IMF threatens Botswana over its diamonds, Dave Chappelle , Venezuela, Palestine , Traore v Tinubu

 

I can't imagine a world without Chomsky

There is so much abuse of Noam Chomsky online that it is disorienting , demonstrating how toxic and stupid social media can be. Without thinking , folks are quick to discredit Chomsky in attempts to look self righteous. 

What's the point of it if a great intellectual like Chomsky, apparently the most quoted intellectual, can be discredited in a mere few seconds?  

Stupidity is singularly a human quality. There is no stupidity in nature, in the laws of physics, the universe. Yes, we have unexplained diseases, deformities, events but soon science will crack them and even if they don't crack we know that it not stupidity that launches earthquakes, makes accidents,  or unexplained phenomenon. We have to accept suffering in life , much of it caused by humans but some because of randomness of it. 

To be human is to err yes but is to be human also to be colossally stupid? 

I know I have tendencies to be self righteous, to want to be right, to learn and understanding something to only throw it in people's faces and demonstrate rage as an intellectual badge, that my heart and mind are in the right sync by calling out injustice but this goes to show that self righteous is as stupid as fuck. It's so problematic if it can dismiss a towering intellectual like Noam Chomsky.

And, let's face it, none of us can match Noam Chomsky's humility, total lack of self grandeur, and sheer dedication to the truth and, to illuminate it. 

I can't imagine a world without Chomsky, he's been part of my political consciousness since I went to university in 1998. He's everywhere if you are looking to understand why Americans are so destructive and what's behind their policies. He's like a mountain, a giant tree. 

If he were a holy figure, cities would have been burned by now, so there's that. 

Meanwhile, you have to read What the Noam Chomsky–Jeffrey Epstein E-mails Tell Us by Greg Grandin in The Nation: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/noam-chomsky-jeffrey-epstein-emails/. 

And, there is more garbage against him here, none of it which makes any sense. The effect is to divide critique of imperialism, to split a unified critique of American /Western policies. That opposing Israel can't be OK if you can't oppose Russia. And, that he didn't talk about Bosnia. These are such lame points that they can't be strung together. Who has read and consumed all his work, all his lectures and, all his interviews? This is reactionary garbage which merely exposes the writers of these posts are idiots. 

Trying to discredit the biggest intellectual is like trying to break a mountain with a toothpick. 

There is no evidence that Chomsky was a pedophile , a horrible person for associating with Epstein. Chomsky remains of the most monumental figures in exposing American atrocities and is a fierce critic of Israel.

That's me

 

Noam Chomsky remains a giant public intellectual despite the stupid idiotic attempts to discredit him

I don't believe that Noam Chomsky is part of any network of pedophiles or honey pot targets linked to Jeffrey Epstein. 

Can anyone tell us what the "many long and often in-depth discussions" between Noam Chomsky and Jeffrey Epstein were about?  What were these topics? Global finance? Jeffrey Epstein wasn't really a banker or investor. 

It's become clear that he was simply an Israeli agent. 

What insights or first hand information did Epstein give to Chomsky that would be useful or informative to the dissident academic critic of American foreign policy? 

Twitter/X is full of abuse of Chomsky and I can't get on the same bandwagon. I don't think there is anything conclusive, not even remotely conclusive. 

Noam Chomsky is too important, too epic, too monumental of a public intellectual and, the Epstein so-called links seems to be a strange way to dismantle /discredit anti imperialist thought, canon, thinkers, intellectuals. 

Whoever is choosing to condemn Noam Chomsky one of the most important public intellectuals and fierce critic of American foreign policy is exposing themselves. I think there are i) idiots on the Left ii) those trying to discredit critics of American Foreign Policy. 

See some of the stuff on X: 

The UN has approved an American plan to rebuild Gaza.

The UN has approved an American plan to rebuild Gaza. I don't think there's any thing to be said anymore about this world order. We are in a post live-streamed genocide world and, there's no accountability or justice. It's really time to realise what a prostituted organisation the UN is.

When Pakistan lost East Pakistan 54 years ago

 

Attended this today : Beyond the Dhaka Fall - What 1971 Teaches Pakistan Today with Aitzaz Ahsan as Guest Speaker. Bangladesh gained freedom on December 16, 1971 from Pakistan. Pakistanis never acknowledged their crimes in East Pakistan neither did they really mourn that half the country was lost, the majority actually.

Nevertheless, some of the sweetest people I met abroad at university and during my career have been Bangladeshis, who somehow never displayed any bitterness despite everything. When Aboo made Ambassador and was sent to

Ceaușescu's Romania in December 1988, guess who came to receive us at the Airport? It was the Bangladesh Ambassador, who happened to be his batch mate. So Aboo and his classmate trained together at the Foreign Office Academy when Pakistan was still one.

One of my university friends from Dhaka married a boy from Lahore.

Islamabad was basically built from hard currency earned by jute exports from East Pakistan.

Culture, Modernity and Families

I have been thinking about culture for some time and, how we in the Global South foolishly hold on to the idea that we have our cultures in tact and, that modernity is a Western reality, notion. That if we modernise, we are becoming Westernised. And, the idea of modernity is also pretty limited: that girls will be promiscuous , will leave their traditional garments, and, elderly parents will be abandoned. Modernity is not understood in terms of approach to rationality, equality and, science. 

