Yet more misery in Australia caused by a privatised detention centre. Another report that will certainly not cause the Federal government to find a way to ditch Serco for its continually poor performance and standards (via the Australian): A NSW coroner has slammed the immigration department and two private contractors for failing in their duty…
Showing all posts tagged privatisation
New Libyan government shows true colours; mercenaries welcome
Sigh: As rival militias in postwar Libya wage turf wars in Tripoli and the interim government struggles to form a national army, Western mercenaries are moving in to fill the security vacuum in the oil-rich North African state. Under the circumstances, it’s not surprising that the executive bureau of the National Transitional Council, striving to…
We leave Iraq a ruined nation
After America withdraws most of its troops, the New York Times, a key paper that backed the invasion in 2003, editorialised yesterday and sounded contrite (a little, though no mention of the mainstream media’s drum-boat towards the conflict): America’s reputation has yet to fully recover from the horrors of Abu Ghraib. The country is still…
This is how Western forces gather “intelligence”
Human Terrain Systems is the term with private companies increasingly hired by the US army (and Australia) to use anthropologists and other related fields to gather “intelligence” in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. 21st century warfare (privatised, of course): More about this film here.
Neo-liberalism isn’t the default position
New Statesman on British workers fighting “austerity”, which in effect are the most vulnerable being shafted to pay for the mistakes of the 1%: Last week, a group of public sector workers, supporters and others who’ve had enough of the neoliberal mantra that “public services improve if they’re run by the private sector” protested outside…
Private mercenaries set to continue reign in Afghanistan
Sigh: Afghan President Hamid Karzai scrapped on Sunday a March 2012 deadline he had set for the closure of private security firms, giving them until September 2013 to operate in the country. Karzai, a frequent critic of private security companies, has previously set dates for the cessation of their work in Afghanistan, but each time…
Solution to the climate crisis; force everybody to buy stuff
Democracy Now!, this week in Durban for the UN climate conference, offers one deluded perspective on solving the world’s problems: On Sunday, Democracy Now! producer Mike Burke attended the corporate-sponsored World Climate Summit here in Durban that advocates a market approach to solving the climate crisis. One of the people who attended was the South…
How post 9/11 world has helped corporations make a killing
Private prisons and detention centres are booming businesses (hello Serco). Crisis, real or otherwise, are exploited by corporations who come in to supposedly save the day (cut costs, increase efficiency etc). The reality, explained in this piece on Alternet about the US, is rather different: In a recently published report, “Banking on Bondage: Mass Incarceration…