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Showing posts from October 10, 2021

Islam and Capitalism

Rodinson argues that both in its traditions and history Islam was no more and no less able to control borrowing, lending, interest rates, merchant entrepreneurs than any other religious program; the stereotypes of Islamic submission to God's will, or Islamic belief in predetermination, have played little part either in the acquisition of Islamic wealth or in its administration. Islam was frequently a way ruling classes had of keeping their power, and Rodinson suggests that this is as likely to be true now as it has been historically. Maxime Rodinson explains the mysterious Near East

The Money Laundering Capital of the World

Taken together with its partly controlled territories overseas, Britain is instrumental in the worldwide concealment of cash and assets. It is, as a member of the ruling Conservative Party  said  last week, “the money laundering capital of the world.” And the City of London, its gilded financial center, is at the system’s core. The City of London is hiding the world’s stolen money

Rudyard Kipling

Take up the White Man’s burden– Send forth the best ye breed– Go, bind your sons to exile To serve your captives’ need; On fluttered folk and wild– Your new-caught sullen peoples, Half devil and half child. – Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden” Kipling and British imperialism

There Are Good Muslims And Bad Muslims

The good Muslims are those we can do business with. Related "The UK's National Crime Agency would not comment on any current investigation but told the BBC that organised crime syndicates laundered hundreds of billions of pounds a year through London, mainly through complicated company structures." The tentacles of the Italian mafia

Philanthropy Is a Scam

“‘The world still has plenty of superrich people. Indeed, overall, the superrich are likely to emerge from the crisis in better financial shape than anyone else.’ Therefore, crucially, ‘the reservoir of wealth to fund philanthrocapitalism is still there.’ This self-fulfilling cycle—capitalism creates wealth, and thereby inequality, and thereby the conditions for the rich to spend surplus money on helping the poor, without ever alleviating poverty—dates back (Bishop points out) to the Renaissance, when both capitalism and philanthropy were born.” Charitable giving among the super-rich has one goal, and it isn't to change the world

Dune and the ‘Arab World’

“Without knowing the fate of Arrakis and Paul, the current  Dune  appears no different from  Lawrence of Arabia  (1962): the story of a proud if uncivilised people born in a coarse if rich terrain who await a white messiah to grant them the peace and freedom that colonising forces have long denied. While the  Dune  saga starts as an allegory for colonisation, it ends as a warning against man-made ecological development and the danger of inherited myths.” Interstellar epic avoids Middle East cliches