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Tariq Ali Biography

Tariq Ali (/ˈtɑːrɪk ˈɑːli/; Punjabi, Urdu: طارق علی‬‎; born 21 October 1943) is a British-Pakistani writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, political activist, and public intellectual. He is a member of the editorial committee of the New Left Review and Sin Permiso, and contributes to The Guardian, CounterPunch, and the London Review of Books. He read PPE at Exeter College, Oxford.

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Tariq Ali Quotes

I think another crisis, which is being predicted now and which will be worse than what we saw in 2008, could bring the European Union down unless there are huge reforms from within to democratize, to give more power to the regions, etc. If this doesn't happen, the European Union will fall.

Etc, Fall, Giving, Saw, Thinking

The European Union is effectively a union dominated by the German political and economic elite. Its main function is to serve as a nucleus for financial capitalism and to ease the road for that capitalism. The other functions just irritate everyone: it's undemocratic; decisions are not made by parliament; the European Parliament is not sovereign.

Decision, Ease, Effectively, Elite, Irritate, Political

As for ISIS, we know where they come from. We know who has used them in the past. We know their sectarianism leads to killings. Here the Turkish state, like its NATO bosses, has helped to create a monster that it now claims to oppose.

Past, Boss, Killing, Helped, Bosses, Nato

What we are seeing in Turkey is a non-uniformed authoritarian regime led by a politician, Tayyip Erdogan, who has allowed power to go to his head and is behaving more and more like a despot. Sooner or later this will provoke political uprisings throughout the country as happened after Gezi.

Allowed, Country, Political, Politician, Throughout, Uprisings

Desperation is the result of globalization.

Desperation, Globalization, Results, Result

The West and its media have barely covered the recent wave of repression in Turkey. The reason is simple. They are paying billions to Ankara to control and take back the refugees of the Syrian war. They are fearful that if they offend Tayyip Erdogan he will use the refugees as a political weapon. So they keep quiet.

War, Simple, Political, Billions, Repression, Quiet

The European Union is a union of the extreme center. It's a banker's union. You see how they operate in country after country, appointing technocrats to take over and run countries for long periods. They did it in Greece; they did it in Italy; they considered it in other parts of Europe.

Center, Country, Europe, Run, Running, See

The EU is an alliance that the Americans control, in which the EU of course has a great deal of autonomy, but in which it still is very dependent on the United States, especially militarily, but not only in that respect. So to blame the Germans for everything is an easy way out for some of those suffering in Europe today.

Blame, Europe, Everything, Suffering, United, United States

How we live our lives does not,unfortunately depend on us alone. Circumstances,good or bad,constantly intervene. A person close to us die. A person not so close to us carries on living. All these things affect how we live.

Doe, Circumstances, Persons, Depend, Close, Affect

The function of a bourgeois democracy is to secure the consent of the masses to their own exploitation and oppression.

Democracy, Oppression, Function, Bourgeois, Exploitation

Terrorism emanates from weakness, not strength. It is the sign of despair.

Despair, Emanates, Terrorism, Weakness

Tayyip Erdogan wants to go beyond George W. Bush by making critical journalism and critics in the academy illegal. What will be the difference between him and a military government? Very little. I read his remarks on the effectiveness of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. Well, yes. But then the AKP would have to ban all other political parties, close down all critical newspapers, burn the books critical of the regime and gas the Kurds to death. . . the final solution of the Kurdish 'problem. ' Somehow I don't think he is about to do that.

Book, Critics, Military, Party, Problem, Solution

One could think of ways to defeat the censor. I could put up the answers on my Facebook page or website or Counterpunch. In today's world it's not easy to suppress information. Technology has helped us a great deal.

Helped, Information, Technology, Think, Thinking, World

The Internet has been an invaluable acquisition. I wonder how we would do without it. Information can be sent from one country to the other within the space of minutes, crossing channels, crossing oceans, crossing continents. But still, we can't compete with the might and power and wealth of those who dominate, control, and own the means of the production of information today.

Country, Mean, Ocean, Power, Space, Today

Most Iraqis, even if they hated Saddam and suffered, say life was much better under him than it was under the occupation and what's going on today.

Hated, Iraqis, Life, Occupation, Today

Tony Blair is a war criminal.

Blair, Criminal, Criminals, War

I do think the Cubans have to change some of the political structures there and allow critical voices, for their own sakes, because unless there is accountability the revolution will totally atrophy.

Thinking, Voice, Accountability, Totally, Unless, Allow

In many parts of the Islamic world, secular forces, where they exist, tend to be so unsure of themselves, so lacking in self-confidence, that in many cases they line themselves up fairly squarely behind the imperial project and that then creates a big vacuum in which the Islamists become the dominant power because they are the only ones then who are seen as resisting.

Dominant, Islamic, Seen, Self Confidence, Tend, Vacuums

The implication strongly is that Osama bin Laden is a Hitler, even though he has no state power at all. It's just grotesque if you seriously think about it.

Grotesque, Laden, Osama Bin Laden, States, Strongly, Thinking

The extreme center is the political expression of the neoliberal state.

Expression, Political, States, Neoliberal

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