NM's blog

Bertrand Russell warns that racial pride can quickly become harmful racial supremacy (1946): “Another passion which gives rise to false beliefs that are politically harmful is pride - pride of nationality, race, sex, class, or creed. When I was young France was still regarded as the traditional enemy of England, and I gathered as an unquestionable truth that one Englishman could defeat three Frenchmen. When Germany became the enemy this belief was modified and English people ceased to mention derisively the French propensity for eating frogs. But in spite of governmental efforts, I think few Englishmen succeeded in genuinely regarding the French as their equals.  Americans and Englishmen, when they become acquainted with the Balkans, feel an astonished contempt when they study the mutual enmities of Bulgarians and Serbs, or Hungarians and Rumanians. It is evident to them that these enmities are absurd and that the belief of each little nation in its own superiority has no objective...

The Telegraph: Clive must not fall. The arch-imperialist deserves his place in Whitehall Ned Ma Clive, Havelock, Gordon, Churchill and many more must fall. John Money Ned Ma  why?? John Burton Ned Ma  Then you must fall. Or leave if you haven't already Ned Ma John Money Like in many other countries, there are things omitted from the school curriculum on purpose. Let's start with Clive / Clive of India. He was a colonial figure. If you are a supporter of the British empire then the discussion will end soon. While celebrated for his military successes in establishing British dominance, Robert Clive is also criticized for amassing a vast personal fortune through corruption and for policies that led to the Bengal famine of 1770, which resulted in the deaths of millions. Horace Walpole, Whig politician and author, said of the “sovereigns of Bengal”: “They starved millions in India by monopolies and plunder, and almost raised a famine at home by the luxury occasioned by their opulen...

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...

Shaul Magid, Peter Beinart, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Pankaj Mishra

One of India’s most important historians

“[W]hether demographic, democratic or cultural, the central tropes of the ‘looming crisis’ approach are monolithism—migrants are African for Smith, Muslim for Caldwell, Mexican for Huntington—and scale: the unprecedented numbers that are about to set forth.” Some figures are crucial to dispel myths and misconceptions. “[T]he latest figures for international migrants—defined as those who have been dwelling for at least a year outside their country of birth—is just over a quarter of a billion, or 3.6 per cent of the global population. Around 60 per cent of these are ‘labour migrants’, roughly 20 per cent are people displaced by war, repression or natural disaster, while 6 million are international students. “[O]ver half the cross-border migrants in Europe—44 million, out of a total 87 million—come from other European countries, mainly in Eastern and Southeastern Europe; ‘irregular’ arrivals by land and sea totalled only 189,000 in 2022. “Economic migration has grown and changed, but the ...

Note the distortion by the BBC: “Admirers see her as a leading voice for liberal values and a champion of the marginalised.” Roy is liberal? Celebrated writer faces prosecution

Indian-made drones on their way to Israel Related The Palestine Laboratory

Amit Dave/Reuters via merip.org “ Karim’s experience is the product of an evolving strategic partnership between India and Israel , where an increasingly overt convergence of interests and ideology has led to both states tangibly supporting one another in working towards their respective political and economic ambitions. Through this partnership, state repression in Indian-occupied territories is not an exclusively Indian project. It has become part of a broader network, linking India to the Israeli state and its own colonial project.”

The unending pain of sewer workers

Among the 150-plus photographs, images of Latin America, Africa, and the Indian subcontinent appear hardly at all and usually as a foil or kitschy reflection of Euro-American modernity. North Korea, the kitschiest foil of them all, appears as many times as the entire African continent. For all our differences, [the exhibition ] Civilisation seems to preach, we people of the world are essentially the same, and we’re all trying to make the best of life within the inescapable confines of US-exported late capitalism.

“Both Hindutva and Zionism draw on ancient mythology to exert their statehood and entitlement to land and power. They both instrumentalise religion to justify their perspectives. Because it is in Palestine and Kashmir that the outcomes of Zionism and Hindutva are most visible. The Indian occupation and the Israeli occupation are not the same, but once again, they share many similarities.” The past and present of the Indian-Israeli relations