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Vijay Prashad

15 articles published

Your Privileges Are Not Universal

Stencilled in red on the walls of Santiago, Chile is a statement of fact: ‘your privileges are not universal’ (tus privilegios no son universales). This is a factual declaration because the privileges of power and property are not shared across the gaping class divide. Consider the fact that before the pandemic struck last year, over…

ByVijay PrashadFebruary 10, 20240Comments

We Will Not Be Silenced

Colonialism made us feel backward. It was always Europe that was advanced and enlightened, and it was always the East that was backward and wretched. Rather than honestly say that they had come to plunder, the colonial rulers said that they had come to school the East – it needed to be civilized. Every European…

ByVijay PrashadFebruary 9, 20240Comments

Sultans of Arabia

Well known, the narrow strictness of the Saudi order. On the one side the flogging of dissent, on the other the bombing of audacity. The penal arsenal of the Saudis mirrors that of the Islamic State – both resort to beheading and beating, to harsh treatment for their citizenry as the price of stability. What…

ByVijay PrashadFebruary 9, 20240Comments

Shu Arab Spring?

(Naked Punch Review Issue 16 Editorial by Vijay Prashad Published 9/4/14) I. Tornado. A tornado seems to have swept through the narrow Gaza Strip. Every few years (2014, 2012, 2009, 2006….) this tornado makes its appearance. It lashes the day, lasts weeks and creates devastation that takes months and years to repair. Names are given this…

ByVijay PrashadFebruary 9, 20240Comments

The Global War on Terror

a. Satanic Cycle. Fourteen years ago, the United States and its allies began a major operation against al-Qaeda called the “Global War on Terror” (GWOT). That war, which is ongoing, began in Afghanistan but then expanded to include large swathes of the planet – from the Philippines to Nigeria. States, built after great sacrifice and difficulty,…

ByVijay PrashadFebruary 9, 20240Comments

Viva Chávez!

Hugo Chavez came a long way from being a military officer attempting a coup to overthrow Venezuela’s corrupted politico-economic system to leading the “Bolivarian movement” which resulted in massive transformations and support from the Venezuelan people. His death means that his successor has huge shoes to fill, but all indications show that the political space…

ByVijay PrashadFebruary 9, 20240Comments

Saving Syria From Destruction – An Outline Of A Regional Solution

Q - Looked at as a doctrine what are you views on 'humanitarian intervention'? Is it a sound and workable concept and can and should it apply in the case of Syria? V: The doctrine of humanitarian intervention developed among North Atlantic liberals in the 1990s as part of the elaboration of the “just war”…

ByVijay PrashadFebruary 9, 20240Comments

Going from Pillar to truce

After bombing Gaza, Israel is more isolated, Hamas has emerged stronger and Egypt, which helped broker a ceasefire between the two, has returned as a major regional actor On the eighth day of the bombardment of Gaza, the Israeli government agreed to sit down with the Hamas leadership and the Egyptian government to come up with…

ByVijay PrashadFebruary 9, 20240Comments

The New Obama Doctrine: From Gaza to Goma

The Israeli assault on Gaza continues. The death toll rises over 100, infrastructure is destroyed, and the UN relief agencies are at wit’s end. A desperate tone has entered the dispatches from the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which has operated in occupied Palestine since 1950. On November 19, the agency noted: “Israeli Air Force…

ByVijay PrashadFebruary 9, 20240Comments

A flawed project

yun bhai Nihala, Azaadi tu hai dekhi. Na bhai Prava, ne kha de ne vekhi. Main Jaggu ti sunni assi Ambala ti aaye si. Listen Brother Nihal, have you seen Freedom? No Brother Prava, I haven’t seen it nor eaten it. I heard from Jaggu It has come up to Ambala. —Gurramdas ‘Alam’, A zaadi, 1946.…

ByVijay PrashadFebruary 9, 20240Comments

Baghdad and the Emergence of the New World Order, 1990 – 2003

“All these developments intend not only to destroy Iraq, but to eliminate the role of the Soviet Union so the United States can control the fate of all humanity.” (Hamid Hammadi, Culture Minister, Iraq, February 1991, in a conversation with Saddam Hussein) On January 1, 2011, Wikileaks published the full cable from the U. S.…

ByVijay PrashadFebruary 9, 20240Comments

Philosophy POLITICS

The Withered State

Disaster is the only news of the day. It was providential that a sinkhole has opened up in Guatemala. It is 100-feet deep with a circular chasm of 66 feet. An act of nature, it is felt, is so much easier to deal with than the many, too many acts of human despoliation. Oil plumes…

ByVijay PrashadFebruary 7, 20240Comments