The Menton Times - Volume III, No. V

The Menton Times

January 2024

Volume III, NO.5

NEWS

Loi “immigration” en France : entre crises politiques et institutionnelles

By SALOMÉ GREFFIER

dernières années par les gouvernements français successifs. Ainsi, depuis 1974, sous la présidence de Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, la mise en place de mesures pour encadrer et limiter les flux migratoires, sous couvert de sécurité nationale, marque le paysage politique français de clivages profonds.SEE PAGE 1

Le 19 décembre 2023, les députés et sénateurs français réunis dans une commission mixte paritaire adoptent le texte controversé de la Loi “immigration” proposée par le gouvernement macroniste dès février de la même année. Cette loi ne constitue que le prolongement d’une politique menée au cours des cinquante

OPINION

Gabriel Attal ou l’art de la communication

BY JONATHAN SMIDTAS SCHALITA

À seulement 34 ans, Gabriel Attal est le plus jeune chef de gouvernement de la Ve République. Encore inconnu du grand public il y a peu, il a réussi en seulement quelques mois à s’affirmer comme une figure centrale de la vie politique française. Depuis sa prise de fonction le 20 juillet au ministère de l’éducation, sa capacité à réagir de manière proactive à l'actualité et à transformer les défis en opportunités a rapidement attiré l'attention.

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CULTURE

SPORT

2024: Year of the Bike on the Côte d’Azur

BY GRUFFUDD AB OWAIN

It’s a Saturday afternoon, and as I have come to expect, the weather is, to a Welshman, perfect.

It’s cliché to say that people from Britain always talk about the weather, but it’s true; its changeable nature lends itself to an easy topic of conversation. I notice that often, since moving to Menton, comments about the weather still seem to slip off my tongue with surprising ease.

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MENA

Houthi Attacks Unaffected By US-led Anomie in Urban Life (A Rant from Amsterdam to Athens) Counterstrikes: Houthi Role In Gaza

BY COLETTE YAMASHITA HOLCOMB

BY ROSIE BETROSIAN

I recently had the opportunity to explore Amsterdam, and when asked about my impressions, I found myself wrestling with the urge to rant about the inescapable canals, marijuana-smelling corners, or the labyrinth layout of the city. I tried to find the closest square for a view of the city, perhaps catch a glimpse of a mountaintop, but that was impossible.

SEE PAGE 18

Plagued by famine, economic collapse, and natural disasters, the increasingly destabilized Yemen has everything to lose through involvement in the war in Gaza. Yet, Yemeni resistance groups have emerged as some of the strongest oppositions to Israel. In particular, Houthi fighters have attacked ships in the Red Sea, forcing some of the world’s most prominent shipping and oil companies to suspend transit through the crucial maritime trade routes.

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1 | January 2024

NEWS

The Menton Times

Loi “immigration” en France : entre crises politiques et institutionnelles

BY SALOMÉ GREFFIER Le 19 décembre 2023, les députés et sénateurs français réunis dans une commission mixte paritaire adoptent le texte controversé de la Loi “immigration” proposée par le gouvernement macroniste dès février de la même année. Cette loi ne constitue que le prolongement d’une politique menée au cours des cinquante dernières années par les gouvernements français successifs. Ainsi, depuis 1974, sous la présidence de Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, la mise en place de mesures pour encadrer et limiter les flux migratoires, sous couvert de sécurité nationale, marque le paysage politique français de clivages profonds.

Dès 2006, le gouvernement évoque la notion d’immigration choisie supposant des mesures d’aide au retour dans les pays d’origine des réfugiés, un durcissement des conditions du regroupement familial ou encore l’instauration d’une carte “compétence et talents” pour sélectionner la main-d'œuvre étrangère. Au centre de ces mesures gravitent les idées de mérite, d’assimilation et d’identité nationale.

Sur ce terreau historique, la dernière Loi “immigration” défendue par l’actuel ministre de l’intérieur, Gérald Darmanin, était présentée comme un compromis entre contrôle accru de l’immigration et une meilleure intégration. Le texte proposait en filigrane une pression prononcée sur l’obtention des droits de séjour pour les étudiants, familles et travailleurs, ainsi qu’une limitation toujours plus importante du nombre d’entrées sur le territoire et un encadrement de l’obtention de la nationalité en invoquant le droit du sol.

La version proposée par le gouvernement a d’abord été votée par le Sénat puis remaniée par la commission des lois de l’Assemblée nationale. L’adoption d’une motion de rejet de la part des députés a rendu caduque cette version du texte, nécessitant l’intervention d’une commission mixte paritaire. Les conclusions de cette dernière convainc alors 214 sénateurs principalement centristes et affiliés à la droite, à l’exception d’une abstention dans le rang des Républicains, face à 114 voix associées à la Nupes, au Parti Socialiste, aux communistes et aux écologistes. Les élus de Renaissance, le parti du président, se sont quant à eux montrés clivés avec 15 voix en faveur de la Loi contre 4 en

défaveur et une abstention. De même, à l’Assemblée nationale, le texte rassemble 349 députés et souligne des divisions au sein du parti de d’Emmanuel Macron: 20 députés s’étant prononcés contre la Loi et 17 choisissant l’abstention.

L'évocation d’une démission de la part de six ministres appuie davantage encore la situation de crise engendrée par la ratification de cette Loi. En conséquence, l’adoption de la Loi “immigration” constitue une victoire pour la majorité sénatoriale de droite et signe, selon les partis de gauche, l’officialisation de son intégration à la majorité gouvernementale. Plus largement, cette mesure marque selon le journal quotidien espagnol El País une remise en question de “l’essence du macronisme, qui se proclame ni de gauche, ni de droite” faisant par ailleurs de cette caractéristique son principal instrument électoral.

Désormais, le parti est associé à ce “compromis humiliant avec les partis de droite” affirme le journal suisse Le Temps, un signe supplémentaire du glissement de ce gouvernement vers la droite, faisant écho au mouvement politique actuel dans une grande partie de l’Europe.

Au-delà de cette crise politique, résultant de l’obédience politique du gouvernement actuel, la Loi “immigration” interroge sur le respect des valeurs républicaines. Si pour certains sénateurs tels que Philippe Bonnecarrère (Union centriste) ce texte “exprime une autorité régalienne forte dans le respect de l’Etat de droit” faisant état du bon fonctionnement des institutions, d’autres affirment que ce texte s’éloigne des valeurs républicaines d’égalité et de fraternité. Ainsi, les partis de gauche accusent le Sénat et le Parlement d’alimenter des idées extrémistes telles que la préférence nationale et le populisme.

Alors que Gérald Darmanin avance que “Des mesures sont manifestement contraires à la Constitution”, rendant certaines mesures de la Loi inapplicables, il faut sans doute considérer les raisons pour lesquelles de telles mesures ont pu être votées au sein d’institutions républicaines. La Loi “immigration” ne sera donc probablement pas appliquée dans les faits, mais il n’en demeure pas moins que sa rédaction alarme quant au maintien des valeurs fondamentales de notre République.

... l’adoption de la Loi “immigration” constitue une victoire pour la majorité sénatoriale de droite et signe

2 | January 2024

The Menton Times

NEWS

La COP 28 : pourquoi Dubaï?

BY CALISTA CELLERIER La COP28 s’est déroulée aux Emirats Arabes Unis (EAU) en novembre dernier.

Elle promettait une approche globale et détaillée des futures actions pour le climat, réunissant les pays du monde entier dans le combat contre le réchauffement climatique. Pourtant, une fois de plus depuis la Coupe du Monde au Qatar, il semblerait que les pays du Moyen Orient soient au cœur des débats critiques environnementaux, politiques et sociaux. Alors, qu’est-ce que la COP28 aux EAU, et pourquoi tant de scandales?

Pour commencer, qu’est-ce qu’une COP? COP pour Conference of the Parties, il s’agit d’un rassemblement annuel à l'échelle gouvernementale, réunissant de nombreux pays dans l’objectif de répondre à la crise climatique et de trouver des solutions et plans d’action contre le réchauffement climatique. La COP28 a pour but, comme les autres, d'adresser la crise climatique. Elle se déroulait entre le 30 novembre et le 13 décembre 2023 sur l’ancien site de l’Expo 2020 à Dubaï. Parmi de nombreux consensus, les pays se mettent d’accord qu’il nous faut transitionner au-delà des énergies fossiles, de manière équitable et organisée. Il est attendu des pays les plus développés de transitionner vers l'énergie verte plus vite que les pays en développement. Cette COP se concentrait aussi sur le financement climatique et l'inclusivité de tous les pays dans les accords et actions. En revanche, pas d’obligation d’agir ni de plan chronologique proposé.

Selon les Nations Unies, la COP28 était une COP très importante, car non seulement elle devait mettre les pays d’accord sur le plan d’action, mais aussi, pour la première fois, comment le mettre en œuvre. C'était un premier bilan mondial, décidant de ce qu’il nous reste à faire et guidant les pays dans les méthodes et technologies nécessaires pour accélérer les choses.

Pourtant, les critiques fusent.

Défenseurs de l'environnement, journaux et médias reconnus, tous s’accordent à dire que la décision des Nations Unis de placer la COP28 aux des Emirats est une erreur compte tenu de l’empreinte écologique monstrueuse du pays. Mais le problème ne s'arrête pas là, car il semble que le choix du président de la COP28, fait par le gouvernement Émirati, ne fasse

pas l'unanimité internationale. En effet, la nomination du Dr. Sultan Al Jaber a la présidence de cette conférence rencontre de l’opposition car il est aussi l'exécutif en chef de la 12eme plus grande compagnie de pétrole au monde, la Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, ou Adnoc. De plus, des documents secrets publiés sur de nombreux médias comme la CNN affirment que Al Jaber prévoit de nouveaux contrats avec d’autres acteurs politiques pour augmenter et distribuer plus de pétrole. Quel paradoxe donc, que le président de Adnoc soit aussi celui de la COP28.

Ainsi les théories du complots émergent quant aux véritables intentions de Al Jaber. Bien qu’il nie ces allégations, le Guardian affirme avoir découvert des échanges par email affirmant ces dernières, soulignant le manque de responsabilité et de jugement de la part des Nations Unis et du gouvernement Émirati. La COP28 est qualifiée de “scandale” par Manon Aubry, politicienne française, ou encore de “ridicule” par Greta Thunberg, jeune activiste suédoise déjà très reconnue mondialement.

Il n’est un secret pour personne qu’une partie du business des Emirats est basée sur le commerce du pétrole. Les EAU se classent 8eme dans le monde en termes de production et 24eme en termes de consommation. La production et consommation de pétrole ne cesse de grandir année après année, faisant des Emirats l’un des pays les plus polluants du monde. En effet, selon le site Our World in Data, ils réunissaient 0,66% des émissions globales de CO2 en 2022, un record dans l’histoire des Emirats. Selon les dernières statistiques de la Banque mondiale, les expositions à la pollution sont 8 fois plus élevées dans le pays que ce qui est considéré comme sain pour la santé par l’Organisation Mondiale de la Santé (OMS). Les EAU font face à de nombreuses critiques quant au

recyclage de l’eau, au gaspillage de nourriture et aux effets néfastes de l'activité humaine sur l'environnement, comme la construction d'îles artificielles. Les conséquences sont importantes : augmentation de la salinité de l’eau, destruction des habitats naturels et immense contribution du pays au réchauffement climatique. Mais les Emirats sont-ils vraiment une cause perdue en matière de changement vers une société plus eco-friendly?

recyclage de l’eau, au gaspillage de nourriture et aux effets néfastes de l'activité humaine sur l'environnement, comme la construction d'îles artificielles.

Les conséquences sont importantes : augmentation de la salinité de l’eau, destruction des habitats naturels et immense contribution du pays au réchauffement climatique. Mais les Emirats sont-ils vraiment une cause perdue en matière de changement vers une société plus S’il est vrai que les Emirats sont l’un eco-friendly? des pays les plus pollueurs au monde, il ne faut pas ignorer les S’il est vrai que les Emirats sont récents efforts mis en place pour l’un des pays les plus pollueurs au améliorer cette image. Les EAU sont monde, il ne faut pas ignorer les le premier pays du Golfe à avoir récents efforts mis en place pour annoncé vouloir atteindre la améliorer cette image. Les EAU neutralité carbone d’ici 2050. Le défi sont le premier pays du Golfe à s’annonce de taille, mais l'idée est là, avoir annoncé vouloir atteindre la ainsi que les actions. En 2023, les neutralité carbone d’ici 2050. Le EAU se plaçaient seconds dans la défi s’annonce de taille, mais l'idée consommation mondiale d'énergie est là, ainsi que les actions. En solaire, derrière l’Australie. A Dubaï, 2023, les EAU se plaçaient le parc solaire de Mohammed bin seconds dans la consommation Rashid Al Maktoum est déjà en mondiale d'énergie solaire, opération et continue de se derrière l’Australie. A Dubaï, le développer, dans l’espoir d’atteindre parc solaire de Mohammed bin une capacite totale de 5 giga watts, Rashid Al Maktoum est déjà en pouvant ainsi réduire la opération et continue de se consommation de CO2 de 6,5 développer, dans l’espoir millions de tonne par an. Une autre d’atteindre une capacite totale de initiative, illustrant cette volonté de 5 giga watts, pouvant ainsi réduire tourner au vert, se trouve être le la consommation de CO2 de 6,5 développement de Masdar City, un millions de tonne par an. Une quartier 100% eco-friendly à Abu autre initiative, illustrant cette Dhabi. Développé en partie par volonté de tourner au vert, se l’entreprise Masdar, dont le trouve être le développement de président n’est nul autre que Sultan Masdar City, un quartier 100% Al Jaber, Masdar City offre une eco-friendly à Abu Dhabi. architecture désignée spécialement Développé en partie par pour économiser l’eau et l'énergie, l’entreprise Masdar, dont le comme un surélèvement des président n’est nul autre que quartiers pour éviter que l’air chaud Sultan Al Jaber, Masdar City offre du désert ne réchauffe la cité. une architecture désignée Recyclage de l’eau, climatisation spécialement pour économiser naturelle et utilisation d'énergies l’eau et l'énergie, comme un renouvelables.

Seul problème, surélèvement des quartiers pour Masdar City n’est pas très peuplée, éviter que l’air chaud du désert ne suscitant des questions quant à réchauffe la cité. Recyclage de l'efficacité de l'émergence soudaine l’eau, climatisation naturelle et de nouvelles villes, ce qui pousse les utilisation d'énergies villes déjà construites et connues, renouvelables. Seul problème, comme Dubaï, à se développer de la Masdar City n’est pas très

3 | January 2024 peuplée, suscitant des questions quant à l'efficacité de l'émergence soudaine de nouvelles villes, ce qui pousse les villes déjà construites et connues, comme Dubaï, à se développer de la même manière. Le gouvernement Émirati annonce continuer de travailler avec ses entreprises d'énergie, dont Adnoc, pour continuer sur cette lancée et transformer sa consommation d'énergie.

