Hold the phone. Here’s a very astute piece in the Financial Times arguing against unquestioned privatisation of everything, including Heathrow Airport. Challenging the religion of privatising the entire country is a debate too rarely had: For the world’s rising states, international airports – and indeed their national airlines (Turkish Airlines beats BA hands down on…
Showing all posts tagged privatisation
China’s black sites used and abused by private firms
The massive expansion of a privatised and largely secret world is enveloping the West. Take military contracting and detention centres as two key examples. This recent feature in the Sydney Morning Herald highlights the foul stench of unaccountable thugs outsourced by the state in China: …In Tangshan city, a middle-class woman called Liu Yuhong told…
Our wars are being controlled by somebody else
The massive expansion of privatised military forces since 9/11 is largely unreported. Death squads paid for by tax dollars. American journalist Tim Shorrock examines this huge expansion in the age of Obama. It’s a world that is so bloated and so reliant on endless American wars that it’s no wonder the arms and defence industries…
Australia and Canada working together to kill Afghans (and private firms keen to help out)
This is an explosive story that appears to have received no coverage in Australia. So many questions need to be asked. The privatisation of war, the targeting of so-called insurgents by Australians and the involvement of Israeli equipment: Canadian aircrew played a significant, largely unheralded role in helping Australia get its unmanned aerial vehicle program…
The mad rush for privatising everywhere
Privatisation fundamentalists never rest. It’s a religion, with politicians and many in the media believing (aka pretending) that “efficiency” will be achieved by selling off public assets. Dream on, suckers. One: The Federal Government has quietly privatised its migrant language services across a large section of Sydney, drawing a furious response from teachers who will…
Watch Serco like hawks or face troubles in future
As more and more Western governments use the services of Serco – the British multinational with an unhealthy hold on prisons and detention centres – it’s worth remembering the gross human rights abuses under its watch. I just received this release: PRESS RELEASE: SERCO officers in Yarl’s Wood IRC, violent, racist, sexist & vindictive On…
Resist the Serco beast before it’s too late
The Serco infection moves to New Zealand, yet more unaccountable prisons sold as increasing “efficiency”: The Department of Corrections today announced that global service provision company Serco has been selected to manage Mt Eden/Auckland Central Remand Prison (ACRP) from next year. Finance, Systems and Infrastructure General Manager John Bole says that it is Government policy…
So this is what the Afghan war is all about
Patrick Cockburn reports in the Independent on the illusion that Western intervention is helping Afghanistan. A few people are getting amazingly rich, especially private firms in the West, but local citizens are not seeing anything. Not hard to see why the insurgency is thriving: The most extraordinary failure of the US-led coalition in Afghanistan is…
Scahill on why Washington and Obama are earning hatred around Islamic world
Leading US reporter Jeremy Scahill, testifying before the US House Judiciary Committee, discusses America’s secret wars in the Muslim world (something highlighted by recent Wikileaks revelations): My name is Jeremy Scahill. I am the National Security correspondent for The Nation magazine. I recently returned from a two-week unembedded reporting trip to Afghanistan. I would like…
Assange and Serco, quite a relationship
Great letter in today’s Crikey about the ubiquitous Serco and its merry jobs. How many ways can this company make a buck from misfortune? Michael R. James writes: To top off a frenetic 24 hour news cycle of the harassment of Julian Assange, nothing was quite as chilling as seeing him being ferried to a…