Bathed in the light of a perfect sunrise, he made the Anzac connection to the illegal invasion of Afghanistan in which, on 12 February last year, Australian soldiers killed fivechildren. No mention was made of them. On cue, this was followed by an item that a war memorial in Sydney had been "defaced by men of Middle Eastern appearance". More war, please. Full article here
Mr. Pilger is always on target.
ReplyDeleteI am a big fan of his writings, and mind set.
Yipes. I must have been channeling John Pilger on the cluster bombs and thermobarics in my last comment on your previous post.
ReplyDeleteOur governments do terrible things and wonder why the victims are more than a little upset.
I've always hated that "If" poem by Kipling. He finally saw the light when his own son died for nothing, but they don't quote that poem nearly so much.
If I lived in Wootton Bassett, I'd have jumped out a window by now.
If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
Good luck with your election tomorrow. I've been keeping up by podcast with the daily Now Shows leading up to the election. Sometimes the humour tells more truth than the regular news.
Certainly Jon Stewart, who is not well known here, is a beacon of truth as far as I can see, Filo. The euphoria of the high polling for the Lib Dems has kind of died away here and I fear for a return to the Nulab/Conservative Punch and Judy routine. New Labour are screwed though and are expected to poll their lowest for 100 years. It means their death as a party I hope. I was a member for 20 years until Iraq. Clegg is a peacenik but a bit vacuous. Cameron is a PR robot and Brown is an obsequious warmongering cynic.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like the leadership is still up in the air in the UK, Tony, from what I was reading today. We've had a minority government since Harper first took office in 2006. He deals with it by acting like he has a majority, doing whatever he likes, threatening the country with an election if anyone objects, prorogueing parliament at the drop of a hat and generally acting like a very dangerous two-year-old.
ReplyDeleteHaving a divided opposition just plays into his hands. I hope your country manages to come up with something better than that.
I saw an article several weeks ago about the Daily Express (I think) political cartoonist who gave up trying to caricature Cameron because his face didn't have any distinguishing characteristics. He just started drawing him as a blob of dough with two currants stuck into it for eyes. It seem to work.
The BBC have a Friday night comedy podcast which alternates between the News Quiz and the Now Show. Just about everything I know about British politicians I learned from them.
Filo, you are well informed. The BBC Radio 4 comedy politicos are as good a source for uk politics as any. A bit like Jon Stewart for the last 8 years in the US. Cameron's face has been recently described here in Scotland as one buttock with hair. An alternative comparison was C3PO made of ham. But seriously, he could emerge as the PM here - a chilling thought. You know the experience of an overtly conservative govt. in Candada (my sister lives in Ontario)- we are dreading the prospect here. But when you look at it, New Labour are now a neocon party. They used to be progressive some 15-20 years ago. Blair and Brown have turned them into a shell of what they were. Clegg has a chance to be kingmaker after the big let down of the election. We all hold our breath. It will, strangely, affect world affairs because the flatulent 'special relationship' with the US could now be compromised. Clegg won't call it until the middle of next week I reckon.
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