In an article for the Guardian, John Pilger returns to his homeland, Australia, and described the social regression of a once proud liberal democracy and says that the flag-waving “values” of the neo-con prime minister may be coming unstuck in Guantanamo Bay.
East Timor: the coup the world missed
In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes the latest phase of East Timor’s struggle for independence, which, in the 1990s, he went undercover to report. One of the world’s newest and poorest states now faces the overweening power of its vast neighour, Australia. Once again, the prize is oil and gas.
No mourning for Kerry Packer
Behind the glamour of Australian sport, black footballers, including whole teams, are often dead before 40, writes John Pilger.
Catching the last tram home
In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger catches a ghostly tram to returns to where he grew up in Australia, the scene of his first encounter with the brutal, though enjoyable world of newspapers.
The swimmer’s journey home
In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger touches on the life behind his public face. “I am a swimmer,” he writes. From his childhood on Australia’s famous Bondi Beach to a career that has taken him to many places the opposite of benign, Pilger has swum through, as he puts it, “the difficulties”.
Australia: the 51st State
In his latest article for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes the remarkable servility of John Howard’s government in Australia to the Bush administration – Howard is known as Bush’s ‘deputy sheriff’ – and how this is eroding the country’s freedoms.
Mourning a secret Australia
In a column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes another ‘day of mourning’ for the first inhabitants of his homeland, Australia, which for many whites remains a secret country behind the neo-conservative bluster of John Howard’s government.
Under cover of racist myth, a new land grab in Australia
In a report for the Guardian, John Pilger describes the deception behind the pretext for a “national emergency” declared by the Australian government in Aboriginal areas. A political cry of “save the children” can also mean the profits of uranium and toxic waste.
The people’s sporting star who had ‘the grace’
In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger celebrates the life of Sep Prosser, one of Australia’s great swimmers and swimming coaches, whose celebrity was based on an ingredient now missing from so much sport: grace.
Australia’s hidden Empire
In his latest article for the New Statesman, John Pilger reports from his homeland on Australia’s hidden empire – a ‘sphere of influence’ that stretches from the Aboriginal slums of Sydney to East Timor and Afghanistan. The arrival of a new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, offers important continuity.