tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/greece-537/articlesGreece – The Conversation2024-03-12T18:53:02Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2243342024-03-12T18:53:02Z2024-03-12T18:53:02ZAncient scrolls are being ‘read’ by machine learning – with human knowledge to detect language and make sense of them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580263/original/file-20240306-30-3x4aw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1040%2C0%2C1253%2C379&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Vesuvius Challenge incentivizes technological development by inviting researchers to figure out how to ‘read’ ancient papyri excavated from volcanic ash of Mount Vesuvius in Italy. Columns of Greek text retrieved from a portion of a scroll. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Vesuvius Challenge)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A groundbreaking announcement for the recovery of lost ancient literature was recently made. Using a non-invasive method that harnesses <a href="https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/machine-learning-explained">machine learning</a>, an international trio of scholars retrieved 15 columns of ancient Greek text from within a carbonized papyrus from <a href="https://www.herculaneum.ox.ac.uk/about-us/story-of-herculaneum">Herculaneum</a>, a seaside Roman town eight kilometres southeast of Naples, Italy.</p>
<p>Their achievement earned them a US$700,000 grand prize from the <a href="https://scrollprize.org/">Vesuvius Challenge</a>. The challenge sought to incentivize technological development by inviting public participation in the research. </p>
<p>It emerged from collaboration between computer scientist Brent Seales — who has <a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2304.02084">a long-standing interest</a> in non-invasive <a href="https://www2.cs.uky.edu/dri/the-scroll-from-en-gedi">technologies for studying</a> manuscripts — and technology investors Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross. </p>
<p>While the developments are exciting, technology is only part of the progress of scholarship. The work of reading and analyzing the new Greek and Latin texts recovered from the papyri will fall to human beings.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Painting showing a mountain with a volcano erupting." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580261/original/file-20240306-28-umf4ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580261/original/file-20240306-28-umf4ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580261/original/file-20240306-28-umf4ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580261/original/file-20240306-28-umf4ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580261/original/file-20240306-28-umf4ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580261/original/file-20240306-28-umf4ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580261/original/file-20240306-28-umf4ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘An Eruption of Vesuvius,’ by Johan Christian Dahl (1824).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(The Metropolitan Museum of Art)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Buried in ash</h2>
<p>Like Pompeii, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5b8igA644o">Herculaneum</a> was buried by the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. </p>
<p>Much of the ancient town remains underground. But <a href="https://theconversation.com/ai-will-let-us-read-lost-ancient-works-in-the-library-at-herculaneum-for-the-first-time-223583">in 1752</a>, excavation uncovered hundreds of papyrus scrolls in the library of an elaborate Roman villa. The Herculaneum papyri <a href="https://www.herculaneum.ox.ac.uk/research-and-publications/papyri">are the largest surviving example of an</a> intact ancient library preserved in the archaeological record: the library was found as it actually existed in 79 CE. </p>
<p>The precise number of books is unknown, says Michael McOsker, a research fellow in papyrology at University College London, and different methods of estimating give different results. </p>
<h2>Carbonized papyri</h2>
<p>Starved of oxygen, the intense heat of Vesuvius’ <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/pyroclastic-flow/">pyroclastic flow</a> carbonized (but did not ignite) the papyri. Resembling lumps of coal to the eye, 18th-century excavators did not immediately recognize them as ancient books.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three dark grey rectangular objects seen in a box." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578769/original/file-20240228-16-sc89zf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578769/original/file-20240228-16-sc89zf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578769/original/file-20240228-16-sc89zf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578769/original/file-20240228-16-sc89zf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578769/original/file-20240228-16-sc89zf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578769/original/file-20240228-16-sc89zf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578769/original/file-20240228-16-sc89zf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Three unopened papyri from Herculaneum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Bodleian Libraries/University of Oxford)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The papyri are so brittle that many were destroyed by early attempts to access their texts. Studying them has therefore always required ingenuity. In 1754, a <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/buried-ash-vesuvius-scrolls-are-being-read-new-xray-technique-180969358">conservator and priest at the Vatican library</a> devised a machine for slowly unrolling them. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A dark grey scroll." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578666/original/file-20240228-7839-doqnyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7027%2C4995&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578666/original/file-20240228-7839-doqnyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578666/original/file-20240228-7839-doqnyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578666/original/file-20240228-7839-doqnyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578666/original/file-20240228-7839-doqnyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578666/original/file-20240228-7839-doqnyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578666/original/file-20240228-7839-doqnyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A portion of an unrolled Herculaneum papyrus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/cac4db6a-8af5-4234-%20acb8-4b1ce819ef14">(Bodleian Libraries/University of Oxford)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More recently, <a href="https://www.imaging.org/common/uploaded%20files/pdfs/Papers/2001/PICS-0-251/4625.pdf">multispectral photography</a> has dramatically improved their legibility. But until now, a non-invasive method that would leave the scrolls intact remained out of reach. Its development marks a significant breakthrough.</p>
<p>McOsker notes there are 659 items in the catalogue listed as “not unrolled,” but some of these are parts of scrolls. </p>
<h2>Sparking innovation</h2>
<p>To kick-start the challenge, Seales <a href="https://scrollprize.org/data">made public</a> an array of high-resolution X-ray computed tomography (CT) scans of two scrolls as well as similar scans of detached fragments with visible ink. The latter are essential as a reference point (or “control”) for innovative approaches. </p>
<p>The competition’s design encouraged transparency and collaboration: data published in the pursuit <a href="https://scrollprize.org/winners">of smaller goals</a> benefited all competitors. Additionally, transparency enabled the independent verification of results. Teams coalesced around shared ideas and approaches to the problem.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ai-will-let-us-read-lost-ancient-works-in-the-library-at-herculaneum-for-the-first-time-223583">AI will let us read 'lost' ancient works in the library at Herculaneum for the first time</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Text mentions music, taste, sight</h2>
<p>The challenge made news in <a href="https://scrollprize.org/firstletters">October</a>, when the first letters were read: πορφυρας (a noun or adjective involving “purple”). </p>
<p>By the end of 2023, the criteria for awarding the grand prize were met: four passages of 140 characters, with 85 per cent of the letters recovered. <a href="https://scrollprize.org/grandprize">A PhD student studying machine learning, an engineer studying computer science and a robotics student</a> were declared
the victors.</p>
<p>According to McOsker, the text they retrieved mentions music twice, as well as the senses of taste and sight. He thinks it is likely a work about sensation and decision-making, in the tradition of <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/ENTRIES/epicurus/">the philosopher Epicurus (341–270 BCE)</a>. The challenge’s papyrological team is still analyzing it.</p>
<h2>Hundreds of rolls to be studied</h2>
<p>This year brings with it new goals: after five per cent of one scroll was read in 2023, the challenge set a <a href="https://scrollprize.org/2024_prizes#2024-grand-prize">2024 grand prize goal</a> of reading 90 per cent of four scrolls. With hundreds of rolls yet to be studied, the new method of recovering the contents of the Herculaneum papyri is only getting started.</p>
<p>But several obstacles remain. The production of scans at sufficiently high resolution can’t be done via ordinary equipment, but requires access to a facility with a particle accelerator. Access to the right equipment is limited and costly. To date, four scrolls and numerous detached fragments <a href="https://www.diamond.ac.uk">have been processed at a facility</a> near Oxford, England. </p>
<p>Most of the unopened scrolls are housed in Naples, and getting them safely to a facility will be complicated, as will reserving and paying for the beam time required to scan them.</p>
<p>Another limitation is that the technology for unrolling and flattening out a papyrus by virtual means — a process the challenge calls “segmentation” — is slow and expensive. Via current techniques, which involve a fair bit of manual manipulation, fully segmenting one scroll would cost US$1–5 million. Segmentation needs to become much more efficient to avoid a bottleneck.</p>
<h2>Critical minds needed</h2>
<p>Technology is only part of the equation. Essential to the challenge’s work is an international team of papyrologists. Their role is to analyze the model’s output of legible ancient Greek — and in so doing determine which approaches are most effective.</p>
<p>Papyrology is thrilling work, but also challenging and painstaking. It requires mastery of ancient languages and ideas as well as the puzzle-solver’s ability to fill in the inevitable gaps. Papyrology is a niche specialization: in the larger world of classics, papyrologists are rare birds. The number of Herculaneum specialists is even fewer. </p>
<p>For the challenge truly to succeed, we’re going to need critical minds as well as whizbang technology. There’s potentially a fair bit of new ancient philosophy headed our way, but it needs to be pieced together into a coherent text — letter by letter, word by word, sentence by sentence — before it can be studied more widely. That’s going to require scholars.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224334/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>C. Michael Sampson receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for 'the Books of Karanis,' a project that studies fragmentary Greek literature from the Egyptian village Karanis. </span></em></p>However exciting the technological developments may be, the task of reading and analyzing the Greek and Latin texts recovered from the papyri will fall to human beings.C. Michael Sampson, Associate Professor of Classics, University of ManitobaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2131642023-09-08T15:58:16Z2023-09-08T15:58:16ZGreece’s record rainfall and flash floods are part of a trend – across the Mediterranean, the weather is becoming more dangerous<p>Recent images of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/07/a-biblical-catastrophe-death-toll-rises-to-four-as-storm-daniel-lashes-greece">devastating flash floods caused by Storm Daniel</a> in Greece hit close to home literally and figuratively. As a Greek who has completed a PhD and worked for the past eight years on <a href="https://www.gre.ac.uk/people/rep/faculty-of-engineering-and-science/ioanna-stamataki">flash floods</a>, the scenes unfolding across my homeland are painfully real: a stark reminder of the broader environmental challenges we face both on a local and a global scale.</p>
<p>These unprecedented flash floods were triggered by rainfall from the arrival of Storm Daniel on Monday September 4 which also affected Turkey and Bulgaria. The following day, in the village of Zagora, a record-breaking 754mm of rain fell <a href="https://www.meteo.gr/article_view.cfm?entryID=2913">in just 18 hours</a>, leaving parts of the region of Thessaly in crisis and unable to respond. </p>
<p>To put this in perspective, London gets about 585mm of rain over the course of a year while Thessaly gets 495mm, meaning that on Tuesday September 5, about 1.5 years’ worth of rain fell in 18 hours. Imagine the most torrential rain you have ever experienced, perhaps a cloudburst lasting 20 minutes or so. Now imagine it raining that hard but without pause for an entire day.</p>
<p>Flash flooding is short in duration but extremely intense, and typically happens within six hours of heavy rainfall. Unlike regular floods, which develop more slowly and can be predicted in advance, flash floods catch people off guard due to their rapid onset and are rarely recorded in the field.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547267/original/file-20230908-25061-jdzebm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Annotated map of central Greece" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547267/original/file-20230908-25061-jdzebm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547267/original/file-20230908-25061-jdzebm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547267/original/file-20230908-25061-jdzebm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547267/original/file-20230908-25061-jdzebm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547267/original/file-20230908-25061-jdzebm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547267/original/file-20230908-25061-jdzebm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547267/original/file-20230908-25061-jdzebm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Greece’s daily rainfall record was broken with 754 mm of rain in the village of Zagora – more than double the UK’s equivalent record.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://meteo.gr">National Observatory of Athens/meteo.gr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Catastrophic effects</h2>
<p>Across the three affected countries the floods have killed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/07/a-biblical-catastrophe-death-toll-rises-to-four-as-storm-daniel-lashes-greece">at least 18</a> people, with many others seeking refuge on their rooftops. There are ongoing power and water outages, infrastructure has been damaged, houses and even <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKGrc--tNyM">entire villages</a> have been completely submerged. </p>
<p>I asked Andrew Barnes, an academic at the University of Bath with expertise in <a href="https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/persons/andy-barnes">using AI to analyse extreme events</a> why this event was so exceptional. He told me that throughout Tuesday, a strong low-pressure centre formed across the south of Greece creating a large rotating weather system known as a <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/hurricanes-cyclones-and-typhoons-explained/">cyclone</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1699008805051269370"}"></div></p>
<p>This cyclone carried large rain clouds from both the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey. But it did not dissipate, and instead its low-pressure centre moved southwest and settled just south of Italy, with its bands of rain clouds also moving south and covering most of mainland Greece.</p>
<h2>Trending across the region</h2>
<p>It is crucial to emphasise that flash floods are not confined to Greece alone. They are in fact part of a broader pattern of extreme weather that has become more intense and frequent across the Mediterranean region.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547268/original/file-20230908-19-diwfhg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547268/original/file-20230908-19-diwfhg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547268/original/file-20230908-19-diwfhg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547268/original/file-20230908-19-diwfhg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547268/original/file-20230908-19-diwfhg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547268/original/file-20230908-19-diwfhg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547268/original/file-20230908-19-diwfhg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547268/original/file-20230908-19-diwfhg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author’s friend saw this flooding in the village of Chorto.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Irini Arabatzi</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Researchers who looked at <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04253-1">150 years of flood data</a> in the Mediterranean found that most were flash floods, with their highest occurrence during the summer and autumn months. The region is <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/15/1/119">particularly</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/land10060620">susceptible</a> to these floods due to the combined effects of climate change and urbanisation. The latter has increased urban development in flood-prone areas and increased impervious surfaces (like roads and pavements), preventing the natural absorption of water into the ground.</p>
<p>The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s chapter on the Mediterranean region issued a <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGII_CCP4.pdf">warning</a> that extreme rainfall events are going to occur more often and be even more intense, elevating the risk of flash floods. This warning, in combination with records of flash floods in 2023 in Spain, Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria, France and Greece, underscores the urgent need for proactive measures to address these climate-related challenges. </p>
<h2>Research is advancing</h2>
<p>Flash floods might be rare, but they are severe enough to be a matter of significant concern. Fortunately, research has advanced considerably in recent years. We’re now better able to forecast <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/12/2/570">when flash floods might happen</a>, which areas might be <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/12/1/106">susceptible</a>, and to assess their impact <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019314485?via%3Dihub">in real-time</a>. </p>
<p>My colleagues and I are working on a <a href="http://www.docuflood.uk/">project</a> that combines historical documentary sources and modern hydraulic modelling. This way we can shed light on past floods and better understand the risks they pose, helping us design effective mitigation strategies for the future. Practically, in the case of a flash flood some basic but very important actions can be found on the poster below. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547269/original/file-20230908-29-y6wdtf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="infographic with important actions to take" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547269/original/file-20230908-29-y6wdtf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547269/original/file-20230908-29-y6wdtf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547269/original/file-20230908-29-y6wdtf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547269/original/file-20230908-29-y6wdtf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547269/original/file-20230908-29-y6wdtf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=141&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547269/original/file-20230908-29-y6wdtf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=141&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547269/original/file-20230908-29-y6wdtf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=141&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tips from a flash floods expert.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ioanna Stamataki</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A complete eradication of flooding is neither technically feasible nor economically affordable. Instead on a larger scale it is key to start identifying flash-flood prone areas especially in catchments with historical flash floods. We should then focus on advocating for climate action and resilience measures, which can be anything from “hard” defences like new flood walls, through to policies and better public awareness of the risks. Only this will offer hope of a safer and more resilient future.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ioanna Stamataki has received funding from EPSRC, The Leverhulme Trust and the British Council.</span></em></p>One village recorded 1.5 year’s rain in 18 hours.Ioanna Stamataki, Lecturer in Hydraulics and Water Engineering, University of GreenwichLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2127552023-09-06T15:08:00Z2023-09-06T15:08:00ZMissing objects leave British Museum facing historic crisis of custodianship – but case is far from unique<p>Since mid-August, the British Museum has been mired in a controversy over the theft of up to 2,000 objects from its collections. The theft is suspected to be an inside job that took place over a period of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/aug/25/artefacts-stolen-from-british-museum-may-be-untraceable-due-to-poor-records">20 years</a>. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66582935">Alerted</a> to the sale of alleged stolen items in 2021, the museum did not take action until earlier this year. </p>
<p>This is not the first time the Museum has come under fire and its custodianship has been <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-times-view-on-the-british-museum-thefts-stolen-goods-vf7tf2wt6">questioned</a> (paywall). This article turns its attention to some notorious incidents involving the curation of its collection. </p>
<h2>The Duveen scouring</h2>
<p>There can be little doubt that the most notorious of them is the <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-26357-6_6">Duveen scouring scandal</a>, so-named after Joseph Duveen, an ultra-rich art dealer of dubious ethics and benefactor of the British Museum. For a long time, museum officials had argued that the Parthenon marbles had better remain in Bloomsbury, because the Greeks were unable to care for them. That argument was abandoned sometime after it was revealed that back in the late 1930s the museum had scraped the marbles with abrasive tools, destroying their historic surface, its pigments and traces of toolmarks. </p>
<p>Ancient Greek temples were richly painted but remnants of colour were not to Duveen’s liking. A trustee of the British Museum <a href="https://books.google.fr/books/about/The_Crawford_Papers.html?id=55RnAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">described</a> Duveen’s attitude at the time:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>‘Duveen lectured and harangued us, and talked the most hopeless nonsense about cleaning old works of art. I suppose he has destroyed more old masters by overcleaning than anybody else in the world, and now he told us that all old marbles should be thoroughly cleaned – so thoroughly that he would dip them into acid. Fancy – we listened patiently to these boastful follies …’</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Duveen’s men were given free access to the museum and were even allowed to give orders to staff. Soon, in a misjudged attempt to whiten what remained of the originally polychrome decoration, they started to scrub the marbles. The ‘cleaning’ lasted for fifteen months before it was stopped in September 1938. An internal board of enquiry convened at the time came to the conclusion that the resulting damage <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-26357-6_6">‘is obvious and cannot be exaggerated’</a>. </p>
<p>Tactical considerations prevailed: it was important to avoid a blow to the museum’s reputation, so it kept quiet and denied that anything untoward had occurred. Documents related to the affair became, to all intends and purposes, classified. The marbles were later placed in the Duveen Gallery, named in honour of the man responsible for the damage to their historic surface.</p>
<p>The cleaning was kept a secret for 60 years until it was <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/lord-elgin-and-the-marbles-9780192880536?cc=fr&lang=en&">exposed</a> by the British historian William St. Clair in 1998. Previously in favour of the retention of the marbles in the British Museum, St. Clair became one of the most vocal proponents of their repatriation.</p>
<p>The Duveen scouring was not the only modification of the marbles to cause consternation. A series of <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-26357-6_6">letters</a> published in <em>The Times</em> as early as 1858 expressed concern about ‘scrubbing’ of the marbles and blamed the museum for ‘vandalism’. It is probable that, if these early warnings had been headed, the Duveen scandal could have been avoided.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546662/original/file-20230906-18-82zip7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546662/original/file-20230906-18-82zip7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546662/original/file-20230906-18-82zip7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546662/original/file-20230906-18-82zip7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546662/original/file-20230906-18-82zip7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546662/original/file-20230906-18-82zip7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546662/original/file-20230906-18-82zip7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The painting ‘Pheidias showing the Frieze of the Parthenon to his friends’ by Lawrence Alma-Tadema gives an idea of what the decorative scheme of the original frieze may have looked like. For instance, it is thought that the background of the frieze was probably blue, as imagined by the artist.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1868_Lawrence_Alma-Tadema_-_Phidias_Showing_the_Frieze_of_the_Parthenon_to_his_Friends.jpg">Creative Commons/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Other controversies</h2>
<p>Other incidents have tarnished the British Museum’s reputation. Documents released under freedom of information legislation show that in the 1960s and 1980s members of the public and a work accident <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1490023/Revealed-how-rowdy-schoolboys-knocked-a-leg-off-one-of-the-Elgin-Marbles.html">permanently damaged</a> figures from the Parthenon’s pediments. </p>
<p>During a 1999 conference in the museum, a sandwich lunch was served in the Duveen Gallery, and the delegates were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/dec/01/maevkennedy">encouraged to touch</a> the ancient sculptures. Many among those present found the gesture so inconsiderate that they walked out of the gallery. A journalist writing for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/02/world/london-journal-on-seeing-the-elgin-marbles-with-sandwiches.html"><em>The New York Times</em></a> commented: ‘On Seeing the Elgin Marbles, With Sandwiches’.</p>
<p>Another controversial incident was the 2014 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/06/world/europe/elgin-marbles-lent-to-hermitage-museum.html">secret loan</a> of the pedimental statue of the river god Ilissos to the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, at a time when Europe had imposed sanctions on Russia for its annexation of Crimea. The loan was not announced until the statue had been transferred to Russia.</p>
<p>A controversy of a different kind concerns contested objects in the museum’s collection that are the object of repatriation requests. In contrast with other institutions, such as the V&A, the British Museum has been facing a chorus of restitution claims concerning very specific objects in its collection. The Museum has staunchly refused to engage in the debate, although since the beginning of the year it has been attempting to convince Greece to accept a <a href="https://theconversation.com/debate-sorry-british-museum-a-loan-of-the-parthenon-marbles-is-not-a-repatriation-199468">‘loan’</a> of the Parthenon marbles, apparently considering this to count as entering the repatriation debate. </p>
<p>Of course, the Museum is bound by the 1963 <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1963/24">British Museum Act</a>, which prevents the museum from deaccessioning (disposing of) objects in its collections except on limited grounds, but that is a discussion for a different article. </p>
<h2>The museum’s current troubles</h2>
<p>Now the British Museum is trying to repair the <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-times-view-on-the-british-museum-thefts-stolen-goods-vf7tf2wt6">dent to its reputation</a>, which comes at an inconvenient time when the museum is hoping to <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/new-british-museum-interim-boss-revealed-and-what-he-really-thinks-about-the-elgin-marbles-9s6zvgxnq">raise £1 billion</a> for much-needed renovation work. </p>
<p>About half of the museum’s <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/sites/default/files/2019-10/fact_sheet_bm_collection.pdf">8 million</a> items are <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection">uncatalogued</a> and this lack of an inventory has certainly facilitated the thefts. The fact that it took so long to discover the thefts also raises the question of what else might have gone missing without a trace. </p>
<p>Yet one can’t help but wonder: Do the museum’s current woes have other museum directors fretting with anxiety? How many museums have uncatalogued items in their storerooms? When a museum such as the Louvre explains that its database has entries for <a href="https://collections.louvre.fr/en/page/apropos">almost 500,000 works of art</a>, is that its entire collection or just a percentage of its collection? In a great number of cases, we simply don’t know. </p>
<p>The British Museum has yet to announce the exact number of stolen objects. But how does one know the exact number of what has gone missing without an inventory? More challenging still, how does one identify the objects, let alone <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/aug/25/artefacts-stolen-from-british-museum-may-be-untraceable-due-to-poor-records">prove ownership</a>? </p>
<p>The secrecy is highly unusual. Sharing information about stolen objects helps identify and recover these objects. Interpol maintains an accessible database of stolen artworks precisely for that reason. But in order to enter an object in the database, it has to be <a href="https://www.interpol.int/en/How-we-work/Databases/Stolen-Works-of-Art-Database">‘fully identifiable’</a>. And the issue here is that the museum is probably still trying to identify what has gone missing. How do you fully identify an uncatalogued unphotographed object?</p>
<p>The secrecy could be attributed to another cause too. What if some of the identified stolen items are contested items that have been the object of restitution requests? For the time being, we can only speculate. </p>
<h2>Crisis as an opportunity</h2>
<p>Every crisis is an opportunity, and here too there is an opportunity. After the resignation of the director Hartwig Fischer, an interim director, Mark Jones, has been appointed. The permanent post is up for grabs. Among those <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/new-british-museum-interim-boss-revealed-and-what-he-really-thinks-about-the-elgin-marbles-9s6zvgxnq">mooted</a> for the museum’s top job is Tristram Hunt, the Director of the V&A, who appears to have been behind the initiative to revise museum deaccessioning laws. The selection of the next Museum Director is a crucial step in moving towards a modern British Museum that not only renovates its galleries but rebuilds its image in accordance with the new values of the 21st century.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212755/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catharine Titi ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>From ill-thought renovation schemes to the latest row over the repatriation of the Parthenon marbles, this is not the first time the British Museum reckons with a custodianship crisis.Catharine Titi, Research Associate Professor (tenured), French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Université Paris-Panthéon-AssasLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2024712023-04-11T15:05:06Z2023-04-11T15:05:06ZWhy some terror campaigns escalate to civil war and others don’t – study reveals surprising new answers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520257/original/file-20230411-602-1a1qsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Guerillas from the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) pictured in 1990. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Richard Hoffmann/Sygma via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most terrorist campaigns are short-lived. But some aren’t. In some cases, terror campaigns (low-intensity violence) turn into civil wars (high-intensity violence) where militants fight the government for control of the state. </p>
