Colonialism

By Christopher M. Davidson | (Informed Comment) | – – Swept along on a tidal wave of euphoria, by spring 2011 many had cautiously begun to believe that the wave of Arab uprisings that had already managed to topple the regimes of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak would herald the dawn of […]

Colonialism

60 Years later, Suez Crisis looks a lot like Iraq War

contributors

By Nigel Ashton | (The Conversation) | – – Does history repeat itself? Never perfectly or precisely, but some of the parallels between Anthony Eden’s handling of the 1956 Suez Crisis and Tony Blair’s role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq are worth pondering. In both cases prime ministerial decision-making dictated the course of British […]

Colonialism

Colonial Slow Genocide: Palestinian Leader Abbas asks Britain for “Balfour” Apology

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Mahmoud Abbas, president of Palestine, is asking Britain for an apology for its having in 1917 issued the infamous “Balfour Declaration.” He won’t get one. The difference between the North Atlantic countries and the rest of the world is that the former are still committed to […]

Colonialism

Architects of Failure: 100 years of Sykes-Picot

contributors

By Akil N. Awan | ( History Today) | – – How an agreement signed in 1916 became shorthand for western treachery, greed and the impact of colonial machinations on the lives of local peoples. One of the most striking observations, when comparing a map of Europe with one of the Middle East or North […]

Colonialism

Britain should stop trying to pretend that its empire was benevolent

contributors

By Alan Lester | (The Conversation) | – – The recent debacle of David Cameron’s filmed condemnation of Nigerian and Afghan corruption and the Queen’s remark on Chinese officials’ rudeness highlights the persistence of imperial thinking in Britain. There seems to be a continuing assumption within the British establishment that it sets an example for […]

Colonialism

100th Anniversary: What did the Sykes-Picot Agreement mean for the Middle East?

contributors

By Stephen Pascoe | (The Conversation) | – – To mark the 100th anniversary of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, we’ve got a package with an explanatory article about the secret accord (below) . . . The Sykes-Picot accord was conceived at a high point in Britain and France’s imperial power. Hammered out in the midst of […]

Colonialism

Beyond Victimhood: 5 Slaves Who Fought Back and Changed History

contributors

By Mohamed Hemish | ( TeleSur | – – March 25 marks the United Nations’ “International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery,” which aims to draw attention to the more than 15 million men, women and children who fell victim to the Transatlantic Slave Trade that lasted from the 15th through to the […]

Colonialism

Syrian Refugees: Colonial Legacy & the Responsibility of France & UK

contributors

David Peduto | (Informed Comment) | – – The Syrian war has resurrected uncomfortable colonial legacies for France and the United Kingdom. For the French and the British, whose policies in post-World War I Syria shaped the country and the region in profound ways, the 500,000 Syrian refugees who landed in the European Union last […]

Archaeology

Anti-Orientalism: Artists 3-D Scan looted Egyptian treasure in German museum

contributors

By Cory Doctorow | ( Boing Boing | – – Nora Al-Badri and Jan Nikolai Nelles, an Iraqi/German artistic duo, covertly scanned a famous looted Egyptian treasure, the Bust of Queen Nefertiti, from its contested perch in Berlin’s Neues Museum. The hi-rez 3D file is now free to download and print — the artists have […]