Francis Wade
@franciswade.bsky.social
Political violence, nation-states & climate • @LRB, @guardian, @nybooks, etc • Commissioning Editor @Noema • francis.h.wade@gmail.com
Essays & articles: http://linktr.ee/franciswade
Essays & articles: http://linktr.ee/franciswade
Pinned
Francis Wade
@franciswade.bsky.social
· Feb 11
I'm now commissioning longform essays and reported stories for @noemamag.com. If you have have ideas for pieces on climate & the natural world, nations, democracy, AI & tech, or anything else the magazine covers, drop me a DM/email: francis@noemamag.com.
**Call for pitches** 👇
November 4, 2025 at 9:20 AM
**Call for pitches** 👇
Reposted by Francis Wade
Israel destroyed a Palestinian seed bank today. This is such a specific kind of evil, targeting literal hope for the future. Attempting to further alienate Palestinians from their home and land. So much destroyed just for the sake of destroying. It's awful.
August 1, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Israel destroyed a Palestinian seed bank today. This is such a specific kind of evil, targeting literal hope for the future. Attempting to further alienate Palestinians from their home and land. So much destroyed just for the sake of destroying. It's awful.
Reposted by Francis Wade
To understand the appeal of the far-right today we need to examine the origins of the fascist myth of primordial male kinship.
New essay, out today @eurozine.bsky.social
www.eurozine.com/seeds-of-ano...
New essay, out today @eurozine.bsky.social
www.eurozine.com/seeds-of-ano...
Seeds of another world
The nexus of radical inequality, social atomization and male victimhood has been exploited before. But why now, on such a scale? To understand the appeal of the far-right today we need to examine the...
www.eurozine.com
July 7, 2025 at 3:38 PM
To understand the appeal of the far-right today we need to examine the origins of the fascist myth of primordial male kinship.
New essay, out today @eurozine.bsky.social
www.eurozine.com/seeds-of-ano...
New essay, out today @eurozine.bsky.social
www.eurozine.com/seeds-of-ano...
Zohran Mamdani comes from good intellectual stock. My interview with his father, the political theorist Mahmood Mamdani, in @thenation.com
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
The Idea of the Nation-State Is Synonymous With Genocide
A conversation with political theorist Mahmood Mamdani on the inherent violence at the heart of a nation-building project, the war in Gaza, and the changing meaning of homeland.
www.thenation.com
June 25, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Zohran Mamdani comes from good intellectual stock. My interview with his father, the political theorist Mahmood Mamdani, in @thenation.com
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
Reposted by Francis Wade
“Many of the forces fighting the junta” in Myanmar, writes Francis Wade, “want nothing less than to fundamentally transform the country’s political structure to favor local dominion and autonomy.”
The War to Remake Myanmar | Francis Wade
Over the eighty years since Myanmar’s independence from Britain, war between the state and armed rebel groups has been so constant as to seem like the
buff.ly
June 16, 2025 at 8:07 AM
“Many of the forces fighting the junta” in Myanmar, writes Francis Wade, “want nothing less than to fundamentally transform the country’s political structure to favor local dominion and autonomy.”
I have an essay in @nybooks.com on the revolution in Myanmar and the efforts by resistance groups to fundamentally transform the structure of the state.
www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...
www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...
The War to Remake Myanmar | Francis Wade
Over the eighty years since Myanmar’s independence from Britain, war between the state and armed rebel groups has been so constant as to seem like the
www.nybooks.com
June 12, 2025 at 7:25 AM
I have an essay in @nybooks.com on the revolution in Myanmar and the efforts by resistance groups to fundamentally transform the structure of the state.
www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...
www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...
"To control a people's culture," Ngũgĩ wrote, "is to control their tools of self-definition in relationship to others."
Rest in power.
lnkd.in/ePr-JtKk @nybooks.com
www.nybooks.com/online/2018/...
