Édition N°1, 2021-2022

JEUDI 04 NOVEMBRE 2021

SCIENCES PO PARIS, CAMPUS DE MENTON

ELIANA SEROUSSI

CARTOONIST CO EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

#20| THE FOURTH POLITICAL THEORY

FOR LEFT POPULISM? - STANISLAW NAKLICKI

#32|LA RÉPRESSION ÉCOLO:

ÉTAT DES LIEUX - JOSEPH SIRAUDEAU

#47| AN ODE

TO WALKS - YUSEF BUSHARA

2021-2022 NEW SECTION!

AMNESTY’S POLITICAL ANALYSIS #40 | LYBIA’S REFUGEE CAMPS #42 | WOMEN AND THE TALIBAN #46 | HONG KONG’S FALLING CIVIL SOCIETY

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meet the team Co-EditorsIn-Chief Eliana Seroussi

Daniel Santana

Head of French Staff Writers Saad Semlali Aatif Samy El Maloui

Head of English Staff Writers Madeline Wyatt Celeste Abourjeili

Head of Online Media Selma Sisbane

Noa Chasles

Inter-Campus Coordinator Communications Manager

Barbara KuzaTarkowska

Head of Design

Ada Baser

Designers

Fatma Başak Üstün

Lucie Charbonneau Maria Azadian Vanessa Lolomari

table of contents p. 4 French Elite on Cancel Culture p. 6 French and Australian Relations p. 7 Des Identités en France p. 8 Nayib Bukele and Authoritarianism p. 12 Chronique sur les Jeux Olympiques p. 16 Romantics of Indo-Iranian Neoclassicism p. 18 Dyslexia Research in the Arab World p. 20 Fourth Political Theory for Left Populism p. 22 Un Message pour la Ummah

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p. 26 Soliman le magnifique p. 28 Crime Organisé en France p. 30 La présidentielle 2022 p. 32 Répression des Écologistes p. 34 Turkey Ratifies Climate Agreement p. 36 White Washing Menton p. 47 An Ode to Walks

AMNESTY’S POLITICAL ANALYSIS p. 40 Libya’s Refugee Camps p. 42 Women and the Taliban p. 46 Hong Kong’s Dalling Civil Society ÉDITION N˚1 | OCTOBRE 2021

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The French Elite on

Cancel Culture :

a society out of touch

with its own conception of justice CAMERON CAROLINESTERLING SØGAARD

COLUMNIST COLUMNIST

In July 2020, Deputy Mayor of Paris Christophe Girard resigned from his post in response to popular protests related to his connections and defense of pedophilic writer Gabriel Matzneff and accusations towards his own dubious sexual misconduct. Girard referred to the protests against him as vestiges of cancel culture, describing the phenomenon as a “deleterious climate of new McCarthyisms” in a July Tweet.

Despite his reported feeling of political cancellation and exile, the French elite have seemingly forgiven Girard, restoring his seat on the Paris Council in January of 2021.

Girard’s case presents an essential duality in conceptions of justice: retributive justice for the masses, and exoneration for the elites. With the diffusion of social media and the subsequent democratization of cultural capital, however, there has been a paradigm shift. Cancel culture, often dismissed in French intellectual circles, is nothing new. It is an extension of preexisting concepts of justice to members of society previously considered to be untouchable. Girard’s case presents an essential duality in conceptions of justice: retributive justice for the masses, and exoneration for the elites. With the diffusion of social media and the subsequent democratization of cultural capital, however, there has been a paradigm shift. Cancel culture, often dismissed in French intellectual circles, is nothing new. It is an extension of preexisting concepts of justice to members of society previously considered to be untouchable.

In the Western World, criminal justice systems have been formed under the philosophy of retributive justice, itself being defined as “a system of criminal justice based on the punishment of offenders rather than on rehabilitation.” It follows that people who commit certain kinds of immoral acts deserve to suffer proportionate punishment. Though nations have recently tried to establish more rehabilitative

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systems, most Western countries still adopt retribution in practice.

France is no exception. According to scholar Éric Méchoulan, its French roots are found in Christian theology. Parisian judges used to sit beneath a large painting of the Crucifixion, symbolizing both suffering and redemption. From then on, the principle of “an eye for an eye” has remained a large cultural force-- Capital Punishment, banned in 1981, still recieves the support of the majority of the population as reported by France 24.

In Modern Day France, the tenets of retribution are best found in the prison system. Though they are nominally rehabilitative, French prisons have been lambasted by European Human Rights Bodies for overcrowding, deliberate physical battery, high suicide rates, prolonged periods of solitary confinement, and lack of access to psychological care.

Bluntly put, society cares little about the fate of those that break its rules. The penal system is a classic case of “out of sight, out of mind,” temporarily removing criminals from society rather than an effort to rehabilitate them.

The majority of the French populace is held to a retributive standard, so if there is wrongdoing, they are punished and removed from society. I argue then, that Giarard’s victimization in alleging that there is a “new” mob of McCarthyists after him misses the broader context of the conception of justice in society. The only “new” thing is that the people who are coerced to follow a punitive set of rules are now demanding that elites are treated the same. If accountability and culpability are truly new concepts, we must question the extent to which society is egalitarian. The “cancel culture” that they claim to be threatened by is simply a democratization of justice, with everybody being held to similar standards. ■

ÉDITION | OCTOBRE2020 2021 ÉDITION N˚1N˚1 | NOVEMBRE

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Australia and France

PHOTOS BY TIME HAMMOND AND ANDREW PARSONS

THE BREAKUP OF THE DECADE? GEORGIA MCKERRACHER

COLUMNIST

ON BEHALF OF

MEDMUN

FRANCE HAS STATED IT HAS “NO TIME FRAME” TO SPEAK TO AUSTRALIA AGAIN, SIMPLY ELECTING TO GHOST IT.

WAS THIS RELATIONSHIP BOUND TO END BY THE FAULT OF BOTH PARTIES? It seems to go without saying that tensions between France and it’s Indo-Pacific ally, Australia, have not exactly been on the ‘up’ in recent weeks. Despite Australians consistently enjoying a tasting of French cheeses, or the ample offerings of French viniculture, diplomatic relations between the two nations’ governments have not been quite as dependable as this cultural correlation. The recent overturning of a key Australian-French submarine-production contract has been a key catalyst in these plummeting relations.

PHOTO BY ELYSÉE

Australian-French cooperation has undeniably proliferated in recent years, most notably in collaborative counter-terrorism actions and the pursuit of global nuclear disarmament. In 2018, French President Macron first stated his intention to develop relations through expanding strategic Indo-Pacific alliances, enhancing diplomatic ties with Australia and India. A consequence of this foreign policy approach was the “contract of the century” — the aforementioned submarine pact. In this settlement, Australia agreed to purchase 50 billion euros worth of diesel submarines from the French over a 25 year period. This acted not only as a major economic decision, but also a strategic diplomatic one.

France was able to create a relationship with the largest nation in the South Pacific – reinforcing French presence in a location of “strategic interest.” However, this act of partnership culminated in an international disquiet when, in September 2021, Australia dropped France for a new partnership with the United States and

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United Kingdom, with the novel AUKUS security arrangement allowing member nations to share secret security technologies.

As a result, it’s fair to say that relations have taken a nose-dive.

French ambassadors were temporarily recalled from Canberra.

French leaders are reportedly still refusing to accept Australian leaders’ calls.

However, despite all its diplomatic solemnity, this tension may be better understood metaphorically– two individuals with irreconcilable differences have broken up. If anything, it sounds like a bit of an over-dramatic rom-com. One could imagine the ‘cheating’ of Australia on France, “stab[bing]” her “in the back” as put by French Foreign Minister, Yves-Le-Drian. But was this contractual ‘betrayal’ foreseeable? Was this relationship bound to end by the fault of both parties? Was Australia’s historical baggage and suspiciously close relationship to the US and UK bound to leave her falling back into their arms, to France’s detriment?

More often than not, we can see that even when a relationship issue seems to be mainly the fault of one party (in this case Australia), there is a layer of complexity lying beneath the surface.

One thing to remember about France and Australia is that both find themselves in entirely different military and geographical contexts –the irreconcilable fundamental dissimilarities between the two parties in this love-affair-gone-sour.

The US and UK have had a close history with Australia for centuries. Australia is not only a Commonwealth nation, hence maintaining structural and symbolic ties with the UK, but even up until 1942 statutory limitations remained pervasive in ensuring that Britain maintained control over who Australia fostered and maintained diplomatic partnerships with. In other words, Britain is a ‘caring’ but controlling partner that has been there for Australia through thick and thin. In recent decades, ties with the US have strengthened, as evident in Australia’s verging-on-dogmatic loyalty to support the US in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Thus, in the face of these strengthening diplomatic ties, when the submarine deal with France was announced, it seemed to many to be a little random. France and Australia were a couple that no one saw coming – not because they were bad together, but mostly as they simply had not really shown much interest in one another before. We nodded our heads and looked away, regardless.

Moreover, Australia as a nation is not a fan of independence. Due to the nation’s geographical and democratic isolation in the Indo-Pacific, what matters even more to Australia than sovereignty is security. It’s always looking for a shoulder to lean on, especially at the moment, where it believes (correctly or not) that neighbouring Taiwan is almost inevitably going to be invaded by an increasingly aggressive China. So, Australia is now prioritising security more than ever. France’s military simply is not as strong or accessible as that of the US or UK. So, Australia made its decision to prioritise what’s best for it. Canberra, aware of a comparative lack of authority on the world stage, is constantly seeking strong allies to elevate its position and ensure national safety.

Finally, both parties simply had divergent views of what they wanted the future to be together.

France’s main priority in increasing its presence in the Indo-Pacific region was to maintain peace and accord between nations.

But, Australia is increasingly sceptical about the possibility of sustainable peace, becoming more suspicious of the effects of Chinese foreign policy and impending Taiwanese conflict. As a culmination of the need for security, pessimism about sovereign military capabilities, and the seeking of global influence, Australia has selected a companion seemingly more suited to meet its contemporary strategic desires. Admittedly, Australia’s equanimity in informing France about this separation simply was not

FRANCE AND AUSTRALIA WERE A COUPLE THAT NO ONE SAW COMING PHOTO BY TIM HAMMOND

ideal. In fact, it was a bit embarrassing.

As an Australian, I can confirm that we were genuinely discomfited by the injudiciousness of our government’s actions. What could have potentially been a more amicable breakup was degraded into a French “blindsiding” upon the announcement of the AUKUS agreement on the 15th of September. The French immediately and fairly denounced the lack of warning - Australia had literally informed the French leadership of the decision by text only a few hours before the statement was made. Furthermore, only a couple of weeks beforehand, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne had praised the submarine deal – providing the French with a false sense of assurance in the contract’s security. Phrases like “brutal,” “unpredictable,” and “insufferable” have since been thrown around frequently. France has stated it has “no time frame, let alone a date” to speak to Australia again – simply electing to ghost it. Some Australian ministers have gone as far as to state that French relations may not begin to truly thaw until April 2022, following the French presidential elections.

Damjanovic, I. and de Sadeleer, N., 2021. The French-Australian Submarine Affair: Can It Sink the EU Indo-Pacific Strategy?. [online] Australian Institute of International Affairs. Available at: <https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/the-french-australian-submarine-affair-can-it-sink-the-eu-indo-pacificstrategy/> [Accessed 14 October 2021].

DARMANIN, J. and SHEFTALOVICH, Z., 2021. ‘Stab in the back’: France slams Australia, US over move to ditch €50B submarine deal. [online] POLITICO. Available at: <https://www.politico.eu/article/france-slams-australia-us-e50bsubmarine-deal/> [Accessed 14 October 2021].

Jakes, L. and Erlanger, S., 2021. Blinken, in Paris, Tries to Restore Trust After Submarine Snub. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: <https://www.nytimes. com/2021/10/05/world/europe/france-us-blinken-diplomacy.html> [Accessed 14 October 2021].

Nettlebeck, C., 2021. French-Australian Relations: TOWARDS AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE. [online] Isfar.org.au. Available at: <http://www.isfar.org. au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/57_COLIN-NETTELBECK-French-Australian-Relations-Towards-an-Historical-Perspective.pdf> [Accessed 14 October 2021].

Piper, H., 2021. Australia must work to salvage relations with France | The Strategist. [online] The Strategist. Available at: <https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/australia-must-work-to-salvage-relations-with-france/> [Accessed 14 October 2021].

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DES IDENTITÉS DES IDENTITÉS DES IDENTITÉS DES IDENTITÉS DES DES IDENTITÉS IDENTITÉS

EN FRANCE EN FRANCE EN FRANCE EN FRANCE FRANCE EN EN FRANCE

RIME BEN ABDERRAHMAN

CHRONIQUEUR

Invité récurrent des chaînes de télévision d’information en continu, ex-chroniqueur sur Cnews, et polémiste aux ambitions (quasi) présidentielles, Eric Zemmour semble se faire de plus en plus en tendre par une communauté elle-même de plus en plus importante. Alors que ses discours, dont il n’est le seul à en être la voix, s’enlisent dans les peurs et la haine, la question des identités, et de leur nature en France, se pose.

L’identité, ce mot si nébuleux qu’il en devient presque un concept. Si les définitions abondent et s’emmêlent entre ambigu et subjectif, nous pourrions tout de même tenter d’en ébaucher les idées générales, certes de façon partielle, mais en commençant par rappeler que s’il y a nécessité de définir l’identité, c’est qu’il y a pluralité. Cependant, la pluralité n’exclut pas la ressemblance, et l’identité se voit ainsi marquée par deux sens qui de prime abord peuvent en faire son équivoque. Mais c’est en cela que son essence réside. L’identité sépare le soi du non-soi tout en rassemblant des identiques.

Différence et similarité prennent alors du sens l’une par rapport à l’autre.

Qu’est ce qui fait alors que la notion suscite les controverses lorsqu’elle pénètre le débat public?

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L’identité est très souvent détournée de sa substance, de ce qui fait son originalité et son socle, sa colonne vertébrale. Elle est interprétée, politisée et pervertie par les esprits humains qui voient en elle un outil idéologique plutôt qu’un réel creuset de l’altérité. En servant un réquisitoire contre l’immigration et les minorités du pays, elle n’est plus.

C’est dans ce sens que beaucoup utilisent le terme d’“identité nationale”. Mais qu’est ce qu’être français ? Cette question ne semble pas avoir vocation à ce qu’on y réponde de façon singulière, bornée et figée. Elle est le lieu de toutes les interprétations, mais ne peut se faire la gomme des singularités, des itinéraires, des appartenances, des expériences et des rencontres. Cette “identité nationale”, dont le terme n’est apparu que dans les années 1980, semble alors être un refuge identitaire, plutôt que l’acceptation du pluriel et du divers. Elle croit légitimer des discours d’exclusion sculptés dans la peur de l’autre et le repli sur soi.

L’autre est catégorisé, étiqueté, à la manière dont l’Arabe dans L’Étranger d’Albert Camus ne porte pas de nom. Il est effacé et ne fait plus partie que d’une masse aux identités dévorées : les musulmans, les immigrés, les étrangers. Celui qui efface devient alors étranger à son propre monde, pensant qu’une identité commune, partant de la Nation, est compatible avec les identités personnelles qui sont les seules à se savoir, et le conduit ainsi dans une impasse. Affaire publique et affaire privée veulent se superposer, mais ce serait laisser l’arbitraire commander les existences.

La France est en mouvement perpétuel. Elle n’est pas immobile. Elle est une France, non pas à l’identité, mais aux principes politiques vivants, de liberté, d’égalité et de fraternité.•

NAYIB BUKELE

& The New Face Of Authorianism & The narrative of a populist businessman with social media prowess on the campaign trail carries an eerie sense of familiarity following the presidency of Donald Trump.

But while the former United States president recently concluded his term with an electoral stand-off and several suspensions from Facebook and Instagram, the future appear much brighter for El Salvador’s head of state, whose approval ratings steadily hang among the 80s and 90s. Donning a backward baseball cap and the self-proclaimed title “Dictator of El Salvador,” Nayib Bukele has grabbed the attention of economists, human rights lawyers, and hopeful politicians alike.

