Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

An interview with Mike Davis in 2018

I disagree with Dabashi in calling neofascist and far-right parties’s triumph across Europe fascist parties. Why Americans consistently misread social uprisings

“Exploitation under temporary migration regimes is far from exceptional and should be understood as structural. Certainly, we should highlight exploitation and be enraged about abuse, but this should not be exoticised as something uniquely Qatari. This, after all, is not about Qatar. It’s about the geographies of exploitation inherent in a global economy that succeeds or fails based on its ability to gain the most for the least amount of cost.” The Orientalist discourse hides structural exploitation Related Italy’s Migrant Boot Camp Raped, beaten, exploited “Italy’s Sikh Slaves” Spain: “If you don’t want to work like a slave …”

Labour MP Nadia Whittome had tweeted to say Mr Sunak was a multimillionaire who had, as chancellor, cut taxes on banks while living standards dropped in the UK and added: "Black, white or Asian: if you work for a living, he is not on your side". Labour’s leader spokesman stressed that Rishi Sunak becoming the first British Asian prime minister was a "great thing" and something the country "should be proud of". Labour instructed Whittome to remove the tweet .

It is no more a crowded country or there is no money. Some people are not put in detention centres, banned from work or sent to Rwanda. They are granted visas  and a three-year stay before even entering the country. Ukrainian refugees in the UK

“A survey for French television found that almost six out of 10 people thought those living in France without permission should be put in administrative detention.” No surprise here . Related Le Pen consistently received her best scores  [in  la France périphérique small towns, rural municipalities and declining former industrial belts, the ‘France of the Gilets Jaunes’],  precisely because she offered a discourse that resonated with the demands for security and protection found in parts of France that have most suffered from the consequences of market-led globalization. Having accepted the mantra of There Is No Alternative, the forces of ‘progressive neoliberalism’ have been signally unable to speak to these demands, instead viewing them as obstacles to modernization. This laid the terrain for the Front National to frame them in nationalist-xenophobic terms, and present itself as the ‘voice of the people’. Us and them

I’m writing because I’m hoping the people who read it don’t need dollops of hope or good endings but are reading so that they’ll know what to fight, and fight even when the fight seems hopeless. —Mike Davis I have read only one of his books – The Late Victorian Holocaust . Magisterial. Enemy of the state

Ottoman revival?

“We should contest and expose the Kremlin’s lying. But to suggest that the public assault on truth is new, or peculiarly Russian, is also disinformation .  Just as the Kremlin requires a campaign of disinformation to justify its imperial aggression in Ukraine, the  British empire  also needed a system of comprehensive lies.” Good. But I expected to also read about the contemporary lying machine not just the empire one.

Business is business. Who did provide material support to the Nazi regime? Lafarge provided material support to ISIS, a US court rules Related Lafarge in Syria

During a Conservative Friends of Israel event in August, Sunak said there was a  “very strong case”  for the UK moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and recognise the latter as Israel’s capital.  Sunak  opposed  the labelling of Israel as an apartheid state. “Like any nation, Israel is not perfect - but it is a vibrant multi-ethnic democracy with a free press and the rule of law. It stands as a shining beacon of hope in a region of autocracies and religious extremists.” “He would want to see maximum sanctions put on to see whether Iran could be persuaded or forced into a wider agreement that goes beyond just the nuclear programme," Fox said. He  announced plans  to treat those who “vilify Britain” as extremists to be referred to the controversial counter-terrorism programme.  **** And as usual, most Brits will be complicit in the British regime’s criminal actions. And more than usual, they will be busy with their immediate meeds, the co...

Clean hands:  Hand washing and car washing will never answer the key question Who speaks: The representative is bound to the existing social order Consolation prize: The metaphysics of sovereignty