Le Dragon Déchaîné

The Eerie, Awful Longing of Polly Jean, and Me Without Even a Record Player

On saints, spinsters, and solitude in PJ Harvey’s Is This Desire? (1998)

Image credit: Polly Jean Harvey, Maria Mochnacz, Rob Crane.

Many a pensive winter night have I spent immersed in the labyrinthine vortex that is my Spotify library. And in exchange for the $0.005 that I gift my musical heroes with each song of whose I stream, I receive the very stuff that has animated my girlhood for the better part of a decade. The pythia of my adolescence is none other than the raven-haired English maestra that is Polly Jean Harvey. Her tales of vengeance, loneliness, desire, and the sacred have filled my aural cavities and inner recesses during my most impressionable years. It would seem that her musical genius was touched by the holy ghost of gnosis itself, and on no work of hers is this more evident than on her fourth full length LP, 1998’s Is This Desire?.

The album is to my mind Harvey’s most compelling. What I seek to contemplate is why. It eschews the sexual mania of her first two albums (1992’s Dry and 1993’s Rid of Me), and is not plagued by the romantic platitudes of 2000’s Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea. Ambitious yet sincere, the album is challenging enough of a listen to ward off the posers, and inviting enough to beguile the faithful. By means of deftly applied imagery and allegory, the album envelopes the listener in a gothic cosmos of storms, saints, and spinsterhood. It tells of heartbroken harlots and is illuminated throughout by the tenuous strand of hope that binds together body and soul. “It was a very very difficult, difficult to make,” said Harvey of the album in 2004, “[…] but probably my favourite record that I’ve made because it had a lot of guts.” In Desire, Harvey manages, with the magic of a mediaeval chronicler and the timelessness of a poet, to cut to the bone of hope, isolation, the sacrosanct, and the prosaic – matters of concern to all in the pursuit of meaning in this life.

Is This Desire? was a creature that took its toll on its creator. Its creation took place after Harvey’s break up with the vampiric Australian poet-cum-alt-rock-god Nick Cave, who was so shocked when she dumped him on the telephone in 1997 that he “almost dropped [his] syringe.” She began therapy while recording the album. She even got micro-bangs. Her tumultuous emotional state found a natural home in the tragic poetry and haunted soundscapes of her subsequent musical release.

The album was recorded during two marathon sessions separated temporally by almost a year. Harvey herself authored all the lyrics and produced a great part of the music, with instrumental contributions from Mick Harvey, Eric Drew Feldman, Rob Ellis, and her long-time collaborator and musical soulmate John Parish. Like most of Harvey’s albums, the album was released on Island Records and was met with critical acclaim in the alternative music press. Although the album did not mirror the commercial success of its predecessor (1995’s To Bring You My Love), Harvey was able to score her greatest charting success in the UK with the album’s lead single A Perfect Day Elise.

Regarding approach and genre, the album finds its niche within the introspective rumblings of trip-hop and industrial that emerged from the British alternative music scene in the mid to late 1990s. During this period, the British music charts were dominated by the manufactured quirk of Britpop, the sickly sweet bubblegum pop of the Spice Girls, and the American soul of the Fugees and Toni Braxton. Grunge was dead (or at least Kurt Cobain was) and alternative music, at least in Britain, succumbed to the developing undercurrents of electronic music, industrial, and trip-hop, pioneered by such acts as Massive Attack and Portishead. The dark electronic experimentation of the mid-90s alternative scene crept its way onto To Bring You My Love, giving way to the grating electronica of Down by the Water and head-nodding trip-hop of Working For The Man. The most thorough exploration of these sounds in her body of work, however, is to be found in the electric soundstorms that rage all throughout Is This Desire?.

Sonically, the album oscillates wildly between moments of aching beauty and caustic assault. Besides electronically engineered instrumentals and drum machines, Is This Desire? also honours Harvey’s rock roots through the presence of sober guitar work (electric and acoustic) on the album’s title track, The Sky Lit Up, and the ballads Angelene and The River. Forever a fan of harsh instrumentation, Harvey ensures that the electrically charged sonic onslaughts on Is This Desire? are just as abrasive as the violent guitar work on Dry and Rid of Me. The techno-brutalism of the album is explored fully on the tracks My Beautiful Leah, A Perfect Day Elise, and, particularly, Joy. Trip-hop influences are palpable on the tracks The Wind, My Beautiful Leah, and The Garden. The album’s quieter moments include the subdued Catherine, and ghostly Electric Light. Eric Drew Feldman’s piano work is a notable highlight on the album opener Angelene, The Garden, and The River.

Musical technicalities aside, the absorbing chronicles and emotion that characterise Is This Desire? are further communicated by Harvey’s lyricism, in which she explores the themes of spirituality, sainthood, prostitution, and spinsterhood. The album is deliciously gothic in its ensemble, rich in its elemental motifs of water and electricity, of nature at its most supernatural. Harvey adopts the voices and relates the histories of several key female characters – the prostitutes, Angeline and Elise, the ghostly Leah, the saint, Catherine, and the physically crippled spinster, Joy. Harvey’s lyricism draws liberally from the short stories of J. D. Salinger and Flannery O’Connor, as well as, to a lesser extent, the poetry of William Butler Yeats, and the Bible.

I’ve heard there’s joy untold

It lays open like a road in front of me

Central to the album’s grappling with the human condition, and expressed most clearly in its first track, are the questions of hope, faith, and agency in the realisation of the “joy untold” that exists in the material world. In Angelene, Harvey adopts the voice of a prostitute who states that “love for money is [her] sin,” yet holds dear the idea of real love, that some day some man will “collect her soul” and come to her. She pictures him two thousand miles away. The road to this man lays open before Angelene, yet she treadeth not. Perhaps the chimaera of joy is a beast too daunting, too elusive to hunt. Angelene lives in the hope that her love will come to her. Here, Harvey grapples with the centrality of the notion of luck in the question of human happiness. She questions whether joy belongs to a lucky few among us, or if it is something sought by the courageous, those willing to journey two thousand miles to the man who walks upon the coast. Is the myth of joy, as opposed to its materialisation, what sustains one after all?

After picturing herself as an urban earth witch with the elements at her command in The Sky Lit Up, Harvey brings to the listener’s attention one of the most important figures in the album, that of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in The Wind.

Oh mother, can’t we give

A husband to our Catherine?

Here, Harvey brings forth another salient theme of the album: spinsterhood. Catherine of Alexandria is the patron saint of unmarried girls, the dying, lacemakers, and scholars, among other things. She was martyred in the fourth century CE by the Roman emperor Maxentius, the last emperor to reside in Rome. The symbols associated with Catherine include the breaking wheel, the sword, and the bridal veil. It is worth noting here that near PJ Harvey’s birthplace of Dorset, England, there stands in Abbotsbury a 14th century chapel dedicated to St. Catherine. Harvey is said to have visited the chapel while writing Is This Desire?. In The Wind Harvey sings in little more than a whisper of Catherine’s having liked “high places,” of her dreams of “children’s voices / And torture on the wheel.” In France of old, women who were still unmarried at age 25 and older were referred to as catherinettes. Could Harvey be reflecting on her own post-breakup fears at the prospect of never being able to find the one?

Perhaps it is not Harvey’s own personal history that is important here, but the theme of spinsterhood goes hand in hand with that other salient theme in Is This Desire? – loneliness. The theme of total isolation is fleshed out in the album’s next track, My Beautiful Leah, whose “needing” subject claims to “have no one” and is plagued by nightmares. Leah, with its Nine Inch Nails-esque industrial instrumentals is perhaps one of the grimmest tracks Harvey has ever recorded. The intensity of the instrumentals and dreariness of Harvey’s vocal delivery make the song’s expression of longing and dismal disorientation ever more palpable.

Oh, my Catherine

Within while, I’d have won you

On Catherine, one of the simplest and most moving songs on the album, Harvey adopts the voice of a lover of a certain Catherine, who is haunted by her memory and jealous of her even as she lies cold in the grave. She could be speaking as the aforementioned Roman emperor Maxentius, who asked for Catherine of Alexandria’s hand in marriage before condemning her to death on the wheel. However, she could also be speaking as Heathcliff, the male hero of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. The lyrical content of the song hints directly at the unfulfilled love that existed between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and at Heathcliff’s being haunted by Catherine’s memory long after her death (in a famous speech, he laments: You said I killed you – haunt me then! […] only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!) The reference to Wuthering Heights also makes sense given the gothic current that runs throughout the album, with images of violent natural phenomena and chapels atop hills. The track deals with the corrosive bitterness (I damn to hell every second you breathe), the attraction and repulsion towards another that infect the soul as a result of a dream deferred, a love left unrealised.

Harvey brings the theme of spinsterhood to the fore again in Joy which makes direct reference to the disabled atheist recluse in Flannery O’Connor’s short story Good Country People. In Harvey’s song, the listener is told of how Joy, who is thirty years old, has lived a life unwed, has “never danced a step.” “No hope for Joy,” sings or, rather, howls Harvey regarding the predicament of her protagonist. Joy is trapped, physically, because of her disability, and mentally because of her lack of faith. Anguish is the most palpable emotion here. Harvey’s dramatisation here is so good that one is left with the impression that she might have a thing or two in common with Joy.

How much more can you take from me?

I’d like to take you inside my head

Harvey expands further upon the themes of relationships and isolation all throughout Is This Desire?. She explores the theme of the used woman in A Perfect Day Elise (referencing Salinger’s A Perfect Day for Bananafish) and in Electric Light. The former is a song about a man who kills himself after the woman with whom he has had a one-night-stand spurns him, and in the latter she invokes the image of a prostitute illuminated under streetlights. In No Girl So Sweet she references another Salinger short story in which a man marries a woman for her property only to leave her in the end. She sings of leaving pain in the river in The River, referencing another short story, The River, by Flannery O’Connor. Harvey touches upon the Biblical in The Garden, which is a kind of same-sex Adam and Eve (or Adam and Steve) tale of one lover’s “thinking of his sins” and there being “trouble taking place” in what transpires between them.

Hour long by hour, may we two stand

When we’re dead, between these lands

The opus comes together definitively at its conclusion, with its title track. On Is This Desire?, Harvey begins by singing along to an unaccompanied drum beat, which then swells into a beautiful tuned down guitar chord progression of F major, F minor and A flat major. Harvey’s voice, low and lovely, relates a dialogue between two characters, Joseph and Dawn, who are lovers. The two wonder if the desire that connects them is enough to transcend earthly concerns and keep them together. The dialogue between Dawn and Joseph echoes William Butler Yeats’s Anashuya and Vijaya, and Harvey quotes the poem directly in the lines that precede this paragraph. This final literary reference is perhaps the album’s most potent, as it reinforces the centrality of the album’s ultimate questions regarding love, desire, and spiritual transcendence. In Anashuya and Vijaya, Yeats tells the story of Anashuya, a priestess, and Vijaya, the man she loves. The two cannot be together, yet Anashuya is obsessively jealous of Vijaya’s love. The question that Joseph and Dawn grapple with is not just “is this desire?” but “is this desire enough?” Is desire for a person, for happiness, for fulfilment, enough to merit and yield the fruit thereof? Or, is true love, true contentment, the product of a deeper process of endogenous reflection and exogenous action?

What makes Is This Desire? PJ Harvey’s most compelling album is her courage in exploring the mortal fears – of loneliness, of hopelessness, of breakdown – that lurk in the shadows of all our lives. The outer sleeve of the album’s LP bears a photographic diptych of Harvey herself, standing beside a river, hugging herself like a child whilst staring blankly into the lens of the camera. To my way of thinking, this image communicates the gist of the album – it is Harvey at her most vulnerable. She is an amalgam of all the characters she sings of; she is Joy, Catherine, Angeline, Leah, etc. Their hopes and struggles are her own.

Harvey’s music will continue to be a mainstay in the ever-developing soundtrack of my life, accompanying me during rides on the tram, walks through the city, and evenings spent alone in my student flat, with little else but the hum of the refrigerator for company. And one day, when I eventually do procure for myself a shiny new record player, perhaps I will be able finally to sit down on the floor, cross-legged beside the speakers, and discover in the groves of her LPs the secrets that the digital remasters of her albums have not yet betrayed. For now, I am content to ponder the questions of love and loss that she confronts me with by opening the Spotify app on my phone, popping my earphones into my ears, and going about my day.

By Rita Zeefal

Sexual Violence and Hamas: An Analysis

Sexual violence in all its forms is always a very sensitive topic for obvious reasons. Nevertheless, as critically minded people, we must not shy away from examining even the most gruesome details presented to us by various outlets, such as news media, social media, and our governments. All of this to say, this article does not seek to claim the absence of any sexual violence during the events of October 7^th, rather, in this first part, it seeks to examine how and why our media landscapes and governments nearly unanimously accept the notion of mass sexual violence (msv) perpetrated by Hamas on October 7^th. In a second part it will also provide some academic and historical perspective on the matter of wartime sexual violence, in Palestine and in general.

To start this analysis, let us look at the “how”: the various sources for the allegations of msv. I base my analysis on several news articles, as there are limited sources for the allegations, and they are repeated by the large number of reports written on the subject. The different sources can be grouped into multiple categories: Israeli state sources, ZAKA, and civilian witnesses.

If you don’t trust the government, who do you trust?

In 1988, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky published their now famous book, Manufacturing Consent. In it, they set forth what they call the “propaganda model”, describing among other things, how mass media is very much dependent on government sources for their reporting, consequently often adopting them uncritically. This phenomenon is very much on display in this situation, as all major news reports, be it The New York Times, The New Yorker, BBC, AP, etc., rely on some part of the Israeli state apparatus for their reporting. To uncritically relay claims about a conflict, provided by any party directly involved in said conflict is not serious journalistic practice and represents a clear conflict of interest, violating the journalistic code of ethics. Besides these concerns of principle, the Israeli state has a long record of releasing misinformation, from misrepresentations of reality to outright fabrications. In October 2023, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated the widely circulated claim of Hamas decapitating 40 babies in Kfar Aza. This claim has been thoroughly debunked since, and even the IDF refused to confirm it. On October 13^th, 2023, the IDF bombed a civilian aid convoy travelling on a designated safe route to deliver aid material. The Israeli military strongly denied this and instead accused Hamas of spreading “manipulative fake information”, however independent analysis confirmed the attack to be executed by airstrike, the capacity for which is exclusive to Israel. On May 11^th 2022, the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper, while being unarmed and clearly marked as press. Naftali Bennett, then prime minister, and the military blamed her death on Palestinians, however once again several independent investigations confirmed her to have been killed by an Israeli sniper, this was further confirmed by an independent UN investigation. These are only a few instances of state misinformation in the history of Israeli occupation, but they illustrate why statements by any facet of the Israeli state cannot be taken at face value and must be regarded with utmost scepticism.

Let us now consider how the major news stories about msv on the 7^th of October have treated Israeli state sources. A BBC report titled “Israel Gaza: Hamas raped and mutilated women on 7 October, BBC hears”, relies heavily on Israeli state sources, it interviews a minister, a police chief, a police spokesman, an IDF captain, an IDF soldier, and a member of Israel’s cybercrime unit. The article does not once acknowledge this, it does not question the bias of these interviewees, and most importantly it does at no point ask them to provide proof for their claims. It is of note that the minister interviewed by BBC, May Golan, called herself a “proud racist”, she has said that she wants “Jewish purity”, and that this means the expulsion of Palestinians and of African refugees, whom she calls psychopaths, infectious carriers of AIDS, and murderers. Yaakov Shabtai, the police chief interviewed in the article has called for Palestinian citizens of Israel who identify with Gazans to be put on buses and sent there. He has also stated that any Palestinian protesting Israeli atrocities within Gaza would face repercussions. Again, this is not mentioned, these people are presented as credible sources.

An AP article titled “New signs emerge of ‘widespread’ sexual crimes by Hamas, as Netanyahu alleges global indifference”, also takes the Israeli state by its word. It shares the words of the Israeli war cabinet, it again uncritically cites Yaakov Shabtai, and it interviews an IDF paramedic, an IDF reservist, and an IDF colonel. Once more, the article quotes all these naturally biased sources as if they did not have a vested interest in distorting the facts to their benefit.

A New York Times article titled “How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7” follows the same pattern. Without any pushback, it publishes the words of Israeli police in several different instances, those of an anonymous IDF paramedic, an IDF soldier, and of Israeli government officials. This is made even more shocking by the fact that it was written by a Pulitzer winning reporter.

Finally, a New Yorker article titled “How Hamas Used Sexual Violence on October 7^th”, again cites Israeli police, and relies heavily on the aforementioned BBC article. When reading any article about msv on October 7^th, it is inevitable to find some regurgitation of official Israeli statements, or uncritical reprintings of interviews with agents of the Israeli state. This constitutes a first problem with the reporting on the events on October 7^th, Israeli government statements are being accepted as fact, and Israeli officials are never required to provide concrete and verifiable proof for their statements. In conclusion, it must be acknowledged that the word of the Israeli state is worth nothing on its own, as it has a vested interest in the conflict.

Zaka

Yehuda Meshi Zahav, born in 1959, spent his youth as member of “Keshet”, an ultra-orthodox terrorist organisation which fought against “autopsies and archaeological digs in gravesites”. In the 1990s, he founded ZAKA, which describes itself as “Israel’s dominant non-governmental rescue and recovery organization (…) with sole responsibility in Israel for dealing with incidents of unnatural death”. Meshi-Zahav led this organisation until three years ago, when he attempted suicide after it was revealed he had raped and assaulted dozens of people, many of them children and teenagers, he consequently fell into a coma and died in 2022. It is this organisation which has been responsible for much of the civilian first response to the events of October 7^th, and many first-hand testimonies about msv come from members of ZAKA. As was the case with Israeli state (mis)information, ZAKA testimonies are also included in reporting by The New York Times, The New Yorker, CNN, BBC, The Guardian, etc.

How is this problematic then if all these are first-hand testimonies? Firstly, ZAKA personnel are not trained or qualified to make judgements on their findings (they do not have medical training), their function merely is to recover human remains and to bury them according to strict Jewish religious law. Mondoweiss reports that ZAKA members do not for example include the time and place of the recovery of corpses or body parts, and that they refuse to show journalists evidence for their claims, making them impossible to verify.

Secondly, the organisation has a vested financial and ideological interest in atrocities being discovered. The organisation largely relies on donations, and being able to report on rapes and beheaded babies makes donors more receptive, no matter how little evidence for any claim is offered. Benjamin Netanyahu told ZAKA teams: “We need to buy time, which we also buy by turning to world leaders and to public opinion. You have an important role in influencing public opinion…[ZAKA testimonies] give us the maneuvering room.” Indeed, the supposedly Non-Governmental Organisation ZAKA, collaborates with Israel’s Foreign Ministry and its Hasbara Headquarters, Hasbara being “a form of propaganda aimed at an international audience, primarily, but not exclusively, in western countries. It is meant to influence the conversation in a way that positively portrays Israeli political moves and policies, including actions undertaken by Israel in the past. Often, Hasbara efforts includes a negative portrayal of the Arabs and especially of Palestinians.”

Thirdly, ZAKA has an endless record of providing false statements, which is well resumed in this Mondoweiss article. Some notable examples include “bodies of twenty children with severed heads”, “piles of burned children”, and “pregnant woman’s stomach ripped open, and her fetus stabbed”. All of these claims have been debunked by Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Additionally, some select members of ZAKA were chosen to deliver a media campaign for international media and the UN, among them Simcha Greiniman who is an illegal settler, Yossi Landau, and Haim Otmezgin. All three have spread misinformation about the conflict, Greiniman for example, claimed to have found two burnt bodies of children aged 5-6, and 3-4 years old. Leaving aside the fact that he changed his testimony several times, there is no record of children of that age residing in the Kibbutz where they were claimed to have been found. Landau, the source of false claims such as dozens of beheaded babies, also provides numerous unverifiable numbers. According to him, 80% of bodies showed signs of torture, 70% of bodies were shot in the back, Greiniman also claims that 85% of women arriving at the morgue, did so naked. None of these claims are substantiated by anything other than their words. A senior ZAKA official called Haim Otmezgin testified in front of the Knesset on the 30^th of November 2023, which was widely publicised by Israeli media. Like his colleagues, he repeated false claims of beheaded babies, and claimed to possess photos proving the occurrence of sexual violence by Hamas on October 7^th but failed to produce any evidence of them.

Despite all these obvious malpractices, it is hard to find a news report on msv during October 7^th without some ZAKA testimony. Fictitious tales such as the ones of Greiniman, Landau, and Otmezgin are printed despite having been thoroughly debunked, and their baseless claims are repeated by world leaders. Because ZAKA refuses to provide proof for its claims, is not trained to collect proof, is a part of Israel’s propaganda apparatus, and has been caught lying many times, makes it an inadmissible journalistic resource.

First-hand witnesses

First-hand witnesses are often the most reliable and trustworthy source of information in situations where no record of a crime exists (no camera footage for example). In the case of Israel however, even those waters get muddied, as those witnesses get used and manipulated by different actors. To start it should be made clear that Israeli eyewitnesses have been caught fabricating stories before, even about sexual violence from Palestinians, so this is not a new phenomenon. If we leave aside the ZAKA witnesses, we are left with several witnesses who were present as bystanders during October 7^th. It is impossible to analyse every single witness statement in this article, so I will look at those reported in news articles, as those must be the most credible. In the New York Times article mentioned previously, several witnesses are interviewed: Sapir, Yura Karol, Raz Cohen, Shoam Gueta, and Waka. An analysis of their statements reveals critical gaps and other problems with their stories.

Sapir, a woman who chose to remain anonymous, claims to have seen gunmen rape and kill at least five women at the Nova music festival. She then goes on to very graphic description of the rapes and murders, during which she mentions seeing “terrorists” carrying at least three severed heads of women. The problem with this statement is that there are no reports of beheadings from the festival. Why would Sapir lie about this, and what tells us the rest of her story is not a lie too? Yura Karol, a friend of Sapir’s who was hiding with her, does not corroborate her claims of at least five women raped and killed, he also does not deliver a graphic description of their rape and murder.

