Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

“The presidency of Jimmy Carter covering the years 1977 to 1980, seemed  an attempt by one part of the Establishment, that represented in the Democratic  party, to recapture a disillusioned citizenry. But Carter, despite a few gestures  toward black people and the poor, despite talk of ‘human rights’ abroad,  remained within the historic political boundaries of the American system,  protecting corporate wealth and power, maintaining a huge military machine  that drained the national wealth, allying the United States with right-wing  tyrannies abroad. Carter seemed to be the choice of that international group of powerful  influence-wielders—the Trilateral Commission. Two founding members of the  commission, according to the Far Eastern Economic Review—David  Rockefeller and Zbigniew Brzezinski—thought Carter was the right person for  the presidential election of 1976 given that ‘the W atergate-plagued Republican  Party was a sur...

In ‘strategic backwaters’, wrote Peter Gowan in 2001, even real genocide can be casually covered or countenanced, as the experience of Rwanda has shown. Where delinquent states are pivotal to American strategic interests, on the other hand, they are vigilantly shielded from human rights pressures, as the cases of Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey or Indonesia, to name only the most flagrant examples, have long made clear.  — Peter Gowan, Neoliberal Cosmopolitanism, New Left Review, Sep-Oct 2001.

Although there is some hint to a historical background , role of the structure of the authoritarian regimes and women employment – the latter being probably the lowest in the world in the MENA region – and how they reinforce violence are excluded from the equation.

“In most Western media coverage, there is a near-pathological tendency to portray him as a marginalized figure whose political resurrection reflects the ‘populist’ appeal of his brash and personalist style. But Prabowo’s ascent to the presidency can only be understood through a properly historicized analysis.” Line of succession

When referring to the Suharto regime, the BBC deliberately ignored the dark side of the US’s and Britain’s role and their support of the brutal, murderous regime.  “ Yet today Indonesian politics is dominated by the same powerful, wealthy figures who prospered under Suharto.” “Indonesia has had just two directly elected presidents over a 20-year period, both of whom have been moderate, effective and popular, delivering steady economic growth.” It sounds the type of ‘democracy’ we want. After all, Indonesia is the largest ‘Muslim’ country, and that is the type of a ‘Muslim’ country we need to see. But no, “ Indonesia's democracy - the third largest in the world - appears to be in rude health.” We have heard this before: ‘India, the largest democracy in the world’. “ The Indonesian state - built up methodically by Suharto - has survived much. The violent upheavals of the late 1990s, rising jihadist terrorism in the early 2000s that many thought would unravel it, the experiment with d...

The generals “will do us better than the old gang” Related The Killing Season. A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965 – 66

Historical responsibility for climate change is at the heart of debates over climate justice

“A Harvard University study estimated that the worst fires in decades in 2015 were linked to more than 90,000 early deaths. The fires that year are also believed to have produced more carbon emissions in just a few months than the entire United States economy.”   Inside the destruction of Asian’s last rainforests

For years those who spoke about how the American state directly and indirectly established a 'world order' through violence and blood were, and still are, dismissed as anti-Americans, attacked as lunatic leftists, or apologists for the crimes of 'communism'. Now some of the empire's violence can be explicitly painted on the New York Times pages. We are really living in interesting times! The 'Liberal World Order' Was Built With Blood Related Are We ISIS? How the West won

A very, very short account that doesn't include economic and cultural aspects. Note that more recent studies put the numbers of Iraqis killed by the sanctions to an estimate between 200 and 300 thousand. Chomsky then was still relying on studies done by journals like The Lancet, for example, which put the number in "the hundreds of thousands".

Coca-Cola workers in Haiti, Indonesia, Ireland and the US

Just finished this interesting novel

Coca-Cola as a serial human rights offender

A book review "From 1965 to 1966, the Indonesian military and its allies massacred hundreds of thousands of Communists — often with the active aid of Western, democratic governments." Indonesia's Red Slaughter

"The financial crises that affected the developing countries between 1994 and 2002, resulting from the deregulation of the market and the private financial sector as recommended by the World Bank and the IMF, led to an enormous increase in internal public debt. In short, by following the Washington Consensus, governments of developing countries had to give up their currency and capital controls. This was combined with the deregulation of the banking sector in different countries. Private banks had to take more and more risks, which led to numerous crises, beginning with Mexico in December 1994. Capital was massively withdrawn from Mexico, sparking off a chain reaction of bank failures. The Mexican government supported by the World Bank an dthe IMF, transformed the banks' private debt into internal public debt. This took place in extactly the same way in countries as different as Indonesia ((in 1998) and Ecuador (1999/2000).  In addition, even in those countries whose bank...

Indonesia: Zero rights regime at Coca Cola

Indonesia Gotta Catch all the Communists "A red scare is sweeping Indonesia, digging up the ghosts of the 1965-1966 mass killings, and threatening a fragile democracy." Looks interesting, but access requires subscription