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IRAQ: In Iraq, young people trust neither the politicians nor the parties. MODERN TIMES has met the director and producer of the film Baghdad on Fire, which deals with the mobilization of the youth fighting for change in the bad governance of the country's leaders. Karrar Al-Azzawi says the following about the US invasion in 2003: "They brought 'democracy', but we got only chaos and corruption – with politicians who only wanted to steal. The religious leaders were also involved in this."

POETRY: Kosmos' baby by Gunnar Wærness, and Collection by Erling Kittelsen are two books that have a similarity in how they extend away from the personal (author) self and borrow voices from the environment. The latter makes fun of the cultural tourist and New Age consumer who attends evening classes in Sufism one month and shamanic drumming the next.

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?

ECOLOGY: In this story, life on the sailboat becomes a microcosm. Tourists' life in the south disturbs the wildlife – while underwater life has been lost due to overfishing, erosion is increasing due to lost kelp forests. Is it possible to understand that the world that supports the body and consciousness is nature itself?

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?

PHILOSOPHY: How could Hans Skjervheim know that choices, which he himself believes to be free, are not already programmed by the unconscious, by fate, or precisely by heredity or environment?

PSYCHOLOGY: Love is not a project of isolation, but a project of freedom, according to Seyda Kurt: The freedom to be able to choose for oneself is about radical tenderness, about justice.

Nawal El-Saadawi: A conversation about freedom, freedom of speech, democracy and elites in Egypt.

EVIDENCE: God Himself is the problem of evil: must we kill, and must we kill many, and all the time, for the world to be better?

Great power madness? America's shadowy sides have for many made fatal love and the relationship destructive. Bjørneboe's indignation towards America was of the solidarity type.

Will increased control or monitoring in this decade eventually leave more to algorithms that carry out actions themselves based on so-called "actionable intelligence"?

DEATH: The way we die means a lot to life's last rise. This anthology gives a good impression of how we talk about death in today's society.

PHILOSOPHY: Hannah Arendt's age-old work explores thinking, freedom, will and the future. Is there anything thought-provoking about our technologically automated communities?

paternalism: Sunstein advocates active social manipulation to help us make smarter choices. In the book On Freedom, he questions whether free choice actually promotes human welfare.

DEMOCRACY: The growing skepticism of the authorities is a global trend. Can increased degree of citizen participation and awareness of shared responsibility restore confidence?

The theme of freedom goes back to the writing of Margaret Atwood, in which she portrays the lives of men and women living in prison – metaphorically and literally. Her lyrics have made a big impression on me at a time when my freedom has been reduced to my own will.