ifa blog

Interviews, essays, reports – in the ifa blog, the diverse topics of the ifa are vividly presented in various formats.

Butterflies in the Brain

Making traditional Ukrainian hair wreaths is an art that is no longer very common today. Olena Afanasenko talks about preserving the cultural heritage of her homeland in an interview ...

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White lies and the voids of­ history

Both Namibia and South Africa look back on a violent colonial past, but the history books only tell of individual "heroes". Can historical fiction give the victims a voice?

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Where it’s not just the earth which quakes

Crime, natural disasters, assassinations of presidents: Haiti is in a never-ending political crisis. What is Germany undertaking to support this country politically? Jens Kraus-Massé ...

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Illustration: A magnet in the colours of the European Union is attracting five different people.

Time to restore trust

At this time of great anxiety and geopolitical disorder, three unprecedented challenges knock on our doors: climate change, demography and migration, and the digital era. These all ...

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Jewish Life beyond the Shoah

Jewish life in Germany looks back over 1,700 years of history, which has been celebrated with a nationwide anniversary since 2021. Andrei Kovacs manages the association which was ...

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Kabul and the Lessons to be Learned

After the Western failure in Afghanistan, it is very obvious that cultural foreign policy must either have a clear long-term commitment or explicitly state that assistance is temporary ...

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Metaphor for enlightenment. A flock of birds flies out of a head. A man climbs up a spiral staircase to the open head. In the background clouds, a skyline and a tree.

We Need a New Enlightenment

Previous concepts of progress have failed. Our oceans are polluted, the climate is changing, we are ravaged by diseases, hunger is proliferating, and black bodies are drowning in oceans ...

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Freedom of the Press Under Attack – in Germany and Paraguay

The climate in Germany towards journalists clearly heated up in 2021. The greatest danger came from non-governmental actors. The same applies for Paraguay, albeit under different ...

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The Future of German-Afghan Cultural Relations

The swift fall of Kabul into Taliban hands and the evacuation of Western military forces, aid workers and other civilians dominated the screens in August. While international media ...

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