Le Dragon Déchaîné

Why we are racist

by Lino Battin

“I don’t know that anyone who has seen the images would not have strong feelings about what has happened, much less those who have relatives who have died and been killed, and I know people and have talked with people. So, I appreciate that, but I also do know that for many people who care about this issue, they also care about bringing down the price of groceries.” – Kamala Harris

When 235 years ago the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was proclaimed, it brought with it a promise of egalitarianism and universalism, “men are born and remain equal and free in rights”. To anyone even slightly interested in our history this should raise a big question. How could it be possible, that while professing its love for “liberté, égalité, fraternité,” France and its fellow European imperial powers enslaved, massacred, and exterminated the better part of our planet? Of course, it does not help that its authors were all fervent racists who thought of dark skin as a subhuman trait, but let us take a broader look at the historical context surrounding the advent of colonialism, transatlantic slavery, and racism.

Racism as a posteriori justification for economic submission

No matter how much one pretends to look beyond complexion, or to “not see colour”, race still plays an inevitable role all around the world, seeping into all aspects of social life. Despite this, we rarely take a step back to consider the category of race, what it means and how it came to be.

Firstly, it is necessary to understand the basic notion that race is a social construct, fabricated by a specific group of human beings. This is not a value judgement, after all there exists a number of very valuable social constructs, rather it refutes the idea of race being something biological and immutable.

In this video, which I strongly recommend, the history of the invention of race and racism is laid out. Before the invention of racism, say somewhere in the 1500s, a European person would identify along religious, national, or regional lines, no one would have thought of themselves as white or any other racial term. The first racism, or proto racism came from the Muslim world, which through its sub-Saharan expansions encountered what we today call black people. At this point, slavery was not a new practice and had persisted for countless centuries, it was however predicated along religious lines, meaning that Muslims could only enslave non-Muslim people, Christians could only enslave non-Christian people, and so on. The north African Muslims thus took large amounts of non-Muslim black slaves, which they then exported throughout the Muslim world, from the Iberian Peninsula to the border of China. These sub-Saharan slaves were considered inferior even to other slaves, seen as a distinct group and worth less. It is of great importance to note that contrary to European, Christian racism, this was very much a niche perspective and not socially accepted. Muslim scholars and jurors throughout the Muslim world argued for the equality of all Muslims regardless of skin colour, and never were any race-specific laws passed.

Things happened differently in Europe. In the Iberian Peninsula, in areas free of Muslim rule, the Christian kings passed “blood purity laws”, targeting the Jewish and Muslim populations, discriminating against them legally, barring them from essentially every part of society. Once the Reconquista was completed and Christians ruled over the entire peninsula, the blood laws were also expanded across the entire region. The Iberian Muslims now living under Christian rule, along with the Iberian Jews were now facing systematic discrimination and were suspected, even after conversion, of trying to betray and destroy their Christian rulers. These laws also applied to converts’ descendants, setting an important precedent of hereditary oppression. These laws, horrible as they were, still were not racist and targeted religious identities. This would change with the colonisation of the Americas, and the subsequent imports of African slaves into the colonies.

The Spaniards started enslaving people as soon as they set foot on American soil. As mentioned before, according to Spanish law, only non-Christians could be enslaved, and according to Spanish jurisprudence, indigenous American people could not simply be enslaved as they had never come into contact with Christ and his people. Therefore, at least officially, the Europeans were obliged to give the indigenous people a chance to convert to Christianity. In practice however, this was not really applied: an example of a loophole to this doctrine was the reading of a Spanish document, detailing the necessary steps to conversion, to a group of Amerindians, who of course did not understand Spanish. This was then considered good enough to enslave them, but still not on racial grounds, rather on national and religious ones. When Spain started importing African Slaves into the American colonies, those “progressive” Spaniards calling for improved indigenous rights, had none of that compassion for the slaves. Yet there still was no legal basis for their enslavement, and as Spanish reformer Bartolomé de las Casas pointed out, Africans in the Americas were enslaved illegally. This was a problem for Spanish authorities, as they required the labour of the slaves in the colonies, and so they found refuge in the bible. Indeed, to justify the enslavement of black people regardless of their religion, the Curse of Ham was invoked. According to some Christian, Jewish, and Muslim interpretations, Ham was the father of the Africans. In the Old Testament, Noah cursed Ham’s descendants to be slaves, which were considered by the Spaniards to be all Africans. Consequently, the very powerful Spanish catholic authorities in the Americas successfully pressured the Suprema (the council of Spanish catholic kingdoms) to include the category of blackness in the blood-purity laws, thus making black people legally discriminated against because of their physical appearance rather than because of their religion.

