Now and then, voices appear in the mainstream media that challenge the overly comfortable blabber that passes for news. This morning on Channel 7’s Weekend Sunrise US army veteran Vince Emanuele spoke on Iraq, Afghanistan, drones, the war on terror and Australian gutlessness towards Washington:
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The Age/Sydney Morning Herald reviews For God’s Sake
The following review by James Grieve appears today: FOR GOD’S SAKE By Jane Caro, Anthony Loewenstein, Simon Smart and Rachel Woodlock. Macmillan. 314pp. $32.99. Here is the latest contribution to the debate on organised religion and the existence of God, started about seven years ago by the so-called new atheists, notably Richard Dawkins and Christopher…
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G4S and Serco act fraudulently in UK but more contracts flowing
A key issue in my forthcoming book, Profits of Doom, is the role of multinationals in turning huge profits from warehousing the most vulnerable people in our societies, including asylum seekers. These revelations in Britain (via The Independent) are interesting but sadly history suggests that like vampires these corporations continue scoring contracts because neo-liberal politicians…
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Israel ethnically cleansing Bedouin while the world shrugs
This is how a “Jewish and democratic” state behaves, apparently. Racism by any other name. Neve Gordon and Nicola Perugini write for Al Jazeera English: On June 24th the “Prawer Plan for the Arrangement of Bedouin-Palestinian Settlement in the Negev” passed its first reading in the Israeli parliament. If implemented, the Plan will constitute “the…
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Untangling the murky energy war between US and China
Far too often the media covers conflicts in terms of good guys and bad guys, ignoring the never-ending power dynamics over energy and oil. Fascinating piece by Pepe Escobar in Asia Times that describes who really runs the world: Beijing has clearly interpreted the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s “liberation” of Libya – now reverted into…
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Life as a freelance journalist in the Syrian war
This is a remarkable story, one of the finest pieces of writing about journalism I’ve read in ages. It’s by Francesca Borri and appears in the Columbia Journalism Review. Read the whole thing: He finally wrote to me. After more than a year of freelancing for him, during which I contracted typhoid fever and was…
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John Kerry’s fruitless Middle East “peace mission”
Far too many in the media get excited when yet another US official talks about restarting the “peace process”. It’s all smokes and mirrors and largely irrelevant to facts on the ground, ever-expanding Israeli occupation over Palestine. Here’s Jeff Halper, founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions: How do we respond to Kerry? I…
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Julian Assange on fighting reach of the superpower
Typically tough piece by Julian Assange, published in the Guardian, that outlines the risks faced by every citizen around the world and why trusting state power is a fool’s game: The original cypherpunks were mostly Californian libertarians. I was from a different tradition but we all sought to protect individual freedom from state tyranny. Cryptography…