Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Why I don't wear a poppy From my archive The First World War

UN and CNN propaganda against the UK

Jerusalem is Arab nationalism's pride By the Iraqi poet Muzaffer Al-Nawwa'b

America, America Damascus, 1995

How "liberation" is brought about. A dictator was toppled and killed 7 years ago with the help of imperialist powers. Hypocritical powers, which sometimes opposed him, other times befriended him, turned "humanist". Hypocrisy that would manifest itself more openly with the very same powers towards the Assad regime. A Syrian regime which reacted towards a peaceful uprising with much more brutal force. Although the summary below is called "the big picture", it does not include any geo-political background: the charecteristics of the relationship between the major Western powers, namely the US, Britain, France, Italy, Russia, and the Gaddafi regime. "The big picture" does not include the nature of the regime and the place of Libya in Africa and among the Arab countries, its oil, etc. Why did the major imperialist powers protect the Egyptian regime, but not the Libyan one?  The Death of Gaddafi

"Benevolent dictatorship" When one hears students advocating a "benevolent dictators" for the Arab countries, one not only understands that the Arabs are unfit to carry out a change because that change may bring about undesirbale consequences for some, but one also understands that those students are echoing the enlightened French liberal Alexis de Tocqueville in his "reconstruction" of the outcome of the French Revolution.  It would have been better if, "instead of being carried out by the masses on behalf of the sovereignty of the people, [it] had been the work of an enlightened autocrat ... [a]n absolute monarch would have been a far less dangerous innovator." —Alexis de Tocqueville, The Ancien Régime and the French Revolution , London, Fontana, 1966, p.187.

I am with terrorism Niza'r Qabbani, London 1997. See the original Arabic version here . Qabbani was a Syrian poet, diplomat and publisher. We are accused of terrorism:  if we defended rose and woman  and the mighty verse ...  and the blueness of sky ...  A dominion .. nothing left therein...  No water, no air ..  No tent, no camel,  and not even dark Arabica coffee!!  We are accused of terrorism:  if we defended with guts  the hair of Balqis  and the lips of Maysun  if we defended Hind, and Da`d  Lubna and Rabab ..  and the stream of Kohl  coming down from their lashes like the verses of revelation.  You will not find with me  a secret poem  or a secret logos  or books I put behind doors.  I do not even have one poem  walking down the street, wearing veil.  We are accused of terrorism:  if we wrote about the ruins of a homeland  torn, weak ...  a homeland with...

Complicity in crimes University of Cambridge,  BAE System and others

War has been the most convenient pseudo-solution for the problems of twentieth-century capitalism. It provides the incentives to modernisation and technological revolution which the market and the pursuit of profit do only fitfully and by accident, it makes the unthinkable (such as votes for women and the abolition of unemployment) not merely thinkable but practicable.... What is equally important, it can re-create communities of men and give a temporary sense to their lives by uniting them against foreigners and outsiders. This is an achievement beyond the power of the private enterprise economy ... when left to itself. —Eric J. Hobsbawm,  London Observer , May 26, 1968

Reviewing The Age of Catastrophe by Henrich Winkler

Hickel goes against the grain, but wants to correct and better manage capitalism with modest solutions. Yet I think the book is worth reading. The Divide:  A brief guide to global inequality and its solutions

The Birth of History and the Past of the Third World

"Not so long ago, socialism in the USA was equated with Communism, which in turn was equated with Stalinist Russia, which in turn was equated with the Evil Empire, which, as we all know, was equated with the sinister realm of Satan, the Antichrist and everything that was contrary to apple pie, motherhood, and every other well-known American value." Trump's advisors slander socialism

"While climate change is a major global concern, the rush to link climate change with recent upheavals in the Middle East, such as Egypt’s 2011 revolution, is both simplifying and depoliticizing. The link between climate, bread, and protest erases important social, material, and cultural nuances, distorts the allocation of responsibility, and ultimately, obscures more than it illuminates." Overstating Climate Change in Egypt's Uprising

In Europe's richest country "There’s the conversation at the bakery where an old woman complains about the “bad” foreigners, and the woman serving her agrees. There’s the conductor on the tramway who deliberately checks only the tickets of the black passengers. And there are the attacks on leftwing cultural projects or community centres – stones thrown, beatings, the violence you experience when you try to get involved. And there’s the passivity of the so-called civilian population – locals who stand by when a black person is beaten up in the town centre. Racist, fascist normality sets in." I live among the neo-Nazis

“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

In its latest report the National Crime Agency said "around 4,600 serious and organised crime groups existed in the UK and their activities affected more citizens than all other national security threats combined." I thought Muslims were the biggest threat to national security! Hang on! May be these group are run by Muslims! Organised crime in the UK

Lawmaker Khawla Ben Aicha expects to propose changes to Article 230 of the country’s penal code, a remnant of French colonial rule which  punishes same-sex physical relationships  with up to three years in prison, in early November. Anal tests could finally be banned in Tunisia

 “They can now see that the reformist leaders are in benevolent accord with the bourgeoisie, and the worst of it is that these masses have now lost their faith not only in the reformist leaders, but in socialism as a whole. These masses of disappointed socialist sympathizers are joined by large circles of the proletariat, of workers who have given up their faith not only in socialism, but also in their own class.” — Clara Zetkin Is there fascism in Brazil?

Today what is happening to Muslims in Myanmar (Burma) amounts to " a genocide ". In the 1960s a Burmese Muslim called for "secularism", the separation of religion from the state. "In Burma, it is the Muslim community that has carried the banner of secularism and opposed government attempts to specify a state religion. U Rashid, a respected member of the Burmese cabinet in the early 1960s and a leader of Muslims, opposed the prime minister's attempt to make Buddhism the state religion. He questioned whether, in view of the religious pluralism that characterized contemporary Burmese society, a state religion could serve to integrate and unite the nation:  'As a Muslim, I believe there should be no compulsion in religion. Everyone should be free to adopt and practice the religion he likes. As a Muslim, I do not and indeed cannot object to or oppose anything that Buddhists and persons professing other religions may do for their own religion. All I can a...