At just 40 years of age (37 when first elected to the presidency), he is one of the youngest heads of state in the world, made evident in one of his more controversial policies when he invested state funds in Bitcoin and designated the cryptocurrency as legal tender. For many in El Salvador and abroad, Bukele represents a new generation of political leadership, one that revitalizes and rejuvenate aging political institutions. However, his “vanguard” platform is eroding at El Salvador’s already fragile democracy - and with wildly popular support.

ISABEL CRONIN

COLUMNIST

PHOTOS BY CARLOS MORONTA

ÉDITION N˚1 | OCTOBRE 2021

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Nayib Bukele The New Face Of Authorianism

PHOTO BY ANDREX, QUOTE INSPECTOR

NEW TIMES, NEW IDEAS. Like many neighboring states, the nation’s present political climate is dominated mainly by the legacy of past authoritarian governments and political violence. After a coup d’etat deposed the first democratically elected president in 1931, a military junta known as the “Civic Directory” seized power, initiating a military dictatorship that ruled for five decades.

For many Salvadorans, the constitutional democracy was a system of promises left largely unfulfilled

The eventual collapse of the junta led to a twelve-year civil war between 1979 and 1992, which displaced a fifth of the population and claimed over 75,000 lives. Since the end of the war, El Salvador has been primarily governed by two parties, left-wing former rebel coalition FMLN, and the conservative-nationalist ARENA. For years, a delicate balance of power between the two has preserved democratic rule, but many Salvadorans were dissatisfied with a perceived lack of action between the two factions. Then comes Nayib Bukele.

Having served as Mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlan and later San Salvador, Bukele entered the presidential race as a populist third-party candidate (he was previously expelled from FMLN for violence and internal conflicts), seeking to “drain

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the swamp” of its corrupted central officials. History was made when he became the first candidate from outside of the two major parties to reach the presidency in three decades.

His policies, such as cracking down on gang violence and revitalizing community infrastructure, have amassed widespread support among a political ly pessimistic populace, and the results are tangible.

In a mere two years, the homicide rate has fallen from one of the highest in the world at 51 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018 to 20 in 2020. COVID-19 has furthered his popularity as well, with a 98% pandemic approval rating from CID Gallup in March of 2021. His utilization of social media on the campaign trail has also proved successful in connecting with the public. A quick exploration of his Facebook and Ins tagram profiles reveals plenty of football commentary, attacks on the free press, images of proposed public constructions, and witty retorts to fellow Latin American politicians, all of which have fueled his popularity in a nation with a median age of 27.

Among the 73% of the population that feels that the government does not represent their interests, Bukele instills a sense of hope for political change, though not necessarily progress.

With such strong public favor, it is no surprise that the populist Nuevas Ideas party, a personal project of Nayib Bukele’s campaign, has so rapidly developed. Since being approved by the Supreme Electoral Court in 2018, the party has acquired a 56 seat majority in the national legislature. But leading up to the legislative elections, many eligible voters could not even name the candidate they planned to vote for, only the movement: Nuevas Ideas.

“Let’s not fool ourselves here. Hardly anyone knows who the candidates [for the Legislative Assembly] are, but that’s not important,” Mardoqueo Machuca tells Carlos Barrera of Salvadoran newspaper El Faro, “Every vote for Nuevas Ideas is a vote for the president.”

The gradual single-party domination rides on the coattails of the Bukele’s popularity, providing fuel to the fire of a growing cult of personality and his further pursuit of power.

“WORLD’S COOLEST DICTATOR”?

Behind the charismatic facade of leather jackets and Twitter feud with Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, the populist leader has transitioned into an autocrat, which seems to plague many governments in the region.

Despite his extreme popularity, many of El Salvador’s former legislators and political figures are wary of Bukele and his strong-arm strategy.

Nayib Bukele The New Face Of Authorianism

His first controversial stunt as president came in February of 2020 when he directed armed troops into the National Legislature during a vote on a $109 million crime package to equip police and military forces. Nearly a year later, the Nuevas Ideas supermajority slid further into authoritarianism-- this time targeting the courts.

In May, Parliament voted on a measure to remove all five judges from the Constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court and terminated the independent attorney general hours later.

A representative of Nuevas Ideas attributed the termination of the court to their strike down of stay-at-home orders in June of 2020, saying they had perpetrated a “fraud to the Constitution.” The replacement judges, appointed in June, overturned the constitutionality of the limit of consecutive presidential terms, allowing Nayib Bukele to run for reelection in 2024.

This series of attacks on the judiciary represents the gradual erosion of the final checks on executive power -- and yet internal criticisms appear almost nonexistent.

El Salvador’s political atmosphere represents the perfect storm against a delicate democracy. The general public is rather apathetic to democratic practices, with only 50% of respondents in a 2018 survey responding that democracy was preferable to other forms of government.

For many Salvadorans, the constitutional democracy was a system of promises left largely unfulfilled until Bukele entered the scene, undermining the establishment that had long ago lost public faith. The president’s popularity is not a reflection of strong policy proposals or bipartisan unity, rather it’s his personable character and community action, the impacts of which are much more visible than promises of environmental policies or foreign trade.

El Salvador’s political atmosphere represents the perfect storm against a delicate democracy.

“There is] no corruption, since the things that they say about him are lies made up by the media,” says one supporter on the streets of San Salvador. “[FMLN] had never given me a single bag of food and Nayib has given me five. How could I not vote for him?”

Such perspectives are common amongst the most marginalized population and serve as a grave reminder of the precariousness of civil liberties.

When there is food on the table where there was none before, when there are thirty days without homicide after years of holding the record of most violent country outside active warzones,

the erosion of democratic institutions is merely collateral damage.

As shoe-shiner Alex Perdomo remarks, “A lot of people say that giving the president all the power will be a dictatorship. Well, then it will be a good dictatorship.”

Bukele’s gradual slide towards authoritarianism is apparent, but unlike other notable autocrats, there is a distinct factor that separates him: he’s a millennial. His youthful persona and social pioneering set him apart from the traditional image of authoritarians with strong political backgrounds and an aura of divine right. With slim-fit jeans and Instagram, a break from traditional military dress and state media,, Nayib Bukele draws more parallels with Elon Musk than Augusto Pinochet, but this isarming image is what allowed this power grab to succeed.

“[FMLN] had never given me a single bag of food and Nayib has given me five.

How could I not vote for him?”

Embracing the title of dictatorship in good humor minimizes genuine criticism of his expansion of power. The use of memes in interactions with political leaders of neighboring nations draws attention away from the lack of concrete international policy and unraveling relations with the United States. Images of youth rallies and community centers dominate media and public opinion, despite allegations of corruption in his administration which he had once campaigned against.

For older generations, Nayib Bukele is not the image of authoritarianism they recall from the military dictatorship.

For younger generations, he is simply a president seeking to do right by the people in spite of constitutional limits. • Aguilar, Jeannette, et al. Universidad Centroamericana “José Simeón Cañas” , San Salvador, 2018, Encuesta Sobre El Proceso Electoral 2018.

Aleman, Marcos. “El Salvador Court Drops Ban on Presidential Reelection.” AP NEWS, Associated Press, 5 Sept. 2021, https://apnews.com/article/elections-el-salvador-9dcbdb58df7fec5b43b289c3eb269730.

Amaya, Alba Miriam. “El Impacto Del 9f En La Cultura Democrática De El Salvador.”

DW.COM, Deutsche Welle, 8 Feb. 2021, https://www.dw.com/es/el-impacto-del-9fen-la-cultura-democr%C3%A1tica-de-el-salvador/a-56492383.

Barrera, Carlos. “‘Let the President Control Everything.’” Elfaro.net, El Faro, 25 Feb. 2021, https://elfaro.net/en/202102/ef_foto/25281/Let-the-President-Control-Everything.htm.

Pacheco, Melissa. “Nuevas Ideas Golpea a La Sala y Crea Una a Su Medida.” La Prensa Gráfica, 2 May 2021, https://www.laprensagrafica.com/elsalvador/Nuevas-ideasgolpea-a-la-sala-y-crea-una-a-su-medida-20210502-0001.html.

Segura, Edwin. “LPG Datos: Aprobación De Bukele, Casi Indemne.” Noticias De El Salvador - La Prensa Gráfica | Informate Con La Verdad, La Prensa Gráfica, 3 Sept. 2021, https://www.laprensagrafica.com/lpgdatos/LPG-Datos--Aprobacion-de-Bukele-casiindemne-20210903-0001.html.

“US Concerned over Removal of Top Salvadorean Judges.” BBC News, British Broadcasting Corporation, 3 May 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-ameri

ÉDITION N˚1 | OCTOBRE 2021

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Chronique sur les

Jeux Olympiques

En cette rentrée des classes, les vacances paraissent déjà bien loin… Avoir le temps pour se reposer, lire un roman d’aventure ou bien rêver devant sa télévision ! Comme tous les quatre ans, les Jeux Olympiques d’été nous font vibrer et nous rappellent l’existence de certains sports, que nous oublions de nouveau une fois l’été passé. Cette année, après un an de report, les Jeux Olympiques de Tokyo 2020 ont bien eu lieu… en 2021…

Si les métaphores sportives, les hyperboles sur les performances françaises et les débats sans fin sur la légitimité du softball ou du hockey sur gazon aux Jeux ne vous intéressent pas, votre été a dû être difficile. Si, comme moi, vous vibrez à chaque touche d’escrime, êtes émus devant la défaite du champion olympique en titre, retenez votre souffle lorsque l’athlète s’élance, fermez les yeux pour ne pas regarder si la barre tombe, voire même vous vous réveillez au milieu de la nuit pour regarder votre sport préféré, vous devez être aussi heureux que peu bronzé !

Tous les quatre ans, les Jeux Olympiques d’été font parler d’eux.

Cette année plus que jamais les débats ont été animés : rappels historiques, interviews d’anciens champions olympiques et de futurs olympiens, discussions sur les évolutions des Jeux, grands discours politiques sur les valeurs sportives et promesses en tout genre pour l’avenir du sport professionnel. En effet, journalistes, polémistes et politiques avaient une année de plus pour se préparer, et la crise du Covid

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-et les nombreuses interrogations qu’elle faisait planer- était un réservoir inépuisable de débats. Enfin, l’organisation des prochains Jeux à Paris (plus exactement en France) en 2024 ont enflammé les passionnés de sport.

Les Jeux Olympiques exaltent : événement sportif le plus suivi, rassemblant 11 000 athlètes répartis en 33 disciplines, canonisation des valeurs sportives : dépassement de soi, courage, détermination, solidarité… mais aussi participation comme le disait si bien le baron Pierre de Coubertin. Les Jeux procurent autant de fierté que de déception, d’espoir que de découragement. Pendant 15 jours ils sont partout : une des journaux, matinale des radios, directs télévisés, sujet de discussion en famille au dîner, ou au café du coin, tous partagent sur leurs stories insta ou snap les derniers résultats français, l’anecdote la plus drôle ou bien des encouragements pour tel ou tel sportif. En résumé, pendant deux semaines, les Jeux ne sont jamais très loin, malgré les 7 heures de décalage horaire et les presque 10 000 kilomètres qui nous séparent de Tokyo.

Depuis la clôture des Jeux, les athlètes français sont partout : à l’Élysée pour la remise de la légion d’honneur, à Monaco pour les Sport awards, sur les plateaux télés, dans les clubs sportifs...

Autant d’occasions pour les journalistes de rappeler les événements marquants de ces derniers Jeux Olymvpiques. Une occasion pour moi aussi de vous faire une sélection des meilleurs moments ou débats des Jeux. Sélection tout à fait subjective, non exhaustive et ouverte à

débats.

Romain none

SOLENNE RAVENEL

Can-

CHRONIQUEUSE

Qui dit Jeux Olympiques dit aussi belles surprises. Cette année la plus belle révélation pour les français on ne va pas se mentir, c’est bien Romain Cannone : le petit prodige de l’escrime.

Si personne ne connaissait son nom, il est aujourd’hui le D’Artagnan des Jeux ! Alors que les premières journées commençaient bien mal pour nos français : nombreuses déceptions, quelques médailles en judo, encore aucune en or.

Romain, alors qu’il était 47e mondial, alors qu’il avait été qualifié en tant que remplaçant, décroche la médaille d’or en épée individuel après avoir battu le 3e, le 2e et le 1er mondial en quart, demie et finale ! Celui qui n’avait alors pas encore de page wikipédia se retrouve sur le toit du sport français !

Premier médaillé d’or français, première révélation de ces Jeux !

Son style particulier, spectaculaire et joueur; charme le public non initié tout en n’oubliant pas la tradition en lançant son plus beau cri de victoire !

Simone Biles

La gymnaste quadruple médaillée d’or aux Jeux de Rio était attendue à Tokyo. Star mondiale de la gymnastique, figure d’émancipation des femmes, victime d’agressions sexuelles par le médecin de la fédération américaine de

gymnastique lors des Jeux de Rio, elle est l’une des principales témoin à charge lors du procès en 2018. Malgré les faits dont elle a été victime, elle fait preuve de courage et de détermination et continue la gymnastique. Pendant ces 5 dernières années ans, elle gagne toutes les compétitions, bat tous les records ! Première gymnaste mondiale, elle vient chercher les 6 médailles d’or lors des Jeux de Tokyo. Alors qu’elle domine les qualifications, elle s’effondre lors des finales par équipe : elle rate son « Amanar » (figure en saut de cheval où la gymnaste effectue 2 vrilles et demie) elle ne fait qu’une vrille et demie avant de se réceptionner. Après cet échec, elle abandonne la suite du concours par équipe et déclare forfait pour 4 des 5 finales dans lesquelles elle était qualifiée.

Que se passe-t-il ? Pourquoi la star de la gymnastique se retire comme cela des compétition ? Simon s’explique après la finale par équipe. Elle met en avant les difficultés psychologiques auxquelles elle fait face pour gérer la pression.

Cela impacte fortement ses performances gymniques, lors de son saut Simone a été victime de « twisties »: u n e perte de repère dans les airs. Les « twisties » sont des phénomènes extrêmement dangereux car n’ayant aucun repère dans l’espace, la gymnaste peut très mal se réceptionner. Simone a donc décidé de préserver sa santé mentale et physique au détriment des titres. Après la joueuse de tennis Naomi Osaka (elle avait décidé de se retirer du tournoi de Roland Garros pour préserver sa santé mentale), Simone Biles est la deuxième sportive à briser le tabou de la santé mentale et ouvre peut être la voie à une pratique du haut niveau plus respectueuse du sportif.

Simone Biles comptabilise

néanmoins 2 médailles : une d’argent par équipe, et une de bronze en poutre : seule finale dans laquelle elle concourait. Et montre encore sa grandeur

malgré son mètre 42 !

Le judo et Teddy Riner

Chaque Olympiade nous le montre, les français sont forts en judo. Cette année encore la délégation de judo était nombreuse et les ambitions importantes. Teddy était peut-être le plus attendu des Jeux. Double champion olympique, quintuple champion d’Europe, décuple champion du monde, invaincu depuis 2010. Son palmarès impressionne autant que sa carrure – 2,04 m pour 139 kg- ! Il paraissait invincible notre colosse français ! Et pourtant… en quart de finale tout s’effondre, la France doit faire le deuil de « l’invincible Teddy » et d’une nouvelle médaille d’or, qui nous paraissait acquise. Cette défaite comme pour nous rappeler que le sport est fait de surprises, de belles comme Romain Cannone, comme de plus douloureuses. Malgré sa défaite et la déception que l’on imagine immense pour lui, Teddy Riner va chercher une médaille de bronze, et nous montre sa détermination sans faille.

Et parce que le sport est aussi une histoire d’amitié, de fraternité et de solidarité, les judokas décrochent tous ensemble la plus belle médaille lors de la compétition mixte par équipe. Nos judokas français sont transcendés par la force du collectif, ils se dépassent pour battre les Japonais, -champions olympiques en titre- au Japon, dans le temple du judo !

tent des records ! Un doublé en or pour le

Les sports collectifs

Si le judo a pu mettre en exergue les valeurs du collectif pour décrocher sa 8e médaille, les équipes de France de sports co, nous ont aussi montré que « ensemble on va plus loin », et aux Jeux Olympiques, « ensemble on décroche des médailles ». Si les français ont eu l’habitude de vibrer avec l’équipe de foot lors des championnats du monde, les autres sports collectifs ont montré qu’ils pouvaient aussi brillé ! Voir même faire plus rêver que notre « meilleure attaque du monde » !

