I’m currently working on a film and book about disaster capitalism. Britain is currently experiencing a text-book example of the phenomenon. Here’s Seumas Milne in the Guardian with a necessary call to arms: If nothing else, the spectacular failure of G4S, the world’s largest security firm, to get even close to meeting its Olympics contract…
Showing all posts tagged Britain
Vulture capitalists fails and yet its masters will thrive
One (via the Guardian): The depth of the crisis over… G4S‘s… Olympic security… preparations became increasingly clear on Thursday as recruits revealed details of a “totally chaotic” selection process and… police… joined the… military… in bracing themselves to fill the void left by the private security contractor. Guards told how, with 14 days to go until the Olympics opening ceremony, they had…
Punishing Israel for its addiction to settlements
We all know the Zionist colonies are illegal so get a bloody move on taking action against them and Israel (via the Independent): European governments, including Britain’s, have received legal opinion from a leading international counsel who argues they would be fully within their rights to ban trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West…
Why Wikileaks and Julian Assange are essential for functioning of real democracy
Patrick Cockburn in the Independent is spot-on with his comments about Wikileaks. Many in the corporate media have degraded themselves with petty criticisms and jealousy: As Julian Assange evades arrest by taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in Knightsbridge to escape extradition to Sweden, and possibly the US, British commentators have targeted him with shrill…
Assange interviews Imran Khan, Tariq Ali and Noam Chomsky
The great The World Tomorrow series continues (past episodes here). A few weeks ago it was Pakistani politician Imran Khan and then this week Tariq Ali and Noam Chomsky. Find me another mainstream TV talk show that actually believes in seriously examining ideas, political philosophy and democracy:
My 2012 PEN Free Voices lecture on free speech and why it matters
The following is published today as the lead piece by ABC’s The Drum: The two-hour drive from Islamabad to Peshawar is along a surprisingly smooth road. Mud-brick homes sit amongst lush, green fields. Police checkpoints are set up routinely to stop unwanted visitors. I am asked why I want to see the troubled Pakistani town…
Another totally typical day in Israel/Palestine
One (via the Guardian): A belief that every Palestinian child is a potential terrorist may be leading to a “spiral of injustice” and breaches of international law in… Israel‘s treatment of child detainees in military custody, a delegation of eminent British lawyers has concluded in an independent report backed by the Foreign Office. The nine-strong delegation,…
What’s some tortured Iraqis between friends?
Britain, spreading freedom across the world (via the Daily Mail): The Mail on Sunday can today reveal devastating new claims of abuse by British soldiers carried out at a secret network of illegal prisons in the Iraqi desert. One innocent civilian victim is said to have died after being assaulted aboard an RAF helicopter, while… …
Classic example of how not to undermine serious human rights reporting
The role of the mainstream media in reporting hard news while also taking compromising advertising is an intriguing one. The Guardian recently discovered this and mis-fired badly. To its credit, they’ve now run this strong piece by Chris Elliot, the Readers Editor: Sri Lanka‘s civil war, in which tens of thousands of people were killed…