Now that blackness was well defined in law, it spread to other colonies, essentially becoming the legal norm in Europe. Whiteness, however, was yet to be defined – that task was to be left to the British.

In the late 16th to early 17th centuries, when the United Kingdom started colonising the Americas and importing African slaves, it lacked a powerful religious institution like the Spanish church or the equivalent of “blood purity laws”, leaving individual colonies to make their own laws concerning race and slavery. Barbados for example drafted laws legalising the lifelong enslavement of “negroes and Indians”, further cementing slave-ness as a “non-European” trait. In the British Caribbean colonies, there were both slaves and indentured servants, of whom most were Europeans, who either concluded voluntary contracts, or were sent to the colonies as punishment (there were for example considerable amounts of Irish rebels). While both were treated brutally, the servants’ oppression was bound by a contract which came to an end, their children would not be born indentured labourers, and they enjoyed rights and protections which the slaves did not. Despite this difference in status, the two groups realised they had common interests in fighting the British ruling class, and thus on many occasions combined forces to fight the British together. This of course greatly worried the British, who saw the united front of European indentured servants and African slaves as a genuine threat to their fabricated racial hierarchy, and to their colonial system more broadly.

To avoid cooperation between the two, colonial authorities introduced a law in Barbados in 1661 dividing labouring classes into Christians and Negroes, rather than indentured servants and slaves. Indentured servants saw their conditions improve massively, from hugely reduced punishments for disobedience, enormous increases in fines for killing servants, to rewarding servants with their freedom should they manage to catch a runaway slave. In short, the servants were integrated into an in group, while the slaves were clearly defined as the out group. This drove an enormous wedge in between the two groups. Following the introduction of this law in Barbados, other colonies such as Jamaica followed suit. The rising popularity of such laws posed a legal issue to the United Kingdom, as jurisprudence stated that baptism would enfranchise a slave, and that slavery was thus dependent on non-Christian status. To resolve this issue, more laws were passed, such as the 1681 Servant Act. This legislation replaced “Christian”, with “White” and thereby, for the first time in history, created the dichotomy between black or negro slaves, and white free men. Following this law, black slaves were denied suing for freedom on a religious basis and many colonies quickly followed suit in implementing such laws. The notion of racial whiteness spread across the Americas and shaped social relations as we know them today. For much more information and further reading I again recommend this video.

The status quo today

A few things have of course changed since the epoch of the Spanish inquisition and transatlantic slave trade. No longer is the world directly administered by a handful of European nations, yet the unequal relationship between the formerly colonising powers, i.e. the first world, and the formerly colonised countries i.e. the third world, is anything but a thing of the past. While the sun now indeed sets on the British empire, international inequalities have persisted and even worsened in recent decades. While neoliberal ideologues will claim this to be a bug rather than a feature of capitalism, I argue this to be false, and global inequality to be very much an intentional and necessary part of the capitalist system. There have been many theories of the unequal relationship between countries, from Lenin’s theory of imperialism to dependency theory and the theory of unequal exchange.

In this article I will be focussing principally on the theory of unequal exchange as formulated by Arghiri Emmanuel, since it addresses most aptly our current state of affairs in my opinion. While it would go beyond the scope of this text to explain in depth Emmanuel’s theories, I will provide a simplification. His basic idea is that one hour of labour in an underdeveloped nation is exchanged for less than an hour of labour in a developed nation, in other words, labour is being drained from the underdeveloped to the developed world. Due to neoliberal policies, capital is highly mobile around the world, whereas labour is relatively immobile, workers cannot simply move around to find wherever suits them best. Because of capital’s relatively high mobility, it will flow to places with higher rates of profit, until profit rates equalise in the competitive market. Wages however will not equalise, due to labour’s relative immobility. The cost of labour (or wages) is systematically lower in the third world, due to the structural adjustment programs imposed by the International Monetary Fund, or comprador regimes, crushing labour movements in service of their first world handlers. The third-world’s workers’ time is thus valued lower than that of the first world worker, whose wage is secure thanks to solid trade union structures and state support, making them almost a separate class, a “labour aristocracy” as Lenin would have said. If you are interested in the mathematics and the modelling of this theory, I recommend this video as a nice introduction.

