Reconciling Ugliness

 

In a first post-colonial critical approach on the Western standards of beauty within the German intellectual realm, from a multi-disciplinary perspective, Hässlichkeit (Ugliness, in my free translation) by Afghani-German artist and essayist Moshtari Hilal is an important contribution to the discourse on power games within the beauty industry.

What do we have in mind when we, as women, we are looking ourselves into the mirror? What do we see there? And, more specifically, who do we see there? In most cases, there are some given society standards and expectations that we take into consideration. We see ourselves and the other through those mindsets and we want to emulate in order to not disappoint, to feel desired and desirable, also from a social point of view. It is also a personal account of the reconciliation with the own body, reclaiming the own identity and unicity.

Moshtari´s journey through the perceptions and representations of the body in the Western culture - documented with philosophical, artistic and anthropological sources - reveals the mechanisms of acception and rejection, mediated by the body representation. The author is reflecting on her - and her family - direct experiences in perceiving the feminine body in the Western/White/European realm. 

There are many topics that may have deserved an extended and relatively more in-depth analysis, including in the larger context of the beauty industry, such as the case of beauty surgeries explicitly about the illusion of extended youth - but this book is definitely a great start if you want to evaluate the beauty standards from an ethnic/minority-focused perspective.

Delightfully, the book also contains illustrations - graphic and photography - by the author, an example of how this type of intellectual writing can be done in an artistically creative way.

Rating: 4 stars

´Africa Is Not a Country´

No matter which part of the Globe are you coming from, your region and/or country is marked by stereotypes. Human mind needs concepts - simplified often - in order to put the world into a certain pertainable order. More often we need to figure out the other(s) rather than really understanding them. Geography, conflictual histories, distorted media reports are influencing our way to figure out the world around it, to simplify it in an equally distorted way.

Africa - which is definitely not a country - is by far one of the most stereotypes-ridden part of the world. As VICE journalist Dipo Faloyin in his debut book - that I had access to in audiobookformat, in the lecture of the author - shows through different approaches - governance, history, artifacts looting, literary but particularly film representations - Africa - no nuances and even reliable knowledge considered. 

Each chapter brings more context to the topic and it helps to understand the many aspects of the topic, even by someone less familiar with the issue. Particularly for academics with a focus on disrepresented areas - such as ´Balkans´, ´Eastern Europe´ and the ´Middle East´ it offers a flexible framework of identification and research. When the region is used for describe specific countries, the same simpleminded sin is repeated over and over again.

The book is informed and relies on various specific examples and what is how a book talking about stereotypes should include. Only through examples one can really understand the differences. Personally, although I am explosed to different information about countries like Ghana or Nigeria, I was largely not familiar with specific ongoing ´success stories´ in Rwanda or the women-driven projects, including in the field of governance, in Tanzania.

Personally, I would have expect more representativity, including in the countries once within the French colonial power. A rather newly mentioned colonial power, Germany, is though deeply and sharply analysed, which is already an important contribution to the general debate about colonialism.

This book is recommended both to academics and journalists, for both the content and the format. Hopefully, there will be more such books dedicated to various countries from the African continent and elsewehere as well.

Rating: 4 stars 

The Feminist Revolution of Iran

 

A revolution doesn´t happen over night but once it happens, it changes the face of the world for ever. The predominantly women-lead movement in Iran manifested to the eyes of the Western world one year ago, during the protests ignited by the murder of Jina Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman of Kurdish origin, beated to death by the so-called ´Morality Police´. The regime of the mullahs, who is oppressing Iran for over four decades and keps their population hostage, reacted in full strength, with the desperate scream of a wounded animal that is supposed to die anyway: young people were murdered, tortured and imprisoned. Western ´independent´ journalists trained to support the ´liberals´ aiming for a diluted still theocratic republic, were keen to (des)´inform´ that the ´Morality police´ was abolished and women are freely abandoning the hijab without any consequences, although informed people shared the pressure put on banks, taxi drivers or store owners to refuse serving uncovered women.

Despite the spin of media intoxication, not all journalists of Iranian origin fall for the lures of the mullah servants. Germany, for instance, do have a steady Iranian immigration, dating from before of the Revolution, mostly people committed to refuse theocratic tendencies, no matter how coherent their desire for ´reformation´. The last year protests brought to the forefront journalists, especially women, with good information from inside the country and a strong voice for offering an informed view on the events in Iran. Tehran-born Gilda Sahebi is one of them and I had the chance to listen to her during an event organised this year on the occasion of the Berlin Literature Festival dedicated to the ongoing mentality changes in Iran.

