Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

  A Lesson in Drawing By the Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998) Translated from Arabic

French Education Minister: “The Republic is under attack.” The reason? One French man was beheaded for his “freedom of expression.”  “At the very moment that, in the name of fighting terror, the French state is devastating Raqqa, arresting refugee activists, banning climate demonstrations, and giving police the power to conduct home-invasions without a warrant at any hour for three months, the political classes’ propagandists have rallied French society behind them under the banner of defence of Republican ‘values’ – liberty, equality, fraternity, democracy, civilization, human rights. In this situation, the nature of Republicanism as the all-purpose ideology of the French ruling class emerges clearly. Republicanism can be harnessed to justify anything that aligns with the interests of French state power. In the name of Republican values, France can  criminalize BDS , hold up racist caricature as an exemplary exercise of free speech, or  seriously contemplate  censor...

 Andreas Malm: “The likely future is escalating catasrophe”

 Partners in Crime

  Joe Biden’s America is [another] myth

 How rescuing drowning migrants became a crime

 Permission to narrate Palestinian feminism

Anti-communism without communism, demonising the Left and appeasing the far-right. The End of Anti-Fascism Related European identity and the paradox of anti-communism Instructions not to use anti-capitalist materials in schools

Excerpts “The ideological character of the uprisings went through a similar evolution. In the early stages, the revolutionaries fashioned themselves as belonging to a post-ideological movement. In reality, though, they were as ideological as any political movement — but their worldview simply mirrored international liberal norms, a doctrine so thoroughly internalized that it seemed like common sense. The movements for democracy were articulated through an individualistic, rights-based discourse, with a special emphasis on human rights. Among the revolutionary leadership, there was almost no talk of substantive equality, wealth redistribution, or property relations. The liberal revolutionaries appealed to the “international community,” which usually meant the Western powers. To understand what happened, we must grapple with the changing social structure in the Arab world over the previous four decades. Both liberal and left explanations fall short because they ignore the role of cla...

 On Blaming Climate Change for the Syrian Civil War

 Modern Arab art and the depiction of blue collar workers

Cristiano Ronaldo’s annual salary is 31 million EUR. He currently plays in Italy. When an Italian earns 32,000 EUR after tax a year, Ronaldo earns that sum in 8 minutes. Like a few other things, this has been normalised and generally accepted and unquestioned by the general population. When a system succeeds in instilling such consent or acquiescence, it is those who question such injustice are looked at as old-fashioned, utopian, or people with extremist ideas about social justice and freedoms. Who are going to vote for in the next election in order to preserve the “democracy” and “freedoms” of the “free market”?

 A glimpse of hope. Columbia students voted to divest from Israel but the president responded dismissively

 The crux of this had been already analysed by Stratfor, the intelligence company, 5/6 years ago. The great uncoupling 

 The pandemic and the future of work

“The Tyranny of Merit  [by Michael Sandel] is infused with moral urgency, elegantly written and cogently argued, with a core conclusion both succinct and indisputable: meritocracy does not counter inequality, it justifies it.” Why the ideal of meritocracy only deepens inequality

 The biggest threat to its independence is the corporation itself

  Founding Generation of Looters Related “Yitzhak Epstein, one of the first settlers in the Land of Israel, a member of “Hovevei Zion,” argued forcefully in his essay “A Hidden Question” (1907), which caused a great stir among the small Jewish population in the country, that the Palestinian reaction to Jewish immigration is rooted, among other causes, in economic competition and dispossession, not in hatred or antisemitism. The list of those who made similar arguments is a lengthy one.” —Adam Raz

“A crash in the dollar is likely and it could fall by as much as 35 per cent by the end of 2021.“ “The end of the dollar’s exorbitant privilege”

The assumptions underpinning our modern economy – that we are competitive by nature, that our desires will always exceed our means – were wrong. And second, it meant that for the vast majority of our history, while we roamed the Earth as hunter-gatherers, we enjoyed more leisure time than we do today. Lots of these things that we think we are hostage to are actually not a part of our nature. In a 2015 YouGov survey, 37% of Britons said their work did not meaningfully contribute to the world. In 2017, a Gallup poll of 155 counties found that only one in 10 western Europeans described themselves as engaged by their jobs. Though labour productivity has increased roughly four- or five-fold in industrialised nations since post-WWII, average weekly working hours have remained stubborn at just under 40 hours a week. A recent report by  Tax Justice  found that Britons think accumulating wealth is positive and morally right, and are broadly supportive of the ultra-rich, believing them ...