Agreed, these decisions are often opaque. My impression of these engagements over the past two decades: sector trends, “fashions” and ambitions in Bern blend with priorities and desires in Dushanbe. It’s not very coherent for a reason.

Congrats! Looking forward to reading this 💫

“On the advice of a friendly tattoo studio owner in Baghdad Pete finally decided to go for a short but beautiful Arab calligraphy from the studio’s booklet.”

Oh gosh these absolute morons. My commiserations

It's testimony to a materially, politically and socially highly complex country in which an existential war is top of the agenda but in which people's lives are defined by many more fine-grained aspects of mundane existence and far-reaching histories. Have a read!

Friends and colleagues here have spent months sleeping in hallways and shelters because of incoming Shahed drones. They hover around and eventually get shot down over urban areas. It's often air defenders using machine guns on residential building rooftops. In Kyiv, a privileged place in comparison.