Her book, Unser Schwert ist Liebe - Our Sword is Love, in my own translation - (the title of a song by currently imprisoned rapper Toomaj Salehi) - is an account of the most important events of the last years, with a special focus on the Woman Life Freedom movement. The information cover not only the chain of events and the most important milestones, but also features - anonymously, for obvious security reasons - testimonies of people direclty involved in various segments of the movement, including testimonies of doctors, ethnic and sexual minorities. The book is more than a simple journalistic report, it may help tremendously historians and political scientists to understand the outcome of the movement and eventually to trace its evolution in the months and years to come. 

I hope someone will have the inspiration to translate this book into English or French or any other foreign languages. It adds important information to the nascent literature regarding the democratic movement in Iran, that hopefully soon I will present more on my blog.

Children of Nazis by Tania Crasnianski

After the terrific testimonies from The Real Odessa and the previous revelations about Nazi billionaires I was curious to find out more information about the personal and political genealogies of representatives of the German elites during WWII. 

I cannot remember any reliable information - article or books - that was actually published by German authors living in Germany on this topic. I will try to find out more about this topic and probably dedicate a full article on this topic later on. The topic however is not completely absent and books like Children of Nazis by Tania Crasnianski, following the biographies of eight offsprings of Third Reich elites is eye opening, as it displays not only attitudes but social structures allowing them to perpetuate, supporting children of Nazis to benefit of support structures and sometimes protection too. 

Children may not be taken responsible for the deeds of their parents, but the problem occurs when those are actually proudly perpetuating the criminal mindsets of their parents. This book also shows that the actual discussion about the Nazi past is far from being over in Germany.

The material used is impressive but limited to the eight examples studied in the book. Diplomatically, it avoids to hurry up to general conclusions but at least it may offer an useful mentality pattern.

Children of Nazis is a recommended read for anyone interested in elites in post-totalitarian regimes. It may offer as inspiration and guidance to follow up similar personal and professional pathways in other countries that had to cope with the perpetrators of a traumatic past.

Rating: 4 stars

About Cults

Understanding cults cannot go separately from trying to understand the societies and their fears that produced them. The phenomenon is far from new and there are many discussions regarding its  definition and various categorizations. However, when it comes to leaders, the main character threats are usually the same: mostly male, narcissist, manipulating their female followers and luring them into open relationships and sexual slavery.

The books Cults by Max Culter with Kevin Conley, based on a popular podcasts with the same name, offers to the reader a diverse overview of various such movements, mostly created in the 1970s in the North American realm, many inspired by liberation hippie movements. Mostly focused on events and biographic information about the leaders, the book can be used as a reference for anyone interested in the psychology of cults. 

Importantly, it takes into account also less known cults, such as the Narcosatanists, NXIVM or Heaven´s Gate, but definitely it does leave unaccounted many others. Clearly, there is a need of more research and classification work for offering an even better view over such phenomena. 

A recommended read to anthropologists, historians and psychologists. Cults are offering insights about the intimate wishes at the society level, although in extreme form. Understanding them may only make the social reading in general much easier and predictable.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The Story of The Real Odessa

 

The stories of how notorious war criminals like Mengele and Eichmann comfortably escaped Europe and enjoyed freedom - just for a limited amount of time though, in the case of Eichmann - are well known but the extent of the networks that helped those who commited serious crimes against humanity from all over the world during WWII survive is horrendous. It´s awe and horror that you experience while reading the well documented The Real Odessa. How Nazi Criminals Escaped Europe by Argentinian journalist Uki Goñi.

What it´s revealing in this case is the combination of factors that helped those criminals to escape: from the lack of knowledge among the Allies about who their prisoners were and thus, letting them escape, to the diplomatic support they got for getting fake passports after the war to the open support the Vatican offered to various fugitives. The Cold War and the rivalities between the US and the Soviet Union were at play as well, hence the help some former Nazis - of all colours from Germany to Eastern Europe - received. Argentina, their most important hub after the war - another one is the Middle East with countries like Syria or Egypt equally helping them to settle in exchange of their military and scientific knowledge - is still coping with the consequences of the decision of Juan Peron to support the settlement of war criminals: the young generation and intellectuals were tortured by the military junta whose methods were inspired by those applied in various concentration camps (The Middle East, nurtured by the same anti-democratic and antisemitic ideology missed more than once the chance of a real revival and the wellbeing of their citizens).

