Sarah Parkinson
@separkinson.bsky.social
5.1K followers 1.9K following 820 posts
Political scientist at Johns Hopkins. MENA/SWANA, disasters, political violence, ethics, humanitarian crises, & qual methods. Wrote a book about Palestinian org evolution & social change in wartime Lebanon: http://bit.ly/3VEw64B. EMT. Opinions my own.
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separkinson.bsky.social
"In an era of media fatigue, Andor provides a useful vehicle to think seriously about what it means and takes to challenge power and offers realistic scenarios to consider the moral imperatives involved."

If you think Andor is irrelevant to current politics, you aren't paying attention to either.
separkinson.bsky.social
...& that number is actually an improvement.

(All credit to the student in my class who threw up those maps during a presentation in my Politics of Disaster course this week, to gasps from fellow students. I honestly hadn't realized those were the numbers, either.)
separkinson.bsky.social
I feel like this gets to Bakri's point a/b resilience v. resignation, though. We can talk about average effects & people's ability to adapt. But then you start looking at the metrics & realize, e.g., that 23% of the population, or about 1.16 million people, are experiencing acute food insecurity.
www.ipcinfo.org
separkinson.bsky.social
Visiting in 2023, I was shocked that expensive restaurants in Beirut & the Shouf were still full. The friend who took me to one figured the wealth was all remittances & currency speculation. To him, the rich will coast until the bottom finally drops out for them too, when those left will also leave.
erinsnider.bsky.social
“Two countries are living on top of each other, one buffered by generators, drivers and imported everything, the other left to negotiate survival in the margins. What’s most unsettling isn’t how shocking it feels, but how routine it is. Just like we speed through intersections without looking.”
Opinion | The Chaos of Driving in Lebanon Tells a Story of a Country Unraveled
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by Sarah Parkinson
yairwallach.bsky.social
Jerusalem tonight.
"We must resist against genocide"
Demonstrators against the Gaza Genocide in Jerusalem tonight. Still from a video posted by @RSolidarityNet on X
separkinson.bsky.social
“…national average participation in the general strike stood at around 60%, halting all the main services in key sectors including transportation and schools.”

When they say national, they mean national. Took this photo hiking through the tiny hillside hamlet of Botteghino di Zocca today.
Photo of community billboard in Botteghino di Zocca, Italy. Poster advertises a unite Gaza rally for 27 September in the Pianoro town plaza. Poster image is of a Palestinian flag with the outline of two hands shaking in the middle.
Reposted by Sarah Parkinson
arcconsortium.bsky.social
Not ethnography:
1.) Two-week long field visit
2.) In-depth interviews
3.) Intermittently scanning social media
4.) Being professionally employed before grad school and later writing it up as "research" for a dissertation
cliu.bsky.social
I'm not an anthropologist but can we stop calling a two-week field visit ethnography
Reposted by Sarah Parkinson
fhollenbach.org
Are you interested in research on corruption/illicit finance/kleptocracy? We are hiring a Research Fellow at @acdatacollective.bsky.social: acdatacollective.org/wp-content/u...
Please share in your networks, this could be a great gig.
acdatacollective.org
separkinson.bsky.social
Tony Blair Columbuses colonialism
stelhami.bsky.social
A century removed from Western colonial powers casually drawing Middle Eastern borders with a ruler while disregarding the will of local populations, the region gets Tony Blair to dream up schemes of governing Gaza with little say by its people.
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
Draft of Tony Blair's Gaza plan: Remote governance, little Palestinian representation
Haaretz Reveals the Full Document Proposed by the Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for a Postwar Gaza Strip: A Regime Run by Affluent Foreigners With Palestinian Executives at the Bottom
www.haaretz.com
separkinson.bsky.social
If UEFA doesn’t ban Israel, there are already protests planned for the day of the Italy-Israel World Cup qualifier in Udine (northeastern Italy). These would follow large Gaza solidarity protests this past Monday, which shut down public transport & major thoroughfares in several Italian cities.
Black and white flyer printed on A4 paper taped to a wall in a piazza in Bologna. Flyer reads (in English) “Show Israel the red card.” Below the writing, there is a drawing of protestors carrying a Palestinian flag and a soccer ball while chanting. Bottom of the flyer gives protest location for October 14 in Udine.
separkinson.bsky.social
UEFA is likely voting on whether to suspend Israel next week; if suspended, it would mean Israel cannot play its World Cup qualifying matches. If the team is not banned, they have a qualifier against Italy Oct. 14.

Spain is threatening to boycott the World Cup if Israel does qualify & participate.
yairwallach.bsky.social
A Israeli academic asked his followers on X which sanction would really convince ordinary Israelis that they are isolated internationally.
"Expulsion from football tournaments" was the most popular answer, followed by "ending visa-free travel to Europe"
separkinson.bsky.social
Posted & deleted yesterday a/b yet another Israeli-backed Palestinian collaborator militia in Gaza (want to contextualize better). Violence takes innumerable forms.

Palestine is occupied & actively being colonized by Israeli settlers. Israel controls the borders. It’s recognition w/o sovereignty.
danaelkurd.bsky.social
People in palestine are bracing for greater crackdown as Israel punishes them for statehood recognition by UK, Canada, & Australia.

As I, and many others, have pointed out - these proclamations of recognition do nothing to stop the violence.
separkinson.bsky.social
“Our industry faces the most sophisticated, venomous, creeping evil in America’s history. There’s no standing above this conflict. No impartial observers. If you’re on the sidelines you’ve made a choice and must live with it.”—crossover to reality from Gilroy, who won an Emmy for Andor (Disney+)
separkinson.bsky.social
Not an accident. Looking forward to watching Andor on DVD.
separkinson.bsky.social
"Of all the things at risk the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever screams at us the loudest"
a close up of a woman 's face with the word andor on the bottom right
Alt: Close of of Mon Mothma's face as she prepares to speak to the Imperial Senate, with the Disney+ logo on the bottom left and the Andor logo on the bottom right.
media.tenor.com
separkinson.bsky.social
No clue on Turley, but Dershowitz is an invited speaker at the HKS Middle East Institute tomorrow 🤡
separkinson.bsky.social
Well, they had it wrong, because they copy pasted from an email that's two years old.
separkinson.bsky.social
Response was wildly patronizing. Basically, they feel fine w/ their choices.

Great time to underscore that I've had very productive relationships with local, indie, investigative, & international journos. I have only had bad experiences w/ specific legacy media. Really shapes where my $ goes.
separkinson.bsky.social
They've updated my title in response to a very pointed email; I'm waiting to see what happens next.
separkinson.bsky.social
This is the 2nd time is as many months I've felt violated by an interaction w/ a journo. In the 1st, the jouno sanitized my commentary on Gaza into meaningless word salad.

These interactions starkly contrast the grand majority of media interactions I've had. But man, they feel a way. 4/4