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“It still shocks me to see countless academics who consider themselves intelligent, deep, or critical who constantly post and share articles from places like NYTimes, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and other such sources that, at the surface, appear to be intelligent, objective, and critical even of the power under which they operate (the Western elites), but if you dig deeper, you will discover that they are, one way or another, in perfect harmony with the imperial and colonial agenda of the West against the rest.”
― Louis Yako

“Reem’s life was one of a lost past, a present she rejected, and a future that is up in the air, like a plane traveling between continents.”
― Louis Yako, Bullets in Envelopes: Iraqi Academics in Exile

“In the area of Middle East Studies, you can always count on getting funding if your research is about minorities being treated horribly by ‘authoritarian regimesâ€� that the West want to topple, women oppressed and forced to wear the hijab, masculinity and femininity, gays are oppressed, refugees (provided that they are seeking safety in the West and running from a ‘dictatorâ€� the West wants to topple), and so on. The pattern and the intentions are clear to a vigilant observer. What all such topics have in common is not that they are not important or need attention (they are so on both counts), but that their function is to maintain the West’s colonial and racist gaze on the rest of the world, which, in turn, serves the West’s hegemony and control over others.”
― Louis Yako

“It is fair to argue that conservative and liberal media in the West are two sides of the same coin. I personally see CNN and Fox News as complementing not contradicting each other. The former gives viewers the false impression of being liberal and critical of the system, while the latter vehemently promotes and defends the existing militaristic, racist, and supremacist system in place. The former gives the world the false impression of freedom and democracy where everything and everyone can be criticized and held accountable (which is far from the truth), while the latter constantly agitates the public to ensure that the predominantly militaristic, capitalist, and racist system remains intact. The outside world thinks that America is so free to have a newspaper like the NYTimes, but they don’t realize that the system operates precisely as Fox News wants it to.”
― Louis Yako

“I have always maintained that genuine intellectuals, by definition, refuse to play any institutional games at any stage of their career or intellectual life. They can’t pretend to unsee once they see. They can’t ‘waitâ€� until they have tenure or enough power to ‘get awayâ€� with things or be brave in their thinking and writing. A sincere thinker can’t fake or delay what they want to question, how, and the way in which they want to put it on paper. They can’t divide things into what can be said or done before or after tenure. A sincere thinker will die of a heart attack if they don’t research, write, and say what they want to say at the very moment they are ready to do it.”
― Louis Yako

“I hope, wherever we are, we start to decolonize knowledge production through rekindling that deep and strong spark between the heart and the mind; through understanding that the path to objectivity goes through the painful corridors of subjectivity.”
― Louis Yako

“[Donor Countries]
When are we going to understand
That donor countries never donate anything for free.
When are we going to understand
That the only countries that donate
Are those with the biggest role in destruction and ravage?
That such countries only donate
To shape societies and destroyed countries
According to their whims and their desires�
That their only aim is
To keep the defeated
the marginalized
the disempowered
and the impoverished
In that state for as long as they can�
When are we going to understand
That the easiest way to identify and name the big criminals,
Is to take a quick look at the list of donor countries?

[Original poem published in Arabic on November 12, 2022 at ahewar.org]”
― Louis Yako