A Tokyo, les sports collectifs bat-

handball, réaliséseulement par l’URSS en 1976et la Yougoslavie en 1984.

Un triplé en finale pour les équipes masculines: basket, hand-ball et volley : première fois depuis l’URSS en 1988. Les basketteurs français battent, en match de poule, les américains, invaincus aux Jeux depuis 2004. Sans oublier les françaises en rugby à 7 qui accrochent la médaille d’argent, en s’inclinant face aux néo-zélandaises et les basketteuses qui remportent le bronze.

Plus que des records, les sports collectifs font battre des cœurs ! Notamment ceux devant leur télé lors des finales masculines de handball et de volley, qui ont lieu en même temps. Alors chacun suit avec deux écrans, divise son écran, zappe entre les deux chaînes, mais surtout retient son souffle, comme si les deux équipes s’étaient mises d’accord pour garder le suspens jusqu’à la fin. Les deux matchs suivent le même déroulé : débuts de matchs très maîtrisés, nos français perdent leur avance et gagnent sur le fil ! En basket, la fin est plus terne, malgré une magnifique médaille d’argent. Après une qualification en finale grâce à

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un contre magistral de Nicolas Batum sur le meilleur attaquant du monde à exactement 2,01 secondes de la fin, ils retrouvent les américains en finale et ne réussissent pas à réitérer leur exploit. Ils s’inclinent alors face à la team USA, sacrée championne olympique pour la 15e fois de son histoire. Les équipes féminines ont elles aussi rayonné ! Les rugbywomen à 7 marquent les esprits en s’imposant largement face aux canadiennes, vices championnes olympiques, alors que l’équipe masculine n’a pas été qualifiée aux Jeux. Les handballeuses prennent leur revanche face aux russes, après leur défaite face à cette même équipe en finale des Jeux de Rio, lors d’un match totalement maîtrisé. Et les basketteuses accrochent le bronze après s’être inclinées face aux Japonaises portées par la force de tout un pays !

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Évaluation des performanc-

es françaises

Après chaque Jeux, vient le temps de l’analyse, de l’évaluation. Si les Jeux se disent être un événement avant tout sportif et divertissant, les logiques de pouvoir, de politique internationale et d’influence ne sont jamais loin, notamment lorsque vous êtes le prochain pays hôte.

A Tokyo, la France remporte 33 médailles. Résultat plutôt éloigné des 42 médailles de Rio et de l’objectif affiché par la ministre des sports Roxana Maracineanu. Elle arrive néanmoins 8e dans le classement des pays, non loin de sa 7e place à Rio. Après ce constat général, il est nécessaire de détailler les réussites et les échecs de ces Olympiades.

Le judo se porte bien, les sports collectifs enflamment, l’escrime renaît, la natation continue sa noyade et l’athlétisme semble à bout de souffle.

Le judo reste fort, il est à Tokyo le plus gros pourvoyeur de médailles : 8. La France continue donc d’affirmer sa place importante dans le judo mondial (5 médailles lors des Jeux de Rio, 7 à Londres).

Les sports collectifs semblent aussi être sûrs de leur force. S’ils pouvaient rapporter autant de médailles que de joueurs, la France serait 1ere au classement par pays ! Sur huit équipes sélectionnées pour les Jeux, six remportent des médailles. L’équipe de basket 3x3 féminine finit 4eme, alors que l’équipe de football masculine est sortie en phase de poule. Quant à l’escrime, sport français par excellence, elle semble renaître après deux Olympiades compliquées (2016 et 2012) :elle remporte 5 médailles (2e pourvoyeur de médailles) et révèle la nouvelle pépite française : Romain Cannone.

De l’autre côté du tableau, la natation française confirme ses faiblesses.

Après n’avoir remporté que 3 médailles à Rio, elle rentre de Tokyo avec une seule médaille grâce au retour dans les bassins de Laurent Manaudou. L’athlétisme lui aussi est en difficulté, avec une médaille : l’argent pour Kévin Mayer en décathlon.

Si de nombreux espoirs sont déçus, notamment pour Renaud Lavillenie en saut à

la perche, la question demeure : difficultés circonstancielles (nombreuses blessures, report des jeux), problème de fond sur la pratique sportive ou simple saut de génération ?

De l’inutilité de certains sports

Tous les quatre ans, les Jeux sont une vitrine de choix pour la médiatisation de nombreux sports. J’ai ainsi pu parler de l’escrime, que nous ne regardons seulement lors des Jeux, mais aussi de l’équitation ou de la gymnastique qui restent des sports très olympiques. Cependant la présence de certains sports questionne de plus en plus. Ainsi la présence du football et du tennis n’est que superflue. En effet ces deux sports possèdent une vitrine médiatique déjà bien établie et des récompenses sportives renommées : grand chelem en tennis par exemple. De plus, la composition des équipes de football montre bien le désintérêt des États, des fédérations et des sportifs pour le football olympique. Rares sont les participants à aligner leurs stars nationales dans une équipe olympique, phénomène renforcé cette année par l’Euro de foot, privilégié par les équipes européennes. Le Comité olympique oblige aussi les équipes à sélectionner des joueurs de moins de 23 ans, à l’exception de trois.

Si le premier objectif des Jeux n’est pas le spectacle, de nombreux sports sont très peu télévisuels et donc très peu suivis.

Ils pourraient aussi disparaître. Je pense au golf : sport lent, qui malgré un paysage bucolique est difficile à retransmettre à la télévision. Mais aussi au tir à la carabine : le paysage est alors très peu télévisuel, les cibles envoyées n’ont le temps d’être vues qu’elles sont directement abattues, de plus il soulève la question de la présence de sports armés au Jeux. Sont-ils compatibles avec les valeurs olympiques ?

Évaluation des nouveaux sports

Si les sports précédemment cités ne sont pas encore effacés de la liste des sports olympiques, le comité international olympique (CIO) cherche cependant à se renouveler, à se réinventer. De nouveaux sports ou de nouvelles épreuves font leur apparition à chaque Olympiade. Les Jeux de Tokyo ont montré une volonté du CIO de se rapprocher des jeunes et confirment l’importance de la vitrine olympique. A Tokyo l’escalade, le surf, le skateboard, le BMX freestyle, le karaté, le baseball, et le basket 3x3 ont fait leur apparition ainsi que de nombreuses épreuves mixtes : relais mixte en athlétisme, triathlon par équipe, judo mixte par équipe. Si certains sports seront toujours présents à Paris, comme l’escalade ou le surf, dont l’épreuve aura lieu sur une des plus belles vagues du monde : Tehupo’o à Tahiti ; d’autres comme le baseball ou

le karaté n’ont pas été retenus pour les Jeux de Paris.

Que retenir de ces premières épreuves olympiques ? Si ces nouveaux sports ont dans l’ensemble été bien perçus par le public, les français n’ont eu que peu d’intérêt pour le baseball (aucune équipe française) et le surf a plutôt déçu : les français engagés ont été en difficulté, la vague choisie rendait le spectacle peu impressionnant et les règles restaient vagues pour les non initiés. Cependant les sports dit « street sport » ont séduit et seront complétés à Paris par le breakdance.

Le karaté a quant à lui déchaîné la chronique : ce dernier n’est pas retenu pour Paris alors que le français Steven Da Costa remporte l’or. Il est donc le premier et le dernier champion olympique de karaté. Steven Da Costa pourra aussi ajouter à son CV portedrapeau de la délégation française lors de la cérémonie de clôture des Jeux de

Tokyo, maigre consolation pour celui qui ne pourra assister aux Jeux de Paris que depuis son canapé.

Les Jeux de Tokyo clôturés, il ne nous reste que nos souvenirs, comme cette liste de mes moments phares de cet été. Nos souvenirs qui, tous différents, se réunissent autour de dates, de lieux, de performances, de sportifs et d’émotions. Il nous reste aussi notre passion pour le sport et nos espoirs pour Paris 2024, qui exceptionnellement arrive dans trois ans. Plus que troisans avant de redécouvrir l’escrime, avant d’essayer de comprendre de nouveau le pentathlon moderne, avant de crier pour soutenir son équipe préférée, retenir son souffle, ou encore chanter la Marseillaise après chaque victoire ! ■

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A Millennium Apart:

KAREENA MANIYAR

COLUMNIST

The Romantics of

“I felt the sting of her contempt before her hand was lifted. ‘No such land exists. Put an end to this.’ I stumbled backwards through the millennia, landing where the heat of the fire began. A hand wrapped around my neck and dragged me into the glowing embers. There was a burst of light before I rose to the sky. I burst through a singular cloud and faced the sun. Kneeling, I tried mouthing the words before the Earth could swallow me whole.”

When I was 9, I met a girl named Payal Mistry. We were both Gujarati, yet Payal was neither Muslim nor Hindu like the bulk of us. I asked her what it was she believed in. “Zoroastrianism,” mumbled Payal, very quickly, tripping over the word as she said it. Only later in my life did I learn that Payal was in fact Parsi, not Gujarati, even though she and I spoke the same language and had parents from the same place.

astrian community’s past of persecution and instead situating it in a new modernism through the possibility of a pluralistic Iran.

A man made by the Parsis of Bombay and their reformist Zoroastrianism, he sought to express himself “in the Persian language without Arabic,” or as he would prefer it called, “Parsi.” Ironically, it is the language he wished to preserve, but the faith he wished to transform: the converse of the Parsis back in Gujarat.

Yet the preservation of ‘Parsi’ would depend on the reactionary, The Parsis were Persians who fled to Gujarat, escaping religious neoclassical revival of pre-Islamic identity, “that the Arabic lanpersecution in the 7th century. They remain notable as a com- guage, and Arab-Islamic civilization more broadly, represents munity that integrated-- rather than assimilated-- into the In- an external intrusion into a now sullied Iranian purity.” In spite dian civilisation, practising endogamy and holding on to their of his eventual alleged murder by the Shah Reza, Shahrokh had pre-Islamic Zoroastrian traditions. become the catalyst of the ongoing Yet Farsi remains elusive for them It was their faith that set Persian nationalist movement. today, having long exchanged it for them apart from the rest of a Persianised Gujarati. Thirteen Before Shahrokh’s untimely death, India, noticeable wherever centuries after, what did not elude it was the loss of Dinshah Irani that many of them was the possibility was mourned in 1938. Being nations they went as ‘Parsis.’ of national pre-Islamic rebirth, but apart from the latter did not stop the in Iran instead of India. Pre-Islamic Iran and its classical Persian Iranian Zoroastrians from mourning. Bounded by a common poets were the artistic ancestors of Zoroastrian metaphysics, this Persiophilia, Irani was part of a reawakening in the Parsis of an was where the faith they were stubbornly loyal to came from. It (apparent) nation lost, a nation to be revived after the 1905 Conwas their faith that set them apart from the rest of India, notice- stitutional Revolution in Iran. Notably, his push for reviving the able wherever they went as ‘Parsis.’ What else could they desire use of Persian in the face of the long-maintained adoption of more than its reunification with its birthplace?

Gujarati and English reflected the romantic spirit of the broader Persophilia that had emerged -- namely that their community’s We begin this tale of rebirth with the death of Zoroastrian re- identity was to be interrogated and revived in the face of linguisformer and politician Kaykhosrow Shahrokh in 1940, whose tic assimilation. nation-building project spanned decades of rescuing the Zoro-

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Indo-Iranian Neoclassicism “The great Parsi Orientalist was trying to bequeath to the younger generation the fire which burned in his old heart. . . . I will never forget the sight nor the zeal of that veteran scholar. My love for the study of the Gathas took its birth that day.”

A 1922 autobiographical fragment from Dinshah Irani

“Zoroaster’s use of the Avestan form of the Old Persian language—as in the Gathas—is identified by Irani as the original mode of spiritual-poetic expression” Marashi explicating how Irani’vs worship of the language of Persian antiquity, a neoclassical preference, reflects a romantic sentimentality.

This push for an inward turn in communal self-reflection and a return to traditional bounds depended on his love for scripture, not just to be worshipped as an object but to be venerated as a source of self-knowledge. As a result, his writings on Zoroastrianism, written not in Gujarati but Persian, found an audience in Iran in the 1930s, now inflamed by the passions of Persian nationalism.

Here we find an odd marriage between a preference for the neoclassical pre-Islamic construction of Iran and the romantic impulses that guided both Shahrokh and Irani, whose turn to self-reflection was triggered by a rejection of the more contemporary, islamic Iranian society. Temporal boundaries blurring, their romanticization of pre-Islamic possibilities dreamed of a post-Islamic Iran. Nonetheless, it is rationalisation of these impulses through linguistic revival and scriptural appreciation that tempers their romanticism.

“And if . . . Iran is keen to know her past, why should she not do so? Why should she not yearn to revive in herself that which made her once so glorious . . . and if the Parsis assist her in doing so, they serve their dear old motherland, and a cause approvable before God and Goodness . . . no amount of difficulty or opposition shall deter them from that cause and effort.”

Sohrab Bulsara writing in the Bombay-based Iran League Quarterly to justify Parsi involvement in Iran. ■ (1) Afshin Marashi. Exile and the Nation : The Parsi Community of India and the Making of Modern Iran.

Austin, University Of Texas Press, 2020.

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Gauging the Presence of Dyslexia in Other Languages: An Investigation into the Arab world

DYSLEXIA

AVA GORDON

COLUMNIST

Introduction Originally, this was supposed to be a piece of research motivated by my observations of the Arabic language as I was introduced to it during my first year at SciencesPo. As someone who had never studied Arabic before, the largest obstacle I found myself encountering was the orthography of the language itself; more often than not, I would end up erasing words I had attempted to write after misplacing the two dots above the letters and not below, or getting scolded by the teacher for mispronouncing a word after confusing the letter with one dot above it with the letter that had two dots. Though I am not a native speaker, I began to wonder if children in Arabic-speaking countries struggled with the orthography as well, and eventually I pondered: Do Arabic-speaking countries have a high rate of dyslexia? As I started to conduct my research for this article however, I realized that there were a startling number of articles concerning the absence of research conducted in regards to the prevalence of dyslexia in the Arab world, and only recently have there been a handful of studies attempting to gauge the frequency of dyslexia in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region. At this point, I decided to rotate the focus of this article from trying to prove that there is a high frequency of dyslexia in

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Arabic-speaking countries to conducting an exploration into the reasons for this scarcity of dyslexia research.

What is Dyslexia & How Does it Differ Between Languages?

Surprisingly (or not), there is a significant amount of debate surrounding what dyslexia is. There is the general consensus that dyslexia impares the ability to accurately recognize words (reading) and / or accurately decode words (spelling); however, there are varying ideas concerning what types of dyslexia exist and how they manifest. For the purposes of this article, I am going to use the definition of dyslexia that is most widely accepted and discuss the types of dyslexia that, in my research, have been referenced the most when conducting studies on the presence of dyslexia in the Arabic language. To clarify before continuing, dyslexia is not a reflection of the intelligence of a person.

With this being said, the International Dyslexia Association defines dyslexia as “A specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and / or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities” (IDA, 2002). As for the different types of dyslexia, I will focus attention on two kinds: dysphonetic and dyseidetic. Dysphonetic dyslexia is where a reader is able to read words they already

know by sight but have strong difficulty sounding out unfamiliar words. Dyseidetic dyslexia is where the person is successful in being able to sound out both familiar and unfamiliar words but has difficulty sight reading (Al-ghizzi, 49). Both of these forms of dyslexia will become more relevant later on.

In order to understand dyslexia, we must understand how language itself functions.

There are two types of classifications that linguists use for the orthography of a language: transparent orthography and opaque orthography. Languages that have a more transparent orthography have a very clear relationship between the written letters and the spoken sounds. In short, these languages tend to be very phonetic. Languages with an opaque orthography are the opposite: the written letters do not always correspond to the sound they’re supposed to make.

The best example of an opaque orthography

ARTWORK BY ELIANA SEROUSSI

would be the English alphabet. Arabic is complex; when short vowels are written in, the orthography is much more transparent. However, when short vowels are lacking, the language can become more opaque, unless the reader has memorized the relationship between the word on paper and the sound it makes when spoken (Elbeheri, Gad, et al., 144).

