Skip to main content

Posts

"Britain has been cozying up to Russian money for years, and a dead spy isn’t going to change that." "The present era has been defined by globalization, financial globalization above all, and true to form, Britain has positioned itself in recent years as the global capital for capital. The city of London has become a  hub  for the world’s money, clean and dirty; London property is now the  investment  of choice for the world’s leading plutocrats and kleptocrats. Dean Acheson’s 1962 quip that Britain has lost an empire and not found a role is pretty but untrue — the role is evident in the glass skyscrapers and condo buildings now planted across the capital city." Initially, the British government "blocked all efforts for a public inquiry, seemingly for fear of jeopardizing its trade ties with Russia." "Foreign Secretary William Hague preemptively submitted a public interest immunity certificate, a move designed to keep the government’s classifie...
Post a Comment
Read more
"We were walking through Neukölln, a former West Berlin neighborhood and longtime immigrant enclave... Today, people from  more than 160 countries  call Neukölln home, andjournalists and politicians take Uzun’s tours to better understand one of Berlin’s most diverse neighborhoods. This is where Uzun takes her tour groups. Here, she tells them how the Rixdorf quarter of Neukölln has actually been home to immigrants for centuries: In the 18th century, King Friedrich invited Bohemian Protestants to help settle the land here, even freeing them from taxes and exempting them from military service. “They were allowed to keep their language,” said Uzun, pointing out a street sign still in Czech. “It took them 140 years to really integrate.” Today, more than 40 percent of the neighborhood’s 325,000 residents have an immigrant background, which Germany defines as either being from a different country or having foreign parents or grandparents; about a quarter of the residents...
Post a Comment
Read more
A liberal analysis. Some good arguments though. ISIS: The 'Islamic State' between Orientalism and the Interiority of MENA’s Intellectuals
Post a Comment
Read more
Is Tunisia on the brink of another uprising يوميات الانتفاضة عن منظمة العمل الشيوعي تونس ـــــــــــــــــــ - القصرين : تواصل اعتصام أصحاب الشهائد المعطلين عن العمل بمقر الولاية ، تجدد الاحتجاجات بالقصرين المدينة و تواصل المواجهات في مفترق حي النور و حي الزهور أساسا. كر و فر بين المحتجين و بين وحدات التدخل التي تجابههم بالغاز المسيل للدموع و خراطيم المياه الساخنة.  - تالة : تجدد المواجهات بين المحتجين و البوليس صبيحة اليوم 20 جانفي ثم انسحاب كلي لوحدات تدخل الشرطة و الحرس من المعتمدية و الجيش يتدخل لحماية المؤسسات. الاحتجاجات تعم الولاية بأغلب معتمدياتها : سبيبة و فريانة (و تلابت ) و الماجل بالعباس و فوسانة و حرق العجلات المطاطية بكافة الطرق الرئيسية. - قفصة : غلق الطريق و احتجاز شاحنات نقل الفسفاط في بلخير و القطار.  - المزونة : الأهالي يحتجون و المعتمد ينسحب من مقر عمله.  - المكناسي : الاحتجاجات المطالبة بالشغل تعم المعتمدية و مواجهات مع قوات الحرس - زغوان : المحتجون يغلقون الطريق الرئيسية رقم 3. - الفحص : محتجون يطالبون بإسقاط الحكومة....
Post a Comment
Read more
A response to an Ellen Meiksins Wood article in Jacobin Ellen Meiksins Wood: The Separation of the  Economic and the Political in Capitalism
Post a Comment
Read more
How a Medieval Muslim thinker invented Sociology History is "the record of human society, or world civilization; of the changes that take place in the nature of that society...; of revolutions and uprisings by one set of people against another, with the resulting kingdoms and states with their various ranks; of the different activities and occupations of men, whether for gaining their livelihood or in various sciences and crafts; and in general, of all the transformations that society undergoes by its very nature.." Ibn Khaldoun, a 14th-century Arab historian
Post a Comment
Read more
Isn't it Europe that is overpopulated, rather than Africa? A better picture here: Europe and Population Decline The Refugee Crisis in Europe
Post a Comment
Read more
British People are Proud of Colonialism and the British Empire, poll finds See also " Interrogation under torture was widespread . Many of the men were anally raped, using knives, broken bottles, rifle barrels, snakes and scorpions. A favourite technique was to hold a man upside down, his head in a bucket of water, while sand was rammed into his rectum with a stick. Women were gang-raped by the guards. People were mauled by dogs and electrocuted. The British devised a special tool which they used for first crushing and then ripping off testicles. They used pliers to mutilate women's breasts. They cut off inmates' ears and fingers and gouged out their eyes. They dragged people behind Land Rovers until their bodies disintegrated. Men were rolled up in barbed wire and kicked around the compound." The British Empire in the Middle East (From a book launch I recorded in 2006 and broadcast on Resonance FM radion) 5 of the worst atrocities carried out by th...
Post a Comment
Read more
Capitalist "democracy" The 62 billionaires and the truth about inequality A note by Michael Roberts This is what Oxfam say in a footnote in their report: “The total wealth of the top 1% in 2015 was $125 trillion, approximately $1.7m for each of the 72 million people in the top 1%. The total wealth of the bottom 90% was $31 trillion, approximately $5,000 for each of the 648 million people in this group. Oxfam calculation based on Credit Suisse (2015) ‘Global Wealth Databook 2015’. http://publications.credit-suisse.com/tasks/render/file/index.cfm?fileid=C26E3824-E868-56E0- CCA04D4BB9B9ADD5″ This is clearly wrong. It should be 6.48bn not 648m, I think.
Post a Comment
Read more