Showing all posts tagged Britain
Think twice before visiting Sri Lanka as a tourist
Ever since the end of the country’s civil war in 2009, Colombo has promoted tourism as a way to normalise the place. The Western media has blindly followed. But Sri Lanka isn’t a normal state; it remains authoritarian. I’m proud that the UK-based Sri Lanka Campaign, where I’m an advisor and have pushed for this…
Britain as the torture-endorsing nation
Fascinating new evidence in the Guardian: Within days of the 9/11 attacks on the US, the… CIA… told British intelligence officers of its plans to abduct… al-Qaida… suspects and fly them to secret prisons where they would be systematically abused. The meeting, at the British embassy in Washington, is disclosed in… a forthcoming book by the Guardian journalist Ian Cobain.…
How “liberal media” covers all those war-mongering Western leaders. Oh wait…
A typically astute Medialens analysis: Liberal journalism is balanced, neutral and objective, except when it’s not. A BBC news report on Hugo Chavez’s latest election triumph in Venezuela… commented: ‘Mr Chavez said Venezuela would continue its march towards socialism… butalso vowed he would be a “better president”.’ (Our emphasis. The article was subsequently amended, although the ‘but’…
Rewarding failure; Australia keen to embrace G4S to “manage” refugees in PNG
What does it take for a corporation to be shunned? Clearly not massive failure, like G4S. The Australian government needs its head read but it shows that firms like G4S sell themselves as invaluable and “efficient” service providers: The Federal Government is looking to have the Manus Island immigration centre run by G4S, the same…
Remembering the slaughter in Sri Lanka
Last week saw the London launch of a new book by Frances Harrison called Still Counting the Dead. Harrison is a former BBC foreign correspondent. The work is about the civil war in Sri Lanka and the killing of tens of thousands of Tamils in the slaughter. Here’s video of the event:
An apology and explanation: when the tongue goes before the head on Israel/Palestine
During the recent world tour for my new book, After Zionism, I appeared with my co-editor Ahmed Moor at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Here’s a report of the evening from the Palestine Chronicle. During the Q and A, a Jewish man, Jonathan Hoffman, co-Vice … Chair of the Zionist Federation and…
Assange to UN: “It is time for the US to cease its persecution of WikiLeaks”
More on the compelling Julian Assange speech to the UN here.
Finally, some resistance to disaster capitalism masters G4S
Via the Guardian: The private security firm… G4S… should be the first name on a government blacklist of “high-risk” companies that have failed to deliver public services, a cross-party investigation into the… Olympic security shambles… has concluded. The Commons home affairs committee says G4S should forgo its …£57m management fee for the contract that it still insists on claiming…