JEUDI 31 DÉCEMBRE 2020 / THURSDAY DECEMBER 31ST, 2020
ear in history” y t ?, P ors w ag “ e es th -21 20
20 20 :
SCIENCES PO PARIS, CAMPUS DE MENTON
“2020 Quarantine Vibes”, Design by Emma Pascal
2020-2021
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Contents
Le droit, grand oublié à la frontière franco-italienne par Mathilde Pichon (Sciences Po Refugee Help) p. 4-5 Ladies and Gentlemen, Meet your CVC Rep: Albert Frank by Elza Goffaux and Olivia Jenkins p. 6-9 « Vivre seul pour la première fois, une expérience… spéciale » par Samy El Maloui p. 10-13 What have we learned from the Rudy Rochman talk? by Barbara Kuza-Tarkowska p. 14-17 No Mark of Man : A Critique of America’s Empty Wilderness Audrey Kost (Environementon) p. 18-19 2020: The “Worst Year in History”? by Philipp Frank p. 20-21 MEDMUN’s 2020 Intercampus Conference by Lucille Milligan p. 22-23 In a deadlock “Refugees in Jordan are like a dead person” by Caroline Søgaard p. 24-25 “I’ve Never Felt more On My Own As a Student Than I do Now”: The Other Sciences Po by Madeline Wyatt p. 26-29 “The Gayest Campus of Sciences Po”, and The Perils of Promoting Menton as a Gay Haven by Anonymous p. 30-33
Notre équipe
Understanding My Voice as a Jewish American in Conversations about Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Zaidie Long p. 34-37 Désobéir : notre dernier espoir. La désobéissance civile ou l’arsenal de lutte pour abattre les institutions par Joseph Siraudeau p. 38-41 Arab World: Fractured or United?: ASO’s Arab Unity Talk by Celeste Abourjeili p. 42-43
santosh muralidaran - rédacteur en chef / editor-in-chief (EIC) celeste abourjeili - head of staffwriters saad semlali - head of staffwriters selma sisbane - communications manager ada baser - designer eliana seroussi - designer
Social Media: Good for Whom? by Daniel Leal de Moraes Santana p. 44-45
emma pascal - designer maëlle liut - website manager
My Experience in 2 weeks of Quarantine by Jade Quinn-McDonald p. 46-47
Our Team
The imperative of music in 2020 by Yusef Bushara p. 48-49 4-Sided Shapes by Ismaeel Yaqoob and Lilli Oevermann p. 50
Sciences Po Compliments: Matching Game by Eliana Seroussi p. 52-53
Ask Le Zadig: December Edition, Teaser by Celeste Abourjeili and Saad Semlali p. 51
Les articles en ligne à venir / Upcoming Online Articles par Noa Chasles, Mariem Ben M’Rad, Stanislaw Naklicki p. 54
Une lettre du rédacteur en chef / Letter from the EIC
politicalreviewscpo.fr
Il y a environ 3 mois, Le Zadig et les journaux Der Parvenu (Campus de Nancy), The Sundial Press (Campus de Reims), et Le Dragon Déchaîné (Campus du Havre) ont créé Sciences Political Review, le premier journal intercampus du Collège Universitaire consacré à la politique et aux relations internationales. Depuis, nous avons publié 25 articles écrits par les étudiants de nombreux campus différents et nous avons reçu un peu plus de 4.900 views sur notre site web. Merci aux étudiants de Menton qui ont rédigés quelques articles pour nous : Elza GOFFAUX, Lounis JAHIDI, Meriem SMIDA, Olivia JENKINS, Sania MAHYOU, Ryan TFAILY (3A), Maël MEUNIER (3A), Irene SEGONE, Yusef BUSHARA, Salina KUO, Beeta DAVOUDI, Stanislaw NAKLICKI et Noa CHASLES.
It’s been about 3 months since Le Zadig partnered with the publications Der Parvenu (Nancy campus), The Sundial Press (Reims campus), and Le Dragon Déchaîné (Le Havre campus) and created Sciences Political Review, Sciences Po Undergraduate College’s first inter-campus publication dedicated to political science and international affairs. Since then, we’ve published 25 articles written from students across different campuses and received a little more than 4,900 views on our website. A big thank you to Elza GOFFAUX, Lounis JAHIDI, Meriem SMIDA, Olivia JENKINS, Sania MAHYOU, Ryan TFAILY (3A), Maël MEUNIER (3A), Irene SEGONE, Yusef BUSHARA, Salina KUO, Beeta DAVOUDI, Stanislaw NAKLICKI, and Noa CHASLES for being our writers from Menton!
Le droit, grand oublié à la frontière franco-italienne MATHILDE PICHON
CHRONIQUEUSE INVITÉE
AU NOM DE
SCIENCES PO REFUGEE HELP
Des pratiques illégales aux frontières intérieures Depuis 2016, la France a rétabli des contrôles à ses frontières intérieures, mesure supposée être temporaire selon le code frontières Schengen. Ainsi, selon l’article L.213-2 du code de l’entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d’asile : “Tout refus d’entrée en France fait l’objet d’une décision écrite motivée prise, sauf en cas de demande d’asile (...) Une attention particulière est accordée aux personnes vulnérables, notamment aux mineurs, accompagnés ou non d’un adulte.” En juillet 2020, le Conseil d’Etat, juridiction suprême de l’ordre administratif français, statuait pour le cas de G.A., demandeuse d’asile accompagnée de son jeune enfant malade, que “il appartient aux services de la police aux frontières saisis d’une demande d’asile à la frontière de saisir le ministre de l’intérieur afin qu’il procède à l’examen de la demande d’asile, soit en demandant à l’OFPRA de procéder à l’audition du demandeur, soit en saisissant les autorités de l’Etat membre qu’il estime responsable d’une demande de prise en charge”. Cette décision du Conseil d’Etat reconnaît une “atteinte grave et manifestement illégale au droit d’asile” portée par l’autorité administrative. Malgré ces condamnations, le droit à exercer une demande d’asile demeure bafoué à la frontière franco-italienne. Mais ce n’est pas le seul droit qui y est écarté. Des conditions de détention indignes Lorsque des personnes en situation irrégulière tentent de traverser la frontière, elles sont amenées aux locaux de la Police Aux Frontières à Menton Saint-Louis (les plus anciens la situeront par sa proximité avec La Loca, et les plus gourmets par sa proximité avec le Mirazur). Là-bas, des algécos, qui ne sont pas aménagés pour une détention longue, lieux de “mise à l’abri” selon le Préfet des Alpes-Maritimes.
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Les associations (Anafé, Médecins du Monde) ayant souhaité avoir accès à l’intérieur de ces locaux, notamment pour porter une assistance médicale aux migrants retenus en leur sein, ont fait l’objet d’une ordonnance du Préfet émise le 30 novembre interdisant l’accès aux élus et associations à ces algécos de la Police Aux Frontières. Mis à part le problème démocratique de l’empêchement d’une simple observation des élus, qui était pourtant possible et exercée jusqu’en 2018, cette ordonnance est manifestement illégale. En effet, elle a été suspendue par le juge des référés du tribunal administratif de Nice le 30 novembre dernier. A nouveau, le 10 décembre dernier, le tribunal administratif de Marseille a condamné la préfecture des Alpes-Maritimes pour cette interdiction d’accès aux associations. Mais alors, que se passe-t-il dans les locaux de la Police aux Fron-
tières de Menton Saint-Louis? En 2017, le tribunal administratif de Nice, puis le Conseil d’Etat ont décidé qu’il n’était pas illégal de garder les personnes refoulées dans les algécos tant que la durée ne dépassait pas plus de 4 heures. Or, c’est très fréquemment le cas, on peut observer régulièrement des privations de liberté allant jusqu’à plus de douze heures, notamment pendant la nuit, sans transfert vers une véritable zone d’attente. D’après différents témoignages, les conditions y sont indignes : promiscuité, conditions d’hygiène déplorables, aucune possibilité de s’allonger, pas d’accès à un médecin. Inter alia, il est très fréquent que les policiers indiquent aux migrants de ‘boire l’eau des toilettes’ - par ailleurs dans un état de propreté rapporté comme insalubre - pour les migrants qui demandent de l’eau, y compris pour des personnes accompagnées d’enfants en bas âge. En 2018, le Contrôleur général des privations de liberté, autorité administrative indépendante, rapportait que “la situation n’a guère évolué concernant le respect des droits des personnes non admises et l’effectivité de leur exercice. (...) Ainsi, les décisions de refus d’entrée sont toujours notifiées dans des conditions insatisfaisantes, sans examen approfondi des situations, sans délivrance d’informations complètes et sans interprétariat, rendant illusoire toute possibilité pour les étrangers d’exercer leurs droits. De même, il est impossible de solliciter l’asile à la frontière franco-italienne.” A ce jour, les acteurs sur le terrain confirment que la situation n’a pas changé.
légaux pour prouver leur âge. Pratique d’autant plus dangereuse qu’elle rend ces jeunes vulnérables au trafic d’humains, et aux réseaux clandestins qui se substituent à l’encadrement légal et institutionnel défaillant. Ceci non sans rappeler que la France est signataire de la Convention Internationale des droits de l’enfant de 1989 qui doit être appliquée pour tous les enfants, selon son article premier, indépendamment de toute considération “de leur origine nationale, ethnique ou sociale, de leur situation de fortune, de leur incapacité, de leur naissance ou de toute autre situation”. Il serait donc grand temps de prendre des mesures pour le respect de la dignité humaine et des droits fondamentaux à la frontière franco-italienne. Les sanctions légales parlent, mais doivent se traduire en faits. Ce combat, il n’est pas celui d’un militantisme ‘pro-migration’, ni ‘anti-migration’, mais il est pour l’application du droit par l’Etat lui-même. Bibliographie TOUTES LES PHOTOS PAR MATHILDE PICHON
Mise en danger de mineurs non accompagnés D’après les bénévoles présents tous les jours sur la route menant vers l’Italie à la frontière basse, il semblerait que beaucoup de jeunes passant par la frontière franco-italienne ces derniers mois soient nés le premier janvier 2000. Coïncidence? Non, plutôt résultat d’une pratique illégale pour accélérer les refus d’entrée sur le territoire, consistant à falsifier la date de naissance des mineurs non-accompagnés ne disposant pas de documents d’identité
Amnesty International. « Frontière franco-italienne : des contrôles aux confins du droit. Violation des droits humains à la frontière avec l’Italie », 2017 Anafé (Association nationale d’assistance aux frontières pour les étrangers), “Persona non grata. Conséquences des politiques sécuritaires et migratoires à la frontière franco-italienne”, 2019 Anafé, Refus d’assistance médicale et juridique aux personnes exilées enfermées à la frontière franco-italienne : le tribunal administratif de Nice sanctionne l’Etat [Alerte presse inter-associative], mardi 1er décembre 2020 Contrôleur général des privations de liberté, Rapport de la troisième visite des locaux de la police aux frontières de Menton (Alpes-Maritimes), 2018 Conseil d’Etat, décision n° 440756, juillet 2020 Conseil d’Etat, décision n° 428178, novembre 2020 Cour de Justice de l’Union Européenne, Préfet des Pyrénées-Orientales v. Abdelaziz Arib, 2019 Le Monde, “Frontière franco-italienne : l’interdiction faite aux ONG d’assister les migrants suspendue par la justice”, 17 décembre 2020 Jahshan Sarah & Pichon Mathilde, “En quoi la situation migratoire à la frontière franco-italienne témoigne-t-elle d’un défaut de la régulation sociale par le droit?”, compte-rendu sociologique de première année à Sciences Po, campus de Menton
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LADIES and
GENTLEMEN
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MEET YOUR CVC REP:
ALBERT FRANK ELZA GOFFAUX
COLUMNIST
OLIVIA JENKINS
COLUMNIST
Le Zadig interviewed Albert Frank, second year representative at the Conseil de Vie de Campus (CVC). He presented to us his work and projects in the middle of the pandemic.
ALL PHOTOS BY LAURENZ FRANK
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Can you explain your role as a CVC representative? I am the CVC second year representative for all majors. The way it is structured at the CVC, we have the first year representatives, one for the English, one for French track. For the second year we have one representative and then we have one representative for the exchange students. They are usually selected, this year they weren’t elected.1 My specific role as CVC is to represent the students. I am quite open as to what I can do, how much I can do.
How does CVC work? There are CVC meetings and if students have issues they should let me know, send me a message, and I’ll raise the issues at the CVC meeting. There are two dimensions: the issues and then the ideas, from the students and the administration presenting new concepts. Basically, the CVC is the student life council. It consists of seven members, on the one hand you have the representatives of the 3 permanent associations and on the other side the students representatives, [as well as] the administration (the direction de scolarité on campus, our director, our responsable pédagogique, etc). We usually have CVC meetings scheduled throughout the year but if there are specific needs 1 “The reason why there were no elections this year is because so few people applied; I think that it is a result of the Coronavirus crisis. But to my knowledge the students are quite satisfied by the work I do [laughs].”
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we can request a meeting. For the back and forth between the students, I post messages on the group chats and if there are issues they can just text me. That works very well.
identify common problems.
What about the other on-campus associations?
I personally love representing people. The reason why I reapplied is because, throughout the first year, I could really see how much a representative could help students in a time of uncertainty by providing certainty. The reason why I continue doing this, even when the times are difficult, is because the students motivate me.
There are things such as extended CVCs with all association heads. But as we are the campus with the highest association to student ratio, we were over 45 people at the first CVC and it was very hard to organise. That is why CVC meetings are only held between the regional administration, the three presidents of the permanent associations (BDE, BDA, and BDS), and the year/track student representatives.
Do you see any improvements that could be made for better representation? Every representative has their own style of representation, it depends on the individual. I think that the CVC works quite well; it is very responsive.
Do the different CVC representatives often work together towards common goals? Last year we worked rather individually, but if we see that there are general trends such as a general trend of stress throughout the student population, we collaborate, creating surveys that we send out to the entire student body. Our focus is on the community that elected us, but if we see that there are issues that extend to the entire student community, then we work together. That is especially the case in CVC meetings that we have with the Dean. We are also in contact with the CVC representatives from all campuses to
On a more personal note, what motivated you for applying as representative of the student body?
What are the main difficulties and challenges you faced as a representative? The difficulties I see are establishing certainty. SciencesPo has a federal system, but sometimes there are aspects that have to be coordinated on an institutional level. It is not easy to find answers to questions that the original administration could not answer one hundred per cent.
How did your work evolve between those two years as a representative? I think it did evolve greatly. I started off really not knowing a lot about the institutional structure. I came from an American school system that was a bit “laissez-faire” and went to a CVC meeting where everybody is “carré.” It also evolved in the level of confidence, to see what the best way to communicate with the student body [is].
How do I make sure that the most students possible reply to messages on the group chats? When I introduce my recognizable catchphrase “Ladies and
Gentlemen.” My work really evolved on an organisational level, on a confidence level, and on a communicational and representational level.
What marked you the most in your experience as a student representative? I think “Ladies and Gentlemen” is something that I am going to remember for the rest of my life. I actually started using this introduction during the Coronavirus crisis last semester to sum up CVC meetings without giving the statement itself a lot of attention. Yet, soon I noticed that this statement was the first thing students read when previewing my message on the group chat, and as my summaries were quite important to my classmates, they started connotating “Ladies and Gentlemen” to “I better read this, this is important information.” This intrinsically backed the necessity of MPR (which was a very vague plan at that time) as a consistent and centralized platform with concise information everyone must read every week. Now, “Ladies and Gentlemen” is kind of like my trademark. I only use it for messages that are really important because as soon as I send a message using “Ladies and Gentlemen” everyone immediately checks what’s up, and in order to maintain this legitimacy I have to use this statement only when absolutely necessary. Regardless, I think that this tool, providing me with the prerogative of effective communication toward the entire student body, is one of the most important assets I developed as a representative.
