This week two media reports that highlight the mental anguish caused by the Australian government contracting Serco to “manage” its refugee crisis. This story on Radio National Breakfast deals with the remote centre in Leonora, with woefully under-trained or untrained Serco staff having to deal with traumatised asylum seekers. On ABC AM, Australia’s Human Rights…
Showing all posts tagged privatisation
We fight more battles but care little about those people in the firing line
Imperial nations love to fight wars – and Barack Obama has only increased the American military footprint – but it comes with a heavy cost (via ProPublica): Private contractors injured while working for the U.S. government in Iraq and Afghanistan filed a class action lawsuit in federal court on Monday, claiming that corporations and insurance…
What happens when privatisation becomes the natural way of war
Profiteers and crooks love this world (via the AP): A man accused of running an illegal contractor spy ring in Afghanistan has resigned from the Air Force, still maintaining his innocence, and still facing possible criminal charges. Two investigations continue in a case that has tested the definition of what contractors are allowed to do…
Blackwater now making love with another corporate leech, BAE
The private mercenary company Blackwater, despite years of serious allegations of human rights abuses across the world, is only seeing bigger opportunities for expansion. The latest (via independent American journalist Tim Shorrock), is this: Blackwater, the notorious mercenary company now known as “Xe,” has a new Chief Operating Officer (COO) – Charles (Chuck) Thomas, formerly…
War logic; spend billions, kill many, move on
Surely it’s time for Washington to find the next juicy target of American “liberation” (via the Huffington Post)? With just over three months until the last U.S. troops are currently dueto leave Iraq, the Department of Defense is engaged in a mad dash to give away things that cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars to…
This is modern Labor; helping disaster capitalism thrive
Which companies would benefit from such an arrangement? The Australian Labor Party has always been in love with helping the American war machine and here’s the latest evidence (via the Courier Mail): She’s been called “Captain Bligh”, now the Premier wants Navy subs based in Queensland to guard the state’s rich gas and coal reserves.…
Corporate loves making a killing from Troy Davis killing
Sigh: The tragic debacle that has been the Troy Davis execution has another dimension to it beyond racism, classism, and the miscarriage of justice in a flawed system. That dimension is capitalism: specifically, the corporatization of the prison-industrial complex. If you’ve noticed some angry tweets directed at @correcthealth… in the past day,… that’s because “CorrectHealth” is the…
Thank you developing world for allowing us to exploit you so quietly
If this doesn’t fit the definition of disaster capitalism, the term has no meaning (via the Guardian): The scale of the rush by speculators, pension funds and global agri-businesses to acquire large areas of developing countries is far greater than previously thought, and is already leading to conflict, hunger and human rights abuses, says Oxfam.…
Outsourcing death in war is the new American way
The “war on terror” has seen an explosion of private contractors making a killing from catching and killing all Arabs, I mean, terrorists, around the globe. Accountability is close to non-existent so we have no real idea which companies are involved, how many people are hired or what they’re actually doing. Remember, we’re told we…
