My feature in the Australian literary journal Overland: Flying into Bentiu, a town in northern South Sudan, is unnerving. The front of a broken plane, cockpit windows smashed, sits close to the dusty airstrip; long green grass sprouts around the cracked fuselage. Soldiers of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), a former guerrilla movement and…
Articles in Overland
Supporting Overland and indy media
Wonderful independent Australian magazine Overland is currently running its Subscriberthon. I was asked to offer some words of support: Independent media has never been more important. Our world is currently experiencing a necessary crisis in confidence in corporate media, corporate governance and capitalism itself. Relying on corporate media to accurately report on this crisis is…
On literary boycotts, Palestine, Sri Lanka and the politics of dissent
My following essay appears in the latest edition of literary journal Overland (a shorter version is published on ABC online): ”˜For thirty years the country [Sri Lanka] went through a kind of hell and endured untold economic and cultural deprivation. Now, with things looking up, we need all the friendly input we can get from…
The greatest irony of Western policy
My following article appears today on the wonderful literary journal Overland’s website during its Subscriberthon: After the US mid-term elections, President Barack Obama is severely weakened by the rise of the Republicans. His unwillingness or inability to pursue true justice and peace in the Middle East will only be worsened. Indeed, GOP House Majority Leader…
Overland 200
Overland magazine is one of Australia’s finest independent journals. I contributed the lead essay in 2008 about the resource wars. The publication is progressive and proud. It has just released its 200th edition and a number of leading leftists were asked to briefly define the “Left” in 2010 and what it means to them. Here’s…
The state of the peace process in 2009
Overland is one of Australia’s finest literary journals. Punchy, provocative, topical, relevant and interesting, the magazine re-launched its website this week and is currently running a Subscriberthon. Do it for yourself and the country. Get into it! I was asked to write an original piece for the festivities: Antony Loewenstein is a prominent blogger, and…
The resource wars
Overland is Australia’s finest literary journal. I was commissioned to write the lead essay for the new edition, The Resource Wars, on energy, Israel, Zionism, the Middle East and the role of the US in the region: In a striking 2005 essay for the Atlantic, Richard A. Clarke, former chief counter-terrorism adviser on the US…