Wh an the
Wi cus cou ent aca rus sem tal
Albert Frank discusses the Menton Policy Review
Any future projects you are planning to implement with CVC?
The leitmotiv of MPR: Concise, Consistent, Centralised. It was the work of nine months of planning and it really has to be perfect.
I really spent the summer working on MPR [Menton Policy Review]. It is vaguely connected to the CVC. What we did not have on campus was a centralised platform to communicate information.
hat is at stake today in CVC nd what are the priorities with e current pandemic?
ith the pandemic, I really fosed on every possible way I uld help the students. That tails students’ well being and ademics during the Coronavis pandemic. During the third mester, it was primarily menl health.
The optimal way to communicate with the student body is the bulletin, you centralise all information. I see it as a constitution, it has to be rigid and there are deadlines. It is sent out every Sunday.
How does MPR work? We have a team at MPR, we are five people. The work is dense and it is very structured. We compile our information from different poles, we have the associations, the Coronavirus information, and it all has to
be centralised at one point. I think that it helps the students and that is, again, the reason why I do it. It’s small things, the amount of hearts on my messages, that keep me motivated to continue with this.
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1A French Track « Au départ, j’ai apprécié l’indépendance procuré par le fait de vivre seul, par rapport à toutes les contraintes inhérentes à la vie avec sa famille. Cependant, d’un autre côté, il était possible de se sentir seul de temps à autre et j’ai essayé de compenser en voyant mes amis le plus possible. » 1A English Track « I think there’s a subtle beauty to be found in the struggles of isolation. While solitude might be the most dreaded nightmare of extroverts, these past months have been among the most honest ones that I’ve lived through. I’ve had to grapple with the ugly truths about myself, and I’ve had to learn how to integrate them into my daily thinking. And so, if this pandemic has taught me anything, it’s that there’s no real growth until there’s honesty —most importantly with myself. »
1A French Track « En éclipsant le conséquences négatives, ce prem riche en découvertes. Celles-ci son de vivre seul et donc d’avoir de no Pour ma part, j’ai eu un ressenti tr semestre et de la vie en solitaire, que ça avec toujours la possibilité d’aller chez eux. »
VIVRE SEUL POUR L
UNE EXPÉRIENC
1A French Track « Le fait de vivre seule ne fut pas tout à fait simple. En effet, s’ajoutant à la crise du Covid et au climat anxiogène qui en résulte, le fait d’être loin de ses proches a tout de suite créé un sentiment de solitude. Néanmoins, vivre seule pour la première fois n’a pas uniquement eu des conséquences négatives puisque ce fut également l’occasion de s’harmoniser avec soi-même, de se responsabiliser mais aussi et surtout de se créer de nouvelles habitudes et d’apprendre de nouvelles choses sur soi. Le fait de rencontrer de nouvelles personnes mais également la technologie qui permet de garder un contact avec ses proches ont tout de même rendu l’expérience un peu moins pénible. »
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1A Englis sense that university Covid rest but techno and feel le
1A French Track « Je garde un sentiment mitigé de ce premier semestre. J’ai appris de nombreuses choses et les cours sont enrichissants à Sciences Po, toutefois un sentiment d’inachevé demeure, tant au niveau relationnel que dans l’apprentissage en raison de l’annulation de nombreux évènements. Quant au fait de vivre seul, cela m’a permis de sortir de la bulle où j’ai vécu pendant tant d’années et de mûrir. »
1A English Track « I would say that given the current pandemic, I feel very satisfied with this semester. I am very happy that I have the chance to live alone now and have a new sense of autonomy that I never had before. »
e virus et toutes ses mier semestre aura été nt en partie dû au fait ouvelles responsabilités. rès positif de ce premier qui n’a pas été si solitaire é d’inviter ses amis ou
Quelques citations des étudiants en 1A en concernant vivre seul pour la première fois
1A French Track « Vivre seul, c’est vraiment quelque chose de spécial. Quand on passe de 4 personnes à 1, c’est particulier. Je trouve quand même qu’il y a de nombreux avantages. Mon appartement, c’est mon univers à moi et je peux faire ce que je veux. Je peux accueillir mes amis ou sortir sans soucis. De plus vivre seul, ça force à mieux s’organiser, on devient plus autonome et plus mature. On trouve beaucoup d’avantages à vivre seul ! »
LA PREMIÈRE FOIS
CE... SPÉCIALE
SAMY EL MALOUI
CHRONIQUEUR
sh Track « This semester was difficult in the t we as first years were attempting to learn how life works all the while learning how to adjust to trictions. Living alone can be isolating at times ology surely makes it easier to stay in contact ess lonely. » 1A French Track « Pour moi, ça a été le début d’une grande indépendance. On dit souvent qu’avoir un nouvel appartement, c’est le début d’une nouvelle histoire. Je l’ai vécu comme ça. Une nouvelle histoire avec ces bons et ces mauvais côtés évidemment ! »
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ment à ce que souhaitais pour une première année dans le supérieur en étant fonctionnel, et surtout agencé de manière cohérente. Cerise sur le gâteau, la vue sur le centre-ville de la cité mentonnaise est absolument magnifique et rêvassant, je me vois déjà prendre mon petit déjeuner sur la terrasse 11h44. L’heure de chaque matinée, en révisant mon réveil et première bonne mes cours comme le ferait un nouvelle de la journée, je me étudiant assidu (ma terrasse dis qu’aujo- Vivre seul implique n’a absolument urd’hui, je suis donc par la force des jamais vu cette plus matinal choses de cuisiner scène de tout le semestre, qui il qu’à l’accoutout seul, et c’est un est vrai, est digne tumée. Une fois n’est pas euphémisme de dire d’un mauvais coutume, j’ai que ce n’est pas le film français). encore malen- domaine où je suis le Je chéris déjà cette liberté que contreusement plus compétent. m’offre le fait de raté le cours vivre seul et je magistral d’Institutions Polivoyais déjà une année où je tiques de l’éminent professeur Tusseau, pour la 6ème ou serais organisé et rigoureux peut-être la 7ème fois, je ne dans mon apprentissage des les compte plus. Cela va faire enseignements proposés (rires bientôt 1 mois que j’habite dans la salle) tout en profitant seul dans cet appartement, qui de la vie étudiante et des mulreprésente à lui seul le symbole tiples richesses sociales qu’elle d’une longue et inexorable propose. déchéance (ce n’est pas grave, je rattraperai tous les cours magistraux avant les finals qu’il disait). Comment en suis-je arrivé là ? Il est nécessaire de réaliser une petite rétrospective. Début septembre 2020, j’arrive dans mon appartement dans le but d’y vivre de manière solitaire pour la première fois. Il correspond exacte-
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Les premiers jours se passent sans encombre et je découvre peu à peu mes chers camarades sciencespistes (l’élite de la nation selon une légende persistante à travers les âges). Mais assez tôt, un problème inopportun se pose. Vivre seul implique donc par la force des choses de cuisiner tout seul, et c’est un euphémisme de dire que ce n’est pas le domaine où je suis le plus compétent. Ainsi, chaque soir, se pose un choix ô combien cornélien qui est tou-
jours finalement guidé par mes mensurables à tel point que papilles gustaje songeais tives : farfalles, Vivre seul permet de q u e l q u e f o i s tagliatelles ou grandir d’un coup, pour à participer à c o q u i l l e t t e s rentrer dans le tant des émissions ? Ironie du redouté monde adulte, TV raffinées tel sort, Men- et cette nouvelle expéri- que Top Chef, ton n’est qu’à ence permet réellement mais je me raquelques pede prendre en maturité visais vite, pentits kilomètres sant aux riset devenir quelqu’un de l’Italie, un ques de mettre pays phare de d’autre en quelques les jurys, par la mois seulement. la gastronoqualité de mes mie, connu chefs d’œuvre pour ses mets de renom à tra- culinaires que l’on pourrait vers le monde entier. J’ai ainsi qualifier d’ésotérique, dans un pu largement explorer la large état d’hébétude jamais vu sur palette qu’offre cette gastron- le service public français et ce omie en termes de « pasta » n’était pas clairement mon but. (Veuillez excuser mon italien Et c’est ainsi que… attendez, hésitant, j’ai commis l’erreur vous pensiez que les propos impardonnable de choisir euro plus hauts étaient véridiques ? allemand en début de lycée). Il était donc nécessaire d’ap- Mes compétences gasprendre à cuisiner pour ne pas tronomiques n’ont absoluêtre condamné à connaître sur ment jamais évolué, me lais...LE PIRE, la catale bout des sant, jusqu’au doigts toute clysmique des tortures, premier conla gamme que dis-je la plus effroy- finement, me de pâtes di- able des actions à réal- contenter de sponible sur mes maigres iser : le ménage. le marché. Je savoirs dans ce n’avais pas le droit à l’erreur, domaine. Je tenais néanmoins l’ombre de notre Choumicha à remercier quelqu’un. En ef(du nom de la très célèbre chef fet, il est nécessaire de louer marocaine) national rôdant le geste de Monsieur le présau-dessus de moi. J’ai donc pu ident de la République qui, commencer à m’exercer grâce dans sa bonté habituelle, m’a à cet outil formidable de notre permis de profiter des plats de époque contemporaine qu’est ma mère pendant deux longs Internet et ses nombreuses mois au lieu de la seule sesources faisant lien à la réalisa- maine de vacances initiale, évition de recettes sophistiqués. tant la suite de ce désastre. La cuisine étant une épine dans Mon niveau relatif à l’art cu- mon pied, elle n’était pas la linaire progressait de jour en seule. Nous pouvons rajouter jour me propulsant dans des le fait de mettre ses vêtements galaxies de sapidité incom- au lavage tout seul comme un
PHOTO PAR SAMY EL MALOUI
grand (je pense encore au jour où j’ai étendu mon linge avant d’aller en cours une après-midi ensoleillé, avant de finalement le retrouver trempé en rentrant 2 heures plus tard, les précipitations dans cette ville étant aussi imprévisibles que l’administration de Sciences Po), faire la vaisselle tous les
jours (une telle abomination que j’aurais même préféré assister à 3 heures d’un meeting du Rassemblement National à la place, c’est dire), la distance avec la famille qui a pu se révéler assez difficile à vivre par moment et LE PIRE, la cataclysmique des tortures, que dis-je la plus effroyable
des actions à réaliser : le ménage.
alement vecteur d’un développement personnel insoupçonnable. Elle oblige à gérer un Activité respectable je l’en- appartement de manière autend, mais dont je n’avais pas tonome avec tous les aspects particulièrement l’habitude qui lui sont reliés (gérer le côté auparavant et que j’ai dû administratif étant une nouréaliser tous les jours durant veauté assez surprenante au mon périple mentonnais. début par exemple). Ce nouNonobstant, si vivre seule veau mode de vie effrayant se comporte ainsi quelques révèle exaltant par certains asdésavantages comme nous pects et notamment la liberté avons pu qu’il confère le voir de Ce premier semestre en vivant : pouvoir sorm a n i è r e seul est donc une experience a tir et rentrer plutôt coà n’importe absolument vivre ... casse, il y a quelle heure, également des avantages, rares par ailleurs sans exagérer, apcertes, mais bien existants. pelant à un effort de sagacité afin d’être raisonnable (et non Vivre seul permet de grandir chers amis sciencespistes, d’un coup, pour rentrer dans rentrer à 5 heures du matin le tant redouté monde adulte, chaque jour n’est pas quelque et cette nouvelle expérience chose considéré comme raipermet réellement de pren- sonnable). dre en maturité et devenir Ce premier semestre en vivant seul est donc une expérience à absolument vivre, les difficultés qui lui adjacentes permettant d’endurcir les étudiants et aidant à cette difficile transition de l’adolescence au « mystérieux » monde adulte. De mon point de vue, ce vécu m’a permis de grandir intérieurement en m’obligeant à m’atteler à des tâches que je regardais parfois de loin dans quelqu’un d’autre en quelques le passé et en cette fin de semois seulement. Cela permet mestre, je pense que nous de s’émanciper du cadre con- pouvons nous féliciter. Nous fortable de chez papa-maman féliciter d’avoir su gérer une et pleinement sortir de sa zone telle nouveauté surtout en de confort, faisant face à de cette époque compliquée de nouvelles problématiques dif- pandémie du COVID-19 (on ficiles à appréhender au départ ne va pas remercier le parti certes mais qui se révèlent fin- communiste chinois), qui a
restreint le contact social à plusieurs moments, pour pallier les moments délicats qu’il est possible de rencontrer. Je pense notamment aux étudiants étrangers qui ont vécu leur confinement à Menton. Faute de pouvoir rentrer, ils firent preuve d’une force mentale assez remarquable, malgré l’anxiété, qui est montée en flèche chez les élèves de Sciences Po durant cette période. En effet, près de 6 étudiants sur 10 furent touchés par ce phénomène selon l’échelle clinique HAD. Vivre seul est donc une expérience exaltante, effrayante au départ mais qui se révèle être indispensable dans le cheminement d’un étudiant. J’ai pu demander leur ressenti à quelques personnes du campus par rapport à cette expérience afin d’avoir un témoignage pluriel. La question posée était : « Quel est votre ressenti par rapport à ce premier semestre et le fait de vivre seul notamment ? »
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SCREENSHOT BY BARBARA KUZA-TARKOWSKA
WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED FROM
BARBARA KUZA-TARKOWSKA
COLUMNIST
A campus takeaway on inviting controversial speakers
RUDY ROCHMAN? The Facebook post announcing the meeting with Rudy Rochman, organized by the Union des Etudiants Juifs de France (UEJF) Sciences Po, sparked a debate in the comment section within minutes. While these types of comment fights are typical for Facebook in general, it was rather out of the ordinary for Menton’s campus group, with
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the post receiving a total of 75 comments. Rudy Rochman, an Israeli-Jewish rights activist — as it reads from his Instagram bio — was invited by the Menton branch of UEJF to talk about the Israeli-Palestinian issue. While the Israel-Palestine conflict in general often sparks in-depth discussions or debates on campus, what attracted attention this time was Rochman’s history. In particular, Rochman’s voluntary enrollment in the Israeli Defense
Forces (IDF) ignited the heated debate. During the meeting itself, Rochman began by talking about a traumatic experience in London where he and his mother were removed from a bus by a neo-nazi driver when Rudy was just seven years old. As Rochman said during the meeting, this experience taught him who he was — a Jew, part of a people and not necessarily a religion, and this indirectly led to his activism
nowadays. During the UEJF’s meeting, Rochman also equated Anti-Zionism to Anti-Semitism, asserted that Zionism is a decolonial movement, and stated that Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel. Furthermore, he said that the exile of Palestinians was caused by the wars between Israel and Arab countries. Several of those who attended the meeting edited their Zoom names to express their identities or opinions as they related to Rudy’s message.
More specifically, two participants renamed themselves as “anti-Zionist” whereas three other participants referred to either Palestine (“Free Palestine”) or themselves as Palestinian in their names. The speaker visibly stirred up controversy during the Zoom call, let alone the Facebook post that had also done so well before it. Therefore, the question comes to mind: should we invite controversial speakers to spread their message on campus? To answer this question, four students of the Menton campus were interviewed: Cécile Toussaint, a Jewish-French 1A who co-organised the meeting on behalf of the UEJF; Maryam Alwan, a 1A American of Palestinian and Syrian descent; Ysabella Titi, 2A who is the President of Sciences Palestine; and Jaeli Rose, a Jewish-American 2A, who also sits on the board of Sciences Palestine and identifies as a Jewish anti-Zionist. Why did you invite Rudy Rochman to speak? Cécile: I was always very interested by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and… I had heard of Rudy Rochman three years ago. I saw that he was a Jewish and Israeli rights activist and I thought that he really changed my mind about the conflict. The fact that he was an Israeli activist who is very, very proud of his Jewish heritage and his Jewish identity was very interesting for me because we often hear about
Jews... that are anti-Zionist or that negate the connection to the land of Israel and he was offering a completely different perspective on the conflict. I like the fact that he was very proud of his identity, but also that he was willing to talk to Palestinians and… he was against the fact they were antagonizing each other in the conflict. His opinion is that… the people should be the ones who find a common ground and build something together, and that the government doesn’t represent the people — Netanyahu doesn’t represent every Israeli, and the PA or Hamas doesn’t represent Palestinians, obviously. For him, we really should come together and build peace together. I really like this perspective and, for me, he was a very peaceful activist. I saw his videos and it was always about bringing Israelis and Palestinians together, talking to Jews, going on campus in a very peaceful way and never getting mad or never yelling at other people. Just trying to understand other people’s perspective, while explaining his perspective and his opinion. What were your feelings after leaving the meeting? Do you think the meeting with Rochman changed the opinions of people on campus? Cécile: After the meeting I got some very, very positive messages of people telling me that they learned a lot. I think the good thing about this meeting… is that [students] learned more about the Jewish connection to the land of Israel and learned that Zionism was and is a concept that was
kind of manipulated. Maryam: I thought I would be upset leaving it [the meeting] but just seeing the solidarity from everyone on campus and everyone recognizing that what he was saying was not okay or not factual made me feel better. I felt like, you’re not alone. One good thing that came out of it was that there’s this one person who [I had] kind of been clashing with before regarding this topic, but afterwards, we bonded over the fact that what [Rochman] was saying was so radical, so now we’re actually friends. Jaeli: I hope [R ochman changed opinions of people on campus]. Mostly because I think that the questions posed by the student body, I don’t think they necessarily stumped [Rochman] in any way, I think that they’re questions he’s pretty used to getting, but I think that it at least somewhat brought his hypocrisy to light and I hope that students who perhaps were not super sure about Israel and Palestine, or still believe in the idea of Jewish self-determination… got to see a lot of the destruction that has gone on. I don’t think [Rochman] necessarily convinced anyone. This is an issue where people who already have opinions… are not very likely to change them.
Ysabella: I was really visibly upset because I think he said so many fallacies, as if they were factual statements. He tended to ignore a lot of the questions that were asked. I think in the end he’s really good at being almost a political figure in which he’s able to wrap around what you’re saying and not actually answer questions. There are not a lot of Palestinians on this campus, there’s only three of us and we’re all half so we make one and a half in total. It’s problematic because… we’re choosing to listen to fallacies which go completely against the lived experiences. At least what he said was a complete opposite of my family’s experience and how they were exiled. For him to say that this is the problem of Arab countries is just completely falsified and I think he had so many other fallacies that are important for us to bring up. I just think it’s problematic, especially on this campus, that we’re choosing to promote such a voice. I think that an outlook that I did change is that in the beginning of the year, I really didn’t take initiative in Sciences Palestine, because I was so scared of being viewed as political or to get backlash. But if there’s one thing that this event has taught me it’s that being vocal about Palestine is something that is necessary on this campus and it’s actually very needed and I should not be scared about someone telling me that my experience or my family’s experience is political. I think
that the entire being of a Palestinian is something that is inherently politicized because you know, we are people without a state. I think… it changed my opinion on how I’m going to go about the second semester. Do you think given the specialisation of our campus, we should be giving speakers like him a platform? Cécile: Definitely. First of all, for me, [Rochman is] not as controversial as people think, even though I really thought that when meeting him people would understand that he’s not controversial. I don’t think it was totally the case, but I still think that even speakers that are very controversial and way more than him should be given a platform to express their opinions because that’s why we’re here for, right? We’re here to learn… I think we should learn about every opinion… and everybody should have the right to express themselves. We’re Sciences Po students we’re supposed to have an esprit critique, to be able to criticize others’ opinions, and I think it was the case for [Rochman]. I think anyone should be given a platform to express themselves. Maryam: I think it’s okay to give him a platform as long as we counter it appropriately. I don’t think it’s okay to just have an Israeli talk about what Palestinians want, but I think we can have his point of view, as long as it’s more like a discussion or both sides are presented. For our campus I think it’s important that we educate ourselves on these things.
Jaeli: Definitely. I think that there should be an opportunity here from all sides, but I also think that speakers should be contextualized in the movements which they are a part of. [Rochman] is a part of a Zionist expansionist movement that is present on US college campuses… and PACs. I also think the organization that brought him [to campus] should be responsible for bringing other speakers who don’t agree with him.
Jaeli: I think that any language about Israel, about Zionism really, that fails to acknowledge everything that has happened to Palestinians, everything that’s happened to Palestine, is not a result of some unfortunate nationalists issue. It’s not two nations opposing one another, two different nationalisms, this is obviously a settler colonial regime and an incredibly oppressive one. Any discussion of Israel that doesnot acknowledge this history Would you say that his mes- of oppression and domination sage was propaganda? Would I view as propaganda, because you designate Rochman as a it’s not really talking about history in any open and honest reliable source? way. Cécile: I wouldn’t say he’s a completely reliable source, be- Maryam: One hundred percause of course he’s a normal cent [his message was propahuman being, so he doesn’t ganda]. He’s part of an organiknow all the facts. Of course he zation, he won’t… say that out advocates for Jews and Israel right, but the whole goal [of and… in his message, he tries the organization] is to preach to show the Jewish connec- to young Palestinians and estion through the land and to pecially Zionists who are more advocate for Israel. What I like progressive, and they’re trying about his videos is that even… to help them reconcile the produring his debates he when he gressive ideology with Zionstates facts, sometimes you can ism. They’re kind of distorting see on the video him stop and reality and making it seem like return to say “oh that was actu- it’s okay to want Jewish major-
I think there should be an opportunity to here from all sides but I also think all speakers should be contextualized . - Jaeli ally not true, this is the exact ity state in all of Israel, even data,” so I think he also has a though that means kicking out self-critique. Palestinians.
Brief interlude
highlights from the Zoom chat
SCREENSHOT BY SANTOSH MURALIDARAN
Ysabella: I was particularly struck by the fact that he blamed Palestinian injustice and the clear human rights violations, he blamed it on other Arab countries and on Britain, but never really would mention that that lose that there is human rights violations by Israel and the Israeli occupation. Obviously there are injustices in other Arab countries and Britain obviously had a large effect on this, however, to completely ignore the human rights violations of Israel and instead blame states that aren’t Israel, I think, is problematic.
ing that we should have some sort of committee or something that would… look into their [speakers’] backgrounds. Even if we can’t say that they can’t speak, we can at least make that information about their background public. Who draws the line? Because it is propaganda, yes, but he’s not perpetuating hate speech or anything inherently violent or dangerous. Jaeli: Certainly. I would take issue with anyone who said he couldn’t speak. Ysabella: I think that if you’re going to invite someone for
If you dont allow him to speak then who are you going to allow? - Cécile
Do you think not allowing Rudy to speak would set a precedent for inviting future speakers?
Cécile: Yeah definitely. I guess that not allowing him to speak just because he offers a different opinion and different perspective would be wrong. Everybody has opinions so if... you’re going to invite speakers, there will always be the possibility that people will disagree with him. If you don’t allow him to speak then who are you going to allow to speak? Maryam: Yeah that’s actually part of the reason that I do think that he should be allowed to speak. If we say that he can’t speak then who gets to decide that? I think it was Nour [Aljowaily], he was say-
a specific issue, especially on an issue like this, in which we know that what he’s going to say is incredibly opinionated, I think that [contextualizing the speaker] would have been important, because I think that, if other people who didn’t share the same viewpoint as him… didn’t go to that conference, it easily could have been an hour of him speaking his opinion. Despite it being the Middle Eastern campus, there is not a lot of people who take the 2A Israeli-Palestinian course. There’s only one 2A course and how many people are in there? Like 20 something? So, 20 something people in the whole campus take a course on this and so I think that it’s important because some peo-
SCREENSHOT BY SANTOSH MURALIDARAN
ple can go [to the Rochman meeting] and that’s their main source of information, andI think that that’s problematic. Conclusion Whether or not you agree with Rudy Rochman’s message, it can be said that inviting him was a learning experience for
our campus, be it widening by one’s outlook on the Isreli-Palestinian conflict, or on the freedom of speech. Extending invitations to controversial speakers to the Menton campus, certainly provoked thought in the student body. Did it provoke change? Only the second semester will tell.
The talk was one hunred percent propoganda . - Maryam For me Rochman is not as controversial as people think. - Cécile
I think he said so many fallacies as if they were facts . - Bella I do not think Rochma convinved anyone. - Jaeli ÉDITION N˚2 | DÉCEMBRE 2020
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NO MARK OF MAN A critique of America’s empty wildness AUDREY KOST
COLUMNIST
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ON BEHALF OF
ENVIRONNEMENTON
ALL PHOTOS BY AUDREY KOST
Dick’s Lake Zone, 2020
I could hear the wind and snow whisper over the peak across the lake before I felt it. It whipped through our small tent and sank bitterly into the openings of our sleeping bags. It was well below freezing, and my brother and I were spending a restless night perched at 2438m. We were in Desolation Wilderness, a 258 square kilometer federal wilderness area in northern California. In just a short 9 mile trek from our car, we had gone from warm temperatures and lush forest to barren granite and snow. Despite both being experienced backpackers, I was worried: the temperature kept sinking, the sun had already set, and we were without cell service, completely and utterly alone. Desolation Wilderness, as its name suggests, is supposed to feel empty. Like many outdoor spaces in the United States, it regulates visitors through a permitting system.The local Tahoe Basin management unit
set trails, and hanging out with my brother. But nothing about the solitude of Desolation is natural. In fact, the concept of solitude in American wilderness is artificial. Americans frequently define the “wilderness character” of public spaces as what we want to see rather than what is actually there. Professor Wendy Harding believes this began with the first settlers, who conceived America with disregard to “what was already there in favor of their visions of what it should be.” In the 1850s, John Muir, a naturalist and conservationist, explored the Sierra Nevada mountain range backing up to Desolation Wilderness and wrote that no mark of man was visible in the 500 mile-long strip of mountains. That is simply incorrect. In addition to many other tribes, the Washoe i tribe inhabited the Greater Tahoe Area that includes Desolation Wi lderness. They gathered acorns and pine nuts in Desolation during the summers. The notion of emptiness in American nature— specifically, the lack of other humans— erases Native American history.
The notion of emptiness in American nature — specif cally, the lack of other humans — ,, erases Native American history. claims that it uses permits “to protect its unique beauty and wilderness character.” The Wilderness is divided into 45 zones, each with different quotas for day-hikers and backpackers. At Dick’s Lake, the zone my brother and I camped in, there were no other backpackers. It was wonderful to be alone in nature, hiking without
National Parks were established to “preserve unimpaired natural and cultural resources and values of the NPS for the en-
joyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations,” (Burns). Public access to wilderness was one of the driving factors in creating the National Park System. However, as
Muir marveled at the cathedral domes of Yosemite (one of the first national parks), his plans to protect the valley displaced the Native American Miwoks of whom the name ‘Yosemite’ comes from. Paradoxically, by increasing public access to nature, the National Park System barred Native Americans from living on their own lands. Although Desolation is not a National Park, the same thing happened. Logging and fishing industries left the Washoe people without natural resources and pushed them off of their ancestral lands.They were repeatedly denied access to reservation or rights, and forced to adopt white settler culture. In a case filed for $48 million over their wrongful loss of natural resources in 1951, the Washoe were only granted $5 million, and the money did not arrive until almost 20 years after the initial case was filed.
So why do we let permitting and limiting human activity continue today? Broadly speaking, we accept it as an essential aspect of environmentalism because we believe that it will protect the natural environment. In Desolation Wilderness, there are black bears, marmots, pika rabbits, lodgepole pines, juniper trees, and scattered wildflowers. These animals and ecosystems need protection. Our relationship with nature needs to change, however. Rather than recognizing these natural spaces as special, desolate, and fragile environments to be protected, we need to coexist with them. Removing human bodies from the natural world reinforces the notion of the incompatibility between modernity and environmentalism. However, the Washoe people show that humans can indeed coincide with the natural world. Perhaps the most important step in changing our current relationship with nature will be realizing that the modern world and the natural world are one and the same. Letting the Washoe return freely to Desolation without permits— and considering similar policies in wilderness spaces throughout the U.S.— is not only a step towards reestablishing our relationship with the outdoors; it’s also the first step towards humanistic environmental consciousness.
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2020:
the “worst year in history”?
We are finally there. We have arrived at the end of 2020. Let that sink in. Breathe. Take a moment to really comprehend it: 2020 is over. What a year it has been! How do we react? Are we relieved? Joyful? Triumphant to have endured? Or perhaps we are tired? Stressed out? Worried and anxious? Full of sorrow and suffering? 2020 has marked all of us. It has been special, unprecedented, historic. Whatever the future may bring us, we will forever and collectively remember 2020. We will look back at it differently — not like we will look back at 2019 or 2018 or 2014. 2020 has been something else. Ten years, twenty, thirty years from now, when we hear or read or think of those four numbers, we will still immediately get that feeling, that underlying, sometimes emotionally erupting, scratching in the back of our heads, dancing on our cerebral cortex-feeling that we all had and felt throughout 2020, to be expressed in four words: what is actually happening?
The COVID-19 pandemic has stretched and distorted the year. Remembering life in January feels like going back through history to another epoch. The COVID-19 pandemic has stretched and distorted the year. Remembering life in January feels like going back through history to another epoch. Instinctively, we think: “January was a completely different time! So much has happened since!” This is true to an extent. Since January, we have experienced some of the worst natural catastrophes and the single worst economic collapse on record, social unrest and uprisings and escalating violence in many parts of the world. And again, COVID in all parts of the world. In retrospect, January seemed like
20
PHILIPP FRANK
COLUMNIST
such a “chill time”, even when the U.S. and Iran were on the brink of war 72 hours after New Year’s Eve. However, and this is sad news, if we think about what has happened in our individual lives since January, most of us ought to painfully admit: not actually that much. Confinement put us in a long, exhaustive, day-to-day ever-repeating home-office microcosm. Paradoxically, we have been experiencing the most disruptive and unstable year of our lifetimes, yet catching up with friends has never been this boring. People’s lives have rarely been as synchronized as today, rarely have they been as equally driven and limited by the same forces. Now, of course, this is also only true to an extent. This year has revealed a number of disturbing disparities, under which some people or groups of people have tragically and unjustly suffered. Social division, economic hardship, and the ravaging of public and private health have taken a cruel toll. Looking towards the dawn of 2021, one is easily tempted to declare the previous year one of, if not the, most disruptive and far-reaching in history. Except it is not. There is another year in history that was already identified as the world champion in this category. In fact, this very year was declared the “worst year in history.” Surprisingly, it is not in the 20th century, perhaps the most obvious candidate as a century. Nor is it in the 19th, the 18th, the 17th, not even in the 14th century, which saw the Black Death wiping out a third of Europe. It is, according to Harvard professor Michael McCormick, the year 536 A.D. At first glance, 536 A.D. appears to be a revoltingly random year to pick for “the worst in history.” In addition, it should, for the sake of completeness and
transparency, be added at this point that 536 A.D. received its title in the year 2018 A.D., which is known to have ended two years prior to 2020.
At first glance, 536 A.D. appears to be a revoltingly random year to pick for “the worst in history.” So, what happened in 536 A.D. that made it the worst year in history? It began with a cataclysmic volcanic eruption in Iceland that year, burying Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia in dark fog for the following 18 months. Temperatures fell up to 2.5 degrees, launching the coldest decade in more than two millennia. The Chinese saw snow in summer, the Irish reported having no bread for the following three years due to crop failures. People were starving literally everywhere as a worldwide famine began to take shape. Unfortunately, it would not stop there. 536 A.D. went down in history as not only the worst year but also the launch of one of the worst periods in human history, which experienced volcanic eruptions, famines, wars, economic stagnation, and the bubonic plague. What a year that was! Despite the terrible events of their time, people persevered and carried on. In just the following year, 537 A.D., the Hagia Sophia was completed in Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul, one of the most marvellous buildings and a UNESCO World Heritage Site today. The year after, Gregory of Tours, one of the most esteemed historians on the Frankish State and the Merovingians, and Zhiyi, one of the founders of Tiantai Buddhism (a prominent ancient school of Buddhism), were born. The point is that humanity has always had a hard time on this planet. In some particular years, it was even quite literally hell. 2020 is likely to be remembered as one of those years. In fact, let us hope it will be remembered as a singular dreadful year because that would imply that better times are ahead of us. After all that has happened in 2020, this feels like a very dangerous and delicate declaration. Nevertheless, a brighter future cannot, after all, be ruled out. If this year has taught us anything, it is that the unlikeliest things might very well be knocking on your door.
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ENVIRONMENTA
LUCILLE MILLIGAN
COLUMNIST
22
LOCATION
On November 21st, Reims Model United Nations and MEDMUN embarked on a unique challenge in forming the very first Model UN Hybrid Committee in COP26, a conference designed to address the global environmental crisis.
The global health situation and French lockdown could have meant the stop of all Model United Nations activity; in-
stead, these new challenges inspired ingenuity and created unprecedented opportunities for inter-campus collaboration. For the first time, members of the Reims and Menton campus were able to participate in the same committee.
mate Change Disproportionately Burdening Developing Countries.” In place of normal Model UN procedure, unmoderated caucuses became breakout rooms, passing notes became private chat messages, votes became digital buttons.
In an online format, delegates from both campuses joined the ECOSOC Hybrid Committee and attempted to address the problem of “Impacts of Cli-
Within the debates, delegates discussed energy efficiency, land-use management, and protection of biodiversity, with each committee member
AL COMMITTEE TAL
N: ZOOM
representing the needs of their cluded a comedic break with assigned country. Before the the Reims Campus SPK’s (Sciences debate, many ...unmoderated caucuses of the dele- became breakout rooms, Polémiques’s) gates had nev- passing notes became pri- satiric presener participat- vate chat messages, votes tation, and a closing cereed in any form became digital buttons.” mony bringof a MUN ing together conference; all committees. and yet by the end of the day, multiple resolutions had been Moving forward, Menton’s written, voted on and passed. Model UN organization has The day’s schedule also in- already begun preparing digi-
SCREENSHOT BY TOMMASO CAMPOMAGNANI
tal alternatives for their yearly conference MEDMUN. With these plans, they have found a way to ensure that everyone will have a chance to participate no matter what the future holds. If the conference is anything like COP26, then it is sure to be not only educational, but fun in this new online environment.
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less of where. He thus gained a scholarship, securing a seat at the Jordan University of Science and Technology for Civil Engineering.
However, racial discrimination comes in more than one level in the country.
Sudanese and Somali refugees in Jordan specifically struggle “When I started looking with racism with constant use for employment in my of racial slurs like Abu Samra, field, civil engineering, I realized that this will not be chocolate, or ’abeed, meaning a possibility. I had to think slave. On his way to the cafe, Mubarak was in a taxi and in a different way and use whatever option was open hurled the exact words ‘chocolate’ and ‘Abu Samra.’ When for me. And then I started opposing those comments, the working as a freelance interpreter with international response was organizations.” “We’re in Jordan, it is totally
T
he cafe was filled with people. People with meetings or work, people catching up with friends over a cup of coffee. Some chose to sit in the quiet inside area where others chose to overlook the many buildings of Amman, Jordan from the outside balcony. When sitting outside, one could almost imagine power over the already established concrete buildings. Among the many people, Hassan and Mubarak, two community leaders of Somali and Sudanese refugees, played with the idea of power to find solutions for their communities. The list grew. Five minutes became a half-hour until Mubarak put the discussion on hold to tend to the official interview.
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Mubarak and Hassan have two different stories of why they came to Jordan — Mubarak from Darfur, Sudan in 2013 and Hassan from Somalia in 2010. They are two of 2.7 million refugees registered in Jordan, with 2.2 million being Palestinian and 745 thousand registered with UNHCR. They are also refugees of a minority. A minority that, as the Jesuit Refugee Service explains, is almost a “forgotten refugee population in Jordan.” According to the UNHCR, a refugee legally has three different options of life direction: voluntary repatriation, local integration, or third-country resettlement. But what if none of these options are durable for refugees of African origin? When Hassan came to Jordan, he saw education as the single option to build a future regard-
Jordanian legal restrictions prohibit refugees from working, apart from some Syrian refugees who gained a work permit after 2016. That means most refugees work in the informal sector with no protection, low wages, and the fear of imprisonment or deportation if caught working. For African refugees, discrimination is especially present in the work sector. “Many refugees work illegally in the country. When the government is trying to catch illegal workers, the African refugees are simply noticed, as a person of color in the government or a company. As a Syrian you can easily move around, thinking the person is Jordanian, Palestinian,” Hassan explains. And at the end of the day, is Jordan to be blamed? In a country with almost 15 percent unemployment, Hassan points out, “There is no way you can expect a government who fails to employ its own people to give you the chance to work in your profession, as a refugee.”
fine. This is normal.”
What Mubarak points out that’s specifically difficult in changing this mindset is its institutional presence. He has been called ‘Abu Samra’ by officials in the host community several times. Hassan pointed out the present superiority and ignorance of the slavery stage by Arabs. “Sometimes they see a person of color and immediately doubt their ability to speak Arabic or their religion.” And what happens when one attempts to speak up about their rights? The Sudanese and Somali communities, forgotten refugee communities, receive much less aid from international organizations like UNICEF and Save the Children, who limit their work to aid Syrian refugees. As late as 2015, Sudanese refugees protested outside the UNHCR office, demanding better rights for refugees and asylum seekers like Syrian and Iraqi refugees. After a month of protesting, more than 800 Sudanese refugees were deported back to Sudan by Jordanian author-
IN A DEADLOCK “REFUGEES IN JORDAN ARE LIKE A DEAD PERSON”
CAROLINE SØGAARD
COLUMNIST
ities. Instead of fighting an inexistent power, Hassan and Mubarak both chose to give back to their communities after the 2015 deportation and became more careful in their actions to speak up about their rights and the discrimination they experience. Hassan speaks up about these worries:
laws will change. A Jordan where laws will remove racism. A Jordan where the refugee hierarchy fuelled by the country and international community disappears. And at the end of the day, what role does the international community have? 1 percent of the world’s refugees are resettled while the rest are left with the option of local “I represent the Somali integration and repatriation — community at the UNoptions that are not feasible. HCR and sometimes I talk Meanwhile, Western States to organizations in terms of send aid to countries like Jorthe rights of these people, I dan to keep refugees alive, but feel from time to time that without life. The money beit is putting myself at risk. comes an excuse to not take In telling the UNHCR diany more refugees into their rectly what is going on and needing economies instead of whose rights are neglected. adopting effective integration You fear for your own, you policies. Money from intermay be interrogated national organizations is used or followed”. to continue the informal sysMubarak and Hassan do not tem where no refugee has the believe in a Jordan where the opportunity to integrate. If
Mubarak and Hassan ask for resettlement, they will receive a “no” because they are single men. Life as a refugee in Jordan is “like [that of] a dead person”.
where the system is established. Mubarak calls this “a dead person waiting for their only cure — resettlement.”
It is a “a life between four walls” of the concrete buildings
ALL PHOTOS BY CAROLINE SØGAARD
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The
other
“I’ve NEVER felt more
on my own as a st
tha
“I’m p
Unive Im
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tudent an I do now”
MADELINE WYATT
COLUMNIST
paying ten thousand euros to attend the ersity of Nice… Nice… might as well have gone there for the SAME EDUCATION” EDUCATION ”
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Sciences Po; whisper it with me — you know the one: the firm but fleeting female voice that speaks of professionalism and competence. Certainly it is meant to attract prospective pupils, reassure current students, and indulge alumni, but what about those who feel none of that? Four different students—all who agreed to be interviewed on the condition that they remain anonymous—challenge the image Sciences Po has painted, instead constructing a far more perilous institution, one plagued by academic, administrative, and social hazards. They have been given the pseudonyms Cybil, Rachel, Gabrielle, and Ashan.
er she was enamored with the romantic image of which she held the university. “It came back to bite me,” she spoke candidly, “there is so little information out there on the university, but I still feel bamboozled.” She was told that Sciences Po was the best school in all of France, its intellect and academic status bar none . “They call it the ‘Harvard of France’ but I don’t know where the hell that came from,” she said. Students are especially aware of the prestige of the university, assuming that the reputation corresponds with academic rigor.
had near identical statements on the university: what they paid for was indeed not what they received.
Gabrielle stated in her interview. She additionally pointed out the number of professors who are full time lycée teachers. While there is nothing inherently wrong with borrowing professors from Nice or from high schools, she states that it surely begs the question as to whether or not students should be paying thousands of euros while, at Nice, they could have as easily experienced the same professors for merely two hundred. As Sciences Po is the most expensive school in France, Rachel couldn’t help but wonder how or why that ever came to be the case. “For what?” she asked. “The teachers don’t
“I’m paying ten thousand euros to attend the University of Nice… I might as While all of the interviews were well have gone there for the conducted separately and indesame education,” pendent of one another, all four
“I feel jipped,”
Cybil said, “I’m shocked, a bit dismayed, and totally disillusioned in the way that Sciences Po advertises itself versus how it actually is.” Cybil instead argues that Sciences Po advertises the prestige of the seven campuses combined instead of focusing on the individual programs and merits of each campus. The school allows its prestige to speak for itself without regard for quality of education. Rachel experienced a similar phenomenon, realizing upon reflection, how little she truly knew about the program, rath-
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answer questions and are
hardly helpful with assign- dent well-being.” Cybil noted ments, sometimes even a similar issue, acknowledging contradicting themselves.” the fact that there is a campus In that same vein, Cybil complained of “shallow” and “disorganized” classes, asserting that she could have “had a more academically enriching experience” at other universities she was accepted to. Cybil had been accepted to multiple other top universities, but she was ultimately driven towards Sciences Po because she perceived it as being conducive to her long term goals. Now, however, she’s concerned about the long term consequences of a Sciences Po education with regard to preparation for graduate school. “Many classes don’t even give us homework yet they hand us a midterm and final expecting us to know what to do with no prior grades or instruction.” She noted how professors “seemed shocked when the class didn’t understand how to write an essay with no prior instruction.” For Cybil, students are left drowning and waiting for help, all the while professors remain oblivious to the crisis students find themselves in.
More distressingly, she references, is the recent AJ+ Français poll which revealed that nearly six in ten Sciences Po students suffer from anxiety and four in ten are experiencing depression, suggesting something here is very wrong and going unaddressed. Rachel’s explanation for the students’ suffering is simple, charging the university as having a “blatant disregard for stu-
mental health team in place, but institutional failures render it worthless—“half the time the doctors aren’t even on campus and furthermore they don’t even respond to their emails so it’s like it doesn’t even exist in the first place.” Cybil places the brunt of Sciences Po’s failures on the administration.
“I’ve never felt more on my own as a student than I do now,”
Cybil started, having acknowledged and experienced that the French system of education is markedly more ‘spartan’ than other education systems; but to her, it doesn’t absolve the actions of the administrative, criticizing them for a number of pitfalls. “They are rude, uninviting, unfriendly, and I feel like honestly I’ve never encountered… a more incapable, incompetent administration than Sciences Po’s,” she charged. She alongside the others cite myriad examples when they attempted many times to contact the administration regarding various issues, yet their emails were left unanswered, leaving them to fend for themselves. Rachel wasn’t in the least bit surprised by this, having already experienced it and been warned of the severity. “From the get go we were told, ‘the administration sucks, you have to get used to it, that’s just how France is,’ but the community we build here more than makes up for it… I
was expecting this tight-knit community, but it’s not that.” When one institution she was expecting to fail her did, she wasn’t surprised, but when the social aspect also failed her, she became disillusioned. Plainly put, she admitted that “[she] thought we’d left high school” because of how rampant the cliques were here. Cybil blames most of the cliquish social tendencies on the dual BA students. “I think there’s a divide between the dual BA students and the rest of the student body… it’s especially true of the American students because most of them are in the dual BA program with Columbia University.” Rachel concurred with that sentiment, adding on that she believes “it’s near impossible to talk to them [because] they have such a superiority complex.” For Rachel, it was difficult at first to meet people with whom she held common interests, as she argues that Sciences Po is synonymous with party culture—much to her surprise and dismay. “I applied to Sciences Po because it specifically didn’t have frats,” she said, “but I get here and the entire thing is frat!” She had told me incredulously during the interview. Across all interviews one thing became clear: it was nearly impossible to have a social life if you didn’t party or drink.
“Drinking is such an ingrained part of this culture that you feel awkward if you don’t drink,” Rachel said, feeling alienated
given her distaste for most alcohol. Gabrielle was less put off by the alcohol and more so by the lack of opportunity for social events that aren’t parties. She complained that people likely saw her as an introvert when the opposite couldn’t be more true, it was just that she had “interests other than parties.” Ashan argued the social aspect was difficult because of cultural differences— “it’s hard to be friends with them because they’re all smoking and drinking. If they’re smoking weed it’s basically like I’m smoking as well, and I’m not okay with that.” It was to Ashan’s great surprise that the social culture here was like that, even saying, “I thought I was haram back home but here I’m an angel masha’Allah—I hadn’t realized that everyone here was haram haram.” Gabrielle noticed this as well and explained, “people here wear Islam like a coat, and they wear it when it’s convenient.” Ashan responded and was quick to score the fact that by no means were they trying to be the “haram police,” rather she feels they were perplexed by the fact that when Ramadan comes around people begin practicing faithfulness again, arguing that “it feels like tokenism because the rest of the year they shed it.” While Ashan explicitly called Sciences Po “islamophobic,” Gabrielle noted a similar occurence: “we’re staunchly against anti-semitism—as we should be—but when it comes to islamophobia, we’re far less
willing to condemn it.” Ashan evidenced prior videoed incidents with various islamophobic slurs and chants being hurled, and citing just this semester how “it’s deeply
uncomfortable when they say mujahadeen, especially when they’re not a part of the Muslim community.”
Occurrences like these, she feels, make social life at Sciences Po a test of endurance, fighting western tropes and orientalism. When I pressed the question if they regretted attending Sciences Po, some noted that although they are dissatisfied with the administrative and academic nature of Sciences Po they find refuge in the community they found, taking comfort in the group struggle. It was Rachel who summed it up best:
Sciences Po was fueled by social media images and captions romanticizing the experience, refusing to show the dark side where the majority of students have anxiety and/ or depression. They expressed sentiments along the lines that they were sold an exquisite experience, a glimpse at a fantastic future, and a trove of magnificent memories. Menton, deceptively hailed as the city of lemons, is instead filled with oranges, and it is conceivably most fitting then that Sciences Po—perhaps most guilty of selling students lemons—should be located there, as they too are no exception to the farce. ■ NOTE: All opinions expressed in the article are, as specified and indicated, solely those of the individuals interviewed and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of Le Zadig’s editorial board or columnist team.
“I hate Sciences Po, but I don’t regret the friends I’ve made.”
Yet some reiterated that when they haven’t found that community, because they don’t party or they don’t drink, they’re left utterly alone and without comfort from the absurdity of the university. While they could transfer to another university, the interviewees felt trapped financially because they’ve already paid tuition and it wouldn’t be worth it to lose the money they’ve already spent. Indeed, all four agreed that their image of Menton and
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"The GAYEST CAMPUS of Sciences Po", and the HIDDEN DANGERS of Promoting MENTON as a GAY HAVEN ANONYMOUS
*SEE EDITION 4 BACK COVER, P. 82
30 PHOTO BY SANTOSH MURALIDARAN
All quotes are pulled from either Why Didn’t Gay Rights Cure Gay Loneliness, a Huffington Post (Highline) article written by Michael Hobbes or anonymous Menton students from the Instagram page “Investigating Grindr,” three 2As’ digital culture project. INTR0DUCTION:
“I kept [having sex with guys from Grindr] to wring it out like a rag, to get something out of it that wasn’t in there—social support, or companionship. It was a way of not dealing with my own life. And I kept denying it was a problem because I had always told myself, ‘I’ve come out, I moved to San Francisco, I’m done, I did what I had to do as a gay person.’” - Adam, gay adult male, came out at age 16
San Francisco was the queer city since the 1980s. The New York Times would report that it was where “homosexuals found a haven”, citing men marching semi-nude on the streets and the emergence of gay bathhouses and clubs, queer people of all ages coming out at larger numbers, and livelier pride parades each passing year. Travel sites labeled it as a “gay haven”. Travel companies consistently ranked it one of America’s “gayest” cities to attract tourism. Adam’s story, thus, becomes difficult to conceptualize in the black-andwhite shadows of a rainbow-illuminated city. Out and proud, he felt something missing: When would he earn his ticket to live the supposed San Franciscan gay experience? And yet, Adam’s story is as hidden as it is common, far from an anomaly. Half-way across the world, Menton is draped in a similarly colorful veil,
though one she put on herself over the years. Menton’s LGBTQ+ community is fed the idea, both from within and outside, that Menton is simply different. If the outside world is like that, then Menton is like this. To be a queer student in Menton, therefore, is to innately live the Mentonese “gay experience”—to embrace onself in the gay culture, to fully solidify one’s queer identity. The universal problems that come with being part of the LGBTQ+ community still exist—after all, if not, then conferences about the intersections of LGBTQ+ and Arab identity or talks to discuss gender fluidity would be rendered unessential—yet the minority status of the LGBTQ+ is seemingly lifted. The new Facebook post states that Menton is not a gay campus, but the gayest; a queer student is reassured that Menton parties are “basically gay parties”; in a MentonLoves meeting itself common discussion revolves around how in Menton “gay is the default” sexuality: Queerness is not only so revered, but also so widespread, to a point where it is the campus in its entirety. Though initially comforting, it is a dangerous misrepresentation of reality that threatens to eradicate the very safe space it hopes to provide. A “HIDDEN MINORITY STATUS” IN MENTON :
Being a part of the LGBTQ+ community is very different from being part of another minority group: many other minorities (such as those part of a racial minority group) are easily noticed and publicly categorized. Having a less visible status, the LGBTQ+ community, on the contrary, faces a “hidden” minority status as The Highline article points out. Many LGBTQ+ individuals feel that they need to hide and figure their identity out alone before confiding in others, meaning that people usually do not
talk to family and friends about questioning their sexuality and instead turning to resources such as the Internet. When there was no image of the queer man, society developed stereotypes to characterize one. In her award-winning work “Dude, You’re a Fag,” sociologist CJ Poe notes that the terms “faggot” emerged in American high schools to denote a man who embodied more feminine characteristics and was as a result deemed gay, without any actual evidence of being attracted to other men. Indeed, the equating of male feminity to male homosexuality isn’t new, though the stereotypes on which it is built find a place in Menton as well. A common belief that was born out of the “gayest campus” claim revoles around many straight female students who “can’t date anyone here because all the boys are gay!” or ask “Where are all the straight men?”. Yet all the potential evidence proves how the fear is baseless. In the March 2020 Le Zadig edition, a Mentonese student anonymously wrote the article “Male Bisexuality and its Discontents,” about his experience being a bisexual male and the unique struggles it posed, such as having his sexuality denied and being ostracized from both the gay community (his attraction to girls makes him a “coward”) and the straight world (his attraction to males makes him a “deviant” to heterosexuality). Yet what was particularly notable was its anonymity, and how, despite its niche topic, it was still seemingly impossible to decode who the author was. He was likely a white or white-passing male (“Because it is my sexuality that breaks the power structure, rather than my skin colour”), he was “an upper middle-class, university-educated man born in the 21st century,” he was evidently fluent in English, everyone assumed he was straight (“being seen as straight has granted me a unique privilege”). And yet even disregarding
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the other hints, a white male whose perceived sexuality is straight is not and has never been an anomaly in Menton: indeed, it is the typical Mentonese man. The reason this author was able to avoid questions about his sexuality was because, at the end of the day, Menton is no exception to the stereotypical outside world which demands that feminine men are gay and masculine men are straight. The straight girl fear of being unable to find romance in Menton, therefore, is not only baltantly baseless, it attempts to recreate the struggles of queer people onto straight women to whom the disheartening experience of navigating a homophobic world was never known. While this occurs, struggling queer voices are simultaneously silent, for how can a queer person highlight the struggles of being a minority in a queer campus? Then, in a paradoxical reality, as the LGBTQ+ community of Menton mixes and becomes one with straight students, the same straight students are further distanced from the silenced queer minority struggle—and the same concern arises meeting after meeting in MentonLoves: why aren’t more straight students attending our events? INTERNALIZATION : Yet the reason these narratives are harmful do not solely revolve around the fact that closeted people do, in fact, exist in Menton or that queer people are misrepresented as a majority. When these statements reverberate in MentonLoves meetings or is used by out-of-the-closet queer students to reassure other out-of-the-closet queer students, it is an internalization of the
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belief that Menton is different (or, rather a yearning to to convince oneself that Menton has to be different). However, to be a queer man in the 21st-century “West” is not a success story: rather, it is the conundrum of the Netherlands, one of the first countries to legalize gay marriage, but
makes sex one of the most widely available resources amongst queer males, the user is reminded: now, it’s not his gayness that isolates him: it’s his weight, ethnicity, body hair, or any other innate characteristic of themselves which determines whether or not he is a suitable candidate for a one-time sexual
In a paradoxical reality, as the LGBTQ+ commun ton mixes and becomes one with straight studen concern arises meeting after meeting in MentonL aren’t more straight students attending our events? where queer men remain three times more likely to suffer from a mood disorder than straight men, and 10 times more likely to engage in “suicidal selfharm” (2013 University of Amsterdam study); it is the conundrum of Canada, which became one of the first nations to grant refugee status due to LGBTQ+ refugees fleeing persecution due to their sexual orientation but where gay men die more frequently of suicide than of AIDS (2014 University of Toronto study); it is the conundrum of Sweden, which allowed same-sex civil unions ever since 1995 (and later marriage), but where men who marry other men have triple the suicide rate of men married to women (2016 UCLA and Stockholm University study). Researchers were, for the longest time, baffled: why are loneliness and ranging mental health issues plaguing these these out-of-the-closet, out-andproud men? ? Yet the answer slowly became more and more apparent. Approximately 70% of queer men report using hookup and dating apps such as Grindr and Scruff to meet each another (2012 Stanford University and City of New York study). While Grindr
experience. As Hobbes writes, “Every gay man I know carries around a mental portfolio of all the sh*tty things other gay men have said and done to him.”
“I’ll ignore your face if you f*** me with a condom”
- Gay swimmer to his fitness instructor in Seattle
“You used to be so sexy. It’s a shame you messed it up”
- Grindr message to a man in Portland, after gaining 10 pounds since last using the app
“Asiiiaaaan”
- Taiwanese’s Grindr inbox
“Big beard, belly and balls; Looking for fem boys. Twinks or fem boys.” - “Bi4Twink” (Bisexual looking for a twink) username on Grindr, no photos, age reported as 35
While this form of objectification may be also present in the general dating
Men ingly cess
world (as one straight person cared to comment on Reddit: “now you get to suffer the same aching loneliness of older straight people” / “most people get lonely as they grow older, sadly enough”), it is exacerbated when a minority group cannot even find a sense of community within those who are like them. Being hit with such in-group discrimination after muscling up the energy and courage to come out is significantly more damaging to the psyche than being rejected from those outside. There is an internalized expectation that coming out will allow oneself to, like other minority groups, live and connect with others who suffer through the same marginalization, but the idealism is quickly smacked out of the male queer community when reality hits them. And even for those who do pass the stages of being deemed sexually compatible on Grindr, the hookup culture that Grindr has bestowed upon queer males can be no less demoralizing.
nity of Mennts, the same Loves: Why
“After the hook up… I would start to reflect and realize, oh, I was just doing that for the validation pur-
ntonese society is misleady perceived as a queer sucstory, as is the “West” poses, and then it would make me feel kind of dirty and kind of like oh, why did I do that, I feel guilty. I think that had an effect on my mental health because it was just constantly feeling excitement, do-
ing it, and then feeling the regret.” - Anonymous Menton student
“Somehow, the gays who do not use Grindr, you’re skeptical about them, like ‘are you really gay’ you know, ‘somethings wrong with you,’ ‘do you have a small dick,’ ‘are you insecure about sex?’” - Anonymous Menton student
While the individual struggles queer students may feel are recognized, Mentonese society itself is misleadingly perceived as a queer success story, as much of the West is. And yet, while it’s easy to celebrate being in the “gayest” campus, it is painfully reminiscent of a failed quest amongst queer people—especially men—to locate an “end point” to the struggle that is being LGBTQ+, the point at which the suffering stops, the alienation fades away, the quintessential movie love stories become real, the feeling of being different becomes a feeling of the past—
“For gay people, we’ve always told ourselves that when the AIDS epidemic was over we’d be fine. Then it was, when we can get married we’ll be fine. Now it’s, when the bullying stops we’ll be fine.” - Paul, gay software developer, came out at age 17.
—until the next truth hits: when you’re in Menton or after you experience two years of Menton, it doesn’t mean it’ll be fine. PÉDÉ ON RUE LONGUE— AND HOW TO MOVE FORWARD :
Earlier this year, the all too familiar Rue Longue was tainted with the spray painted message “PD” (pédéstrate, or pedophile in English, which equates male homosexuality to pedophilia). In the most engaged post in the Campus de Menton Facebook group, 102 students reacted to offer support to Menton’s LGBTQ+ community, particularily queer men who were the subjects of the attack, depicting the true open-mindedness and tolerance of Menton. Acceptance needs to be handled with care—when it is stretched to say that Menton is a “gay community” or “the gayest campus of SciencesPo” it hides the stories of struggling queer students and dangerously paints Menton as an “end point” to the queer struggle. After all, pride parades or gay bathhouses do not make San Francisco a gay utopia nor do they indicate a lack of life-long struggles facing the LGBTQ+ community in San Francisco. Despite travel sites or news companies denoting the city as a gay haven, Adam’s story still exists—and despite Menton being called the “gayest campus”, the anonymous Le Zadig article’s author still exists, as does the tough experience of having to navigate the world as a queer minority male. Closeted or out, objectified on Grindr or embraced at a pride parade, in one’s hometown or in the exceptionally more progressive Menton, as Hobbes says:
“It is dangerously alienating to go through life as a man attracted to other men.”
Hobbes ends his Highline article with a quote from Paul, the software developer: “We are different. It’s about time we accept that and work with it”. While the answer of how to do so may not present itself on a silver platter (after all, if it did, this article would need not exist), the way not to do so rests right in front of our eyes. ■
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Understanding My Voice as a Jewish American in Conversations about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict ZAIDIE LONG
GUEST COLUMNIST
“Some among my mother’s friends rejoice in violent attacks on Palestinians who seek to harm Israel, while my friends cringe at the initiation of bloodshed by Jews. We see their aggressive stance as zealotry and paranoia; they see our discomfort as abandonment and naiveté.” (Daniel Cluchey, “Generation Why: Young American Jews and Israeli Exceptionalism,” Huffington Post, 8 June 2010.)
34 PHOTO BY “SP” ON FLICKR, CREATIVE COMMONS
In the decade or more it took me to define my own relationship with Judaism, to validate the parts of my upbringing that made that identity feel like my own despite feeling lost among my practicing Jewish peers, little did I know I was part of a nationwide trend. While the American Jewish population continues to grow—albeit at a pace that can’t keep up with overall American population growth—a greater and greater part of this population define themselves as Jewish only in a cultural or ethnic sense. Furthermore, following a large trend to-
wards interfaith marriage in the ‘80s and ‘90s, today’s young Jewish population is made up of more children of interfaith marriages than ever before, an important differentiation as it turns out when it comes to attitudes towards Judaism and Israel. As the child of a Jewish mother and a Protestant father who grew up practicing religion only with extended family or for the holidays, it took me a while to convince myself that I even had a place in the Jewish community. Ultimately within the last year or two, although I have been able to understand
it in more technical terms—terms like “generational memory” or imposed association in ways I’ll explain later—only recently, I had the sense that I could not escape my Jewishness, so I might as well embrace it. Despite the article you are about to read, I am the first to take issue with the constant association of Judaism and the Israeli Palestinian issue. Growing up, I felt most staunchly Jewish when listening to the news, hearing right-wing, non-Jewish politicians shut down statements by progressives criticizing the Israeli government by calling them antisemitic. In this way, the entirety of the Jewish population was called to the table, already assigned a position in a political conversation that they do not necessarily have any connection to. I can foresee the point that criticism of Israel can be antisemit-
I am the first to take issue with the constant association of Judaism and the Israeli Palestinian issue. ic, to which I would of course agree, but clarify that that is only the case when there is a criticism of Jewish people in the guise of a criticism of Israel. Still, this is far from always the case. What it comes down to is the non-consensual exploitation of the Jewish diaspora or the legitimate issue of antisemitism by politicians who often do not otherwise represent the interests of the majority left-leaning Jewish population. It was this frustrating reality that gave me a sense of responsibility to be educated and have an opinion on the Israel-Palestine conflict. I was confident that implying any malevolence towards my own Jewish identity, ie. calling me anti-semitic, would be so offensive as to call into question this false association. Therefore, I felt that being Jewish was an unfair but unavoidable privilege that I needed to take advantage of. For other young Jews, this “attachment” to Israel, even if critical, comes about in other ways: for many, Israel has been given cultural significance and been highlighted as a part of the Judaism they have grown up with. For others the association came when they weren’t expecting it, later on in life. According to a survey taken by applicants to the Birthright program, a quarter of respondents felt blamed for the actions of the Israeli government as Jews on their college campuses. The change in the cultural attachment to Israel and the Israeli state, especially in non-Orthodox Jews, can be understood through the context of historic and modern events. But while there is a perception that attachment to Israel among young Jewish Americans has decreased, recent surveys by the Pew Research Center show that this is not the case, as long as one accepts that engagement with
Israel is more critical and support less automatic. However, I would again point to what feels like the constant conflation of Jewish interests with Israeli interests, both from the American administration and of course from the Israeli state, programs like Birthright, and the very idea that Israeli actions are founded in Zionism. With this in mind, I would argue that this “attachment” when created by external forces, can hardly be automatically associated with caring or concern for the state in the way it has typically been interpreted, even as it remains an emotional issue for many. So finally, the question we arrive at with this brief background in mind: What is the role of non-Israeli Jews (most of the background given is specific to American Jews) in conversation about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Without descending into what those opinions are, what legitimacy and what privilege do we have in this conversation with which some of us have no familial connection? For many non-Orthodox Jews, the way even the more moderate among us think about Israel has changed significantly since our parents’ generation. Although Israel may still carry a cultural or religious significance for some that it does not for others, it is the sacredness of the land itself that is so meaningful and not the sanctity of the state. More for our generation than even the past two or three, it is hard to justify the image of Jews as a modernly oppressed people or Israel as a fledgling state in need of protection. Even as late as the ‘60s and ‘70s, the surprise attack of the Yom Kippur War and the concern for the oppression of Jews in the Soviet Union supported for many Jewish Americans the image of Israel and the Jewish people as underdogs with an uncertain future, in need of
But for young Jews today it is the intifadas or the 2014 war in Gaza which are freshest in our mind and we have only ever known Israel as a major military force. Therefore, the Israeli state, which once seemed like a necessary protective force, is now often seen instead as a discredit to, or even a source of shame for the Jewish people. zealous defense. This is not to justify the US support to Israel which was encouraged by the political position of most Jewish Americans. Instead it is to understand how that context fit into the greater narrative of the historic oppression of the Jewish people. Not that I question that narrative: how could I, after growing up celebrating holiday after holiday which
essentially recount the suffering and resiliance of the Jewish people, finding instances of anti-semitism in the footnotes of nearly every chapter of history where Jews were present, or being fortunate to have grandparents who still remember the Holocaust, or at least its aftermath? But for young Jews today it is the intifadas or the 2014 war in Gaza which are freshest in our mind and we have only ever known Israel as a major military force. Therefore, the Israeli state, which once seemed like a necessary protective force, is now often seen instead as a discredit to, or even a source of shame for the Jewish people. For some, the mistreatment of Palestinians on the land of Israel is itself a disgrace to the values of the Jewish people. While I don’t share the feeling of connection to the land of Israel, the values I have taken away from all of the stories of suffering I’ve grown up with, especially those from the Holocaust, directly contradict many of the actions perpetrated by the Israeli state and some of its citizens in the name of Zionism. White Jewish Americans now associate more with racial privelege than with religious opression, are on average financially better off than the general population, and face antisemitism which is on its face less systemic than
Therefore, to comment only on my own experience, I find myself questioning where exactly this sense of a responsibility or even a right to have a voice on this issue comes from, and whether it is justified. other forms of discrimination in the US, and until a recent spike under the Trump administration was at a relative low. Many young Jewish Americans view themselves less than ever as religiously oppressed, and to me continuing to call upon a historic truth to justify a modern situation has always felt somewhat disingenuous. Having a role on either side of the Israel-Palestine conflict, even an association with either the oppressed or the oppressor, would give non-Israeli Jews a more legitimate position in the conversation. But for non-Israeli Jews who are against Zionism, two key parts of their argument are to say that they are not, in this instance, the oppressed, and that being Jewish should not automatically associate them with the oppressor. It is harder to comment on where Jewish Americans who are Zionists would place themselves in this equation, and it is possible the terms “oppressed” and “oppressor” would not be so explicitly used. Therefore, to comment only on my
own experience, I find myself questioning where exactly this sense of a responsibility or even a right to have a voice on this issue comes from, and whether it is justified. One argument is that the consequence that Jewish Americans have on the situation necessitates their involvement in discussions about it. Even as such a small part of the Amer-
Thus in the Trump era it is the ardent pro-Israel rhetoric and advocacy of this religious community that were likely integral to some of Trump’s major moves on Israel— relocating the US Embassy to Jerusalem to name a major one. ican population, Jewish Americans are vocal in advocating for issues that are important to them, and since the creation of the state of Israel, military and public support for it have held high spots on that list. Following the end of the Second World War, the adoption of Jewish Americans into the White majority elevated Jewish political interests. At least it meant Jewish leadership, not necessarily representative of all Jewish people, had a uniquely direct relationship with the President. Maintaining ties with the Jewish community and the various organizations which claimed to represent it became a priority for many American and European leaders. Groups like the Israel and Jewish advocacy organization the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and perhaps most famously the bipartisan lobby group for US Israeli relations, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) have been around since the early to mid-20th century. While the fight against anti-semitism has remained a priority for these groups, it is the protection of Israel which has motivated advocacy for US military engagement, for example in the Gulf war, and for the disproportionate military and financial support the US has historically given the relatively small country of Israel. Throughout this history, progressive Jewish groups have advocated against the right-wing agenda, promoting peace and bemoaning the “manipulation of Jewish memories and fears”. However, the results speak to the overwhelming influence that pro-Israel lobby groups had and continue to have. On the other hand, powerful Jewish lobby groups and the Americans who support them are hardly the only community which has influenced US foreign policy on Israel.
Yes, the US takes into account political strategy and support from the general public in making foreign policy decisions. But these only count for so much given that the White Evangelical Christian community, which makes up a whopping 26% of voters according to 2016 National Election Pool exit polls, has made the protection of Israel one of its key issues. Although the importance of the state of Israel has religious origins for both Christians and Jews, religion tends to be more pronounced and more consistently represented by the politics of Evangelical Christians. Thus in the Trump era it is the ardent pro-Israel rhetoric and advocacy of this religious community that were likely integral to some of Trump’s major moves on Israel— relocating the US Embassy to Jerusalem to name a major one. So if the position of Jewish Americans in conversations about Israel is determined by the role they have played in making the state what it is today, do Evangelical Christians have a somehow similarly legitimate position? The same televangelists who set the political tone for a quarter of the American population and make major financial contri-
a place of perceived necessity and often holds great personal significance. Finally, as a recent panel discussion organized by the Union des Etudiants Juifs de France demonstrated to me, no matter the justification, Jewish people do have a unique voice in this debate. Because when someone makes a claim on the feelings of all Jewish people, defines anti-semitism as something more than discrimination towards Jewish people, and makes a value judgement dismissing any Jews whose beliefs don’t align with their own, it is only other Jews themselves who can step in and say, “you don’t speak for me”. While I am the first to admit that I could always be more educated on the Israeli Palestinian conflict, the position I personally take on Zionism and on Israel is based on significant primary source research and a high quality education that I’m privileged to have. In the case of the conference with guest speaker Rudy Rochman, there was ultimately no disagreement about the facts. Ultimately, any disagreement was only about definitions, about the justification of certain actions, and about the appropriate way to move forward. It should not have come down to the
Because when someone makes a claim on the feelings of all Jewish people, defines anti-semitism as something more than discrimination towards Jewish people, and makes a value judgement dismissing any Jews whose beliefs don’t align with their own, it is only other Jews themselves who can step in and say, “you don’t speak for me”. butions to the establishment of Israeli settlements have been known to refer to the Holocaust as retrebution for the Jews’ disobediance of God (ahem John Hagee). Similarly, they make no secret that their support for the state of Israel and for the prophesied return of the Jews to the land of Israel is mostly to serve their own interests by allowing for the coming of the Messiah and the end times. So one could say that their support is begrudged and their presence generally unwelcome even by most pro-Israel Jews. Of course, there is the argument made plainly by the statistics about Jewish Americans—that association with Israel is expected, imposed by precedent, and inescapable. That whether they like it or not, Jewish people are pro-Israel until proven otherwise, and that they are therefore responsible for making their opinions known. While I disagree on principle that anyone should be born into an obligation to speak about a certain issue, I acknowledge that it is a reality faced by so many others, including by other groups with a stake in this same issue. Furthermore, it clarifies that for me and other non-Israeli Jews, being vocal about Israel, no matter the position, comes from
proper understanding of the concept of Zionism—which for me, no matter it’s original meaning, is corrupted by over sixty years of being used by a major military entity as grounds for human rights abuses. What it truly came down to was not the word, but a value judgement: is statehood for the Jewish people in Israel worth the violence and expulsions it has apparently required? In this I find the conclusive answer: because the other side of the narrative is vocal, explicit, and targets young and socially engaged people with unformed opinions, it is the responsibility of anyone who disagrees to be similarly outspoken. To say to both Jews and non-Jews that taking a position that represents one’s values does make one antisemitic or discredit one’s own identity. And finally, that whatever exposure one has had to the issue is valid, but also that continuing to educate oneself is the best way to be prepared to truly represent those values and that identity.
ÉDITION N˚1 | NOVEMBRE 2020
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JOSEPH SIRAUDEAU
CHRONIQUEUR INVITÉ
La DÉSOBÉISSANCE CIVILE ou l’arsenal de lutte pour abattre les institutions.
A l’aube de l’année 2021, espérée plus heureuse que sa prédécesseure, la question des luttes continue à se poser avec vigueur. Si, dans les répertoires d’actions collectives, la manifestation est encore reine, elle n’en demeure pas moins concurrencée par d’autres formes de contestation, telles que la désobéissance civile. Celle-ci est de plus en plus plébiscitée par les mouvements sociaux contemporains et en particulier par la jeunesse. De-là à prédire une vague de désobéissances massives dans un futur proche ? A tout le moins, cette technique apparaît comme incontournable lorsqu’il s’agit de définir des moyens efficaces pour renverser les ordres établis.
La faillite des corps intermédiaires Nul besoin de décrire une nouvelle fois la décrépitude des groupes sociaux traditionnels. S’ils subsistent encore, les par-
féminisme, l’écologie… Toutefois, une lutte ne peut se pérenniser en se contentant d’occuper le terrain idéologique. Des méthodes d’action concrètes sont un point de passage sine qua non pour parfaire tout combat. Et en leur sein - entre autres -, la désobéissance civile. Ce concept naît de la plume de Henry David Thoreau, au XIXe siècle. Sa mise en application prend déjà ses racines au cours du XVIIe siècle et le mouvement anti-esclavagiste et religieux, les Quakers. C’est en réalité avec les figures de Gandhi et surtout de Martin Luther King que la notion se popularise. Ainsi, des actions, comme le boycott ou le sit-in (1), se généralisent dans les démocraties libérales à la fin du XXe siècle. Dans les esprits, elle est bâtie sur le credo de la non-violence. Ensuite, l’idée est vague. Des penseurs, à l’instar de John Rawls, ont donc tenté de la définir : il s’agirait d’un “acte public, non violent, décidé
tis politiques, les syndicats, voire en conscience mais politique, contraire à la loi et accompli le plus souvent afin les associations - même s’il est possi-
qui nous ferait justement “redécouvrir notre humanité”. Alors, oui, manifester, se syndiquer et signer des pétitions est éminemment un geste contestataire, mais qui demeure dans les limites du droit, un droit souvent rigide et abscons, difficilement modifiable une fois les revendications entendues. Indéniablement efficaces, ces actions font en plus l’aveu d’un échec : elles ne pourront jamais faire basculer un système, puisque produites et nourries par celui-ci, a contrario de l’insubordination, qui nécessite de s’extraire du cocon de l’obéissance servile.
Le citoyennisme ou comment consolider l’Etat Plus que tout, la désobéissance ci-
vile répond à une insuffisance démocratique patente, résultat d’un
déconnexion décennale entre citoyen. ne.s et sphère politique. Face à l’inaction des gouvernements, les individus ordinaires se saisissent en fait des dernières cordes qui restent à leur arc. D’après G. Hayes et S. Ollitrault, “la désobéissance
d’amener un changement dans la loi ou bien dans la politique du gouvernement civile peut être envisagée comme une [...] dans les limites du respect de la loi forme d’empowerment démocratique des espèces en voie de disparition. [!]” (2). visant à atteindre des formes [...] d’auAu mieux, elles jouissent toujours d’un certain capital sympathie ou symbolique Autrement dit, un tel acte implique un to-détermination démocratique”. Pourtauprès de l’opinion. Au pire, les citoyen. refus d’obéir à une loi inique, de manière ant, si les critiques et les mobilisations ne.s se tournent vers d’autres lieux d’ex- collective - ce n’est pas une objection de foisonnent, elles s’avèrent des échecs pression, plus à même d’influencer les dé- conscience -, publique et pacifique, au successifs, pour la simple et bonne raison que leur modus operandi soutient l’Etat cisions politiques. Or, c’est précisément nom de certains principes supérieurs. plus qu’il ne le fait déjouer. Cette attitude, cette dernière option qui est aujourd’hui aussi appelée citoyennisme, met le citoyprivilégiée. Faut-il pour autant systématiser l’usage en au coeur du renforcement de l’appareil de la désobéissance civile et stigmatisEn réalité, cette perte considérable d’in- er par la même occasion les formes plus étatique, comme un moyen de lutter confluence s’est opérée au détour des années anciennes d’expression du mécontente- tre le capitalisme - qui n’est qu’un organe 1960-1970, au moment de l’éclosion ment ? Comme le souligne Frédéric Gros d’un système plus global, le productivdes “nouveaux mouvements sociaux” dans un entretien accordé à France Cul- isme. (NMS). Davantage portés sur des con- ture (3) pour son ouvrage Désobéissons, sidérations post-matérialistes, loin du obéir, qui est certes intrinsèque à l’hu- Ces personnes-là, contrairement aux militantisme usuel précité, ces mouve- manité, tendrait à devenir un “confort”, radicaux, voient dans le productivments ont été incarnés par des luttes qui tandis que l’acte de désobéissance isme, l’Etat, le marché, un horizon indépassable, qu’il suffirait de transformer se sont depuis durablement implantées serait une marque de “courage” dans le décor des sociétés actuelles : le ble d’émettre quelques réserves quant à ce dernier exemple - sont bel et bien
ÉDITION N˚2 | DÉCEMBRE 2020
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- souvent de l’intérieur - de sorte à ce qu’ils soient plus en phase avec les problématiques sociales, écologiques ou économiques actuelles. La France insoumise ou La République En Marche ! à ses débuts, jugés volontiers partis anti-système et donc pour son renversement, en sont en réalité le parfait miroir. Pire, les mouvements citoyens, à l’image d’Extinction Rebellion, Alternatiba ou encore ANV-COP21 (4), estimés plus intègres et plus à-même de défier ce sacro-saint sytème, tombent pareillement dans le piège du citoyennisme.
Les manifestations et les actions de désobéissances organisées généralement dans un but de massification - participent à la pérennité des institutions. Celles-ci avec le dessein suivant : négocier docilement avec le pouvoir en place. Néanmoins, cela se révèle doublement vain.
D’une part, un mouvement ne peut pas se déclarer vainqueur quand les institutions sont à l’initiative et à la conclusion des pourparlers. D’autre part, si l’Etat accepte et tolère ces attaques indirectes à son encontre, en déroulant une myriade de belles paroles, c’est que ces dernières ne lui causent aucun dommage. Ainsi, quand des milliers de jeunes battent le pavé dans le cadre des marches pour le climat - muni.e.s de slogans tels que “anti, anti, anti-capitaliste” - et que Emmanuel Macron encourage ensuite cette jeunesse à poursuivre dans cette voie, le mouvement doit se considérer comme vaincu.
