The reality, according to this piece in the New York Times, is that privatising prisons doesn’t save money or bring more accountability or make people’s lives any better. Politicians and commentators who say otherwise are obsessed with “market” solutions. Besides, who feels comfortable making money from the misery of others? The conviction that private prisons…
Of course there’s a powerful Zionist lobby in the US
The Mearsheimer/Walt thesis on America’s (worrying powerful) Israel lobby is proven right time and time again. Today’s Wall Street Journal: Jewish donors and fund-raisers are warning the Obama re-election campaign that the president is at risk of losing financial support because of concerns about his handling of Israel. The complaints began early in President Barack…
Serco wants to hide its behaviour from us all
This move has all the hallmarks of attempting to keep real people out of the media spotlight. Humanising refugees is the last thing this government and Serco wants: The company running the country’s immigration detention centres has upgraded how seriously it takes the unauthorised presence of media, putting it on par with a bomb threat…
Wikileaks reveals how US views anti-Americanism
Very narrowly: Discussing a draft declaration from South American and Arab State leaders, a United States government operative lists a series of “anti-American digs” against the US and Israel that were later excluded from the text. What is considered anti-American is stunning and revealing. This quiet, unassuming cable shows a bizarre and expansive US foreign…
Nakba day in Ramallah
Palestinians protesting their dispossession is a legitimate right, something denied by far too many in the West. Australian film-maker Inka Stafrace is working on a film project in Palestine (and she has a record of fine work). Here’s her latest:
Permanent occupation of Muslim countries great for Western capitalism
Any serious draw-down of US troops from Afghanistan will affect the massive industry that’s expanded post 9/11; private military contractors. Joshua Frost on PBS contemplates the future and the likely push by major interests to maintain the occupation in the war-ravaged land; business will be negatively affected if things change too radically: Very few who…
Jewish writer celebrates murder of peace activist in Gaza
What has happened to my people? Zionism has polluted the mind and ruined the soul. Here’s Harriet Sherwood in the Guardian: I was sent a link this week to a piece published in the Jewish Chronicle by historian Geoffrey Alderman, the opening sentence of which I found pretty shocking. Under the headline This Was No…
So much pressure on Israel and yet apartheid deepens
Even New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman sounds sick of Israel (though he advocates no course of US action that may place even a little pressure on the Zionist state to end its occupation). Haaretz is unequivocal and rightly so. Some in Israel see the writing on the wall: In an op-ed piece in yesterday’s…
Serco simply isn’t qualified to deal with traumatised asylum seekers
These stories are tragic and reflect the almost inevitable result of privatising detention centres; costs and corners are cut. ABC reports today: Detainees at Sydney’s Villawood detention centre say an inadequate response from guards forced them to use a cigarette lighter to try to save the life of a man who had attempted suicide. Detainees…
This is what modern, occupying Israel is doing
As the Arab Spring comes to Palestine (massive non-violent protests against Israeli occupation and apartheid), some truths are being spoken by the very people who are behind the oppression: Transgressions by the Israeli army in the occupied Palestinian territories will be disclosed by a group of former soldiers in an internet campaign aimed at raising…