“Another dangerous neoliberal word circulating everywhere that is worth zooming in on is the word ‘resilienceâ€�. On the surface, I think many people won’t object to the idea that it is good and beneficial for us to be resilient to withstand the difficulties and challenges of life. As a person who lived through the atrocities of wars and sanctions in Iraq, I’ve learnt that life is not about being happy or sad, not about laughing or crying, leaving or staying. Life is about endurance. Since most feelings, moods, and states of being are fleeting, endurance, for me, is the common denominator that helps me go through the darkest and most beautiful moments of life knowing that they are fleeing. In that sense, I believe it is good for us to master the art of resilience and endurance. Yet, how should we think about the meaning of ‘resilienceâ€� when used by ruling classes that push for wars and occupations, and that contribute to producing millions of deaths and refugees to profit from plundering the planet? What does it mean when these same warmongers fund humanitarian organizations asking them to go to war-torn countries to teach people the value of ‘resilienceâ€�? What happens to the meaning of ‘resilienceâ€� when they create frighteningly precarious economic structures, uncertain employment, and lay off people without accountability? All this while also asking us to be ‘resilient’â€�
As such, we must not let the word ‘resilience� circulate or get planted in the heads of our youth uncritically. Instead, we should raise questions about what it really means. Does it mean the same thing for a poor young man or woman from Ghana, Ecuador, Afghanistan vs a privileged member from the upper management of a U.S. corporation? Resilience towards what? What is the root of the challenges for which we are expected to be resilient? Does our resilience solve the cause or the root of the problem or does it maintain the status quo while we wait for the next disaster? Are individuals always to blame if their resilience doesn’t yield any results, or should we equally examine the social contract and the entire structure in which individuals live that might be designed in such a way that one’s resilience may not prevail no matter how much perseverance and sacrifice one demonstrates? There is no doubt that resilience, according to its neoliberal corporate meaning, is used in a way that places the sole responsibility of failure on the shoulders of individuals rather than equally holding accountable the structure in which these individuals exist, and the precarious circumstances that require work and commitment way beyond individual capabilities and resources. I find it more effective not to simply aspire to be resilient, but to distinguish between situations in which individual resilience can do, and those for which the depth, awareness, and work of an entire community or society is needed for any real and sustainable change to occur. But none of this can happen if we don’t first agree upon what each of us mean when we say ‘resilience,� and if we have different definitions of what it means, then we should ask: how shall we merge and reconcile our definitions of the word so that we complement not undermine what we do individually and collectively as people. Resilience should not become a synonym for surrender. It is great to be resilient when facing a flood or an earthquake, but that is not the same when having to endure wars and economic crises caused by the ruling class and warmongers.

[From “On the Great Resignationâ€� published on CounterPunch on February 24, 2023]”
― Louis Yako

“The role of the academy as a colonial and imperial space par excellence, which in the age globalization and corporatization of practically everything, has become the biggest enemy of knowledge and the decolonial option. In fact, the academy has become a space that instead of creating options, is doing everything in its power to deny most people options and keep itself as the only game in town.”
― Louis Yako

“I hope it is clear to anyone who has a shred of critical thinking skills that those who fund research projects in Western universities are anything but kind-hearted and generous, and that their intentions are anything but benevolent or intended solely for the objective advancement of knowledge. It is usually more about controlling who gets to produce certain knowledge about others, because nothing maintains the myth of exceptionalism like ensuring that knowledge only comes from the West, and particularly from selected or even appointed individuals.”
― Louis Yako

“In the area of Middle East Studies, you can always count on getting funding if your research is about minorities being treated horribly by ‘authoritarian regimesâ€� that the West want to topple, women oppressed and forced to wear the hijab, masculinity and femininity, gays are oppressed, refugees (provided that they are seeking safety in the West and running from a ‘dictatorâ€� the West wants to topple), and so on. The pattern and the intentions are clear to a vigilant observer. What all such topics have in common is not that they are not important or need attention (they are so on both counts), but that their function is to maintain the West’s colonial and racist gaze on the rest of the world, which, in turn, serves the West’s hegemony and control over others. Furthermore, the single thread that connects the topics above is that they all practically open the door for Western intervention in the region under the pretext of ‘salvagingâ€� this cause or that group of people.”
― Louis Yako

“While the imperial university continues to pay lip service to letting the subaltern speak, make no mistake: the subalterns have never been silent. They have always been thinking, writing, doing, and sensing. The problem has always been with the shortsightedness and racism of the colonizers and the imperial spaces where certain knowledge gets produced and promoted, while other knowledge gets silenced, mutilated, and buried under the rubble of indifference and arrogance.”
― Louis Yako

“Equating obscurity with rigor, while at the same time equating a clear and creative language with lack thereof is one of the most serious ills one faces in Western academia. Neither of these equations are accurate. They are certainly not mutually exclusive. Often feeble minds with mediocre arguments hide behind obscure and convoluted language. I am sure most readers have seen enough examples of clear writing that is profound, deep, and able to convey very complex ideas clearly. We simply must be careful not to confuse complexity with rigor and profoundness, as drunk people mistaken their foolishness for wisdom. Nor should we dismiss a clear language simply because it is conveying the point without unnecessary complexity or beating around the bush.”
― Louis Yako

“I have always maintained that genuine intellectuals, by definition, refuse to play any institutional games at any stage of their career or intellectual life. They can’t pretend to unsee once they see.”
― Louis Yako

