In an attempt to distance themselves from the post-Soviet realm and signal their belonging to the West, some countries have revived the label of ‘central’ European. But instead of bringing down the walls of prejudice, this discourse fuels further exclusion by meddling with philosophic geography.
I was going to write a fiery editorial for Women’s Day about how the pandemic has eaten up women’s time and energy – but then I ended up homeschooling instead.
While much of the current day anti-vaxx sentiment is rooted in conspiracy theories, some fears have real historical experiences underlying, which must be reckoned with. Aro Velmet looks into how a yellow fever vaccine, rolled out in French West Africa during World War II, may have killed thousands over more than four decades.
Drought, floods and tropical night syndrome: the 2020 drought killed all crops in Bessarabia and the deepest Ukrainian lake is drying out rapidly, while the Black Sea could rise by 50 cm, displacing ¾ million people. Ukraine faces climate change already and Mariana Verbovska offers snapshots of the impacts and the efforts to mitigate them.
The commercialized celebration of minority groups distracts from real social and economic issues. Rainbow-washing can veil persistent homophobia, while ‘clapping for carers’ obscures the hardships health sector workers face.
Populations worldwide are increasingly urban and, so the argument goes, take precedence. But what of the ‘unrecognized’ rural minority? In Italy, mountain regions are more than weekend retreats: they provide the chance to rethink strategies that could also liberate the city.
The trauma of the 1990s economic shock therapy reverberates in the Polish resistance against the green transition. The PiS government is demanding the EU finance the climate transformation, leaving them with funds to preserve the iconic coal industry despite its economic failure.
The Left in Israel has been decimated. Some believe that the only chance for meaningful opposition is for the Left to drop the doctrine that Zionism requires a Jewish State. The Zionist Left, so this argument goes, should abandon the two-state solution in favour of a federal arrangement with Palestine. A discussion.
The debate over whether a white person should translate the work of a black poet draws attention to the lack of diversity in the literary sector, but it also raises questions about the very concept of translation. Simon Garnett re-reads António Sousa Ribeiro’s seminal work on inter-translatability.
Talk of a new Cold War between the US and China emphasizes military capacity and economic prowess. Warrior discourse presents a mono-dimensional situation in which conflict is inevitable. But couldn’t China’s stratospheric rise be better understood and handled by looking at the cultural complexities behind its advances?
The Netherlands is set for elections. Despite the current Dutch prime minister’s many problems, from the COVID-19 pandemic to a childcare benefits scandal, there is talk of him winning a fourth consecutive term. But who exactly is the man behind a decade of leadership?
The discourse of white privilege is motivated by a genuinely anti-racist and democratic vision. But as a mode of confessional introspection aimed to provoke shame and guilt, its effects can be the opposite of transformational.
In the run up to the Duma elections, the Kremlin has introduced laws stepping up the repression of civil society. But the public mood is changing and screw-tightening could lead to a broader mobilisation of regime opponents.
Controversies around waste disposal in Russia express popular discontent with Putin’s power vertical. Far from ending protests against landfills, the Kremlin’s top-down ‘garbage revolution’ has only deepened citizens’ sense of injustice.
One year in and the pandemic has hit women particularly hard: decades’ of advancement in the workplace and academia are under threat; domestic violence has skyrocketed. And yet, in institutional politics, women seem to be growing in numbers and influence. This year’s International Women’s Day ‘challenge’ is one of recovery.
Growing up in North Wales after the War as the child of a merchant navy sea captain was to be aware of a world beyond one’s cultural horizons. But though a source of fascination, cosmopolitanism came at a cost to both family and father. The story of one man’s life in a once proud national industry.