My following talk was presented today to a full room at Harvard University: Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government/Centre for Middle Eastern Studies ME Forum, 24 November 2008 The Shifting Sands of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: An Australian Perspective Antony Loewenstein Australian Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, speaking in March this year at a United Israel…
Showing all posts tagged Kevin Rudd
Australia’s censoring tendencies
The Australian government’s plans to censor the internet are causing justified outrage. I was interviewed today by The Podcast Network about these issues, what activists can do to oppose the changes and the possible reasons behind them. (Here’s my previous interview with The Podcast Network about my book The Blogging Revolution.)
How politicians don’t understand the web, part 8642
As the issue of internet censorship heats up in Australia – along with my recent article in the Melbourne Age about the government’s absurd proposals – one of the best sites to track progress is Somebody Think of The Children. Take this post or this one. Simply put, our government is in thrall to the…
So now what?
My latest New Matilda column is about a necessary reality check on President-elect Barack Obama: Talking about morality in international affairs is easy. What about action? Antony Loewenstein examines the tough foreign policy challenges facing the President-elect An unprecedented amount of hyperbole from the international media heralded last week’s election of Barack Obama to the…
Moving towards some kind of balance
How could anybody complain about this necessary, though minor, shift? Australia has switched its position to vote against Israel on two resolutions at the United Nations, ending the Howard government’s unswerving alignment with the United States and raising concern from the Jewish community. The move also signals to the incoming Obama administration that the Rudd…
Government uploads hypocrisy with internet censorship
My following article appears in today’s Melbourne Age: Before this year’s Beijing Olympic Games, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd chastised the Chinese authorities for blocking full access to the internet for the assembled world media: “My attitude to our friends in China is very simple”, he said. “They should have nothing to fear by open digital…
Australia embraces web censorship
My following article appears on the Global Voices Advocacy site: The issue of internet censorship generally involves countries deemed non-democratic or “repressive” (something I discuss in my new book, The Blogging Revolution.) We regularly read reports about the regimes in China or Iran blocking countless “subversive” websites for overtly political gain. Alas, a growing number…
Vibewire on The Blogging Revolution
Vibewire is one of Australia’s finest online youth portals (I used to write a regular column for them years ago.) I was recently interviewed by one of their writers, Jacqui Dent, about my book, The Blogging Revolution: Blogging is being used increasingly to speak out against oppression in authoritarian regimes and speak up amidst mainstream…
It’s all about the kids
You think internet censorship is just something that happens in authoritarian regimes? Think again (welcome to the potential Australian future.)
How to starve the Arabs
The following letter appears in the July 26 edition of the Green Left Weekly: Three weeks after the Australian’s Richard Kerbaj whipped up a storm over humanitarian aid by a Sydney-based charity to the suffering people of Gaza, we find our own federal police jumping at this organisation in what seems to be a co-ordinated…