Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

A memorandum

A lesson to all non-white, non-Europeans: get a pet. There is no guarantee it would help, but it might. They watched as Ukrainian pets crossed border to safety Related A long-lasting tradition: "There is a striking discrepancy between the lack of feeling aroused by the deaths of tens of thousands of human beings—in their majority anonymous, unrecorded by the authorities and denied the dignity of a proper burial—with that excited by, say, the 1,000 lives lost in the crossing from East to West Germany during the Cold War. There is one obvious explanation: an African, an Arab or an Afghani who drowns in the Mediterranean, in flight from war, oppression or extreme poverty, is not seen as a human being in the same way as the Germans who were trying to flee ‘communism’ and were hailed as martyrs for liberty." —Stathis Kouvelakis, New Left Review, March-April 2018

“These people are not people we are used to… these people are Europeans.”  – Kiril Petkov, Bulgarian Prime Minister,  Associated Press , March 1, 2022

Western support for Ukrainian armed resistance

The Russian regime refuses to call the invasion of Ukraine a war. It was not until 1999 that the French Assembly designated the Algerian War (1954-62) as a war . The American Congress never designated the war on Vietnam as a war . In October 2002 the American Congress adopted ‘Iraq Resolution’ that would be known as ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’, and was not designated as a war. ….. 

Imagine this for a second: You want to buy a cat. They tell you that the cat is Russian. What would you do? 1. Ask the cat to show an ID. 2. Ask the cat a question in Russian. 3. Ask the cat whether she is for or against the invasion of Ukraine. 4. Do not buy the Russian cat and ask for a Ukrainian one. 5. Buy the Russian cat and bring her up with “Western values”. 6. Do not buy a cat at all. “For some Westerners, anything could be weaponized, including cats. Yes, CATS.  Amid the spiraling crisis in Ukraine, a ludicrous news story hit the headlines: Russian cats are sanctioned.  “The Fédération Internationale Féline, an NGO of cat registries founded in Belgium [sic], announced on Tuesday a ban on Russian-bred cats from its shows, and cat owners who live in Russia are also banned from the organization. This is the tip of the iceberg among a growing number of drama queens in Western countries who have jumped into a so-called anti-war campaign, with their moves going far beyond ...

Manifesto of the Socialists Against the War Coalition

It seems not equally so

Russia’s callousness towards its own soldiers

What made Russia and ‘the West’ engage in an unrelenting match on the dge of the abyss?

A degree proves that you are educated, but it does not prove that you understand.

We attacked a foreign people and treated them like rebels. As you know, it's all right to treat barbarians barbarically. It's the desire to be barbaric that makes governments call their enemies barbarians. –Bertolt Brecht The first time it was reported that our friends were being butchered there was a cry of horror. Then a hundred were butchered. But when a thousand were butchered and there was no end to the butchery, a blanket of silence spread.  When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out "stop!” When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible. When sufferings become unendurable the cries are no longer heard. The cries, too, fall like rain in summer.   – Bertolt Brecht,  Selected Poems General, Your Tank is a Powerful Vehicle It smashes down forests and crushes a hundred men. But it has one defect: It needs a driver. General, your bomber is powerful. It flies faster than a storm and carries more than an elephant. But it has one defect: It needs a mechan...

Central Banks as weapons

To the Russian anti-war movement

A review of the definition of wealth in the 2021 World Bank report

Saudi’s war on Yemen and the ‘West’. Refugees. Sanctions. Myanmar. International oil companies and boycotts. Israel and the Palestinians. Blatant racism

The racist character of Fortress Europe on display

Students to pay off loans into their 60s