Now, it is important to discuss a significant question being asked by scholars: does dyslexia and its symptoms vary by language? The answer is a bit complicated. In a study done in 2001, the brain activity of English-, French-, and Italian-speaking participants with dyslexia was recorded while the participants read a text; afterwards, the scans were compared. This study revealed that the underlying brain activity of dyslexic persons is extremely similar across the board; however, the Italian-speakers had higher reading accuracy than

the English- andFrench-speakers, alluding to a linguistic factor that also plays a role in how dyslexia manifests in any given language (Elbeheri, Gad, et al., 144).

into Arabic. This method of diagnosing dyslexia is flawed as it does not account for differences in how dyslexia manifests itself in the Arabic language (Elbeheri, Gad, et al., 146).

Dyslexia Research in the Arab World

Where Do We Go From Here?

As mentioned previously, Arabic is a difficult language to assess for dyslexia frequency due to neither possessing a definitive, transparent orthography or a definitive, opaque orthography. However, assessment of dyslexia in Arabic is not the main concern at the moment; currently, there is a huge lack of data in the Arab world overall concerning dyslexia. One reason for this lack is that dyslexia is simply not acknowledged at the moment as a pressing learning difficulty. Secondly, dyslexia research and awareness is still a largely Western phenomenon, pushed in part by the global dominance of the English language: a language with an opaque orthography. In the Arab world currently, Gulf countries are spearheading dyslexia awareness, for example, through the Kuwait Dyslexia Association. A significant amount of expats from the West live in these countries and have imported concepts surrounding special needs when it comes to learning, such as accommodations for students with dyslexia. However, there is a drawback to the Western importation of dyslexia research, awareness, and knowledge: when it comes to testing an Arabic-speaking child for dyslexia, nearly every test has been introduced from the West, and so rather than having an Arabic-specific dyslexia exam, the test is merely translated from English

Currently, the idea that dyslexia can manifest across languages and orthographies is still a relatively new concept. In the MENA region, studies of Arabic dyslexia in primary school-aged children are published from time to time, but there is not enough collective data to make any sweeping generalizations or conclusions.

Hopefully within the next decade, we will see the advancement of multi-language dyslexia studies and more research specific to the Arabic language. ■

Works Cited Al-ghizzi, Talal Musaed. “Dyslexia in the Arab World.” International Journal of Language and Literature, vol. 3, no. 2, 2015, https://doi. org/10.15640/ijll.v3n2a7.

“Definition of Dyslexia.” International Dyslexia Association, 16 July 2018, https://dyslexiaida.org/ definition-of-dyslexia/.

Elbeheri, Gad, et al. “Dyslexia Assessment in Arabic.” Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, vol. 6, no. 3, 2006, pp. 143–152., https:// doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-3802.2006.00072.x.

ARTWORK BY VANESSA LOLOMARI

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The fourth political theorY For Left Populism?

It is neither refreshing nor even remotely new to bring to attention the rise of right-wing nationalism across the world in the second decade of the 21st century. In fact, it has become such an empty-shell cliché to use the phrase “in the time of the rise of populism in Europe” that everyone has stopped recognizing the historical significance of this process.

The ‘high right-wing tide’ has been habitually considered as an anomaly, a swing in the voters’ or interest groups’ political mood. Meanwhile, it is important to view it as a rise of a new competing ideology, or rather the ‘return of ideology.’ Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, an important actor in my narrative, calls it a ‘fourth political theory,’ after feudalism, capitalism, and communism. In this article, I will deconstruct that pretense, and determine whether such a stance is justifiable.

One of the immediate reasons for which I decided to write this article was the rise to great prominence of yet another alt-right ideologue: Éric Zemmour. Although he has been one of the leading opinion-makers in France for some years now, his highly likely presidential bid calls for further scrutiny of recurring patterns in views and statements of alt-right politicians, to show that Zemmour’s philosophical basis is an amalgam of stances displayed by the modern right in the past years. Zemmour differs vastly from Marine Le Pen. She has been born into the political establishment.

Zemmour, on the other hand, can convincingly make the hate for elites one of the main points of his platform. This is one of the key reasons for which the left-right divide in recent years has not been much more than a rhetorical tool.

It has been abolished by class dealignment, the migration of the working class to political movements who do not explicitly represent them, but attract them with a common enemy, whose exploits and success became unbearable – the 1%.

Zemmour, throughout his book “French Suicide,” propagates the idea of déclinisme: a conviction that the European, particularly French traditionalist values are facing an existential threat. Such a claim can be effortlessly put into a broader context of right-wing calls for reinvigoration and rebuilding of the nation – notice how pessimistic of a campaign slogan MAGA is.

The statements about Judeo-Christian civilization being in decline are frequently uttered by Steve Bannon, who can be labeled as an international alt-right superstar.

Bannon embodies the paradox of this modern right.

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STANISLAW NAKLICKI

COLUMNIST

ON BEHALF OF

PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

Despite his staunchly nationalist, anti-egalitarian views, he ceaselessly traveled the world to create an ‘altright internationale’ of sorts. This apparent contradiction of hardcore nationalist ideas and swift international cooperation only proves the advancement of the new right, which realized that in a globalized world, separating national and international interests turns out to be impossible.

This apparent contradiction of “hardcore nationalist ideas and swift international cooperation only proves the advancement of the new right

”

“We live in postmodern times,” says “Dugin, and there is no absolute truth.

Each nation has its own truth. ”

In Dugin’s thought, brutal national hatred is, at least on the surface, substituted by a reflection on the metaphysical differences between the nations. “There is no hierarchy between the nations,” he claimed, “but each nation has a different collective spirit,” and these differences, instead of being forcefully erased, should be embraced. The simplest proof that Zemmour abides by the same metaphysics is right in the title of his book: “French Suicide” denotes the death of the French collective spirit.

This Hegelian-sounding view of nationalism is in an interesting relationship with Dugin’s perception of truth, on the example of which it can be observed how much the alt-right differs from conservatism. “We live in postmodern times,” says Dugin, and there is no absolute truth. Each nation has its own truth. What is commonly perceived as true depends on who holds the cultural hegemony. As much as, on the level of news reports, these claims might be absurd, it becomes more difficult to refute them when talking about abstract concepts such as democracy. Dugin’s stance is essentially a refurbished version of cultural relativism. According to Dugin, cultural hegemony is held by the United States and the liberal democratic order. Russian truth, for example, is oppressed, concealed. Russia riots against it, in what one could consider to be a rebellion against liberal democracy as the final ideology in general. Again, Dugin’s view of truth is shared in the international context, and it is demonstrated by the construction of political platforms on conspiracy theories.

The truth is not absolute, it is concealed and has to be found. In the instance of Zemmour, it is his endorsement for the R. Camus’ Great Replacement theory, which claims that the indigenous population of Europe is being replaced in a planned manner by a migrant population. This repulsive idea is supported by a shocking quarter of the French. Similarly, the QAnon conspiracy theory, believed in by millions of Americans, proposes an alternative vision of the country’s politics, pretending to be ‘military knowledge’ from a direct environment of the executive power. What these theories share in common is the riot against pillars of liberal democracy as an ideology: the bipartisan establishment in the USA and multiculturalism in France, followed by a search for an alternative truth.

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Populist Moment] opens up a possibility “for[The the return of popular left politics, what Chantal Mouffe calls ‘Left populism.’ ”

By this point, a vision of the new right as a quite coordinated and programmatic movement is established.

Even though Biden’s victory in 2020 might have been read by some as the beginning of the end of the right’s resurgence, it is a mistake to disregard the international victorious run of alt-right in the 2010s as a mere anomaly; the modern right can do politics better than the left, and this has resulted in a permanent move of the discourse to the right in numerous European countries. Just think of Macron using the Islamo-gauchisme rhetoric. By the means of channels such as Fox News in the USA and CNews in France, the right has overtaken the media discourse.

I would not be quick to say that it ‘degenerated’ the discourse. Rather, I would say that it has evolved, becoming centered more around the affective side of politics, the opinion, the emotion. The right’s media message has had far more appeal than the traditional media outlets, and so they dominated the discourse by making other platforms copy their aggressive and emotional style.

of liberal democracy. But per Mouffe, it is not simply a crisis that should be resolved to return to the status quo.

The technocratic, centrist politics of the last 30 years have found themselves in a crisis, also because they have failed to recognize the superior power of emotion over rationality. An intricate and comprehensive political program, or narrative, is not an advantage anymore. A program that is going to be slightly contradictory, but will stimulate multiple affects and speak to the so-called ‘common sense’ is likely to be more efficient. That is why the apperently contradictory subscription to both ‘Christian hospitality’ and xenophobic policies by rightist parties in Europe is actually politically potent. For now, the populist moment is better used by the religious-nationalist populists. But this weakening of the present cultural hegemony also opens up a space for using this irrationalist, popular strategy for emancipatory politics. That is, on a condition that the left will become popular, not clinched in theoretical arguments, and not divided over which emancipation is a priority. Without passing a judgement on whether it Even if it is not the dawn of Fourth Political Theory, it is a danger or an opportunity, let me point to the recent is at least what Chantal Mouffe calls ‘The Populist Mo- debate between Zemmour and Melenchon as a sign that ment,’ which indeed threatens the ideological hegemony new, exciting times for political theory are coming.•

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Un message pour la Ummah , and Some Scattered Thoughts

(May 2021) I have been wanting to write an article about Menton. Le Zadig’s team has asked us time and time again to submit our articles, but I kept on pushing back because putting into words the scrambled yet strong feelings about our campus, our ummah, and the experiences we have here is a struggle. It’s a struggle because it is an admittance that for all the 2As, our time here is over.

NOUR ALJOWAILY

GUEST COLUMNIST

We first arrived in Menton to a campus with a strong spirit but one that was challenged.

Challenged by an understaffed administration, geographic isolation, changing demographics and social cohesion, and a sometimes-under-motivated student body. From 2005 onwards, the community built in “La Perle de la France” by this small cohort of Sciences Po students has cultivated traditions and a heritage. These have been in many ways maintained over time against all odds, as at all times there are at most only two generations on the campus, freshmen and seniors, 1As and 2As. Yet somehow, within nine months we are able to transmit the culture that has been produced by the diverse and special group of people that have passed through the gates of 11 Place St. Julien. However, in the spring of 2020, this process was interrupted by a global pandemic which sent a challenged cohort into further disarray. Our time in Menton was cut short for many, and others stayed isolated in our little town, unable to continue to lead their Mentonese life.

What is the essence of the Menton spirit? If someone were to ask me that question, I would likely respond in quite idyllic terms of how I would like it to be: a community of engaged students, dedicated and respecting their studies

PHOTOS BY GUY LEBEGUE AND CREATIVE COMMONS

of the Middle East and the Arab World as a whole; a group of people that are leading many initiatives, with associations that work to educate, involve, and fuse the campus together while also reaching out to the people in our little town, and around the world; adventurous kids that like to get to know each other deeply and indiscriminately of their tracks or languages spoken, all while partying hard together and leading a fun lifestyle that may or may not lead to some cranky old people to snap at them in the old town. It is one part of a larger university that competes for glory every year to beat the other campuses showing our strength and unity at Minicrit, while still banding together against the other IEPs at the Crit. Off the top of my head, these are the unique traits that I perceive Menton to have.

Many of these traits have survived the pandemic, yet many have struggled to keep up through this horrific crisis we have had to face. The lack of face-to-face interactions, restrictions on meeting up as associations, friends, or as a campus have made the spirit of the campus waver.

Shallow cultural clashes are also threatening our campus.

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The inability for some to understand the other and see them beyond their political views or nationality or skin color has left people unable to sit down together and have genuine discussions, instead relying on angry rants and ‘debates’ on social media. On top of all this, as mentioned above, the administration has been so unreliable, and it always has been, but the change in director and administrative staff along with the repercussions of the pandemic have made the situation more dire. Even through these tumultuous times, we are still here, and we have (hopefully) gotten through our final exams and finished our year.

So how do we move on from here? Well for us 2As, it mostly does not matter. We are leaving and if we choose to, we may never return to Menton again. Nonetheless, as Benedict Durand reminded us of when she visited campus a few weeks ago: on our campus’ 10th anniversary, Menton had a turnout of alumni unseen in any other campus. The attachment one develops to this little slice of the Riviera and the old Hospital that houses our campus is powerful. In this vein, I would like to leave a few hopes and suggestions of mine to be read or dismissed by anyone who is reading through this.

Explore yourself, break down your perception of yourself and let these two years rebuild who you are for the better.

Be engaged in the student life of our campus, in order to create a professional yet fun associative community able to create unique events and opportunities for each other and for our surroundings. Write that Le Zadig article in Arabic, apply to be a researcher for Babel, and organize that Eid iftar. Be engaged in classes, as much as we sometimes underestimate our classes, there is a lot to learn from most of them, and the professors’ expertise can be put to great use. Be engaged with the campus culture, learn and understand the overarching values, learn the chants and dissect them if you’d like, dig deeper into the ecosystem of the Menton experience. Be engaged with Sciences Po as an institution, stay updated on the student syndicate elections, the opportunities made available by the Sciences Po Carrières office, meet the local and Parisian admin members when they come and voice your concerns and suggestions to them.

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Explore yourself, break down your perception of yourself and of your identity and let these two years rebuild who you are for the better. Explore your roots, any that you may have and embrace them, whether it’s reconnecting with your country of origin as an immigrant, or with your local foods from your grandparents’ village in the southwest of France. Explore the community we have, seek out new friends all the time, grab a coffee with someone you have never spoken to. Explore the local area and surroundings, do not let the stress of classes make you miss out on the adventure of discovering every hike nearby, every beach near Menton, and each town throughout the Riviera from Menton to Nice and all the way to Marseille.

Go beyond that, explore neighboring countries, and fly out to the Arab and MENA countries just across the sea to experience the region you study.

Share the experiences you will be having during your time in Menton with your peers, when you’re engaged or exploring, and make sure to include the widest array of people from campus with you. Share your culture with them, your life story, your favorite food: this is the best way for us to keep the campus rich and diverse and find ways to better understand ourselves and each other. Share your little old town apartment by inviting new and different people into your abode for drinks during apéro or food for iftar or to watch a Turkish movie you like. Share your language with others and help them learn it or see the similarities between all of them. Share your time among association events and take part in them, from interacting with the speakers that are invited to following the clues to the latest treasure hunt that’s been organized.

Within this threefold fractured advice, I can most likely find pieces of my experience in Menton. These words reflect my favorite moments, my hopes, and my regrets during the time I have had from MDL to Soundproof.

Some of the moments I enjoyed most are the spur of the moment meet-ups on Sablettes, where I would get to have deep chats with people I did not know well. I also strived to visit as many of the villages along the TER train line and above the mountains surrounding Menton, while still feeling like I never truly saw or did enough. I have been a part of a handful of associations on campus and experienced some of my most interesting and fun times during their meetings or events, while always feeling like I did not put enough work in to make them thrive as much as they could. Long or deep talks with people have led to me breaking down the way I view myself as well as the way I perceive others. One lecture has led to me thinking all day about a new piece of knowledge or a new analytical lens to view a phenomenon from.

With the year now essentially over, we can look ahead.

For my fellow 2As and I, we look to new beginnings in far away or nearby places. When I will be arriving in New York at the end of this summer, others will be landing in new cities around the globe. Meanwhile, all you 1As will be back here for a second and final year. For the future of this campus, I can only hope that the challenges that we have faced together over this past year will be overcome. With the world hopefully entering a post-COVID time, the ummah can reconnect and blow life back into this campus, and maybe the ideas I highlighted above may help with that. In any case, with a more stable admin team, maybe they will be more responsive, responsible, and stimulate this campus alongside the students.

My experience over these final weeks of the year has left me with an abundant amount of hope, as the beauty and uniqueness of the Menton experience seems to always shine through.

With this I can conclude the scrambled words I wanted to spill out to the world, they definitely are not a complete package that includes all my emotions, lessons, or hopes for and from Menton.

However, it consists of a nice little amalgamation of thoughts from someone who has likely gotten too attached to this town, its people, and the experience it has provided us with. In a nutshell, cherish this, all of it, and to those who, like me, are leaving already, move forward with a strong memory of the community and the place that we have lived in for the past 24 months or so.

My experience over these final weeks has left me with an abundant amount of hope, as the beauty and uniqueness of the Menton experience seems to always shine through.

PHOTOS BY ZEYNEL CEBECI, BERNARD GAGNON, MARTIN ARGYROGLO

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Connaissez-vous Soliman le magnifique?

YACINE GHEDAS

CHRONIQUEUR

Soliman Ier, dit Soliman le Magnifique en Occident et le Législateur en Orient, est le plus célèbre sultan ottoman. Son règne (1520-1566) est considéré comme l’apogée de l’Empire ottoman, aussi bien dans le domaine territorial que dans celui de l’influence politique et du rayonnement artistique et intellectuel.

Jeunesse

Soliman est né en 1494 à Trébizonde, située dans l’actuelle Turquie. Il est le fils de la sultane Ayse Hafsa et du sultan Sélim. À l’âge de sept ans, il fut envoyé à l’école du palais de Topkapi à Constantinople pour y parfaire sa formation. Nommé à 17 ans, gouverneur de Kefe (Crimée) puis de Manisa (Turquie).

Il devient le 10ème sultan ottoman à la mort de son père Selim Ier en 1520.

Soliman le conquérant

Admirateur d’Alexandre le Grand, il se lance dans de grandes campagnes militaires pour étendre l’Empire ottoman. En effet, C’est sous son règne que l’Empire atteint sa plus grande extension territoriale. Il comptait plus de trente millions d’habitants d’origines et de confessions très diverses.

Sa première campagne en Europe lui permet de conquérir la Serbie en 1521, l’île de Rhodes l’année suivante, puis la Hongrie en 1526. En Orient aussi, il rencontre un succès militaire en prenant tour à tour, l’Azerbaïdjan en 1533, l’Irak en 1534 et le Yémen en 1538. Il consolide aussi les conquêtes paternelles en réprimant les révoltes de Syrie (1521) et d’Égypte (1524) et signe en 1555 un traité de paix avec son grand ennemi de toujours le Shah d’Iran. De plus, l’activité des corsaires turcs et l’efficacité de la flotte ottomane lui ont permis de chasser les Vénitiens de la Méditerranée et de placer la Tripolitaine, l’Algérie et la Tunisie sous suzeraineté ottomane.

En 1529, et avec 16 000 hommes, il tente d’assiéger Vienne, capitale de l’Empire autrichien. Ce grand siège a fait trembler l’Europe entière. Cependant, la résistance des vingt mille sol-

dats protégeant Vienne et le mauvais temps ont eu

raison de sa détermination et il a dû abandonner le siège.

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Soliman, le mécène de l’art

L’empire ottoman connaît aussi sous son règne une grande effervescence artistique, dont témoignent les réalisations du célèbre architecte Sinan comme la Süleymaniye . La peinture aussi se développe avec de grands peintres qui représentent des scènes de cour ou de chasse très inspirées de l’art iranien. De plus, le siècle de Soliman est l’âge d’or de la littérature et de la poésie ottomane.

Soliman le Législateur

Soliman entreprit plusieurs réformes au sein de son empire.

Ces réformes touchent plusieurs domaines : la réorganisation administrative qui permet d’améliorer la gestion des provinces, l’économie, les finances qui sont prospères, notamment grâce au commerce de la soie et des épices… De plus, il s’attacha à assurer la sécurité et le bien-être de ses sujets et surtout à protéger ses sujets chrétiens et juifs qui conservent toute liberté religieuse et professionnelle.

Soliman et la famille

Soliman a eu plusieurs épouses et suivant la tradition ottomane, il entretenait également un harem. En 1530, il épousa sa favorite Roxelane, esclave affranchie d’origine ukrainienne. C’est sa femme la plus connue. Il est le père de 8 enfants de plusieurs femmes mais on parle principalement de ses deux fils : Mustafa, l’aîné et Sélim, le fils de Roxelane. Bien que Mustafa fût l’ainé, c’est Sélim qui lui succéda après l’assassinat de son frère, sans doute commandité par Roxelane.

La fin d’un long règne

Le 7 septembre 1566, il décède dans sa tente lors du siège de Szigetvar en Hongrie, affaibli par les longs voyages. Son fils Selim lui succède. Ce dernier sera surnommé l’Ivrogne. Autant dire qu’il n’aura rien des qualités de son père...

Sources (1) https://www.herodote.net/Soliman_le_Magnifique_1495_1566_-synthese-506.php (2) https://fr.vikidia.org/wiki/Soliman_le_Magnifique (3) http://www.grandirmusulman.com/2018/05/soliman-le-magnifique-9.html (4) https://www.linternaute.fr/actualite/biographie/1776160-soliman-le-magnifique-biographie-courte-dates-citations/ (5) https://www.lesclesdumoyenorient.com/Soliman-Ier-1494-1566.html (6) https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soliman_le_Magnifique#D%C3%A9c%C3%A8s_et_succession

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Une petite histoi

AZRA ERSEVIK

CHRONIQUEUSE INVITÉE

AU NOM DE

COMPRENDRE LA MAFIA

En 2012, lors d’un voyage ministériel en Corse à la suite d’une vague d’assassinats, Manuel Valls avait prononcé le mot de « mafia » … Il était alors possible de se demander s’il y a réellement une mafia en France ? Ce terme à la sémantique particulière s’applique-t-il au grand banditisme insulaire ? N’existe-t-il pas aussi une part de fantasme dès lors qu’on parle de « mafia » ? Le terme de « mafia » n’est pas une notion juridique en France. Le Code pénal français, à la différence de l’italien, ne connaît en effet que le délit d’associations de malfaiteurs qui, si elles commettent des infractions d’une particulière gravité, peuvent être qualifiées de « bandes organisées ».

françaises. C’est l’Histoire de cette relation dangereuse dont on parlera dans cet article.

Dans les années 30, une alliance émerge à Marseille : l’alliance entre Paul Carbone et François Spirito. L’ascension de Carbone et Spirito est vertigineuse, ils ont sous leurs ordres une armée de nervis, gérants de bars autour du quartier de l’Opéra, des maisons closes dans le Panier, des contacts en Asie au Proche-Orient et en Amérique où commence à se structurer la mafia sicilio-américaine. Évidemment, une telle influence n’est pas possible sans une protection politique. En effet, l’homme politique socialiste Simon Sabiani a rencontré Carbone sur le champ de bataille de la Grande Guerre.

Une nouvelle amitié est née mais aussi une alliance politique parce que Sabiani avait besoin d’hommes de main afin de s’imposer à Marseille. La promesse de Sabiani dans le deal entre Carbone-Spirito et Sabiani était que s’il gagne, il ouvrait le bureau d’embauche de la mairie de Marseille aux hommes de Carbone et Spirito. En ce sens on voit apparaître dans la mairie de Marseille des dizaines et des dizaines être la tête des pompiers, de la piscine municipale, etc.

“Le pouvoir mafieux est fondé sur l’accumulaDans l’imaginaire collectif, la mafia existe seulement dans les tion de capitaux et leur contrées isolées d’Italie du Sud. En effet, en 2021, d’après l’asso- emploi à la manière de ciation “Comprendre la mafia”, l’entreprise.”

11,5% des mentonnais ne croient pas en la présence de la mafia en France. Pourtant, la mafia en France existe bel et bien. Elle a une histoire qui lui est propre, un impact aussi bien politique que social, économique et géopolitique. La mafia nous fascine autant qu’elle nous terrifie. À travers cet article, nous vous invitons à comprendre le phénomène mafieux, avec ses parrains, ses complots, ses secrets... en France.

Avant toute chose, nous devons définir la mafia. En effet, la clé de compréhension de la pieuvre mafieuse se situe dans sa définition. La mafia est, d’après Fabrice Rizzoli, un sujet politique qui exerce une souveraineté par l’usage de la violence. Le pouvoir mafieux est fondé sur l’accumulation de capitaux et leur emploi à la manière de l’entreprise. La mafia bénéficie d’un consensus social et possède une dimension politique qui la rend indispensable pour une frange des gouvernants.

De Naples à Chicago, d’Istanbul à Marseille le phénomène mafieux prospère dans la clandestinité et pénètrent tous les lieux de pouvoirs. Une des mafias la plus puissante et pourtant la moins connue du monde étend sa toile dans tous les continents : c’est la mafia en France. La mafia française n’a pu exister et se développer qu’avec la complicité des classes dirigeantes

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PAUL CARBONE ET FRANCOIS SPIRITO

ire du crime

organisé en France Quand en 1935, le Front Populaire fait basculer la majorité et que Henri Tasso s’allie aux frères Guérini, ce sont eux qui ont la carte de l’embauche. On se retrouve à la fin des années 30 avec des centaines d’hommes payés par la mairie alors qu’ils sont des proxénètes et des délinquants. Nous avons donc un système qui se gangrène avec un pacte mafieux entre les Guerini et l’alliance Carbon-Spirito. Chaque mafia se voit attribuer une activité, un territoire. Pendant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, Sabiani s’allie avec les allemands, il va entraîner avec lui Carbone et Spirito alors qu’en face les frères Guerini vont soutenir la résistance avec le “réseau Brutus” animé par Gaston Defferre. Les Guerini vont ensuite aider Gaston Defferre (maire de Marseille de 1944 à 1945 puis de 1953 à 1986) à remporter la mairie de Marseille.

A la Libération, on se retrouve avec un pouvoir politique aussi bien gaulliste que SFIO et toute la bande de banditisme qui n’a pas collaboré. Par conséquent, il est intéressant de s’interroger sur l’aspect suivant : Qu’est-ce qu’un État recherche en s’adressant à un mafieux ? En 1953, tout le monde sait à Marseille que Gaston Defferre est proche de la “pègre”.

En 1950, la guerre d’Indochine bat son plein et c’est alors que l’armée française pactise avec la communauté des Hmong achetant leur pavot pour se garantir leur soutien et bloquer les communistes. Des vols non répertoriés récupèrent l’opium puis se rendent à Vung Tau où se trouve une raffinerie. L’opium était livré à une mafia sino-vietnamienne. L’après-guerre est une période importante pour la mafia où tous les coups tordus sont permis : tous les truands se recyclent dans la CIA ou le pou-

voir gaulliste en France. Ainsi, la demande n’est plus celle des politiques mais celle des services secrets des États. L’Indochine est la base de la création de la French Touch. L’arrivée du gouvernement Pompidou va affaiblir considérablement le pouvoir mafieux en France. L’effondrement de la French Connection a lieu dans les années 70 avec une guerre de mafieux fratricide.

Actuellement en France, s’il n’existe pas de mafia au sens strict, il n’en reste pas moins que l’on assiste depuis plusieurs décennies au dével- “Actuellement en France, s’il oppement n’existe pas de mafia au sensde multiples strict, il n’en reste pas organmoins que l’on assiste depuisisations crim- plusieurs décennies au dével-inelles oppement de multiples organi-locales dont la sations criminelles locales” dangerosité s’avère néanmoins extrêmement élevée : en 2012, le SIRASCO (Service d’information, de renseignement et d’analyse stratégique sur la criminalité organisée) attribuait 75 % des faits relevant de la criminalité aux multiples organisations criminelles locales.

Finalement, au cours de la rédaction de cet article, nous avons réalisé que l’activité de la mafia en France reste très mal documentée, qu’il y a très peu de chercheurs sur ses sujets et que l’accès aux sources policières et judiciaires est restreint.

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Présidentielles 2022 : les primaires, ALOIS LOMBAERT

CHRONIQUEUR INVITÉ

AU NOM DE

LA FABRIQUE POLITIQUE

Après d’intenses débats au sein du parti, les militants des Républicains ont finalement opté pour le congrès comme mode de désignation de leur candidat, c’est-à-dire un vote réservé aux militants.

La semaine dernière, Xavier Bertrand a d’ailleurs annoncé qu’il participerait à ce congrès après avoir longtemps critiqué l’organisation d’une primaire, considérant que l’élection du président de la République est d’abord et avant tout une rencontre entre un homme ou une femme et le peuple Français. Il a également en mémoire l’affaire Fillon qui avait empêché la droite de revenir au pouvoir en 2017.

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Avec ce congrès, le parti ne renouvellera donc pas l’expérience de 2016 lors de laquelle la primaire de la droite et du centre avait tout de même réuni plus de 4 millions d’électeurs. A l’inverse, les écologistes ont choisi quant à eux d’organiser une primaire ouverte dont Yannick Jadot est sorti vainqueur. La primaire semble ainsi être un enjeu majeur des prochaines élections présidentielles.

un candidat parmi une multitude de candidats mais choisit un candidat qui a des chances de l’emporter. Du point devue du candidat, la victoire lors d’une primaire lui confère une légitimité supplémentaire, en étant censée lui garantir le soutien de toute sa famille politique.

Cependant, à l’épreuve des faits, une primaire peut aussi participer à fragmenter le parti. Lors des débats par exemple, les Le concept de primaire vient des Étatscandidats sont invités à critiquer leurs Unis où elle est un rituel de passage adversaires et cela peut mener à une lutte obligatoire Son émergence en France peutfratri cide. pour les caBeaucoup s’expliquer par une crise de la ndidats de estment que chaque par- représentation des partis, ces par-la primaire ti. En Fran- tis voyant ainsi dans la primaire unde la droite ce, une pri- moyen de renforcer leur légitimitéet du centre maire en 2016 a mais aussi de s’unir face à l’émerouverte grandement gence de nouveaux partis. à tous les affaibli le parti électeurs a pour la première fois vu le jour Les Républicains, certains membres du en 2011 pour désigner le candidat socialparti comme Édouard Philippe ou Bruno iste à l’élection présidentielle de 2012. Son Le Maire n’ayant d’ailleurs pas soutenu émergence en France peut s’expliquer par publiquement le vainqueur de la primaire, une crise de la représentation des François Fillon. Lorsque les divisions partis, ces partis voyant ainsi ont fortement marqué la campagne des dans la primaire un moyen de primaires, il devient difficile de se réunir renforcer leur légitimité mais ensuite. Un autre exemple le montre, Sanaussi de s’unir face à l’émer- drine Rousseau, arrivée au second tour gence de nouveaux partis. de la primaire écologiste a d’ailleurs mis La primaire présente plusieurs jours à apporter clairement son des avantages certains. soutien à Yannick Jadot.

Premièrement, elle Par ailleurs, certains spécialistes arguent donne un pouvoir que la primaire conduit les électeurs à sup- plémentaire choisir le candidat le plus radical, car aux étant sûrs de leur victoire, les électeurs citoyens, celui- oublient que le vainqueur devra rassemci ne choisit bler au-delà de leur famille politique. On pas seulement a pu le remarquer à droite, avec la victoire PHOTO PAR ARCHIVES NICOLAS VALLURI

, une fausse bonne idée ? surprise de François Fillon, défendant une politique conservatrice et ultra-libérale, mais aussi à gauche, chez les écologistes, avec le score inespéré de Sandrine Rousseau qui est partisane d’une écologie radicale.

On peut aussi voir dans le développement des primaires en France l’avènement d’une démocratie d’opinion, c’est-à-dire lorsque l’opinion publique exerce une très grande force sur la vie politique. Dans les faits, le poids des sondages est ainsi toujours plus considérable, ils fixent dans le débat public le résultat d’une élection avant même que celle-ci ait lieu et le rôle des partis se limite à l’organisation des primaires.

Ils perdent leur raison d’être première, l’élaboration de nouvelles idées.

Enfin, la primaire renforce l’hyperpersonnalisation de la politique. La personnalité de l’homme politique semble passer avant ses idées. Cette tendance est déjà à l’œuvre dans le fonctionnement même de la Vème République notamment à cause du mode de scrutin majoritaire et du suffrage direct, en

plus des importantes prérogatives du président. Elle est renforcée par le rôle croissant des médias et de la communication politique.

Pour d’autres partis, la question des primaires ne semble naturellement pas se poser car ceux-ci sont incarnés au travers d’une figure dominante, par exemple celle de Jean-Luc Mélenchon pour la France insoumise et celle d’Emmanuel Macron pour La République en marche.

Reste maintenant à voir si le parti Les Républicains arrivera avec ce congrès à rassembler le peuple de droite derrière un unique candidat. Cette ambition paraît aujourd’hui difficile à atteindre dans la mesure où l’électorat de droite est divisé entre Emmanuel Macron, Les Républicains et une extrême droite montante. ■

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REPRESS ION DES ECOLOGI STES:

ETAT DES LIEUX

Alors que le dérèglement climatique apparaît comme l’enjeu primordial et pluriel de notre temps, ceux.celles qui ont choisi de consacrer leur vie pour l’endiguer sont de plus en plus violemment réprimé.es.

