Surely quote of the week: Mr Murdoch has never asked any journalist to do anything improper. Unless, of course, by “improper” you mean bomb Muslim countries in the name of “freedom”.
Should we trust tech companies talking about censoring speech?
The complete lack of transparency with telecommunication firms deciding with the assistance of government if and when calls or web connections should be stopped or censored is highly disturbing. Who wants a faceless firm making such decisions? From yesterday’s UK Observer: After the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and this summer’s looting in England,…
Start a war, privatise everything and watch failure arrive like clockwork
Project on Government Oversight has the news that will brighten the heart of every pro-war advocate who just wants to make a buck from endless conflict: A top government contractor’s failure to meet contractual agreements with the U.S. government put the entire mission of the Afghan National Police (ANP) training program at risk, according to…
Private companies doing rather well in anti-immigration wave moving across world
Disaster capitalists look for ways to make money from misery, crisis or fear. The growing wave of anti-immigration sentiment sweeping the world suits such companies just fine. It’s an area I’m investigating for a forthcoming book and this New York Times piece perfectly captures the mood in Britain; the dangerous nexus between government rhetoric, firms…
Jews have a choice over Palestine and silence equals complicity
Roger Cohen has been writing in the New York Times for some time about the responsibility of Jews not to remain silent in the face of Zionist occupation and violence. It’s a rare voice in the American mainstream. His latest missive, while dismissing boycotts as apparently morphing into anti-Semitism which ignores the failure of the…
Breaking news; Afghan Hazaras are human beings still being oppressed in their country
I’ve just received this message from a refugee activist in Perth, Western Australia. It’s a release from the… Coordination of Hazara Refugees in Curtin immigration detention centre, a remote camp away from public view.… Freedom It is known to all and history has also proven that Hazaras have always and systemically been target of national, religious…
30 years of “peace” between Egypt and Israel a sham
History is turning and proves that when a dictatorship makes “peace” with a Zionist state it breeds nothing more than resentment: On August 20, 2011 Egyptians mobilized for a demonstration in front of the Israeli Embassy demanding the removal of the flag and for the ambassador to leave. After hours of flag-burning trials. A man…
Privacy and censorship in the online world are foreign concepts?
I was recently spoke in Sydney at the University of New South Wales at the conference of the Australian Law Students’ Association on the issues of privacy and censorship in Australia and globally. Here’s extracts from that event (though my comments here are very brief and rest assured I said many other things, including citizens…
Fisk on Assad’s real worry (and it isn’t poor little Obama)
Indeed: Obama roars. World trembles. If only. Obama says Assad must “step aside”. Do we really think Damascus trembles? Or is going to? Indeed, the titan of the White House only dared to go this far after condemnation of Bashar al-Assad by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, the EU and Uncle…