Addressing a London meeting, ‘Freedom Writ Large’, organised by PEN and the Writers Network of Burma, John Pilger pays tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi and the writers of Burma, ‘the bravest of the brave’, and describes the hypocrisy of Western leaders who claim to back their struggle for freedom.
When the Olympics comes to Sydney, it will provide a facade for a shameful Australia
Sydney is one of the world’s most desirable cities. I grew up here and I keep coming back to my former home at Bondi, with its cocktail of salt spray, milk shakes, dogshit and other summer fragrances; a Hindu returning to the Ganges will understand.
Fixed Race
Australia is gearing up to host the 2000 Olympics, yet its own sporting history is far removed from the spirit of the Games. Some of its greatest sportspeople were denied the chance to make their mark. Why? Because of the colour of their skin. And even today, to be aborigine, is to be a second-class citizen.
Australia is the only developed country whose government has been condemned as racist by the United Nations
According to the folksy writer Matthew Engel, the glories of the Olympic Games have a cathartic effect on nations. The 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles ‘helped the US regain the confidence it lost in Vietnam’.
Charles Perkins: a tribute
Charlie Perkins was, in many ways, Australia’s Mandela. Indeed, had the Australian racial composition, been reversed, as in South Africa, he would have surely fulfilled that role.
Once again, white Australia is reminded of life behind its picture postcard
Epidemics of disease ravage Aboriginal communities in Australia as they did the slums of 19th-century England. No wonder there are riots in Sydney.
George Bush’s other poodle
John Howard, Australia’s PM, is the mouse that roars for America, whipping his country into war fever and paranoia about terrorism within.
Waging war against refugees
Few asylum-seekers actually reach Australia’s shores, and if they do, their treatment beggars belief.
In the remotest parts of Australia’s great outback, refugees are incarcerated, insulted and abused
There has been a lot of political partying in Australia this year. First, there was the centenary of Federation, the coming together of the Australian states in 1901 as “a proud independent entity”.
A tribute to my mother
My mother, aged 19, sold her books to pay the fare to her first teaching job in the bush. The currency of her generation was determination and courage.
