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.

Side notes on a Revolution in the making

With the Iranian revolution heading to its 100 days of protests, there are clear signs that there is no turning back. The wave of contestation of the mullah-lead regime and the extreme violence of the counter-reaction of the different layers of the establishment leaves no place for ´dialogue´ or ´reform´, as some interested voices of pundits and journalist may be trying to make believe. 

That this will be the last winter under the cleric yoke it´s almost clear. December seems to be a bad months for dictators, and the former Romanian dictator whose last visit before being condemned to death for decades of crimes against his own people was Iran, experienced this on his own skin. What it largely unclear is what will be the next steps of this transformation? Will the perpetrators of the 43 years of dictatorship brought to justice? Would they be able to escape to sunnier lands? Would they eventually use the assets transferred through third outside the country and make a come-back as ´democratic´ participants to the inner competition for power within the incoming free regime?

Reading the notes of the Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuściński who chronicled the last months of the Shah and the instauration of the new clerics´ regime, one may notice a lot of similarities: a ruling elite, with the Shah on the top of it, living in complete denial about the real needs and aspirations of the people; the constant persecution and murder of intellectual elites; the active role of repression forces - like SAVAK - in maintaining the regime and violently discouraging of dissent; the widespread corruption and the large scale stealing of natural resources; the persistence of protests for month before the Shah - at last - and his family decided to leave the country.

There are also many more small differences that do distinguish one regime from the other, one being the desperate blindless of religious fanatics who may not spare anything to stay in power. There is no other danger for humanity than a religious fanatic in position of power. Hence, the refusal to leave the theatre with minimal decency. Also different is the deep hate those mullahs seem to have for the culture of the country they kept hostage.

Even when on the wrong side of history, Iran remains an important regional player and the changes taking place sooner or later within the country may send waves of change across the region. Time will show what kind of changes will be involved and especially who will be the agents of those changes. 

The Revolutionary Women of Iran

 

There is a lot to be said why more than one month after the protests asking an end of four decades of oppression in the Islamic Republic of Iran do still have such a low and relatively distorted reflection into the German media. But for those really looking to understand what are the roots of discontent and why women are on the forefront of the protests, Golineh Atai published exactly one year ago a book featuring nine women from Iran, most of them unknown outside the borders of Iran - the most famous of them is Masih Alinejad who may not be everyone´s cup of tea but nevertheless she started a movement encouraging women to speak out against the government.

Born in Iran, Golineh Atai moved to Germany as a child, shortly after the religious establishment started its take over of power, economy and society in Iran. 

The women movement in Iran has a longer history. Women like Sediqeh Dowlatabadi or Forough Farrokhzad opened the way to more acceptance towards women. Personalities like Nasrin Sotudeh or Shirin Ebadi and the many many unnamed women who refuses the hear to the rules made for them by greedy blood-thirsty clerics. 

What is really disturbing reading the testimonies gathered in Iran. Die Freiheit ist weiblich is the terrible mistreatments ongoing in Iran prisons and the even more horrible barganinig with the corpses of people murdered in prison or during the protests. It is simply.

The book by Golineh Atai is eyes opening and helps to map the mental realm of the current protests. More and more people outside Iran should read such testimonies because it shows how resolute the women of Iran are to challenge a regime way too courted by Western governments and companies. The ongoing Iranian Revolution will definitely change more than a regime in Iran, it will redefine a better and more peaceful Middle East while pushing forward the Western democracies to restrain their appetite for friendly diplomatic lakeys of dictators. 

Antiracist and Antibias Teaching in the School Community

 

Diverse learning is challenging not because there are not enough people qualified to do it, but due to the lack of proper resources and inspiration to continue antiracist and antibias teaching projects. Resources are important to save time and energy, by using patterns already proved successful. The inspiration of other educators following the same path is an encouragement in the hardest moment when there is no support for continuing among parents and other educators and even a clear opposition to an antiracist and antibias teaching.

Educator and social change activist Liz Kleinrock created a very useful collection of resources aimes to offer A Guide to Antibias and Antiracist Work in Your School Community. Those expecting to get a theoretical explanation of the pedagogical processes may be disappointed, because the book is mostly packed with example and testimonies of the regular experiences of the everyday teaching. Which is exactly what teaching is all about: teaching is rather a process than a corpus of theories and methodologies that should be followed blindly. It has to do with being able to adapt to a reality always on the move. 

This reality is adapting and complex and the role of the educator to create both the change and the premises of change. Therefore, the book collects different perspectives and suggests different angles to deal with white supremacy and antiracist education, from a standpoint that rather encourages empathy and understanding instead of accusing and a black-and-white worldview. An important pre-condition of such a process is the idea of unlearning according to which certain concepts and stereotypes acquire through mainstream education or family upbringing can adapt once faced with different arguments. This implies also including the representatives of the mainstream involved in the process of mentality change while avoiding the ´savior´ mentality.

