The Fire These Times

This is a conversation with Zoe Smith, a London-based writer with connection to the Carribeans. Zoe had written two pieces for The Correspondent which I wanted to talk to her about. The unthinkable has become reality. How can we build back better? Mutual aid is sweeping the world. Here’s how we make this anarchist way of organising last So how do we make mutual aid last? Using the examples of Barrios de Pie in Argentina or the mutual aid groups popping up in the UK and beyond, we tried to answer that question. You can follow the podcast on Twitter @FireTheseTimes. If you like what I do, please consider supporting this project with only 1$ a month on Patreon or on BuyMeACoffee.com. You can also do so directly on PayPal if you prefer. Patreon is for monthly, PayPal is for one-offs and BuyMeACoffee has both options. If you cannot donate you can still help by reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The Fire These Times is available on Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Castro and RSS. If it is not available wherever you get your podcasts, please drop me a message! Music by Tarabeat. Cover photo illustrated by Michelle Pereira for The Correspondent.

This is a conversation with Mohammed Sulaiman, a Palestinian writer and researcher who grew up in Gaza and currently works at the University of South Australia. The core of our conversation was Mohammed’s two essays for Hummus For Thought: Wretched of the Earth: Thoughts on Syria, Palestine and Discourse (2016) Israel and ‘The Right to Maim’ (2017) Topics discussed: growing up in Gaza and surviving the Israeli wars  and blockade; his and his partner’s difficult journey to Australia,  himself via Israel and herself via Egypt; the Western Left’s failures on  Syria and Bosnia as well as its relationship to Palestine; the  dehumanisation of Palestinians and Syrians; Israel’s politics of  domination; Israel’s ‘right to maim’ as inherent to colonial logic  through Jasbir Puar’s work; and Palestinians being asked to show  gratitude by self-appointed ‘saviors’. You can follow the podcast on Twitter @FireTheseTimes. If you like what I do, please consider supporting this project with only 1$ a month on Patreon or on BuyMeACoffee.com. You can also do so directly on PayPal if you prefer. Patreon is for monthly, PayPal is for one-offs and BuyMeACoffee has both options. If you cannot donate you can still help by reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The Fire These Times is available on Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Castro and RSS. If it is not available wherever you get your podcasts, please drop me a message! Music by Tarabeat.

This is a conversation with Peter Pomerantsev. He's a Soviet-born British writer and the author of two books: Nothing is True and Everything is Possible and This is Not Propaganda. He also runs the research initiative Arena based at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), an innovative programme dedicated to overcoming the challenges of disinformation. Topics discussed: Russian disinformation on Ukraine and Syria; the Brexit campaign; the Trump presidency; Maria Ressa's conviction in the Philippines; missed opportunities of Ukrainian-Syrian solidarity; 1990s Russia and the rise of Putin; pop-up populism; and how to deal with disinformation while being mindful of censorship fears. You can follow the podcast on Twitter @FireTheseTimes. If you like what I do, please consider supporting this project with only 1$ a month on Patreon or on BuyMeACoffee.com. You can also do so directly on PayPal if you prefer. Patreon is for monthly, PayPal is for one-offs and BuyMeACoffee has both options. If you cannot donate you can still help by reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

211 Ghanaian citizens returned home after working as migrant domestic workers in Lebanon and this is what one of them had to say about what her living and working conditions was under the racist Kafala system in a racist Lebanon. The footage comes from a report on Ghanaian TV which was posted on Twitter by @ThisIsLebanonLB: https://twitter.com/ThisIsLebanonLB/status/1275754162702041090

This is a conversation with Zeina Hashem Beck. She's a poet originally from Tripoli, Lebanon. We spoke about her poems of  course and about what it means to be thinking about Lebanon from outside  of Lebanon, especially since the October 17th uprising. We touched upon  mental health, struggling with poetry, and sectarian jokes. We also  mentioned our respective upbringings, her in Tripoli and myself in Mount  Lebanon, and what they reveal about modern Lebanese politics. You can follow the podcast on Twitter @FireTheseTimes. If you like what I do, please consider supporting this project with only 1$ a month on Patreon or on BuyMeACoffee.com. You can also do so directly on PayPal if you prefer. Patreon is for monthly, PayPal is for one-offs and BuyMeACoffee has both options. If you cannot donate you can still help by reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The Fire These Times is available on Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Castro and RSS. If it is not available wherever you get your podcasts, please drop me a message! Music by Tarabeat. Photo is a modified version of Zeina’s book ‘3arabi song’.

This is the audio version of Saleem Haddad's reaction to the death of Sarah Hegazy, which he posted on Instagram and which I'm re-posting here with permission.  Sarah Hegazy was a Queer activist from Egypt who was arrested after being one of many who raised a rainbow flag at a concert by Mashrou3 Leila in Cairo in 2017. She was tortured in Sisi's jail, driven to exile and sought asylum in Canada. She took her own life a few days ago. The Sisi regime has since used that event as an excuse to crack down on Egypt's LGBTQ population, a crackdown which continues to this day.  The silence of straight Arabs in Egypt, the MENA region and the rest of the world is complicity.  You can also listen to the episode on Sarah by The Queer Arabs Podcast. “Society clapped for the regime when it arrested me and Ahmed Alaa.” Sarah Hegazy, from her 2018 article translated into English by Mada Masr. Read here: https://madamasr.com/en/2020/06/15/opinion/u/a-year-after-the-rainbow-flag-controversy Story of the case from NPR: https://www.npr.org/2018/06/18/620110576/after-crackdown-egypts-lgbt-community-contemplates-dark-future I've interviewed Saleem Haddad previously (episode 18).

