Now, this deserves some comment. The International Energy Agency has proposed a 10-point plan for reducing oil consumption. Now, first of all, this serves to reiterate what I have already mentioned in a recent podcast; namely, that cutting Europe off from Russian oil is being used as an impetus for pushing already existing plans for reducing fossil fuel usage – there is no serious plan for replacing Russian oil, but rather, only a plan for acclimating the public to foregoing oil altogether. This plan basically entails various forms of imposed discipline on the population’s energy consumption, and that is what the 10-point plan covers…how YOU can stop polluting the planet with your dirty fuel.
So, let’s just point something out here; the single biggest consumer of oil in the world is the US military, and roughly 70% of carbon emissions are caused by industry, only a couple dozen companies, in fact. And between 15% to 20% of emissions are related to multinational corporations offshoring manufacturing and maintaining sprawling supply chains. The average billionaire has a carbon footprint roughly 1,100 times greater than the average normal person – your carbon footprint is approximately 7 metric tonnes of CO2 per year, a billionaire’s is around 8,300 tonnes.
Energy discipline is not being imposed upon these climate change offenders, which means that you are being disciplined precisely to that they won’t be. You will bear the brunt of energy shortages, the military won’t, industry won’t, multinational corporations won’t, and billionaires won’t. Why not? Because it has nothing to do with saving the environment, and everything to do with Austerity and social control.
So, let’s just point something out here; the single biggest consumer of oil in the world is the US military, and roughly 70% of carbon emissions are caused by industry, only a couple dozen companies, in fact. And between 15% to 20% of emissions are related to multinational corporations offshoring manufacturing and maintaining sprawling supply chains. The average billionaire has a carbon footprint roughly 1,100 times greater than the average normal person – your carbon footprint is approximately 7 metric tonnes of CO2 per year, a billionaire’s is around 8,300 tonnes.
Energy discipline is not being imposed upon these climate change offenders, which means that you are being disciplined precisely to that they won’t be. You will bear the brunt of energy shortages, the military won’t, industry won’t, multinational corporations won’t, and billionaires won’t. Why not? Because it has nothing to do with saving the environment, and everything to do with Austerity and social control.
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New podcast episode uploaded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=949xniAeYbU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=949xniAeYbU
YouTube
The Economic Battlefield. Middle Nation Podcast (E:21)
The arena of conflict, resistance, opposition, and confrontation against colonialism, imperialism, and crusaders, is today, the arena of the private sector. We have to develop private sector strategies for building partnerships, alliances, and solidarity…
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Salaam everyone...a brother in the discussion group shared a link to a Facebook group for Muslim entrepreneurs...any initiative like this should be promoted as widely as possible. Please check it out. Jazakum Allahu Khayran
https://facebook.com/groups/ummahpreneur/
https://facebook.com/groups/ummahpreneur/
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New podcast episode uploaded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v6q8qIRThY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v6q8qIRThY
YouTube
Normalization. Middle Nation Podcast:(E22)
The #MuftiMenkiftar in #UAE with an Israeli rabbi provides a good opportunity to explore the topic of normalization of relations between Muslim and Arab countries with Israel. In my opinion, normalization is most properly understood, not as a betrayal of…
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About 100 companies listed on the S&P 500 Index have already reported their first quarter earnings, and roughly 80% of them have profited above and beyond expectations. Another 180 companies will report their first quarter earnings by the end of this week, and except for some of the tech companies, it is expected that most of them are continuing to make such a significant profit that you’d think the world is not enduring an energy crisis, a food crisis, a supply chain crisis, rampant global inflation, ongoing economic shocks related to Covid-19, and a war in Europe. You would think, how can these companies be doing so well, when the whole world is suffering cascading disasters…how are these corporations safe from the effects of worldwide insecurity and collapse?
Well, they are safe from it the same way that the one shooting a gun is safe from the bullet he shoots.
I said before that these companies are going to be enjoying rising profits while global conditions decline, and they will be doing better next quarter than they are this one, and they will end the year at all time highs. You know for whom policies are made by who benefits from them.
