Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

"Impossible to anticipate the spur for rebellion. In Lebanon, it was a tax on the use of WhatsApp; in Chile, it was the rise in subway fares; in Ecuador and in Haiti, it was the cut in fuel subsidies. Each of these conjunctures brought people to the streets and then, as these people flooded the streets, more and more joined them. They did not come for WhatsApp or for subway tokens. They came because they are frustrated, angry that history seems to disregard them as it consistently favours the ruling class." There is something that's ours on the streets and we're going to take it back

We went to Iraq in 2003 and we "liberated" it from a brutal dictator. In fact we had tried to "liberate" Iraq before that, in 1991. 16 years later   " protests earlier this month were brutally put down by security forces, leaving nearly 150 people dead," reported the BBC. You see, there is no hope. These "backward people" even after helping them with training an army and security forces, they failed in front of the "Islamic State" and now they are killing their own people.

A very popular Algerian singer and political activist. She has been living in Prague since 2015. I don't think the word "monarchy" in the lyrics is meant to describe Algeria as a country ruled by a royal family.  This Arab woman needs, "empowerment," doesn't she?

لَذَّةُ القَلَق The Pleasure of Distress

Trial of Uribe, former president of Colombia  (2002-2010) Uribe was given a platform by the London School of Economics in 2011 . I remember the day quite well. I saw not more than 20 people protesting his visit in front of the main building (the Old Building). Some, if not most of them, were not from the School. Some were from Colombia Solidarity Campaign and others from Venezuela Solidarity Campaign. Uribe's complicity with the paramiliatries and Colombian state terror, including the killing of trade unions and journalists, was known and made public long before 2011. Between 2000 and 2010 Colombia accounted for 63.12% of trade unionists murdered globally , according to the International Union Confederation.

As expected a couple of people will be blamed for the crime. "The murderers will be brought to justice," as Essex police said. Follow the news and you will see that no outcry will be made compared to a violent attack on a London Bridge or in Manchester. Others will also blame the people who allowed themselves to be smuggled/killed. 39 people found dead in lorry container "The possibility of feats of extravagant and unrestrained violence at and beyond the border [have historically] contrasted with the constraints of rational management of violence within the borders of nation-states.’ To put it simply, violence at the border serves a purpose, and so does the shock it provokes. It obscures the violence of the internal social arrangements of modern nations, which fight to preserve the privilege of the few over the many. "The rational management of violence within the nation-state," Caygill continues, "was only possible when potential and actual violen...

In 1998 the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial that said that the IMF ‘has not been fighting financial fires but dousing them with gasoline’. The IMF pours the first tranche of gasoline. Vijay Prashad has an update The IMF does not fight financial fires but douses them with gasoline

I recommend Revolution Without Revolutionaries (Chapter 1) and  

A major improvement in workers' conditions Qatar dismantles kafala system of modern slavery Meanwhile, in a "democracy" it took a union more than a year to reach a collective bargaining agreement .

"One of the most indebted countries in the world, Lebanon is struggling to find fresh sources of funding as the foreign inflows on which it has traditionally relied have dried up. Promises of assistance from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Lebanon’s former benefactors, have largely failed to arrive. The government needs to cut spending, raise taxes and fight corruption to unlock some $11 billion in international aid pledges made at a Paris donor conference in 2018." How Lebanon's Unrest is Both New and More of the Same (Click on Free and continue to website)