Vital thread from the always insightful @MaximEristavi about the sordid economic realities “Twitter influencers” from places like Ukraine, Syria, BiH etc deal with; working 18hr days, 365, providing “insight” & “analysis,” but pulling down peanuts w/ 0 institutional support.
https://twitter.com/MaximEristavi/status/1489706877348888576
The cruel irony in being a go-to source for analyses on societies like these is your views are seen as indispensable but the compensation is “negotiable” & usually absent entirely. So your analysis is extracted to service needs of those w/ both institutional & financial support.
And while this is especially acute for those still in-country - where ppl are risking even their own security to provide these goods - it’s true even for those in the diaspora bc almost all of us come from refugee/migrant backgrounds w/ no economic “padding” to fall back on.
Yrs ago, I was still in grad school, I had dinner w/ @hozic & some other folks after a conference & Prof. Hozic asked me how I was getting on, and I did my standard grad student spiel about all my papers & talks etc. And she just very kindly said “but what are living off of?”
And I just had this wave of emotion rush over me bc the truth was I wasn’t getting on at all. I was going to conferences where I couldn’t afford accommodation, sleeping in train stations, skipping meals, literally just trying to keep up appearances.
So, it’s great that ppl appreciate this work. I think @MaximEristavi & others would agree that we do it, ultimately, out of conviction. But conviction doesn’t pay rent or buy diapers. This is labor, like any other, and those who seek our labor should be prepared to pay for it.
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