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Category General
Dirty Wars is the best book of 2013
Jeremy Scahill’s stunning investigative book, Dirty Wars, is the most compelling book… of the year. Green Left Weekly asked me to name my best book of 2013. Easy choice: The corporate media are filled daily with stories of “terrorists” being killed, captured and droned in the far corners of the globe. Since 9/11, the Bush and…
Beware the saviours of the new atheists
Here’s my weekly Guardian column (from last week): There’s nothing like an internal critic taking on the most powerful force in his religion. Roy Bourgeois is an American Catholic priest. He’s the founder of… School of the Americas Watch, a group dedicated to closing the US Army School of the Americas – a… military training centre for…
Filming vulture capitalism documentary
I’m currently in a strange locale working on a film about vulture capitalism (more details here). Best place to see/hear the latest is Twitter. Back from the wilds soon.
Global trends of fleeing asylum seekers
Desperate refugees looking for a new, safer life. The stories span the globe. This latest article in the New York Times highlights the ongoing suffering in Syria: Fifty miles off the southeastern coast of Sicily, the refugee boat first appeared as a gray spot on the horizon, rising up or dipping away with the churn…
How the British Empire destroyed records of its outrages
Just imagine, in decades to come, if not sooner thanks to vital leaks, both the US and UK will have to face history’s glare for ongoing colonial policies in the “war on terror”. The Independent reports: In April 1957, five unmarked lorries left the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur and drove to a Royal…
And now for something completely different (by Wes Anderson)
The glorious, zany, surreal and beautiful world of US film-maker Wes Anderson is a joy to behold (and a welcome respite from human rights abuses). His latest is a short film delight, Castello Cavalcanti:
How US/Australia intelligence collusion rightly concerns Asia
My weekly Guardian column is here: Australia has an identity crisis that has never been resolved. Are we a US client state, happy to host any number of… American troops… and… spying assets, or a fully integrated part of Asia? Do we crave true independence, or are we happy to remain America’s ‘deputy sheriff‘ in the Pacific region?…
How to be a clueless fashion magazine in one easy step
How to be a vacuous and morally void magazine is far too simple. Here’s Human Rights Watch’s Iain Levine with the story: What were they thinking?… Someone, somewhere in the depths of luxury magazine Elle thought it was a good idea to feature “North Korea chic” in September’s edition of the magazine (the page… was subsequently…