Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

  من أول الروايات التي قرأتُها وأثرت في تفكيري كثيرا، خاصة أنني شخصيا تعرضتُ لبعض التعذيب بعد سنوات قليلة من قرائتها،  كانت رواية منيف "شرق المتوسط". للأسف لم أقرأ "مدن الملح" بعد. عبد الرحمان منيف

“Although the film cannot be simply categorised as working-class cinema - it is, after all, a commercial film intended primarily for a comparatively bourgeois international audience and international festivals - it is not bourgeois either. It clearly centres on the perspective of the urban, struggling poor, and it successfully imposes this viewpoint, rather than making a plea for it. The viewer is encouraged to empathise with Ali, but Ali is not rehabilitated for the bourgeois eye.” A man whose burning anger suggests little has changed for ordinary Tunisians

Algeria: Primary schools to teach English in 'overdue' move away from 'colonial' French French is on the verge of disappearing in Morocco “Algerian children will be left unable to academically master a single language due to the lack of provisions for this transition into English in schools.”  Moving from French to English won't resolve the country's problems

Accessing the full review requires a subscription – an institutional subscription, for example. Apart from what is available, I have added the following: A factor that Indyk omits is the disdain Kissinger repeatedly demonstrated for Arab leaders (“pathetic,” “wily,” “uncouth,” “quixotic,” and “machismo-driven,” which is rich coming from him) and peoples (“mad,” their “ways” a mystery, above all in the Persian Gulf, home to “eight million savages”). Indyk dismisses it as mere “frat-boy talk.” Decades ago, journalist Seymour Hersh instead insisted that the racism of Kissinger and his two closest and most hard-core anti-communist sidekicks, Haig and Helmut Sonnenfeldt, was as entrenched as Nixon’s. This was true whether they were assessing the intelligence of the African Americans then rising through the ranks of the State Department (“Do you think he’ll understand the cables?”) or hosting Organization of African Unity officials (“I wonder what the dining room is going to smell like”). T...

Yes, Arabs Read! But How Much?

Resistance Committees plot a way out of the war

Tech-mythologies

I think capitalism in Russia would be more accurate than Russian capitalism. “The narrative emphasising how the hybrid nature of the Russian state – neoliberal regulatory and statist interventionist – led it down the path to war in Ukraine, offers a fragmented (and misleading) explanation of reality. The problem is that the ideological and political features of the state are interpreted as exercised for purposes outside of capitalist accumulation – be it nationalism, patriarchy, racism, homophobia – conceived as separate systems of oppression from class.” On expropriation and social reproduction Related On the war and on internationalism The Development of Capitalism in Russia 

  الشاعر: محمد الصغير أولاد أحمد

Toward a clear vision of ‘Islamic’ art ‘Islamic’ culture: a groundless myth

Shalash the Iraqi

 I read his novel  ‘Banquet for Seaweed’ a few years ago in Arabic. I do not think it is translated to English. Author who shunned spotlight and for whom writing was truly its own reward

ربما لا نتفق مع بعض ما جاء في التحليل، ولكن يعطي المقال جردا عاما مفيدا لا نعثر عليه في وسائل الإعلام المهيمنة "ثورات مَنْسِيّة"

Cet article reflète la séparation de l'économique du culturel. Après tout, la bourgeoisie est une classe définie par son rapport à la production et à la propriété ; à son rôle économique de domination. Ce rôle doit également être abordé et ne pas être séparé de l'oppression en général.

