Writing in English
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Elona wrote this piece for Open Democracy ‘Transformation’ project series on care, 29 October 2019 – with thanks to the editors for the invitation to contribute, you can see the original publication on their website. In a re-converted industrial building in East London, a regular session of ‘Community Massage’ is taking place. A friend tells…
Read More Learning to care as a feminist
Human transport, Cambodia, September 2016
On the road from Sihanoukville, 21 September 2016 It is nearly 6pm as we drive northbound. Emerging from in-between Chuŏr Phnum Dâmrei, the Elephant Mountains, we enter the flood plains of Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh. In the distance, dark clouds are slowly creeping up from behind the mountains, taking the place of the setting sun.…
Read More Highway 4
Shanghai Qindaofu tricycle collector
Lee la versión en español acá I watch in silence as the caretaker piles up cardboard on his three-wheeled bicycle cart. Methodically, one after another, he rips the tape off the boxes and flattens them against his chest with his bare hands. Guō Tāo is 50 years old, but looks much older. Perhaps it’s the…
Read More Dirty hands, clean streets: Shanghai’s qīngdàofūLee la versión española Thursday 4 June, past midday. Leaving Omsk Alla, without an accent, is not a grammatical mistake in Spanish but Liza’s mom our host. Upon entering, she asks us to take off our shoes and put on the two pairs of carefully prepared slippers. After settling into our room, we make our…
Read More Trans-Mongolian. Stage 2: Siberia
Welcome to Mongolia, our tracks
Monday 15 June, 5 AM. Black birds. Small black birds swooping in and out of holes in the walls, through antennas, cables and metal structures that extend from the buildings. Below, dirt streets, potholes, overflowing bins, cars squeezed into the limited space. I raise my eyes and look at the compound; a calm and central…
Read More Gers, slow tracks, smiley faces and dustLee la versión española Wednesday 3 June. Past Perm, on the way to Yekaterinburg Arms resting on the frame of the corridor window, I see it pass. Bright, gigantic sphere, it shines through the branches. In vain, porous clouds try to conceal its splendour but its light seeps through their cloak, bathing the forest in…
Read More Trans-Mongolian. Stage 1: Anticlimax
Admirando la cosecha transgénica' por Juanchila, julio de 2014
Juan had originally published this article on 5 July 2014 on the blog IdeasdePapel Ingredients:For the dough-2 cups of GM technology discourse (political, scientific, or both);-A handful of intensive agriculture crops;-50g of neoliberal world trade (make sure it contains secrete treaties extract);-Water; For the filling-1 vast region (or group of countries);-High doses of corruption;-2 or…
Read More GM quiche: enough for 1 regionJuan had originally published this article on 22 September 2013 on the blog IdeasdePapel. He wrote the article while he worked as a courses coordinator at the Sussex Centre for Language Studies. This article is dedicated to his then teachers and colleagues, and always friends, Parveen, John and Marco. To my Dad. ‘And this one?…
Read More A language for your eyes: BSL*
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Juan had originally written this book review while volunteering at The Runnymede Trust’ in London during the Summer of 2012 (the review was published on Runnymede’s quaterly bulleting in 2013 for its issue on Young People – Runnymede Bulletin, Spring 2013, Issue 373, page 24). Juan also published an earlier version of the article on…
Read More Books to share: Islam and Education: the manipulation and misrepresentation of a religion, by Dr Lynn Revell, 2012*
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Juan had originally published this article on 12 July 2012 on the blog IdeasdePapel “Is it OK like this?” Amy asks me while she draws the curtains in. I say yes. “We should get started. They are all here and it’s already 6pm. Have you met everyone yet?” I nod, instinctively lifting my gaze to…
Read More Immigrant Detention in the UK: The human cost of administrative expediency