anewjacobin

Being an ordinary person in 2026 is weird. You wake up, make coffee, hit the gym, drive to work, answer emails… while somewhere else missiles are flying, flights are being cancelled, families are hiding in basements. The world is burning in one tab, and you’re expected to be productive in another. Modern life is emotionally absurd.

You know if I were a failing government, I would also use xenophobic dog whistles to distract people from the fact that their lives are miserable because of my mismanagement

Migrants have become scapegoats for governments’ failures - Dr Naledi Pandor

@geoffreyyork I did not deny this. But, For the sake of argument, ok my statement was emphatic, and wrong. You win. Now, could you point me to a BRICS communique that demonstrates that this is primary purpose and dominating agenda. Just one.

@imahabane You denied that financial payments systems were mentioned in any BRICS statements. Wrong.

BRICS is not a military alliance, there is no agreement for one country to military support another. Just ask members China and India! It's a trade block with a few members desperately trying to throw political messaging into the mix.

@geoffreyyork @deanwingrin Also, how did I insult you?

@imahabane @deanwingrin You've climbed down from your earlier false statement, and now you're still searching for a reason to insult me. I've worked for many years in Russia and China in the past, and it's absolutely correct that they search for mechanisms (such as BRICS) to weaken Western sanctions.

@geoffreyyork @deanwingrin I’m not sure SWIFT was mentioned before 2024. It’s true talk about independent cross‑border payment is becoming a more regular feature, not surprisingly. But to suggest Brics was set for and is primarily about anti sanctions is disingenuous.

@imahabane @deanwingrin That's incorrect. BRICS statements have often mentioned their plan to develop an alternative to SWIFT.

@geoffreyyork @deanwingrin Not an anti sanctions block either. More an alliance on multilateralism and global governance. So an alternative to the G7. The financial alternatives are mainly Western talking points and, on occasion, Russia rather than the agenda of any Brics summits or statements.

@deanwingrin It's not a trade bloc either. Despite SA's hopes, BRICS has provided no trading benefits that SA couldn't have obtained in bilateral deals with China etc. It's mainly an anti-sanctions bloc: countries that want financial alternatives to SWIFT and other Western pressure points.

It's annoying when people buy into the idea that "AI will replace us". AI isn't doing anything. What's actually happening is corporations are setting billions of dollars on fire trying to replace us with AI.

that chicken died for nothing 💔

@THFCmitch @Variety How did the Sinners cast do that?

@Variety Quite disappointing the sinners cast have encouraged hate on this guy despite knowing he clearly had no control over himself

EXCLUSIVE: In his first interview since the BAFTAs, "I Swear" subject John Davidson explains the Tourette's tics that led to his N-word outburst and says "I felt a wave of shame." "I was hoping people would understand. My mind was saying: These people have seen the film. They will know I can’t help this. They will know it’s not me. This is exactly why we are here. I was saying in my head, 'Please don’t judge me. Please understand this isn’t who I am.'" variety.com/2026/film/awar…

@Mfundo17 @DumaGqubule @SizweLo Ok. We need to increase the no of Drs per 100 00 three fold to have the same ratio Brazil.

@DumaGqubule @SizweLo We’re not an OECD country.

Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Health: We will only allow a foreign doctor to practice in our country if that foreign doctor has a speciality that is not found in our country.”

@DumaGqubule The people who shape his economic policy thinking are focused on “efficiencies,” “operating margins,” and “HEPS growth,” and on their whole their paradigm of the South African economy is of a services economy.

After 16 years during which we had annual average GDP growth of 1.1% our president says "we know that it will take many years for the economy to grow enough to create enough jobs for all those who are looking." Why do we accept this? i worry about his understanding of economy

@MbekezeliMB @SACLI By definition universities should be international. we are teaching discredited neoliberal economics in our universities we should recruit the best in developing countries and MMT and set up centres for the study of African economies.

World-class universities cannot only be staffed by South Africans. If we want our universities to be at the forefront of scientific development globally, we need brilliant minds from all over the world to come and teach and research at our universities.

@Shelomohkeita @DumaGqubule The PIC should be providing the core equity of a National Infrastructure Bank.

We do have R400 billion, but Neoliberalism doesn't allow us to spend R400 billion on public infrastructure. You can even phase it in over a period of 10 years if you are serious.

Let them eat cake? A top ANC politician says he simply goes to a hotel for a shower when the water supply is shut down. This is not an option for the millions of South Africans currently facing water shortages.

I have never, in all my years on this planet, seen so much evil, corruption, and crime. Everything. Everywhere. All at once.

@Lynette_SA And what is your basis for this strange exceptionalist thought?

I don’t think anyone else on this continent is proud to be where they’re from like South Africans! 🇿🇦

@RnaudBertrand @GypsyEyes69 @RyanE47272013 Westerner’s obsession with the supposed Chinese social credit score while oblivious to living in a financialised market society that is essentially defined by a financial credit score is bizarre.

@GypsyEyes69 @RyanE47272013 There's no social credit score for individuals, it's a myth

This is extraordinary and profoundly symbolic: Ai Weiwei has returned to China for the first time in 10 years and says he concluded that Beijing is "more humane" than Germany which he describes as "insecure and unfree". He gave an interview to Germany's Berliner Zeitung after his trip (berliner-zeitung.de/kultur-vergnue…) and here is what he said: - He described feeling that Beijing had become like "a broken jade being perfectly reassembled" and said he felt no fear returning to the country. - He complained that daily life difficulties in Europe (where he's lived for the past 10 years) are "at least ten times" what they are in China, criticizing European bureaucracy. - For instance he said he reactivated his dormant Chinese bank account in mere minutes (with "still had a considerable sum of money in it"). He contrasts this with his experience in Europe: "In Germany, my bank accounts were closed twice. And not just mine, but my girlfriend's as well. In Switzerland, I was refused an account at the country's largest bank, and another bank later closed my account there as well. There were other similar incidents, which I won't go into detail about here. These processes are extraordinarily complicated and often irrational." - He says that "with regard to the political climate, daily life for ordinary people in Beijing feels more natural and humane" than in Germany which "feels cold, rational, and deeply bureaucratic. As an individual, one feels confined and precarious there." - Stunningly he says that in Germany, over ten years, "almost no one has ever invited me to their home. Neighbors from above or below exchange at most a brief nod." He contrasts this with China where, immediately upon his return, "perfectly ordinary people from at least five different professions lined up, hoping to meet me." - He concludes that Germany now "plays the role of an insecure and unfree country, struggling to find its position between history and future." As a European who's lived 8 years in China, I couldn't agree more: life in China is an order of magnitude less cumbersome than in Europe and daily life feels much more humane and warm, contrary to popular belief. But it's one thing for me to say it, and something else entirely for China's most famous dissident. The man once celebrated throughout the West as the very embodiment of opposition to his country has now concluded that it is in fact Europe that's inhumane and "unfree".