Alors, la COP28 pourrait bien être un moyen de se débarrasser de cette étiquette. Aujourd'hui, le cheikh des Emirats Arabes Unis,

The Menton Times Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, s’engage pour un futur plus vert, et déjà l'Émirat de Dubaï ne repose plus son économie sur le pétrole, mais bien sur le tourisme et les investissements dans les secteurs du luxe, de la finance et de l’immobilier. La même affirmation est vraie pour les autres émirats des EAU, car le pétrole et les énergies fossiles ne sont plus la base principale de l'économie du pays. La décision de confier la COP28 à Dubaï n’est donc pas anodine. S’il est évident que le pays ne renoncera pas aux productions et exportations de pétrole d’ici peu, Al Jaber semblait être le parfait

candidat pour la COP28. Habitué des discussions sur le climat, il est surtout le visage du développement vers les énergies renouvelables des EAU, avec des projets tels que Masdar City. Al Jaber affirme qu’il souhaite entreprendre une transition graduelle mais efficace sur le long terme, avec une approche balancée entre répondre à la demande mondiale en énergie et transitionner de manière adaptée à tous les pays. Lors d’une conférence pétrolière annuelle en 2021, il déclare: "Oui, les énergies renouvelables se développent rapidement. Mais le gaz et le pétrole restent les plus grandes

NEWS énergies du mix énergétique et le seront pendant des décennies. Le futur arrive, mais il n’est pas encore là. On ne peut pas tout simplement débrancher le système d’aujourd’hui".

Si Al Jaber affirme pouvoir faire de la COP28 une COP historique, réunissant tous les pays du monde, les populations indigènes et les industries d'énergies fossiles et renouvelables dans le combat contre le réchauffement climatique, reste à voir s’il y arrivera, et dans le temps limite que nous avons pour sauver notre planète.

4 | January 2024

The Menton Times

NEWS

Turkey Inches Closer to Landmark F-16 Acquisition

BY YASMIN ABBASOY approval for Swedish membership will not be enough for Turkey to secure the jets it has been seeking for so long, which has been a major point of concern for Ankara. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have more than sufficient basis for their worries, however, as Turkey’s recent military maneuvers have done little to endear it to the Americans.

The unending odyssey of the F16s has perhaps been the most salient conflict in U.S.-Turkey relations in recent years.

President Erdoğan’s 2021 request to purchase 40 of these jets along with a number of upgrade kits for its existing fleet introduced a significant point of leverage to the traditionally strained relations between the two states – one which has been maneuvered to apply to almost every aspect of foreign policy since. Recent dramatic developments in global politics have also drawn the uneasy allies closer in some arenas and further out in others.

A common interpretation of the Turkish request is that it was made as a sort of last-resort bid for U.S. loyalty – a final chance for the U.S. to step up as Turkey’s most important ally, and the endmost bulwark against the culmination of a potential Turkish pivot to Russia. The concept of a F-16 sale did after all materialize as a reaction to Turkey’s ejection from the F-35 joint fighter program, a network of U.S. NATO allies which have been funding the development of the newgeneration planes with the eventual hope of integrating them into their defense apparatus, which came about as a result of the purchase of the Russian S-400 system on Turkey’s part. The justification for this purchase, which triggered a harsh round of sanctions, was U.S. reticence on the transfer of the F-35 planes, mostly in reaction to Turkey’s aggressive conduct in Cyprus and Greece.

The delay in the F-16 sale did not truly materialize in a turn eastward for Turkey, mostly due to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Erdoğan did,

however, take a more subdued stance on Russian aggression than many of its NATO allies, keeping comparatively closer ties with Putin that allowed Turkey to host potential peace negotiations in 2022. Furthermore, Turkey has kept itself relatively well-integrated with Russia, as demonstrated by the significant increase in trade between the two countries postinvasion.

Given the outsized presence of Russia in the U.S.-Turkey relationship, it is fitting that Russia would be the nation to indirectly provide Turkey with its most important bargaining chip vis-a-vis the United States. The invasion of Ukraine brought the concept of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) strength and unity to the forefront of the global political consciousness, which contributed in large part to Finland and Sweden applying for membership. Potential members must be approved by all existing NATO nations, as happened to Finland. Sweden, however, was a tougher sell: it had an unofficial arms embargo on Turkey and had previously provoked ire from Turkey on its allegedly permissive attitude towards the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which it sees as a separatist terrorist organisation.

Using these justifications, Turkey has been able to delay the ratification of Sweden’s membership indefinitely, dealing an important blow to the conception of a strong, united NATO that the U.S. has been central in promoting.

Significant progress has recently been made. In light of security guarantees from Sweden, the Foreign Commission of the Turkish Parliament has approved the membership bid. This means the ratification is now able to be put to a vote in the assembly, in which

Erdoğan and his allies hold a majority. Afterwards, Erdoğan must sign the bill into law in order to end a full 19 months of continuous delays to the process. Erdoğan has, since the beginning of the process, been very careful in emphasizing the role of the F-16s in the ratification procedure–the ratification is widely interpreted as a form of concession to the United States, one which deserves some sort of recompense. It was not, however, the end-all of this diplomatic snag until very recently.

The past few weeks have seen a revealing shift in Turkish rhetoric regarding the potential sale: officials have always been quick to point out their discontent with what they have seen as an unfair conflation between the ratification and the F-16 deal on the part of the Biden Administration, with Erdoğan himself calling the rhetoric “deeply upsetting.” The Department of Defense has been forced to clarify that no such linkage between the two topics has been officially acknowledged. The beginning of December, however, saw Erdoğan tying progress on the ratification to the F-16 sale, mentioning his expectations of further steps from the Biden Administration in exchange for his own work in the Turkish parliament.

Biden has consistently been very supportive of the sale, having already unofficially informed Congress and expressing an intention to complete the sale repeatedly. The primary obstacle is the attitudes of key figures in Congress, who have been characteristically reticent about supplying Turkey with more weapons. Key members of the committees engaged with foreign affairs work in both the House and the Senate have cautioned that the

In Azerbaijan, Turkey provided political support to the ethnic cleansing of the 120,000 ethnicArmenian citizens of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh, which had been situated within Azerbaijani borders in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. This put it in direct opposition to the US and other Western partners, who all roundly condemned the events. In Northern Syria, Turkey has been battering civilian infrastructure such as power stations and hydraulic plants in response to a terror attack in the vicinity of the National Assembly which was claimed by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. Turkey has also targeted the Syrian Defense Forces, U.S. allies which are considered to be linked to terrorist organizations by Turkey.

Furthermore, Turkish action close to a U.S. base in the area resulted in the unprecedented downing of a Turkish drone.

Turkey has also had a historically strained relationship with Greece, having an established record of invading Greek airspace with political motivations and the eventual goal of normalizing its unique and expansionist conception of maritime borders.

As Congress seems unwilling to be persuaded on the matter, Erdoğan has pivoted to place even more importance on the ratification process as a large concession on the part of Ankara.

If Washington responds favorably to these developments, the longdebated F-16 sale could finally materialize, marking a new chapter in the complex dynamic between the two nations.

5 | January 2024

The Menton Times

OPINION

Attaques des Houthis en mer Rouge : une escalade est-elle inévitable ?

BY JONATHAN SMIDTAS SCHALITA Les Houthis refont parler d’eux.

Alors que le monde semblait les avoir oubliés, ces acteurs de la chaotique guerre au Yémen ont détourné le 19 novembre un navire et pris en otage ses 25 membres d’équipage.

Ils multiplient les tirs de missiles et de drones sur des navires marchands en mer Rouge et ont ciblé une frégate française le 9 décembre. Les impacts de ces attaques sont importants, tant sur le plan économique que politique, et une nouvelle intervention occidentale se dessine dans la région.

Les Houthis, groupe rebelle chiite en conflit avec le gouvernement yéménite depuis les années 2000, ont montré leur puissance avec la conquête de la capitale Sanaa en 2014.

L’intervention d'une coalition menée par l'Arabie Saoudite en 2015 n’a pas réussi à éliminer la menace posée par les Houthis, et a entraîné une catastrophe humanitaire du fait, notamment, du blocus saoudien.

Soutenus par l'Iran, les Houthis se positionnent dans un "axe de la résistance" anti-occidental et anti-israélien, avec un slogan marquant leur idéologie islamiste terroriste: “Dieu est le plus grand, Mort à l’Amérique, Mort à Israël, Malédiction sur les Juifs, victoire à l’Islam”

Dans le contexte de la guerre opposant Israël au Hamas, les Houthis ont lancé des missiles et des drones en direction du territoire israélien, mais ces attaques ont été contrées, tantôt par les forces israéliennes, américaines et saoudiennes, les missiles et drones violant parfois l’espace aérien saoudien. À ce jour, elles n’ont pas entrainé de riposte israélienne, qui est davantage préoccupé par les opérations militaires à Gaza contre le Hamas et à la frontière libanaise contre le Hezbollah, deux groupes alliés aux Houthis. L’Arabie Saoudite n’a pas non répliqué, le pays craignant une escalade alors qu’une trêve est observée depuis plusieurs mois avec les Houthis, qui disposent d’un arsenal capable de frapper durement les infrastructures civiles et pétrolières saoudiennes.

Les attaques contre des navires en mer perturbent gravement le commerce maritime, qui pour 40% transite par la mer Rouge. Elles ont conduit plusieurs armateurs à emprunter le Cap de BonneEspérance en longeant les côtes africaines plutôt que d’emprunter la mer Rouge pour rejoindre la Méditerranée en passant par le canal de Suez. Les trajets sont plus longs et donc plus coûteux. Les primes d’assurance sur les navires empruntant la mer Rouge ont également fortement augmenté, ce

qui entraînant un surcoût considérable pour les livraisons.

Tout cela provoque des retards de livraison et une augmentation des coûts de transport, rappelant à certains égards la crise logistique du blocage du canal de Suez en 2021.

L'Égypte est peut-être le pays qui risque le plus d’être déstabilisé par les actions des Houthis. Elle dépend grandement des revenus du canal de Suez, qui assure le passage entre la mer Méditerranée et la mer Rouge.

Le canal lui a rapporté plus de huit milliards d’euros sur l’année fiscale précédente. Le pays est plongé dans une crise économique aiguë, avec une inflation à près de 40% et une dette qui ne cesse de se creuser. La perte de ces rentrées fiscales pourrait avoir des impacts désastreux sur un pays faisant face à de nombreux défis.

Conscient des enjeux sous-jacents aux attaques des Houthis, les ÉtatsUnis ont mis en place une coalition afin de défendre le commerce en mer Rouge. À l’heure où ces lignes sont écrites, une dizaine de pays l’ont rejointe. Pour l’instant, cette coalition se contente de détruire les missiles et les drones envoyés par les Houthis contre des navires.

Cependant, la disproportion des coûts entre les moyens d'attaque des Houthis et les systèmes de défense de la coalition soulève des

questions sur l'efficacité et la viabilité financière d'une telle réponse. Un drone Shahed iranien, utilisé par les Houthis, coûte environ 20 000 dollars alors qu’un missile antiaérien Aster de fabrication francoitalienne se chiffre à plus d’un million d’euros.

6 | January 2024

The Menton Times

OPINION

L'instrumentalisation de la dictature argentine - partie 1

BY AMALIA HEIDE Le film Argentina 1985 apparaît comme le dernier ajout à une vaste série cinématographique abordant le thème complexe de la dictature civico-militaire en Argentine de 1976 à 1983. La réception massive de ces films par le public et l'absence de critiques révisionnistes entourant ces productions laissent présager un consensus général concernant les violations des droits humains par les militaires pendant cette sombre période de l'histoire argentine.

Cependant, ce consensus social apparent n'est pas nécessairement synonyme d'absence de conflit concernant la mémoire de la dernière dictature argentine. En effet, il existe une reconnaissance largement partagée des disparitions et des tortures envers d’activistes de gauche effectuée par les militaires argentins, leur rôle dans l'enlèvement de bébés issus de familles de gauche et confiés à des familles soutenant les actions militaires, ainsi qu'une reconnaissance collective de l'impératif de localiser et de rétablir l'identité véritable de ces bébés (comme le font l'organisation des Madres y Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo).

Cependant, cette acceptation des faits n'implique pas un consensus sur leurs interprétations. Une tension sous-jacente entre des interprétations historiques peut être instrumentalisée, voire exacerbée, par les politiciens.

C'est cette instrumentalisation que nous cherchons à analyser.

Nous adopterons une structure chronologique et thématique.

Pour ce numéro, nous examinerons comment le régime kirchnériste (2003-2015 / 20192023) a marqué un tournant dans l'instrumentalisation de la mémoire de la dictature. Dans le prochain numéro, nous examinerons comment le parti politique de centre-droit "Juntos por el cambio" (au pouvoir entre 2015 et 2019) et à présent Javier Milei l’ont instrumentalisé à leur tour de manière assez originale.

Après la crise économique significative en Argentine en 2001, la société civile a complètement perdu confiance en la politique et les politiciens du pays. Cependant, le candidat présidentiel Nestor Kirchner a compris que pour regagner légitimité et confiance, il pouvait aspirer à jouer le rôle d'avocat pour la reconnaissance des victimes de la dernière dictature.

Cela impliquait de répondre à des demandes de longue date que les gouvernements précédents avaient échoué à satisfaire. En assumant ce rôle, le mouvement politique kirchnériste en Argentine a utilisé stratégiquement la mémoire de la dictature pour construire son identité politique unique. Alors que l'activisme en faveur des droits humains contre la dictature avait des racines depuis le début de la démocratie en 1983, le discours kirchnériste a embrassé, coopté et monopolisé ce récit au sein de son militantisme. Néstor Kirchner, à son arrivée à la présidence en 2003, s'est identifié comme faisant partie d'une "génération diezmada (génération décimée) punie par des absences douloureuses". Il a déclaré : "J'ai rejoint les luttes politiques en croyant à des valeurs et à des convictions que je n'ai pas l'intention de laisser à la porte de la Casa Rosada (siège du gouvernement)".

Néstor Kirchner a renforcé cette approche sur la scène internationale en se présentant comme le "fils des mères et des grands-mères de la Plaza de Mayo" dans un discours prononcé la même année devant l'Assemblée générale des Nations unies.

Ce discours politique a été suivi par des actes symboliques officiels de reconnaissance et de commémoration des victimes du terrorisme d'État. Le 24 mars 2004, à l'occasion du 28e anniversaire du coup d'État militaire, la présidente Kirchner a demandé au chef de l'armée du collège militaire de la nation d'enlever les portraits des anciens dictateurs Jorge Rafael Videla et Reynaldo Bignone, qui étaient toujours accrochés dans l'établissement. Plus tard dans la journée, Mme Kirchner a présidé une cérémonie publique annonçant la transformation de l'École de mécanique navale (ESMA), le plus grand centre de détention clandestin du pays, en "site de la mémoire et des droits humains". Aujourd'hui, ce site est devenu un site du patrimoine de l'UNESCO.

illustre ce processus d'intégration.

