Death in the Mediterranean
- May 10, 2011
- by
- Matt
Ever since the first appearance of ‘boatpeople’ en route from Morocco to Spain in the early 1990s, the Mediterranean has been a graveyard for migrants, but the death toll has now reached truly staggering proportions as a result of the Libyan war.
Last month 800 people are estimated to have drowned trying to reach Lampedusa and Malta from Libya. Yesterday a rusty hulk carrying 600 passengers sank while leaving Tripoli and it is not known how many survived.
It cannot be known whether Gaddafi is deliberately encouraging this exodus, as Milosovic once did in Kosovo,...
Beyond Satire
- April 27, 2011
- by
- Matt
The spectacle of Berlusconi and Sarkozy, two of the sleaziest and most cynical rightwing politicians in Europe, calling for a revision of the ‘borderless’ Schengen Area in response to the recent arrivals of undocumented migrants from North Africa is not an edifying sight.
For years the European Union provided weaponry and political support to the Tunisian...
Priorities
- April 12, 2011
- by
- Matt
Anyone who still believes we live in the best of all possible worlds would do well to read the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s background report on global military expenditure for 2010. According to SIPRI’s research the world spent $1, 630 billion on ‘defence’ last year, of which the United States spent a jaw-dropping...
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