<p>Mozambique and Angola provide examples of countries in which low-level attacks eventually escalated into protracted armed rebellions. But in Spain, the First of October Anti-Fascist Resistance Group remained just that – a resistance group. Similarly, Front De Liberation Du Quebec was unable to turn its campaign into a civil war in Canada. </p>
<p>These contrasting examples inspired our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17467586.2023.2182446?j=4586542">recent study</a>. We examined what makes terrorist attacks more likely to turn into a civil war. </p>
<p>We explored the impacts of three factors:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>how the state responds to a terror campaign</p></li>
<li><p>how the terrorist group responds to the state’s counterterrorism strategies</p></li>
<li><p>the state’s relations with other states. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>We found that a terror campaign is more likely to escalate when the state <a href="https://repository.essex.ac.uk/17284/1/PG_full.pdf">uses repression</a> to stop the terror group and when the group diversifies its <a href="https://personal.utdallas.edu/%7Etsandler/website/Demise%20of%20Terrorist%20Organizations.pdf">attack tactics</a>. </p>
<p>Conversely, we found that a civil war is less likely if the state responds with higher spending on health, education and social welfare. Policies that reduce poverty, inequality and socioeconomic insecurity reduce the incentive to engage in or tolerate terrorism.</p>
<p>We also found, surprisingly, that states that engage in some form of rivalry with other countries are more likely to prevent the escalation of a terror campaign into a long-running insurgency.</p>
<h2>How we did it</h2>
<p>We reviewed past research on the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sambuddha-Ghatak/publication/341143687_Terrorists_as_Rebels_Territorial_Goals_Oil_Resources_and_Civil_War_Onset_in_Terrorist_Campaigns/links/5eb4a60c92851cd50da12705/Terrorists-as-Rebels-Territorial-Goals-Oil-Resources-and-Civil-War-Onset-in-Terrorist-Campaigns.pdf">escalation of violent</a> and <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/225561475.pdf">non-violent conflicts</a> into civil wars. We found that research focused more on non-violent movements that turned into civil wars, but didn’t pay due attention to terrorist campaigns doing the same. </p>
<p>Against this backdrop, we developed our theory on the three influencing factors listed above. We tested several hypotheses with data, including statistics on <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0022002719857145">terrorist groups from across the world between 1970 and 2007</a>. </p>
<p>We focused on these three factors because the ability of a terrorist group to sustain a long insurgency depends on surviving the initial stage of conflict with the government. About <a href="https://ccjs.umd.edu/sites/ccjs.umd.edu/files/pubs/COMPLIANT-Survival%20of%20the%20Fittest%20%20Why%20Terrorist%20Groups%20Endure%2C%20Joseph%20K.%20Young%20and%20Laura%20Dugan.pdf">70% of terrorist groups end their campaigns within a year</a> of their first attack. </p>
<p>To survive this initial vulnerability, a terrorist group needs to be able to mobilise its forces for a more systematic form of warfare. Terrorism doesn’t require mobilisation, but insurgency does. </p>
<h2>The findings</h2>
<p>Our research led to four major findings. </p>
<p>First, we found that there’s a higher likelihood of an insurgency when a state violently represses a terrorist group. Violent repression helps terrorist groups convince moderate members to wage a rebellion. It also makes recruitment easier by increasing grievances against the state. </p>
<p>This was seen with the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Renamo">Mozambican National Resistance</a> (Renamo) rebel group. It escalated its violent campaign into a protracted armed rebellion against the country’s ruling party between <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-46636-7_18">1975 and 1992</a>. The group initially emerged in response to the marginalisation of Mozambique’s rural population in the 1970s. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/UNITA">National Union for Total Independence of Angola</a> (UNITA) similarly turned its violent campaign for Angola’s independence from the Portuguese into a long and brutal civil war against the ruling party between 1975 and 2002. </p>
<p>In contrast, Spain and Canada put policies in place that addressed grievances and gave people less incentive to support rebellions.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/politics/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/first-october-anti-fascist-resistance-group-grapo">First of October Anti-Fascist Resistance Group</a> in Spain started its terrorist campaign in 1975 with anti-capitalist motivations. Its last attack was in 2006. The government pursued a policy of negotiation to persuade the group to lay down its arms, and enhanced security measures and anti-terrorism laws. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/flq-front-de-liberation-du-quebec-seven-years-terrorism">Front De Liberation Du Quebec</a> in Canada launched a violent campaign with the goal of establishing an independent Quebec. It conducted terror attacks between 1963 and 1970. Similar to the reaction in Spain, Canada used negotiation to quell the rebellion. The government also adopted reforms, including establishing bilingualism and multiculturalism policies. </p>
<p>Second, we found that when a state prioritises the provision of public goods over repressive counterterrorism policies, a terrorist group is less likely to turn its campaign into an insurgency. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/islamist-terrorism-is-rising-in-the-sahel-but-not-in-chad-whats-different-199628">Islamist terrorism is rising in the Sahel, but not in Chad – what's different?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We found that the chances of a group conducting a terror campaign decrease by 57% when a state increases government spending per person by 2%. This indicates that better redistributive policies are more likely to prevent organised rebellions. </p>
<p>Fewer terrorist attacks occur in nations with more generous welfare policies. Côte d’Ivoire, for instance, managed to avoid conflict between several ethnic groups for two decades after its independence in 1960 by <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01047691">redistributing a substantial portion of the government’s budget between regions</a>. </p>
<p>On the other hand, the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/424895">Tuaregs of Mali</a> in the early 1990s led an insurrection after realising that they had been poorly educated and economically marginalised. This developed into a civil war, with the last attack happening in 2012. There have been sporadic clashes since. </p>
<p>Third, we found that groups with diversified attack strategies are more likely to escalate their campaigns into organised insurgencies against the state. This has important implications for policymakers looking at counterterrorism efforts. </p>
<p>A terrorist group that uses a wide range of tactical strategies – such as assassinations, armed assaults, bombings and hostage taking – could sound an early warning that it’s capable of waging an organised insurgency. </p>
<p>Both UNITA in Angola and Renamo in Mozambique used a <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/intorgz72&div=9&g_sent=1&casa_token=zvve5kXRRlUAAAAA:z6zH2eSzo1LsvUCClZkg-tqW_Lez9VVYsrBlLFX3PC_o_dNVi_ZJyqwAdENCXsQ9tubM0E9ZVQ&collection=journals">wide range of attack strategies</a>. On average, 53% of UNITA’s tactical portfolio included three or more attacks, as did 63% of Renamo’s portfolio. </p>
<p>Our fourth major finding highlights the role of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022002716645656?journalCode=jcrb">interstate relations</a> on escalation dynamics. It suggests that a country’s involvement in a rivalry with another state reduces the chances of a terror group escalating its campaign into an armed rebellion. Turkey and Greece have had <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/despite-rhetoric-greek-turkish-armed-conflict-seen-remote-/6899227.html">strained relations</a> and last came <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/01/world/charges-fly-as-the-greeks-and-turks-avert-a-war.html">close to war in 1996</a>. This interstate dynamic helped Turkey <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0022343314531003">unite its citizens</a> against early efforts by the Islamic State to turn its terror attacks into a civil war. </p>
<p>A government facing an interstate rival and a terrorist threat at the same time can use the external conflict to consolidate public support. This can shift public opinion against the terrorist group. </p>
<p>Understanding the effect of interstate rivalry on escalation dynamics is important in Africa. It would help explain why some terrorist campaigns in the continent turn into long and brutal rebellions as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Civil-Wars-Africa-Guide/dp/0810868857/">external states historically affect</a> the tide of African civil conflicts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202471/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Isa Haskologlu is affiliated with Beyond the Horizon International Strategic Studies Group. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ibrahim Kocaman and Mustafa Kirisci do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Policies that reduce poverty, inequality and socioeconomic insecurity lower the incentive to engage in or tolerate terrorism.Ibrahim Kocaman, Assistant Professor, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical UniversityIsa Haskologlu, Lecturer, American UniversityMustafa Kirisci, Assistant Professor of Homeland Security, DeSales UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2004902023-02-23T12:35:41Z2023-02-23T12:35:41ZSouth Africa’s bailout of Eskom won’t end power cuts: splitting up the utility can, as other countries have shown<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511919/original/file-20230223-2271-xuao0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The announcement by the South African finance minister, Enoch Godongwana, of <a href="https://www.treasury.gov.za/documents/National%20Budget/2023/review/Annexure%20W3.pdf">debt relief</a> for the country’s troubled power utility, <a href="https://www.eskom.co.za/">Eskom</a>, is a step forward. It will fix one problem: Eskom has too much debt. But the plan won’t end power cuts which <a href="https://www.treasury.gov.za/documents/national%20budget/2023/speech/speech.pdf#page=9">have worsened in recent years</a>. </p>
<p>The international experience is that one way to end electricity shortages is to allow competitively-priced privately-funded generation at scale. This requires a reorganisation of South Africa’s electricity market <a href="https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201910/roadmap-eskom.pdf">along the lines announced</a> by the Department of Public Enterprises nearly four years ago. The crux of the plan was to split Eskom into three separate units – generation, transmission and distribution, with transmission remaining state-owned.</p>
<p>With the <a href="https://www.treasury.gov.za/documents/national%20budget/2023/speech/speech.pdf#page=10">announced conditions</a>, which include the requirement that Eskom prioritise capital expenditure in transmission and distribution during the debt-relief period, the finance minister has missed an opportunity to finally achieve this.</p>
<h2>What we can learn from other countries</h2>
<p>Other countries that have had power cuts offer South Africa lessons. China, for example, faced <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/dec/05/china.jonathanwatts">rolling blackouts</a> between 2003 and 2006 because of <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/2783">an unexpected growth spurt</a>. In 2015, <a href="https://greekreporter.com/2015/04/28/nationwide-blackout-in-greek-tv-this-morning/">Greece</a> was in the middle of a financial crisis and its people could not afford the electricity supply, some of which came through a complex deal with Russia. And in <a href="https://apnews.com/article/911b4884559dc01ae604ce187c39c9ba">Colombia</a>, a drought in 1992 caused the main source of electricity supply – which came from a hydroelectric plant – to literally dry up.</p>
<p>All these countries experienced power cuts. But South Africa is the only country to have had <a href="https://theconversation.com/power-cuts-in-south-africa-are-playing-havoc-with-the-countrys-water-system-197952">power shortages for 15 years</a>. This is because the others moved quickly to rejig their electricity supply systems. </p>
<p>All three countries followed a similar route, as have many others. They untangled their single electricity companies, focusing on keeping parts of it under state control and opening up the rest to a mix of state and private companies.</p>
<h2>Complex to manage</h2>
<p>The electricity supply system has three parts. First is generation – generating electricity at a power plant. Second is transmission – moving it from the power plant to the municipality, usually on a high voltage line. Finally, distribution is about getting it the last few metres to a house or factory.</p>
<p>High-voltage transmission is what economists call a “natural monopoly”. It is more efficient if there is a single electricity grid for an area, rather than multiple grids. This part is best managed by a central body – in many countries a state-owned company. Because the transmission business can recover costs, it can use that income to increase transmission capacity, <a href="https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/only-six-solar-projects-advance-to-preferred-bidder-status-following-latest-renewables-round-2022-12-08/rep_id:4136">something that is urgently needed</a>. </p>
<p>But China, Colombia and Greece all recognised that generation no longer needs to be a monopoly. Actually a monopoly in generation is bad for all the same reasons that all monopolies are bad. They typically charge more and produce less. You need a complicated regulatory system to get their prices right. Smaller generation companies are easier to manage.</p>
<p>Distribution is best left to a company as close to the end user as possible – in almost all countries, that is the municipality. In South Africa, it is a mix. For example, <a href="https://www.citypower.co.za/Pages/default.aspx">City Power</a> distributes electricity to customers in older parts of Johannesburg. But Eskom distributes electricity direct in outlying parts of the metros. </p>
<p>This means that Eskom has to do everything: generate electricity, transmit it on large power lines to the cities and then distribute it to individual customers. It is a “vertical monopoly”. This makes it a fiendishly complex company to manage. Very few countries have such an arrangement – most prefer to allow specialist businesses in each part of the system.</p>
<h2>Lessons for South Africa</h2>
<p>Here’s what happened when generation was untangled from the rest of the state-owned monopoly in China. Between 2003 and 2006, <a href="https://www.powermag.com/china-wrestles-with-power-shortages/">new generation companies</a> added over 237,500 MW to the Chinese grid. That’s the equivalent of delivering nearly 10 Eskoms in three years.</p>
<p>In 2019, the Department of Public Enterprises <a href="https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201910/roadmap-eskom.pdf">published a detailed and clear roadmap</a> to follow this route, separating Eskom into generation, transmission and distribution. Internally, <a href="https://www.eskom.co.za/eskom-divisions/">Eskom is already structured that way</a>. On 17 December 2021, the legally binding merger agreement was executed to transfer transmission to the <a href="https://www.eskom.co.za/medium-term-budget-policy-statement-unbundling-of-transmission-division/">National Transmission Company South Africa SOC Limited</a>.</p>
<p>But the very last step has not been taken, despite being <a href="https://www.energy.gov.za/files/policies/whitepaper_energypolicy_1998.pdf">government policy since 1998</a>. Every time the proposed separation comes closer to happening, there has been fierce resistance <a href="https://www.gtac.gov.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Why-Lights-Went-Out-Politics-Institutions-and-Electricity-Reform.pdf">from both unions and Eskom management</a>. In 2018, it was because of loadshedding. During the years when there was no loadshedding and plants were being run too hard, it was because it was not urgent. And since the current electricity crisis, it is because there is loadshedding and Eskom <a href="https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/south-africa-transmission-firm-seen-hobbled-by-eskom-millstone-2022-06-21">is not financially viable</a>. But it is precisely because Eskom is in financial distress that the separation needs to be accelerated.</p>
<p>In 2023, two things make it possible to do the separation very quickly.</p>
<p>The first is <a href="https://www.eskom.co.za/resignation-of-eskom-group-chief-executive/">a new CEO</a>. If the government is serious about the separation, as it has regularly said it is, it doesn’t make sense to appoint a single new CEO. Separate CEOs should be appointed for the National Transmission Company and for the other businesses. An independent board of directors for the transmission company should also be appointed.</p>
<p>The second is a technical issue related to Eskom’s debt. At the moment, Eskom as a whole is liable for the Eskom debt. The debt holders need to consent to any change in the legal structure.</p>
<p>The national treasury has announced that approximately <a href="https://www.treasury.gov.za/legislation/bills/2023/%5BB5-2023%5D%20(Eskom%20Debt%20Relief).pdf">R254 billion (about US$14 billion) of Eskom debt</a> will be transferred to the national balance sheet in tranches over the next three years. Debt holders can be asked to approve the transfer of debt and the final piece of the restructuring at the same time. The legal and technical work has all been done – the National Transmission Company exists, and it just needs life and capital. It would have been far better to use the R254 billion (about US$14 billion) to help capitalise this critical new company.</p>
<p>Most debt holders will jump at the chance – certainty on the long promised new structure as it will go a long way to fix energy problems in the country. Also, it will improve the chances that debt holders will get their interest payments on the debt that isn’t transferred.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, <a href="https://www.treasury.gov.za/documents/National%20Budget/2023/review/Annexure%20W3.pdf#page=4">the conditions</a> that the national treasury has announced do not include the final unbundling. There is still an opportunity – the government’s conditions still have to be finalised. Eskom’s unbundling is one of the priorities of <a href="https://www.stateofthenation.gov.za/operation-vulindlela/electricity-sector">Operation Vulindlela</a>, a joint initiative of the presidency and national treasury aimed at accelerating structural reforms and measures that can support economic recovery.</p>
<p>Hopefully the government will learn from the international experience and use the R254 billion (about US$14 billion) to fundamentally fix the problem of a vertically integrated, inefficient and ineffective monopoly. And with that, end power cuts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200490/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roy Havemann is at the Western Cape Treasury and was previously at National Treasury, He writes in his personal capacity. </span></em></p>South Africa’s minister of finance should have used the bailout of Eskom to fast-track its split and introduce the private sector into the electricity sector.Roy Havemann, Research Associate, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1999462023-02-21T19:04:26Z2023-02-21T19:04:26ZWill the Turkish earthquakes affect how the country is governed?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511099/original/file-20230220-18-aqzcqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sedat Suna/EPA/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/teenager-rescued-rubble-turkey-10-days-after-quake-2023-02-16/">death toll</a> in the Turkey-Syria earthquakes spirals past a record 46,000 – and a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/20/turkey-new-6-point-4-magnitude-earthquake-hatay">fresh earthquake has struck</a> the Turkish region of Hatay – there is mounting criticism of the Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for delaying rescue efforts and politicising the disaster. </p>
<p>The aftermath of this catastrophe has ramifications for the critical Turkish presidential elections in May and Turkey’s relations with Syria, Greece and Cyprus.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.worldvision.org/disaster-relief-news-stories/2023-turkey-and-syria-earthquake-faqs">earthquake</a> that hit Turkey on February 6 was unusual. The first 7.8 magnitude earthquake was followed by a 7.5 magnitude tremor nine hours later, compounding the damage. </p>
<p>As a result, ten major Turkish cities, scores of large towns and hundreds of villages were affected. The World Health Organization <a href="https://www.worldvision.org/disaster-relief-news-stories/2023-turkey-and-syria-earthquake-faqs">estimates</a> 23 million people have been affected.</p>
<p>With millions on the streets and tens of thousands trapped underneath the rubble in the bitterly cold winter, a swift rescue and aid response was vital. </p>
<p>And this is where politics got in the way. </p>
<h2>The government’s mishandling of the disaster</h2>
<p>There have been four major criticisms of the Erdogan government’s response. </p>
<p>The first is the inactivity in the crucial first 48 hours. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqdSmHdLnHE&t=2134s">Independent reports</a> are surfacing that the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) produced a mandatory earthquake report within 45 minutes of the disaster. The interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, then held an emergency meeting with all relevant response departments.</p>
<p>Within hours, rescue and relief teams were ready to go, waiting only for final permission from Erdogan. Inexplicably, he did not immediately give the orders, while international rescue teams arriving in the country were kept in airport lounges due to bureaucratic obstacles. </p>
<p>The lateness of the response dramatically reduced search-rescue operations to find survivors under the freezing rubble. An estimated one million Turkish people were left homeless and fending for themselves. </p>
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<p>The second criticism relates to the centralisation of disaster relief agencies and the exclusion of the army from the response plans. </p>
<p>The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) centralised disaster operations under <a href="https://www.devex.com/organizations/disaster-and-emergency-management-authority-afad-51317">AFAD</a> in 2009. While this might have seemed a good idea, AFAD’s dependence on government orders <a href="https://twitter.com/yirmiucderece/status/1622880238009982976?s=20&t=37EWhfJCmCA_j8YvA4JRAw">paralysed</a> its response capability. AFAD also performed badly during the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/03/anger-in-turkey-grows-over-governments-handling-of-wildfires">2021 wildfires</a>, raising doubt about its competence.</p>
<p>The Turkish army has the biggest resources, heavy equipment and organisational capability distributed across the country. But, perhaps unwilling for the army to steal the limelight, Erdogan removed it from the response plan and gave sole disaster response responsibilities to AFAD in 2022. </p>
<p>With no immediate help arriving, desperate people started to post <a href="https://twitter.com/yirmiucderece/status/1622880238009982976?s=20&t=37EWhfJCmCA_j8YvA4JRAw">tweets</a> demanding to know where the state was and exposing the scale of the disaster. Turkish rock star <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/m-le-mag/article/2023/02/17/in-turkey-haluk-levent-is-a-rock-star-with-a-big-heart_6016230_117.html">Haluk Levent</a> launched his own aid and rescue operations, collecting millions and mobilising thousands of volunteers faster than the government. </p>
<p>As criticism of the government mounted, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/09/twitter-restored-in-turkey-after-meeting-with-government-officials.html">Twitter in Turkey was blocked</a>. This move further fuelled the anger as desperate survivors could not use an important communication channel to get help.</p>
<p>Third, there has been anger about poor urban planning and the disregard for building codes. Turkey is notorious for allowing poor building practices. Corrupt developers and council officials routinely allow the construction of cheap buildings that are unable to withstand earthquakes. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/earthquake-footage-shows-turkeys-buildings-collapsing-like-pancakes-an-expert-explains-why-199389">Earthquake footage shows Turkey's buildings collapsing like pancakes. An expert explains why</a>
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<p>The Erdogan government periodically declared “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/12/turkey-earthquake-death-toll-suggests-lessons-1999-not-learned">construction amnesties</a>”, where buildings without a safety certificate would be waived for a fee. This generated significant income for the cash-strapped government.</p>
<p>This policy has been responsible for the greatest number of casualties. The city of <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/erzin-turkey-earthquake-building-collapse-construction-codes-rcna70733">Erzin</a>, which is in the earthquake zone, did not suffer any major building collapse or significant loss of life because it has implemented zero tolerance of unsafe building practices. </p>
<p>Finally, Erdogan’s <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/15/turkey-earthquake-how-are-people-reacting-to-state-response">critics accuse him</a> of misappropriating funds collected through the so-called earthquake tax, implemented in 1999 following the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/15/turkey-earthquake-how-are-people-reacting-to-state-response">Izmit earthquake</a>.</p>
<p>Turkey is no stranger to earthquakes, being located on the Alpide belt, a seismic zone that stretches from Europe to Asia. The country has experienced numerous devastating earthquakes throughout its history, with the previous large one in Izmit in 1999. The magnitude 7.6 earthquake claimed more than 17,000 lives.</p>
<p>Being dangerously close to Istanbul, the 1999 earthquake exposed the tremendous risks poor building practices posed in densely populated cities. As a result, the government at the time introduced an earthquake tax. </p>
<p>Funds raised through this tax were meant to be used on earthquake-proof buildings and to invest in disaster prevention logistic hubs across the country. An <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64594349">estimated US$4.6 billion</a> (A$6.7 billion) had been collected during the 21 years Erdogan has been in power. <a href="https://www.jagrantv.com/en-show/turkey-earthquake-public-angry-over-turkish-government-about-earthquake-tax-people-asks-about-the-funds-collected-through-tax-rc1038583">People are now asking</a> what happened to all that money. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511254/original/file-20230220-22-arwgqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511254/original/file-20230220-22-arwgqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511254/original/file-20230220-22-arwgqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511254/original/file-20230220-22-arwgqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511254/original/file-20230220-22-arwgqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511254/original/file-20230220-22-arwgqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511254/original/file-20230220-22-arwgqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Money raised by the so-called earthquake tax was to be invested in preventing disasters like the earthquake that has just hit Turkey. Now many are wondering where the money has gone.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Erdem Sahin/EPA/AAP</span></span>
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<h2>How will the earthquake affect Turkey’s presidential election?</h2>
<p>Turkey is scheduled to have presidential elections in May 2023. The mishandling of the earthquake is likely to play a big role in the vote. </p>
<p>The opposition parties have been quick to capitalise on the government’s perceived failures. The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has been calling for an <a href="https://www.tbmm.gov.tr/Haber/Detay?Id=d0bd1042-46a9-4fe1-95e8-01862be59817">independent commission</a> to investigate the disaster and determine the cause of the government’s delayed response.</p>
<p>The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has also been vocal in its criticism. The HDP <a href="https://medyanews.net/turkeys-pro-kurdish-hdp-pools-sources-to-reach-earthquake-victims-calls-for-civil-mobilisation/">accused the government of discrimination</a> in the distribution of aid, alleging it favoured areas with a higher percentage of AKP supporters. This issue is likely to influence Kurdish voters, who make up about 18% of the population.</p>
<p>Erdogan’s AKP could lose votes in quake zones where Kurdish votes hold the balance of power. Conversely, the disaster and the three-month state of emergency could also affect voter turnout and engagement and work in AKP’s favour.</p>
<p>The massive scale of the destruction and death toll, the inexplicable delay in launching rescue and relief operations and poor public relations have exposed the weaknesses in the <a href="https://www.swp-berlin.org/en/publication/turkeys-presidential-system-after-two-and-a-half-years">presidential system</a> introduced to the country in 2016. </p>
<p>It was thought an all-powerful president would speed up bureaucracy and place the country on a fast trajectory of progress and development. The earthquake and poor government response exposed the fallacy of this contention. </p>
<p>The opposition parties will use the government’s handling of the earthquake as a campaign issue and call for reforms to improve disaster preparedness and responses and for a return to a parliamentary system with separation of powers.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511255/original/file-20230220-18-mv1r3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511255/original/file-20230220-18-mv1r3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511255/original/file-20230220-18-mv1r3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511255/original/file-20230220-18-mv1r3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511255/original/file-20230220-18-mv1r3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511255/original/file-20230220-18-mv1r3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511255/original/file-20230220-18-mv1r3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has come under heavy criticism for the government’s earthquake response, which may have implications for the May elections.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Turkish Presidency/AP/AAP</span></span>
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<p>The AKP’s mishandling of the earthquake could <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZtgD3AHfWM">fuel existing tensions</a> within the party. Erdogan, who founded the AKP, has been criticised for his increasingly authoritarian tendencies and his consolidation of power.</p>
<p>It is also possible the government’s response to the earthquake could be seen as effective in some quarters, which could enhance the AKP’s standing and improve Erdogan’s chances of winning re-election. The largely government-controlled Turkish media are already glorifying the government’s response, with <a href="https://www.afad.gov.tr/cumhurbaskanimiz-sn-erdogan-deprem-anindan-itibaren-devlet-olarak-tum-kurumlarimizla-sahadayiz-23-merkezicerik">Erdogan posing for cameras</a> next to rescued people and children.</p>
<p>The biggest hurdle for Erdogan is the poor state of the Turkish economy. It has been on the downturn since 2018 when the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/13/turkey-financial-crisis-lira-plunges-again-amid-contagion-fears">Turkish lira collapsed</a>. Since then, Turkish people have endured one of the highest inflation rates in the world at <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/895080/turkey-inflation-rate/#:%7E:text=Turkey's%20inflation%20rate%20was%2085.51,during%20the%20provided%20time%20period.">85.5%</a>. The disaster could further hamper the country’s economic prospects, which could in turn influence the election. </p>
<p>There is a strong possibility Erdogan might <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/turkey-earthquake-erdogan-opposition-anger-response/">postpone the elections</a>, citing emergency relief efforts. If he can buy time for another year or so, people might forget about the disaster and his government could hope to improve the economy, maximising its chances of winning the election. A postponement, though, would set an extremely risky precedent for Turkey’s fragile democracy.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/secondary-crises-after-the-turkey-syria-earthquakes-are-now-the-greatest-threat-to-life-199682">Secondary crises after the Turkey-Syria earthquakes are now the greatest threat to life</a>
