Last week I spoke on a panel at Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre on “Art, War and Another Afghanistan” alongside photographer Barat Ali Batoor, human rights lawyer and activist Diana Sayed, Afghan football player and recently arrived from Kabul, Fatima Yousufi (who was featured in a recent New York Times story), and Hazara musician Taqi Khan. Afghanistan…
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Understanding the mega-rich mindset
My book review is published today in The Saturday Paper: Douglas Rushkoff Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires How will the world end? If you’re a tech billionaire, you’re likely already imagining the grisly final act. When American Marxist media theorist, graphic novelist and early cyberpunk embracer Douglas Rushkoff is invited…
How much do we owe Afghan refugees?
My new piece for Declassified Australia on the disparity between Afghan and Ukrainian refugees and how Australia (and the US) view the neediest people on the planet: Around 6,000 humanitarian visas have been granted to Afghan refugees in the 12 months since the end of the US occupation in August 2021. This is from a total of…
Twenty Years plus since Taliban takeover of Afghanistan
The Twenty Years project is a collaboration between Afghan artists, journalists and a number of Australians, including me, about the legacy of the US-led war in Afghanistan. There was recently a major exhibition at Blacktown Arts gallery in Sydney, Australia featuring Afghan artists Khadim Ali, Elyas Alavi, Orna Kazimi, Najiba Noori, Melbourne-based artist Tia Kass…
In conversation with whistle-blower David McBride
David McBride is a courageous whistleblower who exposed Australian war crimes in Afghanistan. For his sins, he’s now facing trial and potentially life in prison (while not one soldier who committed the war crimes has faced court). We’ve become friends over the last years and I deeply admire his principles. David interviewed me recently about my…
“August in Kabul” is compelling book on Afghanistan
My book review in the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age: AFGHANISTAN August in Kabul Andrew Quilty MUP, $34.99 Matthieu Aikins is a journalist who has spent extended periods in Afghanistan, including stints with The New York Times. Early this year, he told The Columbia Journalism Review that his whole profession had often failed when…
How legalising drugs reaches India
My book, Pills, Powder and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs, was published in an Indian edition in 2020. It’s therefore gratifying to see how its message is reaching Indians with the publication of this letter in The Shillong Times, a newspaper in north-east India: Editor, Pockets of Shillong are witnessing a rise in…
Drug prohibition worsening the climate crisis
The connection between the drug war and worsening climate change is rarely discussed. In the new short film by UK NGO, Health Poverty Action, these links are explicitly made. I’m one of the experts interviewed (thanks to my latest book, Pills, Powder and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs):
New Zealand Earthwise radio interview on Assange, Wikileaks and Palestine
I was recently interviewed by the New Zealand’s radio program, Earthwise, on Wikileaks, Julian Assange, Palestine and state killing of journalists.
Interview with Slovakian intellectual Martin Poliacik on the drug war and Ukraine
In late 2021, my latest book, Pills, Powder and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs, was released in a Slovakian edition with an introduction by the Slovak philosopher and former politician Martin Poliacik who’s been a leading advocate for drug reform. Since its release, the book has received very positive coverage and reviews in Slovakia.…