Hello, and happy Friday!
I have a small, but nonetheless exciting, milestone to share: Foreign Correspondence has surpassed 100 subscribers! One hundred and five, to be exact. But who’s counting? (The answer, dear reader, is me.)
This is a drop in the bucket for many newsletters, but seeing as this correspondence was only ever envisaged to reach my mom and a few devoted friends, I’m claiming it as a win. To those of you who are new to these emails, welcome! To our OG readers, it’s great to have you back.
What I’ve written
There has been an understandable focus on the worsening coronavirus situation in the United States, which remains the world leader in both confirmed cases and deaths. But an even more alarming situation is occurring in much of the developing world, and it needs our attention too.
In this piece, I explore why remedies that have proven effective in curbing the spread of the coronavirus in wealthy nations haven’t necessarily proven possible in poor ones. One factor is that lockdowns are more difficult to enforce in countries with vast informal economies, in which workers often lack basic protections and telecommuting opportunities. As a result, informal laborers are often faced with the impossible choice of staying safe and abiding by lockdown rules or feeding their families. “When you ask them to stay home,” one expert told me, “in many cases you’re asking them to starve.” Keep reading here.
I also wrote this piece about the nationalist weaponization of religious sites and what it means for the future of two once-secular republics. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan restored the Hagia Sophia—once a Byzantine-era cathedral and museum—as a working mosque. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi fulfilled a similar promise last week, laying the foundation for a new Hindu temple on the ruins of a 16th century mosque where Hindus believe an ancient temple once stood.
The transformation of these sites represents a years-long effort by both leaders to recast their respective countries in their own ethnonationalist image. By weaponizing these religious sites and making them a central part of the national story, Erdogan and Modi are signaling the kind of countries India and Turkey are becoming—or indeed, what they have already become. Read more here.
What I’ve read
This Atlantic cover story by Ed Yong is the definitive explanation of how the pandemic brought the world’s most powerful nation to its knees:
“In 2018, I wrote an article for The Atlantic arguing that the U.S. was not ready for a pandemic, and sounded warnings about the fragility of the nation’s health-care system and the slow process of creating a vaccine. But the COVID‑19 debacle has also touched—and implicated—nearly every other facet of American society: its shortsighted leadership, its disregard for expertise, its racial inequities, its social-media culture, and its fealty to a dangerous strain of individualism.”
This piece from Slate’s Julia Craven on the selection of Kamala Harris as Joe Biden’s running mate:
“Women who were white won vice presidential nominations and a presidential nomination; a Black man was elected president. Yet Black women, the backbone of the Democratic Party electorate, have been excluded from high-level tickets, because neither part of our dual identities is rooted in privilege. White women were still white; a Black man is still a man.”
This essay about last week’s Beirut explosion by The New York Times’ Middle East correspondent Vivian Yee, who must have filed only hours after leaving hospital:
“I was not so well-trained, but the Lebanese who would help me in the hours to come had the heartbreaking steadiness that comes from having lived through countless previous disasters. Nearly all of them were strangers, yet they treated me like a friend.”
If you’re looking for ways to support Lebanon from afar, here is a useful resource.
What I’m thinking about
This piece about people who choose to be special over being happy reminded me of a tweet I included in Vol 4 of this newsletter (which I’m sharing again below because, let’s be honest, it’s timeless):
Success is fickle. Even when it is achieved, “the high only lasts a day or two, and then it’s on to the next goal. Psychologists call this the hedonic treadmill, in which satisfaction wears off almost immediately and we must run on to the next reward to avoid the feeling of falling behind.”
Whether you’re on this particular treadmill or not, I think we can all sympathize with the feeling of fulfillment being just out of reach; here one minute, gone the next. If this rings true for you, I hope you’ll take the time to savor your successes and acknowledge your achievements—no matter how small. I, for one, am going to celebrate 100+ subscribers with some ice cream.
Until next time,
Yasmeen
P.S. A special shout-out goes to Rachel Lau for being FC’s 100th subscriber! You’re the best 🙌