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…
Showing all posts tagged privatisation
Here’s why the New York Times (and much of the Western press) doesn’t get Haiti
One of the great gaps in Western media coverage of Haiti is the constant ignoring of American and corporate complicity in keeping the place on its knees. It’s something I saw during my visit there last week. A story in yesterday’s New York Times was a perfect example of this curse. There is barely any…
Haiti run, controlled and influenced by too many foreign interests
Being here in Haiti for the last while, it’s striking how often I hear how many locals say that their independence was taken from them years ago, particularly by the US and foreign NGOs. This story has only inflamed sentiments (via GlobalPost): Sean Penn’s aid foundation, J/P HRO, began tearing down the once-picturesque National Palace…
When a country privatises the kitchen sink, quelle surprise when things go wrong
Interesting development in Britain (via the Guardian) that shows deep concern with the companies both major sides of politics increasingly believe should run the country: Home Office ministers have ordered weekly reports on the progress of two new contracts with the private security companies… G4S… and… Serco… to house and provide support services for thousands of asylum seekers and…
The aid economy that fuels Haiti’s misery
I’m currently in Haiti working on my book about disaster capitalism and a documentary with New York film-maker Thor Neureiter. It’ll be a global picture to show how privatisation and outsourcing, in the military, aid, intelligence, detention centres and mineral exploitation businesses, are creating a world of even greater disparity. Cholera remains a massive issue…
America’s chronic inability/unwillingness to build stuff that lasts
Powerful indictment of Washington by Peter Van Buren in TomDispatch about the privatisation disease that sweeps the world and delivers little except profits to a group of corporations. This is what imperialism means in the 21st century: With the success of the post-World War II Marshall Plan in Europe and the economic miracle in Japan,…
Fracking is so very safe, like smoking, says companies who would never lie
A fascinating short documentary by Josh Fox, director of Gasland, about the role of fracking in America, and how lobbyists and corporate media are contributing to environmental disaster. This is very relevant for my work on a book and film about disaster capitalism: THE SKY IS PINK by Josh Fox and the GASLAND Team from…
G4S, face of unaccountable outsourcing, still finding willing fools in Britain
The Guardian reports: G4S, the company at the centre of the Olympic security fiasco, has started to recruit staff to carry out criminal investigations for a… police… force, with duties that include house-to-house inquiries, giving evidence in court and undertaking “sensitive high-profile cases under limited supervision”. The news comes as two Cabinet ministers said the G4S failings…
Just two examples of what privatised “security” means
The Washington Post: The security contractor at a Tennessee plant that stores the nation’s supply of weapons-grade uranium has replaced its general manager almost two weeks after three protesters, including an 82-year-old nun, got into a high-security area. Security firm WSI Oak Ridge confirmed to the Knoxville News Sentinel Wednesday that Steven C. Hafner is…