Think: Digital Futures is a great program on Sydney’s 2SER radio. I contributed to its latest episode: When you think about Puerto Rico—decimated by Hurricane Maria, a debt crisis and the longest power blackout in US history—most people see destruction. To a small group of cryptocurrency millionaires, it’s a chance to build a new type…
Showing all posts tagged United States
How aid can be used to keep nations deliberately poor
I was interviewed last week in Australian media outlet Crikey by Charlie Lewis about my… Disaster Capitalism film: The documentary Disaster Capitalism opens with the earthquake in Haiti, 2010. Through the ghostly fog of CCTV video, we see the ground furiously shake buildings into dust. Fronted by Australian journalist and writer Antony Loewenstein and shot over…
What Duterte's brutal drug war looks like in the Philippines
My investigation in Foreign Policy: MANILA, Philippines — The murdered man lay in a pool of his own blood. At around 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 22, two men on motorcycles shot Manny “Buddy” Wagan outside his small shop selling junk metal just outside Manila. He was killed instantly with two bullets to the head. A…
Pink Floyd's Roger Waters speaks on Palestine and the Middle East
Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters recently toured around Australia. One night in Melbourne he took the time to speak at a public event, in conversation with Palestinian writer Randa Abdel-Fattah and me, about politics, the media, Palestine and the Middle East. He appeared before a packed house at the Athanaeum Theatre and the video has just…
How the Philippines has been transformed by its war on drugs
My… story in Australian magazine Crikey: President Rodrigo Duterte has maintained a firm grip on the Philippines since being elected in July 2016. Although public support is slipping, due partly to the brutality unleashed by his “war on drugs”, which has seen up to 20,000 people killed in 18 months, the general population still backs the…
Who should really benefit from aid?
My article in the Guardian: Foreign aid has the power to save lives but also to corrupt nations. It’s regularly used as a political football as some argue for more financial support to the world’s most vulnerable people while others believe more money should be spent at home. It’s a false distinction, however, because the…
Interviewing Pink Floyd's Roger Waters about Palestine
Last Friday night in Melbourne, I interviewed Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters alongside Palestinian writer Randa Abdel-Fattah. The event was organised by the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network. Waters is in Australia on his massive “Us and Them” world tour (which I saw on Saturday night and it was one of the most spectacular music performances I’ve…
ABC Radio National interview on Disaster Capitalism film
My film Disaster Capitalism, with director Thor Neureiter and co-producers Media Stockade, is screening publicly soon. Last weekend I was interviewed by Hugh Riminton on Australia’s ABC Radio National Sunday Extra program about it: When war or disaster strikes, we assume our aid contributions are life-saving, or at the very least will help rebuild countries…
How Trump weaponised far-right/Israeli connections
In March 2016, MidEastWire published my investigation into the growing ties between Israel and the global far-right. Newsweek Arabic has now re-published the story in Arabic, in its 3 February edition, and I’ve updated it one year into the Trump presidency: newsweekarabic
ABC Radio Australia interview on Disaster Capitalism film
My film, Disaster Capitalism, with director Thor Neureiter and co-producers Media Stockade, is starting to screen this month (initially in Sydney and Melbourne with many more locations in Australia and globally to come). I was interviewed today about the film on ABC Radio Australia’s Pacific Mornings program, broadcast across the entire Pacific region: