Headlines 01/06/2016

Headlines

• British Hypocrisy

• Chief Negotiator Mohammed Alloush Resigns

• Capitalism is Dying

Details

British Hypocrisy

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has hailed Labour's Sadiq Khan as "a proud Muslim" and "a proud Brit" as he shared a platform with the London Mayor at an EU Remain rally. This can be seen as a dramatic U-turn on Cameron's earlier position towards Khan, where he labelled him a "terrorist sympathiser" for sharing platforms with so called "extremists", a clear contradiction to his own belief of freedom of speech. Cameron shook hands with Mr Khan and congratulated him on his victory in the mayoral contest, telling the crowd: "I'm proud to be here with the mayor of London - with the Labour mayor of London - on this vital, vital issue." Yet again compromising and going back on his words, for the fulfilment of his own interests and agenda, a typical trait of a western politician. Sadiq Khan, despite being a Muslim is no exception, stating, "There are many things on which the prime minister and I will disagree. But what's really important is when it's in Londoners' interests for the mayor and the government to work closely together, we will work closely together." Such is the nature of politics in the western world where even those with Islam are moulded into individuals that seek their own interests, personal ambitions and personal greed within the political framework.

Chief Negotiator Mohammed Alloush Resigns

On Monday 30 May 2016, Chief HNC Negotiator Mohammed Alloush who is also a member of Jaysh al Islam announced his resignation citing the international community’s inability to solve humanitarian issues including the ending of sieges, ensuring access to aid and working for the release of prisoners. Despite the rebel groups involved having little influence on the ground to begin with, the various leaders involved in the HNC seem to be moving in a similar direction. The international community’s continued insistence in working for a political solution which includes Assad and his regime continues to stand in the way of the commitment of the rebel groups involved. The clear “wait and see” approach adopted by world powers over the last 5 years including the recent siege of Aleppo was a clear indication to those inside and outside of Syria that these countries want to steer Syria in a direction which is different to what the people themselves desire. Perhaps the lack of urgency behind the talks and the various delayed introduced by DeMistura are indications of the fact that the international community have placed their trust in the Assad regime, this time backed by Russia and Iran to reclaim power within Syria. Only time will tell if the rebels can overcome the challenges ahead and continue to hinder the regimes progress within key areas.

Capitalism is Dying

The IMF’s recently published in its flagship publication, “Neoliberalism: Oversold.” The IMF has been central for decades in implementing far reaching Capitalist policies that have transformed many countries into markets for western corporations. Now the IMF has come to the realisation of the ideologies failures and describing how a “neoliberal agenda” has spread across the globe in the past 30 years and turned to countries into markets. In the UK, classrooms are being transformed into supermarkets and the public sector is replaced by private companies. The results, the IMF researchers concede, have been terrible.

Neoliberalism hasn’t delivered economic growth – it has only made a few people a lot better off. It causes epic crashes that leave behind human wreckage and cost billions to clean up.

The problem is much of the blame is being placed upon a madhab within capitalism rather than the ideology itself. The IMF researchers believe some within the ideology went too far, which fails to recognise capitalism’s shortcomings. This study also comes from the IMF’s research division – not from the section who fly into bankrupt countries, proscribe loans to cash-strapped governments and administer them when they fail to make repayments. Since 2008, a big gap has opened up between what the IMF thinks and what it does. In the analysis the authors still defend privatisation as leading to “more efficient provision of services,” despite all the damage caused. So after the worst economic crisis for decades, they still see capitalism as the only ideology for mankind, even though its end has begun.