Enlevé à sa mère dans un centre de détention pendant la dictature, il a été réuni avec sa famille biologique en 2003 par les Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo. Embrassant le kirchnerisme, il a ensuite été président des archives de la mémoire nationale, puis député, et occupe actuellement le poste de secrétaire aux droits humains de la nation argentine.

Ainsi, une fusion entre les sphères politique, publique et militante s'est progressivement opérée. En mars 2018, dans une interview au journal La Nación, Estela de Carlotto, une autre dirigeante historique des Grands-mères de la Place de Mai, résume ce processus politique. Le journaliste lui a demandé si les gouvernements kirchneristes s'étaient "approprié la cause des droits humains". Elle a répondu : "Non, nous nous sommes approprié des Kirchner".

De ce fait, comme nous le constatons, ces organisations et défenseurs individuels de la reconnaissance des victimes du terrorisme d'État n'ont pas été de simples récepteurs passifs de l'identité kirchneriste, mais ont contribué à la construction et à la consolidation d'une mémoire officielle par le biais de l'appareil du parti et de l'État de la mémoire de la dictature.

Ces mesures officielles marquent un tournant dans les relations entre l'État et une partie importante du mouvement des droits humains.

Cette dernière a rejoint les rangs du kirchnerisme, reconnaissant Néstor et Cristina Kirchner comme les principaux porteurs politiques légitimes de la mémoire de la dictature. Ainsi, Hebe de Bonafini, cofondatrice et principale dirigeante des Mères de la Place de Mai, a intégré l'appareil du parti kirchneriste dans les années 2000 et l'a revendiqué à de multiples reprises : "Notre ennemi n'est plus à la Casa Ce récit officiel kirchneriste a non Rosada". seulement incorporé la mémoire En conséquence, la relation entre le de la répression politique sous la dictature, mais l'a mouvement des droits humains et dernière l'État est passée de la confrontation à également remodelée dans le l'intégration, différents segments de contexte politique contemporain. ces secteurs devenant partie En créant un sentiment de intégrante de l'appareil d'État. Le cas continuité entre les luttes passées d'Horacio César Pietragalla Corti

7 | January 2024 et présentes, ce récit a encouragé la dichotomie entre "nous" et "eux" pour gagner des partisans à leur cause politique.

L'exposition "Le néolibéralisme, plus jamais ça", présentée en avril 2022 par le déjà mentionné Horacio César Pietragalla Corti , illustre l'instrumentalisation de la mémoire de la dernière dictature militaire (1978-1983). Elle est utilisée pour définir "l'autre", en associant tous les opposants politiques à "l'ennemi" de cette période sombre de l'histoire argentine. L'exposition a été installée dans l'ex-ESMA, le centre commémoratif en souvenir des victimes du terrorisme d'État pendant la dictature. Ce lieu n'est pas une simple coïncidence. Elle démontre une tentative explicite de lier les politiques de la dictature à celles des gouvernements ultérieurs, notamment en critiquant les mesures de libéralisation économique mises en œuvre sous la présidence de Mauricio Macri (2015-2019). Cette exposition présente le "néolibéralisme" comme une continuation du modèle économique de la dictature, créant une antithèse entre cette idéologie économique et la démocratie.

Pour rendre cette allusion très claire, le titre de l'exposition emprunte le slogan "Nunca más" (plus jamais ça), une expression très connue en Argentine. Elle a d'abord été employée par les mères et les grands-mères des membres disparus de leur famille sous la dernière dictature et s'est profondément ancrée dans la conscience collective. L'utilisation de cette expression vise à délégitimer le principal adversaire politique de Kirchner à l'époque, qualifié d' "antidémocratique".

L'exposition publique a intégré des discours politiques, comme celui prononcé par Cristina Fernández de Kirchner le 17 octobre 2019, dix jours avant les élections présidentielles qui allaient la couronner viceprésidente du pays jusqu'en 2023 : "Le néolibéralisme plus jamais dans notre pays. C'est la troisième expérience néolibérale subie par le peuple argentin. La première, lointaine, avec le coup d'État du 24 mars 1976, où un projet néolibéral a été installé dans le pays pour la première fois (...) Puis est venue la deuxième expérience, celle des années 1990 (...) Et maintenant cette dernière et troisième expérience néolibérale, nous devons le dire, et je pense que tous les Argentins doivent repenser et se demander pourquoi ces choses nous arrivent (...)".

The Menton Times Ce discours adopte une approche clairement populiste.

Cristina simplifie un passé traumatisant pour la population argentine, en le formulant en termes économiques, et se positionne comme la défenseuse du "peuple" contre les élites capitalistes et antidémocratiques. La construction du "peuple" à travers le spectre d'un ennemi anachronique, en s'appuyant sur la menace de la dictature pour instiller la peur, a démontré son efficacité.

OPINION

8 | January 2024

The Menton Times

OPINION

Beirut Bombing: A Social Take

BY JAD TOUFIC TOUTINJI

On Dec. 2, 2024, the population of Beirut was shaken by an Israeli attack on a supposedly residential building in the Hezbollah controlled southern suburbs, killing Saleh Al Arouri, a prominent Hamas political leader, and six other members during a secret Hamas meeting. It is the first Israeli attack on Beirut since the July War of 2006.

The Situation:

Since Oct. 8, Hezbollah and Israel have been incessantly attacking each other within a ‘limited conflict’ under ‘rules of engagement.’ On the Lebanese side, this ‘conflict’ has taken the lives of more than 160 people (at the moment of writing), some of whom were innocent citizens, children and journalists like Reuter’s Issam Abdallah. It has also caused great infrastructural damages across the southern and central western regions of Lebanon, displacing approximately 80,000 people .

On the Israeli side, the death toll is 15 with minor infrastructural damages, but with thousands evacuated under the government’s organization and request.

A Brief Political Analysis:

The attack on Beirut came as a shock to many, even to those who may have anticipated it. It marks the first potential spark of an official all out war between both parties, being that it is Israel’s biggest breach of the ‘rules of engagement.’ This latter phrase in the conflict’s context refers to an equivalent right of response by both sides, which is what all Lebanese are dreading.

If Hezbollah were to respond equally

to the attack, then Lebanon will be pulled into a dreadful war.

Many concerned believe Israel is testing the waters and ploying to drag Hezbollah to war. Israel’s unofficial defence for the attack is to get rid of all those involved in the Oct. 7 operation as clearly expressed by the Israeli Mossad Chief’s vow to “settle the score” a day after the Beirut bombing. Yet, there is more to see on the wider scope: Washington has recently refused the inclusion of Lebanon in the regional conflict, which Israel appears to disagree with. As a result, Israel took this discrete, precise attack instead of its usual bombardments like in the southern regions of Lebanon. Even though Israeli government officials are claiming that the attack was on Hamas, not Hezbollah and Lebanon, the violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty is undeniable.

Furthermore, on Dec. 3 Israel bombed the Lebanese village of Naqoura, killing a prominent Hezbollah leader Hussein Yazbeck.

Clearly, the attacks are not limited to Hamas. Thus,we could argue that Israel was testing Hezbollah’s waters by attacking its central neighbourhood, but also verifying the US’ commitment to deescalation in Lebanon. The latter’s officials denied any prior knowledge of the planned drone bombing.

Moreover, it is also Netanyahu trying to postpone his inevitable electoral defeat by prolonging the war and expanding into Lebanon.

In response, Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrullah warned during his speech on Dec. 3 that Arouri’s death will not go “without response and punishment,” claiming that it will be “very, very, very costly.”

Consequently, observers are anticipating potential attacks;

however, some interpret it as Hezbollah maintaining a ‘dormant’ right of response, so no immediate reciprocation. In fact, since Oct. 8, Hezbollah has been relatively showing a tactful response in an attempt to balance between supporting Hamas and controlling the internal Lebanese turmoil.

Immediate Social Responses:

Instances after the bombing, there was a moment of panic that spread all over Lebanon. People in my neighbourhood, which is ten minutes away from the site of bombing, said that they had heard “three consecutive loud explosion sounds.” Two friends of mine, who live within metres from the site said that “they did not hear an explosion” – often a normal situation when the person is within close proximity to the bombing – and that “they heard a drone movement but lower than the usual Israeli warplanes viciously hovering over Lebanon.” One of them, living on the same street, said out of fear, “whatever it was they bombed us with, I felt it pass just above my house.”

No one really knew who was assassinated, yet because of Lebanon’s consistent experiences with assassinations since 2005, it was almost immediately and unequivocally accepted that an assassination had taken place.

The fear spread through all telecommunication ways possible. I was driving with my friends when it all happened and, within a matter of seconds, all the phones in the car were ringing. It was the typical Lebanese response to check on everyone after an attack, especially considering almost everyone in Lebanon would know someone who lives near the site of the bombing.

My brother, who was in a shopping centre when the explosion happened, saw many “immediately hold their kids and rush blindly to their homes.” Indeed, soon after it was made known that Israel bombed Beirut, its streets were emptied up as everyone took shelter in their homes in fear of further bombing. Even if, by far, this surely was not the biggest, most traumatic bombing to occur nor was it the most dangerous Israeli attack within the past five years, the consistent post-Beirut 2020 explosion trauma and the current Gaza and southern Lebanon massacres were enough to trigger a wave of fear all over the country.

Within an hour, most Beirut boulangeries had run out of Lebanese pita bread as people bought essentials preparing for a potential war. Unlike prior to the 2006 July War, consciousness and fear of the repercussions of war is strongly present among the Lebanese. In comparison, in 2006, when Hezbollah announced the success of its kidnapping mission in the south, most Lebanese celebrated the success as many hoped to see the Lebanese hostages being exchanged for the kidnapped soldiers. Few were the ones that rushed out of fear to markets and boulangeries.

However, it is evident that the trauma scarred in most Lebanese from that disastrous war created an unseen dreadfulness. As a result, most Lebanese, including to some extent Hezbollah, do not wish to go to war with Israel at the moment of writing.

9 | January 2024

The Reproduction Social Divisions:

The Menton Times

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The Dec. 2 Israeli attack on Beirut reproduced the never-ending Lebanese social divisions, some of which were essential factors to the 1975-1990 Civil War: the Palestinian refugees and the war against Israel. For a long time, Palestinian resistance groups, like Hamas, and also Lebanese ones, like Hezbollah, have existed out of the Lebanese military control. It has sparked on multiple occasions disputes with Lebanese civilians who feel endangered by the existence of armed groups. Today, many, if not a majority, stand against these armed groups.

Most Lebanese stand with the Palestinian cause, whether on a humanitarian or identity basis.

However, the division, which nowadays is not across religious sects as during the pre-civil war, stands on thin lines: ways of resistance and national priorities.

Some Lebanese do not believe it is their duty to liberate Palestine militarily, seeing that the Lebanese cause – reclaiming Lebanese Israeli-occupied territories only – is of priority and that it should take place diplomatically or via the Lebanese military. This faction of the population perceives Hezbollah as an Iranian terrorist group endangering Lebanese sovereignty as much as Israel. On the other hand, another faction of the population perceives Hezbollah as their guardian angel against Israel because of a weakened Lebanese state.

Interestingly, the latter faction is recently divided on the ‘Hezbollah’s balanced PalestinianLebanese strategy.’ A part of this latter faction sees the military support to Palestine from the Lebanese southern borders as morally necessary, yet should be kept limited to avoid an unwanted all-out war. Meanwhile, the opposing group, of which many are impoverished business owners and employees, still support Hezbollah yet believe that Lebanon is already in an economic crisis and that it is not the right time for liberation.

As is the case that very few want a full war, even fewer from the anti-Hezbollah faction do not morally support the Palestinian cause and identify as Zionists. The political identification is never binary as extremists claim it to be.

The Beirut attack has reproduced immensely this social division on the political stage as Lebanese dreadfully await to see if Hezbollah’s ‘silent strategy of response’ unravels into an unwanted war.

OPINION

10 | January 2024

The Menton Times

OPINION

Gabriel Attal ou l’art de la communication

BY JONATHAN SMIDTAS SCHALITA

À seulement 34 ans, Gabriel Attal est le plus jeune chef de gouvernement de la Ve République. Encore inconnu du grand public il y a peu, il a réussi en seulement quelques mois à s’affirmer comme une figure centrale de la vie politique française. Depuis sa prise de fonction le 20 juillet au ministère de l’éducation, sa capacité à réagir de manière proactive à l'actualité et à transformer les défis en opportunités a rapidement attiré l'attention.

Son premier fait d’arme ne se fait pas attendre. À la veille de la rentrée scolaire, la polémique enfle sur le port de l’abaya à l’école. Dès son arrivée en poste, Attal marque sa présence en se présentant comme le défenseur de la laïcité et déclare qu’ « on ne pourra plus porter d'abaya à l'école .»

Alors que la controverse sur l’abaya s’apaise, le pays est bouleversé par le suicide, le 5 septembre, d’un adolescent harcelé de 15 ans. Tandis que la presse soulève les failles de l’administration, Attal annonce un plan anti-harcèlement à l’école incluant la création de cours d’empathie et d’une cellule dédiée au harcèlement dans chaque rectorat.

Le mois suivant, la question du mal-être à l’école disparaît des médias tandis que les attaques terroristes du Hamas contre Israël le 7 octobre rappellent au monde le danger jihadiste. La France est attaquée le 13 octobre par un terroriste islamiste qui

assassine dans une école Dominique Bernard qui tentait de protéger ses élèves. Alors qu’un hommage est prévu dans chaque classe, Attal exprime une fermeté notable et annonce l'exclusion des élèves perturbant l'hommage au professeur.

En outre, l’image de réformateur d’Attal est renforcée lorsqu’il déclare en novembre qu’« il faut revoir le tabou du redoublement » , quelques semaines avant la parution du classement PISA qui évalue les performances scolaires des élèves de 15 ans des pays de l’OCDE. Le 5 décembre, le classement PISA révèle une baisse significative du niveau des élèves français, particulièrement en mathématiques et en français.

Sans attendre, le ministre de l'Éducation nationale tient le jour même une conférence de presse pour présenter une série de mesures visant à rehausser le niveau des élèves. Parmi celles-ci figurent la création de classes de niveau, le retour du redoublement sur décision des professeurs ou encore l'exigence d'obtenir le brevet pour accéder au lycée.

Sa stratégie, consistant à occuper l'espace médiatique et à multiplier les annonces, s’est avérée d'une grande efficacité. Le baromètre politique Ipsos-Le Point le crédite en décembre de 40% d'opinions favorables, le plaçant ainsi en tête des personnalités politiques préférées des Français, devant Édouard Philippe (39%) et Marine Le Pen (37%).

