roundup ≠ scrapbook

Blah!

The EU is fucked up. But is leaving the cure? I still think cooperation and solidarity (non-existent at the moment for the most part, especially the powerful part) are better than fragmentation and division (current state of things). A fundamental problem with the Brexit Leave campaign is that it promoted Brexit from an utterly wrong basis which is racist, xenophobic, anti-social, far right populist hate-promoting… and all this in the name of “sovereignty” and “freedom” (please define), while being unable to provide any concrete solution to make the lives of those in the UK better (e.g. against inequality and austerity), or even address the underlying problems with the EU (its undemocratic, neoliberal leadership, its implicit imperialism) which are making life hell for the growing masses of economically and socially marginalised people (are you still marginalised when the majority is “marginalised”?), not only in Europe but also in the “post-colonies” of the East and the South. In or out of the EU, the UK seems likely to be stay on the neoliberal path.

Am I dreaming of a romantic leftist socialist utopia? EU or not EU, what’s lacking is international cooperation and solidarity across state borders, we have enough division and discrimination and xenophobia and borders and militarisation thereof and and and.

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EURexit:

The European Union is remote, racist, imperialist, anti-worker and anti-democratic: It is run by, of, and for the super-rich and their corporations…

Corporate bureaucrats in Brussels working as agents of the big banks and transnationals’ now exert control over every aspect of our lives. Neoliberal policies and practices (austerity, flexible labour markets, low pay, privatisation of public services, eradication of welfare states) dominate the European Commission, European Parliament, European Central Bank, European Court of Justice and a compliant media legitimises the whole conquest.

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There might still be hope, if we demand a democratic refoundation of Europe

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and, Let us be honest about our past and our present if we truly seek to dismantle white supremacy!

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Regarding my Heimat:

The case of Hong Kong: From Occupy Wall Street to Occupy Central *Hong Kong* at LARB

Badlands Unlimited’s Reading List regarding the democracy movement in HK.

A Round-up from Libcom.org

China’s choice from Project Syndicate. The delirium from “losing face”.

Guernica’s report on the first 2 weeks of demonstrations.

Salute for the “Ba-Si-Da”‘s of HKGolden on the New Republic.

The amazing language called Cantonese. And its subversive potential.

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In other New Yorker news:

Looking forward to Laura Poitra’s Citizenfour

Copyright the back of your head, or not.

The Essay on the Essay’s story

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Why aren’t we having holidays on Mars yet? What about clothes which wash themselves? Or a robot butler which is way much smarter than the slow and stupid Roomba? Of flying cars and the declining rate of profit, bureaucratic corporate capitalism, the illusion of post-work society, marketing, privatisation of everything there is, and all those awful things which characterise our societies. From The Baffler, by David Graeber.

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“How do politicians who are unresponsive to the interests of the vast majority of their constituents get elected and, more important, re-elected, while doing the bidding mostly of the wealthiest individuals?

A politician who represents the interests primarily of economic elites has to find other means of appealing to the masses. Such an alternative is provided by the politics of nationalism, sectarianism, and identity – a politics based on cultural values and symbolism rather than bread-and-butter interests.”

On How the Rich Rule, from Project Syndicate

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Bubble vocabulary: The lazy and pretentious literary show-off in all of us.

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Addictive French fries, seductive and sexy Fondant au chocolat. A linguist talks about restaurant reviews à la Américain on the New Republic.

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