This is what an Empire of Capital looks like.
Well, they are safe from it the same way that the one shooting a gun is safe from the bullet he shoots.
I said before that these companies are going to be enjoying rising profits while global conditions decline, and they will be doing better next quarter than they are this one, and they will end the year at all time highs. You know for whom policies are made by who benefits from them.
This is what an Empire of Capital looks like.
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It is testament to the dismal deterioration of Western societies’ understanding of the values they proclaim, and to the relentless onslaught of Neoliberalism against every aspect of life, that people have so succumbed to the notion that company-owned social media platforms comprise the totality of what we identify as the public sphere; and that the purchase of one such a company by a single private investor who will exert complete control over that platform…is celebrated as a triumph for free speech.
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Written for a client:
At what point do we recognise that Myanmar’s creation of a refugee crisis with cascading impact across ASEAN constitutes that country’s interference in the domestic affairs of member states? While we have always maintained the core principle of non-interference, even with regards to the Rohingya genocide; we must see that Myanmar’s actions have imposed upon us all, and Malaysia in particular, challenging domestic issues that require our government to take action for our own peace and stability. The Tatmadaw military junta in Myanmar is, essentially, interfering in the politics of Malaysia..
Because Malaysia upholds the Myanmarese citizenship of the Rohingya, and their unalienable right to return to their home country, we do not have a legal framework for categorising them as refugees. Our approach is to presume repatriation, not to regard the Rohingya as permanently dispossessed and stateless. This has obviously made the situation for them extremely blurry in Malaysia with regard to their status, rights, and responsibilities. While this is certainly something we will have to address, and our legislators are going to have to hammer out clearer, more effective protocols for handling the ongoing influx of Rohingya fleeing genocide in Myanmar; this is a domestic political problem undeniably caused by the military of a foreign country – and that is unacceptable.
The horrific incident on April 20th at the immigration detention centre in Relau, Bandar Baharu highlights the atrocious extent to which Myanmar’s policies have intruded upon the security and stability of Malaysia. Undoubtedly, we have failed to effectively manage the challenges posed by the refugee crisis – we need to clarify the position of Rohingya in our country and end their state of legal limbo – but this is not a crisis of our own making; it has been imposed upon us, and Myanmar must be held responsible.
The ASEAN guiding principle of non-interference is indispensable; it safeguards the sovereignty of every member state, and ensures that no individual nation, or collection of nations, with greater power and influence can exert dominance over another. I do not support annulling this principle, but rather broadening its meaning. When any member state implements policies that predictably and inevitably cause negative spill-over consequences upon other ASEAN members; this should be regarded as a form of interference, and a violation of the principle.
The Tatmadaw has deliberately, calculatedly, and relentlessly driven the Rohingya out of their land; unquestionably knowing that this would flood ASEAN member states with refugees, thereby imposing upon us a complex legal, political, and economic problem that our governments would be forced to address. Malaysian NGOs and civil society have been grappling with this dilemma for years now, as have our officials. The issue of the Rohingya has become a divisive topic in our society, particularly over the course of the pandemic, as we struggle to adopt approaches that are both humane and fair to the refugees, and not detrimental to the rights and opportunities of our citizens. This dilemma arguably reached boiling point last week in the detention centre melee that left 10 people dead.
To me, this disturbing incident does not so much represent the shortcomings of the Malaysian government’s policy towards the Rohingya, but more the spreading of the chaos created by the policies of Myanmar. The military regime in Naypyidaw makes decisions that reverberate throughout the region, and interfere with the domestic tranquillity of Malaysia.
At what point do we recognise that Myanmar’s creation of a refugee crisis with cascading impact across ASEAN constitutes that country’s interference in the domestic affairs of member states? While we have always maintained the core principle of non-interference, even with regards to the Rohingya genocide; we must see that Myanmar’s actions have imposed upon us all, and Malaysia in particular, challenging domestic issues that require our government to take action for our own peace and stability. The Tatmadaw military junta in Myanmar is, essentially, interfering in the politics of Malaysia..
