Whenever foreign leftists think about Italy, one of the first things that comes to mind are violent demonstrations, in big cities, like Rome, and Milan. Rarely do they imagine politics taking place outside of the major tourist hubs. It’s not surprising. One plays host to the federal government. The other, the business sector. (More…)
Bahria Town in Lahore is the tackiest place I’ve been to in Pakistan, with the possible exception of the resort town in Murree. It wasn’t necessarily bad for it, especially since the infrastructure clearly made Bahria Town a great place to live. However, it was irritating, as the child of formerly working-class parents, to see the absurd machinations of people with no idea how to spend their money. (More…)
“We can’t fire them.” For anyone who has ever worked in Italy, the complaint is a familiar one. Often proffered to British and American employees, who are used to working with at-will type contracts, where staff can be let go on a whim, there’s an air of “Why can’t we be more like you?” to the declaration, as though a lack of job security is a more natural, albeit desirable state of affairs. (More…)
Most Americans who walk around Berlin are shocked. Graffiti is everywhere: storefronts, walls, and even the sides of entire buildings. They find it surprising. After all, this is the type of thing that was crushed by aggressive policing in cities like New York during the 1980s and 1990s. (More…)
Multiculturalism isn’t an abstraction. It’s about people of different ethnic backgrounds, living together, as equals. Predicated on the idea that in an increasingly globalized world, governments must develop policies that encourage tolerance and foster integration. Initially associated with Canadian immigration policy, over the last half century, the term has become a synonym used to describe the ethnic transformation of European society. (More…)
It should have been a meme. For several months, at least, the news media could not put it down. First invoked in 2011, in reference to the 15-M movement protesting the Spanish government’s inept handling of the economic crisis, the term ‘Indignados’ became a media catch-all, used to describe European leftists, critical of Brussels-mandated austerity policies. (More…)
They came as guest workers. They came as manual laborers. They came to fill a labor shortage. You’ve heard it all before. It’s the story of Turkish immigration to Germany. The most popular one, that is. But hardly the most complex of accounts. One which, only reflects German government policy, to fuel the country’s post-war reconstruction. Having suffered nearly 4 million casualties during WWII, Hitler’s army had drained the country of its workforce. (More…)
“I don’t like Palestinians,” the guy making my döner said. “They’re too conservative.” Considering how much the Turkish government has championed their cause in recent years, the statement came as a surprise. That is, if you believe that every Turk ought to think like Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Not in Berlin. Few immigrant communities in Germany’s capital city are as candid about their dislike of their ancestral country’s leadership. (More…)
Daft Punk are playing in the background. A young couple is nibbling on croissants, speaking to one other in French. My father brings me a cappuccino from the bar, with a Lavazza advert on the cup. It tastes like the real thing. I down it in two gulps. As though on cue, my stepmother looks at me and says, “You’d be forgiven for thinking you were in Europe.” (More…)
London gets too much credit. Whenever right-wing Israel advocates complain about hotbeds of Palestinian solidarity politics, they look no further. Perhaps its because the British capital is guilty as charged. Or maybe it’s due to a fear of finding out how widespread support for the Palestinian cause actually is, throughout western Europe. (More…)
From Pretoria to Peoria, the whole world is in mourning. For a one-time revolutionary leader from South Africa, that ought to say something. Not just about his political achievements, in helping end his country’s hated Apartheid regime. Rather, what Nelson Mandela’s breakthroughs meant to persons abroad, with little to no immediate stakes in his victories. (More…)
I live in what an expat friend called a “Houthi stronghold.” While Sana’a itself is a majority Sunni city, the neighborhoods surrounding its Old City have, in recent years, been flooded by a migration of Zaidi Shi’a affiliated with the al-Houthi insurgents in northern Yemen. (More…)