Zionist propaganda on the Birthright trip is almost pathological. Arabs are ignored but loathed. Everybody is an enemy. It’s militarism run riot. The occupation is excused and defended (the soldiers manning the checkpoints have families, the young Jews are told, as if this excuses illegally brutalising an entire people). This is sad:
More on Tony Abbott mixing with the “enemy” in Sydney
After attending a Sydney event last night with Liberal Opposition leader Tony Abbott and writer Bob Ellis (with actor Rhys Muldoon in my photo above), today’s ABC Radio AM reported on proceedings: ELIZABETH JACKSON: Politics throws up some unlikely friendships. Indeed it’s hard to imagine a more unusual friendship than the one between the Labor…
Keeping kids behind bars has become the Australian way
With news that Australia may soon release a number of families and children from immigration detention to live in the community while their claims are processed, Mary Crock, Professor of Public Law at the University of Sydney, says how isolated our policy really is: What strikes me is how unaware we are of what other…
Wikileaks and avoiding September 11
A provocative question in the LA Times: If WikiLeaks had been around in 2001, could the events of 9/11 have been prevented? … Decisions to speak out inside or outside one’s chain of command — let alone to be seen as a whistle-blower or leaker of information — is fraught with ethical and legal questions…
How torture was freely used in a post 9/11 moral haze
What the Bush administration stood for and remember how little Barack Obama has changed this mindset: In 2002, as the Bush administration was turning to torture and other brutal techniques for interrogating “war on terror” detainees, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz loosened rules against human experimentation, an apparent recognition of legal problems regarding the novel…
Serco and friends line up for dirty and profitable work
How many more people can we exploit for profit? Far too many, it seems: Jimmy Mubenga died during deportation from the UK, and the first fingers of blame will undoubtedly be pointed at the Home Office-contracted private security firm, G4S. But we need to look at ourselves and ask how we became a society that…
Meeting Tony Abbott in Sydney and shooting the Palestinian breeze
Last night I attended an event in central Sydney at Gleebooks with Leader of the Liberal Opposition Tony Abbott and writer and speech-writer Bob Ellis. The room was packed with around 200 people and the two men initially talked about the war in Afghanistan (Abbott backs it, “the best of the worst options” for the…
Assange; the importance of making powerful enemies
In the annual “50 People Who Matter 2010” for New Statesman, John Pilger endorses Julian Assange and Wikileaks; guts that matters and so necessary: The arrival of WikiLeaks is one of the most exciting developments in the enduring struggle of ordinary people for the right to call secret power to account. This is what journalism…
Using bio-fuel and chocolate to cure the world
I met this lovely British guy, former journalist Andy Pag, in Ubud, Bali last week and he’s on quite a journey: