Unscene Berlin

I recently heard that, in Berlin's club scene, there's a bit of a debate going on as to whether the Left should be using the term 'safer space' instead of 'safe space'. For those not in the know, a 'safe space' is a place where women*, queers and people of colour aren't discriminated against. In theory, anyways. Right from the outset, I have to admit that I dislike these kinds of debates. But apart from the little voice inside me asking  is this discussion really the best use of our energy ,  I find myself troubled by this debate for deeper reasons.  To me, the term 'safe space' has always denoted an  aim: it's  a future state rather than a present one. And, as a woman, sometimes just the aim of being safe and equal is all that gets me out of bed in the morning.   I'm fully aware that, as long as we live under patriarchy, there will be nothing that can really be called a safe space. It's hard not to know that, grow...

This is Berlin Where SoHo is so over NoHo is no more The hip and happening districts here are all in the MoFNo (Middle of Fucking Nowhere). The MoFNo isn't just limited to a static piece of land, though, with boundaries as concrete as a fence. No - the epicentre of cool is defined as being any place that everyone else isn't, and has never been: it is continuously dispersing even as people flock to it, like a tail pursued by its comet. In Palma de Majorca, the locals blame Germans who flee to their beaches for spoiling their coastline, now southerners fleeing to Berlin are blamed for spoiling the city, as well. Blamed for bringing the cold iron fist of law down in their wake, condemning the residents to eternal flightiness. Both complaints are expressions of the same illness: discomfort within one's cultural skin, a skin shaped by outsiders and authorities we can't see. In the Berliners' devotion to vagueness, I see the idea of having a c...