I focus on this theory in particular because, in the last few years, very interesting empirical research has been conducted on the subject of value transfers, made possible thanks to large trade-databases and new digital tools. These studies’ findings are quite incredible – I will present them here. In 2018, Andrea Ricci found that value transfers from underdeveloped to developed countries rose from $704 billion (or 3.1% of world GDP) in 1990, to $3,924 billion (or 4.5% of world GDP) in 2019. In contrast, the respective amounts of total development assistance for those respective years were $59.3 billion and $165.8 billion (2018). During the 2010s, these value transfers contributed around 8% of GDP in first-world countries, while costing “value-donors”, namely south-east Asian and African countries, as much as 20% of their GDP. Another recent study focused on measuring flows of labour in the world economy. It finds that in 2021 alone, the global north appropriated 826 billion hours of labour, corresponding to €16.9 trillion in northern prices. Furthermore, it puts numbers on the labour relations between the global north and south: for work of equal skill, southern wages are 87-95% lower than in the north, meaning a software engineer based in India will make around 90% less than his German or American counterpart, doing the same work, sometimes even for the same company. Finally, while global south workers contribute 90% of the world’s labour, they receive only 21% of global income.

I bring up these facts because they are crucial to understanding how unsustainable and impossible to universalise our development model is, as it necessitates the appropriation of labour from the vast majority of humanity.

The continuing dehumanisation of the third world

We have now established that our current way of living is and has been for the last centuries, based on the appropriation of unimaginable amounts of wealth from the third world, or the global south. The hierarchisation of humanity into lower races was a necessary part of justifying this merciless bondage for economic extraction by the white race. Now we can look at how this phenomenon persists.

A racialised person today is no longer bound to be enslaved due to their phenotype, or due to their ancestors being slaves. Racism, however, is as alive today as it was over the last centuries, sometimes more subtly, but nevertheless carrying with itself its characteristic brutality. The “civilised world” enables and funds campaigns of ethnic cleansing and extermination in Palestine, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, West Papua, and more. Not only that, but even inside of the core these scourges persist. In my native Austria, 76 percent of black people face racial discrimination, and indeed racist abuse is increasing across the European Union. It is important to recognise that these two facts are connected, this hatred is after all manufactured by the same actors committing and or benefitting from the aforementioned atrocities. Racism is not persistent in our societies because of some immutable trait of ours, but because it is taught anew to every generation, by those who sit on top of the social hierarchy: the owners of newspapers, TV-channels, politicians, religious leaders, etc. To quote from anthropologist Carole Nagengast: “This justifies first symbolic and then too often physical violence against [subordinates]. And that requires the implicit agreement and cooperation of ordinary nice people who have been inoculated with evil, who learn to take myths at face value, and who do not question the projects of the state in defence of a social order that requires hierarchy. Only when general consensus has been created can ordinary people (read the dominant group) actively participate in human rights abuses, explicitly support them, or turn their faces and pretend not to know even when confronted with incontrovertible evidence of them.”

Besides this system of indoctrination, there is the unfortunate fact that first world citizens, be they capitalists or not, benefit from the plunder of the global South. The much-famed Scandinavian welfare states, the British National Health Service, or Switzerland’s lauded public infrastructure would never have been possible without this unequal exchange between north and south. We must ask the unfortunate question of whether the radical change necessary to stop unequal exchange can come from the first world, or if the convenience of cheap goods as put forward by Kamala Harris, and relative safety and stability is enough to appease the people of the first world and let them watch as the majority of humanity is underdeveloped, pillaged, and killed.

Conclusion

The gist of this article is thus: regardless of political orientation (albeit with very few exceptions), relevant first world political forces still do not consider third world people worthy of consideration. Rather they are seen as things to be pitied at best, an unfortunate but inevitable fact of life and a wild “jungle” to be controlled, as the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borell puts it. They are hardly recognised as individuals, but are rather seen as faceless and mindless collectives, somehow intrinsically different to us. This is not because of evil individual leaders or populism, but because it is necessary for us to dehumanise those we destroy and exploit. The unfortunate truth is that it would hurt the bottom line of pretty much every big company if first world consumers felt genuine empathy at the plight of the majority of humanity. Therefore, capital does all it can, through politics, art, religion, etc. to keep us indifferent at best and hateful at worst. Its success is palpable and is exemplified by how mainstream forms of racism such as islamophobia are.

We must centre the third world in our analysis and consider the world from its perspective; it does after all represent the vast majority of us humans. We must reckon with such uncomfortable questions as whether international class solidarity can exist as long as some peoples benefit from the exploitation of others. And, most importantly, we, the first world, must realise that we are not the priority in world affairs.

The Revival of Hanfu: Where Fashion Meets Cultural Renaissance

Welcome to the East Asia Club’s first-ever article! As captains of the East Asian Club, we are dedicated to raising interest in contemporary East Asian cultures and practices. This prompts our emphasis on a movement reshaping modern China – the revival of the hanfu (漢服).

A piece of traditional attire worn by the Han Chinese, hanfu has revived its adoptability as a vibrant national trend. But this movement is more than just fashion—it’s a celebration of China’s deep cultural roots, blending historical pride with modern identity.

The ancient style is now gaining huge popularity, particularly amongst younger generations. Between 2015 and 2021, sales of hanfu clothing surged from just 190 million yuan to a staggering 10 billion yuan (approximately USD $1.45 billion), with estimates projecting the market to reach 24.18 billion yuan by 2027. As of 2022, over 10.16 million people have embraced the art of wearing hanfu, a substantial increase from the 6 million of the previous year.

The appeal of hanfu is multifaceted. For many, wearing hanfu symbolises a form of reconnection with Chinese history and heritage. This is particularly relevant as China continues to modernise at a breakneck pace. The revival has sparked cultural pride among young people, who are increasingly drawn to hanfu for its historical significance and aesthetic beauty. According to a recent survey, nearly 70% of hanfu enthusiasts wear the garments as a means to promote traditional Chinese culture.

Social media has played a significant role in the revival, with platforms like Weibo and Douyin (China’s version of TikTok) allowing hanfu enthusiasts to share their passion globally. Young influencers have showcased hanfu in everything from historical reenactments to modern street fashion, propelling it from a cultural niche into a mainstream phenomenon.

Furthermore, the appeal of hanfu lies in its deep connection to Chinese history. In an era of rapid modernization, a relatively easy way to understand one’s heritage can be demonstrated through the simple act of wearing the piece of clothing. For instance, hanfu from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) is known for its elegant, flowing robes, a quality that directly reflects the period’s cosmopolitan nature. This draws a stark contrast to the hanfu from Ming (1368-1644), which represents a more conservative and structured style. For many, wearing hanfu during festivals, cultural events, and even casual outings is a way to promote traditional Chinese values while asserting their national identity. The hanfu community is especially active during major cultural holidays such as the Mid-Autumn Festival, Chinese New Year, and traditional events like the Hanfu Festival, where enthusiasts gather to celebrate in full attire. Cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu have become vibrant hubs where young people participate in hanfu flash mobs, photo sessions, and public performances

It is interesting to note that the Chinese government has also been a key player in this cultural revival, as part of a broader push for “cultural confidence.” Promoting traditional elements such as hanfu aligns with China’s emphasis on preserving its rich cultural heritage while fostering national pride. This has provided hanfu with more visibility as a dynamic symbol of China’s cultural renaissance, gaining official support and encouragement.

However, the movement isn’t without its challenges. Critics argue that many modern iterations of hanfu blend elements from different historical periods, straying from historical accuracy. While some purists seek to preserve the authenticity of hanfu design, others celebrate its creative evolution as a modern interpretation of traditional fashion. Zhao Bo, a curator who was once interviewed by the South China Morning Post, has reproduced ancient hanfu garments, highlights the importance of both approaches, noting that public interest is crucial in keeping this tradition alive.

In sum, the hanfu revival represents a unique blend of historical reverence and modern innovation. For young people, wearing hanfu isn’t just about fashion; it’s a personal statement that connects them with China’s rich cultural history while navigating the complexities of a globalised world. As this movement continues to grow, hanfu has emerged as a powerful symbol of China’s cultural resilience, proving that traditions can be both preserved and reimagined for a new era.

Stay tuned for more exciting explorations of East Asia’s dynamic cultures from the East Asia Club!