I have been mulling over our so called culture in my personal family context  and, beyond. I think capitalism actually defines most of our relationships and day to day lives. 

I don't see much evidence of culture. We have no connection to our mother tongues. We have no connection to ancestral lands. We don't have connection to our ecology, land, or nature, really. We are highly individualised. 

Look around you in urban centres in Pakistan or even small urban spaces: consumerism is rampant, we have Azadi sales, sick consumerism around Eid, our so - called traditional clothes are mass produced, DJs on English radio stations talk in weird American accents, folks who don't speak English have such anxiety about it, and I don't really see culture on display. What is the so-called culture? And, what is culture anyway? 

The diaspora - depending where it is -  has problematic relationships with "culture" too. The Pakistani communities in UK have been accused of staying frozen decades ago, continuing cousin marriages, honour killings, etc. Folks who went to work in the Gulf brought back a mix of Gulf and Pakistani fashions, traditions. And, there must be so many more stories of how "Pakistani culture" has mixed with other parts of the world. 

And, you know that culture is not static. 

In my immediate family, I don't really recognise any inherited culture around language (beyond speaking Urdu, no attempts made to pass on Punjabi), ties to any ancestral land except for a couple of visits to our parental grandparents' graves, and traditions.  Any feeble attempts to preserve echoes of this haven't really stayed. And, living abroad in Pakistani diplomatic missions meant we were socialised in a very limited way and, the artificial Pakistani construct is what stayed and, we knew we were Pakistanis because we had the passports, our father was the Ambassador, we imbibed some of the anti Indian, anti Hindu propaganda and watched a lot of Pakistani TV dramas on cassettes and listened to Pakistani music, ghazals, pop songs, etc. But we also consumed so many Indian films and music. 

But really, international careers have defined our lives, rendering any connection to our immediate land, ancestral villages, language, etc as null and void. 

The Pakistan project has sought to create a national religious identity and that has seeped through to our family too despite my father's admirable intellectual life, desire to be a rebel. What he has sought to pass on to us is really intellect, pursuit of intellect and the arts, and religion. 

Both my parents' families are mostly abroad now. The emotional sentimental relationship with Pakistan is really over. 

Somehow we are trained to think that brown black peoples have cultures even though, if you think about it, pre colonial culture was forever transformed with the arrival of colonialism. Cultures are tied to lands, pre colonial socio economic systems. And, colonialism really destroyed everything, dismantled pre colonial governments, structures, divided peoples into tribes, and religions, pitted them against each other, brought in extraction, even changed the course of rivers. 

We foolishly think we still have our cultures, especially family bonds. Almost as if it's designed that way. To make us think we have cultures at the expense of modernity. We are almost trained to think we have kinship while Westerners don't have it, that Westerners don't have family units. 

In this context, I love this line: ' modernity is in your head, it's how you treat other people.' 

When I was finding feminism and thinking of my identity, at some point, I realised , that as an individual, feminism wasn't about exposing yourself, wearing clothes of your choice to piss off a conservative environment, but finding cultural roots. I became enamoured with feminists who seemed to have a grounded sense of where they come from, saris, bindis, African dress, head wraps, etc. Then, I found socialist feminism which . Now, I struggle to find even feminism alone as urgent. 

As I think about my father suffering from dementia and, that his whole family except for me is living with him, and, as Pakistanis love projecting their non existent culture and religion, I know we have embraced an ugly capitalist brutal reality. 

Whether we want to admit it or not, we have been pulled into Modernity since the white man showed up. 

And, Modernity doesn't mean we abandon family values or hold on to toxic family patterns. Or we hold on to caste. It's that we treat each other in terms of equality. 

John McCain in Kyiv in 2013

 

Science science science

I'm reliving my school days through Kavita. I help her revise for her Common Assessment Tasks (CATs) : there are two sets per term, four in an academic year. And, there are two term examinations too. It's a lot of testing! 

I have helped her to study , set studying targets, keep her on schedule and then test her, too. This is helping her get near perfect marks. 

The way I help her think about it is to relive our love of board games especially Settlers of Catan where strategy helps you win points. So, why throw away points to the school? 

Kavita is smart kid and, with enough attention, nudging and time, she can get perfect marks. 

Also, any subject can come alive and, girls should have an equal love for maths and science and not be intimidated by them. No reason for maths to be scary. 

YouTube and Google are amazing sources when it comes to finding more about a topic in a text book or, to find exercises. 

I have learned this stage in life , 40s I guess, that I really love learning. I love seeing things through Kavita's eyes. 

As you all know, she's brilliant and if I haven't shared her conversation with Prof Pervez Hoodhbhoy during the 2025 Summer Camp on The Black Hole YouTube page, here is it: Consciousness and Robot Explained by a 12-year Old . (I've watched it 4 dozen times and smiled each time). 

Here's some cool cool science stuff. The dark energy and dark matter stuff is mind blowing. 

By the way, did you know Hashem Al-Ghaili is a Yemeni molecular biologist? His Facebook page is really cool from where most of these come from: 

Stuff from X