John Pilger examines news as parody as those prominent in the British media seek to justify the official versions of the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The new world war – the silence is a lie
John Pilger describes the ‘great silence’ over the annual British party conferences as politicians and their club of commentators say nothing about a war provoked and waged across the world the responsibility for which lies close at hand.
South Africa: the liberation’s betrayal
In an article for the Mail & Guardian, Johannesburg, John Pilger describes the ‘social and economic catastrophe’ that replaced the African National Congress’s ‘unbreakable’ promise’ to end the poverty of the majority.
The diplomacy of lying
John Pilger describes the truth and lies of great power as practised by British “diplomacy”, and the prospects for peace and order following the US presidential election on November 4.
Beware of the Obama hype. What ‘change’ in America really means
John Pilger writes that the lauding of Barack Obama has a history and that ‘historical moments’ ought to be less about their symbolism and accompanying histrionics than what they really mean. The question is: what is Obama’s true relation to unchanging American myths about the imposition of its notorious power?
The power and corruption that makes unpeople of an entire nation
John Pilger describes the latest chapter in the extraordinary story of the ‘mass kidnapping’ of the people of the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean, British citizens expelled from their homeland to make way for an American military base. On 22 October, Britain’s highest court of appeal, the Law Lords, demonstrated how British power works at its apex by handing down a transparently political judgement that dismissed the Magna Carta and banned an entire nation from ever going home.
Kafka has a rival. The Foreign Office lectures us on human rights
In an article for the Guardian, John Pilger describes the black irony of an “open day to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” at the Foreign Office, guardian of rapacious British power and policies that invert the meaning of human rights.
Beware of Obama’s Groundhog Day
John Pilger reckons ‘Groundhog Day’, the black comedy about time repeating itself, might be a parable for the Age of Obama – as the president-elect’s major appointments turn out to be almost totally retro, without a single figure representing those who voted for him.
The good news for 2009, a seasonal wish list
The festive edition of the New Statesman offers a menu of good news to celebrate in 2009. John Pilger adds his own wish list.
The politics of bollocks
John Pilger borrows from Lord West of Spithead to deconstruct current mythology, such as the ‘impartiality’ of the BBC and the ‘radical changes’ implemented by President Obama.
