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Iraq Odyssey by Samir (In English from minute 01:30) In  99 Homes , Iranian-American writer-director Ramin Bahrani ( Man Push Cart, 2005;  Chop Shop , 2007;  Goodbye Solo , 2008) has created a compelling work that puts flesh and blood on the foreclosure epidemic. 3000 Nights
The Christmas that was not. "The Social Conscienc e of the Saint John’s Bible II— On Syrian Refugees and the Reversals of Christmas"
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" stinks — and here's why Also, What Makes Hollywood Run? (a free book) Filming the Middle East (an interview)
The Astounding Eyes of Rita أم الزين الجمّالية

Petrodollars and Profit

Rethinking Political Economy through the Middle East "What if oil prices are not received, but made? What if cartels raise prices by constricting supply, and use war, legal chicanery, and international property deeds to do so? Such questions led Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler, two political economists, to examine the production, distribution, and political structure of the oil business. They derived from these patterns a theory of prices and power distinct from orthodox and heterodox worldviews alike. They see prices as the result of social processes, “a symbolic quantification of power.” One of them is sabotage, or the strategic disruption of production. Power, then, is the ability to create and order the world to ensure just the right mix of sabotage and supply in order to ensure profit rates beat out those of your competitors. It is this novel, fascinating, brash, and contested theory of capitalism which they lay out in a new book,  The Scientist and the Church ."