Last week’s ABC TV 4 Corners, on the mental trauma suffered by refugees inside Australia’s immigration detention centre network, was a devastating portrait of dysfunction. We are literally breeding individuals who are going mad, if not worse. Locking people up for sometimes years is both unnecessary and unethical. And who is making money from all…
Showing all posts in June 2019
Israel, your new best friend Mitt Romney (who loves you to death)
Think Progress reports on a truly fundamentalist position from the Presidential candidate that will only further isolate the Zionist state: If Mitt Romney becomes president, there are a lot of important foreign policy decisions that he’d leave up to others. Most notably, Romney often says that whatever the generals decide, that’s the course he’ll take…
Calling all Zionist artists; come protect occupying Israel and do your duty
A rather tragic story in the Jerusalem Post, which yet again utterly ignores why an increasing number of musicians and artists in general are boycotting and ignoring Israel; it’s the occupation, stupid. No amount of PR will change the brutal facts on the ground: Their aim, as an old Elvis Costello song professes, is true.…
Think before you travel to “paradise”
Ethical tourism is an issue that rarely permeates the mainstream media (hello New York Times). Congrats to Reporters Without Borders for launching “Censorship Paradise” about three nations regularly visited, Thailand, Mexico and Vietnam. More here: Reporters Without Borders is launching a new awareness campaign today, one aimed at drawing the attention of holidaymakers to free…
Those poor military contractors in Iraq just need a good hug
Trouble in paradise, as a legacy of American war-making (privatised security) faces new challenges. CNN reports: With the removal of all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of the year looking more likely, absent an agreement to extend legal immunity, a large contingent of U.S. contractors will still remain facing their own legal and…
Journalists get warning over sources; far safer to speak to Wikileaks than MSM
Christopher Soghoian, a fellow at the Open Society Foundations, writes a stunning piece in the New York Times about the distinct lack of awareness amongst media practitioners about online security. And who really gets it? Wikileaks: Brave journalists have defied court orders and have even been jailed rather than compromise their ethical duty to protect…
Maintaining pressure on the autocratic thugs in Sri Lanka
I was honoured to be asked to sign the following statement released yesterday by Federal Greens MP Lee Rhiannon about the ongoing horrors in Sri Lanka: Commenting on the arrival of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Australia for CHOGM, Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon said: “Attorney General Robert McClelland’s decision to refuse permission for a…
Murdoch press salutes “moderate” Palestinians (who indulge occupation)
Today’s editorial in the Australian praises those calm and lovely voices who speak nicely about “democratic” Israel and salute a “peace process” (that has only entrenched occupation of Palestine): Given the increasingly febrile tone of anti-Israel rhetoric and protests this year, it was comforting yesterday to hear sensible words of moderation from the Palestinian Territories’…