Gaza Unbowed
- July 23, 2014
- by
- Matt
After more than two weeks of relentless violence that has cost more than 600 Palestinian lives and thousands of wounded, it is becoming increasingly clear that Israel’s savage assault on the Gaza Strip has not been successful even on its own terms. Day after day the rockets keep coming out of Gaza, and...
Egypt’s Comedy Hour
- June 24, 2014
- by
- Matt
Even the most brutal dictators and tyrants are comical, and every dictator is comical in his own way. It’s not the kind of humour that really makes you laugh or go home with a warm glowing feeling. The comedy is generally low, often cruel, and invariably grotesque.
For example there is a story – which...
Egypt’s Trial of the Century
- March 26, 2014
- by
- Matt
How many Egyptians does it take to kill one policeman? Exactly 529, if they are members of the Muslim Brotherhood, according to Judge Saeed Elgazar. That is the number of people Elgazar sentenced to death two days ago for the killing of a deputy police commander in the southern Egyptian city of...
Egypt’s descent into Hell and the death of R2P
- August 18, 2013
- by
- Matt
The savage purges of the Muslim Brotherhood unleashed by the Egyptian military have exposed – perhaps definitively – the dishonesty, hypocrisy and opportunism with which human rights discourse has been co-opted by Western states in order to lubricate the neo-imperialist ‘interventions’ of the last decade or so.
From the Kosovo war to Libya, Western governments have...
Massacre In Cairo
- August 15, 2013
- by
- Matt
There was a horrible predictability about yesterday’s terrible events in Egypt for which many different protagonists are responsible. Primary responsibility, of course, lies with the army, for launching a brutal all-out assault on the Muslim Brotherhood, which deserves nothing but universal condemnation.
From the moment the army took advantage of the anti-Morsi mobilisations to...
Sour Times
- September 14, 2012
- by
- Matt
Years ago, in the midst of World War I, the great Austrian satirist Karl Kraus wrote – or rather compiled – a massive play entitled The Last Days of Humanity, which remains one of the most ferocious anti-war polemics ever written.
In it the pacifist Kraus brought all his formidable satirical skills to bear as he...
Recent Comments