Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

‘Devastation has overtaken development’

Between wars, drugs and unemployment

Martin Wolf wants “to awaken the conscience of the global bourgeoisie and to produce a virtuous class consciousness that will render it capable of solving the problems it has created for itself. He fears that it is unconsciously generating its own gravediggers, in the twin forms of resentful populist demagogues and a more efficient Chinese state capitalism. “Policies that might otherwise seem to be expressions of ruthless class interest are reframed as basic truths known or prevailing assumptions held by competent, reasonable people, who served to implement and safeguard them from dreamers and despots. But if they are reasonable truths, Wolf is left unable to explain how they have led to such unreasonable ends and empowered such unreasonable people.” Full review via a google account

“One of the central themes of the article is the distortion of historical memory through modern media. Boroujeni highlights how the accessibility of social media has enabled a flood of misinformation, where selective memories and manipulated narratives drown out critical perspectives.”

   ما معنى أن يعتز مقاتلو «حماس» بأنهم «الطوفان»؟

First we must study how colonization works to decivilize the colonizer, to brutalize him in the true sense of the word, to degrade him, to awaken him to buried instincts, to covetousness, violence, race hatred, and moral relativism; and we must show that each time a head is cut off or an eye put out in Vietnam and in France they accept the fact, each time a little girl is raped and in France they accept the fact, each time a Madagascan is tortured and in France they accept the fact, civilization acquires another dead weight, a universal regression takes place, a gangrene sets in, a center of infection begins to spread; and that at the end of all these treaties that have been violated, all these lies that have been propagated, all these punitive expeditions that have been tolerated, all these prisoners who have been tied up and interrogated, all these patriots who have been tortured, at the end of all the racial pride that has been encouraged, all the boastfulness that has been displaye...

“The surgeon and former Labour health minister found England had spent almost £37bn less than peer countries on health assets and infrastructure since the 2010s. Twenty per cent of the NHS estate predates the founding of the service more than 75 years ago, and some of NUH’s facilities date back to the Victorian era .” In 2022 healthcare expenditure in Germany and France was equivalent to 12.6% and 11.9%, respectively. In 2023, the UK spent 8.9% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on public healthcare.  This is a decrease from 2020 and 2021, when the UK spent 10.1% of its GDP on healthcare.

“The system abandoned him long before he picked up a gun. But he did not turn his anger toward those who had cast him aside. He turned it toward those who looked different, spoke differently, those who had come seeking refuge in a country that had once promised safety The political class, unwilling to face the deeper economic roots of social decay, has allowed xenophobia to become the easy answer .”

From Nablus to Naples   Banksy in Gaza

A reply to Richard Seymour “ The word ‘austerity’ does not appear in Seymour’s piece; ‘region’ features only once, even though practically all the riots took place in areas hit hard by Cameron’s cutbacks, many of them counted among the poorest in Northen Europe. If a Korschian outlook can lapse into lazy apologism, there is also a species of anti-economism which risks obscuring the social terrain and thereby relinquishing the prospect of changing it. To understand the flammable situation at which the pyromaniac far right has taken aim, we need less mass psychology and more political economy . “In focussing on the ‘perplexing passions elicited by race and ethnicity’, for instance, Seymour neglects how economic factors underpin the peculiarly schizoid status of immigration in British public life. “Today’s neo-Powellism is an attempt to rhetorically manage and contain this contradiction at the heart of British financialization: an economy dependent on cheap labour for its meagre growth r...

The franc zone Related UK’s imperialist arrogance

The Trump administration's top diplomat appeared delighted yet stunned by the fact that President Nayib Bukele should have "agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world".

Mechanistic and reductionist Related Vendana Shiva

“[O]ver time, Holocaust memory in Germany progressively transformed into a policy of unconditional support for Israel. What was once an example of historical reckoning has become a framework that, in my view, contributes to the erasure of critical perspectives and enables actions that contradict the very principles of justice and accountability that this memory was meant to uphold. “The focus on the Holocaust, while important, has overshadowed or minimized the memory of colonialism, creating a tension that became more apparent after October 7. “This ‘aporetic’ memory politics is the premise for ignoring the colonial dimension of Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. In the German and Western European discourse, Netanyahu is depicted as the representative of the Jews as victims. Therefore, Palestinians are not a dispossessed people, but a new embodiment of antisemitism. “Germany is today complicit in the genocide in Gaza, just like France, Italy, and the UK. However, Germany’s ...

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. —Aldous Huxley Introduction, Cienfuegos, Havana and photo albums

[The Bourgeoisie has] come to power in the name of a narrow nationalism […]; they will prove themselves incapable of triumphantly putting into practice a programme with even a minimum humanist content […]. —Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (1963)

“The Brutalist  is the story of modern America’s derision of art, of any creative endeavour that has no immediate monetary value. America has no place for a man of Laszlo’s ilk, for defiant art that refuses to abide by the rules of the market – the real god of America.” A review by Jospeh Fahim

From Democratic Mass Killing to Democratic Ethnic Cleansing Trump called Gaza a "demolition site" and said he had spoken to Jordan's King Abdullah II about moving Palestinians out of the territory.  "I'd like Egypt to take people. And I'd like Jordan to take people," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that he planned to talk to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Sunday. "You're talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing," Trump said of Gaza, whose population is about 2.4 million, adding that "something has to happen".  "I'd rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change,"  Trump said , adding that moving Gaza's residents could be "temporary or could be long term".   The US, EU,Egypt, Jordan, Gulf countries should accept displaced Israelis

The BBC, for instance, has excelled in its racism towards the released Palestinians prisoners. One has only to count the number of pictures of the released Israeli hostages in comparison to the ones of the Palestinians released from Israeli jails.. Fania Oz-Salzberger’s stand as a 'leftist' is worse that what Sinan Antoon has reported . “[S] etting hundreds of terrorists free, is the result of Israel’s failure in 7 October. It is also the result of the Israeli government’s failure to release our hostages “by military pressure“, as its head frequently promised, for 470 days. We must pay this price. And then elect a new leadership, which would    make sure that neither Hamas nor any other subhuman would ever be able to repeat 7 October.  How?  By learning from our military mistakes, rebuilding both security and solidarity, and offering a political horizon for Israelis and Palestinians. Also by never forgetting a vile murderer’s face. Enough said, at this point.” Note...

A young woman who had worked in finance a few ago told me that in recent interviews with employers in the financial sector she was offered a salary almost half of what she was paid before. That prompted me to look for an update on the gender gap. According the BBC calculator of 2019 the gender gap at the (in)famous bank HSBC was 30%.  According to AI, as of April 2023, the gap was 43%.