Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

This was said before the most violent era in modern history and before the greatest inventions. "What a chimera then is man! What a novelty, what a monster, what a chaos, what a contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, feebla earthworm, repository of truth, sewer of uncertainty and error, the glory and the scum of the universe." — Blaise Pascal

"Since Europeans didn’t always think of themselves as ‘white’, there is good reason to think that race is socially constructed, indeed arbitrary. If the idea of ‘white people’ (and thus every other ‘race’ as well) has a history – and a short one at that – then the concept itself is based less on any kind of biological reality than it is in the variable contingencies of social construction." How 'white people' were invented

The big powers and their imperialist institutions decide. [S]ome recognition means the state "enjoys some of the benefits of being a state such as access to the World Bank, the IMF, and the International Olympic Committee."  "It's essentially impossible for a group to become independent and claim its own statehood unless others, other powerful states, are willing to support it" The cases of Somaliland, Kosovo, and East Timor

What Killed the Promise of Muslim Communism?

Monje also recalls a conversation with Guevara from the pre-Bolivia period. Che had said: ‘Hey, Monje, why don’t you get a guerrilla war going in Bolivia?’ ‘What will it get us?’ Monje asked. Che accused him of cowardice. No, Monje said, you’ve just got ‘a machine-gun stuck in your brain, and you can’t imagine any other way to develop an anti-imperialist struggle.’ The nine (or so) lives of Che Guevera

"[I]f the condition for granting religious liberty is, in effect, conformity to secular public norms, what kind of liberty is this?" Belonging: The Story of the Jews 1492-1900 A book review

"We live in an age that has simultaneously witnessed the breaking up of national and state order, and what appears to be the bolstering of such order. Beyond the domestic confines of revolution and counter-revolution, such as we've witnessed in Egypt, Syria and Bahrain to name but a few, the dynamic of popular revolt against centralised authority and the often-brutal reaction to such challenges is by no means confined to these localities. The Spanish state, an alleged liberal democracy, has reacted to the vote with  vicious violence , including allegations of torture and sexual assault against protesters." Similarity and seperation: Kurdistan to Catalonia

The forgotten war

The truth about capitalism is out as Marx's magic cap start to slip