You probably assume that you know what the word “expat” means. The writer Lucy Mushita first heard that word from European and American professionals who had come to work in her home country (Zimbabwe); they used it to describe themselves. She looked it up in a dictionary and found out that “expat” designates someone who goes to live or work in a country that is not his or her own. Later, however, she discovered that the word had a more limited scope than what its dictionary meaning suggested. “When I arrived in France and introduced myself as an expat, people looked at me with wide eyes,” she describes in her latest book Expat Blues. “They asked me if I’d fled poverty, misery or war, and I replied that I hadn’t. I was an expat. I was an expat who had followed her husband to France. But I realized that the word didn’t work for black people in the Western world.”
Moment
A moment for accountability? Syria and the pursuit of entrepreneurial justice after Assad – EJIL: Talk! – Go Health Pro
For those Syrians waking up to a shattered country devoid of its dictator or those exiled by war, no superlative can quite capture the enormity of events that have transpired in the last few days. Assad’s fall not only marks the end of the Ba’ath regime (as occurred across the border in Iraq in 2003), but it also signals a seismic shift in the fortunes of the country’s 14-year civil war and 54 years of brutal rule by father and by son. I myself lived in Damascus in 2008-2009 studying Arabic. The personal security and safety I had experienced during my time there before the civil war was only possible through palpable fear and extreme repression. An unspoken rule – or a ‘social contract’ of sorts – seemed to prevail: I could only continue to presume that the chances of being mugged or assaulted were miniscule while I continued to observe the requirement of political silence. In exchange for everyday safety as provided by an authoritarian regime, Syrians had to sacrifice any scope for criticising or challenging the nature of Ba’ath rule. Memories of the Sunni rebellion in 1982, which resulted in the regime’s annihilation of Hama’s old town and its population, prompted most Syrians to repress all political inclinations. Infamous interrogation centres and prisons were located in suburban streets or on the edge of towns, serving as ready reminders of the repercussions that would result in the wake of any form of dissent. Yet while this edifice of securitised repression appeared impregnable to me and to many Syrians, this illusion was shattered in 2011 once the regime responded to peaceful protests in the wake of Tunisia’s and Egypt’s uprisings with overwhelming force and depravity. Perhaps the level of brutality came as a shock, but once the regime responded so harshly, it was impossible to rewind the clock: violence spawned more violence such that once again the space for any form of political expression radically narrowed. The country soon slid into a stereotypically-wrenching civil war that was made far worse by an assortment of intervening states.
The lesson from the year of elections? Democracy for the moment remains the political system of choice – Go Health Pro
This year was billed as “the year of elections” due to the number of major elections taking place across the world. Michael Cox writes that while many of these elections have been turbulent affairs, we should not forget that democracy, warts and all, remains the political system of choice for most countries in the world … Read more
Georgia’s watershed moment | EUROPP – Go Health Pro
Protests have swept through Georgia following the government’s decision to walk away from EU accession talks. Teona Giuashvili argues the EU must send a strong signal that it stands with the Georgian people. On 28 November, Georgia’s Prime Minister declared that Georgia would stop seeking EU accession and would reject EU financial assistance until 2028. … Read more
The key moment came 38 minutes after Starship roared off the launch pad – Go Health Pro
That’s when Starship reignited one of its six Raptor engines for a brief burn to make a slight adjustment to its flight path. The burn only lasted a few seconds, and the impulse was small—just a 48 mph (77 km/hour) change in velocity, or delta-V—but it demonstrated the ship can safely deorbit itself on future … Read more