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<h2>How will the earthquake affect Turkey’s foreign policy?</h2>
<p>Rallying nationalistic fervour through military operations has been one of Erdogan’s tactics to win elections. Reading his <a href="https://www.businessdaily.gr/english-edition/70050_eu-turkeys-hostile-remarks-against-greece-raise-serious-concerns">hostile rhetoric towards Greece</a> and the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/turkish-forces-nearly-ready-syria-ground-operation-officials-2022-11-28/">Turkish army’s preparations</a> near the Syrian border, there was an expectation of some military operation just before the presidential election. </p>
<p>Hostility with Greece may have eased, as Greece was one of the first countries to send a team to help with search-rescue operations. If Erdogan needs European Union support to rebuild the country and its economy, he will not push hostility with Greece too far.</p>
<p>A military operation in the earthquake-ravaged north-western Syria also seems unlikely. Such operations would bring widespread criticism from within Turkey, Russia, the Syrian regime that <a href="https://www.inss.org.il/publication/turkey-syria-2/">Erdogan is warming up to</a> and rebel groups Turkey supports in Syria. </p>
<p>As remote as it sounds, <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/erdogan-wants-to-annex-northern-cyprus-top-us-senator-says">annexing Northern Cyprus</a> remains a possibility for Erdogan. A sign of this is the Turkish government’s <a href="https://greekcitytimes.com/2023/02/08/earthquake-disaster-turkey-cyprus/">refusal of Cyprus’s offer</a> of assistance. Such a move would bring tremendous nationalistic support for Erdogan within Turkey. Russia may recognise the annexation in turn for concessions over the Ukraine conflict and Syria. </p>
<p>The earthquake in Turkey is a major test for the country and Erdogan. It is likely to dramatically alter the country’s internal political trajectory and its involvement in regional conflicts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199946/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mehmet Ozalp is affiliated with Islamic Sciences and research Academy. </span></em></p>The Erdogan government’s response to the devastating earthquakes in Turkey has been widely criticised. But how it might affect the forthcoming presidential election remains to be seen.Mehmet Ozalp, Associate Professor in Islamic Studies, Director of The Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation and Executive Member of Public and Contextual Theology, Charles Sturt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1995792023-02-16T13:26:06Z2023-02-16T13:26:06ZTurkey’s historic city of Antakya, known in Roman and medieval times as Antioch, has been flattened by powerful earthquakes in the past – and rebuilt itself<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509869/original/file-20230213-30-5a5djc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=77%2C25%2C5685%2C3810&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A view of the destruction in Antakya, Turkey, caused by the recent earthquake. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TurkeySyriaEarthquake/e98a627c7e2b4d338030dabb768dedbc/photo?Query=turkey%20syria%20earthquake%20antakya&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=222&currentItemNo=114">AP Photo/Hussein Malla</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tens of thousands <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/world/europe/turkey-syria-earthquake.html">have died and millions have become homeless</a> in southern Turkey and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/11/five-million-may-be-homeless-in-syria-after-quake-un">northern Syria</a> after the massive 7.8 earthquake that struck on Feb. 6, 2023. But the ancient Turkish city of Antakya, known in Roman and medieval times as Antioch, has been here before.</p>
<p>In the late fourth-century Roman world, two days after a powerful earthquake shook the border of Turkey and Syria, the Christian preacher John Chrysostom <a href="https://archive.org/details/ChrysostomHomilyAfterTheEarthquake/mode/2up">delivered a sermon</a> to the frightened congregation in his shaken city of Antioch, much as survivors today struggle to understand the destruction. “Your nights are sleepless,” he acknowledged, and possessions “were torn asunder more easily than a spider’s web. … For a short time you became angels instead of humans.”</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://religion.utk.edu/faculty/shepardson.php">historian of Christianity</a> in the late Roman world, my <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520303379/controlling-contested-places">research on the Christianization of Antioch</a> took me to the area in 2006, 2008 and 2010, and my heart has been breaking to see the region where people welcomed me so generously shattered anew. It helps, though, to know Antakya’s rich history and the resilience and courage of its people, who have rebuilt the city before. </p>
<h2>The layers of time</h2>
<p>The city has known numerous rulers in its long history, and notable religious diversity. Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities have called Antioch home since <a href="http://www.jjmjs.org/uploads/1/1/9/0/11908749/shepardson_between_polemic_and_propoganda.pdf">late antiquity</a> to today.</p>
<p>In the New Testament, Antioch is where Jesus’s followers were <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2011%3A26&version=NRSVUE">first called “Christians</a>,” and the apostles Peter and Paul <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%202%3A11-14&version=NRSVUE">met in the city</a>. Roman emperors often spent the winters in the temperate metropolis. The fourth-century Greek teacher Libanius declared in his oration “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/985424">On Antioch</a>” that this city on the Orontes River was so beautiful that even the gods preferred to dwell there.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509874/original/file-20230213-18-ggkkxh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Roman-era ruin that shows a stone arch overlooking Antakya." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509874/original/file-20230213-18-ggkkxh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509874/original/file-20230213-18-ggkkxh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509874/original/file-20230213-18-ggkkxh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509874/original/file-20230213-18-ggkkxh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509874/original/file-20230213-18-ggkkxh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509874/original/file-20230213-18-ggkkxh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509874/original/file-20230213-18-ggkkxh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Remains of a Roman aqueduct in Antakya.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christine Shepardson</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691652184/history-of-antioch">ancient Greek</a> and <a href="https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2016/2016.12.34/">Roman city</a> came under Muslim control in 637, returned to Greek Christian control in the 10th century, Muslim control briefly in the 11th century, and then western Christian control in 1098 during the First Crusade. </p>
<p>The Crusaders established the Principality of Antioch, which lasted until the 13th-century arrival of the Mongols, when after some struggles the city ultimately found itself ruled by the Muslim Mamluks based in Egypt. It became part of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, and after World War I, France oversaw the region as part of Syria until it was <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Antioch-A-History/Giorgi-Eger/p/book/9780367633042">annexed by Turkey in 1939</a>. It has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/12/world/middleeast/syria-turkey-earthquake-refugees.html">received countless refugees</a> since Syria’s civil war started in 2011.</p>
<p>During my visits, the textured layers of the city’s long history were visible everywhere. The main Kurtuluş Street followed the old Roman road, and the Habibi Neccar mosque, destroyed in the recent earthquake, commemorated the city’s early Muslim history on a site that was previously a church.</p>
<p>The Orontes River still flowed through the city, and modern homes nestled, as Roman homes once did, against the mountain where early Christian ascetics withdrew to pray; remnants of the Roman aqueduct and medieval stone walls snaked through the city and up the mountainside. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509875/original/file-20230213-448-my1vj1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The stone façade to St. Peter's Cave Church with three entrances." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509875/original/file-20230213-448-my1vj1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509875/original/file-20230213-448-my1vj1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509875/original/file-20230213-448-my1vj1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509875/original/file-20230213-448-my1vj1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509875/original/file-20230213-448-my1vj1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509875/original/file-20230213-448-my1vj1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509875/original/file-20230213-448-my1vj1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crusader façade to St. Peter’s Cave Church in Antakya.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christine Shepardson</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>The trembling Earth</h2>
<p>Earthquakes have punctuated the city’s past as well as its present, including at least two that utterly devastated the Roman city in the way that we witnessed in February 2023. </p>
<p>In his “<a href="https://archive.org/details/DioCassiusRomanHistory9books7180WithIndices/Dio%20Cassius%20Roman%20History%201%20%28books%201-11%29/">Roman History</a>” from the early third century, the early historian Cassius Dio described the catastrophic devastation and loss of life from the severe earthquake that ravaged the city in 115, as “the whole earth was upheaved and buildings leaped into the air.” The early Christian historian John Malalas survived another devastating earthquake in the city in 526, and he described in his “<a href="https://topostext.org/work/793">Chronicle</a>” the terrible fire that compounded the unfathomable destruction after “the surface of the earth boiled up and … everything fell to the ground.” </p>
<p>Today as well, countless buildings have been flattened, like the historic Habibi Neccar mosque, which had already been rebuilt after another earthquake destroyed it in 1853. The medieval Crusaders built a towering stone entrance to the mountain cave church associated with the apostle Peter, and we wait to learn if it has been damaged.</p>
<p>“I can’t tell you how much it was bad,” my friend Hülya replied to my first panicked message on Feb. 6. Much of her family in Antakya somehow survived, but her uncle and niece, our friend Ercan and his young family, and tens of thousands of others in the region were not so fortunate. “Pray for us,” she wrote.</p>
<h2>Hope for the future</h2>
<p>The city’s history, though, is one of transition and rebirth, and I believe there is hope amid the wreckage.</p>
<p><a href="https://topostext.org/work/793">Malalas wrote</a> that in 526, “Pregnant women … gave birth under the earth and came out with their infants unharmed,” echoing the survival of <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/turkey-syria-earthquake-orphaned-baby-aya-born-in-rubble-uncle-salah-al-badran/">a baby girl</a> who was born in Antakya on Feb. 6, 2023, under the collapsed rubble of her home, and has been named Aya, an Arabic word that loosely translates as a sign from God. The city’s Hatay Archaeology Museum houses a <a href="https://the-past.com/feature/discovering-roman-mosaics-where-history-meets-luxury-in-antakya/">breathtaking collection of Roman floor mosaics</a> from its suburb Daphne, famous since Roman times for its natural springs, and the Ministry of Culture has personnel on-site to protect it. </p>
<p>As neighbors dig through toppled buildings for survivors, the world rushes to bring aid. My Knoxville, Tennessee, friend Yassin Terou, a Syrian refugee himself, has <a href="https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/2023/02/07/yassins-falafel-house-owner-knoxville-makes-turkey-syria-earthquake-relief/69879106007/">returned to the region</a> to provide meals for survivors as part of global relief efforts. </p>
<p>Aid workers and volunteers are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/world/europe/turkey-syria-earthquake.html">rushing in to provide medical attention, food, shelter</a> and clean water to the region, though it remains a struggle to reach <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/02/11/1156305956/earthquake-survivors-in-northern-syria-already-ravaged-by-war-are-unable-to-rece">those isolated in northern Syria</a>. </p>
<p>The scope of the catastrophe is heartbreaking, but these echoes from the Roman past can, I believe, provide a hopeful reminder of the resilience of the city’s people who have rebuilt from devastating earthquakes before. Perhaps with the world’s support, they can do so again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199579/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nothing to disclose.</span></em></p>A historian of the late Roman world, who visited earthquake-devastated Antakya several times, writes about the city’s rich history and recovery after being devastated in the past.Christine Shepardson, Professor and Head, Department of Religious Studies, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1967262023-02-13T13:24:14Z2023-02-13T13:24:14ZWhat a second-century Roman citizen, Lucian, can teach us about diversity and acceptance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509024/original/file-20230208-16-u2rw3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C7%2C2309%2C1732&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lucian of Samosata, a high-ranking Roman official.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/lucian-of-samosata-an-assyrian-rhetorician-and-satirist-who-news-photo/526916092?phrase=lucian%20of%20samosata&adppopup=true">Michael Nicholson/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>People who don’t fit the dominant demographic of where they live can often be asked, “Where are you really from?” </p>
<p>In 2017, CNN surveyed about 2,000 people who shared their stories on social media with the hashtag <a href="https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/08/opinion/where-im-really-from/">#whereiamreallyfrom</a>. The participants included first- and second-generation immigrants, naturalized individuals and others who were native-born citizens. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://classics.ufl.edu/people/faculty/bozia/">classical studies scholar</a> with a focus on linguistic and cultural diversity in Imperial Greek and Latin literature, I am aware that this question is not a new one.</p>
<p>Take Lucian, a high-ranking Roman official in the second century. Born in Syria, he later chose to be a naturalized Roman. As a non-native speaker of Greek and Latin who, by his own admission, looked different from many people in Greece and Rome, he dealt with <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Lucian-and-His-Roman-Voices-Cultural-Exchanges-and-Conflicts-in-the-Late/Bozia/p/book/9780367870676">issues of ethnicity, language use and social acceptance</a>.</p>
<h2>The Roman world</h2>
<p>The time of the Roman Empire is a unique historical period that, in many respects, can be seen as a lived lesson for issues of diversity and inclusion. By Lucian’s time, the <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9781631492228">Romans had conquered</a> Spain, France, parts of Germany and Britain, Greece, the North Africa coast and much of the Middle East, among other territories.</p>
<p>As occupiers, they did impose their rule with military means. Still, they accepted their subjects’ differences, granted privileges to several provinces and gave citizenship on a case-by-case basis until A.D. 212, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-roman-citizenship-9780198148470?cc=us&lang=en&">when everyone was given Roman citizenship</a>.</p>
<p>Their pragmatic aim was to maintain stability and ensure cooperation. The result was a multilingual, multicultural and cosmopolitan empire. People were allowed to retain their ethnicity, language, culture and religion for the most part. Latin was [not imposed except in the army] and administration; Greek was established as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511627323">language of the educated</a>. </p>
<p>This period could be said to resemble our current times: People traveled, relocated and worked in different parts of the empire. Also, there were scholars and writers who were trilingual and multicultural. For instance, there were African authors who wrote in Latin and <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Apuleius-and-Africa/Lee-Finkelpearl-Graverini/p/book/9780367867157">were also fluent in Greek</a>, and Romans <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009840X00114982">who were fluent in Greek</a>, too. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509025/original/file-20230208-19-3b8lg7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Page of an old manuscript with writing in Latin." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509025/original/file-20230208-19-3b8lg7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509025/original/file-20230208-19-3b8lg7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509025/original/file-20230208-19-3b8lg7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509025/original/file-20230208-19-3b8lg7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509025/original/file-20230208-19-3b8lg7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509025/original/file-20230208-19-3b8lg7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509025/original/file-20230208-19-3b8lg7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Title page of a 1619 Latin translation of Lucian’s complete works.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lukian_von_Samosata_Opera.jpg">Private collection via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These authors wrote about their <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/greek-literature-and-the-roman-empire-9780199240357?cc=us&lang=en&">sense of identity and belonging</a> and were proud of their ability to remain true to their origins while also adapting to the conditions of the global world of the empire. On the other hand, there were also other authors who were anti-immigration and <a href="https://digilib.phil.muni.cz/_flysystem/fedora/pdf/141160.pdf">critical of new citizens and non-native speakers</a>, and others who showed that Roman occupation weighed heavily on their subjects. </p>
<h2>So, where was Lucian really from?</h2>
<p>Lucian is a <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/hellenism-and-empire-9780198152316?cc=us&lang=en&">cosmopolitan</a> individual. He was born in Samosata, which was in Syria until it was incorporated into the Roman Empire. He traveled to Cappadocia, Pontus, Athens, Rome, Gaul and Egypt. He wrote in perfect Greek; he was in the entourage of the Roman Emperor Lucius Verus and served as the secretariat of the Roman prefect in Egypt. </p>
<p>Throughout all his works, Lucian clearly suggests that he should be accepted in this new world as the model of the new citizens – individuals who were open about their ethnic identity yet embraced the Greco-Roman culture and contributed to advancing contemporary social inclusion.</p>
<p>In his essay “<a href="http://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki/doku.php?id=home:texts_and_library:essays:the-vision">The Dream</a>,” Lucian imagines his future as an underrepresented citizen. He writes that two women appeared in his sleep: an elegant one representing Greek education and a rugged one representing a craftsman’s life. The former promised him a life of popularity among the world’s elite. He chooses to be a well-to-do man of letters who overcame his humble origins and succeeded in a cosmopolitan society, even though he was not a native speaker or a native citizen.</p>
<p>In another one of his writings, “Zeuxis,” he writes about about his fluency in Greek and insists that <a href="https://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/luc/wl2/wl207.htm">he should not be seen as an outsider</a> because he is as articulate as any native-born Greek speaker. </p>
<p>He becomes more emboldened in his treatise “<a href="https://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/luc/wl2/wl204.htm">A Slip of the Tongue in Greeting</a>.” Here, he intentionally makes a mistake in a salutation and supposedly writes to apologize. In reality, however, he shows his knowledge of Greek cultural norms and, at the same time, clearly proves that he is versed in Roman culture, too. </p>
<p>On the other hand, he also wrote a piece titled “<a href="https://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/luc/wl4/wl404.htm">My Native Land</a>,” in which he says that no matter the languages one learns, the cultures one acculturates oneself to, and the global recognition, they are always their motherland’s sons and daughters – proud of them and indebted to them.</p>
<p>Lucian’s work provides a unique insight into a world of imperialism that also fostered multilingualism and multiculturalism and gave birth to the first global citizens. His writings show what diversity and inclusion can look like through the eyes of the empire’s newest citizens – and offers illuminating lessons from an often forgotten classical past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196726/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eleni Bozia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Lucian’s work provides insight into the second-century Roman world, which fostered multilingualism and multiculturalism.Eleni Bozia, Associate Professor of Classics and Digital Humanities, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1973642023-01-09T16:52:16Z2023-01-09T16:52:16ZThe Parthenon marbles: George Osborne wants to return the statues to Athens, but can he? A legal expert explains<p>George Osborne – former UK chancellor and now chair of trustees at the British Museum – <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/03/elgin-marbles-could-soon-returned-greece-landmark-deal/">is reported</a> to have negotiated the repatriation of the 2,500-year-old Parthenon marbles to Athens. </p>
<p>The deal, struck with the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is not yet finalised. But it is thought that the sculptures will leave London “sooner rather than later” and it is planned that the British Museum will receive some <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/04/british-museum-panthenon-deal-elgin-marbles-loan/">ancient artefacts</a> in return.</p>
<p>Early in the 19th century, the marbles were removed from the Parthenon by employees of Lord Elgin, then the British ambassador to the Ottoman empire. <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-hellenic-studies/article/abs/lord-elgin-and-his-collection/04D46BCF7613E12C142DAC8FBA56B3E3">There is evidence</a> that he wanted them to decorate <a href="https://www.broomhallhouse.com/">Broomhall House</a>, his estate in Scotland.</p>
<p>But Lord Elgin ran short of cash. After extended bartering, he eventually sold the sculptures, images of both gods and mythic battle, to the British government for £36,000 – much less than the costs he incurred in removing them from the Acropolis.</p>
<p>The sculptures were deposited in the British Museum, under the care of its trustees. From that point on, they have attracted controversy. Greek politicians have made <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Medelhavsmuseet/NzFoAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Greek+requests+for+return+of+Parthenon+marbles+world+war+II&pg=PA148&printsec=frontcover">repeated requests</a> for <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-wellcome-closed-its-medicine-man-exhibition-and-others-should-follow-suit-196171">repatriation</a>.</p>
<h2>What would the return of the Parthenon marbles signify?</h2>
<p>The return of <a href="https://theconversation.com/britain-has-kept-the-elgin-marbles-for-200-years-now-its-time-to-pass-them-on-55912">the Parthenon marbles</a> would be a historic moment. In bringing it about, Osborne is not acting alone. As chair of trustees, he shares decision-making powers with a high-profile museum board, which includes historian Mary Beard and artist <a href="https://theconversation.com/graysons-art-club-reminds-us-that-creativity-is-an-essential-part-of-being-human-137331">Grayson Perry</a>.</p>
<p>Behind the scenes, there are also politics at play. Most of the museum trustees are <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1963/24/contents">appointed</a> by the British prime minister. They then elect their chair. </p>
<p>Last year, around the same time that Osborne’s negotiations started, the Greek prime minister had tabled repatriation as an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/nov/15/greek-pm-kyriakos-mitsotakis-parthenon-marbles-boris-johnson">item for discussion</a> at a Downing Street meeting with Boris Johnson.</p>
<p>Whatever the backroom role of the British government, repatriation would not be possible without Osborne’s positive support. This is true, even while the former chancellor’s motivation might not be entirely selfless. He now – like Lord Elgin – has the chance to associate his name with the artworks in perpetuity.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503437/original/file-20230106-18-6gfe4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A painting of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin in a red jacket and white trousers. He leans on a sword and wears a powdered grey wig." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503437/original/file-20230106-18-6gfe4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503437/original/file-20230106-18-6gfe4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503437/original/file-20230106-18-6gfe4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503437/original/file-20230106-18-6gfe4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503437/original/file-20230106-18-6gfe4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503437/original/file-20230106-18-6gfe4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503437/original/file-20230106-18-6gfe4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, who originally removed the marbles from Greece.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Broomhall House</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This potential personal ambition is not legally straightforward. The British Museum is formally a charity and Osborne must put the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3913521">best interests</a> of the organisation before all else. He must account for any negative consequences flowing from repatriation.</p>
<p>The issue is not clear cut. Although the museum will lose its prize exhibit,
and may have less visitors, the return of the marbles will generate intense press publicity – and perhaps some goodwill – around the world.</p>
<p>The ethical – and perhaps <a href="https://www.bailii.org/uk/other/journals/WebJCLI/1997/issue2/stamatoudi2.html">legal</a> – basis of the original British purchase is certainly doubtful. Lord Elgin received legal permission from local Ottoman authorities but the <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/308-the-parthenon-marbles">most likely view</a> is that, in removing a very large number of sculptures over a sustained period, Lord Elgin went further than the original document allowed. </p>
<p>Lord Elgin then sought a new legal permission from the Sultan, sanctioning removal “after the fact”. </p>
<h2>Can George Osborne legally return the Parthenon marbles?</h2>
<p>Even accepting all this, Osborne still cannot lawfully “deaccession” the Parthenon marbles. Under the British Museum Act 1963, such action is permitted only if objects are “<a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1963/24/section/5">unfit to be retained</a>”. The legislation is primarily intended to cover extreme circumstances, such as human remains found in store.</p>
<p>Osborne’s plan, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11597017/Elgin-Marbles-soon-returned-Greece-long-term-loan-deal.html">as it is reported</a>, has found a way around this legal problem. His scheme is for the marbles to be loaned.</p>
<p>Ownership would be kept by the British Museum, even while the marbles will be rehoused in Athens. As a matter of law, it will be possible to claim that the sculptures have not, strictly speaking, been deaccessioned.</p>
<p>Once the marbles are rehoused in the specially built <a href="https://www.npr.org/2009/10/19/113889188/greece-unveils-museum-meant-for-stolen-sculptures">Acropolis Museum</a>, it is unlikely that they will ever return to London. Any request from future museum trustees would be met with a cold shoulder.</p>
<p>And so the “loan” would permanently restore the sculptures to Athens, while leaving the British Museum Act 1963 and its general bar on deaccession intact.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A large ceiling and well-lit room house walls lined with marble statues." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503438/original/file-20230106-25-ofvytb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503438/original/file-20230106-25-ofvytb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503438/original/file-20230106-25-ofvytb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503438/original/file-20230106-25-ofvytb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503438/original/file-20230106-25-ofvytb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503438/original/file-20230106-25-ofvytb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503438/original/file-20230106-25-ofvytb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ‘Elgin Marbles’ exhibit room inside the British Museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-august-19-2022-elgin-2195895905">Jeff Whyte</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is a carefully constructed legal plan, but it could also be a missed opportunity. Over the coming decades, pressure on the British Museum to repatriate other objects, such as the <a href="https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745341767/the-brutish-museums/">Benin bronzes</a>, and the Rosetta Stone will probably grow.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rosetta-stone-a-new-museum-is-reviving-calls-to-return-the-artefact-to-egypt-195037">Rosetta Stone: a new museum is reviving calls to return the artefact to Egypt</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If the scheme marks any type of precedent, the British Museum will respond to other requests through similar backroom negotiations. The British government will keep the nature of its involvement both ambiguous and at arm’s length.</p>
<p>It would be better to move forward in a spirit of transparency. It is still widely thought that deaccession is politically unpopular. But in changing times, that view might now be out of date.</p>
<p>A bold government which, through special legislation, took direct responsibility for repatriation, might find popular support.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197364/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Picton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The British Museum appears close to a decision on returning the Elgin marbles – here’s how it might navigate the legal challenges.John Picton, Senior Lecturer in Charity Law, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1931312022-11-10T10:14:55Z2022-11-10T10:14:55ZOut of sight, out of mind: Europe’s increasing pushback against migrants<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492865/original/file-20221101-19-tcdese.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C26%2C5898%2C3549&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The migrant centre on the Greek island of Samos is surrounded by three layers of fence and barbed wire. According to authorities, it is designed to host up to 3,000 people, of which 2,100 will have a “controlled access” and 900 will be in detention waiting to be sent back to Turkey (21 July, 2021).</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Evgenia Chorou/MSF</span>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Lying a few kilometres off the Turkish coast, a series of Greek islands remain on the frontline of increasingly militarised attempts to limit the arrival of migrants and asylum seekers to the European Union. The often unseen and largely ignored treatment of those seeking shelter, whether pushed back to Turkey or incarcerated in isolated camps for processing, compound their suffering and make a mockery of protections ostensibly provided under refugee law.</p>
<h2>Europe’s “pushbacks”</h2>
<p>Individuals and families who make landfall in Samos and Lesvos, often hiding from the authorities, are offered <a href="https://www.msf.org/fear-beatings-and-pushbacks-people-seeking-safety-greek-island-samos">emergency medical and psychological first aid</a> by teams from Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders. High levels of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder reflect both the experience that led to their making the high-risk journey to Europe, and the ordeal of the journey itself. Violence is common and survivors regularly report having been forcibly returned to Turkish waters. In recounting the dread of being pushed back yet again, a former patient said, “you feel like dying.”</p>
