Sri Lanka remains a nation ruled by war criminals who rather love the idea of isolating and killing Tamils. For this reason, many people, including me, globally called for the boycott of the 2011 Galle Literary Festival due to its links to the Colombo establishment … and attempts to avoid serious discussion about the country’s police…
Iraq, quasi independent, dares challenge mercenaries
Being a truly independent nation, which Iraq clearly is not post US occupation, would mean that foreign security forces and private contractors would have strict rules of operation. Supporters of this ever-growing global movement might not like it, but this could well be the beginning of something important for the failed nation; exercising real autonomy…
My name is the Australian Zionist lobby and I enjoy lying about Israeli history
Think about this for a moment. The average Australian citizen barely hears about the Zionist lobby except when it’s whinging about supposed anti-Semitism and suggesting an acclaimed British TV compares Jews to Nazis. The hyperbole of these Jews would be laughable if it didn’t seriously frame all us Jews as victims. And Israel, of course,…
722,000 Israeli Jews living illegally in Palestine
American blogger Richard Silverstein features a revealing figure from a leading Israeli newspaper: Yisrael HaYom published… today one of the more stark and telling statistics about the ”˜success’ of the Occupation: in 2011, 722,000 Israelis lived beyond the Green Line, including in settlements and East Jerusalem. … This was a 5% increase over 2010. … That means that…
Hey look at me, says Murdoch stenographer, Israeli leader makes small talk with me
You meet the Israeli Prime Minister. You can ask him anything. Do you want to mention the occupation? Of course not. Much easier, as per Greg Sheridan in the Australian, to get Netanyahu to recall those glorious days in the Australian sun. Yes, this is Murdoch “journalism”: Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, has very strong…
Serco constantly fails human rights standards yet governments love to embrace them
How many more breaches will it take for global governments to realise that Serco aren’t fit to run prisons, detention centres or the local chicken shop? (via the Guardian): The unlawful use of restraint was widespread in privately run child jails in Britain for at least a decade, a high court judge has ruled for…
MSM journalists see role as stenography despite claims of independence
The role of real journalists is to question so-called established truths and make officials uncomfortable. Being too close to power is the role of court reporters. Sadly, the vast bulk of corporate hacks are dead keen to rub shoulders with the rich and powerful and remain unwilling to seriously challenge, for example, the rush to…
#Occupy where 2012?
Naomi Klein is one of the finest journalists and writers around at the moment, in my humble view. A strong supporter of the #Occupy movement, here she tells The Nation about what can and should come next: A friend, the British eco-and arts activist John Jordan, talks about utopias and resistance being the double helix…