Learn more about hanfu:

https://multimedia.scmp.com/infographics/culture/article/3241304/hanfu-part-1/

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3190171/cultural-power-not-suit-and-tie-hanfu

The Garo: People of the Hills

by Gemma Tabet

Today, the Garo, also known as the A’chiks Mande (hill people) (Marsing, 2019), are one of the better-known matrilineal communities of the world. Currently living in India and Bangladesh around the Garo Hills region, these peoples have matrilineal traditions that stretch back centuries, such as inheritance through the mother’s line (ma’chong). Because of the specific environmental conditions of the Garo Hills region, the Garos are also known for their jhum cultivation (District Administration, East Garo Hills). Their unique society can be symbolised by the Wangala festival after the October harvest, in which food, music, and dance is prepared to honour the gods of their Songsarek religion, organised by the headman of a village’s dominant family (Roy, 1992). Yet, this ethnic community faces modern challenges brought by cultural assimilation, political marginalisation, and climate change that threaten to end the Garos’ centuries-old way of life.

The Garos originated from the Tibetan Plateau and migrated in the Prehistoric Period to North East India (Marsing, 2019), where today they mainly live in the Meghalaya and Assam regions, as well as in areas of Bangladesh like Mymensingh (District Administration, East Garo Hills), where they are known as lowland Garos (Bal, 2007). The Garo language is part of the Tibetan-Bruman linguistic family, although a large variety of dialects exist (Roy, 1992). Being a matrilineal society, property passes from mother to a chosen daughter known as the Nokna, who also inherits the property of her husband or Nokrom, both coming to live with the Nokna’s parents (Ahmed, 2021). Yet, the Garos are not considered a matriarchal society, as it is the man’s responsibility to manage the property and agricultural affairs (District Administration, South Garo Hills). In fact, the Garo society revolves around agriculture, traditionally practising jhum or shifting cultivation, in which an area is cleared by burning vegetation and cultivated for a few years, then abandoned to allow fertility restoration (Oxford Languages). Both men and women are involved in agricultural and labour processes, with men in charge of jungle-clearing, house-building, and basketry, while women are in-charge of crop plantation, weaving, and cooking (District Administration, South Garo Hills).

However, the modern world has brought harsh challenges to the Garo peoples, linked to cultural assimilation caused by Christian missionary movements (Marak, 2023) and patriarchal communities (Ahmed, 2021), political marginationalisation particularly for the Bangladesh Garos (Bal, 2007), and environmental degradation triggered by deforestation and climate change (Sarma, 2013).

The Garos traditionally follow a faith called Songsarek (Marsing, 2019), with a variety of deities like Saljong, the sun and fertility god (honoured during Wangala) or Chorabudi, the god of crops (District Administration, East Garo Hills). Moreover, they believe in a variety of spirits called mites, as well as reincarnation, in which one can be reborn in lower or higher forms of life (ibid). Yet, today, this religion is less and less practised as more Garos convert to Christiniaty, which is seen as helping to develop “identities that are… profoundly modern” (Maaker, 2007). This act of cultural assimilation began in the early 19th century, when the British Empire took over the Garo Hills, paving the way for religious conversion primarily led by American missionaries (Marak, 2023). Today, more than 80% of Garo peoples are Christian (Maaker, 2007). The Garos not only face religious cultural assimilation, but also loss of their traditional matrilineal society due to the rising presence of patrilineal values in neighbouring Hindu and Muslim communities (Ahmed, 2021). A study by Sirajuddin Ahmed and Upala Barua in 2021 found that the Nokrom system, in which the husband goes to live with his wife, is becoming rarer, due to the changing attitudes of younger generations, who are exposed through schools to patrilineal values. The traditional Garo way of life is under serious threat of permanent loss due to these acts of cultural assimilation.

