Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

A disappointing piece by Naomi Klein , I think. Klein, the critic of ‘neoliberal’ capitalism, fails in a long piece to include a couple of paragraphs analysing the political economy of Egypt in the broader regional and global capitalist relations. Instead, ‘human rights’, ‘civil society’ and the authoritarian regime occupy her analysis. The piece should have been ‘In solidarity with Alaa’.  The interactions of geopolitical powers and capitalist interests are completely absent. There is only a passing mention of ‘anti-capitalist politics’, but not the functioning of capital in Egypt, Israel, the UAE, the US, France, the UK, etc. Klein, who in  No Logo  ushered in a new generational critique of commodity culture, and who in  The Shock Doctrine  established herself as perhaps the most prominent North American critic of neoliberal disaster capitalism , signals that she has now, in  William Morris 's famous metaphor, crossed "the river of fire" to become a  critic of capitalis

A very good analysis. “ If the analysis of the skewed distribution of consumption, decision-making power, and financial capacity all lead us to the same place, it is not by accident. Where we have arrived is at the analysis of class identities, class relations and class power.” I don’t think one can separate the capitalist mode of production and how exploits and generates things and class. After all, upper classes existed before capitalism. It is what capital and capitalism endows that class today makes it a bigger consumer and destroyer of the environment. Climate, Carbon and Class Related “By far the most comprehensive catalogue ever assembled of how climate change is upending our world, the report reads like a 4,000-page indictment of humanity's stewardship of the planet. But the document, designed to influence critical policy decisions, is not scheduled for release until February 2022 - too late for crunch UN summits this year on climate, biodiversity and food systems, some sci

In the UK , 70% of flights are made by a wealthy 15% of the population, with 57% not flying abroad at all. In the US , just 12% of people take two-thirds of flights.  Canada : 22% of the population takes 73% of flights. The Netherlands:  8% of people takes 42% of flights. China:  5% of households takes 40% of flights. India:  1% of households takes 45% of flights. Indonesia:  3% of households takes 56% of flights. Source: the climate campaign group Possible

" At this critical moment in history, three questions need to be answered: What does the latest scientific evidence tell us about the approach of climate catastrophe? How is today’s monopoly-finance capitalism—with Donald Trump as its authentic representative—contributing to this impending planetary catastrophe? And what possibilities remain for humanity to avert an Earth-system calamity?"

Davos: responsible capitalism

The heroic tale of great entrepreneurs is nonsense

Jessica Ellis replying to Michael Moore

Hundreds of migrants dead? the BBC. Well, Let them Drown

" A major problem is that global warming, as with the associated environmental problems, can’t be solved within the capitalism that has caused, and is accelerating, the problem. All incentives under capitalism are for more growth and thus more greenhouse-gas emissions, and there is no provision to provide new jobs for the many people who would be displaced should the heavily polluting industries in which they work were to be shut down in the interest of the environment. The private capital that profits from environmental devastation is allowed to externalize the costs onto society, an inequality built into the system. The concept of  “green capitalism” is a dangerous chimera ." Systemic Disorder