Le 8 janvier, le président Macron nomme son ministre de l’Éducation nationale Premier ministre. Il explique son choix à des proches en mettant en avant sa popularité, sa jeunesse et ses aptitudes pour conduire la bataille des élections européennes, selon des propos rapportés par le journal satirique Le Canard enchaîné.

Bien que l’élection présidentielle de 2027 soit encore lointaine, Gabriel Attal semble actuellement bien placé dans la course à la succession d’Emmanuel Macron.

S’il reste Premier ministre jusqu’à la fin du quinquennat, il lui reste trois années pour obtenir des résultats et relever le pays. Le défi est cependant de taille dans un contexte économique dégradé et en l’absence d’une majorité nette à l’Assemblée Nationale pour voter ses futures lois.

11 | January 2024

The Menton Times

OPINION

Après la guerre, quel futur pour l’Israël?

BY ANNA HALPERN

La guerre entre l’Israël et le Hamas, nous en entendons tous parler. Que se soit pour le procès de l’Afrique du Sud contre l’Israël, accusé de génocide à la CIJ (Cour Internationale de Justice), pour des questions humanitaires ou sécuritaires, le gouvernement Israélien est critiqué très fortement non seulement par la communauté internationale, mais aussi par les Israéliens euxmêmes.

En effet, le pire manquement sécuritaire de l'État Hébreux depuis une génération et même depuis sa création a secoué la scène politique Israélienne. Du gouvernement dont les positions violentes se sont trouvées confortées dans leur haine de l’autre, aux pacifistes pointant du doigt les problème liés à un conflit de plus de 75 ans, aux opposants du gouvernement attaquant Netanyahu pour ses problèmes judiciaires et son incapacité à prévenir les événements du 7 octobre, cette guerre est perçue comme un tournant. La question reste la suivante à ce carrefour de l’histoire Israélienne: quelle voie va-t-elle emprunter quand la guerre sera finie?

Tout d’abord, pour comprendre la situation politique Israélienne il est important de revenir sur les événements du 6 octobre 1973 et leurs impacts. En effet, on ne peut manquer de faire le parallèle avec la guerre de Kippour déclenchée exactement 50 ans et un jour avant.

Les forces armées Israéliennes s’étaient retrouvées prises au dépourvu quand une coalition de pays Arabes menés par l’Egypte et la Syrie ont attaqué l'Israël le jour de Yom Kippour, le jour le plus sacré pour les juifs. Ce grave manquement sécuritaire avait à l’époque été reçu comme un choc. L'Israël, malgré sa victoire militaire, y avait perdu de son image de puissance militaire sans faille et le gouvernement avait failli en ignorant des informations qui leur avaient été transmises et en manquant cruellement de préparation face à cette attaque.

L’impact de cette guerre sur la politique Israélienne ne peut être ignoré. En effet, l'Israël ayant perdu de sa confiance en son système défensif s’est engagé dans une voie de pacification avec les accords de Camp David avec l’Egypte. De plus, le désastre sécuritaire subi par l'Israël mène Golda Meir (la première ministre Israélienne) à démissionner le 11 avril 1974 et à la création de la commission Agranat créée pour enquêter sur ces manquements de

la part des forces de défenses Israéliennes et de la Première Ministre.

Dans le cadre de la guerre IsraëlHamas et de l’attaque du 7 octobre, il est plus que probable que l’on voit un processus similaire se produire, étant donné que non seulement l’opposition politique, mais la grande majorité de la population Israélienne exige la démission de Netanyahu (Selon un sondage mené par l'Institut démocratique israélien paru début janvier, seulement 15% des Israéliens se disent favorables au maintien du Premier Ministre au pouvoir après la guerre). Il semble donc que dans un futur post-guerre les Israéliens soient très motivés à rejeter le gouvernement Likoud en faveur probablement de Yair Lapid, le leader de l’opposition, ou de Benny Gantz.

Selon la proposition de Lapid, le futur de Gaza pourrait être une administration par une coalition d’États Arabes tels que l’Arabie Saoudite et les Emirats Arabes Unis, mais incluant l’Autorité Palestinienne (AP). Néanmoins, la paix ne serait pas facile, surtout avec le maintien de sa position sur une déradicalisation nécessaire de l’AP avant sa participation.

En outre, le futur reste encore très flou. Le refus de Netanyahu de démissionner laisserait son gouvernement extrémiste au pouvoir, prolongeant la guerre et limitant la possibilité d’une pacification post-guerre. D’autre part, chaque instant que la guerre se prolonge, l'Israël perd du soutien international, et il est impossible de nier que cela impactera forcément le déroulement du processus de paix.

...quelle voie va-telle emprunter quand la guerre sera finie?

12 | January 2024

The Menton Times

SPORT

2024: Year of the Bike on the Côte d’Azur

BY GRUFFUDD AB OWAIN

It’s a Saturday afternoon, and as I have come to expect, the weather is, to a Welshman, perfect. It’s cliché to say that people from Britain always talk about the weather, but it’s true; its changeable nature lends itself to an easy topic of conversation. I notice that often, since moving to Menton, comments about the weather still seem to slip off my tongue with surprising ease.

However, I have noticed also, that since moving to Menton, I am very much a creature of habit.

As it’s a Saturday afternoon, and as I am a creature of habit, I almost automatically bundle my bike out of my apartment. I hoist it onto my back on the way down the stairs to the Basilica, cautiously treading each step in my cleated shoes, which make my walking akin to that of a duck. As I hoist my leg over the top tube and gladly feel the padding of my shorts make contact with the saddle, I notice how perfect the weather is.

The sun is so therapeutic, so warm on my back. Then, I remember that it’s like this every day, and that I don’t need to think and talk about the weather all the time.

The skies are a deep shade of blue; the colour of freedom.

With freedom comes discovery and adventure. Today, I have decided to follow my nose across the border and venture into Italy for the first time. I have a destination in mind, around 35 kilometers along the coast in Sanremo.

Sanremo holds significance in the world of professional cycling, hosting the reliably dramatic finale to the notoriously long Milano-Sanremo one-day race in March. The climb up to the quintessential little village of Poggio di Sanremo can often be the deciding factor for the victorious rider; today, it will offer me a turnaround point, and a slight challenge on an otherwise flat percorso.

That remains a distant thought, as the cycle path comes to an unexpectedly early end close to the border, awakening me from my rather dreamy state. At this point, a couple of fast-looking cyclists with enviable physiques pass me going in the opposite direction, and we exchange a wave and a Ciao! One of them was clad top to toe in the kit of the UAE Emirates team, who boast one of

the most extortionate budgets in the pro cycling peloton*, and some of the biggest names of the present generation, including two-time Tour de France winner, Tadej Pogačar.

Later on in the day, in my hours of post-ride procrastination, I discover on sports social media platform Strava that this cyclist was none other than pro Davide Formolo; stage-hunter extraordinaire, with stage wins at the Giro d’Italia and the Critérium du Dauphiné to his name, fresh from a mid-October win in the one-day Veneto Classic.

It’s not uncommon at all to see professional cyclists when out and about on the Côte d’Azur, especially northwards into the AlpesMaritimes. After all, many of them, some of them Tour de France winners and legendary names, choose to reside in Monaco, particularly in winter. It turns out that it isn’t only me who values the blue skies and the favourable weather conditions, although admittedly one of them, 2018 Tour winner Geraint Thomas, does happen to be Welsh too (and incidentally, one of his jerseys hangs proudly in the bike shop in Garavan).

Reliable year-round weather and lenient tax obligations for nonFrench nationals help in attracting cyclists to choose Monaco; the former has proven attractive for centuries, and the story behind naming Promenade des Anglais after 18th and 19th century English aristocrats is a well-documented example. Another key attraction, for the pro cyclists and indeed myself, are the fabulous roads which

meander into the mountains in a snake-like manner, offering a challenge on the way up, and a thrill on the way down. The Col de Braus is a perfect example, with its series of switchbacks like a shoelace untidily thrown on the hillside.

A climb which starts in Menton is the Col de la Madone, which has long been considered iconic in cycling realms. It is said that it was the road on which Lance Armstrong, infamously stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping, frequented to train during the winter, starting his stopwatch at Intermarché, and trying to beat his record each time. Combined with the Col d’Èze, this route is nowadays the most popular amongst cyclotourists; cyclo-tourism is an industry estimated to have contributed 27 million euros to the region’s economy in 2021, and predicted to reach 84 million euros annually by 2025.

The bike, however, is about to bring another substantial boost to the region’s economy in 2024.

For the first time since 1905, this year’s Tour de France, the iconic three-week bike race that is the world’s largest annual sports competition, will not finish in Paris.

In a similar way to many of France’s nation-building efforts, the race pledges to visit each département at least every four years and at least try to ensure that the benefits, particularly economic, of hosting the race are relatively evenly distributed across the country. But for over a hundred years, it hasn’t budged from

its annual grand finale on the Champs Élysées in the capital.

In 2024, however, out of necessity, the Paris Olympics have pushed the Tour to the sidelines. Instead, Nice will host the closing weekend of the race, with a final-day time-trial from Monaco over Col d’Èze into Nice, which could prove decisive if the lead still hangs in the balance.

Ironically, the last time the race visited Nice and its surroundings was in 2020 on an opening weekend remembered primarily for torrential rain. The economic prospects of hosting the final stages of the race are very favourable indeed, no doubt somewhat contingent on favourable weather, with each euro spent forecast to inject eight euros into the economy, totalling around 50 to 60 million euros.

The region will undoubtedly see this as an opportunity to promote itself for its cultural and natural wealth, attract long-term investments and promote cycling and sport in general.

And after all, maybe the fine weather and fabulous roads that attracted an unimportant Welshman to the Côte d’Azur will make 2024 the year that the Tour’s organisers see an opportunity to break its habit of finishing in Paris. *Peloton - the main bunch of riders in a bike race, often used to describe the pro cycling world as a whole.

13 | January 2024

The Menton Times

Beautiful Brooklyn Brownstones: Why We Should Live Near Our Friends

FEATURE

BY MARLY FISHER

In fifty years, a cluster of Existing with my friends need not not be temporary. When, or if, I do begin to raise a family of my own, I beautiful want to be surrounded by a I want to live near my best friend community I have built myself. I always. I want to live near all of my want my children to know and love Brooklyn My friends are my home. So why close friend always. It would make my companions the way I do. did we all leave it? me happy.

And statistically, Especially after having lived with a brownstones happiness spreads, according to roommate for the past few months, I have little desire to live alone.

In the age of the modern family, Atlantic writer Adrienne Matei: Ever. What good is independence if will be we are quick to move. For school, for careers, for our partners… my When one person becomes happier, we are lonely? If we miss those we own mother (albeit reluctantly) their next-door neighbors' chances love the most? deemed the traded her community of friends of also growing happier rise by 34 and familiarity in the suburbs of percent; friends living within a mile At the time that this article is being New York for the empty of each other are 25 percent more written, I’m sitting in the airport tumbleweeds of New Mexico and likely to feel happy, and their friends returning home after visiting my happiest my father’s career. The Land of have a 10 percent chance of feeling best friend at her college. Mark my words: in fifty years, a cluster of Enchantment is its motto. The happier too. beautiful Brooklyn brownstones will square mile in Land of Entrapment is what she (perhaps not so) affectionately Moving away from our chosen be deemed the happiest square mile calls it. It seems that in a world of families does not just affect our in America. We will change the America. We constant motion, our friends are personal wellbeing, however; we world together. the first to be left behind. Not have lost kinship in the workplace, truly, of course — technology as well.

Modernization and will change makes for an easy way to stay in industrialization have taken away touch — but the physical location time as an entity that belongs to us. the world of the people closest to us is no Where leisure and labor were once longer as important. intermingled, where the workday ended on the family farm with the together.

Living with companions — sunset, now an employer's time is Drunk on camaraderie and laughter, we mill about the shops we’ve been to hundreds of times before; we argue about the state of the world and how much more heavy cream should be added to our pasta dishes; we soak in the time winter break has allowed us, because for now, that’s all we have.

that if we are unmarried by age 40 we will buy the most lavish brownstone in the city and live out the rest of our lives in companionship. But it rests on the assumption that our future would require a separation in the first place.

roommates in college, apartmentmates during internships and first big jobs — are a cherished stage of life. But it is seen as nothing more than a liminal space between childhood and the real world.

There is a kind of time limit on these types of living spaces, at least until the purported love of our lives comes around to sweep us off our feet and we can create our true homes together. Our lives and purpose are structured around the love we build. So why don’t we live with our friends? At the very least, why don’t we make an active effort to be near them?

acutely different from that of those who are employed. those. In the words of historian EP Thompson, the “employer must use the time of his labor, and see it is not wasted:

One of the purest parts of the university experience, as profoundly demonstrated by the construction of the living spaces in Sciences Po, is its community.

We cook together, we swim together, we laugh and talk until the sun is up. There is a unique sense of togetherness here, a promise that your favorite conversationalist is right next door. It is when college ends that separation begins. We leave the bonds we’ve created in search of the vague and inevitable next step.

It is — was — what I’ve been preparing for my whole life. But I don’t want to. My best friend and I have a pact that we call the Brooklyn Brownstone, a promise

not the task but the value of time when reduced to money is dominant. Time is now currency: it is not passed but spent.”

14 | January 2024

FEATURE

The Menton Times

The Illegitimate Detention of Two Brazilians in Germany and the Current Approach to Security in Airports

BY CATARINA VITA X SCIENCES DEFENSE

What was supposed to be a oncein-a-lifetime opportunity to travel across the globe and encounter a culture and civilization parallel to their own quickly became 38 days in prison, thousands of kilometers away from their home country.

Jeanne Paolini and Katyna Baia, both in their forties and married for twelve years, were flying from Goiania, Brazil to Frankfurt, Germany, to celebrate Paolini’s veterinary residency in one of the best universities in Brazil, the University of Brasilia. Upon arriving in Frankfurt, the two women were detained in the airport’s prison, accused of carrying forty kilos of cocaine in their baggage. The cocaine, however, was proven not to be theirs. One day later, they found themselves outside the airport, but in the city’s prison for women.

It was found that the name tags in their baggage were displaced to luggage filled with drugs, by the Brazilian airport staff. Their case was a gateway to a massive scheme of drug trafficking from Brazil’s biggest airports to European metropoles.

The Case The couple flew from the capital of their Brazilian state, Goiania, to Frankfurt, for a connecting flight to Berlin, but their bags were intercepted in one of Brazil’s biggest airports, the Guarulhos Airport in São Paulo. The couple would only revindicate their luggage in Berlin, their final destination. Upon disembarking from their flight to Frankfurt, they were detained and imprisoned on March 5, 2023.

They stayed in custody for 38 days.

The couple alleged mistreatment by the German police, and were denied access to the winter garments in their hand luggage despite -3 degree temperatures in Frankfurt.