<p>The term <em>pushback</em> has been described by the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc4730-report-means-address-human-rights-impact-pushbacks-migrants">UN Special Rapporteur on human rights of migrants</a> as measures that result in “migrants, including asylum seekers, being summarily forced back” without assessing their protection needs, to their point of crossing, be it land or sea. While this essentially covers deportation and refusal of entry, it should not be confused with the concept of <a href="https://international-review.icrc.org/articles/note-migration-and-principle-non-refoulement-icrc-2018"><em>refoulement</em></a>, which refers to the expulsion of an individual to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened. While <em>refoulement</em> is illegal under customary and international law, pushbacks occupy a judicial grey area.</p>
<p>The fact that pushbacks are taking place on Europe’s borders is no longer in question. German media recently made public a redacted but sufficiently <a href="https://fragdenstaat.de/dokumente/233972-olaf-final-report-on-frontex/">detailed report</a> by the EU’s fraud office outlining complicity on the part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/eu-border-agency-frontex-accused-of-covering-up-human-rights-violations-in-greece-the-allegations-explained-192372">European Border and Coast Guard Agency</a> (Frontex) in the pushback of migrants from Greece to Turkey. Operating under the command of the Greek authorities, Frontex was deemed to have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-greece-turkey-migration-8b4f22cab5fd705137985173069537bc">actively covered up pushbacks by the Greek navy</a> either by avoiding the area where they were taking place or simply not investigating.</p>
<h2>28,000 people adrift in the Aegean Sea</h2>
<p>That such actions represent an extreme danger for those desperate enough to risk the crossing into Greece is likewise not in dispute. The term <em>drift-backs</em> has also been used to describe this method of violent deterrence, essentially forcing migrants and asylum seekers into motorless rafts to drift on the currents back to the Turkish coast. <a href="https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/drift-backs-in-the-aegean-sea"><em>Forensic Architecture</em></a> estimates that around 28,000 people have drifted across the Aegean Sea in a two-year period since the first case was documented in February 2020. Cynically effective, the Greek government has presented <a href="https://ecre.org/greece-systematic-pushbacks-continue-by-sea-and-land-as-meps-demand-eu-action-deaths-up-proportionate-to-arrivals-number-of-people-in-reception-system-reduced-by-half-mitarachi-still-not/">reduced arrivals</a> as a success, even as mortality has proportionally increased.</p>
<p>Given some of the more egregious approaches to manipulating migrant flows, and the very human desperation that drives them, the ascendance of pushbacks is sadly not alone as per shady practices. Other recent examples include Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko’s facilitating the arrival of asylum seekers from the Middle East as a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/11/15/belarus-migrants-pawns-west/">retaliation over EU sanctions</a> and Morocco’s punishing Spain for providing medical care to the leader of the Sahrawi liberation movement by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/11/15/belarus-migrants-pawns-west/">“engineering” a surge of migrants into the enclave of Ceuta</a>. Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was a master at securing political and economic concessions by <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-111393">playing on European migrant fears</a>.</p>
<h2>Outsourced border controls in Turkey and Libya</h2>
<p>In the years that followed the 2015 arrival of 1.3 million asylum seekers, those same fears have led to the preferred EU approach of outsourcing border controls, including asylum applications when feasible. Despite these measures and the billions that have been paid to Turkey, people continue to risk their lives. In 2017, European states began <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/15/belarus-fortress-eu-refugees-sanctions-european-union">funding Libya’s coast guard</a>, even with well-documented concerns over treatment during Mediterranean interceptions and conditions in Libya itself. The stalled plan to send asylum seekers <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-61782866">from the United Kingdom to Rwanda</a> is a striking example of rich countries attempting to pay their way out of shared responsibility for refugees. Preventing migrants from crossing over from a bordering country to Greece’s actively pushing them back is simply another step toward the militarisation of what is fundamentally a humanitarian issue.</p>
<p>Other heavy-handed measures have accompanied pushbacks. For those who manage to reach the island of <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/greece/all-i-want-be-free-and-leave-life-samos-closed-controlled-access-centre">Samos</a>, transfer and detention in the Closed Controlled Access Centre awaits. Military-grade security measures are accompanied by lengthy legal procedures often resulting in the rejection of asylum claims and dehumanising experience for applicants. As for the process itself, much like pushbacks at sea both have become “a test ground for Europe” according to Christina Psarra, the general director of MSF-Greece.</p>
<h2>An increasingly hostile political climate</h2>
<p>Such deterrence and containment policies regrettably fall into the mundane and engender little debate in a highly polarised political environment. Search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean that were previously lauded are now <a href="https://www.manchesteropenhive.com/view/journals/jha/3/1/article-p28.xml">accused of colluding</a> with people smugglers, ports are regularly <a href="https://www.msf.org/over-500-survivors-board-geo-barents-urgently-need-port-safety">closed to overburdened boats</a> carrying rescued migrants, and <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2020/03/free-to-help/">acts of solidarity are criminalised</a>. And a populist narrative of “Europe under threat” conveniently ignores those who are perishing unseen in <a href="https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/drift-backs-in-the-aegean-sea">quasi-militarised zones</a> inaccessible to journalists and aid workers, or languishing in detention camps, outsourced or otherwise.</p>
<p>It is hardly a revelation to note that the granting of political asylum can be discriminatory, the preference for political dissidents from enemy countries over those fleeing conflict in the Global South being an obvious case in point. More recently, the <a href="https://www.fenixaid.org/articles/europes-selective-solidarity-the-emerging-double-standard-applied-to-those-seeking-safety-in-the-eu">double standards</a> displayed in the reception of Ukrainian refugees, what has been referred to as selective solidarity, is incomparable to the experience of those who arrive in Greece and elsewhere in Europe.</p>
<p>More broadly, the dilution of refugee law in Europe is part of a disturbing trend where international humanitarian obligations are ignored at will. Systematically and consciously endangering the lives of asylum claimants and refugees while leaning on the supposed “dangers” posed by economic migrants challenges our basic humanity.</p>
<p>Condemning criminal practices such as pushbacks is relatively straightforward given the loss of life, and the EU has done this through its own fraud office and more recently in a <a href="http://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/44039/council-of-europe-approves-antimigrant-pushback-report">report from the Council of Europe</a>. The bigger task is fixing a broken system that has spent millions of euros reinforcing the EU’s response to migration while paying off poorer states to manage the problem – this is especially distasteful given the <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/">small percentage of global refugees</a> actually residing in Europe. Dignified access to safe reception, protection and asylum procedures is the minimum required under international law. Europe has demonstrated this capacity in the past; unfortunately, the political will appears to have been forgotten, or worse.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193131/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Duncan McLean ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>In the wake of revelations on the EU’s failure to protect migrants, an MSF doctor details how those seeking to reach Europe’s shores are increasingly falling prey to violent deterrence methods.Duncan McLean, Senior researcher, UREPH-Médecins Sans Frontières, fellow, Science Po Toulouse, Sciences Po ToulouseLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1925372022-11-08T14:02:26Z2022-11-08T14:02:26ZGreece’s ‘Watergate’ explained: why the European Parliament is investigating over a wiretapping scandal<p>After Greece and the European Central Bank <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13501763.2016.1154977?casa_token=nA5m981NE14AAAAA%3AvZsgVPwIH54QnboqbHweNklssbC6gIrdXWojSmH-Vlesr94IRns26RjeOgNgZ8lG1bqzYK1LSNE">agreed</a> post-economic-crash bailout terms in 2010, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a 146-page <a href="https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2010/cr10110.pdf">report</a> outlining all the key state problems that were seen as having caused Greece’s fiscal crisis. </p>
<p>One of them was <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9780230294752">corruption</a>, which has eaten away at accountability in Greek politics since the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30036358#metadata_info_tab_contents">end of military dictatorship</a> in 1974. Sean Hagan, the former general counsel of the IMF described Greece as a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe_MSTMFLGM">tough case</a>, as corruption appeared to be widespread on all levels of public administration.</p>
<p>On winning the 2019 general election, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledged those underlying issues. He <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSZO4XVAMb4">promised</a> to be ruthless about the symptoms of corruption and fight off accusations of elitism. Far from achieving these goals, however, Mitsotakis’ government now stands accused of <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2022/733637/EPRS_ATA(2022)733637_EN.pdf">spying on journalists and opposition politicians</a>. </p>
<h2>‘Greek Watergate’</h2>
<p>Mitsotakis had to admit that the Greek National Intelligence Service (EYP) <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2022/733637/EPRS_ATA(2022)733637_EN.pdf">had been wiretapping</a> Nikos Androulakis, leader of centre-left opposition party Pasok and a member of the European parliament. However, he claimed not to have known about it and insisted all operations were legal.</p>
<p>This last point is crucial since several journalists have accused the Greek government of <a href="https://citizenlab.ca/2021/12/pegasus-vs-predator-dissidents-doubly-infected-iphone-reveals-cytrox-mercenary-spyware/">putting Predator spyware on their phones</a> – a type of software similar to the notorious <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/jul/18/what-is-pegasus-spyware-and-how-does-it-hack-phones">Pegasus</a> spyware – which is illegal in the European Union. </p>
<p>The EYP has admitted to monitoring journalist Thanasis Koukakis but denied deploying Predator. </p>
<p>The EYP has refused to provide records of the surveillance to prove that Predator was not used, however. And to the surprise of many, EYP director general Panagiotis Kontoleon <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2022/08/05/greek-intelligence-chief-resigns-over-alleged-spying-scandal">suddenly resigned</a> in August 2022 – although again denying Predator was involved in the wiretapping, admitting only that “incorrect actions” had taken place during “legal surveillance”. Grigoris Dimitriadis, the general secretary of the prime minister’s office (and nephew of Mitsotakis) stepped down within an hour of his departure. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Androulakis claims an independent analysis <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/CRE-9-2022-09-12-INT-1-112-0000_EL.html">found Predator software on his phone</a> and is taking a case to Greece’s supreme court.</p>
<h2>A special inquiry goes nowhere</h2>
<p>Mitsotakis promised to shed “significant light” on what had happened in these cases and announced a special parliamentary inquiry. This was a huge risk since he had brought the EYP under his <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/07/greek-pm-kyriakos-mitsotakis-under-pressure-over-tapping-of-opponents-phone">personal control</a> after winning the 2019 general election. It was an unusual move, heavily criticised by opposition parties at the time. Now Mitsotakis was leaving himself vulnerable to personal liability by ordering the inquiry. </p>
<p>Questions about how he could not have known about surveillance were bound to arise, as would questions about what prompted Kontoleon and Dimitriadis to resign if no wrongdoing had taken place. Mitsotakis insisted their departure was not an admission of guilt, but both resignations remain unexplained.</p>
<p>Anyone hoping that answers could be given through the inquiry were sorely disappointed when it <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/greek-spyware-inquiry-ends-in-stalemate/">wrapped up</a> without the various parties involved agreeing on any findings. According to Mitsotakis’s party, the allegations about phone hacking “collapsed like a house of cards” under scrutiny. According to opposition parties Syriza and Pasok, the government deliberately sped up the inquiry process to <a href="https://www.syriza.gr/article/id/134278/SYRIZA---PS:-Prwtofanhs-metapoliteytika-methodeysh-fimwshs-twn-boyleytwn-h-mystikh-Olomeleia-gia-tis-ypoklopes---Me-kathe-kinhsh-sygkalypshs-o-k.-Mhtsotakhs-epibebaiwnei-thn-enochh-toy.html">cover up</a> wrongdoing.</p>
<p>Mitsotakis claimed the inquiry proved no wrongdoing had taken place and declared the matter closed.</p>
<p>The fact that key witnesses, including Kontoleon and Dimitriadis, refused to cooperate or answer any questions, citing <a href="https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1192345/wiretapping-probe-veiled-in-confidentiality/">confidentiality</a>, has only added to the sense of injustice among the other parties. The “significant light” Mitsotakis promised to shed is currently missing. Instead, he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivFkoZVAWz8">blamed</a> “dark forces outside Greece” for destabilising the country – although did not make clear what these dark forces were. </p>
<h2>The EU steps in</h2>
<p>Nor is this scandal solely an internal matter anymore. The European Union has sent a <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/greek-pm-on-alert-as-eu-parliament-predator-mission-goes-to-athens/">fact finding delegation</a> to Greece to investigate further. This is part of wider work by the European Parliament to investigate the abuse of spyware among EU governments – a mission that Brussels takes seriously enough to have set up a <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52022DP0071">dedicated committee</a>.</p>
<p>The committee has already expressed concern about evidence that the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LciskOzRD4Y">Polish government</a> was using spyware and has been investigating similar reports about the Hungarian government monitoring the press. </p>
<p>When Mitsotakis came to power in 2018, he pledged to take on <a href="https://www.iefimerida.gr/news/455961/mitsotakis-o-laikismos-stin-ellada-tha-nikithei-stis-eperhomenes-ekloges">populism</a>. Now he is under investigation alongside the populist leaders who have become notorious in the EU for straining democratic norms. </p>
<p><a href="https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/webstreaming/press-conference-by-sophie-in-t-veld-rapporteur-on-pega-draft-report_20221108-1100-SPECIAL-PRESSER">Presenting the findings</a> of its draft report on the use of spyware by European governments the committee called on the Greek government to provide more information to enable the inquiry to draw accurate conclusions.</p>
<p>Regardless of whether his government is guilty of using spyware against journalists and political opponents, Mitsotakis is behaving like a populist leader by making a sham of the inquiry set up to investigate the problem. Such a lack of commitment to accountability is never a welcome sign in a democratic system.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192537/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Georgios Samaras does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis admits his intelligence agency surveilled journalists but denies using illegal Predator software on them.Georgios Samaras, Lecturer in Political Economy, Department of Political Economy, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1906422022-10-17T17:57:10Z2022-10-17T17:57:10ZCould tensions between Greece and Turkey lead to a second European war?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489261/original/file-20221011-18-j7qzky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C1164%2C8614%2C4578&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The pilot of a Greek fighter jet F-16 Viper checks the aircraft before the takeoff at Tanagra north of Athens, Greece in September 2022. Greece has bolstered its air force amid increasing tensions with neighbouring Turkey.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/09/turkey-greece-escalate-war-words-they-drag-eu-nato">Tensions are flaring between Turkey and Greece over the militarization of the eastern Aegean islands</a> and a host of other issues. </p>
<p>Considering Russia’s military expansion across the region, it would be strategically wise for the two NATO members to de-escalate and improve relations based on mutual trust and respect.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nato-greece-turkey-middle-east-aded3f53d5e9efa43cff07a184536ec4">recent speech</a>, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to invade Greek territories in retaliation for alleged hostile action against <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/28/turkey-says-greek-missiles-locked-on-its-jets-over-mediterranean">Turkish jets by Greece</a>. </p>
<p>This isn’t the first time the Greek army harassed Turkish jets and ships, nor the first time <a href="https://apnews.com/article/recep-tayyip-erdogan-turkey-middle-east-nato-a504ec58cc242762db5e3a5ec7dade67">Erdogan has made inflammatory remarks</a>. </p>
<h2>Stirring up nationalism?</h2>
<p>Both Greece’s Prime Minister <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/greece-kyriakos-mitsonakis-spying-scandal-clouds-greeces-political-future/">Kyriakos Mitsotakis</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/16/world/europe/turkey-elections-erdogan-greece.html">and Erdogan are facing tough upcoming general elections</a>. Rallying national sentiments could help them secure a win.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489282/original/file-20221011-15-w2d60b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a dark blue suit with a light blue tie stands with his hands clasped." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489282/original/file-20221011-15-w2d60b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489282/original/file-20221011-15-w2d60b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489282/original/file-20221011-15-w2d60b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489282/original/file-20221011-15-w2d60b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489282/original/file-20221011-15-w2d60b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489282/original/file-20221011-15-w2d60b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489282/original/file-20221011-15-w2d60b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is seen in Athens in September 2022. He has warned that tensions with Turkey could escalate into a second European conflict.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the sources of these mounting tensions go beyond electoral calculations. Turkey and Greece have unresolved historical issues as well as a <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/turkey-europe-and-the-eastern-mediterranean-charting-a-way-out-of-the-current-deadlock/">set of post-Second World War disputes that still fester</a>. These include the status of Cyprus, access to hydrocarbon resources in the east Mediterranean Sea, the aerial and maritime boundaries of the Aegean islands and the militarization of these islands.</p>
<p>Assertive policies by both Ankara and Athens in the last decade have exacerbated the two countries’ already tumultuous relationship.</p>
<p>During the early phase of the Arab uprisings, <a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/12/turkey-not-yet-ready-give-muslim-brotherhood">Turkey backed the Muslim Brotherhood</a> to expand its regional sphere of influence. The strategy did not pan out, however. Former Egyptian president Muhammed Morsi, a former Brotherhood leader, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/world/middleeast/egypt.html">was deposed in a coup</a> by the secular President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. </p>
<p>The strategy damaged Turkey’s relations with leading Arab states for what they perceived to be interference in their internal affairs.</p>
<p>Turkey also prematurely involved itself in a great power competition by playing Russia against the United States, rather than aligning with the U.S. as it traditionally did. </p>
<p>Participating in both the <a href="https://www.dailysabah.com/op-ed/2017/11/09/astana-talks-overshadow-un-backed-negotiations-in-geneva">Russia-sponsored Astana talks and the U.S.-backed Geneva process</a> on the Syrian civil war was a reflection of an emerging independent Turkish foreign policy. This balancing act worked in Turkey’s favour at the height of the war, allowing it to become <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/files/Siccardi_-_Turkey_Syria-V3.pdf">a deal-maker on a number of regional issues</a>. </p>
<h2>Turkish miscalculations</h2>
<p>But the misreading of these short-term volatile dynamics as long-term strategic opportunities by Turkish policy-makers adversely affected its relations with both the Americans and the Europeans. </p>
<p>Policy decisions such as the government’s use of the refugee crisis as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with Europe and the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/turkey-takes-first-shipment-of-russian-s-400-air-defense-system-in-defiance-of-us-and-nato-warnings/2019/07/12/d9f446c2-a00b-11e9-83e3-45fded8e8d2e_story.html">acquisition of the S-400 Russian air-defense system</a> after the <a href="https://warontherocks.com/2019/07/the-tale-of-turkey-and-the-patriots/">U.S. pulled its Patriot batteries</a> from Turkey were the result of these misreadings.</p>
<p>The discord between Turkey and the U.S. led Washington to seek other regional partners. That’s when Greek and American interests converged. Greece needed foreign investment to revive its economy, and the U.S. needed stable territories to position its military to watch over the Middle East, North Africa, Russia and the Balkans. </p>
<p>During a visit to the White House in 2017, Alexis Tspiras, the then Greek prime minister, and Donald Trump made <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/18/trump-sale-f16-fighter-jets-debt-greece">a US$2.4 billion deal to upgrade Greece’s F-16 fighters</a> and increase American investment in the country. This deal indicated shifting U.S. strategies in the region. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A blond aging man shakes hands with a younger dark-haired man." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489283/original/file-20221011-10401-iqhnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489283/original/file-20221011-10401-iqhnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489283/original/file-20221011-10401-iqhnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489283/original/file-20221011-10401-iqhnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489283/original/file-20221011-10401-iqhnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489283/original/file-20221011-10401-iqhnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489283/original/file-20221011-10401-iqhnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trump shakes hands with Tsipras in the Rose Garden of the White House in October 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The pace of these military relations accelerated once the centre-right Mitsotakis <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-48902766">won the 2019 elections</a>. An upgraded Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement <a href="https://www.state.gov/signing-of-protocol-of-amendment-to-the-mutual-defense-cooperation-agreement-with-greece/">was signed</a> two years later, allowing the U.S. military to operate and train on four military bases, including one in Alexandroupoli. </p>
<p>The agreement was condemned by the Greek left. The opposition party <a href="https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1184212/leftist-opposition-refuses-to-back-us-defense-deal/">SYRIZA voted against its ratification and accused Mitsotakis of reducing Greece to “a U.S. satellite</a>.” </p>
<h2>Turkey hemmed in</h2>
<p>Currently, Turkey is surrounded by Russia from the south and north, and by Greece — and by extension, the U.S. — from the west. It is left with little room to manoeuvre. Its ambitions to become a regional powerhouse are stunted for the foreseeable future. </p>
<p>In view of this geopolitical reality, Turkey understandably shares close relations with Russia. To balance and reduce its dependence on Moscow — particularly Russian natural gas and issues concerning Syria and the Black Sea — it needs to restore and improve its relations with the Arab world, the EU, the U.S. and Greece.</p>
<p>Greece, meanwhile, is emboldened. With an American military presence, it is upending Turkey strategically, particularly after the recent <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/cyprus-hails-us-decision-to-fully-lift-weapons-embargo/2022/09/17/bf49676c-366c-11ed-a0d6-415299bfebd5_story.html">U.S. decision to lift the arms embargo on the Republic of Cyprus</a>. The lift lessens the burden on Greece as the military guarantor of Cyprus, and strengthens its position against Turkey in the east Mediterranean Sea, where the Turks have been conducting oil and gas exploration despite strong Greek opposition.</p>
<p>But there are repercussions to these developments. <a href="https://greekcitytimes.com/2022/10/11/greece-waters-12-miles-turkey/">Greek territorial waters</a> are now a target of global and regional anti-American forces. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in a suit stands on a pale blue carpet looking at a military honour guard dressed in the same shade of blue." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489285/original/file-20221011-13-2gd8nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489285/original/file-20221011-13-2gd8nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489285/original/file-20221011-13-2gd8nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489285/original/file-20221011-13-2gd8nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489285/original/file-20221011-13-2gd8nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489285/original/file-20221011-13-2gd8nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489285/original/file-20221011-13-2gd8nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan salutes a military honour guard during an official welcome ceremony, in Ankara, Turkey in June 2022. Erdogan has warned Greece to demilitarize islands in the Aegean Sea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Looking ahead</h2>
<p>Tensions between Greece and Turkey are not new, but the future cannot be built on the grievances of the past. For greater regional stability, disputes cannot be left unresolved indefinitely.</p>
<p>The militarization of the Aegean islands and limiting the eastern Mediterranean Sea to an already surrounded Turkey will surely worsen relations. Turkey’s assertive policies in the last decade caused many unanticipated quandaries for the country, and similar policies may bear comparable consequences for Greece in the future.</p>
<p>With elections fast approaching, tensions and hyper-nationalistic rhetoric are heightened in both nations. With Turkey encircled and Greece growing assertive, it would be prudent for both to maintain close dialogue, focus on common interests and develop mutual trust in a region already engulfed by a series of ongoing conflicts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190642/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yasar Bukan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Tensions between Greece and Turkey are nothing new, but the future cannot be built on the grievances of the past. For greater regional stability, both countries must de-escalate.Yasar Bukan, Lecturer in Global Politics & Political Philosophy, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1912902022-10-04T12:23:37Z2022-10-04T12:23:37ZBiden says the US doesn’t want a new Cold War – but there are some reasons it might<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487568/original/file-20220930-21-zx2bmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C85%2C5167%2C3364&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">United nations or a return to new Cold War?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-joe-biden-speaks-during-the-77th-session-of-the-news-photo/1425945336?adppopup=true">Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“We do not seek a Cold War,” declared President Joe Biden <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/09/21/1124095601/biden-ukraine-unga-speech">in front of world leaders gathered at the United Nations</a> on Sept. 21, 2022. He continued that America was not asking “any nation to choose between the United States or any other partner.” </p>
<p>But that’s likely <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-us-should-want-a-cold-war-with-china-xi-jinping-taiwan-geopolitics-military-confrontation-competition-biden-democracy-11644510051">not how everyone views the prospect of a new Cold War</a>. Despite Biden’s protestations, foreign policy observers are <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/new-cold-war-0">increasingly framing the relationship</a> between the U.S. on one side and Russia and China on the other <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/06/27/new-cold-war-nato-summit-united-states-russia-ukraine-china/">as a “Cold War</a>” in which <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/americas-arab-partners-show-no-interest-bidens-cold-war">countries are, in fact, being expected to choose sides</a>. Moreover, in a March 2022 poll more than 6 in 10 American adults said <a href="https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/3ixnq9227y/econTabReport.pdf">the chance of a Cold War was higher</a> than it was five years earlier.</p>
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<p>To be clear, there is no reason to question Biden’s personal sincerity. But as a <a href="https://history.sdsu.edu/people/daddis">historian of the Cold War</a>, I think it is legitimate to ask whether the “no return to Cold War” position is wholly representative of Washington’s foreign policy establishment, given that the Cold War presented advantages and opportunities to the U.S. Moreover, I believe that if Americans were really being honest on the issue, some might concede they actually miss the Cold War.</p>
<h2>Identity and intervention</h2>
<p>From World War II’s end in 1945 to the Berlin Wall’s collapse in 1989, <a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/odd-arne-westad/the-cold-war/9780465093137/">the Cold War</a> seemingly offered advantages to successive U.S. administrations and the wider American public that have disappeared since.</p>
<p>Perhaps most importantly, the United States could justify <a href="http://peacehistory-usfp.org/cold-war/">interventionist foreign policies</a> during the Cold War era. In faraway places ranging <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44254547">from Greece</a> to <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/congo-decolonization">the Congo</a>, the U.S. presented itself as a benevolent superpower assisting fledgling democracies against an expansionist communist threat, real or perceived.</p>
<p>Supporting allies, whether <a href="https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/korean-conflict">in South Korea</a> or <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/lists/america-war-vietnam">South Vietnam</a>, made sense when Moscow, in <a href="https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/116192.pdf?v=babe0c496366730e23048f0d2ab5edf2">President Truman’s</a> words, had moved “beyond the use of subversion to conquer independent nations” and was using “armed invasion and war.”</p>
<p>Proxy wars, where the superpowers fought one another through local allies, were far more palatable when one’s enemy could be deemed an ideological global menace.</p>
<p>The Cold War also offered a form of cultural capital to its champions, allowing Americans to embrace a virtuous national identity, contrasting it to the evils of godless communism. In this framing, Americans were the moral defenders of universal democratic principles. Communists, conversely, were the antithesis to such ethical doctrines.</p>
