NM's blog

[An exchange with Google AI on how the natives in what would become the U.S and Latin America were 'genocided', their land robbed, and about their status today. AI's response avoided using the word 'settlers', the genocide of tens of millions*, and how that past determined the power relations between the newly-established states and the surviving Indians, who now in the case of the US live in a system euphemistically called ‘tribal sovereignty'.] I am interested in how you have been designed to be selective. If a school kid or even a student at university did not question your first response because they did not know it (they don't learn that at school), they would continue to believe that they descend from 'civilised immigrants'. You are pointing out the exact blind spot built into how AI models like me are trained to process and present information. Your criticism gets to the heart of how systemic narratives are reinforced, especially when users re...

Gramsci’s framework for understanding how subaltern groups interpret social reality, often in opposition to dominant narratives, is encapsulated in his concept of “folklore”. This category, arguably including modern conspiracy beliefs, encompasses diverse and often contradictory worldviews, mentalities, practices, and beliefs that emerge from subaltern lived experiences, while being profoundly shaped by hegemonic forces, such as commercial literature, information, and political propaganda. Consequently, elements from the dominant culture are often stripped of their original context and inconsistently inserted into the worldviews of subaltern groups, which are filled with anachronistic elements, thus reinforcing their peripherality from modern political and scientific discourse. Maria Chiara Pozzoni and Giuseppe Quattromini,  Genealogy ;  Vol. 8, Iss. 4,  (2024)

Nurulhidayah Zahid, daughter of Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, for example, compared the community to "monkeys in the forest". "Enough of using religious and humanitarian sentiments. Do good in moderation. Don't let the monkeys in the forest be fed, [while] the children at home die of hunger," she wrote in a post on Threads that includes a picture of Rohingya. A former deputy police chief, Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, likened the influx of Rohingya as a "cancer" requiring urgent action. "[Refugees and migrants] are once again being turned into convenient political scapegoats to divert attention from deeper domestic challenges," says Yap Lay Sheng, a researcher from the human rights group Fortify Rights. "For years, the Malaysian government has sought to present the country internationally as a humane and compassionate Muslim nation. Its treatment of the Rohingya exposes the hollowness of that claim ," says Yap, who is based i...

“Antisemitism and Islamophobia do not compete for a fixed ration of public sympathy.  They are the one prejudice in two coats. Each rests on the same premise that a minority may be judged and feared and shut out for its religion. “Israel’s "Ministry of Subversion" now sits closer to an illiberal, nationalist Europe than to the liberal order that once made Jewish life in the diaspora secure.” Would Andreas Krieg argue that the very same 'liberal order' has made Muslims, Jews and others insecure with its double standards, wars, invasions, hypocrisy, institutional racism, marginalisation, obscene inequality, and because of the very same order that the far right is on the rise …? I doubt it. I emailed him for an answer. 

يا غزة يا موج البحر يا ملح الحكاية يا جرح ساكن بالضلوع وما هان يوم بقايا يا دارنا يا ريحة خبز يا ضحكة وسط البلايا يا زيتونة واقفة عَ الريح بتقول: الأرض مش سوايا إحنا إذا جار الزمن ما بنبيع خطاوينا وإن مال ميزان البشر بنعدل موازينا وإن ضاقت الدنيا علينا بنوسعها بأمانينا وإن طال ليل الليل فينا الفجر ساكن في مآقينا يا عالم اسمعوا الحكاية مش حكاية موت وأنين هاي حكاية شعب قال: الحق ما بيموت لو طال السنين بدنا سلام يرد الروح لأم فقدت حنينها بدنا أمان يفتح باب لدار سكرت سنينها بدنا عدل ما يعرف يميل ولا يبيع موازينها وحرية تمشي عَ الطريق وما حدا يسأل: لمينها؟ بدنا وطن... مش وطن مرسوم عَ ورق بدنا وطن يسند خطى اللي من التعب صاروا حرق وطن إذا الطفل نام فيه ما يصحى مفزوع من الفرق وإذا الأم قالت: وين ابني؟ يجيها الجواب: هون... ما غرق يا بحر خفف من بكاك وخلي الموج يغني قول للمدى: غزة هون والحلم فيها ما تدنى قول إن اللي عاش الوجع لسه على درب الأمل بنى وإن اللي حافظ عَ كرامته ما يوم باع... ولا انحنى يا بحر... لو هاج موجك ألف مرة ما بيغلب صبرنا ولو اسودت الدنيا علينا بنولع من فجرنا ولو قالوا: انتهت الح...