Preceding the interception of Paolini and Baia’s luggage, two employees at the Guarulhos Airport were caught on security footage examining each of the women’s suitcases and removing them from the rest of the luggage reaching Frankfurt. In sequence, two women with cocaine-filled luggage encountered the employees and helped with placing the couple’s name tags in the new drug-filled suitcases.

Paolini and Baia’s luggage was still sent to Berlin, but without their name tags. It is important to note that airlines, not airports, are

responsible for employees handling baggage.

As the Brazilian Federal Police (PF) became aware of the case, allied to the Brazilian Public Ministry (MP), they compiled a total of 200 hours of security footage which enabled these bodies to identify the ones responsible for displacing the name tags.

The couple’s lawyer highlighted that the trip was booked months before their departure date, and both women had health insurance, showing that they did not have a profile of a drug mule. These people, who have the role of smuggling drugs often through high security scenarios (especially in between international borders), are often not provided with health insurance or plane tickets bought in advance, since they will only be in the country of destination for a short amount of time and only to deliver drugs.

On April 5, 2023, the women were heard in German court in face of the evidence provided by Brazilian authorities. They were found to be innocent, but the German authorities requested evidence incriminating the airport staff for having exchanged Paolini and Baia’s suitcases, as the Brazilian government alleged. When this was presented around eight days later, Paolini and Baia were released.

The Operation Effect

Collateral

Paolini and Baia’s case introduced the Operation Collateral Effect by the Brazilian police. As stated previously, Paolini and Baia’s luggage were apprehended by employees at the Guarulhos Airport.

The Brazilian Police Force noticed that similar cases occurred in 2022 and 2023 in the same airport to Portugal and France, respectively.

The Operation culminated in “14 mandates of temporary prison, two mandates of preventive detention and 27 mandates for search and apprehension,” according to G1 Brazil.

The Brazilian police commenced their operation by questioning the airport employees involved in Paolini and Baia’s case.

Out of the six questioned, five of them denied their involvement in the crime and one of them confessed. All six of them were arrested with supporting evidence.

The Brazilian Police Force was able to trace the cases of drugs being smuggled to Portugal and France to the same group of employees, but also identified other cases of

cocaine smuggling also from the airport of Guarulhos with the same modus operandi as the smuggling to Germany, nonetheless without evidence that the group had responsibility.

Upon increased investigation on how the group thought and acted to smuggle drugs from Brazil to Europe, the police authorities discovered that they divided themselves into working at the airport, to observe in whose name they would send drugs to. Another subgroup simulated a check-in, but in the domestic flight part of the airport, with the actual drug-filled suitcase, but the other members of the group that worked at the airport made sure the luggage did not pass the metal detector. Continuing, the drug luggage was smuggled into the international section and then the name tag displacement process initiated.

What This Means International Security

for

Katyna Baia and Jeanne Paolini’s illegitimate detention showed Brazilian and international defense authorities the extent to which the drug trafficking business has adopted in the present, and how this can come at the expense of innocent tourists’ rights. It also showcased how the drug business is everywhere, even hidden inside airport staff. What was perceived to be one of the most secure places in Brazil, the country’s biggest airport in the largest city in Latin America, was responsible for at least three massive 20 kilogram smuggling operations of illicit drugs. Airport authorities are shown to be keen on security checks on passengers and even in migration control, but this case shows that there is corruption from within the system as well.

While being interviewed by G1 Brazil, Brazilian PM Officer Felié Faé Lavareda said (contextualized translation from Portuguese): “The link in the Guarulhos Airport to Europe (in drug trafficking) was dismantled today.” In fact, the Guarulhos Airport implemented a few measures to attempt to keep the security in the restricted areas of the airport, in which the criminal group displaced name tags and smuggled drugs, such as prohibiting cell phone usage. Nonetheless, nothing indicates strict background checks on airport employees, or a further investigation on the drug smuggling cases the PF could not trace back to the criminal group.

The Guarulhos Airport

communicated to CNN Brazil that the airlines, not the airports, are responsible for luggage-dealing employees and are thus supposed to be held accountable for anything relating to luggage.

However, especially when it concerns tourists from your own country leaving for Europe, a shared effort between airport authorities, airlines, and even government authorities is fitting — particularly because the criminal group acted under surveillance cameras and nothing was noticed. In light of this illegitimate detention and according to CNN Brazil, Brazilian authorities aim to implement a new regulation: photographing the dispatched bags with the passenger’s respective names.

The efforts from the Brazilian authorities and police to investigate Katyna Baia and Jeanne Paolini’s case is a result of disciplined work ethic and intricate scrutiny in the gathered evidence.

However, taking pictures of suitcases and the passenger it belongs to barely scratches the surface of the problem. Baia and Paolini’s case surrounds the lack of surveillance in airports and the omnipresence of drug smuggling in Brazil – their experience exemplifies that further scrutiny and security measures in airports must be implemented in conjunction with airlines and national authorities.

15 | January 2024

The Menton Times

FEATURE

The Phenomenon of the Slavic Girl Winter

BY NADIA TAYLOR SOL X EUROPEAN SOCIETY

Eastern Europe is often viewed as an exotic, mystical land by those who have neither lived there nor visited the region. The ideas of the brutalist buildings, postcommunist memorials and cold, sometimes rude people, seem to be the standard perception people have in their minds when any European country behind the former Iron Curtain is mentioned.

While these stereotypes might already ignite some uncomfortable conversations and can easily make any Eastern European start a quick historical-cultural crash course explaining the differences between our countries, I now would rather focus on the often-overlooked harms and dangers of one particular issue: the fetishization of Eastern European women and the standardized image created of them.

While Eastern Europe is an extremely diverse region with a vast range of cultural and physical differences between the population, the media fails to do it justice by highlighting Soviet heritage and painting them solely as a political mass of blonde and blue eyed people. This indifference towards distinguishing one nation from another serves as perfect soil for creating the image of the typical Eastern European woman.

The idea of a tall, blonde, timid housewife with the perfect beauty of a Barbie-doll, mixed with the image of a fur-wearing gold digger has been circulating in the media for decades. More importantly it is currently experiencing its renaissance thanks to freshly popularized TikTok and Instagram trends.

Looking at the videos of people glamorizing the so-called “Slavic girl winter” and decreasing the multiple cultures the ethnicity encompasses to the modern mobwife aesthetic, with fur coats, hats and expensive jewelry, made me consider how harmful this portrayal is. Especially since the whole stereotype comes from historic roots that are based on the fact that most people, especially women, could not afford to look the way the trend tells us they do.

The aesthetic of the trend is the image of women who were either born or married into families and relationships with men that have either gained their wealth through living off the general public or engaging in crime.

Just before explaining the problems with the trends, I shall state that there is no problem with people finding the women of the region beautiful or complimenting them for their efforts to look “perfect.” The negatives become more visible when we understand the traumatic past that has led to the creation of this image and the dangerous future these often backhanded compliments hold.

The phenomenon itself can be closely linked to the fall of the Soviet Union and the socioeconomic shifts the post-Soviet states and the countries of the Soviet bloc have experienced.

The 90s brought poverty and, especially for women, a drastic change in people’s status within the society. During the Soviet years, every adult was obliged by the law to work, meaning women were not tied to their husbands or male guardians to provide for themselves and their families. The collapse of the Union brought both unemployment and an influx of Western, more conventional beauty and patriarchal media, collaboratively resulting in women creating a new approach to wealth and survival. The idea that women have to be beautiful to be appealing to strong and successful men, who were often their only chance to get over the poverty line, became a widespread concept in society. The approach created an ever-lasting and strong duality between the expectations posed towards women and men. While men should be strong, wealthy and successful to be able to provide for their wives, women have to be easy on the eyes and should be ready to serve their men in any way they can.

The international image of the Slavic and Eastern European sex workers can also be closely tied to the abovementioned logic. When the Soviet Union fell, people tried to leave to the West in a hope of starting a new life. We do not have to look much further to understand the unfortunate turnout of events many women had to go through to be able to support themselves in a new, foreign society far from home. With no other way out of poverty many turned to sex work and the jump in the number of Eastern European women in the industry created a new, fetishized image in the minds of many. Women from the region are now viewed as either parts of the sex work industry or overly attainable in exchange for a high-value life and money. And thus, the image of the expensive-looking gold digger was created. An image that we still struggle to distance ourselves from.

These stereotypes, while clearly holding an ugly mirror towards the reality of the history of the postcommunist Eastern bloc pose dangers in the modern day as well.

First, they discredit any attempt by regional feminist movements or just women in general to make people focus on anything but their appearance. One of the greatest examples of this is how online communities reacted to images of Ukrainian women fighting for their country. While some did praise them for their strength and bravery, and made an effort to educate themselves about the ongoing invasion, others decided to stick to the fetishization of Ukrainian women – particularly unacceptable during

times of war, when violence against women is used to assert power – compounding the harassment women have to experience both in the virtual and real spheres of their lives.

The second most prominent result of these widespread stereotypes is the high number of women from the region becoming victims of human trafficking. It is not unusual for people coming from lower income households to strive to leave their hometowns or countries in the hopes of a better future. While doing so they often fall victim to targeted advertisements, focused on women with certain physical traits. Both the online distributed easy to access work or study opportunities and the seemingly helpful people at the airports can pose grave dangers, as they can end up being linked to organized human trafficking with a special focus on women from the region.

The already existing stereotypes and the sometimes-re-emerging fascination with the imagined submissive nature of Eastern European women, a good example of which can be the leaked messages of Andrew Tate and his claims on preferring women from the region, escalate the growth of the market and make women even more vulnerable to the dangers of human trafficking.

Currently, the trend of the Slavic girl winter, when not used by members of the ethnicity to regain control over certain elements of their own culture, does nothing more than accelerate an already existing prejudice against Slavic and Eastern European women. It pokes holes into the efforts of reducing discrimination and elevating them to a higher level in the public eye than gold diggers and submissive housewives. As with every other fetishized ethnicity, instead of playing into the general stereotype, the public should rather educate themselves about the diverse and captivating histories and cultures of the region, make efforts to celebrate those representatives of the Eastern European women who deserve the most praise and be aware of the harm generalization brings about.

16 | January 2024

The Menton Times

FEATURE

French Immigration Bill: Sciences Pistes’ Perspectives

BY JAD TOUFIC TOUTINJI

The French National Assembly passed the long-awaited, controversial French immigration bill on Dec. 20, 2023. It seems that the only thing that everyone agreed on was that something had to be done, yet disagreed on what that (something) had to be. The bill in both its early and final version split the French public as much as the French Conseil d’état (i.e., Council of the State). While, regarding Sciences Pistes, even if the left is more outspoken, the right also has their strong opinion.

In its final version, the bill focuses on strengthening data collection on immigrants’ acceptance, deportation and rejection. It constitutes longer waiting time to access welfare benefits and to call for family reunification.

Furthermore, the controversial law pushes for easier access to residency permits for professionals working in labor areas undergoing shortage. It also postpones the “jus soli,” which allows citizenship at birth till the age of 16. Concurrently it validates citizenship withdrawal from dual nationals who commit severe crimes towards the police.

Concerning foreign students, they will have to pay a deposit at the start of their education in France to be recuperated later on. The law leaves space for several criticisms from both the left and the right.

The left among the Sciences Pistes have unequivocally expressed their dissatisfaction for the bill passed.

Many believe it to be a National Rally’s ploy to enact a strict immigration policy that negates fundamental rights in the name of security. “It is totally unjust to see at what point a country which has the means to help others but which does not in the name of spreading security defended by the racist extreme right,” said one respondent identifying with La France Insoumise.

Another respondent, affiliated with the Place Publique, remarked with regards to fundamental rights that “Everyone, including the interior minister, knew that it (the bill) contained unconstitutional content.”

On the subject of foreign students, many showed their concerns over the new required deposit. “It is a racist law aiming at criminalizing immigration and will only serve to promote access for wealthier foreign students to universities,”

angrily expressed one respondent.

“This law targets students in a general manner,” said another respondent who also doubts the motives behind the bill, “it looks like it benefits no one except that it satisfies political interests.”

With eyes on the future, several responses reflected fear for the growing migration crisis, “if we are incapable of integrating migrants in France right now, it will be impossible to integrate future ones, especially environmental migrants.”

At the same time, others show doubt in the efficiency of the law, “I firmly believe that the law’s efficiency is debatable … We must not neglect the consequences of preventing vulnerable people from access to essential services.”

On the other hand, the right, even if less expressed in Sciences Po, has strong opinions on the issue.

Tackling the restrictions on the aides personnalisées au logement (APL), one of the housing assistance services offered, a respondent identifying with the right described it as “a measure of full common sense,” praising that “France is not an NGO that distributes funds. The measure would help reduce the assistance culture that has been developing, urging immigrants to add to the richness of the nation.” This is a common criticism by the right as to how much government aid goes to unemployed immigrants each year, thus creating a burden on government services without fiscal returns. The right claims that this undeserved aid incentivizes immigrants to avoid working in order to continue receiving it.

Meanwhile, the same respondent was skeptical of the refundable deposit put in place on foreign students, seeing that “in face of the decline of France as an attractive education spot globally, it is necessary to preserve those students who are the future ambassadors of French values in their home countries.” Not to forget is the CVEC payment which, among others, students have to contribute annually to without ever feeling its value in developing student life. In addition, this new deposit comes after the controversial significant increase in tuition fees on foreign students from 2019 in public universities.

On the European scene, a strong proEuropean student strongly doubts the bill, “Overall, I think this law is absolutely inadequate to solve the problem of migration in France.”

When asked about his opinion on the rise of anti-migration trends in Europe, the student tackled the French situation, while noting its exact replica in other European countries, “The approbation of the new (discriminatory) law on migration in France is the outcome of a society incapable of adapting to the rapid changes of modernity. To keep the electorate ‘happy’ they vote for laws against the very own principles of the EU.” Finally, with regards to the implication of the bill on neighboring European countries, the student pointed out that it will surely worsen the living conditions of migrants on neighboring borders, especially in Ventimiglia, and that it will affect equal distribution of migrants in the EU.

In conclusion, as one respondent posits: “the question posed right now is: will France stay silent at this moment?”

17 | January 2024

The Menton Times

FEATURE

Gazan ‘Ecocide’ Accelerates Amidst Israel-Hamas War

BY ALEXANDRA ILIOPOULOU & LUCY LÖNNQVIST X SCIENCES DEFENSE

Following the Oct. 8 offensive by the Israeli military in Gaza, over 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, including a large percentage of women and children.

However, the cost of war has gone beyond the considerable death toll; there have been catastrophic environmental damages, leaving us to question whether this conflict warrants the legal label of ‘ecocide.’

The Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide (IEP) defines ecocide to be ‘unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.’

The term ‘ecocide’ has attracted much media attention since Oct. 7 and prolonged geopolitical tensions to this day; however, it can be said that today’s attack on Gaza is not the introduction of ecocide in the region, but the extension of a pre-existing one.