Raz Cohen, the next witness, is described as someone who “had worked recently in the Democratic Republic of Congo training Congolese soldiers”. He describes seeing five men gangraping a woman, and then killing her. This is not the first time he has told that story, in fact at this point he has told it seven times already, to a variety of news outlets. Strangely however, his story changes notably in-between retellings. On October 9^th, he is interviewed by i24News, and tells his story in detail, but explicitly says he “chose not to look”, contradicting his further statements of having seen the rape. In another interview published on October 9^th, he makes no mention of sexual violence of any kind. In an interview with Radio Canada, he again makes no reference to rape or other kinds of sexual violence. He mentions women in an interview with an Israeli newspaper, but again he makes no explicit mention of rape, he certainly does not talk of gangrape and subsequent murder. On October 10^th, in a PBS Newshour interview, he says he saw “terrorists” rape many women, kill them, and then rape their corpses. On October 11^th, in an ABC interview, he says he saw “terrorists” rape and kill many women, but no mention of necrophilia here. On December 19^th, the Israeli foreign ministry posted an interview with him, in which he describes five people circling a woman, one rapes her, she stops moving and he continues to rape her. On December 28^th, the New York Times publishes their article, in which he makes no mention of necrophilia. On January 4^th, during a CNN interview, he describes five “civilians from Gaza” raping a woman, knifing her to death, and continuing to rape her.

His statements are very much inconsistent, why not mention the horrific rape from the beginning, was there necrophilia involved or not, who committed the rape, civilians or terrorists, the list goes on. A former member of the Maglan Unit, an IDF special ops force responsible for the Qana massacre in 1996, Cohen has called for Gaza to be turned into a parking lot, thus it is safe to say his testimony does not hold much weight. As if this was not enough, Shoam Gueta, a friend of Cohen’s who was hiding with him does not corroborate his claims of a gangrape, he does not even explicitly mention rape, he simply describes the men stabbing and killing a woman with knifes. As mentioned above, this article was written by a Pulitzer winner, and published in one of the most read newspapers in the world, yet it is full of journalistic malpractice and shoddy reporting.

There are many more instances of witness manipulation, data misrepresentation, etc., and outlets such as Mondoweiss or Electronic Intifada do a great job at exposing them. Having now analysed the “hows” of msv reporting: reliance on state sources, ZAKA testimonies, and questionable witness statements, among others, we must now look at the “whys”. To circle back to “Manufacturing Consent”, Herman and Chomsky show clearly how media plays a role in shaping public opinion in favour of state policy. There is much precedent for this, such as when American media covered the Iraq war, giving disproportionate attention to pro-war voices, despite an overwhelming majority of the public being against it. The coverage of the events of October 7^th falls in the same category, they give much weight to unproven extreme claims, which make it easier for Israel to justify its crimes against humanities. To see whether an article is to be taken seriously, one should consider the following: does it rely on Israeli state sources, does it uncritically report ZAKA testimonies, and how reliable are the witness statements it presents. Again, this is not to say it is impossible rape occurred on October 7^th, it is to say there is no forensic evidence, no rape victims speaking out, and no independent investigation into the events, thus we cannot draw conclusions on the topic, as is being done currently.

In the next part of my analysis, I will look at historical context and take a more theoretical approach to this subject, in order to gain a more holistic perspective on this complex topic.

By Lino Battin

A Seagull’s Day in Le Havre

When I wake up, the sun is still hidden behind the buildings of the city, but the sky slowly turns to a pinkish hue as it lights up. It’s cold, but I’m protected from the harsh gusts of wind of the grey sea. It’s a rainy day. It feels like every Monday is a rainy day. But it won’t last, it never does here, as the wind pushes the heavy grey clouds away inland, and brings in a fresh blue sky. That’s Le Havre for you. Everyday there’s sun, every day there’s rain, but it never lasts for long. I heard in the tropics, far South, wet and dry weather alternate every six months. Here in Le Havre, rain and sun alternate every day, so the city is always wet. I like wet. I’m born to live out at sea, to have droplets of water caress my white and grey feathers, to have the marine air fill my beak. My ancestors fed on fish, but myself, I prefer feasting on a half-eaten kebab I find in a rubbish bin, or better, a full Burger King meal stolen from a group of young humans. I like staying around young adult humans, they always leave stuff behind: raw chicken breasts, kinder bueno wrappers, empty coffee cups, lots and lots of them. It’s funny how they scurry around that large blocky grey building. They arrive there every morning, and stay until the sun has set. I always follow them; they seem like funny little characters.

