Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

A Tale of Hypocrisy

It’s time to ask questions and learn lessons? Related Covid-19 is not a pandemic

What is it?

How some liberals/neo-Keynesians are digging to justify why governments should play a big role in the economy. A ‘new’ form of capitalism is a necessary in order to get out of the crisis and prevent any possible social unrest.  What 2008/09 and the pandemic have demonstrated is that monopoly capitalism has to change for the system to survive. That Biden, for example, has introduced a big stimulus package and revoked Trump’s cuts in corporate tax reflects the uneasiness of the ruling classes and that a few things have to be done. The Woman Who ‘Shattered the Myth ’

A very belated report by Human Rights Watch. Let’s read it and see how much ‘antisemitism’ in it! “ Laws, policies, and statements by leading Israeli officials make plain that the objective of maintaining Jewish Israeli control over demographics, political power, and land has long guided government policy. In pursuit of this goal, authorities have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity. In certain areas, as described in this report, these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.” Israel called into account A Threshold Crossed :  Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution

Une «guerre civile» imminente, dise la tribune d’ex-militaires

One Man Protest at Google, London

Beyond Exceptionalism

How France propped up slain ruler in Chad

A good piece as usual by Joseph Massad. However, I think he is doing a disservice to socialism by calling what existed in the Soviet Union and elsewhere before 1990 a ‘socialist world’. Economic democracy is the missing link in the struggle for human rights

MERIP Report – Spring 2021 Free access to all articles

“ This act of communal killing had ideological underpinnings in Nasserism and the brand of Arab nationalism that it propagated, which viewed the nation as an organic, harmonious whole with a clear popular will, rather than a myriad of different social groups with conflicting interests that needed to be mediated.” The writer suggests that the conflicting interests “needed to be mediated” and that “ a deep process of reconciliation” is the solution! Conflicting class interests under an authoritarian repressive regime is to be solved by reconciliation without overthrowing the repressive power relations? And since this goes back to ‘Arab nationalism’ and the type of the regime it has generated, why is it that since the 1950s, and not only in Egypt, ‘mediation’ and ‘reconciliation’ have not materialised? I wonder whether the writer while writing the article had the Arab uprisings in mind and how the regimes and the counter-revolutionary forces destroyed them or the decades of repression, pr...

Why the pandering to the Israeli lobby?

“ Many are arguing that  Al Jazeera  is an independent, journalistic entity that is not in the business of producing opinion-led or biased content. I would question that premise. Today,  Al Jazeera,  with its various global operations, is designed to cater to a range of different audiences. It is such a large operation that it has begun to segment its audiences and market shares.  Al Jazeera Arabic  and  Al Jazeera English  have their own distinct audiences, discourses, editorial policies, and red lines.  Al Jazeera Arabic  has long catered to right-wing communities in the Middle East, crafting specific messaging to a conservative market share. Meanwhile,  Al Jazeera English  speaks to a more diverse, cosmopolitan, and progressive audience. Even so, I would say that  Al Jazeera as a whole has begun to venture right. This is an important factor that anglophone readers and viewers —and even  Al Jazeera English ’s  ...

Football: a people’s sport?

I have always thought that this is the norm and part of ‘our values’. Should Egyptian gymnasts campaign to ‘liberate’ their European sisters? European gymnasts Egyptian gymnasts

The roaring twenties repeated? Related Why the threat posed by Covid to the global economy is not over

The prison population and prison conditions

The IMF is Hollowing out Pakistan’s Sovereignty

I watched this movie many years ago. My second view has given me a very different understanding of such a beautiful and well-directed film. The actors are outstanding.