Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

While other writings on the Kampuchea period have blamed its violence on the supposed “totalitarian aspects” of attempts to create a more equal society — or on either the personalities of CPK leaders or Cambodian and Buddhist culture — Tyner situates the CPK regime in its social and economic context.  Rice Fields to Killings Fields  aims to critically apply Marxist concepts to a regime that claimed to be Marxist. Tyner focuses on the CPK’s economic policy as providing the “base” for the DK regime, allowing him to dispel several myths about the Khmer Rouge. But in the end, the book is unable to fully explain the exceptional violence of the regime.  (My emphasis, N. M.) Inside the Khmer Rouge's Killing Fields

Progressive capitalism — an oxymoron

“At this time, we are seeing a regression in the humanitarian dimension of those civilisations, as countries protect themselves by closing their doors. I hope that this novel, somehow or other, will have given voice to brittle lives, which are judged by others without understanding them or investigating what brought them to their current state." Lebanese author Hoda Barakat wins international prize for The Night Fall But the awarding body is funded by the UAE!!!

Radcliffe  [who drew the borders of what would be India and Pakistan] was remarkable for his lack of knowledge about the region’s history or present, not to mention lack of personal stake in its future. But as an arbiter of international boundaries, he was hardly an anomaly. As a rule to which there are few exceptions, our current borders are the result of imperial horse-trading, wars of expansion and conquest, and ragged lines cutting clumsily through ethnic areas, as statesmen have deftly minced up the globe seeking to settle scores and extract maximum gain. Whether carved up willy-nilly by colonialist patricians trying to cram notions into nation-states, or the outcome of aggressive land-grabbing, our current system of borders is neither rational nor historical. In a time of mass migration and displacement—with growing diasporas and asylum-seekers finding safety in caravans on their journey to the US-Mexico border, with refugees braving and often drowning the waters of the Mediterr

"Liberal democracy"  Workers at Amazon warehouses who fail to pack goods for delivery quickly enough are being automatically fired by a computer programme which measures their performance, according to new research.

An interesting report by Reuters How China is replacing America as Asia's military titan

Good! Marx deserves better critics