poverty

Arden is in their mid-twenties and born in Istanbul, they are non-binary. As a DJ and music producer, Arden is active in Istanbul's queer nightlife. Arden is experiencing the government's openly practiced queer-hostility. Even though they feel comfortable in their neighbourhood and places of work, Kadıköy and Beyoğlu.

Behind her red simit stall at the ferry port of Kadıköy, 44-year-old Aleyna sells the typical sesame curls every day. As the only woman in this position, she had to stand up to hostility and harassment from men. Meanwhile, she has been working here for 16 years, she knows the people and their stories. She helps where she can and gives some of her simit to hungry people.

Aisha from Istanbul works in a friend's café in Kadıköy. The neighbourhood is her home, the regular customers a second family. Because of galloping inflation, the rents are to be adjusted, including hers. She fights her landlord's eviction with all means. She would like to open her own restaurant: an impossibility in these unstable times.

The world economy has become the central battleground for hegemonic rivalry between Washington and Beijing. Several factors have led to this development, first and foremost the economic rise of China.

Unless conditions in poor countries improve drastically, their citizens will continue to seek a better future elsewhere, even under the pretext of requiring international protection.