Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

The Tunisian-British partnership TuNur hopes to build one of the world’s largest thermodynamic solar plants here, on collective lands once home to nomadic groups. TuNur plans to fulfil this ambition by building the world’s largest solar plant. Behind the name are a handful of well-known investors from the City of London who have taken a lively interest in the promise of green finance With persistently high oil prices and mounting supply challenges, Europe has pragmatically tried to speed its transition to lower-cost renewables ‒ by outsourcing. It covets the bountiful sunlight of its southernmost Mediterranean neighbours whose solar potential is among the highest in the world. The country, ensnared in a financial crisis, is struggling to achieve its climate objectives. Many foreign investors are hungry for its solar supply – mostly for export to the North. The electricity-generating mirrors may look green, but they reek of an extractivist Europe greedy for its neighbours’ resources – a...

  An account by an observer

Although Challand is right to address the use of cultural activities in supporting political messages and mentions some of the positive achievements of the period, he is insufficiently critical of the weaknesses of the programs and policies militants proposed for the future. Revolutionary leadership was missing: the negative slogan of getting rid of the existing political system required a positive vision about the kind of society and polity with which demonstrators wanted to replace it. As many of Challand’s ideological references are Marxist, the absence of any discussion of the major issue of the movements’ lack of alternative economic programs, and in particular the fact that there was no explicit challenge to dominant neoliberal economic policies, is surprising. In other words, there is little reference to the economic structures that determine political choices and constrain outcomes. Helen Lackner reviews Violence and Representation in the Arab Uprising Related The Arab Thermido...

“My examination of the limitations of the racial binary of black vs. white as an analytical category to address the racialization of migrants in the North African context allows for a more nuanced approach to racial categorizations—one that challenges these simplified binaries without erasing the psychic violence of racial labeling or the historical stigmatization of blackness produced by the legacy of slavery, colonialism, and the project of nation-building. This approach is necessary to challenge the construction of migrants as the ‘racial other’ and to support their human right to mobility and belonging.” Contemporary notions of race in Morocco A photo by Chermiti Mohamed

"But we have to choose whether to treat people all the same or not, whether they are Ukrainians fleeing war, or Africans fleeing war and persecution. Do we treat them all the same or do we treat them according to the colour of their skin?" — the mayor of Lampedusa, Italy  

"There was a wave of racist videos on social media. I was seeing such disgusting posts. So I was already worried such an upsurge of anger could only result in violence …  What was shocking was finding myself in the minority, defending basic principles against violence and racism," says Ms Bribri. Not a single hint to the EU’s responsibility  and as if such a violence was disconnected from another violence.

Someone has just mentioned Singapore comparing its economic development with some Arab countries. So, I felt I should add a note to an old post . Referring to a capitalist country with a small population  – 2 million in 1970 and 2.4 million in 1980 when  Singapore’s economic development was apace – is not a good way of comparing countries. “ Only 7  years after its independence (1972), Singapore had become a  foreign investment magnet .  More than one-fourth of Singapore's manufacturing firms partnered with or were owned by a foreign entity.  The majority  of the investors came from the United States and Japan.  The country also achieved a  double-digit economic growth rate every year.” For internal and external reasons countries like Tunisia (the one my interlocutor compared to Singapore), Morocco, Syria and Egypt did not enjoy such foreign funding.  In 2022, Singapore was ranked 139th out of 180 nations by  Reporters Without Bord...

The energy transition in North Africa: neocolonialism again! التصدي للاستعمار الجديد في الانتقال الطاقي بشمال أفريقيا

Protests come as resistance to austerity is growing internationally

Attacks on and violations of workers’ rights by governments and employers Related ‘Made in Tunisia’

How European intellectual property hinders affordable medicine

American women should go to Tunisia or Bahrain to have abortion! Related "I would consider myself a practising Muslim. I try my best to abide by the Quran and the Sunnah [teachings of the Prophet Muhammad]. Based on my faith, I know I did the right thing. I know it was ok for me to have an abortion. Islam gave me that right," Fatima said. " But now this country doesn’t recognise these rights. What will other women like me do?"

A collection of articles

while my country was being ripped apart by coronavirus

 كيف يمكن لاتفاقية مع الاتحاد الأوروبي تدمير الاقتصاد التونسي؟

 

The history of protest songs in Tunisia and their link to popular culture

  The Marginalised Redefine the Political

 The Power of the Fragile

 06 February 2021 Credit to Yasmine Hn