Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from April 20, 2025

The Jordanian State Bans the Muslim Brotherhood

After rejecting in 2019 the Arab league request to ban the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, the Jordanian regime has now bowed down to external pressures and issued a ban  on the Brotherhood. The ‘terrorism' excuse has been found as well as the recent advance of the Brotherhood in the parlamentary elections .  This works well for the monarchy, Israel and the 'normalisation' process. Stability of an American protectorate is more crucial in the current context than ever.

Mario Vargas Llosa: Neocon with a Nobel

“The Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa died on 13 April, in Lima. He was 89. Best known for his role in Latin American literature’s revival, which earned him a Nobel Prize in 2010, Vargas Llosa was also a political activist. After a brief period of communist involvement as a student, he made a U-turn and used his literary influence to mount a defence of neoliberalism. In 1990 he ran for president, and in 2021 he supported far-right candidate Keiko Fujimori against left-wing candidate Pedro Castillo.” ( Le Monde Diplomatique) Neocon with a Nobel By Ignacio Ramonet, Le Monde Diplomatique, December 2010 In Llosa's  El Sueno del Celta, the  hero, Roger Casement, 1864-1916, “was an outstanding historical figure. As a British consul in Africa, he was the first to condemn, as early as 1908, the atrocities of Belgian colonialism in the Congo Free State…  Vargas Llosa’s novel has rescued Casement from oblivion, as ‘one of the first Europeans to have formed a very clear idea of th...

Pope Francis: An Anti-Eulogy

By Marc Scully 22 April 2025 Pope Francis has died and eulogies are pouring in praising his concern for the poor, marginalized and dispossessed. Tell that to the thousands of young boys molested and sexually assaulted by Catholic priests. Pope Francis was supposed to clean up that criminality against children in the church but he did not and it prevails. Cleaning it up would have required turning offenders over to civil authorities for prosecution but Pope Francis continued to protect them. Pope Francis had an avuncular persona but contrary to the eulogies he does not have an inspiring history when it comes to standing with the oppressed. Serious questions remain about his role during Argentina's Dirty War, an anti-communist rampage under the military junta from 1976 to 1983 when at least 30,000 people were disappeared or killed in the most barbaric ways like pushing them out of airplanes over the ocean. Those questions about Pope Francis' role don't go away and it isn'...

Capitalism's Genius Climate Change Solution?

“The struggle for a Free Palestine is a fight against the same systems driving climate collapse: extractivism, militarism, and capitalism . Palestine's struggle mirrors every frontline community fighting to survive capitalism's fires and floods. From  Yemen  to  Niger Delta  to  Central India , the lesson is the same: our chains are linked.” Build more weapons

Santiago de Chile: Gaza

Solidarity with Palestine “Break relations with the genocidal state of Israel” Related The President of Chile Gabriel Boric has been described by  The Economist  as " woke " and as part of the  millennial left , "with a program focused on social justice, human rights, the environment and feminism". Boric has expressed support for the  State of Palestine  on multiple occasions. In 2019, after receiving a gift from the Jewish Community of Chile, he called for Israel to return the occupied Palestinian territories in a tweet.  He described Israel as a "genocidal and murderous state" that violates international treaties, stressing the importance of defending international principles and human rights regardless of a country's power.  Boric refuted accusations of  antisemitism , asserting his rejection of all forms of discrimination. He considers the Israeli occupation of territories beyond the  1967 borders  as a violation of international la...