geneva's underside, seamus heaney & bo: the lost language.
long reads and eating lemon pasta
Life still feels weird. At this point I don’t know if it’s my approach to things (/life) that’s weird, or if it’s just a fact that I exist in a rather strange in-between moment and my reaction is ‘reasonable’. Jury is still out. Either way, I am sure it will pass. Everything is temporary in the end, right?
Rome is, of course, gorgeous. Chaotic, messy, loud, dysfunctional: yes, often. But also majestic and full of life. I think most people who have lived in Rome for more than a year or two, who have successfully passed the ‘honeymoon’ phase, and have survived to tell the tale - they have a sort of love/hate relationship with the city. I see it in both Romans and adopted-Romans alike. When the sun comes out - as it has begun to do of late - and casts this glow over the yellows and oranges of the buildings, the cute little vespa beeps as they whizz over the cobble stones, the parrots screeching from maritime pine to maritime pine - it’s hard not to love it. You walk through the streets, feel the sun hitting your face, and think: “Aren’t I so lucky that this is my walk to work? Past these ancient buildings and vintage cafes…”. And then there is everything else: the slow bureaucratic systems that never seem to work (sometimes it feels like it is made like that on purpose); the never ending saga of the rubbish on the streets and overflowing bins (especially outside of the centre, where normal people live); the low wages compared to the other big European countries; the unreliable nature of public transport, and regular staff strikes for the metro / train / taxis / buses (which, I get, but they happen very very often these days); the mad traffic; the sort of ‘battle’ to get and keep work, and then once you have it, the weird (sometimes toxic) dynamics that play out as a result of this insecurity; the difficulty to have real career growth - you stay ‘junior’ for longer and the economic situation means that young people don’t become independent until much later in life. The injustice of the real deep poverty that exists here, which rubs shoulders with - almost literally - some of the most extravagant and excessive wealth I’ve ever seen, and then there’s the tourists... I think I’m not alone in having a complicated relationship with the city in that way. But this is where I am now, and there is so much I should be just getting out and seeing, absorbing, enjoying, while I can.
What with the USAID cuts and various other global / political factors, careers in human rights/NGO/humanitarian sector (and most kinds of ‘do-good-ing’) seem to be getting more difficult to come by. With funds drying up, and many more people unemployed, the competition is fierce. And of course that’s without all the other concerns, like having to navigate an increasingly obstacle-course-style recruitment process, and everyone needing to ensure that their CV can be read by a robot. It feels like everything is mad and impossible in a way that I don’t remember it being back in 2014, 2018, 2022…
But this is very boring. Stuff you all know already, and not worth dwelling on too much.
I’m trying to stay positive, and have been doing some cute things like experimenting with food. Last week I made a lemon pasta which I was particularly proud of. It involved spring onions, cream, and of course a very good lemon from our local market.
I’d love to hear how you’re doing, what things you’re keeping your spirits up with these days:
(You might have noticed that I’m not quite managing to keep up with this every week, so for now I will try to be gentle with myself and just send one every other week for now.)
Articles
‘Here lives the monster’s brain’: the man who exposed Switzerland’s dirty secrets
by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian | The Guardian
Since many of the UN institutions are based in Geneva, I have mostly only associated it with work. From what I have heard from colleagues, it’s very organised, but also there is absolutely 0 night life. Much more suited to families. Apart from that, I generally think of Switzerland as clean, rich and good for outdoor activities - I didn’t really think much more of it. That is, until over lunch one day. We had a chat about where Switzerland actually got it’s money. As I have often said, most money isn’t entirely ‘clean’ (I usually meant this in the context of: a big part of why the UK is rich is because of colonialism, same for a bunch of other countries. Slavery in the US. Oil in the Emirates etc. etc. ie. For most very rich countries, there is often a not-so-savoury reason underneath as to why that is…). Anyway the phrase ‘Switzerland is rich because it helped the Nazis hide money’ both sounded about right, but also didn’t quite seem like the full story to me. And weirdly, this week, I came across this article in the Guardian about a lefty activist who tries to expose some of the wrongdoings in Switzerland, and has written a whole book about it. Really interesting stuff. I actually listened to this article here.
Walk On Air Against Your Better Judgement
by Caitlin Flanagan | The Atlantic
This article about Seamus Heaney brought me to tears.
I almost don’t want to say too much about it, as I think you need to make of it what you will. But perhaps it spoke to me in a specific way because my father is Irish, and the issues in Northern Ireland were central to my masters thesis. But mostly, I think it’s because Seamus Heaney is probably my favourite or one of my favourite poets of all time - ever since we had to read ‘Mid Term Break’ at school.
This article, to me anyway, is about understanding your past in retrospect, connecting with others through words, and words as a form of comfort. But also it’s a lot about existence and death.
(I’m sorry, I know it’s not a particularly light recommendation here!)
Of course I couldn’t relate to some of the other things in the article: like having university professors for parents, or living in Berkeley, let alone the US…
Anyway, there is an audio version of this article, but I found it a little fast and not read in a way that really imbues meaning, even when slowed down to 0.8x speed. I think this has got to be read.
Audio
Bo: The death of a language | BBC
I had never heard of Bo language. It could be around 65,000 years old (?!!) This short audio documentary explains a little about it. I ended up in a bit of an internet deep dive afterwards on the oldest languages and how they link to other languages etc….
Books
I’m currently back into ‘The 40 Rules of Love’ by Elif Shafak after taking a break from it for a bit.
There’s a quote I liked (among many) . One of the main characters, a dervish, is giving advice to a rather lost young girl:
"If you want to change how others treat you, you should first change the way you treat yourself. [...] be thankful for every thorn thrown at you, as it is a sign you will soon be showered in roses [...] the past is a whirlpool. If you let it dominate your present moment, it will suck you in. [...] Time is just an illusion. What you need is to live in this very moment. That is all that matters."
Of course I realise it is maybe a touch cliche, and there are things you can criticise about the messaging here - but in the context of the story, it was beautiful. Trying to keep some elements of this in mind this week.
Until next time!
