––––Rome / Bilbao / Hong Kong / Etna
Alarming news is coming in from Hong Kong: infection rates are rapidly increasing, hospitals might not be able to cope with this pandemic wave, not many people over 80 are vaccinated, and wards are already over 90% of capacity. Fresh food supplies are at risk since many commercial vehicles have been stopped on land because drivers have tested positive for COVID-19. European media are reporting crowds of people fleeing Hong Kong and attempting to cross the border into China. We write to Kee Hong, who replies that they are doing well, but the restrictions are progressively more severe. The city might go into complete lockdown again. In the meantime, every second, a war could break out on the eastern borders of Europe. Putin and Biden are raising the stakes on Ukraine, and perhaps they're bluffing, but how many wars have broken out over a round of poker gone wrong? A sort of agitation is keeping us restless. We watch the Etna erupting for the third day in a row on the screen and in the pictures our friends are posting. On Thursday, abnormal phenomena occurred during the night-time eruption: a volcanic storm caused lighting, a lava fountain and an ash cloud of about 10 kilometres. In the afternoon, we have a call with Leire, Beatriz and Miren, who are in Bilbao, and we discuss how to frame the project within the specific context of Bilbao and, more generally, of Spain. We also consider whether we can transform the body into a collective body and what the space of the city can be. . They tell us that, although a form of feminism has become mainstream, there is also widespread TERF hate. The Deputy Prime Minister, Carmen Calvo, is explicitly against the recognition of gender identity and announced an anti-prostitution law to fight sex work even in its free and more self-determined forms. She opposed the Ley Trans proposed by the Minister for Equality, Irene Montero (of the political party Podemos), who is part of her own government. The Ley Trans - which was eventually approved in March 2021 - supports gender self-determination, guarantees the rights of trans and non-binary people, including irregular refugees and migrants, and demedicalises transition protocols. Despite this, they tell us, the "real women" narrative is widespread and has a lot of resonance.