When I arrive at the building, around 8 o’clock, some of the humans are already there. I say humans, but they’re not all fully grown. I know some are still finding out who they really are, just like I am. I can relate to them. My seagull friends are there too. Right in time for breakfast! A few coffee cups lay at the bottom of the rubbish bin, I pick them out with my shiny yellow beak. I always need a coffee to start the day, otherwise I can’t concentrate. I want to learn more about the humans, about why a flock of so many different ones stick together in this sad coastal city. They’re like a weird family, sometimes friendly, sometimes fighting, but always together.

After breakfast, I peek around the windows on the right of the building. There, an older human is telling the others about stuff. I cannot comprehend everything; it seems jumbled up. One class is about the Silk Roads, a large route of trade and cultural exchanges, spanning half of the globe. I wish I could visit all these places that the wiser human is talking about. It seems beautiful out there in the world. Other times, it’s a different older human talking about a different thing. They talk about how groups of human’s rule over other groups of humans, and the rules around this governing. They explain why and how groups of humans interact between themselves. It’s a peculiar sight to see all these young humans learning about things from their own world. But alas, I, humble seagull, am unable to fully comprehend the complexities of human society. Who could, really?

When lunchtime arrives, I stand in front of the building and wait for a human or two to come back holding food in their hands. They rarely feed us. They don’t really like us, actually. Some say we’re scary, that we may hide secrets or govern the world. Hilarious, really, when you observe what humans do to our homes. Some don’t like us because we feed on rubbish. But we simply finish what they have left off. Some just don’t care about us. Why should they, they’ve already got so much on their minds. In any case, there’s always a sandwich or two left in the rubbish. We fight over it with my fellow seagulls, it’s food enough, but the best parts are highly convoluted. The humans watch us fight sometimes. They point at us, they laugh. But when lunch is over, they all return back in for a next round of classes. Sometimes, some leave early, their day probably finished, but most stay late at night in a strange two-levelled room. Often, the central hall is decorated, and the humans stay there, talking, and sometimes, not a sound is made in the whole building.

In the afternoon, I fly up to the green rooftop to observe the humans working in small groups. They look different up there, more attainable. Most of the time, when I peek in the rooms, there are only a handful of humans, typing on computers, shouting at each other, or repeating what another older human is telling them, in sounds that I do not comprehend. I watch as my seagull friends fight or have sex on the rooftop, and how the humans look at them, fascinated, disgusted, or laughing. How peculiar is it that I could be observing the humans observing my own species. Maybe they are like me, perplexed at the way of life of other species, wondering to what extent we resemble each other, or not. Some days I fly to the other side of the building. There, they also work in small groups often with an older human looking over them. It seems like they talk about the same topics as in the big hall, only more confused, and noisy. How strange they are, with their computers, and phones, watching a screen display. Doesn’t the life of a seagull seem more attractive? Just chilling and feeding all day, hanging out with friends. It sure seems more appealing to me than being locked up in a room in a sad grey building all day to learn seemingly useless mountains of information I have trouble seeing the usefulness of. But they are humans. Humans are weird.

Over the seasons, I’ve noticed a pattern. Every 2 cycles of seasons, half of the group of humans leave and a new flock arrives. I don’t know where they go or where they come from. From what I could gather, they all go their own way, to places far away. Some never come back, and some do, but I never see them again. One day, maybe I’ll understand, but for now, I’ll continue to wonder why a small group of humans choose to stay together for two season cycles only to split at the end. It’ll remain a mystery.

As night starts to fall, I peek through the blinds of the book-room where only a few humans remain. All concentrated on their computers, some with empty coffee cups lying next to them, face between their hands, hand on their foreheads. They seem tired. They seem overwhelmed. I’d love to help them, but how could I? I’m just a simple seagull. What do I know of human society? I do wonder if the humans themselves know, or if they are as perplexed as I am. But for now, I simply wait for the few humans dressed in black to push the young humans out at nine o’clock. I’m just a seagull, sure, but I’ve witnessed those humans work all day, climb up to the fourth floor worried or annoyed, to speak with older humans. I’ve seen them sing, dance, and act together. I’ve seen them cry and laugh, shout and whisper. I’ve gotten to know them, and one day they’ll leave, and I’ll never see them again. Never. I hope one day it’ll be my turn to see the world, to follow the humans to the ends of the Earth. Maybe that day, I’ll finally understand what human society is all about.