Moreover, the Garos, particularly those of the lowland or Bangladesh regions, face political marginalisation through exclusion policies and historic discrimination (Bal, 2007). The lowland Garos have particularly been affected by external politics between India and Pakistan, beginning with Partition in 1947 (when Britain created a Muslim majority in Pakistan and a Hindu majority in India). This event saw these Garos become citizens of Pakistan, despite demands to join the other Garos in the Meghalaya region of India (ibid). In 1964, the lowland Garos were forced to flee to refugee camps in India, after an influx of more than a million Muslim refugees brought thievery, intimidation, and illegal settlements, as well as active suppression by state agencies (ibid). When the Garos returned, they faced aggressive state attitudes, particularly through the Enemy Property Ordinance, which led to Garos losing lands to the Pakistan government (ibid). Further, despite the lowland Garos fighting for the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, the new government did not provide any rehabilitation aid and stressed the dominance of the Bengali ethnicity (ibid). This historic political exclusion and even suppression of Garos has had profound effects not only on their identity, which now includes major distinctions between the Garos in Bangladesh and India, but also modern socio-economic challenges. The Garos, in both areas, face land ownership issues, which leads to a lack of access to basic necessities such as modern medical facilities, educational institutions, and employment opportunities (Kabir, 2022).

Further, the Garos face political, social, and economic insecurity as a result of environmental degradation. According to the Global Forest Watch, since 2000, India has lost 6% of its total tree cover, primarily due to deforestation, and in 5 key regions including Assam and Nagaland. For the Garos, the consequential rise of temperatures and changing precipitation patterns threaten their access to sustenance and their livelihoods (Sarma, 2013). Particularly, subsurface coal mining and deforestation has caused biodiversity loss, flash floods, and decrease in supply of drinking water (Sarma, 2013). Moreover, due to rising Garo populations (Hazarika, 2013), the Garos have begun transitioning from traditional jhum cultivation to permanent cash crop cultivation (crops sold on markets for profit), which increases levels of deforestation (Sarma, 2013). In Bangladesh, the Garos are also threatened by the government’s lack of effort to preserve their environment and culture (Rozario, 2024). The Bangladesh Forest Department launched in 2000 a World Bank funded Sustainable Forest and Livelihood Project, involving the construction of gardens, guesthouses, and an artificial lake that negatively affects the hundreds of Garos in the Madhupur forest of the Mymensingh region. Deforestation and uncompensated land loss (Rozario, 2024) will have huge repercussions on the socioeconomic status of this community. Yet, despite Garo activism and demands for better forest policies, they have not only been the victims of police violence and shootings, but also of eviction threats by the government (Rozario, 2024). Thus, the Garos risk not only loss of land, but also heightened climate vulnerability.

In conclusion, it is evident the Garos face a multitude of challenges arising from efforts of cultural assimilation, political discrimination and marginalisation, and environmental degradation, all of which is not being properly addressed by governments in India nor Bangladesh. Although in India the Garo lands and culture are more protected than in Bangladesh (e.g., 92% of the Garo Hills forested area is owned by local communities under the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council), they still remain a highly vulnerable community. As seen, Garo culture is still at risk due to the climate crisis, as well as external religious and patrilineal influences, which requires greater adaptation planning and policy from high levels of governance. Governments should listen and work alongside indigenous-led projects, such as the Meghalaya region Hill State People’s Democratic Party’s recent initiative to urge official recognition of the Garo language, in order to ensure better employment opportunities (India Today NE, 2024). Particularly in Bangladesh, the Garo minority has faced severe political and socio-economic insecurity, requiring urgent governmental initiative to better protect and respect these peoples. Governmental policies, particularly those involving forest cover and cultural preservation, need to be created alongside the Garo communities, such as the Joyenshahi Adivasi Development Council, a leading group protesting the Madhupur land loss. The Garos possess a unique culture intrinsically linked to nature that must be safeguarded not only for its wealth of knowledge, but also to ensure the continued existence of a vulnerable population.

Disclaimer: As a student, I don’t have the full capacity nor time to delve into the complexities of each ethnic community. My intention is to create a space dedicated to introducing readers to different minorities and their plights, to raise awareness and to encourage further readings into such topics. My art piece of each ethnic community is not an accurate representation of the culture as a whole, but an artistic interpretation based on primary photographs and references of historical traditions.

