Life in a foreign country
Life in a foreign country · 31. July 2020
Don’t believe people who say it doesn’t matter. It matters a lot. Language gives one insight into what really goes on in the soul of a people; the assholery, the boundless generosity, the vindictiveness. What does the existence of the word “brinkmanship” say about English or “schadenfreude” about German?
Life in a foreign country · 14. April 2020
It has been four weeks since Germany was put in a lockdown because of the highly contagious COVID-19 virus. A lot has happened since then. People have gotten used to not knowing the day of the week. Unlike the neighboring European countries like France, Italy or Spain where so many have lost their lives, Germany seems to have come out almost unscathed. There have been mounting pressure on the government to ease the lock down and so yesterday, a group of experts from Leopoldina (National Acadmy...
Life in a foreign country · 28. February 2020
![Ruairi Casey/Al Jazeera]](https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/dimension=890x10000:format=jpg/path/sc44bb65901ae97e8/image/i945c2df8eb7429b5/version/1582880945/ruairi-casey-al-jazeera.jpg)
I wish I could say that I was surprised when Hanau shootings happened but the truth is, that I was not. Not one bit and that is a scary admission. There is an underlying hostility that we people of color feel in the midst of white people. Sometimes it is in the form of silence and sometimes it is in the form of rationalizations. “No he didn’t mean it like that.” “She is old, she doesn’t know any better.” Mostly though, it is in the form of the fragility of their emotions. Those...
Life in a foreign country · 30. September 2019
As a black person, I cannot think of a more thankless way to spend your life than trying to understand racists of any shade. And I cannot think of a worse thing than voluntarily filling your head with apoplectic Nazis boiling with rage at the existence of non-white people threatening their privileged existence. It’s a waste of time. Well, not just a waste of time but a waste of precious time you could use for sweeping the neighborhood streets or simply biting into a juicy mango and staring...