Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

I like this movie albeit not all of is based on real events. A VPN is recommended before accessing the site.

I think hard times are coming, when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies, to other ways of being. And even imagine some real grounds for hope. We will need writers who can remember freedom: poets, visionaries— the realists of a larger reality . Right now, I think we need writers who know the difference between production of a market commodity and the practice of an art. The profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art.  We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable; so did the divine right of kings.  … Power can be resisted and changed by human beings; resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art—the art of words. I’ve had a long career and a good one, in good company, and here, at the end of it, I really don’t want to watch American literature get sold down the river. ...  The name of our beautiful reward is not profit. It

The problem goes back to before the pandemic. 80 million household struggle to stay warm

Welcome to Britain!

Shutdown Related Pro-market thinking: ministers want it to survive Covid

التراث في فكر حسن حنفي

Powell's name represents a dramatic twist in the annals of US imperial ideology

Factory farms of disease

 Iraqis will ‘not shed tears’ for 2003 invasion architect Politely anguished war criminal

Different interpretations aside. The Quran says: "You [Muslims] are the best ummah [nation] brought out for Mankind.”  [3:110]. The Jews believe that they are the ‘chosen people’. The Torah says: “ Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me from all the peoples, for all the earth is mine.” Exodus 19:5. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair: “ The British are special. The world knows it. In our innermost thoughts we know it. This is the greatest nation on earth.” Resignation speech , May 2007 The richest 1% alone capture nearly 25% of world GDP, according to the World Inequality Database.  That’s more than the GDP of 169 countries combined , including Norway, Argentina, all of the Middle East and the entire continent of Africa.  They are THE CHOSEN PEOPLE .

I have read this and it is a good summary . You need an institutional subscription though.

خط في الرمال

Ariz and Fielding: "Why can't we be friends now?" said the other, holding him affectionately. ·'It's what I want. It's what you want."  But the horses didn't want it-they swerved apart; the earth didn't want it, sending up rocks through which riders must pass single file; the temples, the tank, the jail, the palace, the birds, the carrion, the Guest House, that came into view as they issued from the gap. and saw Mau beneath: they didn't want it, they said in their hundred voices, " No, not yet," and the sky said, "No, not there." — E. M. Forster, A Passage to India , New York, Har­court, Brace & Co., 1952, p. 322.

Not according to the former Pesi CEO

“At the root of this is the American obsession with self-reliance, which makes it more acceptable to applaud an individual for working himself to death than to argue that an individual working himself to death is evidence of a flawed economic system.” … Working yourself to death

“Language is politics and politics is power. This is why the misuse of language is particularly disturbing, especially when the innocent and vulnerable pay the price.“ Europe’s self-serving politics on refugees

 Some Saudis, some Arabs and tourists. No alcohol yet though! Saudi women in ‘bikini’ and beach parties in Jedda

Lines of succession

The generals “will do us better than the old gang” Related The Killing Season. A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965 – 66

“The question is: if humanity is to be defended, who must do the defending, how, and with which consequences? Beyond humanity, if life on earth is to thrive or survive, who or what must take responsibility for what appears to be an impending catastrophe?” The logic of humanitarian intervention

“ French left-wing parties, who were in opposition at the time, have also come in for criticism for not condemning the massacre. They have been seen as complicit in the cover-up given that they filed a law suit against the police for opening fire on mainly French anti-war protesters, killing seven, a few months later, and yet remained silent about the massacre of Algerians.” How a massacre of Algerians in Paris was covered up Related "Whenever the West is attacked and our innocents are killed, we usually wipe the memory bank. Thus, when reporters told us that the 129 dead in Paris represented the worst atrocity in France since the Second World War, they failed to mention the 1961 Paris massacre of up to 200 Algerians participating in an illegal march against France’s savage colonial war in Algeria. Most were murdered by the French police, many were tortured in the Palais des Sports and their bodies thrown into the Seine. The French only admit 40 dead. The police officer in charge

Revolutionary art reminds us of the world we want to see