<p>In the popular 1947 comic “<a href="https://archive.org/details/IsThisTomorrowAmericaUnderCommunismCatecheticalGuild/mode/2up">Is this Tomorrow</a>,” for instance, children were taught that the communists’ rise to power relied on the tools of “starvation, murder, slavery, [and] force.” There was little ambiguity when painting Moscow’s henchmen in bloody red strokes.</p>
<p>Given such threats, those working within the <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/the-congressionalmilitaryindustrial-complex/">congressional-military-industrial complex</a> found a straightforward, and popular, rationale for increased defense spending. In <a href="https://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=1297">one year alone</a> – from 1948 to 1949 – Congress approved a 20% increase in defense appropriations. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2011/fall/berlin">Berlin Crisis</a>, the <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/chinese-rev">communist victory in China’s civil war</a>, the <a href="https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2019-09-09/detection-first-soviet-nuclear-test-september-1949">successful Soviet nuclear test</a> and <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/nato">NATO’s formation</a> – all of which took place in 1949 – portended a future in which Americans needed a potent military machine to protect their security and their interests. Of course, the growth of U.S. military meant power and sway on global stage, an added benefit of burgeoning defense budgets.</p>
<h2>Personal (and political) gain</h2>
<p>While serving national security purposes, the Cold War also could promote certain interest groups and individuals across the political landscape of the United States.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, opportunistic politicians could profit from wartime rhetoric by claiming they alone were defending the nation’s security. </p>
<p>Wisconsin Sen. <a href="https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/25-the-cold-war/joseph-mccarthy-on-communism-1950/">Joseph McCarthy</a> proved the most infamous, even pitting his fellow citizens against one another to gain populist approval ratings. In 1950, McCarthy described the world as being in two “hostile armed camps” and exhorted the nation to become “a beacon in the desert of destruction.” </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A black and white photo shows a man in a suit and tie sat in front of a old-fashioned microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487831/original/file-20221003-1006-hunm0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487831/original/file-20221003-1006-hunm0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487831/original/file-20221003-1006-hunm0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487831/original/file-20221003-1006-hunm0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487831/original/file-20221003-1006-hunm0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487831/original/file-20221003-1006-hunm0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487831/original/file-20221003-1006-hunm0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sen. Joseph McCarthy led a campaign against what he deemed to be un-American activity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sen-joseph-mccarthy-testifies-before-the-senate-sub-news-photo/515578696?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His public notoriety – though perhaps not his <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/joseph-mccarthys-downfall-was-accusing-the-ar/">downfall</a> – showcased how Cold War fears could be exploited and then translated into political rewards.</p>
<p>And, as McCarthy’s <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691048703/many-are-the-crimes">Red Scare</a> suggested, perceived threats of domestic communism also could be used by conservative social critics to force consensus upon a rapidly changing postwar American society. In just one example, “<a href="https://snccdigital.org/inside-sncc/international-connections/red-baiting/">red baiters</a>” maliciously claimed that the <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/southern-negro-youth-congress-1937-1949/">Southern Negro Youth Congress</a> had been infiltrated by communists and that the larger civil rights movement was a front for anarchist Marxists.</p>
<p>Could today’s conservatives similarly find use for the threat of the “other” to promote an Americanism that seeks to promote unity over individual identities, rights and broader immigration? Those arguing for a return to a “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3234822">Cold War consensus</a>” certainly believe so.</p>
<h2>Myth and reality</h2>
<p>The 1990s, however, hinted that Cold War triumphs came with unintended consequences. Not only was the stability of the international system seemingly shattered in the post-Cold War world, the lack of a unifying enemy appeared to leave U.S. citizens turning on each other.</p>
<p>Americans engaged in raucous <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/W/bo37161499.html">culture wars</a> at home, with critics complaining of a stifling “political correctness” that trampled upon their freedom of speech and expression. Meanwhile, the U.S. armed forces were cast adrift abroad seeking a viable <a href="https://tnsr.org/2018/02/choosing-primacy-u-s-strategy-global-order-dawn-post-cold-war-era-2/">grand strategy</a> after their decadeslong commitment to containing communism ended. </p>
<p>Political scientist <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/politics/foreign/mearsh.htm">John J. Mearsheimer</a> even argued at the Cold War’s end in 1990 that Europe was “reverting to a state system that created powerful incentives for aggression in the past.” Not coincidentally, Mearsheimer also <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qciVozNtCDM">recently suggested</a> that the post-Cold War push by NATO into former Soviet countries is to blame for the current war. Perhaps the Cold War indeed had offered a sense of stability as much as it did dread. </p>
<p>For a moment, the post-9/11 global war against terrorism offered promise of a new threat, one existential enough on which to build a new American grand strategy for the 21st century. In his 2002 State of the Union address, President <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/transcripts/sou012902.htm">George W. Bush</a> declared the United States was facing “an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.” </p>
<p>Yet for all its menace, the axis and its “terrorist allies” could not seem to muster enough fear to sustain America’s attention as long as Cold War communists. True, the United States remained in Afghanistan for <a href="https://theconversation.com/calculating-the-costs-of-the-afghanistan-war-in-lives-dollars-and-years-164588">two long, violent decades</a>, but the threats there seemed more local than existential.</p>
<p>Putin’s Russia today prefigures a possible return to a global Cold War – a new struggle pitting “good” against “evil.” Thus, given President Biden’s contention that he is not seeking one, Americans should reflect deeply on what a 21st-century Cold War might actually look like.</p>
<p>The Cold War in myth and memory may have seemed a more idyllic time, when united Americans led in a fairly stable international system. Yet these decades were far more violent, far more contentious both at home and abroad, than Americans might like to concede.</p>
<p>Some in Washington might indeed be happy to return to a new Cold War. But policymakers should think twice before committing the nation to a decadeslong conflict that relies more on an imagined past than a critical reading of that history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191290/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory A. Daddis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Cold War provided the US with strategic and defensive advantages; some politicians also used it to push their view of what it meant to be American.Gregory A. Daddis, Professor and USS Midway Chair in Modern U.S. Military History, San Diego State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1895042022-08-30T17:50:24Z2022-08-30T17:50:24ZWho is Artemis? NASA’s latest mission to the Moon is named after an ancient lunar goddess turned feminist icon<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481419/original/file-20220828-49487-qajm6m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C23%2C2592%2C1901&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Diana by Augustus Saint Gaudens, 1928, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Diana_by_Augustus_Saint-Gaudens_02.jpg">Postdlf via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>NASA <a href="https://qz.com/artemis-1-moon-launch-1849788717">launched the Artemis I moon rocket</a> on the morning of Nov. 16, 2022, after several delays earlier this year. This first flight is without a crew and expected to last four to six weeks. The program aims to increase women’s participation in space exploration – <a href="https://www.unr.edu/nevada-today/blogs/2021/the-artemis-program-women-going-to-the-moon">30% of its engineers are women</a>. In addition, the Artemis I mission is carrying two mannequins designed to study the effects <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/orion-passengers-on-artemis-i-to-test-radiation-vest-for-deep-space-missions">of radiation on women’s bodies</a> so that NASA can learn how to protect female astronauts better.</p>
<p>Female astronauts are currently less likely to be selected for missions than men because their bodies tend to hit NASA’s <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02293-8">maximum acceptable threshold of radiation</a> earlier. NASA expects to bring the first woman and person of color to the Moon on <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis/">Artemis III</a> sometime after 2024.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://as.tufts.edu/classicalstudies/people/faculty/marie-claire-beaulieu">scholar of Greek mythology</a>, I find the name of the mission quite evocative: The Greeks and Romans associated Artemis <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:latinLit:phi0472.phi001.perseus-eng2:34">with the Moon</a>, and she has also become a modern-day feminist icon.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Greek goddess Artemis with a mass of curls along her face that flow down her neck." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481421/original/file-20220828-10694-hfrglg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481421/original/file-20220828-10694-hfrglg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=706&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481421/original/file-20220828-10694-hfrglg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=706&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481421/original/file-20220828-10694-hfrglg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=706&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481421/original/file-20220828-10694-hfrglg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481421/original/file-20220828-10694-hfrglg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481421/original/file-20220828-10694-hfrglg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bust of Artemis with crescent moon headband.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collections.mfa.org/objects/180369/oval-gem-with-bust-of-artemis?ctx=51a2d53b-11bc-4547-891c-21b0c8389732&idx=0">Museum of Fine Arts, Boston </a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Artemis was a major deity in ancient Greece, worshiped at least as early as the <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/F/bo14317059.html">beginning of the first millennium B.C., or even earlier</a>. She was a daughter of Zeus, the chief god of the Olympians, who ruled the world from the summit of Mount Olympus. She was also the twin sister of Apollo, god of the Sun and oracles.</p>
<p>Artemis was a virgin goddess of the wilderness and hunting. Her independence and strength have long inspired women in a wide range of activities. For example, in a poem titled “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44978722">Artemis</a>,” author <a href="https://www.ohioswallow.com/author/Allison+Eir+Jenks">Allison Eir Jenks</a> writes: “I’m no longer your god-mother … your chef, your bus-stop, your therapist, your junk-drawer,” emphasizing women’s freedom and autonomy.</p>
<p>As the goddess of animals and the wilderness, Artemis has also inspired <a href="https://artemis.nwf.org/">environmental conservancy programs</a>, in which the goddess is viewed as an example of a woman exercising her power by caring for the planet.</p>
<p>However, while the Greek Artemis was strong and courageous, she wasn’t always kind and caring, even toward women. Her rashness was used to explain a <a href="http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg002.perseus-eng1:11.138-11.179">woman’s sudden death</a>, especially while giving birth. This aspect of the goddess has faded away with time. With the rise of feminism, Artemis has become an icon of feminine power and self-reliance.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A black vase from 470 B.C. showing two figures, one turning toward a hunter to shoot him with her bow." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481626/original/file-20220829-6503-phq2k6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481626/original/file-20220829-6503-phq2k6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481626/original/file-20220829-6503-phq2k6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481626/original/file-20220829-6503-phq2k6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481626/original/file-20220829-6503-phq2k6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481626/original/file-20220829-6503-phq2k6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481626/original/file-20220829-6503-phq2k6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mixing bowl showing Artemis killing the hunter Actaeon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collections.mfa.org/objects/153654/mixing-bowl-bell-krater-with-the-death-of-aktaion-and-a-pu?ctx=3953ce93-11da-4ac3-957b-4242cc63cb7c&idx=9">Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Bradford Huntington James Fund and Museum purchase with funds donated by contribution</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4402.pdf">NASA has a long history</a> of naming its missions after mythological figures. Starting in the 1950s, many rockets and launch systems were named after Greek sky deities, like <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/missions/atlas">Atlas</a> and <a href="https://spacecenter.org/exhibits-and-experiences/nasa-tram-tour/saturn-v-at-rocket-park/">Saturn</a>, whose Greek name is Cronos.</p>
<p>Atlas and Saturn weren’t just gods, they were Titans. In Greek mythology, Titans represent the untamed, primordial forces of nature, and so they evoke the prodigious vastness of space exploration. Although the Titans were known for their immense strength and power, they were also rebellious and dangerous and were eventually defeated by the Olympians, who represent civilization in Greek mythology.</p>
<p>Following the advent of human space flight, NASA began naming missions after children of Zeus who are associated with the sky. The <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mercury/missions/program-toc.html">Mercury program</a>, active from 1958 to 1963, was named after Hermes’ Roman counterpart, the messenger god who flies between Olympus, Earth and the underworld with his winged sandals. </p>
<p>Starting in 1963, the three-year-long <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/specials/gemini_gallery/">Gemini program</a> featured a capsule designed for two astronauts and was named after the twin sons of Zeus – Castor and Pollux, known as the Dioscuri in Greek – who were cast in the stars as the <a href="https://topostext.org/work/207">constellation of Gemini</a>. They were regularly represented with a star above their heads in Greek and Roman art.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/flyout/index.html">space shuttle program</a>, which lasted from 1981 to 2011, diverted from mythological monikers, and the names Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour were meant to evoke a spirit of innovation. </p>
<p>With Artemis, NASA is nodding back to the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/index.html">Apollo program</a>, which lasted from 1963 to 1972 and put the first men on the Moon in 1969. Over 50 years later, Artemis picks up where her twin brother left off, ushering in a more diverse era of human space flight.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481424/original/file-20220828-30736-t3iovl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A bronze coin showing two engraved faces." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481424/original/file-20220828-30736-t3iovl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481424/original/file-20220828-30736-t3iovl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481424/original/file-20220828-30736-t3iovl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481424/original/file-20220828-30736-t3iovl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481424/original/file-20220828-30736-t3iovl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481424/original/file-20220828-30736-t3iovl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481424/original/file-20220828-30736-t3iovl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A coin showing the Dioscuri, also known as the Gemini in Latin (Castor and Pollux) with a star above their heads.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://numismatics.org/collection/1944.100.8104">American Numismatic Society, Bequest of E.T. Newell</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>This piece has been updated to include the date of the launch.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189504/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marie-Claire Beaulieu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar of Greek mythology explains the naming of NASA’s missions after mythological figures and why the name Artemis is indicative of a more diverse era of space exploration.Marie-Claire Beaulieu, Associate Professor of Classical Studies, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1881722022-08-25T10:32:57Z2022-08-25T10:32:57ZFive books you’ll like if you love The Odyssey<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479377/original/file-20220816-6097-5eioce.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=77%2C113%2C3916%2C2982&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Goddess Athena appearing to Odysseus to reveal the Island of Ithaca by Giuseppe Bottani.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Athena_appearing_to_Odysseus_to_reveal_the_Island_of_Ithaca_by_Giuseppe_Bottani.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In The Odyssey, an almost 3,000-year-old epic attributed to a poet known as Homer, the soldier Odysseus narrates most adventures in retrospect. The poem, which tells of Odysseus’ return from the Trojan War, is both the origin of our concept of nostalgia (from the Greek <em>nostos</em> meaning the journey home) and one of the first travel narratives. Whether or not you’re already familiar with The Odyssey, <a href="https://www.emilyrcwilson.com/the-odyssey">Emily Wilson’s celebrated English translation</a> is a must-read (or listen).</p>
<p>The epic has inspired many writers. For anyone hungry for more, these suggested reads take Homer’s Odyssey as a springboard to expand on the myths, offering additional perspectives, especially from female characters and taking the story to new and imagined worlds.</p>
<h2>1. Ithaka by Adele Geras</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Cover of book featuring a greek woman looking out to sea." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480851/original/file-20220824-4311-pwpqn5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480851/original/file-20220824-4311-pwpqn5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480851/original/file-20220824-4311-pwpqn5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480851/original/file-20220824-4311-pwpqn5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480851/original/file-20220824-4311-pwpqn5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480851/original/file-20220824-4311-pwpqn5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480851/original/file-20220824-4311-pwpqn5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Penguin Random House Children's UK</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/100/1005168/ithaka/9780552574150">Geras’ novel</a> tells the story of what happened to Odysseus’ family and household while he was away. Both parents and young adults can enjoy her shift of focus (featuring descriptions of the dog’s daydreams) which opens with children playing on the beach and moves among peach orchards and almond groves. Told from the perspective of Penelope, Odysseus’ son Telemachus and their friends, Geras capture “kitchen gossip” and tangible details of a place seemingly caught in limbo in Odysseus’ absence.</p>
<h2>2. Meadowlands by Louise Gluck</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Cover of Meadowlands featuring an abstract island painting." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480850/original/file-20220824-4473-dyjtgm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480850/original/file-20220824-4473-dyjtgm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480850/original/file-20220824-4473-dyjtgm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480850/original/file-20220824-4473-dyjtgm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480850/original/file-20220824-4473-dyjtgm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1080&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480850/original/file-20220824-4473-dyjtgm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1080&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480850/original/file-20220824-4473-dyjtgm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1080&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ecco</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A collection of poems, Gluck’s <a href="https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781857543919">Meadowlands</a> weaves a portrait of the end of a marriage with the story of The Odyssey. Timeless myth is set against everyday struggle. There are poems written from the perspective of Telemachus, Odysseus’s son, about being raised by one parent. There are also the voices of Penelope and Circe. These epic figures become knowable as Gluck makes their lives seem at times ordinary. For instance, in the poem “Quiet Evening” she writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the quiet evenings in summer,<br>
the sky still light at this hour.<br>
So Penelope took the hand of Odysseus,<br>
not to hold him back but to impress<br>
this peace on his memory.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is a collection full of wit and humour as well as emotion. </p>
<h2>3. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Cover of book featuring mythic harpies." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479368/original/file-20220816-25-ertrdm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479368/original/file-20220816-25-ertrdm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479368/original/file-20220816-25-ertrdm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479368/original/file-20220816-25-ertrdm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479368/original/file-20220816-25-ertrdm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479368/original/file-20220816-25-ertrdm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479368/original/file-20220816-25-ertrdm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Canongate Canons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Odyssey ranges across wildernesses, beaches, gardens, orchards and palaces, but as the writer Madeline Miller notes, “however far afield [Odysseus] travelled, always [his stories] came back to Ithaca.” Odysseus eventually returns to his wife Penelope. In the epic poem of shifting locations and identities, Odysseus’ immoveable “here” is his marital bed, built around “an olive tree/ with delicate long leaves, full-grown and green,/ as sturdy as a pillar”.</p>
<p>Written also in the style of an epic poem, <a href="https://canongate.co.uk/books/72-the-penelopiad/">Margaret Attwood’s The Penelopiad</a> (2005) gives Odysseus’ long-suffering wife a chance to tell her side of the story. Penelope and her maids narrate Odysseus’ violent homecoming in hindsight from their afterlife location in the mythical underworld. Atwood’s retelling pioneered this approach to novels which give the perspectives of characters often marginalised in canonical ancient texts – especially the women. </p>
<h2>4. Circe by Madeline Miller</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Cover of the book Circe." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479366/original/file-20220816-14-hiye6v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479366/original/file-20220816-14-hiye6v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479366/original/file-20220816-14-hiye6v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479366/original/file-20220816-14-hiye6v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479366/original/file-20220816-14-hiye6v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479366/original/file-20220816-14-hiye6v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479366/original/file-20220816-14-hiye6v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bloomsbury</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of Odysseus’ most memorable adventures is his sojourn with the goddess Circe, who turns Odysseus’ crew into pigs. <a href="http://madelinemiller.com/circe/">Madeline Miller’s Circe</a> powerfully re-conceives her story from several Greek myths. The daughter of the song god and titan Helios, she is an unremarkable child born into a life of luxurious tedium. But Circe wants more and seeks the companionship of humans. In trying to twist her fate and defy the will of the gods she discovers she possesses powers. For this, she is exiled. </p>
<p>This story of Circe’s life in exile on her island challenges The Odyssey’s focus on Odysseus. Miller emphasises Circe’s isolation as intended punishment that grows to become so much more. </p>
<p>In contrast to her “father’s halls”, Miller’s Circe experiences her island as “the wildest, most giddy freedom”. Circe discovers that “to swim in the tide, to walk the earth […] is what it means to be alive. […] All my life, I have been moving forward, and now I am here.”</p>
<h2>5. An Odyssey: a Father, a Son and an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Book cover featuring greek artwork." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479367/original/file-20220816-5564-z7u5be.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479367/original/file-20220816-5564-z7u5be.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479367/original/file-20220816-5564-z7u5be.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479367/original/file-20220816-5564-z7u5be.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479367/original/file-20220816-5564-z7u5be.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479367/original/file-20220816-5564-z7u5be.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479367/original/file-20220816-5564-z7u5be.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vintage</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The critic and writer Daniel Mendelsohn’s memoir, <a href="https://www.williamcollinsbooks.co.uk/products/an-odyssey-a-father-a-son-and-an-epic-shortlisted-for-the-baillie-gifford-prize-2017-daniel-mendelsohn-9780007545124/">An Odyssey: A Father, A Son and an Epic</a>, relates his experience exploring The Odyssey with his father, first in his classroom and then as they travel around the Mediterranean recreating Odysseus’ journey. The book is part literary crash course on The Odyssey, part touching memoir and part travelogue. An informative and moving read.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188172/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Bryant Davies does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>These books and poems give the women of the Odyssey a say and other new perspectives on the classic tale.Rachel Bryant Davies, Lecturer in Comparative Literature, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1847652022-06-09T14:22:01Z2022-06-09T14:22:01ZWhy a new eurozone crisis now looks a distinct possibility<p>The European Central Bank (ECB) has confirmed speculation that it will become the latest central bank to start raising headline interest rates to try to ward off inflation. The bank is to raise rates by 0.25 points to 0.25% for lending and -0.25% for deposits, with plans for another rise at the next meeting in September. It will also curtail its programme for buying the government bonds of countries like Italy and Greece by not increasing purchases every month overall. </p>
<p>All major economies are struggling with the difficulties of trying to deal with inflation by raising interest rates in the knowledge that it will drive up borrowing costs for consumers and businesses and potentially bring about a recession. </p>
<p>But for the eurozone, the situation is complicated by the fact that it has been propping up indebted countries who can’t deflate their currencies to get through economic turbulence. If the ECB now gets too tough on inflation, it could create a market panic that might revive the eurozone crisis of the 2010s. </p>
<h2>Stagflation is back</h2>
<p>The global outlook for inflation and global economic stability has <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/088d3368-bb8b-4ff3-9df7-a7680d4d81b2">significantly deteriorated</a> in the last few months. In 2021 inflation <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/05/feds-evans-sees-inflation-falling-below-2percent-target-after-current-rise-subsides.html">headed upwards</a> as global demand recovered after the pandemic but <a href="https://obr.uk/box/the-economic-effects-of-supply-bottlenecks/">supply chains</a> couldn’t keep up – not least because of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/59882774">China’s zero COVID policy</a>. Rising energy prices were a major part of the problem. </p>
<p>Many central bankers thought this <a href="https://theconversation.com/inflation-why-its-temporary-and-raising-interest-rates-will-do-more-harm-than-good-172329">was temporary</a>, and indeed when inflation <a href="https://data.oecd.org/price/inflation-cpi.htm">started to ease</a> in most developed economies in the second half of 2021, this seemed right. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine has both broken the decades-long peace in Europe, and brought three decades of a “<a href="https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/great-moderation">great moderation</a>” in prices to an end. Thanks to the extra pressure on oil and energy prices, inflation is many countries is now rising ahead of economic growth.</p>
<p>Inflation is also starting to weigh on the global economy in various ways. People have less money, so they can’t buy as much. And investors are more worried about the outlook, so they are more reluctant to invest. The prospects for global economic growth have significantly slowed since February. For example, the World Bank has <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-07/stagflation-danger-sees-world-bank-cut-global-growth-outlook">just downgraded</a> its forecast for the third time in six months, and currently predicts 2.9% growth in 2022. </p>
<h2>The effect on government bonds</h2>
<p>In view of this situation, investors have also been offloading corporate and government bonds. They fear that the prospects for debt defaults are higher than before, and the returns (yields) on bonds look even worse than before now that inflation is so high. Bond prices have duly been falling, which means that yields (interest rates) have been rising because they are inversely related. </p>
<p>The yields on eurozone countries’ debt have been <a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/financial_markets_and_interest_rates/euro_area_yield_curves/html/index.en.html">rising sharply</a>, meaning it is becoming more expensive for them to borrow. Just like in the 2010s, the most pressure is on the countries whose public finances are the most unwieldy, such as Italy and Greece. But even Germany, which has been the bedrock of eurozone fiscal prudence and has enjoyed negative yields (also known as free borrowing) for most of the last three years, has also seen a <a href="https://www.investing.com/rates-bonds/germany-10-year-bond-yield-historical-data">significant rise</a>. </p>
<p><strong>Eurozone sovereign bond yields 2012-22</strong> </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468026/original/file-20220609-22-w6iof2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing yields of 10-year sovereign bonds" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468026/original/file-20220609-22-w6iof2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468026/original/file-20220609-22-w6iof2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468026/original/file-20220609-22-w6iof2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468026/original/file-20220609-22-w6iof2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468026/original/file-20220609-22-w6iof2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468026/original/file-20220609-22-w6iof2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468026/original/file-20220609-22-w6iof2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">10-year bond yields: Germany = yellow; Greece = turquoise; Italy = blue; Portugal = indigo; France = purple; Spain = orange.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.tradingview.com">Trading View</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The eurozone crisis was caused in the early 2010s when investor fears about the solvency of Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland drove their bond yields to levels where they needed ECB support – otherwise, their debts would have become unmanageable and they would likely have had to exit the euro. </p>
