2018 was a rough and wild year for all of us, so we thought we ought to press pause today and look back on some of our favourite publications (your favourite, it turns out, was the Russian propaganda guide to stealing your roommate’s burrito — you find more installments in Natalia Antonova’s #WednesdayWisdom column in our archives).
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In Hungary, tip your doctor if you want to live
Juliá Roth’s frequent dispatches from Hungary shed light on a nation in the throes of change. This piece is about a tradition as old as time: The expectation of ‘gratitude money’ before health care services will be provided, and the small cadre of doctors trying to change this.
The initial idea behind it was to say thank you to your doctor for dealing with you. With a little present, some homemade Pálinka perhaps, or homemade bacon. During communism, when these things were scarce, this evolved into hard cash. Dollars and Deutschmarks were preferred, but Hungarian Forints were not exactly frowned upon either. This being Hungary, where presentation is everything, the money was never handed over hand-to-hand, but was placed in an envelope, to make the whole thing more palatable.
The stagnant Traveller: Why gypsy culture needs to evolve
Lauren Gentle is part of an insular community that doesn’t welcome outsiders or scrutiny, and she’s chafing under the limited roles available to her. In this piece, she talks about what it’s like to be a Traveller, and what the future could hold.
When my A Level results came through in the summer holidays, it was bittersweet. I was proud of myself — I’d done well, but it felt like a hollow victory. I wasn’t going to do anything with them now, they were just letters on a piece of paper. Without the non-Traveller world to give them significance they meant nothing. I spent the next few years with a civil war going on in my head. Some days I convinced myself that I could be happy if I just followed the template cut out for me — get married, raise a family, be a housewife. Other days I would see my school friends posting about uni on Facebook and I would grow angry and resentful. I worked just as hard as them, I was just as smart. Why were they getting to further themselves while I sat there, stagnating, waiting for my life to begin?
Can we take the colonialism out of disaster relief?
Disaster relief is a pressing topic in a globe with a changing climate. Cammi Morgan knows the issue firsthand, and reports from the front lines of storms like Florence, discussing how mutual aid empowers communities to recover together, and addresses some of the deep flaws with government response.
Rather than working with local community and church organizations who understand the needs of their affected neighborhoods, FEMA chooses to work with policing agencies and creates an unwelcoming and militarized presence in the middle of a crisis. In my relief work, I have spoken with hurricane survivors living in low-income black neighborhoods who have described how police and military helicopters spotlit their neighborhoods all night long, and how FEMA trucks drove through their battered neighborhood streets without stopping to offer any tangible aid. These neighbors have detailed how the police response in their neighborhood was one of arresting people for standing on the sidewalks outside their homes after curfew hours rather than offering any material aid.
Christiania: A utopian social experiment?
Frank Petrisano was lucky enough to get a glimpse of an intentional community that’s deeply private and carefully controlled. It’s the kind of travel writing we love, taking us to an unusual and intriguing place filled with people trying a bold experiment.
Although open to the general public, borders are strictly and vehemently controlled when it comes to new residents. Selection is carefully made as all decisions in the commune are; a community vote, which only occurs when an opening is made available. Although strict, that may be the reason why Christiania still exists today, as it has been able to keep the vibrancy of youthful socialism with the constant temptation of the market economy waiting to capitalise on the authenticity of the experience, a fate that a countless number of once thriving ‘hippy’ communes have succumbed to.
No, Lena Dunham Should Not Be the “Face of Fibromyalgia”
At Global Comment, we like discussing communities and subcultures. This from columnist Anna Hamilton delves into Lena Dunham’s attempt to dominate the conversation about fibromyalgia, and why it’s so dangerous.
The general public already tends to view fibromyalgia as a health condition that only well-off white women have; Dunham, who seems to obliviously step in it over and over when it comes to race, might soon do the same for chronic pain. This is a problem; if she gets to be representative of women with fibromyalgia in the public eye, what chance do the rest of us have to get our pain taken seriously?
Sorry to Bother You explores culture, race, and the ‘white voice’
Pop culture commentator E. Young consistently explores the issues surrounding respectability politics and making marginalised communities ‘palatable’ to the world around them. This Sorry to Bother You review delves into the politics of a film you definitely don’t want to miss.
Cassius’s dilemma answers an age old question for activist groups: who do our allies listen to? Specifically, when it comes to issues of marginalized folks, who do the dominant class listen to? The most obvious answer is “themselves”. Allies are often told the best thing to do is to talk to their peers and boost the voices of marginalized groups. Only then will they listen, right?
Photo: ianpreston