Rest in power.
lnkd.in/ePr-JtKk @nybooks.com
www.nybooks.com/online/2018/...
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and the Tyranny of Language | Francis Wade
Thirty years after graduating from his missionary-run high school near Nairobi, the Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o had gained enough distance to reflect on the lasting effect of colonial education po...
www.nybooks.com
May 31, 2025 at 1:42 PM
"To control a people's culture," Ngũgĩ wrote, "is to control their tools of self-definition in relationship to others."
Rest in power.
lnkd.in/ePr-JtKk @nybooks.com
www.nybooks.com/online/2018/...
Rest in power.
lnkd.in/ePr-JtKk @nybooks.com
www.nybooks.com/online/2018/...
Reposted by Francis Wade
‘Immediately after the earthquake, the US Geological Survey forecast between 10,000 and 100,000 deaths. It’s a wide window – but no one knows how many more lives will be taken by the military.’
Francis Wade on the aftermath of the Myanmar earthquake, from the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ap...
Francis Wade on the aftermath of the Myanmar earthquake, from the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ap...
Francis Wade | Myanmar after the Earthquake
The 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck central Myanmar on 28 March, followed minutes later by one almost as big, was...
www.lrb.co.uk
April 3, 2025 at 11:50 AM
‘Immediately after the earthquake, the US Geological Survey forecast between 10,000 and 100,000 deaths. It’s a wide window – but no one knows how many more lives will be taken by the military.’
Francis Wade on the aftermath of the Myanmar earthquake, from the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ap...
Francis Wade on the aftermath of the Myanmar earthquake, from the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ap...
On the Myanmar earthquake, the bombing raids that followed, and the aid dilemma. The message from the junta seems clear: Even those who made it through the quake should not be confident of their survival. @lrb.co.uk
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ap...
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ap...
Francis Wade | Myanmar after the Earthquake
The 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck central Myanmar on 28 March, followed minutes later by one almost as big, was...
www.lrb.co.uk
April 3, 2025 at 8:11 AM
On the Myanmar earthquake, the bombing raids that followed, and the aid dilemma. The message from the junta seems clear: Even those who made it through the quake should not be confident of their survival. @lrb.co.uk
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ap...
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ap...
Reposted by Francis Wade
“The typical suburban lawn is zealously mown, raked & bombarded with chemicals.”
What if we gave up the cult of green grass & instead embraced a bounty of biodiversity in our yards? Oliver Milman explores how a cultural reset would benefit us all.
#grass #lawn #biodiversity #garden #pollinators
What if we gave up the cult of green grass & instead embraced a bounty of biodiversity in our yards? Oliver Milman explores how a cultural reset would benefit us all.
#grass #lawn #biodiversity #garden #pollinators
The Cult Of The American Lawn | NOEMA
Manicured grass yards are ecological dead zones. So why are they being forced on people by their neighbors and homeowner associations?
www.noemamag.com
March 20, 2025 at 5:59 PM
“The typical suburban lawn is zealously mown, raked & bombarded with chemicals.”
What if we gave up the cult of green grass & instead embraced a bounty of biodiversity in our yards? Oliver Milman explores how a cultural reset would benefit us all.
#grass #lawn #biodiversity #garden #pollinators
What if we gave up the cult of green grass & instead embraced a bounty of biodiversity in our yards? Oliver Milman explores how a cultural reset would benefit us all.
#grass #lawn #biodiversity #garden #pollinators
Reposted by Francis Wade
If anyone can show me how you grow the economy by targeting people who need assistance to wash below their waist, please reply.
March 19, 2025 at 8:08 AM
If anyone can show me how you grow the economy by targeting people who need assistance to wash below their waist, please reply.
A while ago I spoke w/ Gayatri Spivak for @thenation.com on the teaching methods she uses to produce, in young children, 'rituals of democratic habits', skepticism of leadership, and the understanding that the state is theirs to claim www.thenation.com/article/cult...