<p>This support came in the form of loans; bond-buying programmes from the European Central Bank (ECB) to prop up prices; negative interest rates; “creating” euros via quantitative easing (QE); and reassurances from then president Mario Draghi that the ECB would do “<a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2012/html/sp120726.en.html">whatever it takes</a>” to prevent a collapse. </p>
<p>These measures are the <a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2019/html/ecb.sp190612_1%7E1a3bede969.en.html">main reason</a> why bond yields have remained below ruinous levels since the 2010s, with bond-buying support and QE most recently provided early in the pandemic as countries had to borrow even more to cope. The ECB is currently sitting on government bonds from member states worth around €5 trillion (£4.3 trillion), and is currently making net purchases of over €30 billion a month. </p>
<p>Now that yields are surging again, one solution is for the ECB to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/euro-zone-bond-yields-do-an-about-turn-after-us-inflation-data-2022-05-11/">buy even more bonds</a> from these countries. However, it is not that simple because bond-buying underpinned by QE is another reason for inflation rising. Indeed, one of the other arguments in favour of these moves in the 2010s was to ward off deflation, which is not a valid justification now that inflation is so high. Bond-buying now would be a violation of the ECB’s strategy aiming for <a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2021/html/ecb.pr210708%7Edc78cc4b0d.en.html">2% inflation</a>. </p>
<p>Were it to drive up inflation, that would make the economic outlook even worse. This could cause further sell-offs in bonds that would push yields higher. </p>
<p>Instead, the ECB is following the likes of the US Federal Reserve and Bank of England and doing the opposite. The danger with increasing interest rates and ending bond-buying is that it will hurt the economy, which could make investors more worried about the outlook and force bond yields even higher. Indeed, yields have just surged after the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/bf9820b2-f65b-4d22-b72d-e5a4f56f9c4e">ECB signalled</a> that it was potentially open to doing a 0.5 percentage points hike in rates in September, in a sign of how precarious this situation is. </p>
<p>In sum, the ECB is facing a strange dilemma, where every policy choice will potentially raise the risks of a repeat of the eurozone crisis of the 2010s. Inflation is a delicate business, which is why the Austrian economist Fridrich von Hayek <a href="https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/speech/2021/february/inflation-a-tiger-by-the-tail-speech-by-andy-haldane.pdf?la=en&hash=78C0DB3A631A7B9E2DF6EFBCFE9B3D138D87C449">compared it</a> to trying to “catch a tiger by its tail”. </p>
<p>If inflation starts to fall as growth deteriorates, the eurozone may somehow avoid another crisis because it will then be easier to do more QE and buy more bonds. But in the meantime, all eyes will be on the bond yields of countries like Italy and Greece to see how high they rise.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184765/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Muhammad Ali Nasir does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the European Central Bank announces its first increase in interest rates, investors are getting very nervous.Muhammad Ali Nasir, Associate Professor in Economics, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1843642022-06-06T12:50:13Z2022-06-06T12:50:13ZTallying the dead is one thing, giving them names would take an ‘inexhaustible voice,’ as the ancient Greeks knew<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466988/original/file-20220603-9439-v1ds5y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C1491%2C1129&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Antigone leads Oedipus out of Thebes' painting by Charles Francois Jalabert.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/The_Plague_of_Thebes.jpg">Collection Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille via Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The official count of Americans lost to COVID-19 <a href="https://apnews.com/article/one-million-dead-US-COVID-ea745d462d47a65029a8c507c94e679e">has surpassed 1 million</a>. It is the latest grim milestone that has marked the progression of deaths and infections since the virus took hold in the U.S. in March 2020. </p>
<p>Such numbers make it hard to memorialize individuals – a problem that has existed throughout the ages.</p>
<p>As a scholar who studies Greek myth and has written a <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501752346/the-many-minded-man/">book about psychology and Homer’s epic poem, the “Odyssey</a>,” I keep trying to understand what we have experienced in the U.S. during the COVID-19 era through my research.</p>
<p>Greek texts cannot name all their countless fallen heroes, but they show how to honor the lives of those lost to war or plague, and the significance of doing so.</p>
<h2>Moral tales and the countless dead</h2>
<p>Some of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/plagues-follow-bad-leadership-in-ancient-greek-tales-133139">earliest texts about deaths in plagues and war</a> from ancient Greece emphasize the difference between the individuals who lead their citizens into disasters and the masses of people who suffer and die because of them. </p>
<p>Homer’s other epic, the “Iliad,” set in the conflict between the Greeks and the city of Troy, starts out by lamenting the “<a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0134">myriad Greeks sent to their doom</a>” not by the war itself but the superhuman rage of Achilles, son of the goddess Thetis, and the most powerful of the Greek warriors. Achilles’ rage during the war against his commanding officer, Agamemnon, leads to the deaths of his own people.</p>
<p>Nameless victims also haunt Sophocles’ Athenian tragedy, “Oedipus Tyrannus,” or “Oedipus the King,” when a plague afflicts the city of Thebes. An oracle says the plague will not end until the killer of Oedipus’ father Laius is brought to justice. Oedipus struggles to realize that he is the killer and cause of the plague, as the one who murdered his father and married his mother, not knowing who they are. </p>
<p>Probably the most famous account of a plague from ancient Greece comes from Thucydides’ “History of the Peloponnesian War,” a generation-long war between the city-states of Athens and Sparta from 432 to 404 B.C. Thucydides describes how a plague overtook Athens in 430 B.C.</p>
<p>Thucydides’ first-person account <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0200%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D51">describes fevers and boils and frustrated doctors</a>, but little sense of the individuals who suffered from it. Instead, he focuses on the breakdown of social order, how people abandoned their neighbors and loved ones, and how, shockingly, traditional <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0200%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D52">burial rites were abandoned</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19787658/#:%7E:text=In%20430%20BC%2C%20a%20plague,of%20the%20city's%20population%2C%20died.">Modern estimates put the Athenian losses in this plague at 25%</a> of the population, perhaps over 75,000 people. </p>
<h2>Can we even conceive of the numbers?</h2>
<p>Homer and Sophocles do not give names to individuals among the dead masses. As the narrator in the Iliad announces, someone would need “<a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D2%3Acard%3D459">ten mouths and an inexhaustible voice</a>” to name all those who fought at Troy. The contrast between the large numbers of undifferentiated dead and the heroes or leaders responsible for them helps the readers think about culpability. But this might also be a reflection of the limits of human cognition.</p>
<p>Our brains are not well suited to comprehending large numbers: We are good at comparing sums, but the larger a number gets, the harder it is for us to attach concrete meaning to it. This is in part why the milestone COVID-19 <a href="https://theconversation.com/brains-are-bad-at-big-numbers-making-it-impossible-to-grasp-what-a-million-covid-19-deaths-really-means-179081">death tolls of 100,000 and 1,000,000</a> may mean as much to us as the “myriad deaths of Greeks” at the beginning of the “Iliad.” </p>
<p>Our ability to identify with and feel compassion for victims of violence decreases as the number lost increases, <a href="https://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2007/11/slovic">leaving us numb</a>. We are also psychologically better suited at mourning our near and dear ones, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/this-is-not-just-a-number-these-are-real-people">or a handful of people, than a group</a>. This is, lamentably, why mass killings and genocides are so difficult for many people to process emotionally. </p>
<h2>Burial and rhetoric</h2>
<p>Our inability to comprehend large numbers of the dead render them faceless and nameless. This can create a tension with practices for honoring those we have lost. Greek myth centers burial <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-greek-classics-tell-us-about-grief-and-the-importance-of-mourning-the-dead-145827">rites as the honor due to the dead</a>. Their practices included caring for the body through cremation or burial, but also through lamentation and the creation of memory.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466998/original/file-20220603-15396-vvhzdh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A painting showing the corpse of a dead man being held by wailing men and women while some warriors look on." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466998/original/file-20220603-15396-vvhzdh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466998/original/file-20220603-15396-vvhzdh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466998/original/file-20220603-15396-vvhzdh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466998/original/file-20220603-15396-vvhzdh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466998/original/file-20220603-15396-vvhzdh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466998/original/file-20220603-15396-vvhzdh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466998/original/file-20220603-15396-vvhzdh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Achilles lamenting the death of his friend Patroclus. Painting by artist Gavin Hamilton (1723 - 1798).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/5009">Scottish National Gallery</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed, the final two books of Homer’s “Iliad” are lessons in how to memorialize the dead. First, Achilles holds a funeral and <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D23%3Acard%3D1">games in honor of his friend Patroclus</a>, and then the Trojans retrieve and mourn their fallen defender, Hektor.</p>
<p>The eulogies of modern funerals function in part to help create a shared memory of a lost loved one. COVID-19, however, has not only exhausted people’s capacity to grieve through sheer numbers, <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-greek-classics-tell-us-about-grief-and-the-importance-of-mourning-the-dead-145827">it has also disrupted memorial practices</a>.</p>
<p>In ancient Athens, there was a practice of providing an <a href="https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-2461">annual funeral speech</a> for those who had died in service to the city. The speech was a sacred occasion that provided honor to the dead as a group. These speeches connected their sacrifice to civic survival and the glory of the state, situating their deaths in a story that connected their survivors’ past with future endeavors.</p>
<p>One of the most famous examples of ancient rhetoric comes from this practice. Thucydides places the <a href="http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/education/thucydides.html">funeral speech of Pericles</a>, the leader of Athens and architect of its war with Sparta, at the end of the first year of the conflict, right before the onset of the plague. Pericles rallies his people not to mourn their losses but to praise their sacrifice. </p>
<h2>The politics of counting</h2>
<p>Nations can choose to memorialize the dead through a monument or a holiday. Such memorialization arises from a public and political will. But the number of lives lost are subject to selection.</p>
<p>U.S. COVID-19 deaths, for example, may be <a href="https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2020/us-covid-deaths-may-be-undercounted-by-36-percent/">undercounted by a third</a> because of local and national decisions on record keeping and classification. The impact of these losses is impossible to estimate. Worldwide, COVID-19 has become a <a href="https://www.capradio.org/articles/2022/03/27/an-enormous-disabling-event-long-covid-could-have-inequitable-impact-on-californians/">long-term disabling event for millions</a>. In the United States alone, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-one-million-covid-dead-mean-for-the-u-s-s-future/">a quarter of a million children</a> have lost a caregiver to the pandemic.</p>
<p>It is important to count the numbers and to tell their stories, because what countries officially count in part communicates who they think matters. Consider, for instance, that the <a href="https://web.mit.edu/humancostiraq/">the number of Iraqis and Afghans</a> killed during America’s wars in those regions is not known. By contrast, the <a href="http://apps.washingtonpost.com/national/fallen/">number of American servicemen killed is well known</a>.</p>
<p>The contrast between what is countable and what is felt brings tension to the stories of the Iliad, Oedipus and Thucydides’ “History of the Peloponnesian War.” Poorly read, these narratives glorify their failed leaders, but careful consideration can help readers see how many were lost to preserve a handful of names.</p>
<p>Who our nations count today will go a long way in telling future generations the story of the COVID-19 era. And it will also help define those who lived through it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184364/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Christensen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar of Greek classics revisits the texts to bring lessons on how to honor the lives lost to the COVID-19 pandemic.Joel Christensen, Professor of Classical Studies, Brandeis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1805002022-05-08T12:22:50Z2022-05-08T12:22:50ZMigrant workers are flipping the script and using Photovoice to tell their own stories<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460804/original/file-20220502-12-zmah4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C0%2C1019%2C766&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Migrant men work in the strawberry fields.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(This is Evidence)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What happens when undocumented Bangladeshi and Pakistani men in Greece pick up their cell phones to record their lives as migrant agricultural workers?</p>
<p>“This will let the people learn how we live our lives here,” said one of the men, referring to the photos and videos they were taking. For the workers, these serve as evidence of their migrant existence.</p>
<p>COVID-19 and worries about food security have resulted in increased media coverage about <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-exploited-foreign-workers-amid-coronavirus/a-54360412">migrant agricultural workers</a>, with stories usually told on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jul/13/brutal-deaths-of-exploited-migrants-shine-a-spotlight-on-italys-farms">their behalf</a>. Four sets of South Asian migrant men in Greece wanted to flip the script and tell their own stories. </p>
<p>They used <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5335-7">Photovoice, an arts-based social justice tool</a>, to present themselves and their concerns directly to people. This eventually transformed into a travelling multi-media exhibition <a href="https://thisisevidence.com/">and a digital archive</a>, <em>This is Evidence</em>.</p>
<h2>Long hours, low wages</h2>
<p>Each year, thousands of young South Asian men arrive in <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur25/008/2013/en/">Greece, Europe’s frontier</a>, often driven by poverty, climate change, political unrest, or ethnic or religious violence in their home countries. Undocumented and hence “illegal,” they end up in Greece’s agrarian and urban informal economy as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2019.1642740">flexible workers</a>. Despite 90 per cent of Greek agriculture being dependent on <a href="https://www.boell.de/sites/default/files/e-paper_temporary-migrant-workers-in-greek-agriculture.pdf">migrant labour</a>, they are paid low wages, face wage theft and are forced to work long hours without breaks.</p>
<p>Since 2017, I have been conducting research with many of these men to study how their “illegality” and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2019.1642740">restrictive immigration policies</a> shape <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.04.009">labour outcomes</a> and the men’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X20927050">masculine aspirations</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A screenshot from a WhatsApp group" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460805/original/file-20220502-19-uy3xxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460805/original/file-20220502-19-uy3xxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460805/original/file-20220502-19-uy3xxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460805/original/file-20220502-19-uy3xxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460805/original/file-20220502-19-uy3xxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460805/original/file-20220502-19-uy3xxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460805/original/file-20220502-19-uy3xxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A screenshot of one of the WhatsApp groups, ‘Migrant Workers Welfare Collective’ (the names of participants are pseudonyms).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(This is Evidence)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The process behind the exhibition emerged organically as the men used WhatsApp to send me images of their lives. I suggested the use of Photovoice so they could share their lives with a wider audience.</p>
<p>Photovoice is a participant-oriented visual research strategy used to collaborate with <a href="https://doi.org/10.2752/175145214X13999922103165">socio-economically and politically marginalized populations</a>.</p>
<p>Participants take images of what they consider important and not what researchers wish to highlight. The photos are accompanied by texts that emerge through conversations among Photovoice participants. These narratives are often used to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839909341555">advocate for policy changes</a>.</p>
<p>The unique insider perspective provided by Photovoice makes it highly valuable for <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?pid=S1015-60462013000200003&script=sci_arttext&tlng=es">cultural mediation</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325013496596">self-representation</a>.</p>
<h2>Sharing their thoughts</h2>
<p>Three groups of Bangladeshi men employed in the strawberry agribusiness, and one group of Pakistani men engaged in the informal economy in Athens, formed separate WhatsApp groups, including me in each. The groups were active from mid-2018 to late-2021.</p>
<p>They used their phones to take photos, to record video and voice messages about the precarity of life as migrant workers. They also spoke of workplace injuries, sub-standard housing and worker <a href="https://pamehellas.gr/the-unions-succeeded-to-start-the-anti-covid-vaccination-of-migrant-workers-of-manolada">activism for free access to COVID-19 vaccines</a>. The ubiquity of cell phones made it easy to do without drawing attention to themselves.</p>
<p>Through this project, the men were able to communicate with each other and myself using WhatsApp groups as forums for discussion. So their worries about being detained from gathering in one place, combined with unpredictable work hours, did not stop them from being able to document their experiences. This resulted in greater dialogue and collective decision-making.</p>
<p>The rules were simple: permission had to be granted from those photographed and all shared images implied fair use for exhibitions and other methods of awareness-generation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man takes a photo of another man on his cellphone" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460803/original/file-20220502-22-nrlnrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C1020%2C766&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460803/original/file-20220502-22-nrlnrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460803/original/file-20220502-22-nrlnrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460803/original/file-20220502-22-nrlnrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460803/original/file-20220502-22-nrlnrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460803/original/file-20220502-22-nrlnrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460803/original/file-20220502-22-nrlnrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Participants in the project shared photos and stories via WhatsApp.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(This is Evidence)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>This is Evidence</h2>
<p>Their work resulted in a multi-media exhibition I helped curate. We worked together to select images, videos, soundscapes and plan a replica of <a href="https://theconversation.com/migrant-strawberry-pickers-face-deadly-risks-living-in-flammable-shacks-123576">migrant shacks from Manolada</a>.</p>
<p>The exhibition, <em>This is Evidence</em>, was thematic, addressing border crossings, backbreaking labour, COVID-19 and activism. Quotes were selected from their voice messages and interviews.</p>
<p>The exhibition premiered in early April 2022 at Technopolis City of Athens. It will move on to Canada to venues such as <a href="https://www.queensu.ca/theisabel/content/evidence">Kingston, Ont.</a>, <a href="https://www.ryerson.ca/">Toronto</a> and <a href="https://www.balsillieschool.ca/">Waterloo, Ont</a>.</p>
<p>While this project engages with a small set of migrant South Asian men in Greece, the visual articulation of their migrant experience resonates with other migrant workers across the world — including those employed under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program in agrarian communities across Canada.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Men sit in a circle, cross-legged" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460806/original/file-20220502-12-qxb5qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460806/original/file-20220502-12-qxb5qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460806/original/file-20220502-12-qxb5qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460806/original/file-20220502-12-qxb5qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460806/original/file-20220502-12-qxb5qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460806/original/file-20220502-12-qxb5qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460806/original/file-20220502-12-qxb5qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Men come together to destress by singing Sufi songs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(This Is Evidence)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This project challenges the stereotypes of migrant men, often vilified because of their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2012.673474">gender identity, race and religion</a>. It also serves to empower by allowing the experiences of <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/03/21/migrant-workers-make-our-agricultural-industry-viable-why-do-we-treat-them-as-disposable.html">“disposable” migrant agricultural workers</a> in Greece to reach a wider audience through multi-city exhibitions and the digital archive.</p>
<p>The men recognize that when it comes to being heard by ordinary people, policy and changemakers, many avenues are closed to them. <em>This is Evidence</em> serves as an accessible mode of communication. By disrupting their “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_414">othering</a>,” the men seek to give voice and power back to racialized migrant workers. For them, this project is a political act of resistance.</p>
<p>“We participate to get our voice heard. We want change in the way people view us and our plight.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180500/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Reena Kukreja receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada - Connection Grant for this work. </span></em></p>Undocumented migrant workers use Photovoice to share their experience working and living in Greece.Reena Kukreja, Assistant Professor, Global Development Studies, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1804842022-04-13T21:51:22Z2022-04-13T21:51:22ZSacred hares, banished winter witches and pagan worship – the roots of Easter Bunny traditions are ancient<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458017/original/file-20220413-15-x0e57b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=222%2C49%2C7959%2C5425&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children celebrating Easter, with their Easter Bunnies and Easter eggs.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/two-young-boys-wearing-easter-bunny-ears-royalty-free-image/1388063471?adppopup=true">Sanja Radin/Collection E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Easter Bunny is a much celebrated character in American Easter celebrations. On Easter Sunday, children look for hidden special treats, often chocolate Easter eggs, that the Easter Bunny might have left behind.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=prZyKrMAAAAJ&hl=en">folklorist</a>, I’m aware of the origins of the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346357286_The_Shifting_Baselines_of_the_British_Hare_Goddess">long and interesting journey</a> this mythical figure has taken from European prehistory to today. </p>
<h2>Religious role of the hare</h2>
<p>Easter is a celebration of spring and new life. Eggs and flowers are rather obvious symbols of female fertility, but in European traditions, the bunny, with its amazing reproduction potential, is not far behind.</p>
<p>In European traditions, the Easter Bunny is known as the Easter Hare. The symbolism of the hare has had many tantalizing ritual and religious roles down through the years.</p>
<p>Hares were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102672">given ritual burials</a> alongside humans during the Neolithic age in Europe. Archaeologists have interpreted this as a religious ritual, with hares representing <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/research/title_787590_en.html">rebirth</a>. </p>
<p>Over a thousand years later, during the Iron Age, ritual burials for hares were common, and in 51 B.C., Julius Caesar mentions that in Britain, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346357286_The_Shifting_Baselines_of_the_British_Hare_Goddess">hares were not eaten</a>, due to their religious significance.</p>
<p>Caesar would likely have known that in the Classical Greek tradition, <a href="https://www.theoi.com/Text/PhilostratusElder1A.html">hares were sacred to Aphrodite</a>, the goddess of love. Meanwhile, Aphrodite’s son Eros was often depicted carrying a hare, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110308815.311">as a symbol of unquenchable desire</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A painting depicting a young woman handing baby Jesus to Virgin Mary, who puts one hand around him, while holding a hare with the other." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Madonna of the Rabbit,’ a painting from 1530, depicting the Virgin Mary with a hare.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Tizian_018.jpg">A painting by artist Titian (1490-1576), Louvre Museum, Paris.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From the Greek world through the Renaissance, hares often appear as symbols of sexuality in literature and art. For example, the Virgin Mary is often <a href="http://musee.louvre.fr/oal/viergeaulapinTitien/viergeaulapinTitien_acc_en.html">shown with a white hare or rabbit</a>, symbolizing that she overcame sexual temptation.</p>
<h2>Hare meat and witches’ mischief</h2>
<p>But it is in the folk traditions of England and Germany that the figure of the hare is specifically connected to Easter. Accounts from the 1600s in Germany describe children hunting for Easter eggs hidden by the Easter Hare, much as in the contemporary United States today. </p>
<p>Written accounts from England around the same time also mention the Easter Hare, particularly in terms of traditional Easter hare hunts, and the eating of hare meat at Easter. </p>
<p>One tradition, known as the “Hare Pie Scramble,” was held at Hallaton, a village in Leicestershire, England, which involved eating a pie made with hare meat and people “scrambling” for a slice. In 1790, the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1253567">local parson tried to stop the custom</a> due to its pagan associations, but he was unsuccessful, and the custom continues in that village until this day. </p>
<p>The eating of the hare may have been associated with various longstanding folk traditions of scaring away witches at Easter. Throughout Northern Europe, folk traditions record a strong belief that witches would often <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1260796">take the form of the hare</a>, usually for causing mischief such as stealing milk from neighbors’ cows. Witches in medieval Europe were often believed to be able to suck out the life energy of others, making them ill, and suffer.</p>
<p>The idea that the witches of winter should be <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24862791">banished at Easter</a> is a common European folk motif, appearing in several festivities and rituals. The spring equinox, with its promise of new life, was held symbolically in opposition to the life-draining activities of witches and winter.</p>
<p>This idea provides the underlying rationale behind various festivities and rituals, such as the “Osterfeuer,” or the Easter Fire, a celebration in Germany involving large outdoor bonfires <a href="https://www.twosmallpotatoes.com/osterfeuer-embracing-easter-traditions-in-germany/">meant to scare away witches</a>. In Sweden, the popular folklore states that at Easter, the witches all fly away on their broomsticks <a href="http://realscandinavia.com/in-sweden-easter-is-a-time-for-witches/">to feast and dance with the Devil</a> on the legendary island of Blåkulla, in the Baltic Sea. </p>
<h2>Pagan origins</h2>
<p>In 1835, the folklorist <a href="https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Jacob_Grimm">Jacob Grimm</a>, one of the famous team of the fairy tale “Brothers Grimm,” argued that the Easter Hare <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2018.1515655">was connected with a goddess</a>, whom he imagined would have been called “Ostara” in ancient German. He derived this name from the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre, that <a href="https://exploringcelticciv.web.unc.edu/bede-the-history-of-the-english-church/">Bede</a>, an Anglo-Saxon monk considered to be the father of English history, mentioned in 731. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458019/original/file-20220413-26-jdne8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The goddess Ēostre/*Ostara flies through the heavens surrounded by winged angels, beams of light and animals." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458019/original/file-20220413-26-jdne8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458019/original/file-20220413-26-jdne8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458019/original/file-20220413-26-jdne8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458019/original/file-20220413-26-jdne8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458019/original/file-20220413-26-jdne8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458019/original/file-20220413-26-jdne8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458019/original/file-20220413-26-jdne8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Ostara’ by Johannes Gehrts, created in 1884. The goddess Ēostre flies through the heavens surrounded by Roman-inspired putti, beams of light, and animals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%92ostre#/media/File:Ostara_by_Johannes_Gehrts.jpg">Felix Dahn, Therese Dahn, Therese (von Droste-Hülshoff) Dahn, Frau, Therese von Droste-Hülshoff Dahn (1901) via Wikimedia Commons.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bede noted that in eighth-century England the month of April was called Eosturmonath, or Eostre Month, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1253567">named after the goddess Eostre</a>. He wrote that a pagan festival of spring in the name of the goddess had become assimilated into the Christian celebration of the resurrection of Christ.</p>
