My following article appears in Lebanon’s Al Akhbar: “Moshe was simply not willing for the State of Israel to run him over anymore.” Moshe Silman, a son of Holocaust survivors, was an Israeli man who died last week after suffering second and third-degree burns on 94 percent of his body. In an Israeli first, a…
Showing all posts tagged Britain
Sing along to the G4S theme song
Vulture capitalists get a theme song. Despite some still claiming privatisation is a wonderful thing for society, common sense and evidence proves that outsourcing massively reduces accountability. Not to worry, G4S has a theme song to get you fired up (via New Statesman): You love your job and the people too Making a difference is…
Time is now to fight vulture capitalism
I’m currently working on a film and book about disaster capitalism. Britain is currently experiencing a text-book example of the phenomenon. Here’s Seumas Milne in the Guardian with a necessary call to arms: If nothing else, the spectacular failure of G4S, the world’s largest security firm, to get even close to meeting its Olympics contract…
Vulture capitalists fails and yet its masters will thrive
One (via the Guardian): The depth of the crisis over… G4S‘s… Olympic security… preparations became increasingly clear on Thursday as recruits revealed details of a “totally chaotic” selection process and… police… joined the… military… in bracing themselves to fill the void left by the private security contractor. Guards told how, with 14 days to go until the Olympics opening ceremony, they had…
Punishing Israel for its addiction to settlements
We all know the Zionist colonies are illegal so get a bloody move on taking action against them and Israel (via the Independent): European governments, including Britain’s, have received legal opinion from a leading international counsel who argues they would be fully within their rights to ban trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West…
Why Wikileaks and Julian Assange are essential for functioning of real democracy
Patrick Cockburn in the Independent is spot-on with his comments about Wikileaks. Many in the corporate media have degraded themselves with petty criticisms and jealousy: As Julian Assange evades arrest by taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in Knightsbridge to escape extradition to Sweden, and possibly the US, British commentators have targeted him with shrill…
Assange interviews Imran Khan, Tariq Ali and Noam Chomsky
The great The World Tomorrow series continues (past episodes here). A few weeks ago it was Pakistani politician Imran Khan and then this week Tariq Ali and Noam Chomsky. Find me another mainstream TV talk show that actually believes in seriously examining ideas, political philosophy and democracy:
My 2012 PEN Free Voices lecture on free speech and why it matters
The following is published today as the lead piece by ABC’s The Drum: The two-hour drive from Islamabad to Peshawar is along a surprisingly smooth road. Mud-brick homes sit amongst lush, green fields. Police checkpoints are set up routinely to stop unwanted visitors. I am asked why I want to see the troubled Pakistani town…
Another totally typical day in Israel/Palestine
One (via the Guardian): A belief that every Palestinian child is a potential terrorist may be leading to a “spiral of injustice” and breaches of international law in… Israel‘s treatment of child detainees in military custody, a delegation of eminent British lawyers has concluded in an independent report backed by the Foreign Office. The nine-strong delegation,…