Goñi describes the most notorious such examples tracing the routes, sources of revenue and supporters. Thus, one can perfectly understand what social categories and political entities were part of the system, why they decided to be part of the network and what were the expected results. It is a very dark side of the Cold War that costed dearly democracy - as in the case of Afghanistan, but at a different extent. It may explain why nowadays, we keep talking about the ideologies of the righ and why in many places in this world - including Germany, the IIIrd Reich remains such popular: the perpetrators of the ideology were never discontinued, they kept spreading their mindset.

The pathways opened by Uki Goñi in his book and previous researches do however give a reason for hope: with so many open archives - Red Cross (a generous provider of fake passports for Nazi fugitives), the Vatican, various articles and public information - the role of the researchers is to continue revealing more and more information and exposing the culprits. Democracy is an everyday fight.

Rating: 5 stars  

An XRay overview of Putin´s People

Especially after Putin´s war against Ukraine - unfortunately too late, for reasons that will be later explained - there are more and more journalistic investigations and reports about Putin´s wealth, influence and his extended network of trustworthy pawns spread all over the world. Russian studies are back in fashion and the voices of Russian-speaking experts are once again heard. Too late, as Putin´s work in undermining democracy started many years ago, from the years of his career as KGB operative in Dresden.

British journalist Catherine Belton, former FT Moscow correspondent between 2007 and 2013, exposed with an acribic precision ´how the KGB took back Russia and then took on the West´. Her book, Putin´s People offers all the background one needs to know about how Russia operates now, and how his main puppeteer manipulates everythin, following the old rules of KGB. Through the network of politicians and business associates in the West - Germany may know a bit more about it, from the times of the Red Army Faction at least, encouraged and trained with the KGB support - and a trustworth super rich new class, Putin maintained his power and priviledges, becoming a power gold digger with expensive villas and yachts, he couldn´t have dream about in his humble childhood.

Aimed both at the large readership, but also political scientists and journalists relatively new in the field, lacking the steady background of the changes Russia went through in the last decade, in terms of elites´ change and Putin´s role in anti-democratic turns in Europe and abroad. A warning sign, well documented about how important is to not forget history and especially not underestimate someone like Putin. 

Rating: 5 stars

Unterstanding QAnon Mindset

Following the failed attempted coup at the Capitol lead mostly by Trump supporters, QAnon conspiracy theories received worldwide attention in media reports and analysis. However, they were out a bit longer and they continued to be long after. During the pandemic, supporters of this organisation that melts antisemitic tropes with racist and conspiracy theories, took over the streets in Germany and other countries, to protest against the ´deep state´, a code for the official authorities. Practically, they grew exponentially during those times.

Mia Bloom and Sophia Moskalenko, two academic experts in the field of radicalization and far right theories summed up the history and background of the movement, as well as its main concepts and interpretations. 

We may consider QAnon a political cult, without necessarily designated leaders, but nevertheless exploiting isolated individuals. ´Conspiracties like QAnon exploit vulnerable people during times of personal crisis, especially those who lack social support networks´. For an isolated person without contact with real life and sometimes without a lucrative aim, staying at home and following various theories, and ending up by making up their own based on uncritical assumptions may turn into an addictive habit. The repertoire of the American conspiracies is much older than QAnon but in this case, it relies on the access to online resources of all kinds, and was supported during Donald Trump time in the office. Compared to other far right movements though, QAnon has a significant amount of women among its supporters due to its focus on ´pedophiles´ and sexual predators, but also due to their relative isolations, especially in some remote parts of America. 

Although Pastels and Pedophiles is well documented and is written in an academic tone, it feels as rushed out gathering facts and summing up only once in a while with some conclusions that do resonate, but sometimes are too general. I would have expect more theoretical background and throughout mentality analsysis in order to help us better understand the roots and the possible evolutions. 

The recommendation to include critical thinking as part of the school curriculum is a very good idea but would have expect more details about the content and eventually the methods.

