Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Refugees are a pain , aren't they? They come to our country illegally and they want comfort and be treated as humans! Australians have learnt something: they have not forgotten what happened to German girls when Germany accepted refugees. Plus, look how small and poor Australia is. The country cannot accept more people.

"Who can doubt—after massive demonstrations on two successive Sundays in Barcelona (followed later by a general strike in Sabadell and a building workers’ strike in the capital)—that Catalonia is closer to the ruptura than any other region at present. If pushed to it—by an ‘accident’ or by mass popular pressure or both—the bourgeois opposition parties would certainly be willing to lead it, if only in the end to try to control it. But without such pressure? Of if they fear that such pressure may escape their control?" — Ronald Fraser, 1976

Sex, France, and Arab Men

Paradises on Earth The title “Paradises of the Earth” is inspired by the great Amazigh historian Ibn Khaldoun who once described thecoastal oasis of Gabes as a "paradise on earth.” But Gabes isn’t the only place that used to be a paradise. Many more paradises have been victim of colonial and neo-colonial violence, just like their inhabitants: “the Wretched of theEarth.” Thus, the title "Paradises of the Earth" is a reference to both Ibn Khaldoun and the revolutionary thinker Frantz Fanon. You can read more here on  Paradises of The Earth Website

Marxisme, processus révolutionnaire et fondamentalisme islamique

Catalonia: all point to a protracted crisis Barage to Catalonia

It is not only about defending past crimes; it is also going on justifying present ones. Close to a year ago, on 12 December of last year, PM Theresa May addressed the Annual Business Lunch of the Conservative Friends of Israel in these terms: “On November 2, 1917, the then Foreign Secretary – a Conservative Foreign Secretary – Arthur James Balfour wrote: ‘His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, …’” The PM read the whole text of the letter I will be getting back to later. She then went on saying: “It is one of the most important letters in history. It demonstrates Britain’s vital role in creating a homeland for the Jewish people. And it is an anniversary we will be marking with pride.” The PM added: “Born of that letter, and the efforts of so many people, is a remarkable country.” A country, Israel, which the PM described a...

Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason review

During my trip in China, I was reading The Shorter Science and Civilization in China , one of the five volumes which abridge Joseph Needhem's 12 volumes written by himself, later expanded to 27. It was a fantastic read. Western philosophy is racist

Homosexuality in Syrian TV series: 2000-2014 (article in Arabic) المِثلية والهوية الجنسية في الفن الشعبي السوري

A couple of interesting essays here, but subscription is required .. . Old Gods, New Enigmas by Mike Davis The New Terrain of Class Conflict in the United States

Reformation: Ernest Bloch on Thomas Muntzer

This is an exageration . Banks, hedge funds, etc, have found in London a safe haven. Panama Files and Roberto Saviano, and others, have demonstrated that Britain financially "is the most corrupt country on earth", the most deregulated financial hub and most aggressive neoliberal economy in Western Europe. Where will banks and their associates find a better place?

What's Happening in Raqqa, Idlib and Syria?

Homosexuality Salman al-Odah, a leading Saudi cleric with 9 million Twitter followers, said in  an interview with a Swedish newspaper  April 30 [2016] that even though homosexuality is considered a sin in the Torah, Bible, and Quran, according to Islam the punishment comes in the next world, not this one. "Those that say homosexuals are deviants of Islam, they are the true deviants and their actions are a graver sin than the homosexuals themselves,” he added, in a  statement on his website . [T]here is no prescribed execution for homosexuality in the Quran or in Islamic law. Instead, scholars say, the Quran implies that retribution is in the hands of God. As for the  hadith , the sayings attributed to the prophet Mohammad, there is much dispute as to whether he prescribed a particular punishment for sodomy. President Abdul Fattah Sisi [supported and armed by the West], who ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in 2013 and brought back a more secular Egypt...

The Syrian novelist Roza Yassine Hassan A Syrian novelist and writer, Roza studied architecture but has been working as a journalist for years , writing for various Syrian and Arabic periodicals. Her first novel Ebony won the Hanna Mina Prize and her third novel Guardians of the Air was long-listed for the Arabic Booker Prize in 2010. In 2009, Hassan was chosen as one of the Beirut39, a group of 39 Arab writers under the age of 40 chosen through a contest organized by Banipal magazine and the Hay Festival. 

Working to rule

"High inequality could threaten global capitalism," says an international criminal institution that played a significant role, at least in the last forty years, in creating that inequality and plunder. An interview with Michael Roberts World's witnessing a new Gilded Age My advice: the representatives of the capitalist system should do something about the new Robber Barons to save their criminal system so that criminal action go on as usual, but more legal and more accepted by the general public.

Some interesting arguments, examples and proposals by George Monbiot. However, I don't think they are enough because first, and as he himslef doubts it, the Labour Party is not the radical agency that can carry out the change. Furthermore, Monbiot is not addressing the entrenched power of the capitalists and the elite, ownership and the state, and the reaction of these three. It seems that Monbiot hopes for a peaceful change, excluding any conflict. Also, he has taken examples from small wealthy countries where neolobiralism has not taken root as in the big Western European ones, especially Britain. These big countries have another important characteristic which effects their socio-economic policies; they are imperialist states. Article 1 Article 2