As President Trump persists in defending his ‘Muslim’ travel ban, and Brexit negotiations plug on – driven as they have been by concerns over immigration – Sarah had a chat with a Syrian friend* who recently applied for, and has been granted asylum in the UK. The friend was still living in her home city of Damascus when civil war broke out in Syria in March 2011. Witness to the war’s escalation, she decided to travel to the UK to study humanitarian issues, hoping to be able to return home when the conflict was over armed with knowledge and skills that would be useful in the post-war rebuild. However, driven by the ruling Assad regime, combat continues to decimate the country, and has triggered one of the largest humanitarian refugee crises the world has seen. Our interviewee is still waiting for her opportunity.
Category Archives: PERSONAL
Sarah Illingworth: Preserving the dignity of anger
For me, anger has always been something to avoid — to avoid feeling and acting out of myself, and to avoid triggering in others. But there is a place for anger, and sometimes for rage. I’ll spare you a rehash of the justifications for rage Donald Trump has provided over the course of his campaign and young presidency, and other recent examples of populism that have been bubbling up around the world, but it’s safe to say that dismay is an emotion widely felt right now.
IMPOLITIKAL 