Warfare has continued off and on in the Gaza strip since the ArabIsraeli War of 1948, and continued with the Six-Day War, subsequent Intifadas, the Gaza-Israel conflict in 2014, right up to Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 and Israeli retaliation.

Taken cumulatively, the destruction of biodiversity and mass extinction of species caused by the release of bombings and white phosphorous choking the atmosphere with toxic fumes overtime has been labeled an ‘environmental apartheid’; dispossessing Palestinians of their land, water and natural resources inflicted by the ecological damage of warfare.

It is clear that the visible ecocide in the Gaza strip today was not only precipitated by the heightened 2023 attacks, but rooted in Israel’s historical colonial practices in the occupied Palestinian territory. In order for Israel to establish its colonial settlements, it began by bulldozing mass areas of Palestinian land, uprooting thousands of trees to build infrastructure on previously prized nature reserves. This tactic is used to deprive Palestinians not only of territory but any hope for economic opportunity, with approximately 80,000 to 100,000 Palestinian families relying on

olive farming as their primary source of income. According to the Palestine Trade Center, or PalTrade, the olive sector is worth between $160 million and $191 million in a good year.

The consequences of Israel’s destruction of Palestinian native land are therefore twofold: eradicating Palestinians from their territory through the expansion of illegal settlements, subsequently invoking severe habitat fragmentation, land degradation and soil erosion. In Aug. 2012, the United Nations predicted that Gaza would not be livable by 2020, demonstrating how Israel’s imposition of colonial settlements degrade the environmental health and habitability of the land, in addition to the repercussions of active warfare.

Since the Israeli military response of Oct. 8, damages have spanned from mass destruction of infrastructure, the homes of half a million people being damaged or destroyed, to the internal displacement of almost 2 million people.

Moreover, the environmental destruction, including water pollution and the consequences as a result of the deployment of white phosphorus, pose additional challenges for victims of the war.

Israel’s limited allowance of water, fuel, and electricity into Gaza as a warfare tactic has led to sewage and water treatment facility disruption. As a result, “more than 130,000 cubic meters of untreated sewage” have entered the Mediterranean Sea daily, bringing acute environmental implications.

The bombing of water treatment facilities has resulted in decreased availability of fresh drinking water for Gazans and strained aquifers, leading to Gazans having to drink large amounts of salty water.

Experts predict that it will take years to successfully clear pollution from the soil, water, and air. The lack of water available is predicted to accelerate the spread of disease, noting the accumulation of corpses, causing unnecessary deaths from treatable diseases.

The Israeli military has also utilized white phosphorus, an incendiary weapon, in its offensive, which, when considering that it is being used in some of the most densely populated areas of the world, acts

While white phosphorus itself is restricted in warfare by international law, it is strictly prohibited in civilian areas, which Israel has used it in in both Lebanon and Gaza. Despite the various health implications of coming in direct contact with white phosphorus, when entering water sources, it can severely impact the potability of the drinking water that Gazans have access to. Moreover, the animals that ingest this water, primarily fish, also become toxic to consume. The agricultural ramifications of white phosphorus contamination pose a threat to livestock and severely alter the fertility of farmland, which can pollute soil for decades.

These damages have largely been excused by Israel’s claims of self defense and pursuit to eliminate Hamas, a terrorist organization whose attacks on Oct. 7 resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1,200 people.

However, a recent development in the international response to the Israeli military campaign in Gaza is South Africa’s submission, calling for proceedings to begin against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The report details Israeli public officials’ expressed genocidal intent in their motivations for attack, and emphasizes the excessive civilian casualties that have occurred in the war.

Additionally to the denunciation of civilian deaths, calls from the public to categorize Israel's military offensive as ecocide have also surfaced. The impacts of climate change have indicated the Middle East as one of the most vulnerable regions in the world, and the environmental damages occurring in Gaza can end up having adverse effects on the entire region (Israel included).

Critics have raised attention to the longer term impacts that the bombing in Gaza will have, such as accelerating the effects of climate change and polluting the

Mediterranean. A recent piece from The Guardian stated that the initial reports of carbon emissions in the 60 day period following the war amount to the equivalent of burning over 150,000 tons of coal, a greater carbon footprint than the annual emissions of 20 climate vulnerable nations. The emissions, which are attributed to emissions from combat and directly assisting combat, such as fueling aircraft, also largely originate from American cargo deliveries of military equipment to Israel. In turn, this highlights the sensitive position of all parties involved, as the impacts of their actions will emphasize their role in the region in the long-term.

How, then, can these stakeholders be held accountable? There is a proposal submitted into the International Criminal Court to add ecocide as a crime, waiting to be endorsed by two thirds of the signatories of the Rome Statute. As it stands, ecocide is not considered an international crime despite being a transgression of national law in several countries including France, Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine, Belarus and Vietnam. This is largely due to the fact that representatives have a hard time constituting environmental destruction as a ‘crime against humanity.’ However, given the rise of rights-based climate litigation characterizing recent international case law before the ICJ, hope for criminalizing environmental warfare is well within reach. The geopolitical climate in Gaza is drawing attention to the long-term damage towards wildlife, ecosystems, and industry, raising questions as to whether the charge of ecocide should be included in international courts. For some, South Africa’s submission against Israel before the ICJ will not only bring justice to the civilian casualties and victims of wartime atrocities, but inspire nation states to endorse the ICC ecocide proposal, outlawing future damage to our natural world and our lives on it.

18 | January 2024

The Menton Times

CULTURE

Anomie in Urban Life (A Rant from Amsterdam to Athens)

BY ROSIE BETROSIAN

I recently had the opportunity to explore Amsterdam, and when asked about my impressions, I found myself wrestling with the urge to rant about the inescapable canals, marijuana-smelling corners, or the labyrinth layout of the city. I tried to find the closest square for a view of the city, perhaps catch a glimpse of a mountaintop, but that was impossible. I knew the city's structure lacks open spaces; instead, streets are simply connected to each other with no square or notable monument in sight. I suddenly felt like Fran Leibowitz – a major cynic about urban culture.

"One day I heard that the subway had been closed due to a sewage smell. Seriously? Can the subway smell worse than usual?..."

“If I complain about the things I complain about, will they change?

Not so far” – Fran Leibowitz That only proved to me that I am not alone in nagging about urbanism; a whole field is dedicated to the analysis of city structure and its relative effects on social and cultural life.

Stereotypically, I marvel at the fast-paced environments where everyone seems to be fully immersed and appears to run on efficiency. People in fast paced cities remind me of “The Wolf of Wall Street,” which left me wondering about the effects of urban structure on daily life and people’s mental health; can people truly keep up with a fast paced environment without becoming outsiders?

Often, such cities entail “neighborhood elements” such as social cohesion, pleasantness, and safety, which are associated with lower levels of depression.

Specifically green spaces, active spaces, social spaces (e.g., benches), and safe spaces (i.e., with reduced crime rates).

According to a study by Rebecca Johnson in “Main Street: How a City’s Heart Connects Us All,” these public places ameliorate mental health and communal living. This is validated and repeatedly corroborated through science. Exercise is essential for producing

serotonin, boosting self-esteem and stress resilience. However, I have found that even perfect cities following Johnson's list stimulate a feeling of anxiety and loneliness.

One may wonder what prevents anomie-inducing feelings. Living in a city entails the elements of anonymity and community.

Anonymity permits movement in public settings without scrutiny from a tight-knit community; this independence might be liberating, or the absence of a close-knit community might be isolating.

Anonymity is preserved in public places through the right to be forgotten, etc. Cities are primarily hubs of social relations and social cohesion where communities form this expectation and, together with the danger of loneliness, render cities susceptible to anomie.

But what do I consider anomie in city life? A lack of disruption from daily routines and rigid adherence to rules almost renders life austere and unbendable, this strict regulation leaves any rule breaker into a lawless reality. I find that cities, planned with town squares and cultural centers, help combat feelings of anomie, a sense of normlessness, or disconnection that arises in urban environments. Town squares and cultural centers serve as vital

components in mitigating anomie by fostering social cohesion, community engagement, and a sense of identity.

It would be the height of hubris to disregard Athens from my analysis of cities . I have heard people claim “there is no place like Greece.'' This is arguably biased coming from Greek people. This statement, however, does not refer to the Greek mountains, sea or architecture. It refers to a very specific way that Greeks lead their 9 to 5 lives…

Commonly ruled by messiness and instability, these elements themselves make Greek urban life less anomic. Disruptions in the metro, traffic, and buses full of people, as well as inaccurate public transport schedules, all create a lively day to day– which some may call chaos. This chaos adds some excitement to each day and allows for more interaction between people in public. This liveliness is also reflected in the city structure, organized around churches and public spaces indicating the prioritization of a community avoiding anomie.

Overall, urban life is influenced by factors beyond the visible cityscape, it includes complexities of city life such latent socialization, commuting, work schedule and all details that account for daily working life that can often lead one to feel anomic.

19 | January 2024

The Menton Times

CULTURE

How Twilight Reshaped the American Dream

BY PEDRO MEERBAUM

The five-movie saga follows Bella Swan, a high schooler who, according to the IMDb description, "has always been a bit different." She moves to Forks, a small, gloomy town in Washington state, to live with her dad. While trying to adapt to the new city and school, she meets Edward Cullen, a 17-year-old who looks and acts exceptionally older and bears an uncanny amount of wealth. While Robert Pattison's mature appearance might add to Edward's distinction amongst students, it is also connected to the fact that he is, actually, a vampire. Bella falls for him while also dealing with her passion for Jacob, her childhood friend who happens to be a werewolf (the vampire's nemesis). Her uncommon high school experience is also marked by the fact that she has a gift, she is not affected by the uncommon powers of the vampires, and she is immune, raising the attention of the vampirical gran-coven of the Volturis. While in conflict with the ancient Volturis and her personal affairs, Bella decides to marry Edward and eventually transformes into a vampire. The saga ends with her achieving immortality, looking forever like she is 18, owning a big house, and raising a successful family. In other words, Twilight is about a girl gaining the life that every American wants.

On July 4, 1776, the values of "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" were declared as the basis for the newly independent United States of America. The Declaration of Independence assured that all men, despite their origins, would have a fair shot at attaining their goals in the "land of the free." And thus, the American Dream was born. While originally designed to attract immigrants and formulate a sense of a nation disconnected from its European origins, the myth has taken on new roles; it became a beacon of hope for development post-WWI, seen in the uncurbed festivities of the roaring twenties. It had a crucial role in maintaining American nationalism during World War II; it worked as a cultural weapon during the Cold War. The American Dream has undeniably been the ethos for the development of capitalism and consumerism throughout history until the arrival of the 21st century. The years following the turn of the millennium were marked by events that shook the core on which American culture stood: 9/11 put to question the "untouchability" and

security of American life; The disastrous invasion of Iraq bolstered political distrust; and the 2008 financial crisis challenged the very idea that one could, under the present financial system, achieve prosperity.

Yet, the American Dream still prevails and has adapted itself to the needs of the modern American citizen. The survival of this myth is highly dependent on cultural aspects; it needs to find popular means to both be exposed and be ingrained in the imagination of the Americans. So, what saved the American dream from falling apart during the 2000s? While some analysis might point to the rise of the internet and the first expressions of social media, I find a more intense emphasis on the popularization of one piece of media — a single release that had both a national and international impact, setting standards for an entire generation of literature, cinema, and popular culture, becoming a modern American classic: The 2008 film adaptation of Stephenie Mayer's Twilight.

One particular trope that characterizes Bella's progression throughout Twilight is that of the "Chosen One." She carries different assets that other humans do not possess: she is immune to the vampirical powers and is bound by predestination. As she puts it in the final movie, "I was born to be a vampire." This trope is not the driving force that changes Bella's life, as it receives little significant screen-time discussion, but is rather something she capitalizes on. The audience understands Bella's predestination as not simply a supernatural advantage but also the reason why she is deserving to marry a hysterically handsome man, move up social classes by entering an extremely bourgeois family, and be able to own a luxurious cottage without having to work a single day in her life. Likewise, America has been founded upon the Weberian understanding of predestination: the rich and their advantageous lives on Earth, are God's chosen ones to go to heaven. As a result, the American dream is structured around one's wishes to become the chosen one.

Twilight's impact on the American

Dream becomes evident compared to other popular pieces of media that utilize the trope of the Chosen One. Take Harry Potter and Star Wars, for instance. The two sagas had a similar impact to Twilight, if not stronger worldwide, becoming pop-culture phenomena, and are both shaped around a main character that was the "chosen one."

What differentiates Twilight from its counterparts is how Bella is raised.

Harry Potter and Luke Skywalker begin their journey pitifully; Harry is abused by his uncle and aunt in the suburbs of England and then is sent to an Oxbridge-like institution, while Luke lives on a desert planet and experiences the death of his family by extraterrestrial forces. These two premises lack expressions of American life; they become entertaining but deeply unrelatable.

Bella, however, is a simple high schooler moving into a classical American small town to begin her American studies and attempting to engage with her American friends. Even when faced with abnormality, the vampires, it is revealed to her that they experienced different periods of American history. Bella is, then, an extremely relatable character with an experience that is pitiful but not too far-fetched. She could easily be your chemistry partner or your best friend from junior year. Truly, she could be any of us.

As she achieves different levels of success in life, the audience is led to think that they, too, are able to achieve those.

It isn't atypical, then, that following the release of Twilight, a wave of young Americans desired to find a partner who "looked just like Robert Pattison." Nor is it unsettling that American culture became obsessed with procedures to look young, seeing as the new standard of beauty was deeply connected with a desire to look 20 forever. Additionally, within a housing crisis, viewers found comfort in the idea that Bella could simply receive a cottage as a "marriage gift."

The final expression of Twilight's impact on culture lies in its impact on the media. Every Young Adult novel published after it, every romantic comedy, and piece of popular media targeted towards young people was, in a way,

20 | January 2024 impacted by the format of Twilight.

For the past 15 years, viewers have been led to associate Bella Swan's life as the primal example of success, consequently becoming a victim of the myth of the American Dream.

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CULTURE

From Pagan Tradition To Seasonal Landmark Of Consumer-Capitalism: The Origins Of The Christmas Tree

BY LARA HARMANKAYA While walking along some residential streets in Istanbul in December, it’s not unusual to spot Christmas trees shining from the living rooms of apartment buildings. Even in this supposedly secularized country, where the religious connotations of the Christmas holiday have no meaning to the Muslim-majority population, the tradition of putting up an evergreen tree with an expiration date of approximately two months has persisted over the years.

Globally, the evergreen tree adorned with colorful ornaments, tinsels and lights is ubiquitous every December.

One, therefore, wonders: at what point did accessorizing trees, as if embellishing a cake with sprinkles, become a universal tradition?

Nowadays, the Christmas tree is detached from its religious symbolism parallel to the growth of mass-consumerism. In the twentyfirst century, market forces have shrouded the ancient roots of the evergreen and replaced them with the politics of wanting and materialism. After all, to complete the image of the modern Christmas tree, one needs the boxes of gifts underneath it. So, the question is: how exactly did the meaning of the Christmas tree evolve over the years? How did the modern Christmas tree, the beacon of the holiday season, emerge? And what does it represent in our contemporary world?