Romain YBORRA, 3a is nostalgic and shares here his fond memories of LH and the campus by putting himself in the shoes of the seagull.

Passing Finals 101: Sciences Po Edition

It’s that time of the year again! We know we’re all excited for Christmas trees, decorative ornaments, elaborate lighting—all in preparation for our favorite season, finals! Sciences Po students in Le Havre all excitedly walk to school, clutching their laptops and previous midterm papers in hopes of getting the best holiday gift yet: a beautiful double-digit 10/20 score on their final papers. As the weather improves this holly jolly season, we at LDD have prepared an acronym – GO RATS – to help all students memorize these essential studying tips.

G: Get Help. Academics are hard. If you’re struggling, remember that you have many resources available to help you succeed. Your local friendly drunkards at the Gare du Havre provide an interesting example of sociological phenomena taking place in the real world that you can add to your dissertation.
O: Open Your Mind. It is important to think about your future after your exams, in case you flunk out of school. There are a myriad of possibilities. You can be an Uber Driver, a garbage collector, or even an SNCF employee who argues with you, gaslights you, and delays all the trains. The opportunities are endless!
R: Reward Yourself. Studying will feel less like a chore if you set up a healthy reward system. For each one of Gretchen’s slides you read, take a shot of vodka. It will enhance your concentration and passive recall. Even better idea: the morning of your foreign language final, make sure to be a little tipsy – it will definitely improve your speaking performance.
A: Acceptance. Accept your strengths. Accept your weaknesses. Accept defeat.
T: Take Breaks. Studying can be stressful! Taking breaks is essential for your sanity and mental health. For every hour of studying, reward yourself with one episode of the critically acclaimed Emily in Paris, so that even when you’re not studying you’re still enriching yourself with true French culture. Or, if you’re feeling a bit adventurous, book a flight to the United States of America during Revision Week – it’s short, inexpensive, and provides a good ambiance for studying.
S: Sleep. Everyone knows that sleep affects your performance. After all, you can’t beat the adrenaline rush of pulling an all-nighter. Make sure to minimize the amount of sleep you get, so that when you walk into the exam hall, the stress from the night before will carry you to victory!

We hope that you will take “GO RATS!” into account when studying. And as a bonus holiday gift for you, here’s a bonus tip: don’t procrastinate. Or else, Hauchecorne will send out another email. Enjoy the winter season!

Monthly satirical article by Asher Seet and Noelani Aung

Wherever Home May Be

Back home every fall, birds migrate and come home in the spring. They leave because they can’t stand the harsh circumstances of winter and would much rather have better conditions somewhere else. They come back home when they can when the weather is better and life continues. It’s a natural and understandable part of nature, because who really would want to stay in a place that’s not hospitable?

Not to say that humans are birds and that birds are humans but why is it that when a person wants to leave an inhospitable place, other people aren’t as understanding? We stand in different lands but the skin and bones and blood and lineage connect us all. Yet when it comes down to it, the differences are “we”, the ones that are far away from “them”, often choose not to help, talk or even worse, look down upon. Migrating to a new country as a part of the “we” is cool and fun and worthy of a new opportunity but when “they” come, our politicians and public opinion regard it as an annoyance or stealing our social services and taxes. Yes, many people choose to migrate and freely do so but some people don’t have it as a choice. At what point do “they” become “we”. At what point does migration for humans have the same natural view as the migration for birds? Realistically, at what point do the impacts and urbanization of “we” stop using “them” to be better? Realistically at what point do we put a stop to what’s happening to “them” so that one day they can go home and have a better opportunity? Why is not wanting to stay in a harsh environment not understood by humans but it’s understood by birds? The biggest difference is that birds don’t seek refuge when they migrate, but instead get to go back home when their environment is better. Imagine if birds stayed south and never came back north, one land would be full while the other is sparse. Well, “their” environment doesn’t truly ever get better, that’s when “they” become we and we all sit together, one land with all of us and one land with no one left. Look I’m not saying that all migrants should go back to where they came from but I among many as children of migrants and refugees would love to go back to our parents’ home, our ancestral home. Unlike birds, migration doesn’t mean having the ability to go back home once a harsh environment is gone. Sometimes it never goes away. Let’s be honest here, migration is a word that has multiple definitions depending on the circumstance but why is it that depending on where or what you are, we unfairly judge the reasons behind it? This many questions make me want to go home, wherever home may be.

By, Humshinee Kalaiselvan