Despite a company such as G4S having a shocking human rights record in Britain and globally, this clearly has little impact on the firm receiving new contracts. After all, failure is rewarded in disaster capitalism. Privatisation will make everything more “efficient”, haven’t you heard? The Guardian reports on the latest British experiment in vulnerable people’s…
Chomsky on Palestinian unpeople
Noam Chomsky made the following comments earlier this week at Barnard College in New York City: Israeli Jews are people. Palestinians are unpeople. And a lot follows from that as clear illustrations constantly. So, here’s a clipping, if I remembered to bring it, from the New York Times. Front-page story, Wednesday, October 12th, the lead…
In Likud heart-land, aka the Washington Post, questioning aid to Israel
Walter Pincus dares to go there: As the country reviews its spending on defense and foreign assistance, it is time to examine the funding the United States provides to Israel. Let me put it another way: Nine days ago, the Israeli cabinet reacted to months of demonstrations against the high cost of living there and…
What’s a dictator’s wife to do?
As Syria continues to groan under intense violence between government troops, opposition elements and unknown outside forces, this story in the UK Independent is eerie: Vogue magazine famously called her a “rose in the desert”, while Paris Match proclaimed she was the “element of light in a country full of shadow zones”. But when Syria’s…
Future war mongers, lessons how to get corporate hacks on side
Gawker has a little piece of recent history that reflects the (usually squalid) relationship between the mainstream media and US military: Public relations is about “relationships.” Flacks develop “relationships” with reporters by calling them and yelling at them until the reporters start to realize, before they write something, that an unpleasant conversation might ensue. So…
A blinkered view of the war on terrorism
My following book review appeared in last weekend’s Sydney Sun Herald newspaper: The Triple Agent Joby Warrick (Scribe, $32.95) Reviewed by Antony Loewenstein The war in Afghanistan is the longest in modern American history. This year has been the most deadly for Afghan civilians. British MP Rory Stewart wrote in The New York Times that…
Bradley Manning/Wikileaks supporter David House on #OccupyWallStreet
The eloquence of arguing for a different world (still continuing in Sydney, by the way) is a movement fueled by anger, technology and passion: