NM's blog

'US imperialism's policy for a multi-polar world' Related Dispelling the multipolar myth

The BBC on Donald Trump's claim

It is a recommended long read , but subject to subscription access. Volkswagon's driverless car, a forerunner to completely driverless cars, has taken the German company about 18 months to develop, test and now commercially deploy — all in China. It is the fruit of a 700-person research and development team comprised mostly of Chinese software engineers with masters or PhDs and more than five years’ experience.  produced in China. Asked how long it would have taken to deliver something similar back home, Hafkemeyer, who worked with Audi, Chinese state-owned auto group BAIC and tech giant Huawei before joining VW in 2022, sighs with exasperation. Typically, he says, the technology development cycle in Germany is a slog of around four to four-and-a-half years, where ideas are bogged down in endless internal debate and commercial negotiations with suppliers. For decades, China has been the world’s factory and companies have tapped into a low-cost labour force with few protections and ...

“In its bid to attract foreign investment, the government has embraced a  neoliberal model  of economic liberalisation, sharp austerity and a shrinking public sector. These measures have been accompanied by policies and decisions that reinforce the concentration of economic power among the new ruling elite, while the vast majority of Syrians continue to live  in poverty . “So far, the majority of these investments have been in tourism, real estate and financial services, reflecting a focus on short-term profits at the expense of productive sectors such as manufacturing and agriculture.”

Law is not born of nature, beside the springs frequented by the first shepherds; law is born of real battles, of victories, of massacres, of conquests that have their dates and their heroes of horror; law is born from cities set ablaze, from ravaged lands; it is born with the famous innocents who agonize in the breaking dawn. —Michel Foucault,  ‘Society Must Be Defended’: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975–76 , trans. David Macey, New York 2003 [1997], p. 50. La loi ne naît pas de la nature . . . la loi naît des batailles réelles, des victoires, des massacres, des conquêtes qui ont leur date et leur héros d’horreur: la loi naît des villes incendiées, des terres ravagées; elle naît avec les fameux innocents qui agonisent dans le jour qui se lève. —Michel Foucault, ‘Il faut défendre la société’ footnote