December 1st is a special day for West Papuans because on that day, back in 1961, the Morning Star flag was raised for the first time. The then Dutch colonists were sympathetic, because they had put West Papua on the road to independence. However the hopes for a free West Papua were dashed after Indonesia troops invaded the country.
Australia may think that, as America’s “deputy sheriff” in our region, it has a free hand to spy on anyone, and doesn’t need to apologise when caught. But as America has found out already, from both Germany and Brazil, spying on the leaders of friendly countries is not risk free.
Is life with John Key getting you down? Are you losing faith in New Zealanders’ ability to change things? Then I have an inspirational book for you. “Peace, Power and Politics: How New Zealand Became Nuclear Free” by Maire Leadbeater. Just out from Otago University Press.
GCSB Director Ian Fletcher has let me know, in a letter dated 31 October, that I was “not amongst the 88 [illegally spied on by the GCSB] and that the GCSB has not conducted surveillance of you.”
Once upon a time we thought we had a right to privacy. That was before the global reach of American electronic spying had been fully exposed. Now we’re told we’ll just have to live in a world where privacy no longer exists for people, corporations or governments. And we’re not supposed to complain because supposedly every government is involved in spying, in its own national interests.
The American storyline is that Libya is now a free country. But the truth is that the armed groups supported by the US in 2011 do not today adhere to the rule of law – but only the rule of the gun. Libya today is like a Wild West.
The real barrier to a settlement is a hard-right faction within the Washington establishment, which basically sings to the tune of the Israeli government.