Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

A book review Warning: it is a long review, but scathing “Why, after all, is there so little to be found in  PDCI [ The Politics of Decolonial Investigations ]   — and generally throughout the decolonial screeds of Mignolo — concerning the specifics of colonialism itself, its material basis and conditions, not to mention the actual, practically inexhaustible details of its historiography, anti-colonial movements proving no exception to this rule? Whatever the deeper reasons for it, this factual deficit is crucial to the critique and critical decipherment of the jargon of decoloniality — almost as if its terminological extravagances and redundancies and its flat-out rhetorical hubris were ironic compensation for an underlying historical vacuum. Part of the answer will no doubt also reflect the typically contemporary and cosmopolitan purview of more vernacular calls to “decolonize.” While, as a slogan, the latter does not necessarily ignore the historical impact of colonialism o...

“Neutrality as a sacred rule of journalism has repeatedly been  contested in  the U.S., particularly during the rise of social movements like  Me Too  and  Black Lives Matter .  These discussions have returned to the forefront with the reporting on the  U.S.-funded  massacre in Gaza. Not only did mainstream media outlets sideline pro-Palestinian media workers under the guise of objectivity, but they also violated that very principle through consistent complicity in  manufacturing  consent for the unfolding genocide of Palestinians.” Arab journalists are viewed as unreliable storytellers Palestinian filmmaker Bisan Owda – 2023

" This fantastic state of mind, of a humanity that has outrun its ideas, is matched by a political scene in the grotesque style, with Salvation Army methods, hallelujahs and bell-ringing and dervish-like repetition of monotonous catchwords, until everybody foams at the mouth. Fanaticism turns into a means of salvation, enthusiasm into epileptic ecstasy . . . and reason veils her face." —Thomas Mann, “An Appeal to Reason” in  The Berliner Tagg,  October 1930 Julia is just one of the faces in the British gutter media Her first question really makes her complicit in crime, ‘encouraging assassination’ as Barghouti said. Full interview

  تَضِيقُ   بِنَا   الأرْضُ .   تَحْشُرُنَا   فِي   المَمَرِّ   الأَخِيرِ،  فَنَخْلعُ   أَعْضَاءَنَا   كَيْ   نَمُرَّ  وَتَعْصُرُنَا   الأَرْضُ .   يَا   لَيْتَنَا   قَمْحُهَا   كَيْ   نَمُوتَ   وَنَحْيَا .   وَيَا   لَيْتَهَا   أُمُّنَا   لِتَرْحَمَنَا   أُمُّنَا .   لَيْتَنَا   صُوَرٌ   لِلصُّخُورِ   التِي   سَوْفَ   يَحْمِلُهَا   حُلْمُنَا   مَرَايَا .   رَأَيْنَا   وُجُوهَ   الذِينَ   سَيَقْتُلُهُمْ   فِي   الدِّفَاع   الأخيِرِ   عَنِ   الرُّوحِ   آخِرُنَا  بَكَيْنَا   عَلَى   عِيدِ   أَطْفَالِهم .   وَرَأَيْنَا   وُجُوهَ   الذِينَ   سَيَرْمُونَ   أَطْفَالَنَا  مِنْ   نَوَافِذِ   هَذَا   الفَضَاءِ   الأَخِير .   مَرَايَا   سَيَصقُلُهَا   نَجْمُنَا .  إلَ...

Arno Mayer (1926-2023)

Israel’s target assassinations

Source: the Financial Times 02 January 2024 Related Visualising Palestine: Gaza

Double standards even in terms of ‘internal law’ and liberal dogma

“There are other times when I seek out the wisdom of those human beings who refused to turn their faces from forms of social terror and found strength to endure.” A good and stimulating interview . Contrary to the title though, the treatment of the relevance of Malcolm X’s ideas in the exchange between Yancy and Sawyer are marginal.  

