In this second article on the expulsion of the Chagos islanders,
published in the Daily Express, London, John Pilger reveals more of the
secret files that mark the conspiracy between Britain and the United
States to ‘cleanse’ the main island, Diego Garcia.
The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
Writing in the Guardian, John Pilger reviews what he describes as a
‘spell-binding’ new documentary, S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine,
directed by the Cambodian film-maker, Rithy Panh.
The Blair doctrine: blood and money
John Pilger describes how the distintegration of real and mythical
democracy in the United States influences British politics under Tony
Blair, such as the reduction of Parliament to a ‘craven talking shop’
and the promotion of war and ‘thoughtcrimes’.
No news is slow news
In the latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes how the obvious becomes invisible in today’s mainstream news agenda. The news that doesn’t make the front pages or the BBC bulletins is ‘slow news’. For example, the resistance to foreign power by the Palestinians, ordinary Iraqis and Afghans is ‘slow news’ while the internecine machinations of Bush and Blair is ‘regular news’.
America’s new enemy
Latin Americans have spent the past few years finding their voices.
Now they may have the strength to defy their northern neighbour.
In praise of the ‘subversive’ documentary
In an article for the Guardian, timed with a season of his own
documentaries at the Barbican, John Pilger pays tribute to ‘that most
powerful and subversive medium, the political documentary’ – ‘at its
best, fearless, and able to show the politically unpalatable and to make
sense of the news’ and he urges support for those, like ‘citizen’
documentary makers, who break through the insidious censorship of
‘current affairs’.
Fighting Fascism, then and now
At an extraordinary memorial event in London for the International
Brigades who went to the aid of the Spanish people in the late 1930s,
John Pilger paid tribute to the ‘brigaders’.
The revolution will not be televised
As he launches a season of his films, John Pilger argues that, in
the age of Big Brother, television is no longer nurturing challenging
documentary-makers.
Tony Blair’s “vision for Africa” is about as patronising and exploitative as a stage full of white pop stars (with black tokens now added)
The front page of the Observer on 12 June announced, “$55bn Africa
debt deal ‘a victory for millions'”. The “victory for millions” is a
quotation of Bob Geldof, who said, “Tomorrow 280 million Africans will
wake up for the first time in their lives without owing you or me a
penny…”. The nonsense of this would be breathtaking if the reader’s
breath had not already been extracted by the unrelenting sophistry of
Bob Geldof, Bono, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, the Observer et al.
Our children are learning lies
In our schools, children learn that the US fought the Vietnam war
against a “communist threat” to “us”. Is it any wonder that so many
don’t understand the truth about Iraq?