“Another way, and this applies to all the areas covered under this section, is by practicing what I call intellectual boycotting, which I simply define as: boycotting any intellectual or writer canonized and imposed on us through Western academic institutions, media, or any other institution with money and power. Note that this doesn’t mean not to read them, but rather, to read and cite them (if necessary) with caution, and preferably with the intent of debunking or exposing their silences and blind spots rather than using them as a compass to evaluate other forms of knowledge.”
― Louis Yako

“I personally believe (and I know many readers will find this controversial) that we should never engage with any writers or scholars whose work is intentionally Euro-American centered and purposely ignores or refuses to engage with knowledge produced by thinkers outside the West. In other words, in knowledge production, reciprocate treatment (whether in engagement or citation) can be effective in challenging and changing the rules of the game.”
― Louis Yako

“There are two creative conditions that I hold near and dear to my heart and mind when it comes to knowledge production: first, the more we know, the more we know how little we know. That makes it such that we soon realize how hard it is to add something new to the wide and deep ocean of knowledge. Second, it is hard to justify the existence of any work, in any field of knowledge, that doesn’t fully exceed everything that has ever been done in that field. If these two creative conditions are true, then that explains why it is hard to produce groundbreaking knowledge in all its forms, shapes, and manifestations.”
― Louis Yako

“The secret of producing meaningful and powerful knowledge is simple: be sincere. We must strive to be sincere in the way we approach any question, to be sincere in understanding our limits and blind spots, and to acknowledge our strengths and weaknesses at all times. I have learned that objectivity is impossible, but sincerity is not. It is the latter that brings us the closest possible to objectivity, and only through sincerity we can build bridges of reconciliation between the subjective and the objective.”
― Louis Yako

“A long time ago, I discovered that all I have been taught about the disconnect and the contradiction between the heart and the mind is false and misleading. I have learned to feel with my mind and think with my heart. I have learned that the two are not enemies, but Siamese twins â€� you can’t silence one without crushing the other, too.”
― Louis Yako

“It is imperative to think of the task of decolonizing knowledge production as inseparable from every other aspect of our lives. It must be applied to the smallest and most hidden details of life, including but not limited to decolonizing romantic relationships (stop seeing beauty only in whiteness, blue eyes, and blond hair); decolonizing social connections (stop believing that there is more value in socially connecting and networking with powerful people who often happen to be Westerners); decolonizing the workplace (stop believing that expertise, management and power are embodied in Western individuals); decolonize our hobbies and activities (don’t do things or enjoy activities promoted and imposed on us by the West such as going to the beach or wasting one’s life watching TV or Netflix); decolonize travel destinations (shatter the illusion that nowhere is more worth seeing that Europe, or that traveling around Europe equals ‘seeingâ€� the world). We need to seek and discover new destinations, peoples, and cultures to travel to and learn about and from.”
― Louis Yako

“Developingâ€� countries must be prevented from developing at all costs because, if they do, then who will the so-called “developedâ€� world compare itself to and define itself against? If developing countries are truly allowed to develop, where will the ‘developedâ€� world steal its resources from? Yet, the price of preventing these countries from being truly independent from the iron fist of the superpowers is costly.”
― Louis Yako, Bullets in Envelopes: Iraqi Academics in Exile

“The experiences of academics captured here show that this was done primarily through three 'cleansing methods': first, through direct death threats and assassinations of academics and professionals who were no longer wanted in post-occupation Iraq; second, by igniting sectarian violence that significantly contributed to turning Iraq from a unified, central state with strong institutions in place, into divided zones run by militias and militant groups…and third, many academics were removed/cleansed through the notorious and controversial policy of 'de-BaÊ¿athification.”
― Louis Yako, Bullets in Envelopes: Iraqi Academics in Exile

“When are we going to understand
That donor countries never donate anything for free.
...
When are we going to understand
That the easiest way to identify and name the big criminals,
Is to take a quick look at the list of donor countries?”
― Louis Yako

“[The Democracy of the Naïve ]
There are still the naïve folks who talk about democracy
They even claim that the future of democracy in this country or that is in danger�
As if democracy had a past or a present,
And therefore, its future is now in danger�
There was never democracy or justice, my friends�
There world has and will remain ruled
By the whims of the elite and the invisible hands
That get the naïve publics to consider
The problems, desires, whims, and agendas of the chosen few
As noble human endeavors
That require the struggle and revolution
Of the naïve and kindhearted people�
There is no democracy nor revolutions, my Friends,
Except those that must happen silently to remove all elites
That plan in secret to push the naïve publics
To appoint or remove this government or that
Based on their interests�
What do you think, my Friends?
Do you still believe that the future of democracy is in danger?

