My weekly Guardian column: The South African national high school debating team was recently in Bangkok for the world debating championships. During the competition, the team uploaded a picture of themselves at the tournament’s opening ceremony to Facebook, and controversy ensued. “Team South Africa wearing Palestinian badges and Keffiyehs to show our opposition to the…
Articles in The Guardian
Why literary festivals matter
My weekly Guardian column: The Byron Bay writers’ festival, one of Australia’s largest literary events, has just finished after three days of discussion and debate under sunshine and rain. With… record-breaking… crowds listening to writers and rappers in large outdoor tents, it was impossible not to be seduced by the diverse participants, including British authors… Jeanette Winterson… and… Geoff Dyer.…
The mess in Libya is deep warning to "humanitarian interventionists"
My weekly Guardian column: Libya was sold as a glorious, liberating war. London’s Tory mayor Boris Johnson… wrote… in March 2011 that the overthrow of dictator Muammar Gaddafi was “of course ”¦ a good idea”. He was cautiously optimistic that a Western-led military campaign would not be a “disaster” like Iraq in 2003. “What kind of democracy…
The dark reality of Britain's privatised immigration system
My weekly Guardian column: Yarl’s Wood is a Serco run immigration removal centre in Milton Ernest, built in an industrial park more than an hour from central London.… Allegations have been made against Serco staff, including of sexual assaults by guards against detainees, yet the British government continues to use the facility. During a visit inside…
How the West has always backed brutal Sri Lanka
My weekly Guardian column: The Sri Lankan Navy band was busy last week, learning the tune to Waltzing Matilda. They played it to welcome Scott Morrison, the Australian immigration minister, who was visiting to launch two patrol boats donated by the Australian government. A photo of the moment,tweeted… by journalist Jason Koutsoukis, showed Morrison sitting alongside…
How the NSA wants total population control
My weekly Guardian column: William Binney is one of the highest-level whistleblowers to ever emerge from the NSA. He was a leading code-breaker against the Soviet Union during the Cold War but resigned soon after September 11, disgusted by Washington’s move towards mass surveillance. On 5 July he spoke at a… conference… in London organised by the…
What resistance looks like in austerity-captured Greece
My weekly Guardian column: The story from an Athens hospital beggared belief. In May a 54 year old man needed immediate heart surgery. He was unemployed and uninsured, a… common reality… for many Greek citizens since the economic crisis hit in 2008. The hospital initially refused to admit him, fearing they would never get paid, but the…
The toxic Greek brew of racism, fascism and hatred of refugees
My weekly Guardian column: On a searing hot day last weekend I took the train an hour out of Athens to the Greek city of Corinth. There, one of the country’s largest detention centres sits behind high walls. It was the recent site of a mass hunger strike by asylum seekers, whose protest has now…
Listening to Iraqi voices when hearing about Iraq
My weekly Guardian column: Since last week’s… victories… by the militant group Isis against a weak, US-backed, Iraqi government, the same, failed protagonists from the 2003 invasion have come out of the woodwork to advocate another… military intervention. Although some journalists, like The Independent’s… prescient… Patrick Cockburn, have been warning about the… growing power… of Isis, voices on the ground are few…
Why do so many Australians embrace spying?
My weekly Guardian column: Australians feel… very comfortable… with spying on our friends and enemies. During his visit to Canada this week, Tony Abbott, the prime minister,… backed… the Five Eyes intelligence sharing structure between America, New Zealand, Britain, Canada and Australia, saying “our intelligence gathering has got to be done in a way that is decent and fair…