A mother's life and passion: Anna Politkovskaja
RUSSIA: Anna Politkovskaya's daughter: "My greatest wish is to experience Russia as a flourishing, free and developed country, not desolate, poor and militarized."
The girl who looked in the mirror of the world
PHOTO/BOOK: The importance of being human in the Anthropocene has never been more decisive for an understanding of how humans will survive in the future. Photographer Gauri Gill: “I have followed the agricultural cycle, migration, Food for Work programs, nomadic journeys, epidemics, cerebral malaria, tuberculosis, overcrowded hospitals – and death from snakebites, from accidents, from being burned alive for providing an inadequate dowry – and births, marriages, child marriages or moneylenders."
Citizen journalists
GAZA: Sheikh Jarrah describes how the Israeli authorities subsequently sought to silence the journalists. Here is a current book – in connection with the murdered journalists in Gaza. The democratic function of the media is not always so democratic.
The military ambitions of the oil states
ARMS: There are a number of developments in the three oil states of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, which Jean-Loup Samaan researches in his latest book. These are the three oil states that account for 17 percent of all arms purchases worldwide. Saudi Arabia's desire to become a nuclear power in order to stand up to Iran.
We can all be like Paul
PASOLINI: The apostle Paul shows the revolutionary power of fighting for a cause that defies the usual way of life. Paul becomes the symbol of creating a new reality and defeating hegemonic power. But can we imagine that there is a Paul in today's Israel?
Russia's race to the bottom
THE OIL STATE: In this book, Alexander Etkind states that Russia is the least equal, the most militarized and the most carbonized of all the world's major countries.
It is not possible to wipe out Hamas
HAMAS: Leila Seurat provides a good basis for understanding what went terribly wrong on October 7, when Hamas made a drastic change of course. The purpose of it all was to get the Palestinian cause back on the global agenda, and it has largely succeeded.
When violence becomes the only thing
POWER: According to Hannah Arendt, the use of violence, weapons and bombs renders us politically speechless. Can her particular analyzes of power teach us anything about the violence that is being carried out from and in Gaza today?
When patriarchy and state violence go hand in hand
DEBT: Women are more vulnerable to aggressive lending methods, high interest rates and fees.
Utopias about community
FUTURE: Are we moving towards an international society that takes care of those who fall outside the established working life – and wisely converts today's military industry towards civilian tasks? It is possible that the new BRICS may point the way away from current Western ideology.
When it comes to life
REFUGEES: In Sicily, MODERN TIMES meets Morgan Lescot on the rescue ship Ocean Viking for a conversation about boat refugees, challenges and Europe's responsibility. Is this a tragedy that will only increase?
Private game reserves – a business concept for species conservation
SOUTH AFRICA: About. 500 South African game reserves represent a spectacular marketplace. But after thirty years, Shamwari Private Game Reserve, for example, today has seven luxury lodges, an explorer camp, a learning centre, a rehabilitation station for young, abandoned or injured animals – and not least a police unit to combat poaching.
To be a stranger in one's own town
IRAQ: The Iraqi journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad has written an excellent book that dispels the typical view of a sectarian and divided society as the main cause of Iraq's long and continuing tragedy.
Nuclear war?
GHOST? With the renewed threat of nuclear war, MODERN TIMES shines a spotlight on an earlier book. Are nuclear weapons suitable for blackmailing other countries – coercive diplomacy? No, according to these authors.
In the spectacular media's desert landscape
MEDIA: Surveys show that more than half of Germany's population believe they are receiving fake news. In France, 80 percent think the same.
In anti-racism
RACISM: A neo-conservative movement has made it its virtue to 'expose' especially the political mission of critical race theory, led by Christopher Rufo who believes this constitutes nothing less than an existential threat to the United States. A network of 'Trufers'?
"I don't think a single military conflict can solve a problem."
THE MODERN TIMES INTERVIEW: Elisabeth Hoff, WHO's representative in Libya today, wondered why Norway got involved and dropped 700 bombs on Libya in 2011: "It makes no sense at all." For 30 years, Hoff has tried to save lives in war zones such as Afghanistan, Syria and Libya. How can a human endure so much suffering?
What does a radically tender society need?
Hat: Turkish-German Seyda Kurt is concerned with hatred that produces tenderness. Hate is often rooted in racism, misogyny, xenophobia and prejudice.
‘Refolution!’
resurrection: Asef Bayat tries to challenge the analysis of the Arab Spring (2011) as an unequivocal defeat. He is absolutely right to focus on the space occupation model. Bayat has introduced the term 'refolution' as a description of the uprisings – without reference to the three dominant models of revolution.
Digital overconsumption
TECHNOLOGY: The more I read in Screen Damage, the stronger the guilt for the damage I must have caused my children. Children between zero and six should not be exposed to screens at all, according to the book.
A lingering life beyond rationality
HOLDERLIN: Giorgio Agamben makes a loose juxtaposition between Goethe and Hölderlin, between madness and reason. Did the latter allow himself to be pushed psychologically to the limit?
Russia's Africa policy
AFRICA: Russia has been very keen on the principle of non-interference and has allowed authoritarian regimes to pursue their own policies without making any political demands for their trade or aid. But they gave debt relief to a number of African countries at the same time as signing several military-technical agreements.
Capitalism's reality and beyond
NEOLIBERALISM: Capitalist realism is a term for the late capitalist world, where it is not possible to imagine a different and better world – it is what it is. Did neoliberal capital take the form of a wall-to-wall ideology and constitute an affective regime? And was the 'end of history' nothing more than a class project?
Where 97 percent of the population lives on the threshold of starvation
AFGHANISTAN: Zarifa Ghafari is on the BBC's list of the world's 100 most influential women. This Afghan mayor knows very well that she is a symbol – but perhaps most of all an attraction.
New European security architecture
UKRAINE/RUSSIA: The authors of this book believe that the European countries should loosen their ties with the United States in order to achieve constructive results in what can be considered a European security problem. Two parties can only achieve security together with the other party – not at the expense of it.