But a cup of coffee here isn't just a caffeine jolt. It is the signature gesture of hospitality and offered me, intentionally or not, a window onto people and places I wouldn't have otherwise seen...

Globalization, that demon which I vowed to fight to the death when I was Lorde’s age… Now it manifested itself as a promise, at least here. There’s so much that separates us: language, religion, a concrete wall and how we drink coffee. Political dominance makes up the most pronounced difference: I have rights, Mayar and Husam practically don’t. I am a citizen, while they live under military rule. In order to defy the system that categorizes us so cruelly, that seeks to turn us into enemies for its own good, we must focus on what makes us alike, and here is what makes us alike: we can sing Royals.

Carolina Garcia, a reporter from Sao Paulo, Brazil, wrote about Aziz Abu Sarah's story for iG.