Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

A good piece. We can't go back to normal

One of the things that Corona has exposed The grim crisis in Europe's care homes

War economy? Related: We are not the virus (I don't see though what the figure mentioned refers to: " During a crisis that has killed hundreds of thousands of people..."

£1bn of taxpayers' cash to help foreign countries buy British arms

"It seem clear that, for whatever reason, Western political systems have proven incapable of responding rationally, in time, to the Coronavirus threat. As Richard Horton writes of the government, overwhelming scientific evidence of an advancing threat did  not  generate the required action: 'For unknown reasons they waited. And watched.’

The article was written on 24 of March. A couple of figures are not up-to-date. Covid-19 Pandemic will change everything—for better or worse

War photography by David Pratt

Without a global orientation, we risk reinforcing the ways that the virus has seamlessly fed into the discursive  political rhetoric  of nativist and xenophobic movements – a politics deeply seeped in authoritarianism, an obsession with border controls, and a ‘my-country first’ national patriotism. This a global pandemic—let's treat it as such

Four interlocking crises highlight the limits of the market

البشرية والوباء والاشتراكية

In English, French and Arabic A pandemic in the shadow of capitalist exploitation and imperialist domination of people and nature

The arguments make sense, but I think it is a silly headline Syria's revenge? What is Syria since 2011, the regimes, the warring factions, the internally displaced, the millions of refugees, the a hundred thousand plus in jails ...? "   In a normal world, great powers would marshal the resources necessary to meet the challenge, leading a global effort of expertise, technology, money, and materiel to save lives everywhere, including in Syria."  When was that "normal time"? Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Myanmar, Ruwanda...? It's some people, some NGOS, local organisations mobilising their resources to help and save lives. Local and global powers have been waging proxy-wars and fuelling conflicts directly and indirectly, with geopolitical calculations of who is an ally and who is not, who serves their interests and who might jeopardise them. "Syria's revenge on the world" will be a second wave of coronavirus

"Our Lives Are Worth More Than Your Profits"

"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

"Spain has a magnificent primary care system, but its hospitals have been hit by a decade of austerity since the financial crisis. It has  only a third of the hospital beds per capita  that are provided by Austria or Germany. Yet that is still more than the UK, New Zealand or the US." How did Spain get its response so wrong?

The fish: "Hello, darling! How are you?" The dog: "Good, but I'm very thirsty!" The fish: "What would you like to drink?" The dog: "The tears of those people who dreamt to live off rents and airbnb."

Factory farming, globalised industry and rapid urbanisation

Comrade Britney Spears?

Nature's wake-up call to complacent civilisation

'As if we were the disease'