Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

"A recent “Letter Against US Imperialism” by leftist intellectuals such as Angela Davis, Vijay Prashad, Robin Kelley, and Hamid Dabashi denounces the latest Iranian mass uprising and continues the old pattern. It attributes the latest protests in Iran to “Iranian native informants and cheerleaders who serve as functionaries of US imperialism.” It argues that the Iranian masses only want “stability” and “reform” but not regime change. The claims in the letter simply do not match the reality on the ground." Shameful, to say the least.  Why the latest uprising in Iran matters

Writings on the column: "We want to burn your palaces" "Lebanon is ours" Heading for a meltdown?

"Toby Dodge, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics and a longtime researcher on Iraq, said the post-2003 system which embedded corruption in the Iraqi state, as well as sectarianism and coercion, was starting to break down – and violence was spiralling as a result. " Oh, but I thought, or I have been told by the media since the invasion of Iraq and the the war in Syria, that sectarianism is inherent and the main issue and that it goes back to post-Mohammed era. Now someone is blaming an imperialist occupation and (re)engineering of the Iraqi society. And a "revolution" is unfolding, i.e. class and social issues have become prevelant.

For decades the dominant view in academia and outside academia has been blaming corruption for the ills and problems in the MENA region. Up until the 1970s, cultural factors had blamed been for the failures of the region to develop. Cultural factors were also used to explain China's underdevelopment from a capitalist perspective. It's been convenient for the centres of powers in the West and the international institutions to dessiminate such a view so that the structural roots and the form of capitalism (rentier economies) as well as imperialist domination is masked and not questioned. I am glad to see that an opinion on bloomberg , a hardly Marxist website, that is sceptical of that dominant view. One thus has to think of the class structure in the MENA region, the lack of the political will to pursue a development path based on productivity and acquire the technology to be able to compete globally in a world where technological know-how and markets are monopolised by a h

Former President of Ecuador Raphael Correa:  "Clearly what happened in Bolivia was a coup." I am puzzeled though when he said there was no corruption in the United States or that he loved the the U.S. What does loving an imperialist and very unequal country mean? A country that is rife with  justice at home and it is policing global injustice!

"Impossible to anticipate the spur for rebellion. In Lebanon, it was a tax on the use of WhatsApp; in Chile, it was the rise in subway fares; in Ecuador and in Haiti, it was the cut in fuel subsidies. Each of these conjunctures brought people to the streets and then, as these people flooded the streets, more and more joined them. They did not come for WhatsApp or for subway tokens. They came because they are frustrated, angry that history seems to disregard them as it consistently favours the ruling class." There is something that's ours on the streets and we're going to take it back

We went to Iraq in 2003 and we "liberated" it from a brutal dictator. In fact we had tried to "liberate" Iraq before that, in 1991. 16 years later   " protests earlier this month were brutally put down by security forces, leaving nearly 150 people dead," reported the BBC. You see, there is no hope. These "backward people" even after helping them with training an army and security forces, they failed in front of the "Islamic State" and now they are killing their own people.

"One of the most indebted countries in the world, Lebanon is struggling to find fresh sources of funding as the foreign inflows on which it has traditionally relied have dried up. Promises of assistance from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Lebanon’s former benefactors, have largely failed to arrive. The government needs to cut spending, raise taxes and fight corruption to unlock some $11 billion in international aid pledges made at a Paris donor conference in 2018." How Lebanon's Unrest is Both New and More of the Same (Click on Free and continue to website)

" The new wave of protests that erupted early this week in Baghdad, in which protesters are demanding dignity, jobs and services, has spread to other southern cities including Basra, Najaf, Karbala, Diwaniyah and Nasiriyah. It has escalated quickly and now includes calls for the 'fall of the regime'." It is interesting to notice another counter-sectarianism evidence. The majority of Iraq's population is Shi'a and the protests are taking place in Shi'a-dominated cities, with anti-Iranian slogans raised and the Iranian flag burnt. When the first Arab uprising erupted in Tunisia in December 2010, one the dominant slogans was: "Jobs are a right you band of thieves." Then came "the people want the overthrow of the regime." The socio-economic revolution in the MENA region is yet to come. And in the absence of radicalism, leadership and strategy, it is going to a be a long and protracted process that the counter-revolutionary forces, i

A note on the current wave of social media videos in Egypt

Egypt The Times , a revolutionary paper, is saying that our friends, who  wine and dine with revolutionaries like Cameron, Trump and Netanyahu in London and Washington, are building palace and villas corruptly . Tomorrow we will welcome them again, for they provide stability and help maintin geopolitical interests.

Russia A meaningful change in Russia is not coming after/through these coming elections, but there is discontent and there is some dynamic going on. " Society should not perceive the situation as having only the authorities and the liberals, who support the same economic system but are unhappy with corruption. Our task is to show that there is a big role in the democratic process for left ideas and social demands. On the whole, the society tends toward left social democracy. For me personally, that may be too moderate. But in any case, people want social transformations and a mixed economy." The situation on the ground is not allowing more than being "too moderate".  It is also good to be "too moderate"; otherwise, the bulk of Western media and "leaders"  would call you either an extremist or populist! "Russia Needs Its Own Bernie Sanders."

"How privatisation increases corruption in the developing world"

Iraq Threats and arrests face Basrah activists

England: corruption "But the fact is that the cases so far brought by the NCA are probably the tip of an iceberg of suspected corruption. Of the properties owned by overseas companies in England and Wales, two-thirds are registered to firms in the British Virgin Islands, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man - which means it can be difficult to work out who ultimately benefits from the asset  The government is supposedly committed to banning the ownership of British property through shadowy companies - but nothing has been done.  Until there is more clarity on who owns what, already-stretched financial crime investigators will struggle to seize the suspected billions of stolen loot washing around the British property market ."

" South Africa has a general election tomorrow, 25 years since the end of apartheid and six years since the death of Nelson Mandela. In those 25 years, the aspirations and hopes of most black South Africans (90% of the 58m South Africans) and, for that matter, many white South Africans, have been disappointed. In those 25 years, the majority have not seen any startling improvement in their living standards, education, health and public services." The dashing of a dream

An interesting report by Reuters How China is replacing America as Asia's military titan

A Hundred Netanyahus

"Assad's loyalists are turning on the government"

"None of the welfare benefits and financial packages on display today existed a decade ago. In fact, in earlier times the people in Qom used to equate being a student of religious studies, or  talabegi , with poverty and low quality of life. But this image and even self-presentation has been radically overturned in the past decade. Simultaneously, the state has been following neoliberal policies for the vast majority of society by privatizing universities and schools, deregulating labor laws, suppressing unions and cutting public budgets, while it has fashioned a welfare state in Qom for a few would-be its loyal subjects." Protesting Clerical Welfarism in Iran's Pious City