Gayatri Spivak: ‘The Subaltern Speaks Through Dying’
A conversation on the educational empowerment of rural poor in India, and the evolution of Spivak's thinking about state and citizen.
www.thenation.com
March 18, 2025 at 5:28 PM
A while ago I spoke w/ Gayatri Spivak for @thenation.com on the teaching methods she uses to produce, in young children, 'rituals of democratic habits', skepticism of leadership, and the understanding that the state is theirs to claim www.thenation.com/article/cult...
This is well worth spending time with. The Left has no equivalent to Bannon, and no real answer to the ideology he's helped shape, which draws from multiple (seemingly opposing) strands and yet is coherent and hugely compelling vanityfair.com/news/story/steve-bannon-nato-world-order
Steve Bannon Is Out of Jail, and He Has a Plan for Trump’s Next Term
Bannon, a self-declared general of global populists, wants to break the world order. And he’s tapped into something even bigger than Donald Trump himself.
vanityfair.com
March 12, 2025 at 2:11 PM
This is well worth spending time with. The Left has no equivalent to Bannon, and no real answer to the ideology he's helped shape, which draws from multiple (seemingly opposing) strands and yet is coherent and hugely compelling vanityfair.com/news/story/steve-bannon-nato-world-order
Mbembe and Gilmore on Trump's lethal "strategy to condemn, isolate and punish South Africa for charting an independent course for its people," and the hundreds of thousands who'll die as a result www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Trump’s attacks on South Africa are a punishment for independence | Achille Mbembe and Ruth Wilson Gilmore
The US president’s cuts to health funding could lead to half a million deaths. They’re part of a strategy to condemn and isolate the country
www.theguardian.com
March 11, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Mbembe and Gilmore on Trump's lethal "strategy to condemn, isolate and punish South Africa for charting an independent course for its people," and the hundreds of thousands who'll die as a result www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
I'm now commissioning longform essays and reported stories for @noemamag.com. If you have have ideas for pieces on climate & the natural world, nations, democracy, AI & tech, or anything else the magazine covers, drop me a DM/email: francis@noemamag.com.
February 11, 2025 at 3:42 PM
I'm now commissioning longform essays and reported stories for @noemamag.com. If you have have ideas for pieces on climate & the natural world, nations, democracy, AI & tech, or anything else the magazine covers, drop me a DM/email: francis@noemamag.com.
Reposted by Francis Wade
“On the practicalities of ethnic cleansing”
February 6, 2025 at 1:13 PM
“On the practicalities of ethnic cleansing”
"What is left when the things you have words for begin to disappear?"
@jwebsterayuso.bsky.social for @noemamag.com on ecological collapse and the corresponding loss of language www.noemamag.com/the-language...
@jwebsterayuso.bsky.social for @noemamag.com on ecological collapse and the corresponding loss of language www.noemamag.com/the-language...
The Languages Lost To Climate Change | NOEMA
Climate catastrophes and biodiversity loss are endangering languages across the globe.
www.noemamag.com
January 29, 2025 at 10:43 AM
"What is left when the things you have words for begin to disappear?"
@jwebsterayuso.bsky.social for @noemamag.com on ecological collapse and the corresponding loss of language www.noemamag.com/the-language...
@jwebsterayuso.bsky.social for @noemamag.com on ecological collapse and the corresponding loss of language www.noemamag.com/the-language...
Fun origin story on Hackney Marshes as the "utopia of [London] grassroots football", which owes its existence to the millions of tonnes of rubble leftover after the Blitz www.sapiens.org/archaeology/...
Tackling the Wreckage of War
An archaeologist traces how rubble from World War II bombings helped turn London marshlands into a footballing utopia.
www.sapiens.org
January 22, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Fun origin story on Hackney Marshes as the "utopia of [London] grassroots football", which owes its existence to the millions of tonnes of rubble leftover after the Blitz www.sapiens.org/archaeology/...
