Saint Nick

MOTTLEY WARNS UN: THERE WILL BE WAR UNTIL RACISM IS ABANDONED When Emperor Haile Selassie addressed the UN General Assembly on October 4, 1963, he delivered words that would echo through the decades: "Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned... everywhere is war." Sixty-three years later, on September 25, 2026, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley stood before the 81st UNGA and invoked those same words, asking world leaders to recite them together. Her gesture was not mere nostalgia. As the Ghanaian Times observed, "the question of whether international relations are truly governed by equality and fairness remains unresolved" . UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned in May 2026 that the world faces "the highest number of conflicts since the founding of the United Nations," with a "dangerous erosion of respect for international law" and "impunity spreading". As Prime Minister Mottley stated, "the mindset that established, justified and sustained slavery is the same mindset that sustains the iniquities within the power structures of this very institution". From the dawn of the African liberation struggle, to Selassie's demand for racial equality in 1963, to Mottley's call in 2026, the demand remains constant: the international order must become "more equitable, representative and responsive to the interests of all peoples".

HOW DJ VLAD EXPLOITS THE TRAUMA OF BLACK PEOPLE Two giants of anti-imperialist journalism - hip-hop artist Lowkey and Sovereign Media CEO Ahmed Kaballo exposed how DJ Vlad systematically exploits the trauma of Black artists while cheerleading imperialist violence abroad. Analysing a clip from Vlad's interview with rapper Oschino where the former casually states he is "not against the bombing of Iran" before yelling "f*ck Iran... f*ck these motherf*ckers," Lowkey drew a direct ideological line between Vlad's indifference toward the mass slaughter of people in the Global South and his predatory approach to hip-hop culture.  Lowkey accused Vlad of acting as a trauma extractor, sitting down with young Black men who have survived systemic oppression and the private prison industrial complex, only to derive visceral satisfaction from forcing them to relive their deepest traumas for profit. To provide an example of this, Kaballo highlighted Vlad’s infamous interview with UK rap icon Giggs, where Vlad fixated entirely on guns, shootings, and prison sentences until Giggs finally interrupted to ask "are we going to talk about the music?" Together, the hosts dismantled Vlad's claim of being a student of hip-hop, showing how he discards the genre's revolutionary roots in favour of crude caricatures.  In the full episode of Lowkey and Ahmed Kaballo React, the duo urged audiences to reject exploitative, degenerate platforms and support independent alternatives.