Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

 Militant Visions

  They are not mistakes, Deborah ; they are part of the functioning of the nation state. The HIV disaster was tied to the the drug companies, the market and profit. Related Calling the shots

 كيف تصبح من أغنى أغنياء العالم بثلاث طرق قذرة

 Putin’s Majority?

People always point to the former Soviet to defend capitalism. It’s happening in Scotland Related In London

 The road to neoliberal autocracy

  Former Lebanese Prisoners of ‘Tadmor’ Reenact Dark Days Within Assads’s Dungeons

 The Power of the Fragile

“Yes to the ban on concealing one’s face” The government is urging people to reject burqa ban

 Edward Said on the Battle of Algiers

 The Slippery Domain of Integration

في أبعد الصراع حول  «الحديد والصلب المصرية»

  How a Russian nationalist became a liberal hero

“We have driven Cuba inch by inch into alliance with the Soviet,’ Norman Mailer wrote, ‘as deliberately and insanely as a man setting out to cuckold himself.’ Castro never wanted to be beholden to the Soviets. He had downplayed the role of the local Communist Party (Partido Socialista Popular) in preparing the ground for his own revolution. But there were only so many options for a single-crop economy of seven million people ninety miles from the Florida coast.”  Fidel Castro and the Making of the 1960s

Reflections on Mass Protests and Uprisings in the “Arab World” A diverse panel. The advantage of a recorded meeting is that you could always select what you want to listen to. Each person spoke for only 10 minutes. Although I listened to all of it, I liked more the approach of the last two speakers: Hanieh and Khalidi.

An excerpt from a new book    Global Middle East - Into the Twenty-First Century

 06 February 2021 Credit to Yasmine Hn

Former governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, told the BBC that the answer to the climate crisis was investment in a green economy.  Carney  says the answer lies in a global pot of $170tn of private capital “which is looking for disclosure.” Now, just think what that capital could do for the earth and humanity. That is more than eight times the annual GDP of the U.S.! It is also a proof that the issue is not about lack of capital or resources but about political economic decisions tied up to the functioning of the capitalist system. Private ownership is one, if not the main, hindrance to real change.

This might look like what China did when it opened its economy . But Cuba is not China. My guess–and it is just a guess– is that the biggest industries will remain under state control. Other businesses will be privatised, some will be partially privatised. If this opening allows the state to accumulate capital through taxes and maintain its good healthcare system and improve others., the lives of a few Cubans will improve.  Cuba needs a modern transport system and renovation of hundreds of thousands of homes, for example. Carts and camiones are used as means of transport, the Internet is not affordable to everyone, schools needs pencils, many flats in Havana are derelict, etc, etc. That’s just some of what I witnessed in my visit in 2015. And it is definitely not a communist economy or a communist country as it is always portrayed. All what the country has is some socialistic elements. Cuba already has a small private sector. A Spanish luxury hotel chain, private restaurants, small sh