Book Marks Talk, March 15, 2011 By Dan Hind

March 17, 2011Leave a comment

17 March, 2011 — Return of the Public

Introduction

I am going to talk for between twenty minutes and half an hour and then we’ll have a fair amount of time for questions and discussion. It is always disappointing when you go to a talk and hear someone talking at great length about the need for free and open debate for 58 minutes, leaving 2 minutes for questions.

So – tonight I want to make and try to defend two, related claims about the performance of the English-language mass media. First I am going to argue that mainstream media coverage is badly flawed.

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Should talks of intervention in Libya turn into action, it would be illegal, immoral and hypocritical By Richard Falk

March 17, 2011Leave a comment

13 March 2011 — Aljazeera

What is immediately striking about the bipartisan call in Washington for a no-fly zone and air strikes designed to help rebel forces in Libya is the absence of any concern with the relevance of international law or the authority of the United Nations.

None in authority take the trouble to construct some kind of legal rationalisation. The ‘realists’ in command, and echoed by the mainstream media, do not feel any need to provide even a legal fig leaf before embarking on aggressive warfare. Continue reading →

Challenging the Left on Libya By Michael McGehee

March 17, 2011Leave a comment

16 March 2011 — ZCommunications

It is upsetting to see so many leftists calling for intervention, or a No-fly Zone in Libya, or romanticizing the rebellion to the point of delusion leaving reality unrecognizable.

In a country of over 6 million people where a third of which are black Africans—the most oppressed group in the country—why aren’t they a part of the rebellion? Why is this an “Arab revolt”? It is very astonishing to see the most oppressed group not only uninvolved with the revolution but fleeing it in fear. When I see videos of anti-Gaddafi protesters chanting “We are Arabs!” I get a little nauseous. The ethnocentricity of it is not something I can get behind, especially while black Africans are being attacked and made to run for their lives.

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David Attenborough People and Planet: Speech only.

March 17, 2011Leave a comment

1st collector for David Attenborough People and Planet: Speech only.
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Broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough presents the 2011 RSA President’s Lecture.

The dangers facing the earth’s ecosystems are well known and the subject of great concern at all levels. Climate change is high on the list. But there is an underlying and associated cause — population growth.