Interesting article in the New York Times that outlines some of the background to NSA contractor Edward Snowden. It casually explains how in a post 9/11 worldc countless private employees have control over a vast network of individual communications. Transparency? As if: Intelligence officials refer to Edward J. Snowden’s job as a… National Security Agency… contractor as…
Category General
Only the incredulous believe official narratives over Syria
It’s a rare journalist who travel across Syria and reports honestly about the situation. Past the PR. Beyond the lies told by the government and “rebels”. The Independent’s Patrick Cockburn… (the man has fine form) explains in this essential piece: Every time I come to Syria I am struck by how different the situation is on…
Background and context to revealing Edward Snowden NSA stories
It’s been quite a month since the details emerged of massive spying by the NSA. Here are two interesting interviews and a speech by key players. First, Guardian editors Alan Rusbridger and Janine Gibson discuss how the paper managed the ways in which a mainstream media news organisation publishes sensitive information. They’re speaking to Charlie…
How the disabled can make and inspire music
A truly remarkable and moving experience in Britain. Watch and be amazed with what technology can bring:
The Australian reviews “For God’s Sake”
The following appears in today’s Weekend Australian written by Gerard Windsor. For the record, the writer’s description of my relationship with my father is false and not reflected in the text of the book. I am extremely close to my dad, though years ago this was very different, something I explicitly explain in the book:…
Proudly stand up for advocacy journalism
The concept of objectivity in reporting, pushed by establishment enablers, is rightly dismissed by the great Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi (love him) here: All… journalism is advocacy journalism. No matter how it’s presented, every report by every reporter advances someone’s point of view. The advocacy can be hidden, as it is in the monotone narration…
News flash: Afghan war about India and Pakistan
The kind of perspective far too rarely heard in the West; William Dalrymple writes in the Guardian with an extract from his recent paper,… A Deadly Triangle: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India: The hostility between India and Pakistan, ongoing for more than 60 years, lies at the heart of the current war in Afghanistan. Most observers in…
Great review of “For God’s Sake” hits
Following this week’s release of my new book, For God’s Sake, one of Australia’s leading independent book chains, Readings, publishes a wonderful review: Religion, in its various forms, has delivered both immeasurable joy and terrible conflict throughout history. Currently, many ”˜neo-atheists’ predict the death of organised religion within a generation. In… For God’s Sake, four prominent…
My new book, For God’s Sake, arrives
My new book, For God’s Sake, is available from this week through Pan Macmillan. Here’s the blurb: Four Australian thinkers come together to ask and answer the big questions, such as: What is the nature of the universe? Doesn’t religion cause most of the conflict in the world? And Where do we find hope? We…
