Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from September 10, 2023

Libya: Ailing Infrastructure and Poor Preparedness Exacerbated Devastation

Why did Libya floods result in such a large loss of life? كان من الممكن تفادي سقوط معظم القتلى  The BBC: A Libyan politician says the country's deadly flooding was a disaster waiting to happen Guma El-Gamaty, head of the Taghyeer Party, says budgets to repair the dams were not allocated properly after Colonel Gaddafi was overthrown Most of the thousands of deaths in the Libya floods could have been avoided, the UN's World Meteorological Organization says Warnings should have been issued, leading to evacuations, "and we could have avoided most of the human casualties"

A Classic Speaks About Those Longing for a Better Life

Meaning of Salma ya Salama In French with English subtitles

Art: What Does the ‘Global South’ Even Mean?

“As ill-defined as the term might be, in the cultural sphere the real value of the Global South is to open a space for decolonising conversations, articulating the kind of hybridity and complexity of modern identity that a nationality cannot, a conversation held far from the old imperialist orders of the Northern hemisphere. A utopian geography that may never be real but can serve a purpose.” A series of upcoming biennials promise to explore the art of the ‘Global South’

Forecasting China?

For years the main Western media outlets and well-known analysts of China have been speaking and writing about the coming Chinese economy big trouble, if not collapse. Nathan Sperber provides an interesting account 

Mat Nashed on the War in Sudan

Summary “Western diplomats privately accused the pro-democracy movement of not being pragmatic. This on account of its slogan, ‘No Negotiation, No Partnership, No Legitimacy’, which accurately sums up the movement’s position towards the junta that was killing its members on the streets of Khartoum.  The Western attempt to restore a civilian-military partnership also gave Dagalo the opportunity to reposition himself as a supporter of ‘democracy’.” The Western regimes’ old-new tradition of supporting ‘stability’. “An estimated twenty-five million people – more than half of Sudan’s population – are in desperate need of relief due to a humanitarian crisis made worse by the fighting.  But rather than safeguard the integrity of relief, the global aid response has elected to administer its operations from SAF-controlled Port Sudan. This has predictably led to bureaucratic impediments, visa denials, and the acute diversion of aid by the SAF, as well as by the RSF.” “Neither Washington nor Riya