Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Systematic delays, economic opportunities and the risk of green colonialism

The awful ‘ghetto’ law

Review of Half-Earth Socialism

Review of Scorched Earth

In Spain you are not sent to Rwanda, but to ‘heaven’ Related Meanwhile “the project proposed by an Ex-Tesco CEO to connect southern Morocco to the UK through underwater cables will channel electricity. Once again, a familiar colonial scheme is unveiled: the unrestricted flow of cheap natural resources (including solar energy) from the Global South to the rich North while fortress Europe builds walls and fences to prevent human beings from reaching its shores!” — Hamza Hamouchene , a researcher and activist.

Inside the world that decides what porn you see

American women should go to Tunisia or Bahrain to have abortion! Related "I would consider myself a practising Muslim. I try my best to abide by the Quran and the Sunnah [teachings of the Prophet Muhammad]. Based on my faith, I know I did the right thing. I know it was ok for me to have an abortion. Islam gave me that right," Fatima said. " But now this country doesn’t recognise these rights. What will other women like me do?"

A very interesting review. The review too, I think, stops short at determining the cause(s) of imperialism. He does not identify the cause of power. “Power is the axis upon which the imperial machine turns and under which its various tentacles are subsumed. It is the means by which imperialists consolidate their near total control and domination of the lives of the imperialized. Kohli does discuss power in his analysis of imperialism, indeed, pointing out that, ‘Britain used its power superiority to build both a formal and informal empire’ (6); and ‘Force was used periodically to establish and maintain these economic interactions…’ (142). Also, ‘The use of coercion is especially significant for assessing a relationship as imperial’ (392). But so strong is the emphasis on motives (economic interest) that the significance of the concept of power or coercion is lost within the historical narrative. Indeed, in the case of the US, Kohli talks about ‘surplus power.’ We shall return to this ...

“ In short, the political economy of the Abraham Accords may serve as the new anchor of a regional security arrangement that is US-stamped, but no longer necessarily directly backed militarily by a US presence on the ground. They facilitate a region-wide, Israeli-produced surveillance architecture; new flows of weaponry to repressive states known to target civilians; and trade and investment patterns that promise an authoritarian model of prosperity at the expense of the most vulnerable communities of the region. This is, of course, in addition to the violation of the most basic rights of Palestinian and Sahrawi communities.” The empire is changing its strategy Related Israel-Egypt-EU gas deal

 

“The statistics show very clearly that the cost of living crisis is not being driven by workers demanding higher wages. The combination of the war in Ukraine and disturbances to supply chains that took place during the Great Lockdown are the main factors explaining higher prices. As I argued in  Tribune  last week, the crisis in  global shipping  is particularly important in explaining why prices have risen so much over the last few years. But the issue isn’t simply macroeconomic changes that are beyond our control — it’s also the profiteering of large corporations in response to the inflationary environment.” Rising prices are not driven by rising wages

We have been here before. A social democrat with a reformist programme.

المناضلة المصرية سارة حجازي التي انتحرت قبل سنتين 

Resolution calls on governments of Catalonia and Spain to hold Israel accountable

The age of the performer-entrepreneur Related Iron Musk is not a renegade outsider Employees fired after writing letter criticising Musk

A review of  Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany’s Wealthiest Dynasties  

“When Ihat [ Iraq Historic Allegations Team]  closed, outstanding cases were reduced, overnight, from 3,400 to just 20. It had cost the taxpayer £34m and failed to secure a single prosecution. Fifteen years after it began, we are no closer to holding any politicians or high-ranking soldiers accountable for the disaster of the Iraq war.” “The last person in Britain to be prosecuted for crimes committed by forces under their command was in 1651 during the civil war.” Why we may never know

“ Most agree that the root of the problem lies in the ongoing economic crisis”

"How can I support my people dying? My grandchildren and great-grandchildren were forced to go to Poland. We live in fear and terror." "I was just happy that Russians would come and not fight with us. I was happy that we would unite again." The red flag, she says , is not the flag of the Soviet Union, not of Russia, but "the banner of love and happiness in every family, in every city, in every republic. Not of bloodshed. And whoever says otherwise, is wrong." "If I could speak to Vladimir Putin I would say, you've made a mistake. Us Ukrainian workers, what have we ever done to deserve this? We are the ones who are suffering the most." "Putin is a president. A tsar, a king, an emperor."

Capitalism and the Shipping Chaos

Mortgages to universal credit claimants

What it can tell us about the world

A book review

Should it be cancelled to protect workers?

From the archive 1,000 ways to say no in Arabic

  Economist Branko Milanovic  described  recent events as the “largest setbacks to global poverty and inequality reduction since the end of Second World War.” The rot at the heart of the global economy

TB outbreak in Bahraini prison Background "The Americans told me honestly: 'we can't affect change in Bahrain unless the British agree. And the British won't agree unless the Saudis agree'," he said. "It is clear that since 2011 our political decisions have been transfered to Saudi Arabia and it will continue there."

“Disgusting!”  Feeding in stables a  “system of cell prison”  for the animals.  “ In these prisons animals are born and remain there until they are killed off. The question is whether or not this system connected to the breeding system that grows animals in an abnormal way by aborting bones in order to transform them to mere meat and a bulk of fat—whereas earlier (before 1848) animals remained active by staying under free air as much as possible—will ultimately result in serious deterioration of life force?” Karl Marx, Marx-Engels Archives, Sign. B. 106, 336; quoted in Kohei Saito, “Why Ecosocialism Needs Marx,”  Monthly Review  68, no. 6 (November 2016): 62. See also Holderness, “The Origins of High Farming,” 160–61. Capitalist production, war and the current food crisis

Canada’s military exports to Saudi Arabia increased in 2021

I liked the movie. In the original title ‘back’, not ‘skin’ is used.

This statement was published in 1995, i.e. before the wars and invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, for example, and before the destructive legacies left behind after the American forces withdrew from the two countries, the Arab uprisings and the war in Syria, the NATO ‘intervention in Libya, and of course the ongoing invasion of Ukraine – a proxy war in fact. In addition to the exacerbated ecological degradation, rise in global inequality and social insecurity and precarity, etc. I am convinced, for example, that capitalism cannot deliver world peace. It seems to me axiomatic that the expansionary, competitive and exploitative logic of capitalist accumulation in the context of the nation-state system must, in the longer or shorter term, be destabilizing, and that capitalism – and at the moment its most aggressive and adventurist organizing force, the government of the United States – is and will for the foreseeable future remain the greatest threat to world peace. Nor do I think that ca...

مقال لسيد القمني نشر في مجلة روزا اليوسف ، القاهرة 1998

The Club