<p>It’s interesting that while most European languages refer to the Christian holiday with names that come from the Jewish holiday of Passover, such as Pâques in French, or Påsk in Swedish, German and English languages retain this older, non-biblical word, Easter.</p>
<p>Recent <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346357286_The_Shifting_Baselines_of_the_British_Hare_Goddess">archaeological research</a> appears to <a href="https://doi.org/10.2752/175169708X329372">confirm the worship of Eostre</a> in parts of England and in Germany, with the hare as her main symbol. The Easter Bunny therefore seems to recall these <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2018.1515655">pre-Christian celebrations of spring</a>, heralded by the vernal equinox and personified by the Goddess Eostre.</p>
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<p>After a long, cold, northern winter, it seems natural enough for people to celebrate themes of resurrection and rebirth. The flowers are blooming, birds are laying eggs, and baby bunnies are hopping about. </p>
<p>As new life emerges in spring, the Easter Bunny hops back once again, providing a longstanding cultural symbol to remind us of the cycles and stages of our own lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180484/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tok Thompson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A folklorist explains the prehistoric origins of the mythical Easter Bunny and why this longstanding cultural symbol keeps returning each spring.Tok Thompson, Professor of Anthropology and Communication, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1811732022-04-13T13:53:15Z2022-04-13T13:53:15ZRussia-Ukraine crisis highlights Africa’s need to diversify its wheat sources<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457700/original/file-20220412-22029-eg2l0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Moma_Production</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The war between Russia and Ukraine has highlighted how much of the world’s wheat supply relies on these two countries. For instance, a recently <a href="https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/osginf2022d1_en.pdf">released UN report</a> shows a sample of 25 African countries that rely on wheat imports from Russia or Ukraine. Of this group, 21 import most of their wheat from Russia. </p>
<p>Between 2018 and 2020, Africa imported US$3.7 billion in wheat (32% of the continent’s total wheat imports) from Russia and another US$1.4 billion from Ukraine (12% of the continent’s wheat imports).</p>
<p>It’s crucial that African countries diversify their wheat sources for two key reasons. </p>
<p>First, wheat forms an important component of diets. Not having enough brings the threat of hunger and political instability. </p>
<p>Second, Africa’s dependency on Russian wheat imports will influence key political and military decisions. Given some African countries’ dependence on Russian wheat, it could’ve influenced how they voted on the two United Nations General Assembly resolutions concerning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In both instances, a surprising number of countries either <a href="https://theconversation.com/african-countries-showed-disunity-in-un-votes-on-russia-south-africas-role-was-pivotal-180799">supported Russia</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/russias-war-with-ukraine-five-reasons-why-many-african-countries-choose-to-be-neutral-180135">remained neutral</a>. One reason for this could be because they wouldn’t want to upset relations with a good supplier.</p>
<p>Over the centuries, the sourcing of wheat has factored into the political and strategic decisions and security of many countries. </p>
<p>Consider the ancient Greek city-state of Athens: in the fifth century BC, Athens had to feed an ever-growing population. <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/%7Epswpc/pdfs/krotscheck/010603.pdf">Officials turned</a> towards parts of Egypt, Sicily, Syria and the Black Sea region to fill Athenian granaries – a pattern of expansion and trade which has often been repeated in world history.</p>
<p>Nazi Germany addressed food shortages via its <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40542587">Hunger Plan</a> –- a policy for the seizure of food from the Soviet Union to feed German soldiers and civilians. </p>
<p>During the Cold War, the US used its advantage as a major wheat-producing nation to influence decision makers and cement support among states. Wheat exports accompanied American military deployments around the world. </p>
<p>In 2022, the geopolitics of wheat has once again come under the spotlight with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. </p>
<p>As experts on foreign relations – with a focus on African <a href="http://www.mandelaschool.uct.ac.za/gsdpp/about/staff">political economy </a> and <a href="http://www.mandelaschool.uct.ac.za/gsdpp/about/staff">trade and agriculture</a> in Africa – we wanted to highlight the dependency of many African countries on wheat supplies from these two warring nations, and we wanted to stress the need for the region to diversify its wheat sources.</p>
<h2>Global wheat supply</h2>
<p>Russia and Ukraine are among the <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/wheat-production-by-country">world’s top 10 wheat producers</a> (which are mostly based in the Global North) and among the five biggest wheat exporters. Together, the two <a href="https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/osginf2022d1_en.pdf">represent 27%</a> of the global trade in wheat.</p>
<p>Even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, <a href="https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022/03/17/global-food-prices-had-already-hit-record-high-then-russia-invaded-ukraine">global food prices were already rising</a>. This was mostly as a result of sub-par harvests, increased transport costs and supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19. </p>
<p>The Russia-Ukraine war has further compounded global uncertainties making the agro-food market jittery, <a href="https://www.ifpri.org/blog/how-will-russias-invasion-ukraine-affect-global-food-security">further escalating</a> global food prices and the prices of agricultural materials, such as fertiliser.</p>
<p>Since Russia invaded Ukraine, concerns over wheat supply disruptions, especially from the Black Sea region, have significantly increased wheat prices. Between <a href="https://www.foodbeverageinsider.com/ingredients/global-food-commodity-prices-hit-record-high-february">January and February</a> 2022, global wheat prices <a href="https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/fao-food-price-index-rises-to-record-high-in-february/en">increased by</a> 2.1%.</p>
<p>A rise in wheat prices can have significant knock-on effects given the importance of bread to daily diets around the world. </p>
<h2>The African impact</h2>
<p>Increases to the price of foodstuffs presents a double threat: it increases the levels of food insecurity and poverty. </p>
<p>Wheat is widely consumed across the African continent. Between 2000 and 2009, in sub-Saharan Africa alone, <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/midiwp/146936.html">wheat consumption increased at a rate of 0.35kg/year,</a> outpacing maize and rice. It became an important crop and staple due to rapid population growth, increased urbanisation, and changes in food preferences. Consumers in Africa use wheat for easy and fast food, such as bread, biscuits, pasta, noodles and porridge.</p>
<p>Moreover, some countries in Africa —- such as <a href="https://northafricapost.com/55719-moroccos-soft-wheat-subsidies-to-soar-to-3-84-billion-dirhams-410-million.html">Morocco</a>, <a href="https://fount.aucegypt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3475&context=retro_etds">Egypt</a>, and <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/ekd/008007/8349.html#:%7E:text=The%20subsidy%20is%20set%20to,120%20per%2050%20kg%20sacks.">Sudan</a> -— are providing bread subsidies to poor communities to alleviate hunger and malnutrition.</p>
<p>Although wheat is consumed widely across the African continent, crop yields are relatively low compared to major producing wheat regions, especially in the Global North. Reasons range from extreme weather conditions to water scarcity, poor soil quality and poor irrigation systems. </p>
<p>As a result, African nations rely on imports to meet the demand and need for wheat. For instance, during the 2020/2021 trade year, African imports of wheat reached <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1294190/production-volume-of-wheat-in-africa/">54.8 million metric tons</a>, whereas the continental production of wheat amounted to <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1294190/production-volume-of-wheat-in-africa/">25.7 million metric tons</a>. </p>
<h2>Urgent lessons</h2>
<p>The situation highlights the need for African countries to diversify their wheat imports and invest in expanding domestic production capacity. </p>
<p>For example, Egypt —- which relies on Russian and Ukrainian wheat imports as the world’s <a href="https://www.arabnews.com/node/2028901/business-economy">largest importer of the crop</a> —- will rely on its wheat reserves which is estimated to last until the end of 2022. The hope is that it will be able to secure other suppliers by then. If Egypt fails to secure other wheat imports, sharp spikes in the cost of wheat could severely affect the Egyptian government’s ability to keep bread prices at their current subsidised level. </p>
<p>Egyptian history presents its current government with a warning of what to expect if bread prices continue to increase. In 1977, an attempt by then-president Anwar Sadat to increase bread prices set off <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/egyptians-riot-in-the-streets-in-1977/">deadly riots</a> which didn’t subside until the decision was rescinded. Coupled with the country’s historic protests associated with the Arab Spring, such warnings are hard to dismiss.</p>
<p>National, regional and continental organisations have recognised the pressing need for Africa to increase its wheat production to avoid these scenarios. </p>
<p>In the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war, the African Development Bank <a href="https://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/lender-has-1-billion-plan-wean-africa-russian-wheat-50087">is on a mission</a> to raise US$1 billion to assist 40 million African farmers to use climate-resilient technologies and to increase their yields of heat-tolerant wheat varieties and other crops. </p>
<h2>Harsh truths</h2>
<p>When it came to voting on the two UN General Assembly resolutions demanding Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine, just a little over half of the African votes was in favour of Ukraine, while others abstained or voted against the resolutions. Most reports on Africa’s divided vote focus on military and political alliances, as well as political ideological leanings. The power of food -– and specifically wheat —- has been largely overlooked.</p>
<p>Aside from trying to figure out the motivations for how African countries voted at the UN, the Russia-Ukraine crisis has, more importantly, shown that several African countries need to diversify wheat imports and invest in becoming self-sufficient. This has to be done with some urgency to protect themselves against global shocks – whatever their origin.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181173/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The sourcing of wheat has factored into the political and strategic decisions and security of many countries.Mandira Bagwandeen, Senior Research Fellow, The Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape TownNoncedo Vutula, Senior research fellow at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1703302022-01-14T13:11:46Z2022-01-14T13:11:46ZA Turkish harem on the Acropolis? It’s most likely a Greek myth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440729/original/file-20220113-17-2zo568.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=61%2C33%2C3695%2C2472&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/athens-greece-october-24-2016-erechtheion-2094639184">Fotokon/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Acropolis of Athens counts among the world’s <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/404/">greatest architectural and artistic monuments</a>. Visitors come to admire the marble buildings that testify to the glory of Ancient Greece more than two millennia ago. Typically, only little attention is paid to the site’s rich medieval and Ottoman history. But one of the few stories commonly told about this period concerns the temple with six iconic sculptures of maidens, the so-called Caryatids.</p>
<p>Ancient Athenians built the temple with the Caryatids as the holiest <a href="https://books.google.nl/books?id=wgCfHZG3uNcC&lpg=PA9&hl=nl&pg=PA93#v=onepage&q&f=false">shrine for Athena</a>, the goddess of wisdom. In the medieval period, it was used as a church. But its fate supposedly changed dramatically following the Ottoman Turkish conquest of Athens in the 15th century. The <a href="https://www.acropolis-tickets.com/acropolis-of-athens/">story goes</a> that the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1_rAohrmHwsC&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=harem+acropolis&source=bl&ots=WHvAkTuFi_&sig=ACfU3U3liYBSHKZVoYXpf5vr6_lCD39VAQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjwvOrWkrH1AhWHbsAKHTwtCwIQ6AF6BAg-EAM#v=onepage&q=harem%20acropolis&f=false">Muslim Turks</a> had no interest in preserving the temple’s sacrality, and instead converted it into something radically different: <a href="https://www.archaeology.org/issues/193-1511/features/3769-athens-acropolis-erechteion-restoration">a harem</a>. This was said to be the residence of the <a href="http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/2/eh251.jsp?obj_id=973">Turkish castle warden’s wives</a> and sometimes thought of as a place of seduction.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Caryatid Porch on the Acropolis, Athens, Greece." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440747/original/file-20220113-1519-1xh9i6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440747/original/file-20220113-1519-1xh9i6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440747/original/file-20220113-1519-1xh9i6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440747/original/file-20220113-1519-1xh9i6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440747/original/file-20220113-1519-1xh9i6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440747/original/file-20220113-1519-1xh9i6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440747/original/file-20220113-1519-1xh9i6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Caryatid Porch on the Acropolis, Athens, Greece.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/detail-caryatid-porch-on-acropolis-athens-2070597809">Nikolay Antonov/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But my <a href="https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-14-16">new research</a> shows this information might need to be revised. As part of this study, I analysed all relevant historical sources about the Acropolis from the Ottoman period. It turns out the idea of a Turkish harem here originated in the 17th century with two visitors from France and England. They published <a href="https://books.google.nl/books?id=xt1OAAAAcAAJ&dq=wheler%20journey%20into%20greece%20temple&hl=nl&pg=PA364#v=onepage&q&f=false">popular books</a> in which they asserted that the building was a harem. These visitors, however, did not even enter the building and gave contradictory, possibly speculative information about it.</p>
<p>Fantasy or not, the notion of the harem has long fascinated western audiences, who’ve enjoyed these exotic tales of the Orient. Later authors simply repeated the information. This was even the case after the building had fallen to ruin in the <a href="https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/publications/book/?i=9780876614013">Venetian bombardment of 1687</a>.</p>
<p>My research also included several understudied Turkish sources. None of these mentions anything like a harem in the temple of the Caryatids either. But they do seem to say that it was in use as some kind of palace. All in all, there is little to suggest that the temple was ever converted into a place of erotic encounters.</p>
<h2>Harems and temples</h2>
<p>Stories about harems in the temple of the Caryatids already existed in the time of the ancient Greeks – many centuries before the Turks arrived. The striking Caryatids themselves appear like petrified women in front of the building. They likely played a role in the creation of such tales. Time and again, visitors to the Acropolis have given meaning to the mysterious building based on these sculptures.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110345568">Anthropological research</a> shows that impressive statues like the Caryatids can stir the imagination, prompting wild stories that are sometimes mistaken for “factual” history. To the casual onlooker, the Caryatids could serve as evidence for the harem.</p>
<p>But the idea of the harem is also deeply problematic as it continues a long-lived <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/mua.2007.30.1.3">western stereotype</a> of the Turks as violent, sacrilegious barbarians. This stereotype originates in the many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27521-2_6">centuries of warfare</a> between Christian European countries and the Muslim Ottoman Empire. Then too developed the popular fantasy that Turkish harems were mysterious, erotic places of seclusion.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440515/original/file-20220112-19-1iuhbzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440515/original/file-20220112-19-1iuhbzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440515/original/file-20220112-19-1iuhbzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440515/original/file-20220112-19-1iuhbzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440515/original/file-20220112-19-1iuhbzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440515/original/file-20220112-19-1iuhbzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440515/original/file-20220112-19-1iuhbzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Théodore Chassériau, Harem (oil on panel, 1851–1852). Paintings like these capture the western fantasy of the harem as an erotic place.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">From Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The idea that the temple of the Caryatids became a decadent harem fitted right into this negative western sentiment about the Turks. That sentiment had dire consequences: shortly after the young Greek state’s conquest of Athens in the 19th century, it led to the complete <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/mgs.2002.0018">annihilation of the Turkish town</a> that stood on the Acropolis. The same attitude led <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/parthenon_debate_01.shtml">Lord Elgin</a>, a British nobleman, to remove many Acropolis sculptures in the early 19th century – including one of the Caryatids.</p>
<h2>Imprisoned sister</h2>
<p>Still today, these sculptures reside in the British Museum in London, <a href="https://www.newgreektv.com/news-in-english-for-greeks/greece/item/7715-caryatids-searching-for-lost-sister-in-british-museum">to the dismay of many</a> (in Greece and elsewhere), who wish to see them returned to Athens. Though the Caryatids still continue to fire the imagination: local legend claims the <a href="https://greekreporter.com/2021/10/20/five-caryatids-athens-still-waiting-sister/">marble girls who remain in Athens</a> can be heard crying out at night in lament for their imprisoned sister in London. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440513/original/file-20220112-23-1xldtd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440513/original/file-20220112-23-1xldtd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440513/original/file-20220112-23-1xldtd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440513/original/file-20220112-23-1xldtd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440513/original/file-20220112-23-1xldtd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440513/original/file-20220112-23-1xldtd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440513/original/file-20220112-23-1xldtd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Caryatid in the British Museum, London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yair Haklai/Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The notion of a Turkish harem ties in with the current meaning of the Acropolis as an important archaeological site and a symbol of Greece and western civilisation. But this symbolism has a dark side: anti-eastern stories <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/s0018246x15000242">continue to be told</a> at the expense of the Turks.</p>
<p>The Turks are typically portrayed as the villains of the Acropolis, but my research shows this is a crude interpretation of more than three centuries of Turkish presence. And it doesn’t do justice to their actual attitudes: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1179/2042458215y.0000000017">historical sources</a> show that the Turks were not always the violent barbarians they are often made out to be. Rather, they were just as fascinated about the antiquities as modern tourists are today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170330/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janric van Rookhuijzen is a postdoctoral researcher at Utrecht University.</span></em></p>The story can be traced back many centuries to a time of warfare between Christian European countries and the Muslim Ottoman Empire.Janric van Rookhuijzen, Classical Archaeologist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Utrecht UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1728332021-12-20T13:15:20Z2021-12-20T13:15:20ZTo get people the help they need from the government, postcards may be the answer<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438144/original/file-20211216-23-1j44til.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C0%2C5665%2C3797&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Could postcards help reach people who need social services?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/person-writing-postcards-royalty-free-image/112301281">Image Source/Digital Vision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Joe Biden’s comprehensive social safety net bill faces <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/16/us/politics/biden-immigration-build-back-better.html">a tough road to passage</a>. But if Democrats succeed in getting it through the Senate and Biden signs it, there’s another challenge ahead for the legislation: How to get <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/10/28/president-biden-announces-the-build-back-better-framework/">its many programs</a> – providing tax cuts for the middle class, expanding access to affordable housing, higher education, health care coverage and child care – to the people it aims to help. If the people who need these programs do not know about them or do not know how to enroll, the programs won’t do any good. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czh009">Older, poorer, less educated and foreign-born people</a> often do not sign up for benefits to which they are entitled because they do not know about them or do not know how to access them. Already, government agencies are setting up websites to provide information about these programs and help people determine whether they are eligible for aid.</p>
<p>Our recent research finds this might not actually be the best way to engage with the people who need this help the most. In a study we just published, we were surprised to learn that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13437">postcards were far more effective</a> at getting people connected to these sorts of services than setting up phone hotlines, websites or email addresses. Although we conducted our work in 2016, the study wasn’t published until October 2021. To our knowledge, no major social services outreach effort has tried using postcards in this way. We think now might be a good time. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438148/original/file-20211216-17-4cgg7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People hold signs outside the U.S. Capitol" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438148/original/file-20211216-17-4cgg7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438148/original/file-20211216-17-4cgg7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438148/original/file-20211216-17-4cgg7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438148/original/file-20211216-17-4cgg7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438148/original/file-20211216-17-4cgg7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438148/original/file-20211216-17-4cgg7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438148/original/file-20211216-17-4cgg7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">These supporters of the Build Back Better bill may know what it contains, but many who could benefit from it may not.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CongressBudget/63efb1e4fe9b43ce981f2be689632fa6/photo">AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What methods are effective?</h2>
<p>Disadvantaged communities are areas where people suffer from severe economic and social insecurity. Around the world, public service providers have increasingly used websites and hotlines to engage with these communities, as they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-0671-1">reduce costs and increase convenience</a>. Reaching disadvantaged communities is critical, as they are most likely to be eligible for aid and most likely to need it – but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13134">least likely to access it</a>.</p>
<p>When it comes to distributing aid globally, the U.N. and the World Bank praise the shifts to digital and phone communications for making services more accessible. They point out that <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/using-mobile-phones-data-collection-opportunities-issues-and-challenges">almost everyone now has a cellphone</a>, even in places without advanced economies. </p>
<p>Many researchers have studied what types of messages work best to reach these communities. But almost no one has examined which methods of communicating these messages are most effective. </p>
<p>We are a team of social scientists from the <a href="https://www.law.berkeley.edu/our-faculty/faculty-profiles/katerina-linos/">University of California, Berkeley</a>, <a href="https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=1309486">Harvard University</a> and <a href="https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/people/melissa-carlson">Stanford University</a>. Working with scholars and practitioners from the <a href="https://evans.uw.edu/profile/isabelle-cohen/">University of Washington</a> and the Greek <a href="https://www.ekke.gr/en/centre/personnel/spirellis-stauros-nikiforos">National Centre for Social Research</a>, we conducted a field experiment in low-income regions of Greece. </p>
<p>Our goal was to understand how disadvantaged communities perceive the relative costs and benefits of using either a phone hotline, an email, a prepaid postcard or a postcard requiring a stamp to seek information about how to access badly needed health services. </p>
<p>We expected the phone hotline to be the most convenient communication option. We assumed it would inconvenience only recent immigrants with limited language skills.</p>
<p>Our expectations were wrong.</p>
<p>We partnered with the <a href="https://www.prolepsis.gr/en/home">Prolepsis Institute of Preventive Medicine, Environmental and Occupational Health</a>, a nonprofit that provides free meals in high-need schools across Greece. As part of this program, Prolepsis conducts a regular survey to collect information about students and their families’ nutrition and health needs. Through this survey, we invited 16,456 parents to seek information on free dental care for their children using one of four randomly assigned communication modes: phone hotline, email inquiry, prepaid postcard or postcard requiring a stamp.</p>
<p>People who were told to contact Prolepsis through an email address or a phone hotline responded much less frequently than those offered postcards. To be exact, we find that subjects were 18 times more likely to seek information about dental services when told to use a prepaid postcard and eight times more likely when told to use a postcard requiring postage, as compared with using a phone hotline or email. </p>
<h2>Don’t make me call a bureaucrat</h2>
<p>To understand why phone hotlines and emails were so ineffective, we conducted hundreds of interviews and focus groups with parents from the survey. We discovered that, even though phone access is universal and social calls are routine, many people are hesitant to pick up the phone to call a government worker.</p>
<p>Our interviewees believed they lacked the skills to interact with an administrator. They did not call the phone hotline because they did not want to be perceived as incompetent and face the stigma of mishandling a conversation with a bureaucrat. </p>
<p>Email was even more challenging, as many reported that they did not have a computer at home or steady internet access. While the notion that email is inconvenient and inaccessible was widely shared by interviewees irrespective of education, age and level of poverty, it was particularly prominent among the more socioeconomically disadvantaged and those born abroad. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438145/original/file-20211216-23-1h0lc97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman wearing glasses sits in an armchair" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438145/original/file-20211216-23-1h0lc97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438145/original/file-20211216-23-1h0lc97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438145/original/file-20211216-23-1h0lc97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438145/original/file-20211216-23-1h0lc97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438145/original/file-20211216-23-1h0lc97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438145/original/file-20211216-23-1h0lc97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438145/original/file-20211216-23-1h0lc97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mary Christian, 71, a retired nurse in Mississippi, said she spent hours on her phone and her iPad trying to get an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccination.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VirusOutbreakVaccinesSeniors/c4745fdc297040e6b9bf826901077feb/photo">AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Exaggerating inequities</h2>
<p>Our study was fielded in Greece, a country with inequities in technology use similar to those in the United States. For example, across industrialized and democratic countries, <a href="https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=ICT_HH2">83% of the population</a> had household internet access in 2016, the year we conducted our experiment. In Greece that year, it was just <a href="https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=ICT_HH2">70%</a> – and <a href="https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=ICT_HH2">73%</a> in the U.S. In 2019 – the most recent year for which data is available – household internet access is almost universal in the richest quartile. But in the bottom quartile of both Greek and American households, <a href="https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=ICT_HH2">just over 60%</a> had access to the internet.</p>
<p>Reaching disadvantaged communities that are entitled to benefits and do not claim them is a big problem for service providers. For example, during the uneven COVID-19 vaccine rollout, disadvantaged communities most in need of vaccination <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/28/technology/seniors-vaccines-technology.html">signed up most slowly</a>, in part because they did not have the technical skills to book an appointment online. </p>
<p>Service providers and vulnerable beneficiaries <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12855040/">assess the costs and benefits of using communication technologies differently</a>. For many white-collar office workers, firing off an email or picking up the phone for a bureaucratic inquiry is routine and convenient. But it can be paralyzing for others. </p>
<p>If information about benefits is not communicated in ways familiar and comfortable to high-need groups, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20121493">welfare benefits will accrue to Americans who know how to claim these services</a> rather than to those in greatest need. </p>
<p>Although old-fashioned, the postcard may be a promising solution. Our message is simple: There may be huge advantages to using older, simpler, familiar technologies to get the help to those who need it.</p>
