Fool’s Gold: On Oil and its Discontents
Oil is at times called “black gold” because, like the metal, it is precious. Its discovery spurs avaricious rushes and crowns a nouveau-riche class in garish ostentation. Numerous books, films, and artworks have documented the familiar, shimmery promise of the commodity; and the predictable disappointment that follows. The peripatetic Polish foreign correspondent, Ryszard Kapuscinski, wrote
The Echoes of Hurricanes
Last week, 195 nations meet in Paris to decide the fate of the systems that support life on earth. Again. Since 1995, a majority of the world’s countries has met every year but failed to reach a lasting agreement to figure out what to do about the warming planet. This annual event, which weighs heavier
Impressions Aboard the Train from Abidjan to Ouagadougou
October 1, 2015 Three hours before the train to Ouagadougou was scheduled to leave, the station in Treichville, in southern Abidjan, the economic capital of Côte d’Ivoire, hummed with more activity than it had seen in days. Across from the crowd control barriers, ticket-holders sipped Nescafé on a concrete ledge, shielding their faces from the
The Sinister Effects of Warmer Water
“At night, it looked like another city,” Isabel tells me as she gestures out her office window toward the sea. “There were hundreds of lights. But now, what do you see?” she asks me. “Nada,” I reply. Isabel Soto Gonzalez runs the daily operations at the marina in Santa Rosalía. She tells me that the
Speech Bubble: A Comic Festival in Algiers
12 Nov 2015 Le Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Alger is held on hallowed ground. Between the massive Martyrs Monument and the Army Museum, the white tent city of booksellers, exhibitions, plenaries and workshops sits above the hills, upon a multi-floor shopping center of the Esplanade de Riadh El Feth. The Martyrs Monument’s distinctive
Muscat to Mji Mkongwe
Unguja ni njema atakaye aje — Zanzibar is good to those who will come, Swahili proverb I approached the passenger side door with my bag slung over my shoulder, dripping with sweat as I waited for the taxi driver to unlock the car. As I stood there, wondering what might be taking so long, I
Arab Cartoonists Respond to the Tragedy in Paris
PRI – Jonathan Guyer spoke with Marco Werman of PRI’s The World about the response of Arab cartoonists and satirists in the wake of the terror attacks in Paris and Beirut. In the interview, Jonathan describes the unifying messages coming from Arabic cartoons in response to the tragedies. He also discusses the global impact of terror and the
Nothing to Lose: Côte d’Ivoire’s Troubled Campus Politics
As campus events go, it is difficult to imagine anything less controversial than the “Peace Fair” held at Côte d’Ivoire’s largest university one Friday morning last July. Part of a U.S. State Department-backed program intended to temper a politically volatile campus climate, the fair featured Ivoirian artists and singers, a blood-donation stand and booths where
Taking the Mickey Out of Terrorism
Sydney Morning Herald – ICWA Fellow Jonathan Guyer is quoted in a recent Australian article on Arab humor. In the piece, Jonathan describes his observations of the cultural scene in Egypt, saying, “the one thing I find really singular in Egypt is this kind of black humour … in any of the myriad of tragedies that occur there
Comics Festivals Across the Middle East
This fall, ICWA is doodling its way across the Middle East. Fellow Jonathan Guyer recently participated in Le Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Alger, the region’s premier comic con. Speaking on a plenary session entitled “Dis le mois en bulles: La Bande Dessinée et le Dessin dans le monde arabe,” he joined Algerian cartoonists Le