The FAQ at the end of the book is an useful summary of the most important questions regarding this movement, but maybe would have been better to use this space for more details and considerations about the movement.

The book was published two years ago, when QAnon was frequently in the media and therefore, it aims at offering to journalists and curious people some important timelines and concepts. For someone knowing nothing about this topic, it is a good start although this book could have been much much more.

Rating: 3 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The Far Right Threat

 

A long-time expert in counter-terrorism and global Islamic threats like ISIS, Iraqi-born US-based Israeli Rita Katz rightly evaluates how loose is the legal and intelligence counter-reaction to internal far right threats. Written shortly after the pandemic lockdown, where all over the world, conspiracy theories were melted into nationalist rhetorics not amended by state actors, Saints and Soldiers. Inside Internet-Age Terrorism, from Syria to the Capitol Siege is an eye opening account of why and how the far right threats increased in the last years, unamended by state actors.

Someone who studied the ISIS and Islamist rhetorics for a long time, may figure out the common pattern by the far right, especially the anti-establishment and misogynistic take, anti-Semitism and the desire the disturb the everyday activities of state institutions. However, although the online activities of ISIS and its near of kin are relatively well documented and publicly denounced, worries are about the ways in which the far right is taking over the public discourse and its freedom to use and abuse online networks and open online resources.

The rhetoric are similar and they may need each other. When they are not just teenagers operating far right networks from the comfort of their computer in far away countries, individuals involved in far right activities of all kinds may know the state and may actually benefit of the support of state actors and individuals part of the system. See, for instance, the colourful list of people who were part of the plan to overthrwo the German government recently. 

This book, written with the feedback of someone who dedicated her life to dismantle the anti-democratic threats, no matter where they are coming from, is a very useful material aiming at explaining the current mindsets as well as the sources of discontent. State institutions, scholars and practitioners, be aware!

Rating: 5 stars

A Story of Two National Narratives

In everyday diplomatic practice, national narratives are sometimes the hardest part to overcome. Rooted in mentalities and national representations, those stories do represent sometimes the chore of the identity itself. Once removed or readjusted, particularly if suddenly, may create dramatic identity rifts.

Republics of Myth. National Narratives and the US-Iran Conflict is a co-authored volume of analysis by Hussein Banai, Malcolm Byrne and John Tirman displaying and explaining the complex interactions - mostly behind the public eyes - between the two nations at war. A war of words, a war of decisions, a war of the narratives.

The authors are very informed, using local knowledge and national intelligence archives, which makes the information provided valuable and reliable. However, like in the case of the national narratives skillfully analyses, it´s always a matter of perspective and no matter how much information you may have on a topic, the choice of the topic itself is subjective. Definitely, Iran and US do have conflicting narratives, sometimes fuelled by other interests than the ones aiming at improving their own nations. On the other hand, neglecting the horrible human rights record and abusive character of the Iranian regime against their own people, which makes far more victims than the sanctions, may look dubious given the tremendous available information the authors had at their disposal.

There are aspects regarding international terrorism the regime in Tehran supports in the region, but without a throughout analyses that may reveal in fact why allowing them to own a nuclear bomb may be controversial. Minimising international critics agains the Nuclear Deal as being issued by the ´pro Israel lobby´ - I´ve lost count how many times this expression it was mentioned in the book - is distoring the value of the information provided and analyses.

Another rather controversial take is using geopolitical paradigms of ´border expansion´ which do have a highly controversial reputation, being used in various expansionists ideologies. Comparing the expansion of the US interests towards the Middle East with the previous expansion to the (wild) West, a a race for resources, largely uncritically, needed more than a paradigmatic translation in a completely different and much more complex context.

Republics of Myth is an important book for anyone interested in conflictual national narratives and their part in fuelling international conflict, but should be rather took with the very critical take, which is exactly how academics and intellectuals in general should consider any given facts, particularly of recent historical relevance.

Rating: 3 stars

Stories from Inside Qatar

 

I´ve started to read this book many months ago, shortly before Qatar World Cup 2022. It looked like the right moment to start understading ´one of ther richest nations on Earth´ that was about to take over the news with a much awaited international soccer event, from an anthropological point of view. Somehow though, the intake of daily news introducing also the ugly part of the Kingdom to the Western media, despite the intensive PR and spin-doctoring, was partly covered. 