<p>[<em>There’s plenty of opinion out there. We supply facts and analysis, based in research.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=politics&source=politics-no-opinion">Get The Conversation’s Politics Weekly</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172833/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katerina Linos has received funding from the Carnegie Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the European Commission, and the German Academic Exchange Program. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Jakli and Melissa Carlson do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Government agencies are setting up new websites and phone hotlines to provide information. But those might not be the best ways to engage with people who need help the most.Katerina Linos, Professor of Law, University of California, BerkeleyLaura Jakli, Junior Fellow, Harvard Society of Fellows, Harvard UniversityMelissa Carlson, Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1726722021-12-01T15:13:33Z2021-12-01T15:13:33ZGreece to make COVID vaccines mandatory for over-60s, but do vaccine mandates work?<p>The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, recently <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59474808">announced plans</a> to fine people aged 60 and over who refuse the COVID vaccine. A monthly fine of €100 (£85) will be imposed from January 16.</p>
<p>Faced with surges in COVID in some regions and the sudden emergence of a new variant of concern (omicron), a growing number of countries <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59445124">are tightening their vaccination rules</a>: from increasing the requirement for boosters to mandatory vaccines for certain <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/09/covid-vaccine-mandates-around-the-world">occupations and businesses</a>, and sometimes the wider public. </p>
<p>Among the first countries to impose vaccine mandates were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/09/covid-vaccine-mandates-around-the-world">Indonesia</a>, Micronesia and Turkmenistan. More recently, <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20211119-austria-to-impose-full-lockdown-and-mandatory-vaccines-as-COVID-surges">Austria</a> introduced mandatory vaccination in response to rising COVID cases, while Germany is <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/24/germany-considers-a-full-covid-lockdown-and-mandatory-vaccines.html">considering a similar move</a>.</p>
<p>But this is not the first time that governments have made vaccination mandatory to increase uptake. Looking at previous mandates (before COVID) can provide further insight into the current situation. My colleague Tatjana Marks and I recently <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X21005478#b0045">reviewed</a> mandatory vaccination policies around the world, with a concentration on childhood vaccines.</p>
<p>We found that many western European countries imposed mandatory vaccination in the 19th century (<a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/kentlj90&div=36&g_sent=1&casa_token=&collection=journals">against smallpox</a>, and often including adults) and many eastern European countries imposed them <a href="https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/1997-812-03g-Hoch.pdf">during the Soviet era</a>. </p>
<p>For Europe, the early introduction of these mandates was met with a swift pushback by <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953605003047">anti-vaccination leagues</a> who saw them as an encroachment of the state into the private sphere. </p>
<p>The health authorities and governments who initiated these vaccine mandates later changed tack, preferring to foster mutual trust and responsibility with citizens for their health and to protect others. In more recent times, when mandates have been imposed, they have mainly come about in reaction to vaccination rates not being high enough to stop outbreaks from happening.</p>
<h2>Current vaccine mandates</h2>
<p>In the past few years, vaccine mandates were introduced <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X21005478#b0070">in Europe</a> in the wake of outbreaks of childhood diseases – particularly measles. These were extending current mandates (France), clarifying existing mandates (Italy), or introducing a new mandate (Germany, which was only for measles). </p>
<p>Mandatory vaccination for travellers and certain occupations has also been commonplace in many countries around the world. What is unusual are vaccination mandates for adults during an epidemic. Samoa is one exception to this. In 2019, the Polynesian island country introduced <a href="https://institutions.newscientist.com/article/2226441-samoan-government-takes-drastic-measures-to-fight-measles-outbreak/">mandatory measles vaccination</a> for the whole population during a state of national emergency, which suffered thousands of cases and more than 80 deaths from a preventable disease, many of whom were children. This is within a small population of only around 200,000 people. </p>
<p>The mandatory vaccination order resulted in nearly all the population being vaccinated, and the outbreak was eventually halted. Unfortunately, one of the original reasons for a low vaccination rate in the country resulted <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-02/samoa-nurses-sentenced-manslaughter-infant-vaccination-deaths/11378494">from a mistake</a> with preparing a vaccine for two children that resulted in their deaths. This incident shows how quickly confidence can be knocked if vaccination services are not up to standard.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Countries with mandatory childhood vaccination." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434990/original/file-20211201-14-103u4od.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434990/original/file-20211201-14-103u4od.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434990/original/file-20211201-14-103u4od.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434990/original/file-20211201-14-103u4od.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434990/original/file-20211201-14-103u4od.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434990/original/file-20211201-14-103u4od.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434990/original/file-20211201-14-103u4od.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Countries with mandatory childhood vaccination.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ourworldindata.org/vaccination#how-do-childhood-vaccination-policies-vary-across-the-world">Our World In Data</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X21005478#b0045">recent vaccine mandates in Europe</a> were put in place because of falling vaccination rates and the rise of outbreaks from vaccine-preventable diseases – especially measles. </p>
<p>France made all recommended vaccines mandatory in 2017, with fines and possible prison sentences for those who didn’t comply. This extended three mandatory vaccines to 11. The reason for doing so was that parents had viewed the recommended vaccines as not being as important as the mandatory ones and so tended to avoid them. </p>
<p>Germany made measles vaccination mandatory for school and day-care attendance (it’s worth noting that it’s illegal to home school children in Germany), as well as other public spaces, such as refugee shelters and clinics. </p>
<p>Italy, which had a history of not strongly enforcing vaccination mandates, had mandatory vaccination for four diseases, but the fines for not complying were rarely applied. In 2017, Italy made an additional six vaccines mandatory for minors and pre-school attendance, with parents who didn’t comply being issued with fines or their children being denied entry to pre-school.</p>
<h2>Mandates do increase uptake</h2>
<p>Since introducing mandatory vaccination, coverage rates have increased in <a href="https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/10/23/the-impact-of-vaccine-mandates-is-modest-but-potentially-crucial">France, Italy and Germany</a>. However, an assessment of success depends on whether a country can introduce these policies in the first place, without opposition. </p>
<p>Ukraine has had an unfortunate experience with mandatory vaccination, as a country that has had the largest outbreaks of measles in Europe. <a href="https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1548-1387.2011.01179.x">Forty-six thousand people</a> contracted measles and rubella in 2005 and 2006. As a result, the Ministry of Health introduced mandatory vaccines for measles and rubella. But negative media attention and controversy over alleged side-effects ended the campaign.</p>
<p>Although not enough time has passed to fully judge success rates, mandatory vaccination does tend to improve uptake. These improvements are usually only small percentages, as most people get vaccinated voluntarily. Still, it is small drops in coverage that lead to vulnerable clusters of people making the threat of outbreaks real.</p>
<p>The “<a href="https://www.covidpasscertificate.com/france-covid-pass-reopen-vaccinated-tourists/"><em>pass sanitaire</em></a>” requirement in France allowed only fully vaccinated or those with a negative test to gain access to public spaces. The <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/france/20210721-france-introduces-COVID-health-passes-to-access-cultural-venues">millions who booked their jabs</a> straight after the announcement was a strong indication of how effective a vaccine mandate could be in speeding up uptake when during an outbreak. And speed is of the essence.</p>
<p>There are, of course, potential downsides to mandatory vaccination in further polarising society and neglecting other means to increase vaccination – such as awareness campaigns. Concerns over backlash and the breaking down of trust and responsibility for health between states and their citizens is another reason to be cautious. But in an emergency, when mandatory vaccination is known to improve uptake, countries can be left with little choice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172672/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samantha Vanderslott receives funding from the NIHR. </span></em></p>What childhood vaccine mandates tell us about their effectiveness at improving uptake.Samantha Vanderslott, University Research Lecturer, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1683542021-09-27T15:55:53Z2021-09-27T15:55:53ZInside new refugee camp like a ‘prison’: Greece and other countries prioritize surveillance over human rights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422961/original/file-20210923-19-zypisx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5991%2C3988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A view of the new multi-purpose reception and identification migrant centre which is on the eastern Aegean island of Samos, Greece.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Michael Svarnias) </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On the Greek island of Samos you can swim in the same sea where refugees are drowning. The sandy beaches and rolling hills, coloured by an Aegean sunset hide a humanitarian emergency that is symptomatic of a global turn against migration. </p>
<p>During my visit to Samos last week, I was told about refugees being intercepted by Greek authorities without being given the opportunity to claim refugee protection or even speak to a lawyer. Without these opportunities, they are often <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/world/europe/greece-migrants-abandoning-sea.html">returned to Turkey under the cover of darkness</a>.</p>
<p>This practice is known as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jun/29/greece-accused-of-refugee-pushback-after-family-avoid-being-forced-off-island">“pushbacks” or “interceptions at sea,”</a> where boats of people seeking refugee protection are returned to Turkish waters by Greek and European authorities without being allowed to claim asylum. This process is facilitated by various <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/11/23/technology-is-the-new-border-enforcer-and-it-discriminates">surveillance technologies</a>. </p>
<p>I am a lawyer and researcher specializing in how various surveillance technologies impact people on the move. Much of my work takes place on the ground, documenting the use of technology in border spaces like the frontiers of Europe.</p>
<h2>The realities for refugees in Greece</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A woman's hand holds a cellphone with the message 'If we go there, we will go crazy.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422705/original/file-20210922-18-1ssz96f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422705/original/file-20210922-18-1ssz96f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422705/original/file-20210922-18-1ssz96f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422705/original/file-20210922-18-1ssz96f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422705/original/file-20210922-18-1ssz96f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422705/original/file-20210922-18-1ssz96f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422705/original/file-20210922-18-1ssz96f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young mother holds out her phone during our conversation about the new closed camp on Samos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Petra Molnar)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I met with a group of refugees from Somalia, who managed to get registered with the authorities due to the quick action of local lawyers, doctors and journalists. But many others aren’t so lucky — I’ve heard stories of Syrian families with babies being sent back to Turkey, and of a woman miscarrying in the forest due to stress.</p>
<p>People aren’t just sent back to Turkey on boats, deaths also happen <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/may/05/revealed-2000-refugee-deaths-linked-to-eu-pushbacks">in the waters of the Aegean Sea</a>. </p>
<p>A group of women from Ivory Coast living in the <a href="https://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/21662/in-the-jungle-of-samos-a-life-of-boredom-and-despair-amid-the-garbage-14">“jungle” tent-city surrounding the old refugee camp on Samos</a> told me about two young men who drowned during a forced return last week, a case confirmed by the Turkish coast guard. </p>
<p>While the exact details of these stories are difficult to corroborate due to the secrecy of the pushback practices, what is indisputible are people’s experiences butting up against a <a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/EUR%20050012014_%20Fortress%20Europe_complete_web.pdf">violent migration regime on the fringes of Europe</a>.</p>
<p>Border violence is a global problem. Scenes of <a href="https://choice.npr.org/index.html?origin=https://www.npr.org/2021/09/21/1039230310/u-s-border-agents-haiti-migrants-horses-photographer-del-rio">border patrol agents on horseback whipping people</a> from Haiti trying to cross the Rio Grande into Texas are part of the same migration machinery that puts <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/greek-pushbacks-brought-to-european-court-after-child-refugees-placed-back-in-boat-and-abandoned-at-sea-b1812161.html">babies on boats in the Aegean Sea</a> and sequesters people for years in <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/07/16/australia-8-years-abusive-offshore-asylum-processing">Australia’s offshore detention facilities</a>.</p>
<p>For those who survive these journeys, and make it to a place where they can seek protection, they are met with barbed wire, surveillance and segregation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A whiteboard held by a young girl reads 'I'm 12 years old and in Greece since 5 years! I'm angry! I don't want to be in a closed camp, I want residence!'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422876/original/file-20210923-25-1tuwtu6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C12%2C2020%2C1517&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422876/original/file-20210923-25-1tuwtu6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422876/original/file-20210923-25-1tuwtu6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422876/original/file-20210923-25-1tuwtu6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422876/original/file-20210923-25-1tuwtu6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422876/original/file-20210923-25-1tuwtu6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422876/original/file-20210923-25-1tuwtu6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 12-year-old girl named Raz holds a sign asking for residence in Greece.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Petra Molnar)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Refugee camps and surveillance technologies</h2>
<p>On Samos, last week marked the <a href="https://twitter.com/_PMolnar/status/1439155751256272897?s=20">opening of a sprawling new refugee camp</a>, tucked away in sun-bleached barren hills over 10 kilometres from Vathy, a major city full of tourists enjoying the beauties of the Aegean island. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1439156488497422337"}"></div></p>
<p>I am one of the few people who was able to see inside the new camp during its <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/greece-opens-new-migrant-holding-camp-island-amid-tougher-policy-2021-09-18/">official opening ceremony on Sept. 18, 2021</a> during an invited tour. </p>
<p>Once inside, you can see cameras, loudspeakers and various surveillance technologies peppered throughout the camp. It is the first in a series of <a href="https://algorithmwatch.org/en/greek-camps-surveillance/">five proposed refugee camps on the Aegean islands</a> to be full of various surveillance technologies. It has been widely lauded as an <a href="https://twitter.com/EUHomeAffairs/status/1439905947254730755?s=20">“important milestone”</a> in the management of migration by the EU’s Home Affairs. </p>
<p>This new “<a href="https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210918-greece-to-open-new-controlled-migrant-camp-as-rights-groups-criticise-restrictions">closed controlled access centre</a>” boasts magnetic gates with kilometres of “double NATO-type security fence” and “smart software” using <a href="https://algorithmwatch.org/en/greek-camps-surveillance/">motion detection algorithms to notify the Local Event Centre and the Control Centre in Athens of any suspicious activity</a>. Various drones and surveillance technologies are also used to monitor the waters of the Aegean Sea, assisting with the maritime interceptions. </p>
<p>This surveillance is entirely <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/26/doubts-simmer-over-planned-eu-funding-for-greek-refugee-camps">funded by the European Union</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1439155751256272897"}"></div></p>
<p>The people I speak with are fearful of what is to come. Some call the new camps a “prison,” and they are worried about being far away from services and always watched. Others worry about further discrimination, or being <a href="https://edri.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Technological-Testing-Grounds.pdf">reduced to fingerprints and eye-scans</a>. While the conditions in many of the current camps are deplorable, securitization and surveillance only serve to further dehumanize people seeking protection</p>
<h2>A global appetite for securitization and surveillance</h2>
<p>Greece reflects the growing global demand for securitization and surveillance. </p>
<p>Automated decision-making, biometrics and unpiloted drones are increasingly <a href="https://edri.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Technological-Testing-Grounds.pdf">controlling migration</a> as states turn to unregulated technological intervention, fuelled by lucrative and <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7873m/how-the-dollar68-billion-border-surveillance-industrial-complex-affects-us-all">privatized border industrial complex</a>. </p>
<p>Last week, UN Human Rights Chief Michele Bachelet called for a <a href="https://time.com/6098420/un-moratorium-ai-human-rights/">moratorium on high-risk technologies</a>, including border surveillance, but the global migration management industry is not heeding the call. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Refugee house on Samos" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422709/original/file-20210922-20-m4lvi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422709/original/file-20210922-20-m4lvi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422709/original/file-20210922-20-m4lvi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422709/original/file-20210922-20-m4lvi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422709/original/file-20210922-20-m4lvi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422709/original/file-20210922-20-m4lvi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422709/original/file-20210922-20-m4lvi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ‘jungle’ of Vathy, a now-demolished tent city outside of the old refugee camp on Samos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Petra Molnar)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Greece is just one of the many locations across the world where technological experimentation at the border is given free reign. <a href="https://www.migrationtechmonitor.com/">Our ongoing work at the Refugee Law Lab attempts</a> to weave together the tapestry of the increasingly powerful and global border industrial complex which legitimizes technosolutionism at the expense of human rights and dignity.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/opinion/moria-2-0-the-eus-sandbox-for-surveillance-technologies/">These technological experiments</a> don’t occur in a vacuum. Powerful state interests and the private sector increasingly set the stage for what technology is developed and deployed, while communities experiencing the sharp edges of these innovations are consistently left out of the discussion.</p>
<p>Policy makers are increasingly choosing drones over humanitarian policies, with states prioritizing security and surveillance over human rights.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168354/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Petra Molnar receives funding from the Open Society Foundation.</span></em></p>Borders continue to be the setting of various migration management experiments at the expense of people’s rights.Petra Molnar, Associate Director, Refugee Law Lab, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1655842021-09-03T12:37:18Z2021-09-03T12:37:18ZTattoos have a long history going back to the ancient world – and also to colonialism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418122/original/file-20210826-27-5g2b0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C677%2C473&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Picts, the indigenous people of what is today northern Scotland, were documented by Roman historians as having complex tattoos.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/The_True_Picture_of_a_Women_Picte.jpg">Theodor de Bry, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>While most of us would likely care to forget the pandemic as soon as is possible, a few have opted for a permanent reminder of the health crisis – in the shape of a tattoo. Some of these tattoos are meant to <a href="https://www.altpress.com/features/tattoos-inspired-by-coronavirus/">serve as a reminder of the year gone by</a>, depicting motifs around toilet paper shortages, social distancing and other pandemic-related messages. But those who lost loved ones to the disease are also <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/with-memorial-tattoos-bereaved-wear-their-love-for-those-lost-on-their-sleeve/articleshow/83881125.cms">using tattoos to create memorials</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman shows off her pandemic tattoo that says, 'Don't Panic.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417914/original/file-20210825-15-ke1oc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C38%2C5152%2C3375&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417914/original/file-20210825-15-ke1oc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417914/original/file-20210825-15-ke1oc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417914/original/file-20210825-15-ke1oc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417914/original/file-20210825-15-ke1oc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417914/original/file-20210825-15-ke1oc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417914/original/file-20210825-15-ke1oc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some people in the U.S. and other parts of the world are getting pandemic tattoos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/chloe-cooper-also-known-as-coops-shows-off-her-tattoo-prior-news-photo/1326378575?adppopup=true">Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is not a recent phenomenon – tattoos have long served as a way for people to express their emotions. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/allison-hawn-1256637">tattoo historian</a>, I often enjoy asking people where they think tattoos originated. I hear the mention of countries such as China, Japan, “somewhere in Africa or South America,” or Polynesia. What is interesting is that in the past five years of holding these conversations, no one thus far has answered that tattoos could have originated in Europe or North America. </p>
<p>What geographical areas these answers include, and what they miss, speak to a deeper truth about the history of tattoos: What we know and think about tattoos is heavily influenced by oppression, racism and colonialism.</p>
<h2>History of tattoos</h2>
<p>Tattooing practices were common in many parts of the ancient world.</p>
<p>There were tattoos in both ancient <a href="https://historyofyesterday.com/irezumi-the-history-of-tattoos-in-japan-a0e77d9a81e9">Japan</a> and <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/tattoos-144038580/">Egypt</a>. The Māori of New Zealand have been practicing sacred <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/ta-moko-maori-tattooing">Ta Mōko</a> tattooing for centuries as a way to indicate who they are as individuals as well as who their community is.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417917/original/file-20210825-15-1diettm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Japanese tattoo artist at work on a design on a woman's back in Japan in 1955." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417917/original/file-20210825-15-1diettm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417917/original/file-20210825-15-1diettm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417917/original/file-20210825-15-1diettm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417917/original/file-20210825-15-1diettm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417917/original/file-20210825-15-1diettm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417917/original/file-20210825-15-1diettm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417917/original/file-20210825-15-1diettm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Tattooing practices were common in most parts of the ancient world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tattoo-artist-horigoro-at-work-on-a-design-on-a-womans-back-news-photo/110169062?adppopup=true">FPG/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>However, no one culture can lay the claim to first inventing the art form. Tattooing practices were known in Europe and North America since times of antiquity. The Greeks depicted their <a href="https://www.archaeology.org/issues/107-1311/features/tattoos?start=5">tattooed Thracian</a> neighbors, the Indo-European-speaking people, on their pottery. The <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/fears-fueled-ancient-border-wall-180963025/">Picts</a>, the indigenous people of what is today northern Scotland, were documented by Roman historians as having complex tattoos.</p>
<p>The oldest preserved tattoos come from <a href="https://www.iceman.it/en/the-mummy/">Ötzi the Iceman</a>, a 5,300-year-old mummified body frozen in ice discovered in the mountains of Italy in 1991. In 2019, researchers identified <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-2000-year-old-tattoo-needles-are-oldest-found-western-north-america-180971602/">2,000-year-old tattoo needles</a> from southeastern Utah’s Pueblo archaeological sites. The cactus spines bound with yucca leaves still had the remnants of tattoo ink on them. </p>
<h2>Colonization and tattoos</h2>
<p>Tattoo historian Steve Gilbert explains that the word “tattoo” itself is a <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Tattoo-History-Source-Book-HC/Steve-Gilbert/9781890451073">combination of Marquesan and Samoan words</a> – tatau and tatu – to describe these practices. The sailors who explored these Polynesian islands combined the words as they traded stories of their experiences. </p>
<p>The question then arises, if tattoos existed in Europe and North America since times of antiquity, why did Western cultures appropriate and combine these two words instead of using words that already existed in their own? </p>
<p>As I found in my research, somewhere around the <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Tattoo-History-Source-Book-HC/Steve-Gilbert/9781890451073">1400s tattoos became an easy way to draw a line</a> between European colonizers and those colonized, who were seen as “uncivilized.”</p>
<p>Tattooing was still being practiced in <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20161110-the-name-for-britain-comes-from-our-ancient-love-of-tattoos">Europe</a> and <a href="https://vancouversun.com/entertainment/local-arts/body-language-reclaims-indigenous-tattooing-from-colonial-suppression">North America</a>, but many of those tattooing practices had been <a href="https://vancouversun.com/entertainment/local-arts/body-language-reclaims-indigenous-tattooing-from-colonial-suppression">driven underground</a> by the time European colonization was in full swing.</p>
<p>That was in part the result of attempts to “Christianize” parts of Europe by purging towns and villages of “pagan” and nonconformist, nonreligious practices – including tattooing. As Catholic churches expanded their influence via missionaries and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jss/article-abstract/23/2/257/1609320?redirectedFrom=fulltext">campaigns of assimilation</a> beginning in A.D. 391, tattoos were frowned upon as “un-Christian.” </p>
<h2>Not like us</h2>
<p>As Western colonizers pushed into places like Africa, the Pacific Islands and North and South America in the 1400s and 1500s, they found entire groups of native peoples who were tattooed. </p>
<p>These tattooed individuals were often pointed to as proof that the “untamed natives” needed the help of “good, God-fearing” Europeans to become fully human. Tattooed individuals from these cultures were even brought back and <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691057231/written-on-the-body">paraded through Europe</a> for profit. </p>
<p>A tattooed Indigenous mother and son, kidnapped by explorers in the late 1600s from an unknown location in Canada, were two such victims. <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691057231/written-on-the-body">An advertisement handbill of the time read</a>: “Let us thank Almighty God for this beneficence, that he has declared himself to us by his Word, so that we are not like these savages and man-eaters.” </p>
<p>People would pay to gawk at these enslaved human beings, making their captors a <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691057231/written-on-the-body">healthy profit</a> and reaffirming in the minds of the audience the need for European expansion, whatever the human cost.</p>
<p>This kidnapping of tattooed persons had destructive effects on the cultures they were taken from, as often the most tattooed individuals, and therefore the most likely to be taken, were the <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691057231/written-on-the-body">leaders and holy persons</a>. </p>
<p>It is worth noting that most captives did not live longer than a few months after arriving in Europe, succumbing to foreign illness or malnourishment <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691057231/written-on-the-body">when their slavers did not feed them</a>.</p>
<p>This “<a href="https://powerhousebooks.com/newsletters/121005/">tattooed savage” narrative</a> was pushed even further as tattooed individuals began to display themselves in carnival and circus “freak shows.” </p>
<p>These performers not only pushed the narrative of tattoos being “savage” or “othering” by performing as freaks, they also invented tragic backstories. The performers claimed they were attacked and forcibly tattooed by marginalized people, such as Native Americans, whom the public at large regarded as “savages.” </p>
<p>One such performer was the American <a href="https://powerhousebooks.com/newsletters/121005/">Nora Hildebrandt</a>. Nora weaved an account of being captured by Native Americans who forcibly tattooed her. </p>
<p>This was a more harrowing tale than the reality that her longtime partner, Martin Hildebrandt, had been her tattoo artist. Her tale was particularly baffling, as Nora Hildebrandt’s tattoos were mostly of patriotic symbols, like the American flag. </p>
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<p>The voices of colonizers echo into the present. Tattoos carry a certain amount of stigma in Western societies. They can often end up being called a “<a href="https://thoughtcatalog.com/ella-ceron/2013/12/the-9-most-common-questions-people-with-tattoos-get-asked/">poor life choice</a>” or “<a href="https://nypost.com/2018/04/25/how-tattoos-can-sabotage-your-love-life/">trashy</a>.” Studies as recent as 2014 discuss the persistence of the stigma. </p>
<p>I see tattoos as art and a way of communicating identity. In answering the question “where do tattoos come from?” I would argue that they come from all of us, regardless of what early colonizers may have wanted people to believe.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165584/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allison Hawn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The pandemic has made some people rush to get tattoos for different reasons. A tattoo historian explains why tattoos are often seen to be ‘trashy,’ a view likely influenced by colonialism.Allison Hawn, Instructional Faculty, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.