Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

An article subject to subscription Summary “The main aim of some of these actors – particularly the Gulf monarchies – is to secure Sudan’s stability and stop the conflict from spilling over into neighbouring states. They are also protecting their food security, since some of them, such as Qatar, own or lease agricultural land in Sudan to feed their own populations. However, the top priority for the UAE and Russia remains control of Sudan’s gold trade, as the country is Africa’s third-largest producer. Qatar is also involved: my sources suggest Doha has transferred $1bn to Sudan’s central bank to support the Sudanese pound and boost the trade in gold between the two countries. In late 2023 the UN Panel of Experts on Sudan reported that the UAE was helping the RSF receive gold that sanctioned companies were smuggling out of Sudan. Similarly, a May 2024 report by the NGO SWISSAID identified the UAE as the primary destination of smuggled African gold. Many experts suggest that Russian econ...

“Under President Sissi, Madbouly has become one of the main pillars of the realisation of the regime’s ambitious vision for the development of infrastructures and grandiose urban projects, and it’s just too bad if these are carried out at the expense of social justice and the rights of the poor.” Related Urban transformation:  the Egyptian novel in the sixties

From 2019 “It doesn’t take Ariel long to get used to this new world without Palestinians. He and others do feel flashes of regret and fear. A bartender at the nearby Chez George tells Ariel, ‘Maybe the Arabs will crawl out of every corner like zombies and return to exact revenge’. But twenty-four hours after the disappearance, no zombies show up. In fact, ‘They didn’t find a single drop of blood. They were relieved that the army either wasn’t responsible for the disappearance, or it had executed it perfectly’.” The Book of Disappearance Related Dutch-politician calls for ‘transfer’ of Palestinains to Jordan

“With the destruction of the Egyptian opposition and almost daily acts of state terror against the slightest sign or gesture of dissent, a repetition of the 2011 domino effect is unlikely - at least in the short run.” Sisi’s “popularity among all social classes in Egypt, including sections of big capital, has hit rock bottom. “Unlike his predecessors,  Sisi is ruling solely by coercion and  has eviscerated the civil society  and political institutions that manufacture some necessary level of consent, which is crucial for the endurance of the regime and the state.” [I have reordered the sentences] The Egyptian regime, argues Hossam al-Hamalawy , sufferes from a crisis of hegemony, continuously dependent on foreign money and complicit in genocide. 

“Israel's colonial hubris regards having the  ability  to reshape the Middle East through mass violence being fed by the autocratic nature of the Arab states and the failure of the democratic movement in the region.” Egypt and Syria are singled out in the article.

‘The first genocide in history to be televised and openly supported by the West’

Vulnerable to implosion

One of the results of the counter-revolution 

“The idea of the book arose from my interest in writing about the body and its relationship to surrounding spaces . It explores the political, intellectual, and organizational state of paralysis that has afflicted Egyptian society due to the oppression of the current regime.”

A ‘group’ that “held an attachment to forms of hope that placed faith in the capitalist system to fulfil their dreams . “I develop a political economy of emotion and hope that traces how capitalist systems continue to capture the attention of the very people harmed by them.”  I would use ‘forms of the capitalist system’ rather than ‘capitalist systems’. There is only one globalised capitalist system, albeit with different form in different countries.

The dish “is in the crosshairs of certain city dwellers who look upon shawarma vendors with a jaundiced eye, as forerunners of a foreign invasion. Their reactions speak volumes about the crises in the Middle East and their repercussions in Cairo, but also about regional geopolitics, migratory streams, the refugee problem, the economic crisis plaguing the country and the fervent nationalism which is surfacing again as a result. Shawarma “has become a symbol of xenophobia and rampant nationalism. ”

When Only God Can See

It is not Europe but some of Europe. “In essence, the EU and major member states have thrown their lot in with one of the most brutal and repressive dictatorships in the Middle East, standing firmly against the democratic aspirations of Egyptians. This policy has garnered mass profits for European corporations and states , at the expense of the Egyptian poor and middle classes.” Related A window into Egyptian general’s past

"Beyond the grandiose tirades and pontificating final statements, each ‘urgent’ meeting ratifies only the league’s inaction. It is too tempting to picture this assembly (excellencies, corpulencies, marshal-presidents, rebels-turned-honourables, men elected in dubious landslides or by the slimmest of margins) at its large round table, conversing with furrowed brows before condemning Israel’s depiction of the war as ‘self-defence’ and demanding, of course, that the country ‘immediately abolish these brutal and inhumane measures’ (11 November 2023). And what else? Threats of a military response? Calls for international sanctions on Israel like those Russia faced after invading Ukraine? A motion supporting South Africa’s case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to stop Israel’s ethnic cleansing or even genocide in Gaza? A radical re-examination of the normalisation process and – why not? – severing of diplomatic ties? Cutting Gulf sovereign wealth fund investment in the US...

El Mahala Textile in Egypt has been in turmoil

Outside interference, ostensibly on behalf of these 'revolutions', reduced Libya to anarchy and condemned Syria to a devastating proxy war now in its twelfth year. In Egypt, the Free Officers' state was re-booted in its most brutal ever form. The Americans and Europeans did not vainly try to help the Egyptians or anyone else escape from authoritarian rule. Instead, they contrived to seal them up in it. The long oppression of these societies, Kipling’s 'loved Egyptian night', is not going to be ended by the Western powers; these days it is guaranteed by them. Hugh Roberts 's new book political history of the risings in Egypt, Libya and Syria explains how the Western powers manipulated them all .

“Far from being caused by personal rivalry, this conflict is rooted in the long history of the region and Sudan’s never-ending economic and social crisis. The conflict between the North and the South claimed between half a million and a million lives from 1955 to 2002. And herein lies the cause of the fighting tearing Sudan apart. To understand it requires going back to 2011. The secession of South Sudan and the rise of guerrilla movements within the North’s Muslim populations had weakened President Omar al-Bashir’s authority. His increasingly unpopular Islamist regime had been in power since the coup of June 1989 and was rotten with corruption. The regime sent the Janjaweed to fight in Yemen on behalf of the Saudis – who paid handsomely – and then tasked them with repressing the northern guerrillas of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), first in Darfur and then throughout the country. From the day after the coup, there were obvious tensions between the two forces, e...

Before and after October 07

In ‘Egyptian Arabic’ with English subtitles. The original lyrics can be read here .

More than a month old article. It is brief but a good summary . Related The betrayal of Gaza