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Let’s Abolish the IMF on Its 80th Birthday

Well, the appeal would not resonate with a few of my students who want to work in institutions such as the IMF. They think of job prospects, but a few also believe that the IMF is still one of those institutions that could help ‘development’. Students at the age of 20 to 25 who have enrolled in elite institutions and who have only begun to know about the world, have an interest in believing in such a ‘liberal institution’ of imperialist domination.  Hardly any of those students has ever systematically studied the historical and global working of the capitalist system. On the contrary, even when they are introduced to an alternative, they cannot escape thinking of whether the alternative conflicts with their professional ambitions/careers in managing the system. Public Administration, for instance, is one of the disciplines they enrol in. Ironically, although I don’t have data to support my argument, a few of them end up in debt if the parents are not able to pay the full fees thus ...

The Global Meaning of Gaza

“The genocide in Gaza and the repression and criminalization of Palestine solidarity on and off U.S. university campuses and around the world  tell a larger story of global capitalist crisis .  The absolute savagery of the unfolding genocide has touched a raw nerve throughout the world precisely because it brings home the high stakes involved as the dynamics of global crisis play out, from Kenya to Argentina, from France to the United States, from Bangladesh to Nigeria.”

Multi-Polarity: A New Alignment?

“As multi-polarity grows, there are some who see this as a new stage of non-alignment, and even the creation of an anti-imperialist bloc. But the economic and political elites of the Global South are too deeply tied to transnational capitalism to be truly independent. Instead,  multi-polarity is a struggle within global capitalism  for a larger share of markets, profits and political power.”

Quote of the Week: What Is a Society?

A society is not the temple of value-idols that figure on the front of its monuments or in its constitutional scrolls; the value of a society is the value it places upon man’s relation to man. To understand and judge a society one has to penetrate its basic structure to the human bond upon which it is built; this undoubtedly depends upon legal relations, but also upon forms of labour, ways of loving, living, and dying. —The French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty

The New German Chauvinism

A must read “The extreme force with which Israel-solidarity is promoted by many German pundits, intellectuals, cultural leaders, party leaders, and left-wing activists isn’t a sign of the power of the pro-Israel consensus in Germany, but rather of its shallowness, and the anxieties and mistrust it provokes in its proponents.” Guilt and complicity in mass murder  (Part I) New German chauvinism (Part 2)

Rape As a Legitimate Practice

I personally never forget that I was tortured by a police state that was supported by the major Western powers. I was threatened with inserting a baton in my rectum while I was being beaten and completely naked. I remember the names of my torturers, the police station … And it was only for expressing my ideas and being an activist. At the time, others were subjected to even much worse torture. A few were killed.  I too am ‘deeply and gravely concerned’. The Israeli military practice is just one example Related Rape suspects shouldn’t face criminal charges – poll

Protest-Led Revolution in Africa?

A lot is missing here, including the fundamental. When talking about protests or ‘revolutions’ the causes have to be highlighted.  The causes mentioned in the article are not causes by symptoms . There is not even a hint to the shared political economy/the dominant economic model and its operations from economic development to finance to debt to finance to unequal exchange. The protests are not new thus one should have a longer overview stretching decades and summed up in a couple of paragraphs, especially when an article is not a news item, one of ‘Big Question’ as the section is called. 

Academic Complicity

“The Western world’s last settler-colonial regime, committed to an ideology born in nineteenth-century Europe, remains remarkably adept at diffusing a story that erases Palestinian humanity,  including in the realm of higher education . Most students, however, no longer buy this Eurocentric erasure – nor does most of the global population.”

Saving Sea Turtles While Killing Human Animals

‘Telk Qadeya’: A Western world that excludes Palestinians from humans They save sea turtles They kill human animals But this is one issue, and that’s another How to become a white angel? Bear half a conscience Fight for freedom movements Eradicate liberation movements Bestow your compassion and tenderness On the killed according to nationality But this is one issue, and that’s another How to become civilised Abiding by all terms and conditions Make all your words righteous Take trees in your arms Sugar-coat titles and names While an army demolishes a nearby school And when caught red-handed … with blood Say everyone’s a victim But this is one issue, and that’s another How can I believe this world? When it talks about humanity Seeing a mother lamenting her child Who died in a raid … hungry Placing the killers on a par with their victims With all honesty and fairness But this is one issue, and that’s another How can I sleep peacefully? Plugging my ears While a family is buried under the ...