This is a conversation with Rula Asad, the co-founder and executive director of the Syrian Female Journalists Network (SFJN).  She is a freelance journalist and reporter covering women and human rights. She also reports on the issues faced by the Syrian Civil Society in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, in addition to being an experienced researcher and trainer focusing on women’s rights, gender equality in the media as well development in the MENA region.  I wanted to have this conversation with Rula to discuss some of the challenges around the difficult topic of gender and representation in the context of Syria and of Syrian women within the journalism field more specifically. You can follow the podcast on Twitter @FireTheseTimes. If you like what I do, please consider supporting this project with only 1$ a month on Patreon or on BuyMeACoffee.com. You can also do so directly on PayPal if you prefer. Patreon is for monthly, PayPal is for one-offs and BuyMeACoffee has both options. If you cannot donate you can still help by reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The Fire These Times is available on Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Castro and RSS. If it is not available wherever you get your podcasts, please drop me a message! Music by Tarabeat

(I accidentally uploaded the wrong file before so let's all pretend that didn't happen) This is a conversation with Yousef Kekhia, a Berlin-based Syrian singer, songwriter and producer originally from Aleppo. I spoke to Yousef about his debut album Monologue. I have been genuinely moved by his music and I think this conversation will show you why. Pluggables: Facebook, Instagram, SoundCloud and Twitter. And his bandcamp account where you can buy his music and other merch is here (I myself have the Monologue Premium Vinyl Bundle). You can also read Yousef’s profile on Project Revolver. The playlist from Bandcamp is below. If you click on each song you can read the Arabic lyrics and their English translation. 1.Al Bidaye (The Beginning) 04:22 2.Bshi Yom (One Day) 04:54 3.Faragh (Emptiness) 06:35 4.Mafi Shi Byijama’na (Nothing Unites Us) 05:28 5.Lahn Al Hayat (The Anthem of Life) 04:09 6.Ana Al Kezeb (I Am the Lie) 07:19 7.Khalaya Sarataniye (Cancerous Cells) 06:07 8.Hal Ard Lamin? (Album Version) (Who is This Earth For?) 05:13 9.Al Tayr (The Bird) 04:47 You can follow the podcast on Twitter @FireTheseTimes. If you like what I do, please consider supporting this project with only 1$ a month on Patreon or on BuyMeACoffee.com. You can also do so directly on PayPal if you prefer. Patreon is for monthly, PayPal is for one-offs and BuyMeACoffee has both options. If you cannot donate you can still help by reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Usual music by Tarabeat, in addition to the three songs by Yousef. Photo taken from Youssef’s bandcamp page.

In this conversation, Chuck Derry, co-founder of the Gender Violence Institute, dives deep into his work against men's violence towards women. He critiques the notion that perpetrators are simply ‘losing control’, arguing instead that men benefit from violent behavior. Chuck discusses the real advantages men gain through control and challenges self-identified allies to recognize their roles in perpetuating systemic issues. He also emphasizes the importance of transforming awareness into action while addressing the normalization of misogyny throughout society.

This is an in-depth conversation with Ziad Majed, a Lebanese writer and Program Coordinator for Middle East Pluralities at the American University of Paris. Ziad was one of the founders of the Democratic Left Movement (DLM) in Lebanon, one of the few independent and leftwing groups that came out of the anti-Assad mobilisation that followed the assassination of Rafik Hariri in 2005. The DLM soon found two of its prominent figures assassinated: George Hawi, former secretary general of the Lebanese Communist Party, and Samir Kassir, the man we'll be talking about in this episode. Samir Kassir was assassinated on this day 15 years ago, June 2nd 2005, with a car bomb just outside of his house in Beirut. Born to a Palestinian father and a Syrian mother, Kassir brought together his multiple identities with his principled opposition against both Israeli and Syrian occupations of Lebanon to create a unique persona. I wanted to have Ziad on because he was 'there'. He saw first-hand some of the major events that defined Lebanon in the past three decades, and he saw his friends pay the ultimate price for their principled stances. He himself also had to pay a price due to the increasing threats made against him. Naturally, we also spoke about what Samir represented, about Syria, Lebanon and Palestine and how and why they are interrelated, and about why it's two prominent anti-Assad leftist intellectuals, Samir Kassir and, later, George Hawi who were assassinated first after Hariri's assassination. We spoke about the Syrian revolution, the role of the Assad regime in Syria and Lebanon, the intsrumentalisation of the Palestinian cause by authoritarian regimes and groups, the difficulties in dealing with Hezbollah and the recent October uprising in Lebanon. There was a particular focus on the Syrian occupation of Lebanon since it is linked to the assassination of Samir Kassir and George Hawi. We spoke about how Hezbollah took over the Assad regime's role in Lebanon and its relationship with the Iranian regime's foreign policy. We also spoke about how the sectarian groups within March 14 preferred to deal with Hezbollah and Amal rather than deal with independent Shia voices, as that would have meant dealing with independent Christian, Druze and Sunni voices, and thus feeling threatened 'from within'. This is a long conversation but one which I think will stand the test of time. I wanted us to do justice to Samir Kassir's legacy and I hope we succeeded. You can follow the podcast on Twitter @FireTheseTimes. If you like what I do, please consider supporting this project with only 1$ a month on Patreon or on BuyMeACoffee.com. You can also do so directly on PayPal if you prefer. Patreon is for monthly, PayPal is for one-offs and BuyMeACoffee has both options. If you cannot donate you can still help by reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Music by Tarabeat. Photo by Syrian Banksy in Idlib.