Vasco Pyjama has been on fire since coming back to Australia. Here she outlines the basis of the divide between the developing world and the west: Two years ago, I travelled through Mindanao, the war-torn southernmost island of the Philippines. … Continue reading
Vasco Pyjama is an aid worker who has recently been in Afghanistan and Nias in Indonesia. She is now in Australia and suffering from culture shock. I asked her how she coped with being back in Australia. With the difference … Continue reading
I’m unmoved by Hussein’s hanging. It would mean something if it signalled a turn for the better in Iraq, but to me it simply indicates that the US has created such a catastrophe there that they still fear a vanquished … Continue reading
Karamoja district, Uganda, April 1980. Starving boy and a missionary. Mike Wells felt indignant that the same publication that sat on his picture for five months without publishing it, while people were dying, entered it into a competition. He was … Continue reading
The latest in a line of Bush administration censorship of science. US Geological Survey scientists must now submit work for screening before it can be published. The famously oppressive Qing dynasty in China used secret police to crack down on … Continue reading
Eric Reeves: The US attempts to bluff Khartoum’s génocidaires with “Plan Bâ€Â; Kofi Annan seeks to burnish his legacy after complicity in another genocide; the European Union and Canada offer nothing but more bluster; the Arab League continues its mendacious … Continue reading
Capitalism is about choice, we’re told. The prevailing wisdom is that regulation of the market is a discredited idea, fallen with the old communist regimes. People have the opportunity to benefit from their hard work and innovation, so they have … Continue reading
Eric Reeves on Darfur and Eastern Chad: “Humanitarian assistance is rapidly collapsing. Khartoum, having secured the security status quo in “negotiations†with the UN and African Union, has returned to its genocidal onslaught.”
The Yes-men managed another wonderful stunt the other day: At a Wharton Business School conference on business in Africa, World Trade Organization representative Hanniford Schmidt announced the creation of a WTO initiative for “full private stewardry of labor” for the … Continue reading
Some months ago I met a woman called Peachy who was active in forest campaigning. She recently attended the G20 Protests in Melbourne. The event was planned as a peaceful protest with a carnival atmosphere, but the event overshadowed by … Continue reading
The media have portrayed the anti-globalisation protests as a struggle between violent protestors and well restrained police. It’s true that the protests have been marked by violence, from at least a section of the large demonstration, but that’s only one … Continue reading
All the drowning children. The world is full of ways in which thoughtful and compassionate people have been able to find ways to help those in need, transforming lives of poverty and desperation. The Fred Hollows Foundation, for example, trains … Continue reading
In 1993 North Korea had one functioning nuclear reactor, and was in the process of building other much larger facilities. They were based on the Magnox design, and were well suited to the production of weapons grade plutonium as a … Continue reading
TURNING and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; … Continue reading
Cheney seems to have ordered the US air force not to attack the commercial airliners hijacked on September 11. The link and discussion is here
Andrew Bacevich writing in the Australian today says the chickens have come home to roost in Iraq: Historians of the global war on terror will likely recall September 2006 as a pivotal moment. Throughout this month, chickens have come home … Continue reading
MarketWatch reports on Project Censored’s annual list of stories the media has ignored. It points out that censorship in the US is usually more about what the MSM chooses not to report, either because it won’t help circulation figures or … Continue reading
From Comment is Free a summary of Bush’s true failure: America is dedicated to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Had Thomas Jefferson never written those words, it would be hard to invent better ideals to set against the … Continue reading
Christopher Alexander was interviewed recently on radio in Australia. He mentioned that several years ago he had been appointed part of the planning approvals process for Pasadena housing units. His contribution was to insist that the developers show how their … Continue reading
Iraq currently exports 1.7 million barrels per day of oil. I notice today that the price of oil has hit a 5 month low of $67.50, so I want to do some ballpark style calculations. Iraqi oil is known to … Continue reading