Things (the personal & professional)
The London book launch for Design Otherwise: Transforming Design Education in the Arab Region is on 28 January at Reference Point. I will be in conversation with Dr Lina El-Hakim. There will be drinks, nibbles, talking, and dancing (courtesy of the awesome DJ Jana Saleh). Book tickets* and pre-order the book (it helps immensely)!
*if it’s sold out, please request waiting list or show up early. Roughly 30-50% of people who book a spot don’t turn up!
The second print of Designerly Ways of Knowing is available with a new cover (big up Pali!). Order here.
Sarona and I wrote a chapter about Countless Palestinian Futures for the book Producing Palestine: The Creative Production of Palestine Through Contemporary Media. Order here.
Thoughts, or something like it.
Earlier this month, Bashar Al-Assad finally decided to step down by running away (aware what fate he would have met if he stayed) and everything is unravelling. I personally never thought I would see the day. The Assad regime was absolutely relentless in its brutality and would not back down. While volunteering in Nablus in 2010, my boss would say “Syria is great, you can do whatever you want there, just don’t talk about the government.” It was the summer I was meant to visit Damascus, but while in Spain, my bag containing my passport was stolen, which meant I had a temporary one which Syrian authorities would be suspicious of and less than likely to grant me entry, so I thought, “next time.” The rest is history.
For 13 years, any resistance was crushed, leaving the country’s infrastructure completely destroyed (let’s not forget sanctions as a tool for warfare). The images of yet another Arab country destroyed fill me with grief. How much more can we take? How do you rebuild without succumbing to the way the world expects you to rebuild cities and countries? Loans, foreign investment, free market capitalism, normalisation, leaving countries in a never ending cycle of having to repay someone.
I first heard about Saydnaya Prison through Forensic Architecture’s work. I sat watching the testimonials, sobbing quietly until I could not take it anymore and had to step out. Arab bureaucracy (which I write about in my book), is an incredible work of art. Syria’s form of bureaucracy – as we have now seen – is meticulous. Every name marked down. The level of detail the Assad regime has gone to to construct such an evil place of death – absolutely perfect in its evil – makes the case for prison abolitionism all the more necessary. Imagine the energy to think up such sickening ideas to keep one in power and create a culture of fear.
I don’t know much about Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), but a reformed guy from Al-Qaeda/ISIS running the show feels like my 2014 prediction. Western powers are celebrating someone on the “specially designated global terrorist” list with a $10 million USD bounty on his head, and hosting talks with HTS, but when other organisations deemed terror groups get elected they are met with we “do not negotiate with terrorists”. I am confused. And then almost less than 24 hours later, multiple European countries halted all asylum applications – ongoing and new – for Syrians. Just like that.
24 observations/realisations for 2024
The start of this year has been the end of a way of life: the world – for many of us – completely changed in October 2023. It was no longer the same world. Whilst we can say this for the last five years, the genocide in Gaza changed everything. 2024 has been one of the most difficult years for me, filled with death and disappointment but also with life and moments of joy. I lost many people dear to me and achieved a lot at the same time.
The end of the year is filled with lists: holiday gift guides (we are all consumers) or top films/shows/songs. But rarely is there a list what we lost, of atrocities committed, of things that prove life will never be the same. In honour of the list form, and I’ve been toying with writing the likes/dislikes similar to Susan Sontag as I’m currently reading her diaries, here is a list of observations and realisations from 2024 instead.
Substack is great for bringing back long form blog-type writing but it uses the same dark patterns to get you to subscribe to people you don’t want to read, remains heavily pay-walled, and like this fellow substacker writes, recommends American blogs I am not interested in. I have been finding myself less inclined to read US-based writing because much of it is insular, like the world only exists in the US and the experiences must all be the same everywhere. (PS if you have substack accounts I should subscribe to, hit me up).
I watched Deadpool vs Wolverine and then I watched X-Men. With age, Hugh Jackman has become super jacked and it got me thinking about how every actor is super beefed up now. Even Sylvester Stallone, who appeared to me massive as a child, looks scrawny in comparison to the Buff Bagwell’s on screen. There’s a GQ article that discusses it.
I still don’t understand the obsession with the gym. People religiously exercise (I’m referring to the unhealthy amount, those annoying ‘leg day’ people), as though training to go to war, but couldn’t survive in war, it’s all aesthetics. I much prefer the aerobic physiques from the 1980s, which seemed attainable without killing oneself. That is one to aspire to, but what we eat and our lifestyles prevent us from having them again.
Food in London is better beyond zones 1/2. Thank you Vittles for converting me.
Spatial awareness has become a real problem: it is non-existent.
People who run on the busy high street should suffer the same fate as people who ride Lime bikes (see next entry).
The world in 2024 Pretend it’s a city: people who live in big cities should be made to take a short course on how to live in a city with other people. They can only be granted residency if they successfully pass the course (see previous entry).
We have reached peak Palestine merch.
Governments of the Western world are cruel, absolutely perfect in their cruelty.
Global governance organisations enable justice for the few and are no longer fit for purpose.
I am enjoying the push back at events against dietary restrictions that are not actual allergies.
Baby clothes are not fit for purpose.
Maternity clothes are hard to find.
It really does take a village to raise a child.
Businesses with no phone numbers means we now have to trek to the place to get a response because they don’t respond to emails. Not to mention brick and mortar businesses only using Instagram without mentioning their physical address and have nebulous operating hours.
What’s up with watching videos, listening to music and audio notes without headphones in public? ReddIt and Mumsnet wonder the same. Pretend it’s a city.
The Labour government is even more disappointing than I expected.
Delivery apps have ruined take away as a treat.
Those who sit in the disabled, pregnant, elderly seats and don’t need them, then see you and make eye contact when you do need them but don’t move are the worst.
Everyone feels more aggressive now. Proof: the number of “please respect our staff” and “we won’t tolerate abuse” signs have reached unprecedented levels. Pretend it’s a city.
Did we collectively agree to experience reading online in this way? In my read later app, I scrolled down to my earlier saves only to find that half the links were dead, blogs taken offline, and website domains that are up for sale. Reading is met with prompts to accept or reject cookies, to subscribe to continue reading, or to be bombarded with adverts.
The internet really has become a bore.
We inhabit a world that gives trigger warnings, warnings about self harm, smoking and other things, yet allows brutal violence to be normalised – both fictional and non (as in watch a genocide in real time). Perhaps the gore on TV and film has made us immune to watching it for real.
The advice you get when pregnant…🤦🏻♀️
Experiencing the kindness of strangers is truly a beautiful thing.
Here’s to a better and happier next year (insh’Allah)! Happy Christmas and New Year to you all.
Be well,
Danah (The Pessoptimist)