Passing beneath the radar this month was the signing of
a formal agreement
whereby New Zealand will assist the work of Cuban doctors in Pacific island nations.
...
Air strikes don’t make us as sick the stomach as the ISIS beheadings. Following an air strike we never see the blood-splattered bodies on the ground or hear the anguished groans of the injured. Most of the casualties of these air strikes are inevitably civilians,
The growing popularity of the sensible policies of the Green Parties and broad Left formations like Syriza is making it harder for the conservative media to paint them as “extremists”, “cranks”, “far left” or “hard left”.
Rather than reconsider their military adventures in the Islamic world, the reflex Western response to terrorist incidents is to step up their own “terrorism” by increasing the number of air strikes – which is exactly what France did in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo killings.
If we really believe in free speech we have to defend the right of extremists on both sides of the argument, be it the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists fostering Islamophobia or Islamic extremists propagandising for jihad.
On 19 October 1960 the United States banned exports to Cuba. The embargo had nothing to do with advancing democracy (the Fidelistas had recently overthrown the Batista dictatorship). It was all to do with the Castro government having the cheek to nationalize some US firms that had dominated the Cuban economy.
The Guardian coverage of the CIA report presents a table of 47 countries that it says “facilitated CIA torture”, which includes Britain, Australia and Canada. New Zealand is not mentioned, but we mightn’t easily get off the hook.