La question de la violence Ce qui nous amène à la question de la violence, délicate quand il s’agit d’évoquer la désobéissance civile. Celle-ci a fait de la non-violence un catéchisme. Cependant,
40
Face à une violence structurelle et quotidienne, les mouvements doivent donc composer avec des moyens d’action radicaux et conDepuis Weber et Le Savant et le Politique, flictuels : de la dégradation matéril’Etat s’accapare l’exercice de la vi- elle au sabotage en passant par la violence physique, le spectre de la désobéissance olence dite “légitime”. De fait, tout civile violente est étendu. Afin de justiles prouesses émancipatrices de Gandhi ou de MLK ne sont que le versant polissé de l’histoire, qui occulte le rôle central qu’a pu y jouer la violence.
acte virulent en provenance d’un autre organisme est proscrit, punit et réprimé le cas échéant. De ce point de vue, le credo de la non-violence n’est autre qu’un acte de soumission ou du moins de désobéissance ilote. Surtout, il apparaît que les victoires des mouvements des droits civiques ou d’indépendance indienne ont été plus souvent dues au prix du sang qu’à l’efficacité de leurs modes d’action. Plusieurs exemples historiques viennent abonder ce postulat : de la résistance violente des Vietnamien.ne.s pendant la guerre du Vietnam (5) - et la mutinerie de certain.e.s soldat.e.s américain.e.s - à l’implication de Robert F. Williams (6) dans le mouvements des droits civiques américains en passant par le “Women’s Social and Political Union” (7) fondée par Emmeline Pankhurst ; tous ont pour point commun la “violence”. Or c’est précisément à l’aide de ces forces - parfois - subalternes et prônant l’action directe que les plus grands moments de la désobéissance ont pu porter leurs fruits.
En outre, la non-violence - dans un contexte contemporain - est avant tout un privilège. Se revendiquer de la sorte, c’est confirmer ne jamais avoir eu à subir la violence d’un système oppressif, classique, racial et patriarcal. Camille (8), militant.e à Youth For Climate qui a bien voulu répondre à nos questions, explique à ce propos que son rapport à la violence a changé à mesure qu’il était “au contact de la vio-
fier l’hypothétique recours à la violence perpétrée à l’égard d’une personne, il faut penser au nombre incalculable de
mort.e.s, de blessé.e.s et de victimes collatérales engendré.e.s par ce système productiviste. Chaque année, 8,8 millions (9) individus meurent des suites de la pollution.
L’idée sous-jacente ici, c’est que l’absence de confrontation réelle avec le pouvoir - de quelque manière qu’il soit - le sert. Et tant qu’une chape de plomb contiendra l’usage de la violence par les opposant.e.s au système, l’Etat continuera dans sa voie mortifère. Autrement dit, les structures gouvernementales n’ont rien à craindre des mouvements non-violents ; au contraire, le pacifisme fait leur jeu. Dans son ouvrage Comment la non-violence protège l’Etat, P. Gelderloos montre ainsi comment la condamnation réflexe de la violence de la part des activistes elleux-mêmes fait “le sale boulot” de l’Etat. Celui-ci considère avec la plus grande attention l’évolution des mouvements dits violents, n’hésitant par, par exemple, a désigné l’Earth Liberation Front (ELF) comme entreprise terroriste, au même titre qu’Al-Qaïda - et à le réprimer aveuglement.
Adopter la diversité des tactiques
En guise de solution à ces ambiguïtés et lence sociale, policière et de l’urgence cli- discordes intra-militantes, il faut opter matique”. pour la diversité des tactiques.
Celle-ci consiste à ne pas bannir telle ou telle méthode jugée moins pertinente, en incluant dans la lutte à la fois des modes d’action non-violents, qui permettent à un mouvement de prendre de l’ampleur, et d’autres plus violents qui, historiquement, contraignent les décisionnaires à s’assoir à la table des négociations.
Notes (1) Il existe bien d’autres registres de l’action désobéissante, répertoriés par G. Hayes et S. Ollitrault dans La désobéissance civile.
Mais, avant de réfléchir aux stratégies à adopter, les acteurices doivent convenir
(2) John Rawls, Théorie de la justice.
d’un objectif pour tout le groupe.
(3) “Désobéissons avec Frédéric Gros”, La Grande table, émission à retrouver sur France Culture.
En effet, il serait absurde de définir un ensemble de tactiques sans désigner au préalable une cible à abattre ou un idéal à atteindre. Cela reviendrait à prescrire à un.e patient.e un traitement sans connaître avec précision la maladie dont iel souffre.
(4) Mouvements écologistes, qui prônent l’action non-violente. (5) La guerre du Viêt Nam est une guerre qui se déroule de 1955 à 1975 et qui oppose d’un côté le Nord- Viêt Nam - soutenu parle bloc de l’Est - et, de l’autre, le Sud-Viêt Nam - appuyé par les Etats-Unis. Les Américain.e.s s’engagent militairement dans le conflit à partir de 1965.
En définitive, nous devons repenser notre morale d’action. S’il faudra encore compter sur certains canaux traditionnels d’expression, primordiaux pour fédérer et faire adhérer le plus grand nombre de personne autour d’une cause, la désobéissance doit être notre boussole. Celle-ci doit également savoir gérer le dissensus, en incorporant la lutte non-violente et violente, plutôt que d’être un objet continuel de discorde et de tabou entre militant.e.s. La jeunesse et les mouvements sociaux actuels s’emparent déjà de ces questions au moment de décider de leurs actions. “Au vu de
(6) Robert F. Williams est un des leaders américains du mouvement des droits civiques, président de la section de la National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Il rejoint, dans sa philosophie de la violence, Malcom X ou le mouvement révolutionnaire afro-américain Black Panther Party.
l’urgence [sociale, climatique, sanitaire] et du manque de réponses des gouvernements et des députés successifs, je pense que la désobéissance civile à de beaux jours devant elle”, présage ainsi Camille. ■
(7) Association qui a milité pour le droit de vote des femmes, revendiquant l’action directe. Ses membres sont plus connues sous le nom de “suffragettes”. (8) Le prénom a été changé. (9) Futura, “La pollution de l’air est le fléau qui réduit le plus l’espérance de vie dans le monde”.
TOUTES LES PHOTOS DE <<CREATIVE COMMONS>>, LIBRES DE DROITS
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THE ARAB
FRAC When it comes to Aliaa Kamal. However, she the question of identity, most thinks that “it’s impossible students have a straightforfor [Arab countries] to unite ward answer based on citizen- because [they] would be ship, cultural background, or harnessing the most powerplace of birth. For European ful resource in the world.” In students, identification with addition to Arab countries’ Europe is clear-cut “I’m not sure how feasible [Arab unity] is based on given the incredibly corrupt nature of the geographic governments and the divisiveness of recent location years. It doesn’t mean it’s not something to and, in strive for, though.” many cases, - Maryam Alwan EU membership. For Arab students, dominance in the oil industry, however, the answer is not so Kamal pointed towards the simple. Which students idencurrent state of Arab nations tify as Arab, and do they feel a as a weak link in potential unisense of belonging or unity to ty. “The UAE is destabilizing this group? Is the idea of a for- Yemen, Saudi Arabia is blockmal Arab union at all feasible? ading Qatar, and everyone is On December 6th, the Arab signing deals with Israel. How Student Organization (ASO) can we even speak of unity at hosted Arab Unity Talks to this point?” Kamal said. find out. 1A Maryam Alwan shared “I would like to believe in similar concerns on the politArab Unity as this magnificent ical feasibility of Arab unity, and powerful dream where we but she stayed optimistic all unite for once and for all about the possibility. “I’m not against the western world and sure how feasible it is given take our fate into our hands,” the incredibly corrupt nature said ASO President and 2A of the governments and the divisiveness of recent years. It doesn’t mean it’s not something to strive for, though,” Alwan said.
42
Many students shared further sentiments that the Arab world is too divided for complete unity. “I believe in Maghreb unity and more economic and cultural unity like free trade zones, student exchanges, etc., but I feel like the Gulf and Levant are very different so I don’t see this happening,” said an anonymous respondent. Alwan agreed, stating that “realistically, [an Arab union] might have to be divided based on Middle East and North Africa.”
TURE
The Arab Student O campus talk on
for guaranteeing rights and protections of values to the people. That being said, I think that cultural similarities are a unifying feature that can be celebrated and embraced, as well as recognition of the nuances and differences between Arabs of different backgrounds,” said 1A Ines Ben Taher
The disparity between the appeal of Arab unity and the fear of infeasibility is stark The executive board of the ASO poses f among SciencesPistes. In Pictured left to right: Vice President Nour A a survey of 16 SciencesPo in re- and Vice President Dorsa Faraji. Menton students, nine of sponse whom were Arab and seven to the prompt. of whom were non-Arab, the vote was split with 50% Others posed the question: believing that there should what even qualifies as Arab? be a formal Arab union of Many some kind Many Francophone-Christian Lebanese Arab and 50% citizens identify as Phoenician so as immibelieving to distance themselves from the Arab grants or that there identity. Does that then leave only descenshould Muslims as the main Arab-identifying dants not. in other group? “Politically, I do not think that an Arab union is plausible or would be efficient
countries expressed confusion regarding their self-identification.
B WORLD: ED OR united ?
Organization’s n Arab unity
1A Sania Mahyou, who is of mixed Arab descent but was raised in Belgium, does not identify completely with Belgian or Arab culture.
Ben Taher, who is Tunisian but has not lived in Tunisia, grew up in many Arab countries but “truly did not relate to the culture.” She blamed her lack of identification with Arab culture on the language, and on belonging to a “whitewashed” class. More for a picture before an event. Aljowaily, President Aliaa Kamal, specifically, Ben Taher claimed that westerners and locals were totally segregated, and that North Africans were separated from that population, having a superiority complex. PHOTO BY ALIAA KAMAL
The opposite is true in countries like Lebanon, where 3A Emmanuel Houalla claimed that there is “a superiority complex from the French-Lebanese perspective… that Levantine culture is better than Maghrebi culture, which is
treated as ‘less-civilized.’” 2A Nour Aljowaily, who is the
Lebanese citizens identify as Phoenician so as to distance them“I would like to believe in Arab Unity as this selves magnificent and powerful dream where we from all unite for once and for all against the the western world and take our fate into our Arab hands. identity.
“It’s impossible for [Arab countries] to unite because [they] would be harnessing the most powerful resource in the world.” - Aliaa Kamal Vice President of the ASO, cited the longer duration of Maghreb colonization as a potential reason for this. In the Arab world, religious divides also provide for class distinctions. 2A and ASO Board Member Nesrine Zribi noted that, in Lebanon, “the French tried to bring Maronite Christianity to [the] elite,” as a possible explanation. This also raised the question of whether an Arab identity is connected to Islam. Houalla, who is a Lebanese Chrsitian, said, “it depends on the context because, in Lebanon, many Lebanese Christians do not associate as Arab.” In fact, many Francophone-Christian
Does that then leave only Muslims as the main Arab-identifying group? 2A Zaidie Long, who is not Arab, put the question in an American perspective, stating that, “in America, it’s a grouping by race, so Arabs are instead differentiated by Islam because they are considered white, and this is really ignorant towards the religious diversity that exists [in the region].” It is true that, on the American census, Middle Easterners and North Africans are told to define themselves as white despite many Arabs advocating for a separate MENA category in recent years. As a result, “Islamophobia” is commonly used to
CELESTE ABOURJEILI
HEAD OF STAFFWRITERS
describe discrimenation against Arabs, and the Arab and Muslim identities are increasingly merging as one in the public eye. Perhaps when the goal of a “MENA” demographic is achieved worldwide, Arabs will unify as one racial/ethnic group, or perhaps only Arabs on the outside of the Arab world will then feel a sense of unity to each other. Maybe the political differences are too strong for unity to ever exist, as many have argued, or maybe some kind of cultural if not political union will one day be formulated to bring Arab countries strength. In the end, as Ben Taher said, “we should still strive towards Arab unity because if we can’t agree on culture we can’t agree on anything.” “We should still strive towards Arab unity because if we can’t agree on culture we can’t agree on anything.” - Ines Ben Taher
ÉDITION N˚2 | DÉCEMBRE 2020
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OCIAL MED A,
mocracy through the manip- cal candidates and dismantles ulation of freedom of expres- entire societies. Through its sion, polarizing our societies technique of spreading fear via and spreading hate. Concomi- fake news, the British political tantly, our society has become consulting firm tore apart more completely dependent on than 200 countries through these rising virtual devices, perceiving online information as the most reliable knowledge evertheless,, the u evertheless We’ve created a world in which online connection has authority. This an instrument become primary, especially for younger generations. And leads us to yet, in that world, any time two people connect, the only way the question: restrained to political it’s financed is through a sneaky third person who is paying what are the to manipulate those two people. So, we’ve created an entire prospects for conception of truth a g global generation of people who were raised within a context the next genand its perception by where the very meaning of communication, the very meaning eration and of culture is manipulation. We’ve put deceit and sneakiness at d for our futures the absolute center of everything we do. if this techno- Jaron Lenier logical prog We are passing ress remains through an era in which our with the “religion of profit at perception of the world is con- all costs”? What are the con- the use of Facebook. By pretrolled by an algorithm. This sequences for a community if senting a political party as a is true from the most individ- it relies its opinion on Google complete antonym to anothual level — the way we look at search, Facebook news, or Ins- er, Facebook and other social ourselves and our free will, at tagram photos? media devices spread politithose who believe in it — to the cal campaigns moved by hate It’s not about technology being the existential threat. most collective one — how we and contempt It’s technology’s ability to bring out the worst in society, and build our opinions about our throughout the worst in society being the existential threat. governments and other counthe globe. - former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris tries, how social media and This was very other online network devices perceptible have shaped and are still shap- The polarizing effects of so- during the last US election: ing modernity. By establishing cial media on our daily life are hate against republicans and profits at the cost of agglom- undeniable. Although they hate against democrats. Nevererating data, the virtual world are more visible to some and theless, the use of social media has been transformed into an less clear to others, everyone as an instrument to polarize instrument used to dismantle is affected by it, and once we societies is not restrained to democratic political systems, realize social media’s impor- political It’s a marketplace that trades mental health, and the current tance in shaping people’s opin- elections. futures. sense of truth. The lack of digi- ions, there is no coming back. It extends - professor emeritus Shoshan tal privacy has caused new data In terms of the policy, for the to every Administration at Harv technology to undermine de- past decade, the tech industry c o n c e p has proven its value. The Cam- tion of truth a group of individbridge Analytica data scandal uals assume, and its perception is the best example to illustrate by whoever the data processor the extent to which social me- decides. Hate against femidia empowers extreme politi- nism, hate against
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OOD OR WHOM? sexism. Hate against homosexuals, hate against homophobia. Hate against the Western world, hate against the Oriental world. Hate against Muslims, hate against Christians.
use of social media as to polarize societies is not elections.. It extends to every elections group of individuals assume, assume, whoever the data processor decides.. decides
And so it goes.
Of course, virtual networks have their advantages and good qualities as well. Connecting people all around the world through information sharing has a lot of value. It opens a lot of doors to a more rapid and fluid informational environment among individuals. However, when utilized as a weapon, a reflection appears not only about the dilemma of its use, but also about our liberty of not using it. Conversely, it is known that mindlessly scrolling s exclusively in human through Tikna Zuboff of Business Tok, Facebook, vard University Instagram, etc. contributes im-
We’re training and conditioning a whole new generation of people that when we are uncomfortable, or lonely, or uncertain or afraid, we have a digital pacifier for ourselves. - former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris
the external world. Therefore, as a pacifier for uncomfortable situations, or as a distraction when boredom creeps in, or as an illusion of collecting and developing popularity, the big tech industries exploit our thoughts and feelings in order to hold our attention for as long as possible, inducing a frenetic need for social approval. The rising of extreme political candidates, teen suicide rate, conspiracy theories, and virtual addiction are some of the consequences of the innovation process of data technology. Youtube recommends Earth Flat theories massively due to its high number of views. Instagram and Snapchat are enforcing unrealistic beauty standards because viewers are more attracted to them. Google has created a hierarchy of information by presenting different results to different people according to their location. And regardless of all of that, people continue to use these devices because of their importance to being “connected.” To what extent are we really free from perpetuating these catastrophic side effects of social media? To what extent are we free to break apart from this system?
