Perhaps it’s in the job contract when you want to be a senior Murdoch executive; dislike Muslims and defame them regularly. The Herald Sun’s Alan Howe has form, seemingly finding democracy for Arabs a serious problem because it may affect Zionist occupation. He’s back with a new column headlined: “Picking up where Adolf left off“,…
WSJ: our autocrats are nice thugs
The Middle East has spent decades in social and political “stability” because Washington and Israel have backed brutes to torture and demean the people. Not to worry, writes Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, ignore all those deeply undemocratic states; the real issue is the Islamic Republic: The regime in Tehran—aptly described by Secretary of State Hillary…
With US veto, Washington clearly wants end to Jewish state
Gideon Levy in Haaretz on the Obama administration’s disastrous decision last week: The first veto cast by the United States during Obama’s term, a veto he promised in vain not to use as his predecessors did, was a veto against the chance and promise of change, a veto against hope. This is a veto that…
Life inside a Pyongyang university
This is a truly remarkable film. Two film-makers received exclusive access to the Pyongyang University of Cinematic and Dramatic Arts and were able to follow the lives of some highly privileged North Koreans in service to the Dear Leader:
The democratic impulse burns in China
Yes: Chinese authorities cracked down on activists as a call circulated for people to gather in more than a dozen cities Sunday for a “Jasmine Revolution.” The source of the call was not known, but authorities moved to halt its spread online. Searches for the word “jasmine” were blocked Saturday on China’s largest Twitter-like microblog,…
How will the PA help Israel repress Palestinians?
The Palestinian non-violent movement is gathering in strength every day. Yet now we read in the Jerusalem Post – a pro-colonisation paper – that Israel worries the Egyptian uprisings may come to the West Bank. Concerned by the prospect of the Palestinians replicating Egypt-style mass demonstrations with dozens of simultaneous marches and protests in the…
What one person can say about Colombo’s brutality by not visiting
The recent campaign against the Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka, of which I was involved, was related to highlighting the gross human rights abuses in the country. It caused global discussion and forced both Colombo and the festival organisers on the defensive. “What? Us? Backing war crimes? Never!” Here’s Sri Lankan born writer and…
Here’s an idea; don’t sell weapons to any state that kills its own citizens (including Israel)
Today’s UK Observer editorial urges Britain not to sell weapons to autocrats. Good advice but no mention of course of the seemingly never-ending sale of deadly munitions to Israel in its daily war against the Palestinians: When it comes to approving the sale of arms to unpleasant regimes, as the cases of Bahrain and Libya…
Not a Twitter revolution but social tools surely helped
Another fascinating Al-Jazeera feature on Empire about the role of the internet in the Arab uprisings: Carl Bernstein, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist; Amy Goodman, the host and executive producer of Democracy Now!; Professor Emily Bell, the director of digital journalism at Columbia University; Evgeny Morozov, the author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side…
Portrait of a key Egyptian dissenter
Hossam el-Hamalawy has been campaigning against the Mubarak regime for years (and appears in my book The Blogging Revolution). In this Associated Press profile he outlines the oft-forgotten in the West supporters of the Egyptian revolution (away from Twitter and Facebook); the workers: “The job is unfinished, we got rid of (Hosni) Mubarak but we…