My following investigation appears in Crikey today: The story led the business pages in Papua New Guinea’s… Post-Courier… in early February. “Analyst: PNG on verge of change” screamed the headline. British-based market analysts Bdaily Business Network praised the $US17.3 billion Exxon-Mobil led LNG project. “[It] is the most important single development in the history of PNG”, it…
Category General
Post Gaddafi Libya for North Koreans
My friend Yaara Bou-Melhem on Al-Jazeera tells the story of Asian migrant workers:
The tortured method of Murdoch’s British empire uncovering its crimes
Columbia Journalism Review ask the right questions about this murky investigation: The New York Times… piqued my interest by… writing this… on Sunday: “Dozens of people — lawyers, forensic accountants, forensic computer technicians and, sometimes, police officers — gather daily at a site in Thomas More Square here, where News International is based, searching through 300 million e-mails…
Remember MSM role over war; what the state says we report
Post 9/11, it was Afghanistan. Then Iraq. Then drones over Pakistan. Bombs against Gaza. Counter-terrorism in Somalia and Yemen. Now the main target is Iran. The vast majority of corporate media hacks in the West hear a statement from Israel and America and simply report it without question. That’s called stenography. Salon’s Glenn Greenwald writes:…
What austerity really means in capitalism; private companies reaping rewards
One small example, via the Huffington Post, of how corporations are looking to maximise profits at the expensive of society: As state governments wrestle with massive budget shortfalls, a Wall Street giant is offering a solution: cash in exchange for state property. Prisons, to be exact. Corrections Corporation of America, the nation’s largest operator of…
Murdoch thuggery in America; his paper calls for war against Iran
This is how Rupert and friends roll (via the New York Post editorial). Because Murdoch’s support for the Iraq war hasn’t already caused enough mayhem: How’s this for astonishing: NBC News is reporting that Israeli spies have been involved in the assassinations of five Iranian nuclear scientists. So far, not so bad. We’d say the…
Photos from stunning yet troubled Papua New Guinea
I’ve just spent three weeks in Papua New Guinea investigating disaster capitalism for a new book (out 2013), as well as filming a documentary. Here are my photos of Bougainville, Madang and Port Moresby/Papa Lea-Lea. It was a wild trip and revealed deep complicity of Western and Chinese corporations in the exploitation of the nation.…
Disaster capitalists in Bougainville just want another shot at ruining the place
A foreign company destroys Bougainville in Papua New Guinea and leaves a trail of ecological destruction. Years after, the same company wants to re-open the same mine by whispering sweet nothings about its intentions. Dont believe a word. Following my Crikey investigation last week, today sees an unintentionally funny response to the publication. Yes, vulture…
In Afghanistan, America fiddles while watching 10 plus years of abject failure
It is remarkable that the most powerful military in the world is utterly incapable of beating insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. And for this we should be grateful, as Washington clearly needs to learn again, post Vietnam, that its desire to expand empire has limits. Nick Turse in TomDispatch: In late December, the lot was…
The secret contractor toll in Afghanistan; this is how we fight our wars
Strong piece in the New York Times that reveals some of the reality behind the Western war in Afghanistan. Increasingly privatised with no accountability at all, it’s a system that suits the powers that be very much. Corporations are making a killing and governments look like they’re hiring less staff. Almost the perfect definition of…