Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Well, the appeal would not resonate with a few of my students who want to work in institutions such as the IMF. They think of job prospects, but a few also believe that the IMF is still one of those institutions that could help ‘development’. Students at the age of 20 to 25 who have enrolled in elite institutions and who have only begun to know about the world, have an interest in believing in such a ‘liberal institution’ of imperialist domination.  Hardly any of those students has ever systematically studied the historical and global working of the capitalist system. On the contrary, even when they are introduced to an alternative, they cannot escape thinking of whether the alternative conflicts with their professional ambitions/careers in managing the system. Public Administration, for instance, is one of the disciplines they enrol in. Ironically, although I don’t have data to support my argument, a few of them end up in debt if the parents are not able to pay the full fees thus ...

Qatar World Cup 2022

The bigger picture in this article is not big enough. While nurses and other workers go on strike in Britain, for example, one has to compare the social value of a professional football player to a nurse and their incomes, and how such obscene injustice has become acceptable and normal. The world Cup and the champion leagues are a capitalist industry run on the 5 basis of competition and profit. The question of class, exploitation and ideology are also at play. Money’s chokehold on modern football Related “We are all complicit in the system” in one way or another. We clap and cheer. We succumb to amnesia. We fill in our day with hypocrisy.

Man must assert his native rights, must say ;  We take from Monarchs’ hand the granted sway;  — Shelley, an English poet     Separating the “human” from the institution, and the “family” from the “monarchy” has long been a successful tactic in preventing searching scrutiny of the institution. She faithfully served the British imperial project Related Insurgent Empire

A review of the definition of wealth in the 2021 World Bank report

“Drawing on newly published macroeconomic statistics, this paper estimates the amount of household wealth owned by each country in offshore tax havens. The equivalent of 10% of world GDP is held in tax havens globally, but this average masks a great deal of heterogeneity—from a few percent of GDP in Scandinavia, to about 15% in Continental Europe, and 60% in Gulf countries and some Latin American economies. We use these estimates to construct revised series of top wealth shares in ten countries, which account for close to half of world GDP. Because offshore wealth is very concentrated at the top, accounting for it increases the top 0.01% wealth share substantially in Europe, even in countries that do not use tax havens extensively. It has considerable effects in Russia, where the vast majority of wealth at the top is held offshore. These results highlight the importance of looking beyond tax and survey data to study wealth accumulation among the very rich in a globalized world.” Macro ...

“ Whoever controls the institutions that distribute wealth in the world economy controls who gets what.” The pandemic is very bad. Yes, but not for everybody.

 

A good piece as usual by Joseph Massad. However, I think he is doing a disservice to socialism by calling what existed in the Soviet Union and elsewhere before 1990 a ‘socialist world’. Economic democracy is the missing link in the struggle for human rights

From the Torygraph . When the ruling class gets anxious. The word ‘extremism’ has been used by someone from JP Morgan! ‘Business elites fear a revolution is at hand’

“Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.” —Lucy Parsons

Note: I am not from the Socialist Party. It just happens to agree with "Nationalise the Banks."

England " In Stockton-on-Tees, those living in the wealthier areas can expect to live as much as 18 years longer than those in the more deprived parts of the town. Life expextancy is 64 for a man. That's the same as Ethiopia." They must be those lazy people, smoking and drinking all day and who cannot go on a bike and look for a better job. How are they supposed to be healthy, shopping at wholefood and doing yoga?  Dying young in Stockton – England's most unequal town

There is a book sweeping the popular media at the moment.  It’s called  Factfulness .  It purports to argue that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, the world is becoming a better place.  Poverty is falling, life expectancy is rising; health levels are improving; people have more things and better services.  Even violence and wars are in decline. This is a hoary old message... Rising world inequality

Managers rule, not capitalists?

A ruling class that has allowed all this and squandered wealth at home and abroad (enriching Western cities, for example), while their Arab-Muslim brothers and sisters suffer under economic development, poverty and different sorts of oppression, should be overthrown. The next Arab revolution must be socio-economic or it will not change the fundamental. Dubai's upper middle-class  

The class system

Some good news Wealth of top billionnaires climbs to $7.7tn

Forbes or how to save capitalism and therefore humanity Unless it changes, capitalism will starve humanity by 2050

" 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