The roots of decorating the home with the evergreen during wintertime originate long before the advent of Christianity. In the pagan world, plants that survived the harsh, long winters were placed as boughs before doors and windows to keep Satan, evil spirits and diseases at bay.

These symbols of the winter solstice reminded the residents of the imminent return of spring and the resilience of life over death and decay. The solstice marks the point of “rebirth of the sun,” at which the shortening of days ends, and each passing day progressively encounters more sunlight and warmth — a cause of celebration since Greco-Roman times. For the Romans, the festival of Saturnalia was the occasion in which temples were decorated with tree branches and homes with wreaths around the time of the winter solstice. Many historians now trace other Christmas traditions, such as giftgiving, feasting and merrymaking

back to this pagan festival dedicated to Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture and time. For Druids and Vikings alike, the evergreen also meant light and life, and the essence of this was integrated into Christian belief.

Despite the difficulty in tracing the true origins of this tradition and the contrasting claims made by some northern European countries to be its birthplace, many historians concur that Germans around the 16th century can be accredited with the birthing of modern Christmas traditions in the Christian context.

Many now believe that Martin Luther was the first to domesticate and illuminate the Christmas tree; as the story goes, while walking in the forest, he was inspired by the twinkling of the stars he saw through the tree branches and decided to recreate the scene for his family by covering an evergreen he brought home with candles. These would come to signify the birth and resurrection of Christ and the light he is said to bring to the world.

German influence in engendering the Christmas tree cannot be overlooked. It was the German tradition of decorating wooden Christmas pyramids with ornaments and treats that merged with the concept of the Paradise tree – decorating fir trees with apples to mimic the tree of life in the Garden of Eden that developed into the modern Christmas tree we know today. Its popularization outside of Germany was also notably Germanled; it was German-born Queen

Charlotte who introduced the Christmas tree to the upper classes of the United Kingdom in 1800, and it was the originally Bavarian Prince Albert and Queen Victoria’s illustrated family portrait around the Christmas tree that popularized it among the masses of English society. In the United States, the first records of Christmas trees include the wooden pyramids of the Moravian Germans in 1747 Pennsylvania.

Initially rejected by Puritans for their pagan heritage during the colonial period, the customs of Christmas became popular only after mass immigration from Germany and their prevalence in Europe in the 19th century. The Christmas tree is thereby a product of the intertwining history of religions, including Paganism and Christianity, as well as nationalities. It might be one of the best examples we have of a successful transplant of a custom across borders. As such, it is the continuation of a joint human heritage that nurtures unity.

As we have seen for centuries, the essence of the Christmas tree and the many other festivities associated with it have remained the same – the importance of light in times of spiritual and seasonal darkness.

Yet, with industrialization in the 19th century and consumercapitalism's rise, this meaning has slowly been sapped away. The commodified character of the Christmas tree can best be

21 | January 2024 encapsulated by its plastification; the artificial Christmas tree sold in most supermarkets from November onwards each year is manufactured with a large carbon footprint, thus rendering it not eco-friendly nor durable in most cases. Like most gifts awarded at Christmas-time by distant family relatives, they are discarded as soon as the holiday period is over.

What is left behind is piles of waste, driving the climate crisis that is slowly but surely dismantling the future of upcoming generations. According to Lisa Joyner, writing for the home decor blog HouseBeautiful, “an artificial Christmas tree will need to be used for at least 10 years before its carbon footprint comes close to the total carbon footprint of buying than burning a real tree every year for a decade.”

Thus, it is undeniable that capitalism’s embracement of Christmas traditions has had a detrimental impact on the planet.

For many devout Christians, capitalism has also desecrated the Christmas tree, eradicating its moral core. They lament that the modern celebration of Christmas, which encourages and espouses the exchange of gifts in a consumerist frenzy, completely contradicts the humble, ascetic and anti-materialist way of life embraced by Jesus Christ. As is now seen in the December days building up to Christmas Eve, the spiritual element of Christmas has been taken over by the frantic search for gifts in jam-packed shopping malls and streets. With this, it is easy to forget why people practice such traditions or decorate their trees in the first place.

The celebration of Christmas, as represented by its special evergreen tree, is the culmination of humanity's multicultural and multi-religious history. From the ancient Egyptians and the Romans to the Luthers, the evergreen tree has always held optimistic hopes for togetherness. It has been a promise to cast away the darkness of our daily world. Yet, it is now the poster child for the most pervasive religion of the twenty-first century: capitalism. It evokes the expectation of gifts even more so than the unison of family and friends for a merry celebration of the return of spring. The fault here lies in the spirit of consumerism that permeates social life. The prevalence and secularization of Christmas trees in the twenty-first century that came along with these developments are not inherently bad. The spread of light, hope and merriment to all those

The Menton Times who need it in their lives can become universal, especially in our contemporary world of everdeepening darkness and anomie.

However, it is still our job to ensure that the commercialization of

tradition does not erase the collective memory of the past and promote wasteful consumption. The sight of a Christmas tree illuminating a dark living room should continue to conjure up thoughts of peace,

CULTURE tradition does not erase the collective memory of the past and promote wasteful consumption.

The sight of a Christmas tree illuminating a dark living room should continue to conjure up thoughts of peace,

22 | January 2024

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CULTURE

Driven Snow; A Review of “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”

BY MAIA ZASLER

Feet planted firmly on purple and teal tiles faintly covered in a layer of filth, I was greeted by the familiar odor of buttered popcorn blended with a candy scent so sweet it could make your teeth ache. Ever since the coronavirus pandemic disrupted and permanently altered our lives in 2020, movie-going has become an extra thrilling prospect, a novelty; we’re able to sit in an often densely-packed room, eating and drinking at our leisure, feeling a profound range of emotions alongside complete strangers. I was pleased to note that Short Pump Regal Cinemas, my local movie theater, had not changed in my absence.

It was 10:30 p.m., the last showing of the night. The theater was practically empty save for me and my good friend from home. The two of us made our way down a dark hallway, ready to see the latest installment in Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games franchise, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” released on Nov. 17, 2023.

Until that night, we lived adjacent to “The Hunger Games” realm, uninterested in and fairly dispassionate to the story and its characters. Before this outing, I had not seen a single Hunger Games movie, ever. My friend and I were moved to see this new film only due to the immense social media hype surrounding it (and, candidly, a few well-done TikTok edits of one Coriolanus Snow).

We found seats in the center of the unoccupied theater. We took a moment to run around the perimeter, enjoying the freedom from unwatchful eyes and the subsequently liberating lack of social norms before the trailers stopped running. Silence then befell us both.

The original Hunger Games trilogy is set in the dystopian, fictional nation of Panem, a country divided into 12 districts and ruled by the Capitol. Each year, the Capitol hosts a Hunger Games in which a boy and a girl (aged 12 to 18) from each district are “reaped” / selected and forced to fight to the death until just one survivor remains, the Victor.

The competition is televised, serving as entertainment for the citizens of the Capitol. The annual, horrific

spectacle also serves as a means of punishment for and control of the districts that had attempted a failed revolt 74 years prior. The Hunger Games themes of the growing divide between rich and poor, the weaponization of food access, and the normalization of violence as entertainment are also replicated in this movie-adapted prequel.

“The Ballad of Songbird and Snakes” is primarily oriented around the 10th Annual Hunger Games and the development of the trilogy’s most prominent, detestable villain, Coriolanus Snow, President of Panem. The film chronicles young Snow’s ascension to power and the critical interactions and events leading to his apathy and dictatorial, sociopathic behavior as a totalitarian leader 64 years later.

Dimly lit and foreboding, the first scene opens three years prior to the first annual Hunger Games. These “Dark Days” reveal a young Snow (Tom Blyth) and his cousin, Tigris (Hunter Schafer), fearfully running around desolate city streets littered with dead bodies in a desperate search for sustenance. The pair see a man violently chop the leg off of one of these dead bodies; Coriolanus asks Tigris why the man would do such a thing. She responds, simply: “He’s starving.”

The film then jumps several years into the future, where 18-year-old Coriolanus is in his final year of schooling, hoping to attend university.

His family (his grandmother / “Grandma’am” (Fionnula Flanagan) and Tigris) are struggling financially, masking their economic plight from Capitol society. The dynamics between the Snow family members emerge quickly in the plot; Coriolanus may seemingly prioritize his relatives, but there is a lingering sense that selfish motives drive these efforts.

He works to preserve the Snow family name to present a strong front in hopes of climbing the political ladder of Panem.

At this time, the Capitol notes that the Hunger Games are losing viewership. To help encourage more spectators, the Capitol enlists Coriolanus and his fellow classmates as mentors, assigned to each tribute, or competitor, from the districts. Whoever is able to make their tribute the greatest spectacle,

whoever turns their tribute into a Victor, will be the designated recipient of the Plinth prize, an unfathomable sum of money.

Coriolanus is assigned to Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), an errant singer from District 12. Lucy Gray’s vocal gift captures the hearts of the Capitol audience, aiding in her chance for survival and sparking Coriolanus’s infatuation. The two strike up an unlikely romance, which must be put on hold throughout Lucy Gray’s coerced participation in the Games.

In each scene where the two interact, the audience is left to determine whether or not Coriolanus is acting in good faith: Is he helping Lucy Gray because he genuinely cares for her and is willing to do everything in his power to ensure she makes it out of the Games alive? Or, is he instead helping her because he views her as a pawn in a larger game, a necessary piece in his pursuit of the Plinth prize and political prestige and power?

thus intensely bleak. As the movie reached its final minutes, I sat, deflated. I longed for the triumph of good, or at least some insertion of hope for future change in Panem’s social structure. In a way, I mourned the hero that could have been, the failed and fraught love story, and the deaths of the only characters courageous enough to challenge the system that Coriolanus goes on to propagate. Truthfully, my upset and frustration felt a bit silly, but upon further reflection—and binge-watching all four original Hunger Games movies—I realized it was far from frivolous emotion.

The progression of the plot and intricate dialogue perfectly captures Snow’s moral regression, the series of choices he makes that increasingly favor “evil” over “good.”

Coriolanus is a main character that we, as audience members, cannot, in good conscience, root for. His decaying core characteristics are juxtaposed with the goodness in Lucy Gray, her relative pureness to his internal corruption.

What ultimately prevails in “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is a manipulative, over-indulgent, perverse ruling class profiting off of the labor and—in the case of the Games—relishing in the deaths of those in the districts, the masses.

For the impoverished, the victims of a system that is structured to never be in their favor, unity and solidarity are a pipedream. As highlighted by the outcome of each Hunger Games (up until, of course, the 74th), alliances turn to enemies and there is no winning (other than survival at the expense of human life, of the violent extinguishing of children).

The tributes make a show of themselves in hopes of attracting rescuers in the Capitol; the elite have the ability to send “gifts” (e.g., bottled water) to competitors in the Hunger Games arena.

In this prequel, Snow “lands on top” (to use his own words). Along this vein, the portrayal of humanity is

Through the lens of “art imitates life,” dystopian stories are often more eerily close to our realities

23 | January 2024

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CULTURE

than strict fantasy. Although this film may have been less of an overt political commentary or demonstration of existing societal inequalities and injustices, it astutely captures the initial transitional choices before devolving completely into authoritarian brutality of leadership/regime (on a micro level with Coriolanus Snow himself and on a macro level in the case of Panem).

Income inequality in the United States increased by about 20 percent from 1980 to 2016 according to the Pew Research Center. American programs such as the food stamp system are known to cause resentment among the disinvested: the taxpaying low income and those who receive welfare. Food abundance, extravagance and waste are characteristics of the elite—often of “Western” nations—whereas the masses are deprived of necessities (not due to a lack of supply or resources, necessarily, but inefficient distribution and a focus on profit-driven production). The exploitation of violence for views is extremely prevalent in our modern digital culture. As the ancient Greek philosopher Plutarch asserted: “The poor go to war, to fight and die for the delights, riches, and superfluities of others.” The violence of war is turned into blockbuster Hollywood hits or best-selling novels, and the victims of real war, more often than not, do not perish in an honorable manner. They are slaughtered and, in several instances, serve the selfish interests of others more financially well-off. For survivors, veterans who return home are frequently overlooked, and they lack adequate support. This is a particularly prevalent issue in the United States.

The Hunger Games—and, more pertinently, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”—does not provide any answers to pressing social and complex moral questions but rather poses them; the film holds up a mirror to the audience and our society, allowing us to see the impurities, the risks, and the dangers that currently lay bubbling below the surface.

What I thought this film prequel did most effectively (apart from the fantastic world-building, impressive cinematography, character portrayal, and an epic soundtrack) was incorporate veiled, almost diluted elements of silhouettes of real-world systemic

issues and moral quandaries into an already action-packed and compelling narrative; at no point during its two hour and 38 minute duration was I bored.

When I finally begrudgingly walked out of the theater, I whined to my friend; I wanted more — both more content (in which I happily absorbed watching the other movies), but also more in a grander sense of the word.

We should be able to expect more from our leaders, from each other, and from ourselves.

“The Hunger Games”—like any quality piece of art—gives us an opportunity to reflect, if not just to enjoy its aesthetics and intrigue. In a review published in the New York Times, Amy Nicholson shrewdly writes that the film and its content “moves us to spend its gargantuan running time reflecting on contemporary headlines, mourning the generational tragedy of anger and fear begetting anger and fear.”

Through the medium of film, the Hunger Games illustrates the susceptibility of the inherent

goodness and purity that we are born to the probability of it being tainted by our surrounding conditions. In this view, nurture trumps nature, and if this is true (which I believe it to be), then change can be made in both directions. What is done can be undone, laws can be written and rewritten, and extended power can be limited. After all, the “Victor” should be a healthy society where collaboration and understanding set a stage for the next generations to thrive.

24 | January 2024

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CULTURE

Women’s Annihilation by the Mass Media: How Words and Language Help Shape our Reality and Perpetuate Power Dynamics

BY FRANCESCA DI MURO

Words are more than simple combinations of letters displayed on a blank piece of paper. Words are woven into our social and political lives. Words can be weapons wielded by the powerful or tools for social resistance and change. As stated by linguist Sally McConnell-Ginet, "Words (and meaningful silences) matter enormously in our lives. They enable us to cooperate, collaborate, and ally with one another and exclude, exploit, and subordinate one another.

They script our performances as certain kinds of people in certain social locations.

They are politically powerful, both as dominating weapons that help oppress and as effective tools that can resist oppression’’.

Violence against women, femicide, and gender discrimination pervade every area of contemporary society without geographical and cultural limits. Even today, an alarming number of women are targets of physical and psychological violence at the hands of their male counterparts.