JOSEPH SIRAUDEAU Les militant.es écologistes d’aujourd’hui seront-ils les terroristes CHRONIQUEUR INVITÉ de demain ? En 2001, l’internationalisation des attaques menées au nom du djihad et les réponses des gouvernements ont occulté un autre phénomène embryonnaire : les premières mobilisations actives pour défendre le vivant.

L’Earth Liberation Front (ELF), inspiré de l’Animal Liberation Front (ALF) et créé en 1992, revendique des actions violentes (actions directes, sabotages, incendies, etc.), ce qui lui a value d’être classé en tant qu’organisation “éco-terroriste” par les services de renseignement américains. Ainsi est donc né, sous couvert de la lutte globale anti-terroriste – traduite à travers le PHOTO BY STEFAN MÜLLER fameux Patriot Act, la répression environnementale.

Celle-ci, au fil des années, pendant lesquelles la question clima- les personnes racisées, d’ailleurs soumises directement par les intique s’est emparée d’une place de choix dans l’agenda politique, égalités climatiques ou celles résidant dans des pays au contexte demeure faiblement médiatisée. Une manière, peut-être, de politique instable. dépolitiser (au sens propre du terme) les luttes au profit d’une Plusieurs rapports, souvent méconnus, en attestent. Tel est le cas écologie comportementaliste et individualiste, stratégie gag- de celui produit par Global Witness, qui pointe les abus des gounante pour un néolibéralisme totalisant. vernements et agit pour les droits humains et écologiques des minorités, en 2019 : 212 leaders indigènes et défenseur.euses du 212 leaders indigènes et défenseur.euses du vivant, vivant, tous.tes d’origine américano-latine (le Honduras en tête), tous.tes d’origine américano-latine, ont péri du fait de leur activisme environnemental sur cette périont péri du fait de leur activisme environnemental ode (2). D’après l’association Front Line Defenders, ces derniers Autrement dit, la radicalité est réprimée, puisqu’elle constitue, ont au moins trois fois plus de chance de se faire tuer que des plus qu’un rapport de force, une véritable menace pour l’ordre militant.es dans d’autres domaines. établi. Il ne s’agit donc pas de faire montre de pathétisme et de Les raisons convoquées et les moyens utilisés par les Etats et larmoyer face à un militantisme devenu dangereux pour l’in- groupes privés sont pléthoriques. Un document intitulé “We will tégrité des personnes. Non, il est évident que cela implique une not be silenced” (“Nous ne seront pas réduits au silence”) et écrit prise de risques sans commune mesure. Nous voudrions plutôt sous la direction de CIVICUS Monitor, mentionne, entre autres, dénoncer le silence qui l’entoure et ses abus manifestes, oscillant des interdictions de protester (il existe, dans le monde, des lois entre état de droit bafoué et légalité répressive. qui empêchent les mineurs de descendre dans les rues (3)), des campagnes de dénigrement orchestrées par des multinationales et même des figures étatiques ou la promotion d’un discours cliUNE RÉPRESSION SITUÉE ET INÉGALE mato sceptique par certains médias conservateurs.

Mais qu’entend-on, exactement, par la notion de “répression Comme l’évoque le journal Reporterre, les tactiques de nature écologiste” (1) ? De manière générale, on l’emploie pour dénon-létales sont monnaie courante car “elles ne font pas les gros signer toutes les atteintes aux droits des militant.es (qui, certes, titres comme les assassinats, ce qui les rend d’autant plus utiles à peuvent désobéir civilement et éprouver la conséquence de ceux qui veulent écraser la dissidence” et “empêcher les gens de leurs actes). Cela peut aller d’une confrontation musclée avec les s’exprimer”. forces de l’ordre à l’intimidation, en passant par des formes encore plus graves, comme la censure, la traque judiciaire ou, tout bonnement, la mort.

Au premier abord, il ne fait pas de doute que la répression est ciblée et touche plus sévèrement certaines catégories d’activistes:

“

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”

UNE RÉPRESSION QUI NE DIT PAS SON NOM Dans ce sens, on peut dire que les bruits de la répression sont largement étouffés au sein des démocraties. Au motif d’une construction historique des démocraties libérales, de nature représentative, qui a débuté aux alentours du 18e siècle, les dirigeant.es occidentaux.ales s’octroient le luxe de faire taire les opposant.es dans un silence atterrant. Lorsque ces atteintes sont rendues publiques, ils invoquent la violence légitime d’Etat, paravent à toute contestation citoyenne radicale.

En clair, la légalité est brandie en guise de légitimité, en remettant parfois totalement en cause les fondements d’un État de droit.

Deux pays européens illustrent parfaitement bien ces dérives : la France et le Royaume-Uni. Ne prenons ici que des exemples succincts.

“

la légalité est brandie en guise de légitimité, en remettant parfois totalement en cause les fondements d’un État de droit.

”

L’Etat français, déjà en retard sur ses objectifs fixés pendant l’accord de Paris en 2015 et condamné à plusieurs reprises par de hautes instances hexagonales, réprime ardemment. Les images de policiers ayant gazé à bout portant des bloqueurs écologistes en juillet 2019 sont éloquentes. La volonté affichée par des députés républicains et des marcheurs (Lrem) de faire entrer dans le cadre légal des mesures liberticides à l’égard des écologistes l’est tout autant. Au début de l’année 2021, Reporterre publiait un rapport parlementaire qui préconisait de « renforcer l’arsenal pénal » contre « les militants anti glyphosate, véganes ou antichasse », en citant les associations L214, Direct Action Everywhere, 269 Libération animale et Abolissons la vénerie.

Sidérant ? C’est que les gouvernements successifs, socialiste ou macroniste, n’ont jamais hésité à déployer l’artillerie lourde pour faire taire la moindre opposition trop encombrante. En 2019, le ministère de l’Intérieur annonçait la création d’une cellule ouvertement destinée à protéger les agriculteurs.rices “des individus [qui] s’introduisent dans leurs exploitations agricoles et les bloquent”. En 2012, sous la présidence de François Hollande, la Zone à défendre (ZAD) de Notre-Dame-des-Landes était

soumise à une tentative de démantèlement manu militari. Deux ans plus tard, le 26 octobre 2014, le militant écologiste Rémi Fraisse est tué à Sivens par une grenade assourdissante OF-F1, déjà utilisée durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Enfin, les militant.es basé.es sur le site nucléaire de Bure ont fait l’objet d’une ultra-surveillance de la part des services de renseignement (en tout, on dénombre plus de 16 ans de temps d’écoute téléphonique cumulés par les autorités) et ont été jugé.es en juin dernier pour “association de malfaiteurs”. La confusion entre activisme écologiste et lutte anti-terroriste, durcie depuis les attentats de 2015, est patente.

De l’autre côté de la Manche, où l’on vante généralement les vertus du maintien de l’ordre “à l’anglaise » (y compris du côté des écolos…), le gouvernement Johnson criminalisait une action pacifique du mouvement de désobéissance civile Extinction Rebellion. 3500 personnes furent arrêtées et plus de 2 000 traduites en justice.

Force est de constater qu’à l’aube d’une massification des mouvements climat, la répression s’est considérablement accrue. Au vu des évènements récents, des feux grecs aux inondations chinoises, allemandes ou belges, des avertissements de plus en plus cinglants du Groupe d’experts intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du climat (GIEC) et de l’inaction des États, il ne fait pas de doute que la mobilisation va grandir. Et, avec elle, une accentuation générale et concertée de la répression écologiste.• Retrouvez plus d’articles par Joseph Siraudeau sur le blog “Réprimer pour mieux régner” en suivant le lien ci-dessous: https://reprimerpourmieuxregner.fr/

(1) Nous reviendrons plus tard et plus en détails sur celle-ci.

(2) Signalons, toutefois, le travail du quotidien anglais The Guardian, qui répertorie assez correctement la répression écologiste. Voir l’article : “Environmental defenders being killed in record numbers globally, new research reveals”, paru le 13 juillet 2017.

(3) Voir le rapport “We will not be silenced”, en libre accès.

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Turkey Ratifi

Climate Climate Agr Agr

im ate ag ree m en t

agreement turkey rati˚ies p aris mate i l c cl is

ey rk tu

ar sp ˚ie i t ra

r ey rk tu nt

agreement turkey rati˚ies imate pari is cl s par ˚ies ati

cl i m ate ag r e e m en t

Turkey is thus expected to receive 3.1 billion euros explicitly to meet green energy targets, most likely by developing its growing renewable energy industry.

Foreign Aid May Not be the Long-lasting Solution While agreements like the Paris Climate Accords force countries to save room in their budget for fighting climate change,

Turkey Wishes to be Classified as a “Developing” Nation

Yet the possible effect of this aid package on Turkey’s environmental protection is not the only potential problem that could arise. The reason Turkey did not sign the Paris Climate Agreement for so long is rooted in the fact that it wishes to be considered as a developing nation, contrary to what most economic indicators determine it to be: a developed nation.

is c l im ate a g re em e

Ultimately, the deal was signed with a cash prize in the form of foreign aid, but the source of the money has not currently been attributed to any countries or organizations. The G20 countries have attempted to convince Ankara to sign the treaty for years, with Germany floating various figures since as early as 2017, five years after the agreement was introduced and signed by G20 countries.

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Moreover, countries may effectively allocate a lower percentage of their budget to protecting the environment and come to expect developed nations to continue providing aid. In short, countries become less incentivized to create long-lasting changes in policy or long-term investments as they wait for the expected payouts in foreign aid. agreement turkey rati˚i es p imate is cl ar par ˚ies ati

Europe Offers Cash Instead of Return of the Ratification

deals like the 3.1 billion euro package at hand allow countries to save on the money they would have spent on greener policies and investments.

yr ke ur tt en

As of October 6th, Turkey has finally rat- Yet, while the money’s intended spending ified the Paris Climate Agreement, being is very precise and traceable, there are still the last G20 country to do so 5 years after problems inherent in budget allocation of foreign aid. signing it. For years, Turkey has refused to take the final step of actually ratifying nt turkey ra agreeme ti˚i es the agreement, instead negotiating par mate i l c is c s i r lim a with Germany, France, the UK, p s ate e i ˚ arg ati the World Bank’s Internationr re y e em rk al Finance Corporation, tu and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The “Developing” Classification Allows for a Far Greater Sum Being classified as a developing nation provides Turkey with ample benefits to improve its green policy and investment and automatically deems it eligible for a

fies Paris

reement reement

for a considerable allotment of funds that will be spent for the protection of the environment.

The reasons Turkey would like to be considered a developing country, at least as it signs the Paris Agreement, are twofold: 1. Turkey argues it has not contributed as significantly to climate change as many other G20 members, and less so in regards to its emissions.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said countries that have a “historical responsibility” for climate change should make the most effort (Al Jazeera).

2. Turkey’s green energy industry is developing, but it has nowhere as near as much progress in the industry as its peer nations. The industry can be considered as an infant industry, which requires considerable fixed costs and therefore subsidies for development. In that sense, it is still developing.

AYSE LARA SELCUKER

COLUMNIST

While Turkey has suggested that they ratified the agreement as a developing nation, the United Nations has refused to make a statement about this status.

According to Reuters, a French official has said that Turkey’s decision to finally ratify the agreement was “against all odds” (Spicer and Irish).

far less important than gaining national or regional support.

Even recent Turkish history has demonstrated that international law is not so strong. Turkey, who was the first to ratify the Istanbul Convention on preventing gender-based violence and domestic violence against women and children, withdrew from the Convention last summer.

Turkey has Promised to Reach “Zero Emissions” By 2053

Recent Developments Have Changed the Perception Of International Agreements Recent developments such as Poland’s Constitutional Court decisions invalidating international and European law’s superiority over national law have cast doubt over the efficacy of international law around the world. With populist leaders on the rise around the globe, international reputations have become

So what does Turkey mean when it promises to reach “zero emissions” by 2053, and can Ankara’s word be trusted (Turkey has not specified whether this zero-emissions applies to just CO2 or all greenhouse gases) (Mathiesen) In fact, some have raised questions about whether the oddly specific year chosen is rooted in economic analysis or the 600th anniversary of the end of the Byzantine empire’s rule.

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The Ratification Might Mean Good News for EU Accession While Turkey’s ratification of the agreement is certainly a good look at the international scale, the time it took to get to the ratification is worrisome. Further, the extent to which it will stick to the agreement (and for how long it will stay in it) is quite important to not only maintain a certain international reputation but also to generate progress in its accession negotiations with the EU, which have been ongoing since 2005.

Ankara has recently changed its policy focus from Westernizing to becoming a Middle Eastern regional power, which has substantially changed its social policies and political attitude.

Moreover, the ratification of the Paris Agreement suggests a step away from authoritarianism, which could mean further social progress is on its way.

Sources: Al Jazeera. “Turkey Ratifies Paris Climate Deal Ahead of Key Summit.” Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 8 Oct. 2021, https://www.aljazeera.com/ news/2021/10/6/turkey-ratifies-paris-climate-deal-ahead-of-key-summit.

Mathiesen, Karl. “Europe Offered Turkey Cash to Join Paris Climate Accord.” POLITICO, POLITICO, 9 Oct. 2021, https://www.politico. eu/article/europe-turkey-join-paris-agreement-climate-money/.

Spicer, Jonathan, and John Irish.

“Exclusive Turkey Set to Receive 3.1

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Bln Euro Loans to Help Paris Climate Goals -Sources.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 14 Oct. 2021, https:// www.reuters.com/world/uk/exclusive-turkey-set-receive-31-bln-euroloans-help-paris-climate-goals-sources-2021-10-14/.

Whitewashing Menton: preserving the Ummah traditions that make us the Mediterranean Middle Eastern campus LILINAZ HAKIMI GUEST COLUMNIST

I would like to begin by clearly stating this is an opinion piece. This is my opinion. My opinion as an Iranian student, born and raised in the Middle East. This is my opinion as an immigrant in the US. This is my opinion as a Mentonese Sciences Po student. My opinion on this issue only represents my perspective. My opinion also surrounds the traditions I know of and have been exposed to which excludes anthems such as the Mentonnaise which I do not know the lyrics to and do not defend.

Author’s take In this article I discuss certain traditions. This discussion is not a way to say people’s past reservations have been invalid. This discussion is to explore the root of controversy should not be in all these Mentonese traditions that have been passed down, but the ignorance that could exist amongst students. This discussion is to maintain the uniqueness of the spirit of the Mentonese Ummah and the amazing culture of our little corner of the world.

As COVID wiped the historical memory of certain practices, associations, and chants on our campus, we find ourselves at a pivotal step in rebuilding our campus. Instead we are caught in the midst of a moral reckoning to eliminate various aspects of our traditions that sets us apart from other small french

universities. Traditions hold a community together and allow for a culture to be passed down so generations feel connected through a common identity. The Ummah: the unparalleled spirit of the Mentonese traditions and cultures, encapsulated by a single word.

It is true that racist traditions can be passed down, and that is when we must address what our community stands for. However, in the recent controversy of discussing the different elements of our community, we have failed to differentiate between our worries of ignorant misappropriation and our spirited practices. As a student community we must make sure to alway progress and strengthen what our community is really about and what identity we hope to pass on. I believe, in the case of Menton, the traditions are not the root of the problem.

Preserving the traditions created by the MENA students of Menton--ones that do not offend the majority-- has immense value. This value is being overlooked by our community today.

We have become sensitized to certain sayings because we believe everything we as MENA students create will be misappropriated by the “white,” “european,” “ignorant,” students. That is

understandable given that many of us may have experienced xenophobia in our lives, living or traveling abroad as MENA kids. But, if that is the case, is it the chants that are the problem or that mere fact that there have been some cases of racist and xenaphobic students in Menton? Why is there a fear of addressing the actual problem? Instead we are scapegoating an animal such as the camel. We are blaming customs created by actual students from the region to celebrate their own cultures, religions, or even put satirical twists on misconceptions. I find it even more concerning that we don’t feel comfortable for students to take part in our cultural or religious events that promote cultural exchange and learning. Creating an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ narrative is exactly the opposite of what Menton is.

