Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

“ The Costs of War Project is analytically conservative. Unlike several nongovernmental surveys over the years, it does not conduct epidemiological studies to determine the true lethality of the war – such as deaths from war-shattered public health systems, lack of access to clean water, war-prompted displacement, and other indirect but real consequences of conflict. Instead, the project only counts  direct  death. The authors acknowledge the shortcomings of this approach.” Over 900,000 People Dead, a ‘Vast Undercount,’ and $8 Trillion Looted 

“Because good causes do not sell themselves but rather have to be sold, aid agencies have developed considerable marketing prowess…they will advertise if not embellish the tragedy in order to tap into the guilt of the rich.”  Agency self-promotion is part of the humanitarian aid business model, although there is a fine line between utilitarianism and exploitation. Benefiting from the Misery of Others

  Saqi Books Selections

A Tale of Hypocrisy

 Killer Prince

  It is Saudi Arabia’s most dedicated gunrunner

Saudi-led coalition loses its grip

How Yemen's Dream of Unity Turned Sour Related A page from Yemen's history Monuments of Famine

Rise in domestic violence Related UK domestic abuse Drop in crimes—a report

"The unique situation of a global pandemic reinforces the need to advocate for and amplify the voices of the marginalized and disenfranchised.  American-led wars and disastrous foreign policies have decimated health systems, through  war in Iraq  and  Yemen ,  sanctions in Iran  and beyond.  Millions of  refugees live in camps  and unsafe housing  without proper medical care and without the ability to stop the rapid spread of the virus.  Migrant workers in Gulf countries  without legal rights  are under lockdown in crowded facilities.   Vast inequality  decreases many people’s ability to access adequate medical care.  For these reasons, our mission is more vital than ever." —MERIP (Middle East Research and Information Project), 26 March 2020

While the British and their allies supported the royalist North, the new government of South Yemen embarked on a programme of nationalisation, introduced central planning, put limits on housing ownership and rent, and implemented a land reform. By 1973, the GDP of South Yemen increased by 25 percent.  And despite the conservative environment and resistance, women became legally equal to men, polygamy, child marriage and arranged marriage were all banned by law. Equal rights in divorce were also sanctioned. The Republic also secularised education and sharia law was replaced by a state legal code. Sources: Asef Bayat, Revolution without Revolutionaries: Making Sense of the Arab Spring ,  2017, p. 5.  Maxine Molyneux, Aida Yafai, Aisha Mohsen and Noor Ba'aba, Women and Revolution in the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen , Feminist Review, issue 1, 1979, pp.4-20.

Complicity in crimes University of Cambridge,  BAE System and others

“The problem with the Houthis,” he said, “is that they are a reaction to others’ behavior.” How the war in Yemen became a bloody stalemate and the worst humanitarian crisis in the world

Like in most analyses, missing is the historical fact of an overlap of sect and class in some Arab countries. Example: one has to look at the position of the majority of the Syrian bourgeoisie towards the uprising and the regime since the outbreak of the uprising and then the war. Postel:  In recent years, a narrative has taken hold in Western policy and media circles that attributes the turmoil and violence engulfing the Middle East to supposedly ancient sectarian hatreds. "Sectarianism" has become a catch-all explanation for virtually all of the regionʹs problems. This narrative can be found across the political spectrum – from right-wing voices with openly anti-Muslim agendas, to softer liberal-centrist articulations and even certain commentators on the left. In its various forms, this sectarian essentialism has become a new conventional wisdom in the West. It is an intellectually lazy, ideologically convenient and deeply Orientalist narrative. The West's "

Business first Billions of pounds and jobs "The British government has no British values" You British women who want to liberate backward Muslim women from oppression, what are you up to these days?

"Isn't UK mainstream culture extraordinarily sick in allowing Johnson (and May and Cameron etc) to bomb and starve the MidEast's poorest country for 3 years *with impunity* while one comment [about the burka-wearing women] sets off a storm of protest?" — Mark Curtis "Allowing"? They have been arming a friend, the Saudi monarchy, and a high court has sanctioned the arms sale. That means it's been "a democracy decision!"

"‘By mid-2017 Yemen faced total humanitarian disaster, its first famine since the 1940s and the world’s worst cholera epidemic.’ The situation was unprecedented and avoidable: both famine and cholera were ‘the result of a civil war dramatically worsened by foreign intervention'." — Helen Lackner Yemen's turn Note: Tariq Ali's position on Syria has been shameful. 

"The issue is not Sanders' own personal anti-imperialist credentials, nor is critiquing a worthy effort to end a war a holistic condemnation. The issue is the normalisation, without debate, of a "war on terror" that has produced a body count higher than that of the evil it is supposed to counter. Sanders' resolution, excluding this US war from debate on a US-backed war in the same theatre, reflects this." How a Bernie Sanders resolution is normalising "the war on terror"

"The Nazis used it, we use it"

The Gulf's 'Little Sparta'