Reflectii

The lightning-quick advance by the Taliban rapidly overran Afghanistan and led to the absolute collapse of the Afghan army and security forces.

As the Taliban were posing for pictures inside the presidential palace, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was fleeing the country to Uzbekistan even before the United States could withdraw its own diplomats. Crowds were rushing to the tarmac of Kabul airport trying to get out before the Taliban take over.

With the Taliban sweeping through provincial capitals, and massing near Kabul, the Afghan government is thus far vowing to resist. In this Q&A, Crisis Group experts Laurel Miller and Andrew Watkins explain that outside powers’ priority should now be to minimise further human suffering.

Introduction by the editor and translator: To preface, I am well aware that the opinion line taken in this guest post will come across as very controversial. That said, I would urge those who claim they want to listen to local Syrian voices about the situation in Idlib to take seriously this guest post, written by a friend from the village of Qalb Lawze in the Jabal al-Summaq area of north Idlib province. The current status quo in Idlib may well be better than the alternatives, but one should also recognise the costs at which it has come. Among other things, Uyghurs who have no business being in Syria have seized and occupied homes of many of the original inhabitants of Qalb Lawze. The original Druze inhabitants of Qalb Lawze who have remained were long ago forced to declare conversion to Sunni Islam, and even so the Uyghurs, who belong to a jihadist faction called Katibat al-Ghuraba’ al-Turkistan, have treated them with disdain and hostility, and their abuses have not been held to account.

This essay is taken from the foreword of George Caffentzis’s Civilizing Money: Hume, his Monetary Project and the Scottish Enlightenment.

1.

George Caffentzis writes that his project of the philosophy of money began in August 1971 when President Nixon severed the link between the dollar and gold. He further developed the project through SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) and URPE (Union of Radical Political Economics). It began to take form in his writing with Zerowork (when our paths crossed). Did the end of gold mean the end of work and did the end of work mean the end of capitalism? It achieved a major breakthrough with the Wages for Housework campaign. Owing to the crisis of the oil market and then the dangers of nuclear energy he formulated an approach to the philosophy of money in which class analysis was combined with philosophical epistemology and the specifics of historical conjuncture. The first volume of what was to become a trilogy was completed in Calabar, Nigeria, at the time of structural adjustment under the IMF (International Monetary Fund).[1] Political presentism and autobiographical reflection enliven the philosophic pages. He has venerable examples of such combination from Clarendon’s The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England (1702-1704) to Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1789).

Dacă talibanii vor ocupa Kabulul până pe 11 septembrie, la 20 de ani de la atentatele de la 11 septembrie de la New York, ar putea celebra eșecul usturător al SUA în acest război citând la nesfârșit un titlu din ediția din 8 august 2021 a The New York Times: ”SUA cer talibanilor să cruțe ambasada americană în lupta pentru Kabul”.

‘Pegasus’, the mythical winged horse has been the center of the universe of discourse for the last few days. Only this time, this is not a horse, but a spy software developed by Israel’s NSO group that exploits the weaknesses of someone’s phone that even the manufacturers don’t know about. Using ‘Pegasus’, a cell phone can be hacked and it will start transmitting data to the attacker through the apps, microphone or camera. It’s like having a spy in one’s pocket; turning the phone, one paid for, a weapon, used by others.

Juris Lorencs, “Latvijas Avīze”, AS “Latvijas Mediji”

Lai saprastu pašreiz Lietuvā notiekošās humānās katastrofas apmērus, pietiek ieskatīties jaunāko ziņu virsrakstos: “Nelegālie migranti no Baltkrievijas ierodas milzīgā skaitā”, “Viņi plūst nepārtraukti”, “Robežsargi strādā bez atpūtas”, “Drīz nebūs vietas, kur izmitināt migrantus”, “Rūdninku poligonā plānots izvietot 800 migrantus”, “Nav jaunu vietu, izņemot Rūdninkus”, “Uz Rūdninkiem nogādātas bruņumašīnas un ūdensmetēji”, “Rūdninkos nemieri, migrantus izdzenā ar ūdeni un asaru gāzi”.

Sînt situații în viață pe care nu ai cum să le păcălești. Au anglo-saxonii o vorbă: you can’t talk yourself out of it. Oricîtă gargară ai avea, nu ai ce face cu ea. Nu te ajută.

Ministrul rus al apărării, Serghei Shoigu, a sugerat zilele acestea ca cinci mari centre industriale și științifice să fie construite în Siberia, iar capitala Rusiei să fie mutată acolo, potrivit World Today News.

The spotters with their binoculars on the clifftops tracked the overcrowded boat with increasing nervousness as it appeared to be heading for disaster on the rocks off the south-eastern tip of England.

Their frantic waves appeared to work and the orange inflatable edged towards the safety of the shore as the spotters abandoned their post and ran to the stony beach. As they arrived, the 20 or so migrants started to jump into the sea, threatening to overturn the small boat with some of the most vulnerable passengers still inside.