On the passing of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, much of the Western corporate press has echoed the distortions that has been the irrational yet predictable pattern of hatred towards a man and leader that dared to challenge the Western economic consensus. Here’s Tariq Ali in the Guardian with a thorough examination of the Chavez legacy:…
Wikileaks helps expose US-backed torture and death squads in Iraq
A cracking report that reveals the depravity of the US and Western mission in Iraq. And let’s not forget that Wikileaks provided the initial impetus to investigate: The Pentagon sent a US veteran of the “dirty wars” in Central America to oversee sectarian police commando units in… Iraq… that set up secret detention and… torture… centres to get information…
Australian politics is little better than satire. Discuss
Australian politicians, including Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, are currently wandering around Western Sydney looking for friends and spewing bile against anybody who isn’t “Australian”, whatever the hell that means. Pandering to the racist instinct is the worst kind of politics. I’ve never linked to a story on Channel 7’s Today…
BBC happy to promote deluded British narrative of spreading democracy
Typically savvy writing by Medialens: This ideological function was clear in the BBC Newsnight ‘special’ edition on February 26, 2013, titled… ‘Iraq: 10 Years On’. One of the guests on the platform in front of an invited audience was the grandly titled ‘World Affairs Editor’, John Simpson. The veteran journalist has an air of avuncular gravitas,…
Max Brenner soon to open at leading Australian university?
Max Brenner is a chocolate shop that deserves all the protests it receives, namely because it supports the Israeli military. Here’s the latest development in Australia in a story by Ammy Singh in Tharunka newspaper from the University of NSW: The probable opening of a Max Brenner chocolate store at UNSW this year has prompted…
What resistance in Bougainville, PNG means
The resource curse has hit Papua New Guinea more than many other countries in the world. Massive mineral and energy wealth is largely squandered by a corrupt government and Western multinationals. It’s an issue I’ve investigated in my forthcoming book and documentary about disaster capitalism. There’s a great website by Dr Kristian Lasslett that details…
10 years on, Iraq is broken
Patrick Cockburn, one of the finest mainstream journalists around, writes for the UK Independent… from Iraq about the state of the nation we invaded and occupied in 2003: Iraq is disintegrating as a… country under the pressure of a mounting political, social and economic crisis, say Iraqi leaders. They add that 10 years after the US…
Israel introduces Palestinian only buses aka apartheid
The kind of news that shouldn’t surprise anybody. Apartheid has been a feature of Israeli rule in Palestine for decades. Just further evidence (via Ynet): The Transportation Ministry announced that starting Sunday it will begin operating designated lines for Palestinians in the… West Bank. The bus lines in question are meant, according to the ministry, to…
Sins of the Vatican
There’s a remarkable documentary by US Oscar-winning film-maker Alex Gibney called Mea Maxima Culpa: In the House of God. It’s about the role of the Catholic Church in America and globally in hiding sexual abuse for decades. Nobody is spared, and rightly so. Testimony is given by deaf men who were assaulted as boys. Their…
Inside the mind of Hamas leader Khalid Mishal
Australian journalist Paul McGeough travels to Doha, Qatar for Fairfax Media to interview the Hamas head. What follows is a fascinating discussion about the future of Palestine. Read the whole thing. What remains deeply concerning is the apparent desire of Hamas to embrace the failed two-state equation that will never happen in reality with any…