As in the case of many other countries in the region, benefiting of huge financial power, mostly due to the rich oil resources, the treatment of foreign workers, the citizenship restrictions and the treatment of women - to mention only few of the most dividing topics - Qatar is mostly closed to outside scrutiny. News about corruption involved in the successful bid of Qatar, the Arab first world country to host a World Cup, and restrictions to journalists and participants to the events jeopardized the expected media success of the event.

A historian and anthropologist based in Turkey, John McManus explored a couple of very sensitive aspects of the everyday life in Qatar. Inside Qatar. Hidden Stories from One of the Richest Nations on Earth is based on discussions with residents of the country, mostly belonging to disadvantaged categories, such as construction workers, immigrants from the region or South-East Asia. Further on, a whole new realm is settled, where segregation is enforced outside the central urban areas, labour rights are denied and migrant workers abused. On the other side of the separation line, the highly qualified working force from the ´developed world´ is enjoying priviledges and a lifestyle impossible to entertain back home.

John McManus observes and takes notes, investigates based on his own observations and using voices of people directly witnessing different situations. I appreciated the focus on labour rights and the shy yet emergent movement or individual examples of individuals trying to challenge and eventually change the current situation. On the other hand, I´ve felt like there are so many other aspects missing from the book, including the influence of Qatar in shaping certain policies in the region, through Al Jazeera, for instance, or various support for terrorist groups. 

Inside Qatar is an important reference of anthropological value that helps understanding the country based on the testimonies of less priviledged people contributing to the wellbeing of the country. Thus, there are many myths shattered, and many more waiting to be analysed with the same distinction and distance from the steams of paid advertising.

Rating: 4 stars

Spin Dictators

 

For the highly optimistic bunch who, like me, was thinking that Internet will make the world a better free and democratic place, Spin Dictators by Sergei Guriev&Daniel Treisman is a bitter wake-up call. In fact, what Internet and online/social media tools in particular provided was equal chances: to either do good or bad.

Search for the money and then you may know that people in power, keen to keep being in power at any price, will do their best to manipulate algorithms and get online visibility. Fake news and non-news upgraded to the level of news through SEO-related tricks may prevail compared to the classical information sharing. Spin Dictators can have it all, except one single thing: stand faced with informed readers, who may be as versed as them in the field of media/online knowledge. 

The tools may have been used before: television used to play with similar - although at a smaller scale - manipulations. The antidote is a generation of critical thinkers, able to distinguish bad from good, that in no way could believe everything they read. Able to recognize the manipulation of the digital dictators and their misgivings. Informed citizen, aware of their rights and how precious they are to fight for it.

This book is an useful and well -researched source of information that may definitely help understanding the mechanisms of political manipulation but instead of being deterred and skeptical about the chances of democratic survival, to rather realize how one and a society in its entirety can better fight to maintain our democratic rights and freedom.

What to Learn from the Pegasus Story

Does science and innovative achievement take into account moral implications? Should we limit the success of our scientific and techonological projects for the sake of presumptive moral and political harm?

I don´t have the knowledge of critically assessing the label that Pegasus is ´world´s most dangerous spyware´, but as much as it was featured in the media, this system developed by the Israeli company NSO was definitely sold to state actors and institutions that used them contrary to human rights, media freedoms and democracy principles. 

In general, the overall discussion about Pegasus took inevitably a biased direction that does not have necessarily to do with the results of the investigation, targeting NSO beyond the purely sake of the investigation. However, after reading the investigation by Forbidden Stories investigative reporters Laurent Richard&Sandrine Rigaud I couldn´t stop from thinking in terms of responsibility and human risks - privacy, and well beyond that. 

Should companies, any of them, consider more the human element into their risk assessment considerations? We are living in an era when social responsibility is higher than ever before. Companies are taking responsibility and trying to behave in a responsible way when it comes to protecting the environment, for example. Why not trying to take a similar take on issues that may pertain to digital surveillance and human rights? 

As humans who are creating machines and apps and push forward for technological achievement, maybe we can try sometimes to temper our enthusiasm in order to leave place for human and moral consideration. From the academic point of view, this is a discussion that belongs to our current process of mentalities shaping in the making. For each times, it´s own priorities and until the transition will fully take place, conflicts between new and old mindsets will prevail.