Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

‘Telk Qadeya’: A Western world that excludes Palestinians from humans They save sea turtles They kill human animals But this is one issue, and that’s another How to become a white angel? Bear half a conscience Fight for freedom movements Eradicate liberation movements Bestow your compassion and tenderness On the killed according to nationality But this is one issue, and that’s another How to become civilised Abiding by all terms and conditions Make all your words righteous Take trees in your arms Sugar-coat titles and names While an army demolishes a nearby school And when caught red-handed … with blood Say everyone’s a victim But this is one issue, and that’s another How can I believe this world? When it talks about humanity Seeing a mother lamenting her child Who died in a raid … hungry Placing the killers on a par with their victims With all honesty and fairness But this is one issue, and that’s another How can I sleep peacefully? Plugging my ears While a family is buried under the ...

We have been seduced by Harari because of the power not of his truth or scholarship but of his storytelling. As a scientist, I know how difficult it is to spin complex issues into appealing and accurate storytelling. I also know when science is being sacrificed to sensationalism. Yuval Harari is what I call a “science populist.” (Canadian clinical psychologist and YouTube guru  Jordan Peterson  is another example.) Science populists are gifted storytellers who weave sensationalist yarns around scientific “facts” in simple, emotionally persuasive language. Their narratives are largely scrubbed clean of nuance or doubt, giving them a false air of authority—and making their message even more convincing. Like their political counterparts, science populists are sources of misinformation. They promote false crises, while presenting themselves as having the answers. They understand the seduction of a story well told—relentlessly seeking to expand their audience—never mind that the un...

 The BBC: It’s not a conflict. But we have seen headlines similar to this one, about Syrian children, for instance.  Now let’s change the headline above to “Animals feared killed and missing in Israel-Gaza conflict” and see how many likes we get. Or, let’s have those mothers and their children seeking refuge at the gates of civilised England, Poland, France or Hungary and see what happens. and On the land of  Liberté, Égalité,  Fraternité An Arab problem?

The  links  connecting  livestock  and  crops  to  germs  were  unforgettably illustrated  for  me  by  a  hospital  case  about  which  I  learned  through  a  physician  friend.  When  my  friend  was  an  inexperienced  young  doctor,  he  was called  into  a  hospital  room  to  deal  with  a  married  couple  stressed-out  by  a mysterious  illness.  It  did  not  help  that  the  couple  was  also  having  difficulty communicating  with  each  other,  and  with  my  friend.  The  husband  was  a small,  timid  man,  sick  with  pneumonia  caused  by  an  unidentified  microbe, and  with ...

Nasīr al-Dīn Tūsī and evolution?