What next, Rajapaksa wins Nobel Peace Prize?

This just proves that massacring Tamil civilians isn’t a bar to participating in front of the world: Mahinda Rajapaksa to join Prince Edward at ceremony despite allegations of human rights abuses by Colombo governmentMahinda Rajapaksa, the controversial president of Sri Lanka, is locate to be the guest of honour at the closing ceremony of the…

News Corp embraces its inner Iran

Who says Rupert Murdoch doesn’t love the Islamic Republic? The News Corp-backed network Farsi1 offers Fox favorites and Telenovelas, and has quickly become the most watched in Iran. Reza Aslan on why Ahmadinejad’s government is worried. Farsi1, a Persian language satellite station partly owned by Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp, has become the most popular entertainment network…

Livni hopes that the noble Zionist state will still inspire

In case any readers think that Israel’s opposition leader, Tzipi Livni, is a “moderate” leader who would bring peace to the Middle East, think again. Apart from the fact that the Tablet writer seems to be upset that American Jews don’t understand (enjoy?) military service and the apparently necessary role of killing Arabs, it is…

Platitudes over Afghanistan were already irrelevant in 2001 post 9/11

What happens when a compliant corporate journalist simply reprints what a military man tells him? Welcome the Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Hartcher, repeating pro Afghan war propaganda with no contrary views. This is what embedding “journalism” is all about: The Australian officer in charge of the Afghanistan deployment has told Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott…

Hello fascism, the radical right and Judaism

The strange and disturbing mix of radical Zionism, hatred of Muslims, neo-conservatism and increasingly mainstream politics: The English Defence League, a far-right grouping aimed at combating the “Islamification” of British cities, has developed strong links with the American Tea Party movement. An Observer investigation has established that the EDL has made contact with anti-jihad groups…

But there are no Middle East “peace talks”

This is pathetic. Once again, Washington is seen to be begging its client state, Israel, to please continue the non-existent settlement “freeze” for another two months. Yes, laughing is the only sane response: Senior White House officials told a group of Jewish lawmakers Wednesday morning that the Obama administration is pushing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin…

When an Indonesian started talking to a Westerner

Inspiration, provocations, discussions and politics all meld here at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. Take a look here, here and here. Perhaps the most encouraging part of the events in Bali is the involvement of local writers and participants. If the West and East melded a little more, the world would be in a…

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