The artwork by Gemma Tabet is inspired by Garo culture, and was created using mixed media: alcohol markers with digital art. The work takes direct inspiration from photographs and texts of Garo traditions and peoples, and thus the art serves as a glimpse into this rich and unique history. Inspiration came from photographers like David Talukdar, Cintu Thakuria, and F. Widjaja on Shutterstock, as well as Himdipta for the Wildlife Trust of India. In the artwork I have depicted a boranq, which are tree-top bamboo houses that also serve as watchouses to protect crops from wild animals like elephants. The Garo woman is wearing a dakmanda, a ceremonial, colourful two-piece dress woven with floral patterns, wide stripes, and diamond symbols known as mikron or “eye”. She also has bangles or sangong on her wrists, a white waist band known as sengki, and earrings called natapsi. The Garo man is wearing a pandra, which is a ceremonial cloth going across the chest. Both are wearing thin glass necklaces known as rigitok, a headband decorated with beads known as kotip, and a headdress made of feathers from bhimraj birds or roosters, known as do·me. These terms are derived from a variety of sources: Sankar Kumar Roy for eHRAF World Cultures, the District Administration in the South and East Garo Hills, and the Indian Ministry of Culture.

On the Free Store

by Sylvain Sainte-Marie on behalf of Sciences Po Environnement Le Havre

The term “free market” is very common nowadays and refers to an almost natural functioning of exchange: everything has a price and must be traded for something of the same value. But this seemingly trivial notion is almost an oxymoron. “Free” can be understood as ‘without constraints’, but also as ‘does not cost anything’. Associated with “market”, a place of economic trade, there is a double contradiction: on a market, nothing is for free; on a market, there is a strong constraint on what things can be: they are only a certain amount of money.

In fact, the idea of reclaiming the commons has long been a topic in a world where the oxymoron “free trade” is more and more accepted. “Commons is a generic term or a variety of social forms existing in Europe, particularly in England, before capitalist or socialist industrialization transmogrified them into resources.” Commons can be land, objects, know-how—exactly like resources. However, they are not subject to exploitation or seen from a perspective of growth. The word is often found in the economy in the term “tragedy of the commons” (Hardin, 1968), the idea that shared resources are being overexploited since commons are free but rival and thus each actor’s interest is to exploit as much as they can. Elinor Ostrom received a Nobel Prize for working on a solution between state planning and private ownership to regulate the exploitation of such resources. In both cases, though, we are still talking about resources, i.e. potential wealth sources if they are traded. The problem of the market lies in this tendency to transform everything into resources. This potential exploitation is precisely what the “reclaiming of commons” fights against. Since the enclosure movement of the 17^th century, we progressively tend to consider things as property, which is something you can use, make revenue from, or sell. The social shock caused by the enclosure movement was obviously in opposition to reactions. Diggers were a dissident group with a program of reforming the existing social order through the creation of small, egalitarian rural communities.

The Eating in Public movement takes on that legacy of opposing existing order and disrupting the capitalist systems around them. In 2003, Gaye Chan and Nandita Sharma, O’ahu (the island of the Hawaïi archipelago), started planting papaya trees in an abandoned, unpleasant patch of weeds near their house. This transformation of shared spaces went on with many actions, such as recycling centers, seed-sharing stations, community gardens or free stores. For them, they are not inventing anything or initiating something they should be credited for. Comparable actions are taken in their community and internationally, with or without the direct influence of Eating in Public.

SPE opened a free store on campus in November. This long-term project is, to some extent, a continuation of the Yard Sale logic. Many objects remain in everyone’s apartments without being used. Why not just give them away? One can give and take freely without any considerations other than ‘Do I really need this?’. That is, as long as everyone respects each other and follows basic rules: 1) No broken items, 2) Make sure objects are clean, 3) The store is neither a landfill nor a dumping station. This free store is the perfect way to make sure that an object will find the person who needs it, and the objects you need may well end up on the shelves of the store for you to take! Moreover, this action aims at questioning the market logic we live in. We are not in a TINA (there is no alternative) society; we can reconsider evidence and reclaim the commons. A free store on a campus is tiny indeed, but it is a makeshift experiment in mentality, a seed for new ideas to bloom.

Roadmap to WEIS

by Annabelle Leung

Viola, AS President!!

Born This WEIS – the 2024 edition of Sciences Po’s annual inter-campus sports competition saw historical achievements, most notably credited to Le Havre campus athletes. An introspective interview with AS President, Viola del Corona, runs us through the entirety of events and matches held in Nancy. She describes in detail LH’s pathway towards our podium victory. The fact that a list is required to entail all accomplishments in this article also demonstrates the significant progress in sportsmanship that our campus has undergone, which has ultimately paid off.

WEIS prizes by LH!

