Well, that didn’t take long. Even before Gaddafi was found and murdered, Western businesses were dreaming of the huge profits that could be made. Disaster capitalism on crack. Now, in a front page New York Times story, the joys continue: The guns in Libya have barely quieted, and NATO’s military assistance to the rebellion that…
Category General
Wikileaks influence and how it’s growing
Who says Wikileaks is on the back foot? In fact, the group remains supported by millions of citizens around the world for giving us the information our media and governments should be offering. Interesting piece in Fairfax today by Philip Dorling on this very point: A trenchant critic of the influence of corporations on political…
How Australia is creating mental health crisis with Serco’s help
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…
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…
Holding power to account in PNG when resource curse hits hard
This is welcome news, as corporations are systemically raping Papua New Guinea; it’s disaster capitalism on crack with little oversight: A US federal appeals court has revived a lawsuit seeking to hold Rio Tinto responsible for human rights violations and thousands of deaths linked to a Bougainville copper and gold mine it once ran. A…