Tag Archives: Merkel

Advancing horizontal solidarity or long-term profit? The messy politics behind the German business sector response to refugee integration

Posted on October 29, 2021 by trmdrag

We have seen over the past decades how sectors that are not traditionally involved in development or humanitarian action have become key actors. These include for example celebrities of various kinds – think Band Aid and Live Aid – a … Continue reading →

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Reflections at the start of Refugee Week: The end of Europe as a community of values – not caused by Brexit but the journey of the Aquarius?

Posted on June 16, 2018 by trmdrag

Remember 2015? Then, a perceived unprecedented number of refugees and migrants entered Europe, more than one million people according to available data, while almost 4000 drowned on their journeys. We saw long queues of people stranded at the borders of … Continue reading →

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Personal reflections on Brexit II on the day President Obama gave his farewell in Berlin

Posted on November 17, 2016 by trmdrag

About a week after the second major political shock of the year 2016, first the Brexit vote in June that triggered my first personal reflection on the theme, followed by the election of Donald Trump as next US President, President … Continue reading →

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‘The Infiltrator’ versus ‘The Refugee’: exploring new forms of solidarity and their limitations

Posted on September 5, 2016 by trmdrag

This blog is part of a presentation I will give at the Development Studies Association Conference, Tuesday, 13 September 2016, 14:00 to 15:30, Magdalen College, University of Oxford. The presentation will expand on the themes below and relate them to … Continue reading →

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Against the ‘Sexmob’ and ‘Rape Culture’: In Defence of the Enlightenment

Posted on January 13, 2016 by trmdrag

Let’s be clear, what is commonly referred to as the Cologne sex attacks was something that should not have happened – at New Year’s Eve, outside Cologne railway station, groups of young men assaulted women and girls of all ages … Continue reading →

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Wind turbines and a wink at human rights: Angela Merkel welcomes al-Sisi

Posted on June 3, 2015 by trmdrag

Quite unprecedented scenes took place at a German press conference on Wednesday 3 June when Angela Merkel and her foreign visitor, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, appeared in front of the media. Already a first glance at the various media … Continue reading →

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Let’s raise our glass to political photography!

Posted on January 28, 2015 by trmdrag

The day after Greece has voted in a general election against austerity politics and to oust ‘the dictatorship of Angela Merkel’ as some Greek voters have proclaimed, the annual price for political photography in Germany, Rückblende 2014, has been awarded … Continue reading →

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