Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Good! Marx deserves better critics

Kremlin doubts figures showing Russians too poor to buy shoes

Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries: is it safe to return?

UK Millions of families are worse off than 15 years ago

Pakistan The winners are the non-voters. "Khan claims he wants to ‘depoliticise’ the police and establish ‘law and order’ in a violent crime-ridden society; to ‘improve health and education’ through bringing health insurance to 70% of the population. Yet in no way is Khan sympathetic to the interests of Pakistan’s working class or rural farmers.  He is set to follow the dictates of the IMF as the ‘solution’ for Pakistan’s continuing economic failure.  And that means his policy ‘aspirations’ will never be met." It's not cricket See also Khan is only a player in the circus run by Pakistan's military

Learn the Danish values or ...

In a country that wants to bring "freedom" and "democracy" to others

" There is a striking discrepancy between the lack of feeling aroused by the deaths of tens of thousands of human beings—in their majority anonymous, unrecorded by the authorities and denied the dignity of a proper burial—with that excited by, say, the 1,000 lives lost in the crossing from East to West Germany during the Cold War. There is one obvious explanation: an African, an Arab or an Afghani who drowns in the Mediterranean, in flight from war, oppression or extreme poverty, is not seen as a human being in the same way as the Germans who were trying to flee ‘communism’ and were hailed as martyrs for liberty." — Stathis Kouvelakis Europe's Iron Curtain

Sadr, Sectarianism, and Popular Alternative

To you I pledge my love My poverty, my misery, and my debt My failures and frustrations with my meager salary To you I pledge my humiliation. My head hung low and my eyes avoiding those of my children For whom I can't provide To you I pledge my heart! Walid Taha, A Bit of Air Translated from Egyptian Arabic by Anita Husen لك حبي وفقري وبهدلتي وأقساطي وانحطاطي وإحباطي من مرتبي اللي مش كافي وذلي ودلدلة كتافي وعيني المكسورة أدام ولادي من قصر الأيادي !وفؤادي

Britain McGarvey is withering about “the poverty industry”, run by the middle classes, for doing things not “ with  the community but  to  it”. Poverty Safari by Darren McGarvey

Against Charity

Italy "One country is widely viewed as the most acute of all cases of European dysfunction. Since the introduction of the single currency, Italy has posted the worst economic record of any state in the Union: twenty years of virtually unbroken stagnation, at a growth rate well below that of Greece or Spain. Its public debt is over 130 per cent of GDP. Yet this is not a country of small or medium size in the recently acquired periphery of the Union. It is a founder member of the Six, with a population comparable to that of Britain, and an economy half as large again as that of Spain. After Germany, its manufacturing base is the second biggest in Europe, where it is runner-up too in the export of capital goods. Its treasury issues form the third largest sovereign bond market in the world. Nearly half of its public debt is held abroad: the comparable figure for Japan is under 10 per cent. In its combination of weight and fragility, Italy is the real weak link in the EU, at which i

On Michael Roberts' blog

England The fat cats have got their claws into our universities The worst place to grow up poor

Amartya Sen "On the issue of liberalisation and the opening up of economies, Amartya has been rather mainstream. He hasn't raised very deep questions about the whole process and of globalisation in general. He's more of a mainstream economist than many people realise." More substantial criticisms revolve round his role in the current globalisation debate. Richard Jolly, while being an enormous admirer, says: "On the issue of liberalisation and the opening up of economies, Amartya has been rather mainstream. He hasn't raised very deep questions about the whole process and of globalisation in general. He's more of a mainstream economist than many people realise." Food for thought

Morocco: Despotism, neoliberalism and climate change

Keynes, civilisation, and the long run

1. Greece's model of capitalism under oligarchic PASOK. 2. Financial terrorism by the Troika 3. As Yannis Retsis says: "It is a crime." 4. "Tsipras is a traitor", many who voted aganist the bailout and more austerity say . The Greek tragedy ... Update: Forbes.com says that the IMF predicts that unepmloyment in Greece will to 12% by 2040! These are good news for those Greeks who could wait and find a job at the age of 60+.

" Once debts have been subtracted, a person needs only $3,650 to be among the wealthiest half of the world’s citizens. However, about $77,000 is required to be a member of the top 10% of global wealth holders and $798,000 to belong to the top 1%.  So if you own a home in any major city in the rich North on your own and without a mortgage, you are part of the top 1%.  Do you feel rich if you do?  This just shows how poor the vast majority of people in the world are: with no property, no cash and certainly no stocks and bonds!" The vast majority? They are just losers; the are uneducated, they don't know how to be entrepreneurs .. . New figure reached by annual Credit Suisse global wealth report