Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

"There is no alternative." —Margaret Thatcher "The best of all possible worlds." —Voltaire "Free market must be protected"

"In this pandemic, the mask reveals far more than it hides. It exposes the world’s political and  economic relations for what they are: vectors of self-interest that ordinarily lie obscured under glib talk of globalisation and openness. For the demagogues who govern so much of the world, the pandemic has provided an unimpeachable excuse to fulfil their dearest wishes: to nail national borders shut, to tar every outsider as suspicious, and to act as if their own countries must be preserved above all others. When these tendencies combine with a fawning loyalty to the free market, the results can be ruinous. In mere weeks, the mask went from being an urgent human need to a cynically exploited asset in a global resource grab – the fastest such journey, perhaps, of any product in history. Sometimes, it felt as if the mask itself was beside the point – that it was just a trigger to rehearse old routines of acquisitiveness and discord, with no further, greater end in sight." Ho...

Leave it to the market

Ken Loach blames "fake left" politicians

Generally a good piece, but saying that the US "has destroyed Iraq, Libya and Syria" is not accurate from Roy. The US has contributed in the destruction of Libya and Syria. In both countries the main destruction has been carried out by local and regional forces. That also ignores the role of Russia. Literature provides shelter By Arundhati Roy

"Not so long ago, socialism in the USA was equated with Communism, which in turn was equated with Stalinist Russia, which in turn was equated with the Evil Empire, which, as we all know, was equated with the sinister realm of Satan, the Antichrist and everything that was contrary to apple pie, motherhood, and every other well-known American value." Trump's advisors slander socialism

Iran This time around, protesters chant against all factions and cliques: reformists, conservatives, middle classes and the whole governing class have been called into question. It's the economy, stupid!

"As I tried to follow the arguments and explanations of the economist-theologians who justify The Market's ways to men, I spotted the same dialectics I have grown fond of in the many years I have pondered the Thomists, the Calvinists, and the various schools of modern religious thought. In particular, the econologians' rhetoric resembles what is sometimes called "process theology," a relatively contemporary trend influenced by the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. In this school although God wills to possess the classic attributes, He does not yet possess them in full, but is definitely moving in that direction. This conjecture is of immense help to theologians for obvious reasons. It answers the bothersome puzzle of theodicy: why a lot of bad things happen that an omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient God—especially a benevolent one—would not countenance. Process theology also seems to offer considerable comfort to the theologians of The Market. It helps ...

Security for Whom? Unpacking the Gendered Impact of EU Securitized Migration

Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason review

Amartya Sen "On the issue of liberalisation and the opening up of economies, Amartya has been rather mainstream. He hasn't raised very deep questions about the whole process and of globalisation in general. He's more of a mainstream economist than many people realise." More substantial criticisms revolve round his role in the current globalisation debate. Richard Jolly, while being an enormous admirer, says: "On the issue of liberalisation and the opening up of economies, Amartya has been rather mainstream. He hasn't raised very deep questions about the whole process and of globalisation in general. He's more of a mainstream economist than many people realise." Food for thought

An interesting perspective  Salafism and the Politics of Free Market Religion

Sex for rent? and London letting agents 'refuse black tenants'

Turkey coup Background and context: Liberalized Islam, Post-Sufis, and the Military in Turkey   Coup Aftermath Between Neo-Fascism and Bonapartism