Personally, coming to Menton was one of the most liberating feelings as an immigrant who lived both in my home country and the US. Coming to Menton was entering a space where I met students from all around the world, including my region of origin. I have never before experienced the beauty that lies within the curiosity of students, as they learn the

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history of my region, our cultures, and our people. Hearing a religion I grew up with and hearing my country and region being praised in a chant such as “Mentoniya Mentoniya” gave me a euphoric feeling unlike any other. Because the reality is, once you put your foot into the US, or any other Western community for that matter, you will lose this magic, and more importantly this appreciation. I cannot emphasize that enough. Being surrounded by other students sharing their cultures, integrating their traditions, is something I quickly came to appreciate and admire.

Menton is a place where the students not only study the MENA, but by interacting with each other, we learn the cuisine, languages, traditions, and sayings of this rich region. We create a Middle Eastern and Mediterranean campus. We become more than a Sciences Po campus located in the south of France. We become an Ummah.

We now stand as the bearers of tradition, to figure out for ourselves how these associations need to run or how the Ummah’s spirit should live on. But is this the way for us to find our community?-- through hypersensitivity over the traditions that bring students together?-- to allow political correctness to cut out the heart of Menton? I believe in the importance of progress and growth. However, removing tradition and replacing it with whitewashed unauthentic content is exactly the counter to what I believe will progress our community

The Camel Question?

In the US I experienced the opposite of what Menton represents to me. I experienced immense racism, problematic day to day questions, and ignorance. Upon moving to the US, I received numerous questions: “did you ride a camel to school?” or whether I “have war in my country?”-- people didn’t know

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the difference between Iran and Iraq (!).

At the age of fifteen, I was called a terrorist in the middle of math class. Everytime I spoke with my parents on the phone my peers would yell, “take cover!” At the time I laughed it off but in hindsight those comments did not come from a place of satirical humor or a ‘joke’ I was in on.

These came from places of deep ignorance and misunderstanding from uneducated Americans.

It is not by being Persian (and not Arab) that I avoided ignorance. It is not by having an American accent that I escaped racism. And no matter how American people may perceive me, in the US, I am an immigrant. The misrepresentation and misunderstanding of the MENA region is an ongoing, institutionalized, mi l lenia’s long issue that shows no signs of slowing-- so what are we doing blaming a fucking camel?-- as if replacing a camel mascot is the solution to the root of all of the wrongs. As if whitewashing the associated traditions with the region will assuage the guilt they feel over all that has been done to the MENA region. If anything, the call to change the animal that no longer represents our European or white dominant campus is the exact problem.

A definition of the word ‘camel’ is “ an even-toed ungulate in the genus Camelus that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as “humps” on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provide food and fur. Camels

are working animals especially well-suited to their desert habitat and are a vital means of transport for passengers and cargo.” In general, you can find camels in desert regions, such as many areas of the Middle East. Thus, as the kangaroo is associated with Australia, the Dragon with China, and so on, we have the camel as our mascot. The reason I was disconcerted by this debate is because I believe we are targeting the wrong issues. It is not the camel representing our campus that is “racist” or “problematic.” It is the fact that in our world, people believe that the Middle Eastern and North African nations do not have cars, do not have roads, do not have green lands, and that we all ride camels because the MENA is one big desert. That is the problem. By making it about an animal that more traditionally exists in the deserted regions of the MENA, we take away from the reality that it is the ignorance of people. That is the issue. As educated students we do not assume Australians ride kangaroos to work or that an animal will ever truly be the representation of a country or region.

The further aggravation that follows is that idea that we should have a lemon as a mascot. A LEMON? Or as proposed by admin a FIG… Imagine a fig standing against a dragon mascot. That raises a bigger issue. “To represent the Menton campus for all students we will have a lemon as the mascot”... Why are we choosing to whitewash our community, censor our students, and create this atmosphere of fear about embracing and celebrating our region?

Why should whimsical symbols that create a campus community be the target that will not address the deep rooted issues that actually exist in society? Loulou deserves better.

The Intent and Origins of the Mentonese Traditions: By all accounts, the origins of the chants and the history of the chants such as “Menton à terre..” or “Mentoniya’’ or “a Menton les hommes en 4 femmes” are ones that have been created or passed down by Mentonese students from the MENA. They were created to integrate their cultures and religions into their social lives and into the dynamic of the campus. Even “a Menton les hommes ont 4 femmes’’ is a form of satire to make fun of those who think this is truly the case in our homes. It is ironic and an inside joke amongst students who are all supposedly educated and much more aware about the culture and societies of the regions we are studying. This joke is now no longer funny to those who think the ignorant white students don’t understand this satire. I ask again, is it the ironic chant for this small campus community the problem, or is the problem the fact that there may be students on our campus who are supposedly studying the MENA region but remain ignorant to our culture and communities.

Shouldn’t this push us to have open conversations about these chants and have even more conversations about our countries to counter this ignorance? Instead, it feels as though this toxic and eerie sentiment of cancel culture has already adjudicated the public court of opinion, leaving no room for discussion.

That being said, it is not the chants that build the Menton spirit, but the students and the energy we bring to the Middle East and Mediterranean campus. So more

than fighting for the chants, I am fighting for maintaining and growing our MENA traditions, celebratory chants that incorporate the region, and open mindedness in our community. If we decide to rewrite some chants and change our traditions, we should band together and ensure the ones we pass down are related to our region, hype up these very countries, and that we incorporate our languages in the Mentonese lingo.

To Conclude:

pean students scream Islamiya and Irania and Lobnaniya at the top of their lungs as a camel represents our campus, brings me nothing but joy and satisfaction knowing that in every other European or North American country this will never ever be the case. This imperfect town is where we as MENA and muslim students get to full heartedly share and praise our origins. So I urge you to take a look and just think of the uniqueness of our traditions, prevent whitewashing, and keep the Ummah spirit of this MENA campus alive. ■

As we embark on a fight against xenophobia and racism on cam- pus, we must cre-

ate a distinction between what is truly offensive and what is hypersensitization of certain symbols or chants . We need to address the root of ignorance and racism and tackle the issue that exists in reality, rather than scapegoating a chant passed down as an inside joke or a chant passed down to praise a religion or the nations of the MENA. As we continue to focus our energy on debating the symbols that were created and upheld by MENA students-in turn leading to the whitewashing of our campus culture-- students who are actually making problematic, antisemitic, and islamophobic comments continue without being addressed. Menton is a bubble of a unique French Middle Eastern collaboration that students from North America to Asia can join in on. I don’t know about you, but seeing white Euro-

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The Role of European Money in the Systematic Human Rights Violations of Migrants in Libya LENA SCHULTHESS

COLUMNIST

On the 8th of October 2021, six migrants were shot by a detention center guard in Tripoli, Libya. According to the International Organization Of Migration, the shooting was the outcome of an escalation in an extremely overcrowded detention center. The overcrowding of the detention center was caused by arbitrary mass arrests of over 5,000 migrants that were reported by organizations such as Doctors Without Borders. It is not the first time that mass shootings of migrants in Libya were documented. In 2020, for example, armed men fired on about 200 refugees in Mazda, which resulted in the deaths of at least 30 people.

The shooting was strongly condemned by the United Nations and the European Union. However, the men responsible for the shootings have been seen fighting alongside the UN-supported Government of National Accord.

Unlawful detentions as well as escalations such as those in Tripoli and Mazda

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are not the essence of the issue at hand.

They are only the tip of the iceberg, which is a system in which the human rights of migrants are institutionally violated. Reports from NGOs like Amnesty show that the often illegally detained migrant women, children and men face physical and mental abuse in Libya’s detention centers. A UNHCR report of 2018 documented migrants’ statements of being cut, shot, raped and whipped with electrified hoses. The tortures often follow the goal to pressure the victims’ families to send ransoms to free their relatives from the detention centers. The very same guards who practice blackmail are also the ones paying coast guards to bring people back to the detention centers after intercepting their attempts to cross the Mediterranean. The Associated Press found that those guards belong to militias that furthermore participate in human trafficking, selling people directly from the detention centers. This was

ON BEHALF OF

AMNESTY

supported by reports from migrants in the detention centers who witnessed groups of other migrants being abducted during the night.

In order to understand the interplay between the UN-supported government and militias, some background to Libya’s political fragility and fragmentation is necessary. During the Arab Spring movements in 2011, popular uprisings also spread to Libya. The protests against the decade-long dictator Muammar Gaddafi were met with violence by the regime, which ultimately led to a civil war between anti- and pro-Gaddafi forces. In March 2011, NATO intervened, eventually overthrowing and killing Gaddafi. The downfall of the Gaddafi-regime left a power vacuum. Its consequence was the second civil war that took place between different militias in 2014. The Aftermath of the second civil war was the division of the

country between the UN-recognized – and partially -initiated – Government of the National Accord in Tripoli and the military-backed House of Representatives under Khalifa Belqasim Haftar in the East. In this setting, militias more or less affiliated with one side or the other played essential roles as well.

The political instability of the post-Gaddafi period also triggered a collapse of the security system, which has since then been taken advantage of by transnational criminal networks smuggling drugs, weapons, and, most importantly, migrants. The smuggling of migrants is a lucrative business because Libya is an important stopover for people fleeing from other African countries. From Libya, they want to cross the Mediterranean to then demand asylum in Italy or continue their journey on to other European countries. Due to the security breakdown, migration to Libya and attempts to reach Europe through the Mediterra-

nean have increased after the outbreak of the civil war. The increase in refugees arriving in Italy was met with growing concern by the European Union. It led to a reinforcement of monetary support for Libya to stop irregular immigration. One specific example is the deal between Italy and Libya that was signed in 2017. According to The Guardian, it assured a payment of

of these investments is that a stronger coastguard would also prevent deaths on the Mediterranean refugee route by preventing transfers in the first place. It is indeed true that increased financial support of Libya’s coast guard led to a drastic decrease in people arriving in Europe. However, it is not true that this correlates with higher safety of the refugees. On the contrary, statistics show that the Mediterranean route has become much more deadly since the increase in investment in so-called border protection. Described

by Karim El-Gawhary in his book “Repression and Rebellion,” in 2017, every 42nd refugee died on the Mediterranean. In 2018, comparatively, it was every 18th.

Research from EU fact checks show that Libya has received payments from the EU to the height of 698.2 million euros in the period between 2014 and 2020. This money is meant to go to humanitarian aid, the Emergency Fund for Africa, and stability and peace projects.

about 90 million euros and provided training for coastguards and new speed boats to prevent migrants from taking the Mediterranean refugee route to Italy. The humanitarian legitimization

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Officially, a significant part should also be used to ameliorate the conditions in the detention centers. According to investigations from Oxfam in 2017, however, most of the projects are not really aimed at “addressing root causes of the irregular migration, but are designed to restrict and discourage irregular migration through migration containment and control.” This faces harsh criticism from human rights organizations stating that the payments to Libya’s coastguards are a way of circumventing international laws that prohibit pushbacks. It is a way of transferring the responsibility to Libya, enforcing illegal practices instead of focussing on improving the conditions migrants are fleeing, and facing their own responsibilities to guarantee the right for fair treatment of asylum demands.

Furthermore, there is no control over where the money goes exactly because of the fragmentation of Libya’s political landscape. This can be seen in the cooperation between militias and the UN-recognized GNA, especially when it comes to controlling detention centers. An example is the notorious “Tobacco Factory” which is infiltrated with members from a GNA-affiliated militia beneath the militia leader Emad al-Trabulsi. Another example is the Nasr detention center that is under the lead of the militia head Mohammed Kachlaf, who is under UN sanctions for human trafficking. A further important figure is the coastguard leader Abd al-Rahman Milad, who has been accused by the UN of being involved in sinking migrant boats and collaborating with people-smugglers.

Apart from the human rights abuses these militias carry out and the profits they make through human-trafficking, blackmailing, and – according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime – work exploitation, there are documentations of militias directly profiting from European money. According to

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The Associated Press, only two of the 50 budgeted dinars per day and detainee are actually used for meals. The rest goes into the hands of militias. But even the companies that are involved in the administration of the detention centers are militia-led. For example, millions of dollars have been linked to at least one company that has ties to the militia leader Mohammed al-Khoja. The documents show multi-million dollar contracts with the al-Khoja-controlled catering firm Ard

al-Wata. Before taking charge of the detention center in question, al-Khoja had already been in charge of the center Tariq al-Sikka, for which various institutional human rights abuses were documented.

For example, at least 25 inmates were diagnosed with tuberculosis by Doctors Without Borders, and this phenomenon was directly linked to the malnutrition the migrants had experienced. For two years, the only meal they were provided with in the detention center was macaroni.

But how aware are the European Union and the United Nations of the mismanagement of their money? The UN’s International Organization For Migration officially acknowledged that it has to work with partners who might cooperate with local militias. The UNHCR official Filippo Grandi even said that asylum systems generally cannot be reinforced in Libya because of the ongoing conflicts within the country. The papers from the Support To Integrated Border And Migration Management In Libya stated

that irregular migrants generally end up in exactly those detention centers that are officially known to be militia-controlled.

Furthermore, the EU’s own documents from 2017 even warn directly that there is a medium to high risk that the European money would increase human rights violations against migrations.

To conclude, the responsible authorities initiating the monetary support of Libya are well aware of the use of European money in Libya. Although they officially condemn the situation faced by migrants in Libya, they are the very ones financially supporting the militias linked to human-trafficking and human rights abuse. The Associate Director of Human Rights Watch, Judith Sunderland, even goes further than solemnly calling out on the hypocrisy. She states that it is the very money from the EU that enabled the inhumane prison system in Libya in the first place.

It is obvious that the assurance of human rights and improvement of the conditions migrants face is therefore subordinated to the goal of minimizing arrivals in Europe. Apart from not meeting its duties to ensure human rights, the EU is simply delaying the issue until the future by worsening the situation for migrants and therefore creating more cases of people eligible for asylum in the future. A shift in focus from short-term political goals — to minimize arrivals at any cost — towards a more sustainable and institutional approach would be necessary. In other words, to actually act on the guideline officially pursued, which is to “address root causes of irregular migration.” However, due to the issue of missing reliable collaborators in Libya’s fragmented political landscape, more binding rules on a reallocation of financial support to institutional projects alone is not enough. Libyan businessman Husni Bey provides a possible approach by stating that if the aim is to stop human smuggling, “Europe would be much better off blacklisting the names of those involved in human trafficking, fuel and drug smuggling and charging them with crimes, instead of giving them money.” ■

Un futur plus incertain que jamais pour les droits des femmes afghanes après le retour au pouvoir des Talibans.

FELIPE BOITARD

CHRONIQUEUSE INVITÉE

AU NOM DE

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Le 15 août 2021, les Taliban reprennent le pouvoir à Kaboul en Afghanistan, proliférant une vague de violence, de peur, et de panique pour les femmes.

La montée du Taliban signifie-t-elle le retour vers une femme opprimée et privée de ses droits fondamentaux en Afghanistan ? Est-ce ceci la fin de la période de progrès pour la femme ?

20 ans après l’intervention militaire américaine sur le territoire afghan, voici le temps qu’il a fallu pour une reconquête du pouvoir par les Taliban. Une reconquête nourrie et alimentée par une forte opposition à la présence américaine et ses influences. L’Afghanistan retombe malheureusement dans la violence, le terrorisme, et la misère.

taire américaine. Ce qui durant 20 ans à fait surgir dans la société afghane le retour d’un nationalisme et un rattachement très conservateur à l’islam et la charia qui s’opposent fortement aux acquis obtenus pour les femmes.

Ceci nous ramène au débat fondamental de toute intervention militaire américaine, l’universalisme occidental des normes et valeurs juxtaposé aux traditions non-Occidentales des sociétés dominées, dans ce cas l’Islam. C’est cela qui motive fondamentalement la reprise du pouvoir par les talibans: une volonté de contrôler et limiter le poison idéologique qui est inséré par l’Occident en Afghanistan.

Avant cette reconquête par les Talibans, la République afghane a connu pendant ses 20 dernières années des progrès et changements sévères par rapport aux droits de la femme. Des progrès engendrés par l’intervention militaire américaine de 2001, comme le justifie Laura Bush lors de son discours en 2001;

“Afghan women know through hard experience what the rest of the world is discovering: The brutal oppression of women is a central goal of the terrorists.

Long before the current war began, the Taliban and its terrorist allies were making the lives of children and women in Afghanistan miserable.” - Laura Bush, 17 novembre 2001.