Because Malaysia upholds the Myanmarese citizenship of the Rohingya, and their unalienable right to return to their home country, we do not have a legal framework for categorising them as refugees. Our approach is to presume repatriation, not to regard the Rohingya as permanently dispossessed and stateless. This has obviously made the situation for them extremely blurry in Malaysia with regard to their status, rights, and responsibilities. While this is certainly something we will have to address, and our legislators are going to have to hammer out clearer, more effective protocols for handling the ongoing influx of Rohingya fleeing genocide in Myanmar; this is a domestic political problem undeniably caused by the military of a foreign country – and that is unacceptable.
The horrific incident on April 20th at the immigration detention centre in Relau, Bandar Baharu highlights the atrocious extent to which Myanmar’s policies have intruded upon the security and stability of Malaysia. Undoubtedly, we have failed to effectively manage the challenges posed by the refugee crisis – we need to clarify the position of Rohingya in our country and end their state of legal limbo – but this is not a crisis of our own making; it has been imposed upon us, and Myanmar must be held responsible.
The ASEAN guiding principle of non-interference is indispensable; it safeguards the sovereignty of every member state, and ensures that no individual nation, or collection of nations, with greater power and influence can exert dominance over another. I do not support annulling this principle, but rather broadening its meaning. When any member state implements policies that predictably and inevitably cause negative spill-over consequences upon other ASEAN members; this should be regarded as a form of interference, and a violation of the principle.
The Tatmadaw has deliberately, calculatedly, and relentlessly driven the Rohingya out of their land; unquestionably knowing that this would flood ASEAN member states with refugees, thereby imposing upon us a complex legal, political, and economic problem that our governments would be forced to address. Malaysian NGOs and civil society have been grappling with this dilemma for years now, as have our officials. The issue of the Rohingya has become a divisive topic in our society, particularly over the course of the pandemic, as we struggle to adopt approaches that are both humane and fair to the refugees, and not detrimental to the rights and opportunities of our citizens. This dilemma arguably reached boiling point last week in the detention centre melee that left 10 people dead.
To me, this disturbing incident does not so much represent the shortcomings of the Malaysian government’s policy towards the Rohingya, but more the spreading of the chaos created by the policies of Myanmar. The military regime in Naypyidaw makes decisions that reverberate throughout the region, and interfere with the domestic tranquillity of Malaysia.
For over a decade, Malaysian NGOs have dedicated resources to helping the Rohingya, whose UNHCR cards do not ennoscript them to work in this country; and we have proposed multiple plans for temporary measures to facilitate better living conditions for them. But ultimately, we have to recognise that no permanent solution can be reached to solve the problems created by another country’s policies. The Rohingya refugee crisis is the fault of no one but the Myanmar regime, and any stop-gap measures we undertake to temporarily manage the situation only helps to avert accountability for that regime; which in turn guarantees the continuation of the crisis.
For too long the ASEAN non-interference principle has been invoked to justify inaction against Myanmar for the genocide of the Rohingya; but it seems to me that it is time for us to realise that action is justified precisely on the grounds of non-interference; because Myanmar’s policies have been disrupting countries like Malaysia year after year, and this cannot be allowed to continue.
For too long the ASEAN non-interference principle has been invoked to justify inaction against Myanmar for the genocide of the Rohingya; but it seems to me that it is time for us to realise that action is justified precisely on the grounds of non-interference; because Myanmar’s policies have been disrupting countries like Malaysia year after year, and this cannot be allowed to continue.
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Don’t engage with radical conspiracy theorists, flat-earthers, or Atheists. These are people whose thinking skills are stunted far below any level that accommodates intelligent discussion. I believe they should be berated, not debated. Atheists have the most shallow, immature, and severely limited minds of anyone out there; their second most egregious claim is that they are rational thinkers; akin to an infant who “rationally” thinks their parent’s face ceases to exist during a game of peek-a-boo.
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