He is a bourgeois businessman and hypocrite, complicit in crimes against Kurdish, Palestinians and others. “Erdoğan is the quintessential demagogue — he issues challenging statements to the established order while maintaining the status quo. Erdoğan’s denouncements of Israel tend to coincide with periods of heightened violence. But once public outrage declines, it’s back to business as usual .”

And we have our small dreams Such as to wake up healed of disappointment .. We did not dream of impossible things! We are alive, we survive, and we dream on. —Mahmoud Darwish

The genocidal drive to 'exterminate all the brutes' is embedded deep in the US and European leaders’ psyches . Related Source: Internet Archive

“ No day of celebration with its mandatory collective rhythms , to share with all the strangers I don’t care about. Because our grandfathers’ grandfathers, and so on, celebrated, we too should feel the urge to celebrate. That is nauseating.” —Antonio Gramsci I celebrate every defeat or even a setback of American, British, French, Russian state violence and military adventure. I would celebrate a regime change in the U.S., UK, France, Russia … I celebrated the recent French defeat in ‘the Sahel’. I celebrated the American ‘defeat’ in Afghanistan. I celebrate any defeat, a toppling of or a setback for the Arab regimes.  I celebrate any setback for both NATO and Russia. I would celebrate any defeat or even a setback for the IDF and the reactionary Israeli state. I celebrate the birth of any Palestinian child. I celebrated the death of Henry Kissinger. I would celebrate the death of Hilary, George, Barack, Joe, Tony, Immanuel, Ursula, Vlad … I would celebrate any labour movement and an...

The BBC probably never mentioned John Pilger before until he died. Using google, one cannot find his name on the BBC.  I did not always agree with Pilger’s way of reporting, but he was one of those who opened my mind to how I should relate to and analyse the corporate media and how crimes and complicities are hidden or ignored. That was the time Chomsky's and Herman’s Manufacturing Consent – The Political Economy of the Mass Media fell in my hands. Here is something the British Broadcasting Corporation and Jessica Murray of the Guardian have deliberately, in their usual selectivity, ignored to mention: The War on Democracy   The War On Democracy (English subtitles) from John Pilger on Vimeo .

After reading Serfati’s analysis, I would consider his essay as an introduction to why the French state and its ruling class act the way they do at home and abroad . France has maintained a major role on the international scene, especially militarily, despite experiencing a relative decline in world economic power since the 1990s. In 2011, it ranked fifth in terms of military spending and sixth in terms of arms exports. It is a major zone of capital accumulation in the world economy and is centrally integrated into the global dynamics of economic, political, and military power. The overall closeness of elites in state institutions and large transnational corporations. French TNCs are increasingly dependent on profits earned in emerging or peripheral economies. when analysing the role of France in Africa, one must consider an interrelated set of economic, geopolitical, and domestic socio-political drivers. In 2009, France ranked third as a trading partner with Africa as a continent, beh...

 

Former Defense Minister Ben Wallace is a just one example of not only deliberate omission of facts, but a reflection of the West’s selective reading of history. Related The West’s selective reading of history Politicians

In Salamanca, a woman named Concha met Nasar, a Moroccan soldier stationed nearby.   Madly in love, she wrote to his superiors for permission to marry him in 1938. But for Spanish colonial authorities, such contact absolutely had to be banned .  They expressed disgust at Concha, who they disparaged as old, "ugly, fat like a hippo and with a slight limp".  They suspected that Nasar had only shown interest because Concha happened to own a house, which is what awakened his "volcanic love". **** Continuity Not very different from what I read and heard from many Brits about refugees when I arrived in London: “they come here for the benefits.” The tabloid papers popularised the idea of the refugee and asylum seeker ‘invading our country’ and ‘living on the benefit system ’, etc. The language continues today and even intensified: leaders in the EU such as Suella Braverman, Giorgia Meloni and François Borel talk about ‘invasion’ of Europe by ’swarms’ of immigrants/refugees,...

Israel is indeed committing genocide Related Liberalism at Large :  The World According to the Economist The world the  Economist  made

These liberals say it is a myth