Reposted by Francis Wade
In my latest feature for Dhaka Tribune, I write about the harrowing experiences of Abul Kalam, a young Rohingya man forcibly recruited into the Myanmar army. His tale highlights his community's experience of exploitation & human rights violations in Arakan
www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/r...
www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/r...
A Rohingya youth’s ordeal in the Myanmar military
Abul Kalam, a young Rohingya man, has revealed the harrowing details of his forced recruitment into the Myanmar military. His testimony offers a rare glimpse into the brutal tactics employed by the ju...
www.dhakatribune.com
January 21, 2025 at 8:40 AM
In my latest feature for Dhaka Tribune, I write about the harrowing experiences of Abul Kalam, a young Rohingya man forcibly recruited into the Myanmar army. His tale highlights his community's experience of exploitation & human rights violations in Arakan
www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/r...
www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/r...
Underreported issue for post-coup Myanmar is the sharp rise in disease, w/ TB, malaria and HIV rates all surging at a time when 3.5m ppl are displaced & junta blocking aid. "Myanmar alone could be responsible for reversing progress on malaria globally." www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature...
In Myanmar, healthcare and disease prevention are neglected casualties of war
Junta restrictions on the delivery of basic medical supplies are leading outbreaks of infectious diseases like tuberculosis, and even HIV, to soar.
www.thenewhumanitarian.org
January 20, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Underreported issue for post-coup Myanmar is the sharp rise in disease, w/ TB, malaria and HIV rates all surging at a time when 3.5m ppl are displaced & junta blocking aid. "Myanmar alone could be responsible for reversing progress on malaria globally." www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature...
Investigation by @forensicarchi.bsky.social into destruction of Gaza's farming sector: land turned to dust, greenhouses destroyed/repurposed as IDF bases. The besieged population relies on what it can produce, not import, and productive land is disappearing forensic-architecture.org/investigatio...
Forensic Architecture
forensic-architecture.org
January 13, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Investigation by @forensicarchi.bsky.social into destruction of Gaza's farming sector: land turned to dust, greenhouses destroyed/repurposed as IDF bases. The besieged population relies on what it can produce, not import, and productive land is disappearing forensic-architecture.org/investigatio...
"How do we think about the deep traumas inflicted on populations where violence and fear serve as the currency of the ruling political class and its security apparatus?"
@joelleabirached.bsky.social on Syria's coming reckoning, for @bostonreview.bsky.social www.bostonreview.net/articles/syr...
@joelleabirached.bsky.social on Syria's coming reckoning, for @bostonreview.bsky.social www.bostonreview.net/articles/syr...
Syria’s “Human Debris” - Boston Review
The new government’s greatest challenge may be rebuilding a just society in the aftermath of barbaric state violence.
www.bostonreview.net
January 10, 2025 at 2:51 PM
"How do we think about the deep traumas inflicted on populations where violence and fear serve as the currency of the ruling political class and its security apparatus?"
@joelleabirached.bsky.social on Syria's coming reckoning, for @bostonreview.bsky.social www.bostonreview.net/articles/syr...
@joelleabirached.bsky.social on Syria's coming reckoning, for @bostonreview.bsky.social www.bostonreview.net/articles/syr...
Christmas deep read
December 19, 2024 at 12:10 PM
Christmas deep read
Reposted by Francis Wade
✨New online:
@franciswade.bsky.social speaks to pro-democracy activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi about Myanmar's future
@franciswade.bsky.social speaks to pro-democracy activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi about Myanmar's future
Thinzar Shunlei Yi on Myanmar's future
The Burmese pro-democracy activist on what it will take to end the world's longest civil war
newhumanist.org.uk
December 10, 2024 at 10:17 AM
✨New online:
@franciswade.bsky.social speaks to pro-democracy activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi about Myanmar's future
@franciswade.bsky.social speaks to pro-democracy activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi about Myanmar's future