The book is a great tool that may help teachers and educators to plan their lessons and understand different perspectives and points of views. It has a humble take, of someone who will never cease to learn and to adapt, because the aim is less to receive appreciation of the flawless planning but to dramatically push forward the limits of the narrowminded mentalities.

Rating: 4.5 stars

The Condition of Conditional Citizens

This quote from Conditional Citizens by Laila Lalami aimed at describing her experience as a Moroccan-born American citizen applies though to any other non-local conditions (including and particularly in Germany), both from the point of view of their contribution to the overall society than to the limitations and resent they experience on a daily basis:

´Immigrants continue to contribute to America in a million different ways, from growing the food on its tables to innovating the technologies its citizens use every day. Some are exceptional in their fields, while others work in the fields, doing jobs that few nations are willing to take because of their low wages. Whether documented or undocumented, immigrants commit far fewer crimes than native-born citizens. But whenever on offense, particularly a violent offense, involves immigrants, the entire project of immigration is called into question. The problem is, the nativists may say, they don´t assimilate´.

One can write novels and memoirs about how does it feel to carry the weight of your passport on your shoulder, every second of your immigrant life. No matter how educated and fluent you may be in the language, most often than not your identity and allegiance will be questioned, either by your colleagues or the neighbour next door, curious why strange sounds are heard from the other side of your door.

I may allow myself to describe this eternal condition as a Non-belonging.

Advocating for an universal science

 

For all the wrong reasons - from ideological to sheer ignorance - the history of science(s) is predominantly Western/white - centered. Ignoring the very historical facts, the non-European figures are mostly absent from the general scientific narrative, although the exchange of influences and the free circulation of ideas contradicts this simplified official reality.

Fouad Laroui, Moroccan-born economist and writer currently based in Amsterdam, sums up in his Plaidoyer pour les Arabes the noticeable absences of references of Arabic authors and thinkers from the history of sciences as well as the simplified vision of the non-Christian world, reduced to emotional, terrorist-oriented tendencies. 

Although I am usually very careful with the temptation - which manifests as well in some ideological takes on science from Eastern European countries - of assigning a non-European author to generally patterned European ideas, when the genealogy is based on a careful selection and confrontation of sources, the official versions of the history of sciences deserve to be challenged. By outlining the circulation and meeting of ideas from one cultural space to another, the diversity and complexity of the human mind is actually stated. It is a proof that long before our worlds are connected by social media, the cultural afinities were always there.

On the other hand, the plurality of possible worlds has another consequence: it shows us that the extremes and religious exaggeration and intolerance do exist outside the non-Western realm as well. If someone may follow the far-right discourses of the religious extremism, he or she will easily recognize a pattern so easy labelled as anti-Western as being uttered by non-Western sources. Which is equally historically inadequate. The same with the extremism. the propension towards non-scientific interpretations and readings of the world, such as the alternative medicine or spiritual practices, are not the exclusive domain of the ´less developed´ areas of the world, but do co-exist in the midst of Western daily practices as well.

Plaidoyer pour les Arabes is a book which contributes to a shape a fresh, colonisation-free approach on sciences. Such approaches may further open the ways towards a different, more inclusive history.

Dealing with Radical Ideologies - the Friends and Family Version

Since the pandemic started the plethora of conspiracy theories are taking over more public, particularly media, space but those theories and ideas, some of them delivered as a big package which includes anti-semitism and neo-Nazi ideologies, were always there. The problem right now is that they threaten the health and wellbeing of a large amount of population, while before it was rather considered ´other people´s problem´. 

German journalist Dana Buchzik wrote a book aimed at helping to deal with friends and family members ongoing a radicalisation process. It has to do with both women and men, educated or less educated, our mothers, brothers, fathers and sisters took over by the easiness and simplicity of a radical message.

Generally, the key towards change is education and developing a critical mindset. Being informed is not necessarily easy, as the question relies always about the sources of information and the ways in which the information is transmitted and further understood. The biggest mistake is to consider ´radicalised´ people as crazy, mentally unstable or retarded. This pattern unfortunatelly characterizes some takes on anti-semitism nowadays and are completely wrong because it diminishes - willingly or not, for politically safety reasons or not - the extent of radical thought. Those people who joined Daesh in Syria were not mentally unstable, but answered a very simple appeal of an ideology wrapped in the glossy papers of the social media. Even if in the end, the high-tech tool will be used for barbaric snapshots, such as the infamous beheadings copiously shared on social media.

The book is useful both from the point of view of the analysis and content, but also for the practical exercises and advice offered that may help healing some of the people we love of the radicalisation morbus. As a book published in German, it is a very useful tool for those living in the German-speaking realm that claimed for too long being ´cured´ of such deadly fantasies. 

Rating: 4.5 stars