Category General
Switzerland to ban mercenary companies?
What an important move, if it happens, and an acknowledgement that such firms are increasingly operating on a global scene without any real checks and balances: Switzerland wants to banish mercenary firms and tighten the rules for private security companies based in the country in a bid to safeguard its tradition of neutrality, the government…
Protesting the proposed dirty tar sands from Canada to Obama’s US
Now that’s imaginative civil disobedience: Occupy Wall Street take note: when garnering headlines that don’t have anything to do with NYPD brutality, nudity—or more specifically, orgies—may be the way to go. At a meeting between British and Canadian officials yesterday in London, to discuss the UK’s purchase of Canada’s sweet sweet tar sands oil, two…
When disaster capitalism strikes, Papua New Guinea is on front line
Barely a day goes by when another report emerges of locals in PNG not gaining anything from multinationals pillaging the vast natural resources of the country. This week’s Guardian features a story on the subject and explains how the PNG government is more than happy to allow rapacious corporations to extract the valuable assets from…
The invaluable Slavoj Zizek at #OccupyWallStreet
Spot on: So what are we doing here? Let me tell you a wonderful, old joke from Communist times. A guy was sent from East Germany to work in Siberia. He knew his mail would be read by censors, so he told his friends: “Let’s establish a code. If a letter you get from me…
Bill O’Reilly, Tavis Smiley And Cornel West on #OccupyWallStreet and poverty
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
Who says you can’t buy New York’s finest?
Yet more evidence of the pernicious effect of private interests corrupting the public sector (via Counterpunch): Videos are springing up across the internet showing uniformed members of the New York Police Department in white shirts (as opposed to the typical NYPD blue uniforms) pepper spraying and brutalizing peaceful, nonthreatening protestors attempting to take part in…
CHOGM perfect place to hold Sri Lankan war criminals to account
My following piece appears in today’s ABC The Drum: In late September, the government of Sri Lanka released 1,800 former Tamil Tiger fighters. Colombo claimed they had been rehabilitated as President Mahinda Rajapaksa told them at a ceremony in the capital: “I hope you will work for peace and ethnic harmony in this nation of…
Afghan war failure opens door to predatory firms looking to make killing
Afghanistan Today writes: Exploding bombs and gunfights will harm the economy of any city, either by causing direct damage or through the wider impact on trade and services. But for security equipment companies working the market in Kabul, business is, for want of a better word, booming. That war means big business is a lamentable…
What privatisation does to immigration detention
This is almost comical but sadly true (via the Canberra Times): The Commonwealth Government is suing its former immigration detention operators for failing to protect it against lawsuits lodged by people kept in detention facilities. The case will be heard in the South Australian Supreme Court on November 21. It is part of a long-running…