In 1988, a car bomb took Albie Sachs’s arm and an eye. Yet, in exile, before Mandela’s release and before democracy seemed possible, he chose joy over bitterness. Thirty-six years later, New Visions sat with Justice Sachs to explore the roots of that joy and the role of imagination in building freedom. We discussed art, beauty, love, and democracy, and why political imagination is not a luxury but the foundation on which democratic futures are built.

Across the Arab region, repression and permanent crisis compress time into the immediate, and imagination itself becomes politically risky. This conversation asks whether foresight can still serve civil society under those conditions, and what would have to change, methodologically and politically, for it to become safe practice rather than abstract visioning, not a luxury, but a democratic capacity that must be rebuilt.

When debt dictates policy, what’s left of democracy? In many countries, elected governments are finding themselves boxed in, not by voters, but by creditors. From IMF reform packages to development bank loans, policy decisions are being shaped in boardrooms, not parliaments. As debt burdens grow, the promise of democratic self-rule shrinks. What happens to democracy when democracy becomes choiceless?

In an era of collapse, we invited changemakers to reflect on progressive movements – both the progress and failures. Zakia Khattabi, Baia Pataraia, Daniela Chacón Arias, and Samson Itodo shared their insights, lessons, and hopes to bring care and justice to the daily practice of democracy.