Sham Jaff

These “poor countries” do have immense wealth, only it’s concentrated in the hands of a few, alongside widespread poverty. Maybe it’s time we stop saying “poor” and start saying “deeply unequal.” So we don’t let the elites slip out of the frame every time we talk about global poverty.

Whenever I hear or read the term “poor country,” I get frustrated that an economic label has been so commonly accepted as an accurate description. No country is uniformly poor; what we’re usually talking about is extreme inequality.

The goal wouldn’t be to derail conversation, but to strategically push organizers toward being better communicators. If they find themselves repeatedly having to explain the same terms, maybe the takeaway is: the message isn’t landing.

I have a proposal for what might be the most ethical use of fake bots: program them to pretend to be “normal people” who consistently comment on leftists’ posts, “I care about this issue, but I don’t understand the language. Can someone explain?”

Has anyone ever made the link between Obama’s 2008 “Change” campaign and the Kurdish Gorran party popping up in 2009 with the same slogan? I’ve always wondered if that was a coincidence or a quiet copy-paste.

Somehow TikTok has turned into this bizarre digital donation jar where I watch a 3-minute story, cry a little, and hope that some stranger can now pay for their migration journey or legal case. Then the algorithm eats them and I never hear a thing again.

Remember when Gordon Brown in 2009 genuinely believed that Twitter would make genocides impossible? That public opinion fueled by real-time internet outrage would force govs to act? Bless his optimism. www.theguardian.com/politics/200...

The cutest name for a revolutionary protest movement has to be the Penguin Revolution of 2006 in Chile. It was called that because high school students (who were protesting to increase public spending and to reduce inequality in education) dress very formally there, in black and white uniforms.

I do wonder how our history books would sound like it they written by vampire historians. By beings that lived forever.

Essentially, the uprising in Tunisia inspired the uprising in Tahrir Square, and that one inspired Occupy Wall Street, and that one then inspired Occupy São Paulo.

"Well, we don't know if Kamala would have actually been better." Sure.

UN experts call for immediate dismantling of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation GENEVA – UN experts* today expressed grave concern over the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s (GHF) operations, saying Palestinians are paying the ultimate price of the international community’s legal, p...

UN experts call for immediate dismantling of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

There’s a kid on Tiktok who predicts his death in a few weeks…

“If you don’t win, they burn your story, too.” Very true for the Bahrain uprising 2011.

Doctor’s visit went well today. That’s 1 out of 17 this year. A record.

“Since the campaign launched, American Eagle’s stock has shot up almost 18%.” Checks out.

Sort of like the Oscars. It’s not about just picking the best movie. It’s Hollywood telling the world: “This is who we are, what we stand for, and where we want to go.” The ICJ’s ruling is also a symbolic act of self-definition. Performance of authority.

In Zeiten von Krieg können Meta-Debatten über Rhetorik und Begriffe zur Nebelwand werden. Scheinradikal, aber letztlich Ausdruck einer privilegierten Neutralität, die sich nicht positionieren will. Genozid oder nicht, that is the question.

Might start recommending that viral ASMR video of rain sounds and WWII bombings to Western journalists. Just so they get a taste of what it’s like when your reality becomes someone else’s ambient noise.

Note to self: don’t tell people in Kurdistan and Iraq “sending sunshine your way.” The sun there is already doing too much.

Said something vulnerable online, and now I’m being followed by a breathwork coach named Luna who wants to help me “alchemize my grief” for €88.

Merz announces a Gaza airlift. Again. Starvation is political, not logistical. It’s not from lack of food, but an intentional blockade. Israel controls the crossings. Egypt plays along. Western govs know this and still choose the optics of airdrops over real accountability.

So few people realize this about starvation. Once you’ve starved a population to near death, food won’t bring them all back. You need complex medical interventions, like tube feeding carefully monitored in hospitals…which we let be bombed into ruins.

It feels like the floodgates may be about to open, in terms of people confronting what’s actually been happening in Gaza. It’s a tragedy of enormous proportions.

UNESCO inscribes 26 new sites on World Heritage list | Africanews Five culturally and historically significant sites on the African continent have made the list. They include Maputo National Park in Mozambique and the Gola-Tiwai Complex in Sierra Leone, two importan...

There are 26 new World Heritage sites.

"this as an excuse to learn [about them]" writes @shamjaff.bsky.social in her excellent newsletter. Could not agree more! Well said.

www.africanews.com/2025/07/16/u...

Germany’s public radio reports that two prominent Israeli human rights orgs (B’Tselem & Physicians for Human Rights Israel) have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. This is the authorization of truth. It is not enough to kill 50k+ people. Their death must also be footnoted correctly.

Reading the news

Of course, the most vulnerable die first. That's what happens in famines.

There’s actually some good f*cking news coming out of Timor-Leste and Senegal right now, and I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t have to actively look for it. Tomorrow’s issue of my newsletter is coming out on 5am Berlin time. Subscribe here whathappenedlastweek.com

Miranda July - All Fours