What the US brought Haiti apart from a busy airport

John Pilger on the kidnapping of Haiti: The theft of Haiti has been swift and crude. On 22 January, the United States secured “formal approval” from the United Nations to take over all air and sea ports in Haiti, and to “secure” roads. No Haitian signed the agreement, which has no basis in law. Power…

BDS brings justice to an occupied people

John Pilger writes in the New Statesman on the growing global call for BDS – it can’t be stopped and nor should it until Israel abides by international law (despite Zionists claiming that Arab “violence” justifies holding onto occupied territory forever): In the United States and Europe, trade unions, mainstream churches and academic associations have…

Is Australia capable of looking at itself honestly in the mirror?

John Pilger on Australia’s secret shame: …The rate of incarceration of black Australians is five times that of South Africa during the last years of apartheid. The state of Western Australia imprisons Aboriginal men at eight times the apartheid figure, an Aussie world record. … There is currently a liberal clarion call in Australia for…

Our proper job description

John Pilger, who turned 69 last week, on the proper role of media: If journalists can look behind the press-release version of events, or push back the screen of what is often propaganda but rarely recognised as such, then we will produce true journalism, not a form of PR. We ought to be the agents…

How to avoid realities

John Pilger, New Statesman, September 24: Britain’s political conference season of 2008 will be remembered as The Great Silence. Politicians have come and gone and their mouths have moved in front of large images of themselves, and they often wave at someone. There has been lots of news about each other. Adam Boulton, the political…

The benefits of arse-kissing

Some journalists, in the words of John Pilger, “pretend to be objective while ensuring his or her words remain within the undeclared limits set by authority”. Two American journalists were central figures in pushing the Bush administration’s case for war against Iraq, erroneously linking al-Qaeda to Saddam. Of course, their careers have blossomed since 2003.

The liberation lesson

John Pilger on what real liberation should teach us: We’re invited to be obedient and passive and to believe there is nothing we can do to influence the course of apparently invincible events – whether they’re the criminal disasters in the Middle East, or the distortion of resources and wealth in our own societies. Then…

Why we love mass murderers

Indonesian dictator Soeharto died yesterday. He was one of the 20th centuries most brutal dictators, killing over one million people in the name of strengthening his rule. The Australian newspaper, however, decides to praise the man and primarily discusses his economic “reforms”. Of course, if Cambodia’s Pol Pot had left his country in better financial…

What real election?

John Pilger, January 23: Barack Obama is a glossy Uncle Tom who would bomb Pakistan. Hillary Clinton, another bomber, is anti-feminist. John McCain’s one distinction is that he has personally bombed a country. They all believe the US is not subject to the rules of human behaviour, because it is “a city upon a hill”,…

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