“Borders” imply one clear line. You are either in front of it or behind it. But in reality, borders are not that simple. They change throughout time. They follow different ways, depending on who you ask. They are multidimensional: cultural, physical, religious and linguistic. A web of borders can be
Category: Politics
A game of chess at the Greek-Turkish border
Shortly after the Turkish government announced that they would no longer prevent migrants from crossing the Greek border a video appeared on my social media feed: A brown field with a few specks of grass and a handful of leafless bushes, small figure moving in the background, a woman screaming,
Of brain drain, K-Pop, and other threats at the inter-Korean border
The mayor of Daeseong-dong is concerned. His village is facing an existential threat: The young are leaving increasingly for bigger cities, where they can make twice as much money as through the work in the surrounding rice fields. Barely anyone moves to the village from the outside. Barely anyone can
Bordering reality: how the speculative genre extends and reflects on human experience
Speculative fiction has long been held suspect for one cardinal sin – offering escapism from real-world problems. “How can made-up worlds,” the condemnation goes, “reflect on the issues of today? How can reading about fictional societies in secondary worlds give us …” While the popularity of speculative fiction has silenced
Back from the borderlands: taming and framing COVID-19
Since Covid-19 has begun to spread across the globe, cries for re-establishing, re-enforcing, generally making less permeable, or even shutting down borders have rung louder than ever in recent years. However, this raises the question as to whether Covid-19 can be effectively combatted and curbed by these extraordinary securitization measures
Politically conscious art as backlash: Amanda Palmer’s “There Will Be No Intermission”
Amanda Fucking Palmer is loud, so loud it might seem like she’s screaming for attention – and some people on the Internet hate her for it. But guess what? She has a lot of things to say. This has never been more evident than on Palmer’s third solo album, aptly
Portrait of a female warlord
The Taliban are well-versed in crime. En masse, they’ve effectively run the gamut of all crimes founded on a total contempt for humanity, in all its forms, except for those that abide by the constrictive and unaccommodating codification of ethics only they have authorship of. As is common among terror
On rape, stereotypes and victim-blaming
Trigger warning: rape, sexual violence, mention of suicide In the age of #MeToo, awareness on sexual offences and consent is increasing, yet it is still fairly easy to get away with rape and sexual assault – the crime with the least report and conviction rates. From victim blaming based on
Hong Kong’s Protests and the reality of news
What do you think about when you read a newspaper, listen to the updates on the radio, the news app on your phone, the news programme on TV? For me, since it is far away, it often seems like a story, a myth. And I have to stop and take