles. An example can be given by the US, which struggled for months on end to vote for a package of 60 billion dollars aimed mainly for the aid of Ukraine, but also for Taiwan and Israel. This postponement stemmed from the petty rivalries between the Democrats and the Republicans. Meanwhile, the EU was blocked from supporting Ukraine by Viktor Orban’s opposition, a giant blocked by an ant. Amidst this air of hesitancy, the West’s main rivals, namely, Russia, Hamas, Iran and China, seem to have no such impediments or ideological hiccups. They arm themselves, violate existing treaties, launch themselves into war economies, as seen in the case of Russia, and control their population—evident in all but especially China. The West, on the other hand, seems to be lost spiritually in its own auto-critic frenzy. Is the West really in decline, as countless others have hypothesized? Others’ belief that it is in such a state, then, does not matter. What matters is if the West itself believes it.