[Original poem published in Arabic on December 21, 2022 at ahewar.org]”
― Louis Yako

“As a Caribbean born, I understand the self as a
multi geometric entropic process always connected with the communal self. I do not seek history as a way to find points of origins, but to articulate historical locations in a traveling interconnected knowledge
system that provides solutions for my subjective migrant experience. In a deeper process, the encounter with these places of interceptions, the crossroads, could become turning points to return, do depart, to convey, and to arrive to the present. African Aesthetics still nurtures contemporary artistic practices in the Caribbean, as well as in Africana Americana Diaspora and the US/Latino Diaspora.

Writing the Decolonial Mariposa Ancestral Memory
CARIBBEAN INTRANSIT ARTS JOURNAL
VOL. 1 | ISSUE 4 | SPRING 2013”
― Raul Moarquech Ferrera-Balanquet and Miguel Rojas-Sotelo

“Many of the members of the decolonial aestheSis collective are practicing artists, theoreticians, curators, and writers who arrive to the process as a result of understanding the way in which the axis of coloniality and modernity/rationality (as Anibal Quijano puts it in his inaugural article) still resonates and maintains the debates about art, art practice, and the institutions that support it.
Decolonial AestheSis at the 11th Havana Biennial
Social Text Periscope 2013”
― Raul Moarquech Ferrera-Balanquet and Miguel Rojas-Sotelo

“Colors"
A long time ago
our national IDs had the word “wheat�
next to the “skin color� category�
Some people’s colors were associated with
olives and chocolate�
Eye colors were described as honey and pistachio colored�
There was also the chestnut-colored hair �
all descriptions reminding us
that we are gifts from the same source:
Mother Nature’s womb!
As for the racist West,
it insists on reducing humanity
and painting it with politicized colors
of which only one color matters!
As for other colors,
they are made to be equivalent
to nobodies and nothingness�
They insist on turning this world into a snow-covered wasteland
Into one blank page and no more�

[Original poem published in Arabic on October 31, 2023 at ahewar.org]”
― Louis Yako

“Arabs & Garbage"
Strange is the Arab story with garbage!
Who told them
who taught them
to toss garbage randomly
wherever and however they please?
When will the Arabs understand
that placing garbage in its right place
will solve half of their environmental and societal problems?
And the other half of their problems
will be solved, too, as soon as they stop
tossing out their human gems
forcing out their most talented and qualified human capital
to serve foreigners in foreign lands?
When will the Arabs stop getting rid of their best minds,
replacing them with foreign garbage they glorify
simply because the foreign individuals have white skin and blue eyes
and claim to possess skills and expertise
the Arabs can’t survive without�
When will the Arabs understand
that placing garbage in its right place
-be it the garbage that govern their countries
or the foreign garbage they import �
will solve all their problems?

[Original poem published in Arabic on February 20, 2024 at ahewar.org]”
― Louis Yako

“As a Caribbean-born, I understand the self as a multi-geometric entropic process always connected with the communal self. I do not seek history as a way to find points of origin, but to articulate historical locations in a traveling interconnected knowledge system that provides solutions for my subjective migrant experience. In a deeper process, the encounter with these places of intersection, the crossroads, could become turning points to return, to depart, to convey, and to arrive to the present. African Aesthetics still nurtures contemporary artistic practices in the Caribbean, as well as in the African Americana Diaspora and the US Latino Diaspora.

Writing the Decolonial Mariposa Ancestral Memory
CARIBBEAN INTRANSIT ART JOURNAL
Vol. 1, Issue 4, Spring 2013.”
― Raul Moarquech Ferrera-Balanquet

“It is not a secret that most American and Western institutions and workplaces are very much like mountains: the higher one climbs, the whiter they become. But this whiteness at the top should not be seen as representative of all white people. We must distinguish between the white people who are as marginalized, silenced, and impoverished just like many other groups, and the specific ruling class that is white and that in fact also includes a big percentage of people who only started passing as white in recent history. The latter fact is crucial to understand why the small percentage of privileged whites at the top don’t mind the narratives that bracket all white people together, because in doing so, they continue to use all whites as human shields, while benefiting from framing everyone else as an enemy of white people at large.
[From "Understanding the DEI Dismantlementâ€� published on Counterpunch on January 31, 2025]”
― Louis Yako