5 trophies:

•⁠ ⁠Prix d’Ambience (first place)

•⁠ ⁠⁠2nd place Table tennis

•⁠ ⁠⁠2nd place Cheer

•⁠ ⁠⁠2nd place Foot f

•⁠ ⁠⁠2nd place Foot m

Semifinals

•⁠ ⁠semis for Volley (4th place)

•⁠ ⁠⁠semis for Rugby f (4th place)

•⁠ ⁠⁠playoffs for Basket m (4th place)

Upon arrival at the sports facility – straight after an 8 hour bus journey – the restless weekend of competitions commenced. Viola recalls her own participation in Female Basketball, Football and Rugby.

‘The second day was pretty intense for female sports because there was the entire football tournament all crammed into one day,’ she recalls, reflecting the intensity of physical activity due to the time constraint of 3 days. Nevertheless, Viola acknowledges that events including the official opening ceremony, the barathon, and club night organised by Nancy’s Bureau des Sports (BDS) were populated with students of all campuses. With a rap song featuring LH PROPA members Gabriel & Sara performed live, the atmosphere at the club night was undeniably pleasant. It underscored conviviality and enjoyment after strenuous competition.

When asked about her favourite event, Viola chuckles as she expresses her satisfaction with the female Football team’s accomplishments. “We got to the semi-finals, which was amazing because then we won against Poitiers … at the final — like I just started crying … a bit of it was because of how tired I was […] the emotions were just incredible’.

Female football reached 2nd place overall. (image: Football F team – shot by Thomas Funkleder)

Viola noted, though, that members “didn’t even expect to go past the group phase. This is actually something that was common to most sports.” This is evident in male Football, where Ryoma’s goal in their 3rd round propelled LH into the semifinals for the 1st time in history. More astounding was that this happened while player Anis was carrying an injured hamstring. His persistence on the field, along with the others, carried them all the way into Football M Finals, again for the first time in history.

‘I never expected us to go this far… I’m so happy’, expresses Taiga Shitara, captain of the Football team.

LH WEIS Football M team – shot by Thomas Funkleder

The Football M team got their first ever win last year against Dijon, during Minicrit 2024. Previously the LH team had never made it past the group stage.

Another achievement of the season was bagged by the cheerleading squad; LH placed 2nd overall.

This notably occurred despite the lack of coaches provided to the LH Cheer team, an advantage that some campuses possessed. The increase in frequency of cheer practices seemed to pay off in the precision of movement and accuracy of jumps, as seen in playback videos.“Our team has worked so hard for WEIS and I’m really proud of all of us! We’re going to keep our minicrit plans a little secret for those outside the cheer team, but expect the biggest, boldest, and brightest performance our campus has seen yet,” hints Noelani Aung, co-captain of LH Cheer. WEIS’ stunts included Noelani’s clock stunt and Nicky’s suspended front flip, both completed without a trace of sweat and drove supporters into a standing ovation towards the end of the performance. (image: Noelani’s clock stunt – shot by Thomas Funkleder)

In addition to the conventional lineup, this year’s surprise sport was table tennis. LH representatives Hugo and Sara took the trophy home with 1st-Runner Up. Likewise, there was a lack of resources due to campus budget constraints. A conversation with Hugo informs that ‘there’s not much preparation…to the extent that we actually did not have our own rackets and table tennis balls for Sara’. Nevertheless, his highlight of the day was the LH v. Menton match.

“We were losing by 10 to 7… the opponent only needed 1 single point to secure the victory. However, with a bit of luck…. we secured five consecutive points, and we beat Menton by 12 to 10… it was a very memorable moment for me.” Hugo plans on taking periodic advantage of the table on campus to foster the development of technique. (image: Hugo & Sara v Nancy – shot by Thomas Funkleder)

Lastly, it is important to note that LH received commendation for athletic sportsmanship, albeit some mishaps construed by other campuses. Viola compliments her AS team, expressing gratitude for Orso and Madhava for communicating with French logistics. She also notes that campuses “loved AS… the whole delegation received a lot of compliments from Nancy saying that we were really respectful … something to be really proud of I think.”

Le Havre placed 3rd Overall in WEIS 2024.

(image: AS Le Havre from left to right – Orso, Madhava, Viola, Yasumasa, Mathilde, Nodoka, Anya) – shot by Thomas Funkleder