  يا حكام الشرق الكرماء من منكم لم يكشف عن أنيابه حتى لآن يا حكام الشرق الكرماء من منكم لم يكشف عن أنيابه حتى لآن من ما زال يوزع ضحكته الصفراء ويبرق في عينيه الجوع الدموي الكامن في الأسنان من منكم لم يسقط بعد قناع الوطنية هذه الطفلة ما زالت تحمل اسم فلسطين وما زالت حية من منكم لم يلق بأشواك الغدر على درب الطفلة تحبو منطلقة من منكم لم يغمد خنجره في جنبيها من لم يشرب من دمها الغائر كالأمطار من لم يسرق جفنا من عينيها من لم يقطع من هذي الوردة ورقة —مقتطف من قصيدة المختار اللغماني حفريات في جسد عربي

    تعويذة سعيّد لاستحضار سراب

Profiting from war

A very illuminating essay. The myth of the ‘national bourgeoisie’

“Without increasing taxes on corporations and capital income, or taking industries into direct public ownership, state subsidies imply a transfer of resources from labour and the public sector to capital, exacerbating inequalities and resentments.” Hollow states

Note that Avi Shlaim uses the mainstream description ‘the Palestinian-Israeli conflict’ although he asserts that Israel’s origin is settler colonialism. How was there ethnic cleansing, as Shlaim asserts, and one can still call it a conflict? Shlaim mentions how “ The last five Conservative prime ministers, starting with David Cameron, have all been staunch supporters of Israel.” Why, I wonder, did he exclude Blair’s New Labour, not to mention previous Labour governments? He also states something I find disturbing: “ The British mandate for Iraq, the French mandate for Syria, and the French mandate for Lebanon were all about preparing the local population for self-government.” ‘ An unbroken thread of duplicity, mendacity, chicanery and skulduggery’ Related It is not a conflict

Saudi Arabia is using culture to repackage monarchy

Bread and Freedom: Egypt’s Revolutionary Situation  is a riveting account of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. But it ignores class and capitalism and fails to explain the reasons behind Egypt’s mass mobilization and why it was defeated . Related Class in the 21st Century

?Who remembers Bernard Lewis  من لو بوان إلى دير شبيغل

“It would take human jobs faster than the Kardashians ‘dump boyfriends’.”

“The electoral infrastructure and the mobilisation of the security apparatus — the police and Islamo-nationalist militias rather than the army — may get Erdoğan re-elected. But the three pillars of his political project — the credibility of the state, his assertive foreign policy and economic success — have been shaken by the earthquake .”

“As Stefánsson found with crosswords, it seems our genes influence our natural inclinations towards doing certain activities. What truly dictates whether we have any aptitude for them are factors such as whether we receive tutoring and other opportunities at an early age, and our own willingness to practice, improve and persist. The environment we find ourselves in plays a huge role in determining whether we act on our genetic inclinations or not. Stefánsson says that people who have genetic variants in their brain which make them struggle with inhibition are going to be more likely to overeat if they work next to fast food outlets, and struggle to quit if they begin smoking. But at the same time, there is evidence that having a  stable family life ,  stable romantic relationships and friendships , or even  exercising regularly  can help them live a productive life.” Genetics and life choices

“Through an analysis of domestic factors, elements that are often presented as separate, or timeless, features of Middle Eastern politics, be they nationalism or religious fundamentalism, may turn out to be much more closely formed and transformed by their association with the state. Just as a more flexible and specific view of history has made historical analysis more effective, a more specific view of the state may, thereby, lead to a recognition of its greater influence.” The starting point is “the approach that is broadly derivative of historical sociology, and of the stronger insights of Marxism, and, by extension, of the international dimensions, at once of history as of contemporary politics and society, that historical sociology addresses. This perspective looks at the core components of a political and social order, the state, ideology and society, and focuses specifically on how institutions, be they of political or social/religious power, are established and maintained. It s...

Will it become business as usual?

Why Europe clings to the colonial mindset

“ Smile, General  has done the unthinkable: shattering the sanctity of an incumbent ruling family for the first time in Arab film and TV history. A grand revolution in Arab TV is not expected anytime soon, but the show has certainly succeeded in stirring the politically still water of the region’s TV industry.”

Tariq Ali and Priyamvada Gopal join Eleanor Penny to discuss the life and legacy of Winston Churchill

Capital’s militant

A very insightful essay by Fred Holiday . What can pre-1978-79 Iran tell us about 2011 revolutions/uprisings in the ‘Arab world’?