The depravity of bought intellectuals, not unlike many journalists who get wined and dined by US forces in Iraq or Afghanistan or in the halls of Washington, Canberra or London. Power can be appealing but it also corrupts: A trip to Libya in 2006 by Anthony Giddens, the former London School of Economics director and…
Showing all posts tagged Australia
Opening of the Perth Writer’s Festival
Last night I attended the opening of the Perth Writer’s Festival at the University of Western Australia. It was rather spectacular.
Public fight against Serco continues
And it’s just beginning: The union representing hospital workers has defended its decision to bring traffic in Perth’s CBD to a standstill over a dispute about the privatisation of some hospital services. The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union is fighting the State Government’s plans to contract out some services at public hospitals to private companies.…
Abusing David Hicks is seemingly acceptable on our ABC
Here’s a shameful interview yesterday on ABC Melbourne radio with former Guantanamo Bay captive David Hicks. For the record, Hicks may have pleaded guilty to terrorism charges but he did so to simply get out of the US gulag: David Hicks: I don’t think you’ve read my book, that’s correct? Jon Faine: No, I’ve not…
Privatisation is a game the whole political and media elite can play
With the New South Wales election less than a month away and news that Serco is offering “advice” on the best way to privatise everything, Murdoch’s Australian today explains what may happen post 26 March. And note how conservatives use the word “reform” when they really mean sack public workers for “efficiency”: NSW Liberals leader…
Australian Jewish petition against the political manipulation of Islamophobia
The following statement is written by Ned Curthoys, a Research Fellow at the Australian National University, and is being circulated around Australia: As progressive Jewish Australians we are deeply disturbed by the recent outbreak of politically motivated attacks on asylum seeks and Muslims. As Jews we know that most of the criticisms being directed at…
Ongoing importance of separating Zionism and Judaism
The following interview by Sam Whiteley appears in today’s West Australian: Freelance journalist Antony Loewenstein is no stranger to controversy. “The silence is over,” says Loewenstein, author of My Israel Question which generated a swell of public debate and was shortlisted for the 2007 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award. Co-founder of Independent Australian Jewish…
Israel should be given the South African treatment
My following article is written with Australians for Palestine co-founder Moammar Mashni and published in Online Opinion: “I am a black South African, and if I were to change the names, the description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank would be a description of what is happening in South…
NSW Greens don’t see their job as solely defending brutish Israel
The decision of Sydney’s Marrickville council and the NSW Greens to back BDS against apartheid Israel continues to generate predictable hysteria from the Murdoch tabloids (and that’s to say nothing of the racist, anti-Muslim diatribes being circulated by many Jews and bigots across Australia): The Greens have threatened a trade boycott against the world’s second-largest…