Back on tour and ready to rumble....I mean listen

After too long a pause, I am back in New Europe for a too short tour, and it is time for a brief update to all of you who have been supportive of this ongoing experiment. In the coming weeks you will learn about a shift in my work—one that I am excited to tell you about, while also unsure of how best to do so just yet. So please stay tuned. And if you get impatient (that’s very sweet), get in touch and I will share some of what we’re working on.

Hello from Poland, one of several countries in the region with elections over the coming months—elections that will have a role in the rate of regression for global civic society regionally and globally. Yes American foreign editor I won’t name whose response to a push for their network to pay more attention to this region in the fall of ‘23 was Sorry, we won’t have time for this as 2024 is an election year in the US (exact wording softened to protect confidentiality) I did say GLOBALLY. Unlike Vegas, what happens in Ukraine does not stay in Ukraine…and the same is true of Poland and Slovakia and Serbia (and Congo, and Rwanda, and…).

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Does this earnestness make me look fat bitter? I hope not. The privilege in my chosen path is that I get to show up places and listen. The people I will be working with over the next the month here in New Europe have, for the most part, seen their livelihoods threatened in a way many Americans can not imagine. AND they are aiming to do work that will help all of us. Yes, some seem to have cynically turned to the dark side in the last six weeks, attempting to respond to the Blitzkrieg on transparency and civic society that the Muskovites have unleashed. And yet I will have the opportunity to check on that in person through conversations. Conversations in places that I could not imagine visiting when I was a young New Englander for whom the regular two hour trip between Worcester and New Haven seemed like a real long journey.

This is more a listening tour than a speaking tour, though I am moderating and facilitating some conversations in Sofia and Prague. Should you be in Sofia this coming week, and want to speak with one of the most remarkable writers I know, Joanna Elmy, join us for a Mahala Talks evening on 23 March (ticket information on their website soon).

The following week I will be in Prague leading a convening of journalists and researchers from Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and the Czech Republic. We will be scheming on how to better serve civi society through investigating the impact of illicit finance on communities throughout the region. While it is a closed event, I invite you to send me questions for some of the journalists and data nerds (because, as we all know, the nerds are really the cool kids) I’ll be learning with. I will be sharing some interviews with these people. And here’s a teaser: look at the sort of work the Nest Institute is doing in Slovakia in spite of that country retreating from efforts to protect its citizens from foreign instigated corruption.

I will also be in Bratislava and Sofia, so if you are in those countries and want to join a problem-solving session with me and a few other journos, get in touch.

In the meantime, some additional reading options that may speak to you in this moment:

Readatunity: Cryptocrats fear regulation will stymie a new crypto era, Oliver Bullough

Listenatunity: Ann Marie Baldonado’s breathtaking (sorry, Ann Marie, pun intended) interview with Simu Liu on Fresh Air

Watchatunity: Anna Sale tells us to watch Sly Lives!, and it is always a good idea to pay attention to what advises.