We were exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology. We knew that and we did it anyway. - ex-Facebook President Sean Parker
mensely to our perceptions of
DANIEL LEAL DE MORAES SANTANA
COLUMNIST
To what extent...
Are we really free from perpetuating these catastrophic side effects of social media? Are we free to break apart from this system?
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California
IN Q
JADE QUINN-MCDONALD
My Exper in my H
COLUMNIST
On December fourth, California plates were spotted driving down the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. When the car was pulled over for its illegible licence plate, the police officer deduced that the driver was in fact breaking the two-week mandatory quarantine rule placed on
The news story got me thinking about my quarantine. Despite having submitted my last midterm in the Vancouver International Arrivals terminal, I expected to have plenty of school work to do. Yet, as days passed in a homogeneous haze, I fell behind in my studies. When the light of day no
“Healthline.com claims that an adult drowns in four to six minutes. I would like to contest that claim. It took me 12 days to drown.” international travellers upon their arrival to Canada. The Californian broke his quarantine by two days and faced a $1,000 fine. Previously I would have wondered, why not brave the last 48 hours, but now I know better than to question the actions of the isolated.
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longer brings with it the opportunity to leave the room you’ve slept in, motivation — and meaning — are nowhere to be found. A nine hour time change gave me an excuse not to attend live classes as I cut myself off from any peers who may be able to me answer for
QUARANTINE
rience Adjusting to Quarantine Hometown in British Columbia ALL PHOTOS BY JADE QUINN-MCDONALD
my studies. The disorientation of travel occupied me for the first day or so. The first week was bearable. When day eight came around, I began to waver. My mental health plummeted and Menton slowly vanished from my thoughts. I lost the will that had pushed me to leave Canada this fall. I missed over 20 classes and had no intention of watching the recordings. Over the next week, I decided to drop out. Then I decided to get a masters in environmental policy. Then I decided to drop out again. The workload was overwhelming. The hole I had dug was too deep. I was drowning. Healthline.com claims that an adult drowns in four to six minutes. I would like to contest that claim. It took me 12 days to drown. I guess someone pulled
me up out of the depths of my academic induced depression because, when I came to, I could hold myself accountable for my studies. My revitalization could not have come at a better time, final exams looming. Although I cannot find where my will to try originated, I am grateful it came along when it did. The readjustment after quarantine was a walk in the park compared to the discomfort I experienced over those two weeks of November. I sympathize with the Californian. Two weeks alone would drive the best of us up the wall. I could not imagine doing it over again... I can’t wait for summer break.
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The imperative of music 2020
My daily imperative is to listen to music, and I have every reason to believe that this predilection isn’t unique. It’s my waking conversation, and one which greets me during most mornings with about as much assurance as, well, the “guarantees” in life we take most for granted. If you live in La Vieille Ville, these guarantees might be granted to you in the form of the sometimes-enchanting, but often insanity-inducing Basilica bells. For the gentlemen who lay claim to the beach, the arguably notorious MDL boys, morning’s first tune might be the waves against their windows, or for the Villa Jasmine girls, it might be the choir of seagulls perched on the surrounding terracotta. That’s to say that the ongoing traffic of life was designed to be accompanied, amplified, and drowned out by music. If you ask me, music is the fourth precondition for survival, and in order of necessity, music takes second position, and water third. I’m of the opinion that, out there, wandering through the musicsphere, is one song crafted and carved for each of us, adorned with features singular to our preferences. It comes charging into our lives sitting atop none other but the vehicle of spontaneity, and it takes hostage our most basic human impulses. I say this to reinforce my conviction that music taps into a very primitive human response, and one which identifies on the basis of exploiting expectation. We seldom know the songs and albums which will last favorably in our memo-
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ry vaults, and that’s precisely what makes the chase so thrilling— because out there is one song floating, waiting for its perfect match in the shape of an expectant listener. And if we’re lucky, we’re afforded the sweetness of “meeting” that one song over and over and over again. Being found by music that engages with the layers of my individuality is the closest I’ll ever come to a “glass slipper” moment. Music reconciled this year´s dueling havoc and beauty through the fullness of sound, the grandeur of lyricism, and the subtlety of silence between tracks. So, in a 2020 defined by chaotic dynamism, music was my most valuable player because it delivered articulation to feelings that I might not have had the bandwidth to access otherwise. Where do we bestow our gratitude for the songs which sparked us joy this year? The answer is simple: in our curiosity to seek out more good music, incessantly. Whether you choose to be romanced by Spotify or by Apple Music, by the radio or the record player, integrate music into your day-to-day just as you do the other tools which fuel your survival, but chiefly, your happiness. On the days where my happiness was interrogated by self-doubt and pandemic fatigue, these were the “glass slipper” albums which kept the wheels in rotation.
YUSEF BUSHARA
COLUMNIST
Wizkid’s Made in Lagos captures the rhythmic incantations of a dancing soul, perfect for the times when the only thing that seems to matter is the very moment itself. It has its roots in African soil but invokes a universal appeal. This album was nothing short of exquisite.
The integrity of Amine’s brand has always been its levity, and Limbo is no exception. It’s not without pensive moments from the Portland rapper, but just as he announces to open on the premiering track “Burden,” “This some shit you go pick your homie up from jail with.”
Girl Eats Sun by London’s Hope Tala is the quintessential Spring-vibe inducing album. Accented by a largely acoustic overlay, Tala finds a way to serenade the listeners with her airy style stripped-back track after track.
Another Lagos-based artist, Tems delivers her reflections on the messy intersection of love, life, and freedom in For Broken Ears, all without sparing the raspy intensity of a voice wise beyond its years.
J Hus leaves nothing left unsaid on his second studio album, Big Conspiracy. Renowned for his piercing elementary-style word-play and effortless flow, Hus saturates this album with the lyricism of a master MC who knows how to command a mic while leaving the truth unscathed.
Whether you found a musical shoe that fit this year or in years past, never let the sanctity and the pleasure of a good song get lost on you. Embrace the spontaneous misadventure of finding your melodic soulmate, and I hope the imperative of music intensifies for you in 2021, because I know it will for me. ■
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4 sided shapes Geometry is a subject that has always had a peculiar form. Entirely attached to the discipline of mathematics but in so many ways in a realm of its own. This is because, in many ways, we have always been more excited by the prospect of shapes than algebra and calculus. For me, it was the math lessons in which the teacher would take out the magic box of 2D and 3D shapes that we would organise into polygons and quadrilaterals. Though I have sometimes found comfort in irregular shapes, obtuse angles, and even dashed or bendy lines, there has always been a familiarity and accord with four-sided shapes. I mean, they were the easiest to calculate perimeter and area, plus all that is required for an accurate sketch is a ruler and pencil. Not just that but there is something so harmonious about the equilibrium of four right angles- its almost seductive symmetry. These shapes have come to dominate our concept of space, our doors, our houses, our flags, our tables, our beds. Now, within the confines of our many groupings, there is seemingly an abundance of four straight lines. These denote certain bonds that, for me, are generally familiarity, interest, enjoyment, and convenience. Now, when it comes to drawing them together, it is quite easy to conclude that there in its entirety exists a perfect grouping, one that we can escape to and attribute a sense of belonging. Though it is imperative to consider the addition of ‘diagonals,’ whereby we are willing to compromise and seek only two of the four bonds. Corners at a diagonal, instead of those parallel, are not used to meeting each other, however it is through these ventures that, in my opinion, we form our most profound memories. The off-beaten path of relationships can often be synonymous with boredom or isolation, however it is in so many ways an integral part of how we do the act of being human. I draw four-sided shapes. More often than once but mostly four-sided. Within the borders of these newly formed relationships are, of course, something beautiful, but their lack of irregularity and relative succinctness no doubt closes off many possibilities. My few, but so very fruitful, ventures can be connected to the times I disobeyed the formula. It is with this thought that I am going to make a conscious effort to stop drawing so many four sided shapes, ditch the parallels, explore the diagonals and maybe even experiment with an irregular shape.
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ISMAEEL YAQOOB
COLUMNIST
LILLI OEVERMANN
GUEST COLUMNIST
ASK LE ZADIG December Edition How can you deal with reporting sexual abuse on campus? 2A Nolwenn Menard, the when reporting the incident president of the Feminist to campus as there will be a Union (FU), outlined a medical examination of the few options for victims and victim, so Menard advises witnesses of acts of sexual victims not to shower or abuse or violence. When clean up if reporting such an reporting an incident directly Hotline for Gender Equality incident to the Amy Greene : +33 1 45 49 50 23 after the act. The amy.greene@sciencespo.fr administraSciencesPo hotion, students Director Yasmina Touaibia : tline for gender yasmina.touaibia@sciencespo.fr should contact Dania Del Ben : equality is also Director Yas- dania.delben@sciencespo.fr available, and the Police Municipale - Menton : mina Touaicontact is Amy bia or faculty Rue Saint-Charles, 06500 Menton, Greene, who can France ; +33 4 92 10 50 50 member Dania be reached at +33 Del Ben with 1 45 49 50 23 or a statement summarizing the amy.greene@sciencespo.fr. incident. Menard warns that the administration will ask for 2A Irem Tarcan, who shared proof in the form of physical her story on the FU’s Instaevidence, such as photos. In gram page earlier this year, the past, the solution offered advises victims to share their to both the victim and the story only if they feel one perpetrator was to switch hundred percent ready to do campuses. Another option so. Tarcan concluded that vicis to go to the police, which tims, “should take their time, Menard says would be most be easy on themselves and try effective immediately after to see how what happened the incident, when physical affected them… it is not [the evidence may still be on the victim’s] fault, it does not victim’s body. The same is true define [them] in any way.” CELESTE ABOURJEILI
HEAD OF STAFFWRITERS
SAAD SEMLALI
HEAD OF STAFFWRITERS
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You can always submit more questions to “Ask Le Zadig” to be addressed in both English and French in upcoming issues. Vous pouvez envoyez vos questions à « Ask Le Zadig » pour avoir un réponse en français et en anglais dans les prochaines éditions.
Teaser: more to come on these questions, and others, including how to be nicer to 1As, in the upcoming editions. Stay tuned!
Comment choisir ma majeure pour l’année prochaine? How should I decide which major to take next year? La question de choisir une ical Humanities major, adds majeur devient de plus en that the major “is an amazing plus importante avec la fin du opportunity [for students] to premier semestre pour les 1A. explore new things, develop Les élèves ont trois options: new interests, and expand « Économies et Sociétés [their] horizons beyond what », «Humanités Politiques [they] have already set [their » ou « Politique et Gouverminds] to.” nement». Quelles sont les ressouSelon rces pour les 1A en quête certains d’un parcours civique? 2A, il faut What are the best choisir sa majeure resources for 1As trying to find their civic course? après avoir suivi Deux 2A ont donné leur tous les cours magistraux en avis sur le sujet : Eren Işıktaş première année, et prendre recommande de contacter les l’opportunité de faire avancer organisations avec lesquelles ses centres d’intérêts et d’en vous avez travaillé dans le développer des nouveaux. passé. Samuel Hoodman a souligné l’importance de As 1As become 2As, the ques- ne pas oublier vos centres d’intérêts et de garder à esprit tion of choosing a major bela 3A. comes more and more pressing. Students at SciencesPo have the choice between three When it comes to the Paroptions: Economy & Society, cours Civique, 2A Eren Işıktaş advises 1As to try to contact Political Humanities, or Poliorganizations that they have tics & Government. 2A Eren Işıktaş, who is an Economy & worked with in the past, or to use their existing connections. Society major, advises 1As to 2A Samuel Hoodman placed a wait until the end of the year, greater emphasis on pursuing when they have taken all of their classes and better under- one’s interests and keeping the stand their interests, to decide. 3A in mind. “Honestly, just do whatever interests you the “2A classes are different from most humanitarian-wise for 1A classes for economics… the Parcours Civique… For That’s why I would recommend speaking to several 2As the non dual-BAs, the pick matters more since it helps from all majors,” Işıktaş said. guide our third year,” he said. 2A Maxim Karkutli, a Polit-
SciencesPo Compliments Match Game Je n’ai jamais vu une personne aussi douce et gentille que toi. Tu es la guimauve qui réchauffe nos coeurs. Professeur à temps partiel quand il n’est pas trop occupé à sauver le Liban et le reste du monde. Marry me. Shantay, you stay. In my heart. The guardian angel of Menton. We are going to miss your beautiful smile <3 You’re the only one who can be sexy wearing tatanes. You make people smile when they need it most :) not no mention that you’re brain is so powerful, so truly happy to have gotten to know you a bit better this year. De la gentillesse à l’état pur, merci d’être toi, attentif, sincère, à l’écoute et vachement bon délire ;)) Malgré ta petite taille tu es grand par ta gentillesse et ta bienveillance. PS : Passe DM ;) Reviens wesh. Hardworking and loving badass woman. You have an etherial vibe, thank you for being you :) Your love and passion for the environment is truly admirable and inspires me to do more. Thank you eco-warrior <3 You’re such a wholesome and lovely person! I hope you have a lovely end of year!! A model for strengh and growth, you’re a sensitive badass - the best kind of badass. Keep it going. Girls thank you for this amazing semester, I love and appreciate you a lot, enevn more now that we aren’t together. Such a ray of sunshine, so much fun to be around and always there for everyone. You’re an amazing and hardworking person, keep your head up and enjoy your winter breat <3 xx. Une grande âme de militant qui nous fait rire assez souvent. T’es vraiment l’une des personnes les plus gentilles sur le campus, c’était trop bien de te rencontrer et hâte de faire des cookies vegan ensemble.
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Grâce à la page Facebook de SciencesPo Compliments, chacun peut complimenter anonymement un étudiant! Amuse-toi et relie le compliment à la personne!
Thanks to SciencesPo Compliments Facebook page, you can compliment any student anonymously! Have fun and match the compliment to the person!
Lena Rose Nour Berrah Mathilde Pichon Thomas Sarkis Jenna Leguellec Emmanuel Houalla Maxime Jbilou Angelina Gutierrez Villa Jasmin Girls Angie Weitz Emma Pascal Ada Baser Nolwenn Menard Joseph Sirodeau Anthony Boumerhi Maha El Haiba Albert Frank Anita Stedman Salim Ouartini ELIANA SEROUSSI
DESIGNER
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Les articles en ligne à venir / Upcoming Online Articles LEZADIG.COM NE RATEZ PAS LES ARTICLES SUIVANTS QUI SERONT PUBLIÉS SUR NOTRE SITE WEB EN JANVIER ! / DON’T MISS THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES WHICH WILL BE PUBLISHED ON OUR WEBSITE IN JANUARY!:
LES DANGERS DE LA <<CANCEL CULTURE>> NOA CHASLES
CHRONIQUEUSE
LA FRANCE ET LA DIVERSITÉ CULTURELLE MARIEM BEN M’RAD
CHRONIQUEUSE
LEAVE THE CHURCH! SHOULD WE SEPARATE RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION FROM CULTURAL IDENTITY? STANISLAW NAKLICKI
GUEST COLUMNIST
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