“Our community is expanding: MRZine viewers have increased in number, as have the readers of our editions published outside the United States and in languages other than English. We sense a sharp increase in interest in our perspective and its history. Many in our community have made use of the MR archive we […]
Subjects Archives: Imperialism
Imperialism, Globalization, and War
This Alien Legacy: The Origins of “Sodomy” Laws in British Colonialism: I. Introduction
“Our community is expanding: MRZine viewers have increased in number, as have the readers of our editions published outside the United States and in languages other than English. We sense a sharp increase in interest in our perspective and its history. Many in our community have made use of the MR archive we […]
Terrorism, Mass Hysteria, and Hegemony in India
“Our community is expanding: MRZine viewers have increased in number, as have the readers of our editions published outside the United States and in languages other than English. We sense a sharp increase in interest in our perspective and its history. Many in our community have made use of the MR archive we put […]
Neocons, Republicans, and War Criminals Rave about Obama’s “Team of Rivals”
“Our community is expanding: MRZine viewers have increased in number, as have the readers of our editions published outside the United States and in languages other than English. We sense a sharp increase in interest in our perspective and its history. Many in our community have made use of the MR archive we […]
The Rise and Fall of the Arab Middle Class in the Middle East: Between Modernization, Nationalism, and Revolution
Keith David Watenpaugh. Being Modern in the Middle East: Revolution, Nationalism, Colonialism, and the Arab Middle Class. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. xi + 325 pp. $37.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-691-12169-7. One of the great modern landmarks of the city of Aleppo is the Baron Hotel. The Mazloumians, a wealthy Armenian family of […]
Afghan Resistance Is ‘Terrorist’ under Canadian Law, Khawaja Trial Judge Rules
In the first major prosecution under Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Act, Mohammad Momin Khawaja, a 29-year-old Ottawa-area software developer arrested almost five years ago, was convicted October 29 on five charges of participating in a “terrorist group” and helping to build an explosive device “likely to cause serious bodily harm or death to persons or serious damage […]
Icelanders Are NOT Terrorists
Gordon Brown unjustifiably used the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act of 2001 against the people of Iceland for his own short-term political gain. This has turned a grave situation into a national disaster, affecting families in both Iceland and the United Kingdom. Help us avert greater damage by signing this petition now. On Wednesday October […]
Nationalism, Gender, and Politics in Egypt
Beth Baron. Egypt As a Woman: Nationalism, Gender, and Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. 292 pp. $60.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-520-23857-2. In Egypt as a Woman Beth Baron explores the connections between Egyptian nationalism, gendered images and discourses of the nation, and the politics of elite Egyptian women from the late nineteenth […]
Is the Financial Crisis the Achilles Heel of Capitalist Globalization?
金融危機是全球化資本主義的罩門？ 知名經濟學者阿敏專訪 Samir Amin: “It’ a monster, yes, it’s a monster, but it’s a monster which can be defeated also. This pattern of globalization, this pattern of the exclusive rule of dominant capital, that is, of oligopolies, is not acceptable and is not accepted. The breakdown is starting by the financial crisis, because financial […]
Who Is Counting the Dead in Afghanistan? Another War Lost
Within the political and intellectual circles in the country I am living in, and maybe even beyond, in mainland Europe and North America, an ignorant and insidiously complacent attitude towards the war in Afghanistan is more or less taken for granted. At the time of writing it is exemplified in the few editorials, scholarly analyses […]
India’s Combative Anti-Displacement Movement
I recently spent three weeks gathering information about the anti-displacement movement in India. As a guest of Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan (People’s Movement against Displacement and for Development), I traveled across central and eastern India visiting the sites of proposed industrial and mining projects, Special Economic Zones, and real estate developments. I spoke […]
Choreographing Permanent War
Notwithstanding the renewed public concern about the economy in the wake of the implosion of the global financial architecture, the so-called “war on terror” remains at the forefront of the American presidential election campaign as it heads into its final stretch. Despite continuing popular opposition to Washington’s blatant empire-building policies both within the US and […]
“Africa COMMAND” Spells Colonialism
For years, the U.S. never considered Africa as a priority foreign policy agenda. The only context in which Africa came up in Washington was for preferential trade as in AGOA (Africa Growth & Opportunity Act) or in AIDS funding from PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) and of course humanitarian assistance. Despite its […]
War Must Nourish Itself
Herbert Langer, The Thirty Years’ War, Trans.C. S. V. Salt, Blandford Press, 1980 The seventeenth century was ruled by an aristocratic caste that no longer exists, save in the minds of the credulous and easily-deceived. It was an imaginary caste of devils, angels, and other powers now consigned to oblivion. For peasant and prelate, soldier […]
Iran, Israel, and the Looming Threat of War
Friends, Enemies, and “Existential” Threats In the ceaseless and invariably bellicose calls for war (both open and clandestine) against Iran, perhaps one argument invoked by pro-war pundits and politicians stands out and takes pride of place above all others: Iran, it is claimed, “poses an existential threat to the state of Israel.” It’s certainly been […]
USAID, Key Weapon in Dirty War on Latin America
In a statement drafted in scrupulously selected terms and circulated with exceptional discretion, the so-called U.S. Aid for International Development (USAID) has publicly confessed to having squandered taxpayers’ money in its dirty war on Cuba. It did so in the face of warnings by certain scandalized congress members and the embarrassing revelations of audits […]
In Support of Cuba
Our country is facing a dramatic situation. We have suffered the wrath of two powerful hurricanes, Gustav and Ike, in just eight days. These natural disasters have seriously affected food production and essential sectors of the economy throughout the country. Although very few human lives were lost, a massive amount of houses, schools and […]
Keeping Hope for War Alive: Poll by “The Israel Project” on War with Iran
Washington, DC – A poll commissioned by The Israel Project, an international non-profit formed to present a “more positive public face” for Israel, has found a strikingly large percentage of Americans view Iran as a major threat, leading them to support possible military action. Serious questions remain however about the validity of the results due […]
Free Speech, or Weapons Free?Anti-Islamic Invective and War
Anti-Muslim material — the short film Fitna and the Danish cartoons spring to mind — usually raise hell when they first appear. They also raise some interesting questions. The propagandists have certainly enjoyed their handiwork. Vilifying the enemy flavor of the month always wins vigorous rounds of applause (and money) from the right quarters. The […]
The Return of Russia
The question of responsibility for the conflict in the Caucasus didn’t trouble us for long. Less than a week after the Georgian attack, two French commentators, experts on all things, pronounced it “obsolete.” An influential American neo-conservative had set the tone for them. Knowing who started the conflict is “not very important,” Robert Kagan […]
