On the surreal world of North Korea: Even at seven-thirty on a Wednesday night, the restaurant is packed to overflowing. A few minutes after being seated, a waitress glides up to the table bearing glasses and frosted bottles of Tiger beer; in a few swift motions, glasses are filled and small dishes of Korean appetisers…
Showing all posts tagged human rights
An interview on Palestine, boycott, Jews, Zionism, Australia and blindness
My following interview, conducted by Sarah Irving, appears in the Electronic Intifada: Antony Loewenstein (“antonyloewenstein.com) is a writer and journalist based in Sydney, Australia and a founder of Independent Australian Jewish Voices. His first book, My Israel Question, was an Australian best-seller and was short-listed for the 2007 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award; an…
Privatised services ignore duty of care and yet governments love them
Clare Sambrook reminds us of a tragic story in Australia that should provide a salutary warning to governments desperate for privatised “efficiency”: Last week in Western Australia, Graham Powell and Nina Stokoe, two former private security guards, pleaded not guilty to charges relating to the death of renowned Aboriginal elder Mr Ward, cooked to death…
I mean, what would Desmond Tutu know about apartheid anyway?
He’s compared the situation in Palestine today to those suffered by blacks under apartheid in South Africa. But comically, Murdoch’s Australian newspaper – always a wonderful defender of the underdog as long as they have solid business or media contacts – thinks Tutu should shut up about Palestine. It’s not like he has any clue…
Your Iraq war is soon to be even more privatised for freedom
Wars are increasingly about profit and have nothing to do with freedom or liberation or human rights: The State Department is preparing to spend close to $3 billion to hire a security force to protect diplomats in Iraq after the U.S. pulls its last troops out of the country by year’s end. In testimony Monday…
Tutu salutes the brave Marrickville council backing Palestinian rights
Bravo: The Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu has penned a letter of praise to Marrickville Council over its support for a boycott of Israel, almost two months after the policy was abandoned amid an angry political backlash. The Nobel peace prize recipient and critic of Israel wrote that he wanted to extend his respects to the…
New York’s Celebrate Israel parade 2011 shows Zionist myopia
How can American Jews show their love for the Jewish state? March in the centre of New York, of course. Back in 2009, I reported on the Salute to Israel event, with tens of thousands of young and old Jews singing, saluting, parading and waving Israeli and American flags in an orgy of Zionist love.…
The Arab Spring sounds nice but world powers push back, hard
Pepe Escobar on what the Western press is largely ignoring in the Arab world: As the Arab Spring turns into summer, the counter-revolution is winning. Tyrants – but not systems – are down in Tunisia and Egypt. The Libyan “revolution” is a sham: North Atlantic Treaty Organization air war plus Western spooks/special forces helping dodgy…
Saudi Arabia desperate to keep West addicted to its deadly oil
There’s nothing like continuing to fund, arm and support one of the most brutal regimes on earth so we can drive and fly and fight wars.