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Iraq

"The good thing about the developments of the past two or three years is that most demonstrations have avoided using sectarian slogans. A new sense of what it means to be an Iraqi has emerged, one that isn’t characterised by affiliation to a particular confession or group. That’s really important. The political parties’ sectarian discourse is obsolete. They no longer have any way of scaring the people. That’s why they’re using bullets. They don’t have anything else left." The West and its cliched view of Iraq
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History: the British Empire

“A German student has to  learn about the Holocaust , so, too, should every British student understand and face  Britain’s role in colonialism  and slavery." "It's time we're taught the downsides of our past in order to stop mistakes being repeated." (!) This is naïve. The Empire's plunder, subjugation and atrocities were not "mistakes." They were integral of the political economy of an empire. Read all about it Suggested reading: The Blood Never Dried by John Newsinger Inglorious Empire by Shashi Thahroor British Gulag (the British empire in Kenya)   by Caroline Elkins
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UK

When universities are businesses relying on supply and demand The School of Oriental and African Studies, London
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China

I am in the last third of China Transformed by R. Bin Wong. It is a very good book.
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France

"With 29 straight days of walkouts, French rail strikes against government plans to reform France's retirement system marked a new milestone Thursday, surpassing even the lengths of strikes in the 1980s."
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US-Iran

The killing of Iran's top military man Mr Raab, the UK Foreign Secretary, told the BBC the US "had a right to exercise self-defence". Self-defence because Qassem Soleimani was in the Atlantic Ocean with a Revolutionary Guard special force, heading towards Miami to attack the US. What Raab said is complicty in crime of an imperialist state, an ally of the US Cheerleading for a war with Iran
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