Ceci dit, les progrès réalisés par les américains et la communauté internationale pour les femmes en Afghanistan, comme les quotas au parlement et l’achèvement des droits individuels (accès à l’éducation, droit à la protection de la santé), sont des sujets très compliqués en Afghanistan. Bien que ces progrès et l’acquisition des droits puissent être perçus et acceptés par les femmes en Afghanistan, elles doivent les revendiquer, les protéger, et les exercer avec précaution puisqu’elles sont sous un prisme de scepticisme et de critique; puisque ces droits sont impérativement associés à la présence et à la domination mili-

Tout ce contexte nous mène à l’actualité, où dans leur première conférence de presse, les Talibans assurent la compatibilité des droits des femmes à la charia et invite même les femmes à participer à la construction du nouveau gouvernement. Mais ce geste diplomatique ne s’adresse pas aux femmes afghanes mais plutôt à la communauté internationale pour renforcer le fait que les Talibans veulent imposer un régime légitime et reconnu internationalement prêt à coopérer et négocier avec l’Occident.

Les Talibans cherchent à obtenir cette légitimité à travers unefaçade plus ouverte comparée à celle d’il y a 20 ans.

Or, sur le terrain c’est une réalité différente, les femmes sont toujours perçues sous l’angle oppressif d’une interprétation très conservatrice de la charia qui suppose que les femmes détiennent un rôle différent voire même inférieur à celui de l’homme. Lequel se reflète dans la jurisprudence et l’ordre sociétal imposé dans le nouveau régime des talibans.

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Le régime qui est petit à petit adopté par les Talibans n’est pas un régime qui se voit compatible avec les acquis sociaux des femmes durant cette dernière vingtaine d’années. Ainsi nous pouvons dire que le nouveau régime des talibans se voit à la fois internationalement plus ouvert mais nationalement plus répressif et violent qu’avant. Ce qui explique la vague de mécontentement et de peur qui traverse la population afghane, qui se traduit par une volonté de fuite en déclenchant une crise migratoire importante envers les pays du nord, notamment l’Europe et l’Amérique du nord. ‘

Les femmes sont délaissées, les victimes les plus touchées par ce reversement de régime et sont les moins aidées par la communauté internationale qui pendant des années a cherché à libérer la femme afghane

Une volonté qui est loin d’être prise sérieusement en considération et aidée par les États d’Occident qui détiennent peu de présence politique et diplomatique dans le pays. Ceci est notamment le cas de la France qui n’a plus de présence diplomatique officielle à Kaboul. Ainsi, la documentation nécessaire pour pouvoir immigrer ne peut se réaliser qu’après un long processus de correspondance qui peut prendre des mois, une durée qui n’est pas envisageable, étant donné les circonstances. De plus, ici les victimes qui ont le plus besoin sont les femmes puisque les hommes sont les premiers à partir du pays car l’aéroport de Kaboul est perçu comme un endroit dangereux pour les femmes.

Ainsi ce sont les hommes qui ont travaillé avec l’extérieur par exemple qui sont les premiers à partir et laissent les femmes seules avec leurs enfants les laissant encore plus susceptibles d’être victime de violences et d’agression.

Les femmes sont délaissées, les victimes les plus touchées par ce reversement de régime et sont les moins aidées par la communauté internationale qui pendant des années a cherché à libérer la femme afghane, illustrant le modèle d’hypocrisie que les pays occidentaux ont toujours eu et pratiqué avec leur politique étrangère. Ils se cachent derrière une multitude d’ambiguïtés légales pour échapper à leurs obligations sous la convention de Genève qu’ils ont signée. Il faut rappeler que les États-Unis depuis mi-août évacuent tout son personnel et imposent une politique de “America first” au lieu de véritablement aider la situation à une échelle internationale.

Tout ceci laisse en l’air l’espoir et le futur de ces femmes piégées

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dans un régime qui vise à limiter tous leurs droits et réinsérer la charia comme loi suprême de l’état, minimisant le rôle de la femme et ses droits, déconstruisant 20 ans de progrès et acquis pour les femmes. Entre le Taliban et la communauté internationale, un accord est difficile à réaliser, laissant les ONG comme solution viable pour aider les femmes à pouvoir sortir de cette situation précaire. Quoi qu’il en soit, les ONG détiennent toujours un champ d’actions minime reposant sur l’appui et coopération gouvernementale de certains États clé à l’aide et coopération humanitaire comme les États-Unis. De plus, la juxtaposition entre l’espace rural et urbain de l’Afghanistan laisse une marge d’inégalités importantes à réduire même entre femmes. L’espace rural favorise davantage la violation des droits des femmes. Démontrant ainsi la complexité de la situation tant au niveau national qu’international.

DES MEMBRES DE LA POLICE AFGHANE APPRENENT LE TIR (Kabul, 2010) PHOTO PAR CHRISTOPHER MOBLEY

A FEMALE JUNIOR BASKETBALL TEAM CELEBRATES A GAME, SPONSORED BY THE KABUL MAYOR AND THE OLYMPIC COMITTEE (Kabul, 2011)

Un exemple qui illustre l’interconnectivité entre droits des femmes et le développement de la société afghane est l’exemple de femmes diplômées, notamment dans le domaine médical. Les femmes qui sont diplômées à Kaboul peuvent effectuer le trajet vers des zones rurales d’Afghanistan et offrir leurs services aux femmes, ce qui auparavant n’était pas le cas étant donné le cadre de l’Islam qui interdit toute interaction entre homme et femme en dehors du contexte familial.

Ce sont ces femmes diplômées qui ont pu contribuer et engendrer elles-mêmes un changement dans la société. L’offre de services médicaux de qualité aux femmes sous le Taliban de 1996 à 2001 était impossible, illustrant comment l’interdiction aux femmes de se diplômer et de travailler affecte les conditions de vie rudimentaires que doit détenir tout être humain.

Les acquis sociaux de la femme ont permis à la femme de s’émanciper mais aussi de s’insérer dans la vie sociétale et dans l’économie. Toutes les petites entreprises, les salons de coiffure, les universités etc… ont tous des acteurs féminins, et en privant les femmes de leurs droits, les talibans privent la société d’un acteur important de sa société, les femmes. L’enlèvement des droits de la femme n’a pas que des conséquences PHOTO PAR JAN CHIPCHASE qui vont affecter seul les femmes mais l’entièreté de l’Afghanistan, ce qui explique l’effondrement économique et social du En se focalisant essentiellement sur les femmes afghanes, ils pays sous les Talibans. font comprendre qu’elles ont eu un goût à ces libertés pendant 20 ans et sont loin de les abandonner. Ceci fait naître en elle la nécessité de revendiquer et de lutter pour maintenir leurs droits, ce qui, en conjonction avec les nouveaux moyens de l’interdiction aux femmes de se communication comme les réseaux sociaux, insère un nouvel diplômer et de travailler affecte les acteur dans toutes ces discussions et permet d’humaniser encore plus la crise violente en Afghanistan. Mais ceci est aussi conditions de vie rudimentaires une arme à double tranchant, sachant que les Taliban s’inque doit détenir tout être humain. sèrent aussi sur les réseaux sociaux ajoutant une autre dimension de communications sur lesquelles s’opposent les idéologies nord/sud.

En espérant un changement de situation rapidement, l’espoir La sous-estimation du rôle important que détiennent les de négocier et d’aider les femmes en Afghanistan repose prinfemmes dans leurs sociétés, les droits des femmes détiennent cipalement sur la rencontre entre certains membres du mouun effet boule de neige, elles génèrent elle-même des bénéfic- vement taliban et la délégation américaine dirigée par Ned es qui au premier abord ne sont pas perçus.

Price le 9 et 10 octobre. Les États-Unis trouveront-ils un terSous l’angle géopolitique, la prise de décision par rapport à rain d’entente pour négocier et aider les femmes ? ou la Russie l’action occidentale va-t-elle reposer fondamentalement sur trouvera-t-elle plus de facilité à négocier ? La course vers les crises économiques et humanitaires que subit le pays ? l’accord et négociation entre la communauté internationale ou va-t-elle intervenir sous faux prétexte étant donné la com- et l’Afghanistan fait pression sur des tensions historiques qui pétitivité pour influencer l’Afghanistan face aux intérêts de la pourraient mener à une concurrence entre ouest et est dans la Chine et la Russie sur le territoire ? région. •

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Dissolved and Disbanded: A Prostrate Civil Society in Making ANNIE WONG

GUEST COLUMNIST

ON BEHALF OF

AMNESTY

After jailing most of the key figures as well as thousands of protesters invol ved in the 2019 Anti-extradition bill movement, the gun is finally pointed at Hong Kong’s civil organizations with pro-democracy background.

Every year for the past 31 years, a swarm of candle lights invariably engulfed Victoria Park in Hong Kong on the night of June 4, commemorating the dead in the 1989 Tiananmen Square Incident. This year may have been its last.

The organization behind the vigil, Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, made the decision on September 25th to dissolve after all three of its leaders were jailed. Along with the Alliance, at least 49 civil organizations have been dissolved in 2021 alone.

This should come as a surprise to no one. It has been a widely accepted fact that the political atmosphere in Hong Kong can no longer tolerate any dissent. It all goes back to a muder case that happened in Taiwan, in which the suspect Chan Tong Kai fled back to Hong Kong without taking a trial.

Since there has been no extradition agreement between Hong Kong and Taiwan, the administration attempted to pass the extradition

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bill, not between Taiwan and Hong Kong as it supposed to be, but one between Hong Kong and China. Fearing that Hong Kong would lose its judicial independence, more than a million citizens took over the streets of Hong Kong. It was not long after that it spiralled into a protest for democratic reforms as promised by Beijing before the 1997 Handover. Despite being the largest democratic movement in the history of Hong Kong, none of the protesters’ demands received any response from the government.

Hong Kong’s authority now sees the 2019 movement as a cautionary tale of what threats the democratic movement can do to the legitimacy of their rule. In the after- math of the protests, over 50 democratic activists were arrested under the National Security Law, a law that grants the executive branch expansie power to intrude on the freedom of speech, press, expression and assembly. The first conviction sentenced a 24 year-old activist to 9 years in prison for waving a banner with the slogan ‘Stand with Hong Kong, Revolution of our time.’

It was a signal sent by China that even the mildest form of protest would be regarded as a crime. What characterizes the city today is the distrust towards the administration, the division among the pro-establishment camp and protesters and the despair of the looming crackdown of Hong Kong’s freedom.

The downfall of pro-democracy organizations seems to be an inevitable product of such a draconian law. Empowered by the law, the regime can now threaten to charge the leaders of the NGOs solely on the basis of their political stance. The fear of incarceration weighs heavily. . Yet, the abuse of the National Security Law is far from the most concerning facet in recent Chinese encroachments into Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Professional Teacher Union was among the civil organizations to be dissolved this year. Founded in 1973, the Union has nearly 95,000 members. It is the largest teacher union and single-industry union in Hong Kong.

On July 31, XinHua News Agency published an editorial titled, ’To follow the right path, Hong Kong Education must eradicate the tumorous Teacher Union.’

The article used lengthy paragraphs to condemn the Union’s role in ‘radicalising students’ and ‘glorifying the illegal riots,’ marking the beginning of the end for the Union. The day after the article was published, the administration announced that the Education Bureau would terminate all working relations with the Union.

‘Having ties with the Education Bureau gives the course in the Union recognition and it allows the network of Union to expand to schools of all backgrounds’ said Alison Chiu, a member of the Union for more than 6 years. ‘The Bureau’s decision precipitated their resolve to dissolve.’ In an open letter to its members, the Union cited the insurmountable political pressure as part of the reason to dissolve.

They are not alone in this ‘state media speaks, the government moves’ situation.

Ta Kung Pao, a pro-Beijing newspaper based in Hong Kong, had ‘ Civil Human Right front violating the National security law’ as headline in mid august, followed by charges placed by the police department. Two days later, Civil Human Rights made the decision to disband.

Then the target shifted to the Alliance, and then the Union, and countless more associations.

What we are witnessing is a paradymic redistribution of power--the administration of Hong Kong rendered itself a puppet of the central government. It used to be that the portrayal of Hong Kong by the state media was to write a narrative that fits the agenda of the central government-- everyone knew it was false. Now, the central government is using the state media to deliver their blueprint for Hong Kong.

The autonomy that was guaranteed under ‘One country, two systems’ ceases to exist. Hong Kong is China.

Without an autonomous administration, all the rights and freedoms seemingly protected by the Basic Law, a set of code that is equivalent to the constitution, are but empty promises.

civil organizations in Hong Kong demonstrated exceptional ability in mobilizing the public. The last thing that Beijing wants to see is another social movement that shakes the governance of Hong Kong the way it did in 2019. It fears that civil organizations will act as a counterbalance of the growing executive power.

In some way they are right. The fact that they work outside of the framework of the government means that they will not have absolute control over the public opinion. That is an uncertainty that the Central government will not risk.

When these civil associations fall, their members lose not just their agents for voicing their opinion, but a community united with a common interest. But that does not mean that the group of people that they represent also fall. “They can disband an organization, but they can’t disband an opinion. The opposition is still going to be here,’ said Chiu. The essence of civil society lies in the common goals, interests, values, loyalty and trust of people. Civil groups are only one of the myriad ways to unite people. When you dissolve a pill into the water, it does not disappear into nowhere. It just spreads into tiny pieces. For Hong Kong, the urgent question is how can they tie the pieces back together ■

Right now, Hong Kong is on the path of a complete crackdown of its civil society. During the 2019 protest,

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An Ode To Walks YUSEF BUSHARA

COLUMNIST

Even Even before before aa first first step, step, walking walking starts starts upstairs, upstairs, in in the the mind, mind, when when nothing nothing else else is is working. working. Your Your brain’s brain’s glass-encased glass-encased fire fire hatchet—for hatchet—for emergencies emergencies only only (!)—begs (!)—begs use. use. And And so so you you lace lace up up your your Crocs, Crocs, you you bundle bundle up up in in your your warmest warmest tank tank top, top, and and you you walk walk the the same same street street you you walked walked yesterday yesterday and and noticed noticed nothing. nothing. But, But, this this time, time, you you cryscrystallize tallize the the ordinary ordinary fixtures fixtures on on your your regular regular route. route. The The man man playing playing sudoku sudoku on on his his usual usual bench bench suddenly suddenly endows endows your your memory memory with with weight. weight. You’re You’re being being dramatically dramatically appreciative, appreciative, you you relish relish in in it, it, strutstrutting ting to to the the soundtrack soundtrack of of an an animated animated silence. silence.

Everything Everything works works while while you you forget forget the the greyness greyness brought brought to to you you by by non-doing. non-doing. You’ve You’ve induced induced your your artificial artificial ifif not not momentary momentary easiness. easiness.

Your Your poet poet is is awoken: awoken: you you wonder wonder how how the the pavement pavement contemplates contemplates your your feet; feet; ifif the the grass grass trembles trembles under under your your soles. soles. A A new new dimension dimension of of considerations considerations opens opens to to you, you, there’s there’s aa reversal reversal of of priorities. priorities. You You reacquaint reacquaint yourself yourself with with nature nature and and her her subtleties. subtleties.

You You regret regret not not becoming becoming aa botanist botanist because because you you believe believe the the flowers flowers now now have have more more important important wisdom wisdom to to impart. impart. The The botanist botanist walks walks at at night night because because the the flowers flowers busy busy them them during during the the day. day. They They look look to to the the stars stars with with envy envy and and wish wish to to become become astronauts. astronauts. But But the the astroastronauts nauts don’t don’t walk walk at at all. all. When When your your greyness greyness leaves leaves you, you, itit joins joins the the absence absence between between the the stars, stars, and and the the astronaut astronaut wishes wishes to to have have their their feet feet back back on on the the ground. ground.

PHOTO BY PNG TREE

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After After aa good good walk, walk, everyone everyone pledges pledges themselves themselves to to tranquility. tranquility. But But soon soon you you emerge emerge from from the the sacred sacred devotion devotion of of your your post-walk post-walk bebeing. ing. Your Your priorities priorities reverse reverse once once again. again. The The man man playing playing sudoku sudoku becomes becomes no no more more dynamic dynamic in in your your imagination imagination than than aa statue statue or or his his bench. bench. White White noise noise remembers remembers its its shape shape and and colonizes colonizes the the wind wind through through the the trees. trees. And And the the drum drum of of procrastination procrastination bangs bangs loudly loudly while while you you march march on on in in place. place. No No matter matter the the movement, movement, walk. walk. First First in in mind, mind, then then in in stride. stride.