Direct violence, often fatal, is accompanied by linguistic violence, which is more hidden and spread implicitly at multiple levels. Media framing plays a pivotal role in the social construction of reality and, consequently, in the reproduction of power dynamics and imbalances.

Browsing the pages of national and international newspapers, one can see that many, if not all, newspapers that report on violence against women employ a lexical and discursive structure that indirectly justifies the executioner and blames the victim, in a scheme s based on the concurrence of blame and distorts the real nature of the crime.

Violence is multifaceted, and the ways it can be reproduced, expanded, and extended are so.

Language is one.

‘How can the media be changed?

How can we free women from the tyranny of media messages limiting their lives to hearth and home?’

This is how sociologist and feminist philosopher Gaye Tuchman ends her celebrated essay “The Symbolic Annihilation Of Women By The Mass Media,” encapsulating the concerns that continue to drive much feminist

media analysis worldwide. Despite enormous transformations in national and global media landscapes, the fundamental issues that preoccupied Gaye Tuchman in 1978 are still prevalent: power, violence, and hegemony in the narration of violence itself.

By largely ignoring women or portraying them in stereotypical roles of victim/ consumer, the mass media has symbolically annihilated women. This destruction has further strengthened the patriarchal vision that classifies women as dependent and incapable of living their own lives without male ‘guidance’. Women’s magazines once focused on domestic pursuits such as marriage, household

newspaper coverage and a representation of femicides that ignores its structural and ideological foundations have been prevalent, as well as the recurrent use of a psychiatric discourse to label the femicide as an act of pure madness of the man, reducing such phenomenon within the predictable framework of a normal homicide, caused by mental illnesses, emotivity or monstrous impulses. Here, redefining language and recreating it in feminist terms can be a form of resistance.

To conclude, it is not enough for the media to report how the femicide dynamics developed and focus on turbid details to feel like they satisfied one’s duty of informing the

that women experience in their daily lives, even in the narrations of violence themselves. The media helps shape society’s perception and public opinion of victims and offenders. Femicide is the result of a deeply embedded and rooted ideological structure, which shapes one’s beliefs and one’s behaviors, not only in femicide itself but also in the narration of it.

As Sally McConnell-Ginet once stated, ‘words matter so much precisely because so little matter is firmly attached to them,’ and they do matter — especially when they have the power to annihilate, violate and underpin one’s safety, and, consequently, one’s empowerment.

chores, and childcare. What made this pattern even more problematic was the media's role in shaping young girls’ wants and aspirations.

Media coverage has created expected roles and perpetuated inequality through the reproduction of stereotyped discourses and sexist narratives and a mediated invisibility that is achieved not simply through the non-representation of women’s points of view or perspectives. Even though this narration has slightly changed nowadays, where women are ‘visible’ in media content, their representation still reflects the biases and assumptions of those who define the public agenda and, consequently, the mediatic one: men.

Even when covering cases of femicide, specific language and discourses chosen by the media obscure the gendered and sexist basis of the violence taken out on women's bodies, portraying it as a mere homicide.

A dominant patriarchal discourse implicit in

public. It is not enough to represent only those legal and political institutions that want to treat femicide as an isolated case. It is not enough to give an account to friends and relatives of the killer who claimed he loved the woman he just assassinated. It is not enough and never will be to address the system of oppression and latent subjugation

Words are more than simple combinations of letters displayed on a blank piece of paper.

25 | January 2024

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MENA

Houthi Attacks Unaffected By US-led Counterstrikes: Houthi Role In Gaza

BY COLETTE YAMASHITA HOLCOMB Plagued by famine, economic collapse, and natural disasters, the increasingly destabilized Yemen has everything to lose through involvement in the war in Gaza.

Yet, Yemeni resistance groups have emerged as some of the strongest oppositions to Israel. In particular, Houthi fighters have attacked ships in the Red Sea, forcing some of the world’s most prominent shipping and oil companies to suspend transit through the crucial maritime trade routes. The United States and other allies, including Britain, have been the primary responders to the attacks, carrying out missile strikes on Houthi targets inside Yemen. So far, the U.S. and Britain have bombed more than 60 targets in 28 locations.

This precarious situation raises several questions regarding the Houthi role in the Israel-Gaza war, the global response, and what it may mean for the future of Yemen. This article tells you the key answers to these questions.

Who are the Houthis?

The Houthis — who also refer to themselves as Ansarullah, or “Party of God” — are an Islamist political and military organization based in the Zaydi form of Shiism.

They emerged from Yemen in 1990 and have expanded beyond their Zaydi roots to a broader movement against the central government, aiming to govern Yemen in its entirety. U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken stated on Jan 17. 2024, that, beginning in mid-February, the U.S. will consider the Houthis a “specially designated global terrorist” group if they fail to halt their attacks. This shift signifies that they will be blocking its access to the global financial system, among other penalties.

In 2014, Houthi fighters swept into the capital of Sana'a to further pressure the already weakened government until Yemen’s president, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, resigned in January 2015. The Houthis declared themselves in control of the government and would seize power over much of north Yemen by 2016. Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia after his resignation but maintained he was still in office.

Upon the deposed president’s request, Saudi Arabia launched a war against the Houthis in March 2015. A ceasefire was finally signed in 2022, lapsing

after only six months, but there has still not been a return to full-scale conflict. Since the ceasefire, the Houthis have consolidated their control over most of northern Yemen and even sought a deal with Saudi Arabia to end the war and cement their role as the country’s rulers.

Notably, Hadi also transferred his powers to a newly formed Presidential Leadership Council led by Rashad al-Alimi.

Sources in both Saudi and Yemeni governments alleged that Saudis forced this decision.

Since the escalation of the Gaza war in October, Houthis have fired weapons on commercial ships heading to and from the Suez Canal.

Initially threatening to attack any vessel departing to or returning from Israel, their targets have escalated to any vessel. According to Houthi officials, their attacks on commercial and military ships intend to pressure Israel and its allies to end the war in Gaza. Yahya Sarea, a spokesperson for the group, referenced this goal in a statement made on a military operation that targeted an American ship. The Houthis had acted “in defense of the Palestinian people in Gaza, who are being exposed, until this moment, to the most horrific type of massacres by the Zionist entity,” Sarea said.

including commercial vessels, using unmanned aerial vehicles, small boats, and missiles, including the first use of anti-ship ballistic missiles against such vessels.” In mid-November, the Houthis seized a cargo ship and its crew — the British-owned, Japanese-operated Galaxy Leader — and are still holding them. While damaging to the ships, the attacks have not sunk vessels or resulted in any casualties. As a result of these attacks, many shipping companies have stopped using the Red SeaSuez route and opted to send ships around the southern tip of Africa, a voyage that adds ten days in each direction, slowing trade and raising prices globally.

The Houthis say they will only relent when Israel allows the entry of food and medicine into Gaza. By targeting the global supply chain in its attacks, they could be aiming to economically pressure Israel’s allies to cease its bombardment of Gaza.

Primarily backed by Iran, the Houthis have received weapons and technology from the nation as part of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” — the informal anti-Israeli and antiWestern political and military coalition led by the Iranian government. Iran’s involvement in the conflict has only furthered concerns that the Israel-Gaza war will escalate into a devastating broader regional conflict.

The U.S. and its allies issued a joint statement condemning the attacks, which included “attacks on vessels,

Allied Response & Future of Yemen The U.S. is leading the counter-

Houthi Interests in Gaza

initiative, with partners including the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain. So far, strikes from U.S. and British attack planes and warships have killed five and wounded six Houthi fighters and attacked airfields, command hubs, and weapon storage facilities. Although airstrikes have not deterred the group’s attacks on Red Sea shipping, President Biden affirmed that the U.S. will continue to carry out strikes. “Are they stopping the Houthis? No,” Biden said. “Are they going to continue? Yes.” Critics of this response have stated that allied actions against Houthi fighters are disproportionate and will harm access to humanitarian aid — crucial given that over threequarters of Yemen’s population was considered in need of critical aid last year as it faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Human rights organizations and other regional experts have warned that Biden’s redesignation of the Houthis as a specially designated global terrorist organization will complicate the work of humanitarian organizations working in Houthi-controlled Northern Yemen. This rationale prompted the Biden administration to remove the organization from Washington’s list of foreign terrorist

26 | January 2024 organizations in 2021 to enable more humanitarian aid.

Moreover, there is also criticism that the retaliatory strikes are too extreme and will do more harm to the people of Yemen while failing to curb further Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. Without humanitarian aid — even with restricted aid — the future of Yemen looks grim. As the country struggles with extreme starvation, displacement and economic crisis, any deviation of aid has a massive human cost. A Houthi spokesperson affirmed that the group’s redesignation will not affect group operations, especially in the Red Sea, pledging unequivocal support for the Palestinian people. Afrah Nasser, a researcher from the Arab Center Washington DC, stated that the U.S. designation could “contribute to radicalizing some parts of the population and strengthen the Houthi recruitment system,” which would mean further destabilization for the population.

The U.S.’s reclassification could also subject Iran to more sanctions — adding to already heavy sanctions — as it opens the opportunity for sanctions for any countries or groups that support the Houthis. Still, it is unclear if further sanctions against Iran will be a U.S. strategy and if it would be an effective path to negotiating broader regional peace.

The Menton Times

MENA

A Year After the Earthquakes in Turkey: Has Anything Changed?

BY SELIN ELIF KÖSE It was Feb. 6: the weather was cold, the sky was dark and the streets were silent. Many were asleep, unaware that life was never going to be the same after 4:17 a.m. It was Feb. 6: it lasted for 1 minute and 5 seconds, with a magnitude of 7.7, and it was fatal. It was Feb. 6 when everyone thought it was over, yet the ground started shaking again.

And it was around 1:24 p.m., with a magnitude of 7.6, when it all happened once more. Then it was silent again, and everything was left under the rubble: photographs of distant memories, newly bought books and toys, unlived lives, and unfinished stories.

It’s been a year since the two deadly earthquakes struck the southeastern part of Turkey, which also affected northern Syria, Israel, and Lebanon. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the death toll reached 50,500. Yet this number only includes the identified bodies; needless to say, the actual number is expected to be significantly higher. Turkey had previously experienced destructive earthquakes as it lies in the seismic zones and is categorized as one of the most earthquake-prone countries, yet this was the deadliest in history. For comparison, other earthquake-prone countries like Japan don't get nearly as affected by earthquakes. Most recently, on Jan. 1, 2024, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 and a depth of 10 km (the same as the earthquakes in Turkey) struck Japan’s Noto peninsula. As of today, 202 deaths have been reported and 102 still missing. However, these numbers are strikingly low compared to that of Turkey. This brings the question: why? The answer is simple — the lack of precautions, not the earthquake, kills. The Turkish infrastructure and buildings were not ready to endure an earthquake, and the government failed to handle the crisis. Both of these issues boil down to politics essentially. The two main reasons were the delay and insufficiency in sending aid and construction amnesties.

After the initial destruction, thousands of people were stuck under debris. The temperature fell below zero in most cities in the southern part of Turkey. Those trapped under the debris were racing against time, facing the dangers of hunger, thirst, and freezing. At that point, the most crucial action needed was the delivery of supplies such as food,

drinkable water, and blankets to those injured and trapped under the rubble. The first three days were extremely critical to ensure that the victims could survive.

People were sharing their locations on Twitter as a desperate attempt for aid . However, right at that moment, the government imposed a ban on Twitter. This ban aimed to prevent the public from witnessing and criticizing the government's inability to manage the crisis effectively. By doing so, the government also took away the only means of communication for those under the debris. Additionally, the search and rescue teams in the region were not adequately prepared for such a devastating earthquake and proved insufficient.

Despite identifying the locations under the rubble, many individuals were abandoned to death due to the danger of collapse and the inadequacy of rescue equipment.

Meanwhile, other cities sent numerous trucks loaded with aid, but due to the government's lack of organization, this effort also failed.

Unplanned trucks hitting the roads created traffic jams, compounded by heavy snowfall closing roads. As a result, during the crucial first three days, essential aid couldn't reach the injured, leading to the loss of many lives under the debris due to hunger, thirst, or freezing.

Following the earthquake, construction amnesties became a heated topic of discussion. More than 20 laws related to construction amnesties have been enacted since 1948 in Turkey. Yet, the most comprehensive one occurred in 2018 through an omnibus law passed in the Turkish National Assembly just before the presidential election.

The construction amnesty, enacted by the AKP government to garner votes in the election, resulted in the registration of a total of 294,166 unlicensed houses in the ten cities most affected by the earthquake.

Legalizing buildings not constructed in compliance with earthquake regulations was a major contributing factor to the collapse of 36,932 buildings.

What is the condition of the southeastern region of Turkey today? Following the earthquake — according to the damage assessment report of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change — 90,609 buildings were either determined to be in urgent need of demolition, heavily damaged or collapsed. The number

of residences in these buildings was identified as 269,051; this, unsurprisingly, led a significant portion of the affected individuals to migrate to the western part of the country.

However, despite rental assistance provided to earthquake victims, the amount was insufficient to cover the high rents in the country, signifying that those unable to afford these rents and find housing had to continue their lives in tent camps established for earthquake victims. These tent camps faced flooding during cold weather conditions and still serve as a home for many who couldn’t find or afford housing.

President Erdogan failed to accomplish his promised goal, which he had stated to be “to build 650,000 houses within one year to revive the earthquakestricken region." Additionally, Taner Yüzgeç, Chairman of the Board of the Chamber of Civil Engineers, commented on Erdogan's ambitions: "These are dangerous statements. A city is not merely composed of houses.

For a housing project, its plans must be drawn up. Disaster risk plans and geological studies must be conducted, and plans should be developed accordingly. The issue is not only about housing.

Certainly, housing is a burning need, but claiming that I can build houses wherever I want means determining the lives of those who will live there from now on."

Yüzgeç emphasized that professional organizations, including the Chamber of Architects, were not involved in the reconstruction process of the earthquake-stricken region. He further pointed out that the approach to the issue was solely through the lens of construction and housing production.

Currently, there is an increasingly widespread fear among the citizens regarding a potential earthquake in Istanbul.

Turkish geologist and professor Naci Görür has warned multiple times against a possible earthquake with a magnitude above 7.0 centered in the Marmara Sea, highly affecting Istanbul and surrounding cities.

This would be even more deadly as almost 20 percent of the country's population resides in Istanbul, and there are serious questions about the durability of the buildings due to construction amnesties. Görür emphasizes

27 | January 2024 that there is an energy accumulation in the North Anatolian Fault, as the last major earthquake was in 1999, in which

The Menton Times more than 17,000 lost their lives. As a result, the majority of the buildings today are damaged and not durable enough to withstand

another earthquake. Yet, there are still no proper long-term measures taken as precautions. Observing the lack of necessary planning once

In loving memory of the 2023 Earthquake Victims

MENA again signals the potential repetition of history.

Last February's events should be a lesson, urging the need for change in the country and hoping that misguided policies and neglect won't cost any more lives.