Does your Work Matter if the Politics are Bad?

Nadine Chahine is one of the world’s foremost Arabic type designers:

I could design all the typefaces that I could imagine, but as long as women are mistreated, rights are abused, and books remain unread, then what is the point? I am finding it harder and harder to dissociate typography from its context

I am deeply unhappy with the situation in Lebanon. For all the typefaces that I can design, it will not lessen the sectarian strife that eats away at the country. It will not take away from the poison in the air. Much as I love my country, I have come to hate its politics. […] Whatever one does as a job, it is not enough. To be a citizen is to be engaged with the social fabric. There is no escaping politics.

Read her whole piece for a very interesting Lebanese introspection into the value of one’s work and politics.