I have just signed a contract with the American University of Afghanistan as a University Professor. Last semester, I started working there as a visiting lecturer. Here’s the start of my ongoing reflections on this surprising turn of events, an introduction to a series of excerpts from my diary. Jeff November 2022 Until recently, Afghanistan has been a remote place on my mental map. Focused as I have …
Russian rockets and missiles that destroy civilian and military facilities fall on the country every day. As calculated by the Ukrainian weekly Nowoje Wremia, Russia launched almost a hundred rockets towards Ukraine between June 25-27 alone. The city park seemed quiet on a sunny June afternoon. A few pedestrians—or at least not many of them can be seen in the video recorded by surveillance cameras published by the …
The Russian attack left traces on the Ukrainian capital and its inhabitants that will not disappear for years. Four months ago, a group of people stood in this courtyard as artillery cannonades were heard from afar. Lyudmila, 45, had not gone to work for a long time, so she did not see this with her own eyes. She worked in a small grocery store where, apart from …
Risking their lives, teams of medics help wounded civilians and military personnel on the front line. Minutes separated them from the end of the day. 45-year-old Olena and her husband, 44-year-old Artur, were standing in the yard in front of their house. They never went to bed early. She stood close to the garage and he was a little farther away. It is possible that she went …
The inhabitants of the most damaged housing estate in the city are trying to breathe new life into it. There is still a terrible silence in Northern Saltivka. It is occasionally interrupted by the cooing of pigeons, the rustling of branches, the creaking of doors, or by a passing car crushing glass and rubble; more often the rumble of artillery, less often footsteps or conversation. Among the …
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, is under constant threat from the Russian army. This is a story about how its inhabitants are learning to live under these conditions. For Hamlet Zinkovsky, urban space is like a grand studio. You come across his paintings almost everywhere you go. He placed them in inconspicuous places in the past, but now they are found right on the streets. “I want …
Lacking men and equipment, the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the south of the country still cannot proceed in earnest. It will fail without more help from abroad. Clouds of heavy smoke float above the white wooden houses and gazebos. Some tourists record, others run away. “We have to go, this is a mess,” “Our wooden house won’t protect us from anything”—voices are heard out of frame. In total, …
On August 20, Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk will face Briton Anthony Joshua in a rematch. For Usyk, who comes from Crimea, there is much more at stake in this fight than three championship belts. At first you might not realize that it was a press conference before the fight for the three most important heavyweight championship belts, dubbed by the organizers “Rage “on the Red Sea.” The …
Half a year after the invasion began, Ukrainians continue to help their army, often putting up the last of their money and their remaining energy. More than half a year ago this was a fishing shop. Today, only mannequins and elements of decor are a reminder of its past. After February 24, the space was turned into a help center for soldiers. They can get all of …
The dangers of a new tyranny of a minority in our time This talk was presented at the New School forum “American Democracy in Crisis: Perspectives from Tocqueville, Douglass, Wells, Dewey, and Arendt” on October 13, 2022. The other talks and the discussion at the conference can be found here. I first read Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America as a college freshman. I started reading it more closely and …
