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Anti-Empire
The SakerA bird's eye view of the vineyard
Public InquiryInterested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
Human Rights in IrelandPromoting Human Rights in Ireland |
international / anti-war / imperialism Thursday February 16, 2006 - 14:19 by MichaelY
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Brace yourself for a big new war. And start workig now to prevent it. ... read full story / add a comment
national / public consultation / irish social forum Wednesday February 15, 2006 - 23:27 by Liam Mullen
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Perhaps, yes! However, if Ireland is to establish a press council we should look elsewhere to see what lessons could be learned from such an endeavour. The British press introduced this form of self-regulation in 1953, but Commissions set up to examine the effectiveness of the council were critical. In their book Power without Responsibility, Curran and Seaton, argue that the council should “embody and promote a professional culture among journalists.” This would be the ideal, but the reality has proved somewhat different. The press council has been criticised by a number of Commissions, which threatened “government legislation,” and brought much needed “reforms”. In 1977, the Commission imposed sweeping changes, which led to further reforms from 1989 to 1990. A new “code of conduct for journalists” was proposed, but the Calcutt Committee recommended that the press council be disbanded and replaced with a more effective body. ... read full story / add a comment
international / rights, freedoms and repression Wednesday February 15, 2006 - 21:32 by Liam Mullen
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When Ireland introduced the Freedom of Information Act in 1998, it was envisaged that a period of greater transparency would ensue. Revelations of corruption arising from the Beef Tribunal, and the subsequent Flood, McCracken and Moriarty tribunals, helped push Freedom of Information on to a political agenda that seemed to promise more openness, but which has failed to materialise. Today it is widely recognised that Ireland has some of the more draconian rules on releasing documents into the public domain, and that Freedom of Information is tied up in mindless bureaucracy and red-tape. Information sought may in some cases cost the recipient up to 400 Euros. ... read full story / add a comment
international / arts and media Wednesday February 15, 2006 - 18:23 by Liam Mullen
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INTRODUCTION. Journalism, in my opinion, is driven by big business needs. Nowhere is this more evident than in the power of advertising. Editors need to strike a balance between what hard news they can report, and soft news can often be used in conjunction with advertising. In times of crisis an insatiable demand for hard news from the public may drive the demand for hard news, and journalists and editors need to meet this demand. Sales of newspapers can often increase in times of war, for example. The public demand is for immediate, uncensored news. This was very apparent during the Falklands War, post 9/11, and the Iraqi invasions. Demand for hard news can also increase during certain times when something momentous is happening – examples including the Clinton/Lewinsky affair, the death of Princess Diana, the tsunami in Asia, and the recent flooding of New Orleans. ... read full story / add a comment
national / eu Wednesday February 15, 2006 - 00:31 by Liam Mullen
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Noam Chomsky’s recent visit to Ireland highlighted yet again the dilemma the Irish government faces in whether to accept American assurances that no rendition flights passed through Shannon Airport. As a close economic partner of the US, the Irish government faces embarrassment if it decides to call Condoleezza Rice’s bluff, and insist on checking American flights landing in Shannon. ... read full story / add a comment
national / worker & community struggles and protests Tuesday February 14, 2006 - 23:59 by Liam Mullen
“Few have captured the spirit of the Enlightenment, its intellectual and social agenda, as has Mozart in his operas.”1 The Enlightenment was a period when a break away from the time we know as the Renaissance took place. It was driven by developments in the Natural Sciences, and especially the work of Newton and Galileo. The German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, had questioned: “What is Enlightenment?” From the Roman poet, Horace, he coined a phrase “Sapere aude” (‘dare to know’).2 Two important events conspired to bring about change. The Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution. ... read full story / add a comment
dublin / rights, freedoms and repression Tuesday February 14, 2006 - 23:43 by james travers
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An essay that questions the problem associated with the publishing of a series of cartoons in a French newspaper that depicts Mohammad carrying a bomb on his head, Is there more to the backlask and is our country setting itself up for racial tension in the future. The question is asked for comment and opinion ... read full story / add a comment
international / worker & community struggles and protests Tuesday February 14, 2006 - 23:24 by Liam Mullen
INTRODUCTION Robert Pollin opens his book with an introduction that acknowledges how the book came about. He states that in examining the economic policies of the 1990’s under President Clinton, and Clinton’s “third way” approach to fiscal rectitude, that he became unconvinced by the rhetoric emerging from the Clinton administration in relation to US “Economic growth, living standards, and the fragility of the financial system.” His paper on the subject appeared in the June 2000 issue of New Left Review, and later in a volume edited by Professor Arestis and Sawyer, entitled: The Economics of the Third Way: Experiences from Around the World. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Tuesday February 14, 2006 - 23:16 by Liam Mullen
BRIEF INTRODUCTION In her book ‘The Face of War’, the American journalist, Martha Gellhorn, recognises the importance of “peacemakers”, and understands the importance of a man like Mikhail Gorbachev when he ushered in “glasnost”, and effectively ended the Cold War. (Gellhorn 1998, p365). Gellhorn is a journalist who has filed reports on a number of conflicts, including the Civil War in Spain, The War in Finland, the Japanese invasion of China, the Second World War, the War in Java, the Vietnam War, the Six Day War, and various conflicts in Central America and Panama. ... read full story / add a comment
national / crime and justice Tuesday February 14, 2006 - 23:15 by Brian
Twenty-five years ago today, 48 young people lost their lives in the former Stardust Nightclub, Butterly Business Park, Kilmore Road, Artane, Dublin 5. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Tuesday February 14, 2006 - 23:09 by Liam Mullen
INTRODUCTION Eleven years after the conflict, which claimed an untold numbers of lives, it seems that it is only now seeping into the western consciousness the scale of the human genocide that occurred in this region with the shooting down of President Habyarimana’s airplane, and the death of Burundi's President Cyprien Ntaryamira. Writing for the Irish Times a year after he first reported on the conflict, Ed O’Loughlin, states that the unrest between the Hutu majority and the wealthier Tutsi minority runs deep and that massacres occurred here back in 1959, 1961, 1963 and 1972. In many ways O’Loughlin’s report sounds like a class struggle between rich and poor, uneducated and educated, and this kind of struggle has been replicated in many other arenas and trouble spots around the world. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Tuesday February 14, 2006 - 22:58 by Liam Mullen
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Philip Knightley wrote ‘The First Casualty’ in 1975, and the updated edition was published in 2003 by André Deutsch to take account of new conflicts. The New Yorker describes it as “Disturbing, even dismaying, yet also in its painful way, enormously entertaining.” The renowned journalist, John Pilger, describes the work as follows: “Philip Knightley’s clear-sighted and principled book throws down a challenge to journalists to examine their role in the promotion of war.” (Book Jacket) The title of the work is derived from what American Senator Hiram Johnson said in 1917: “The first casualty when war comes, is truth.” ... read full story / add a comment
international / public consultation / irish social forum Tuesday February 14, 2006 - 22:28 by Liam Mullen
Introduction. When looking at the reasons why the NGO’s might be up in arms when facing the policies of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, I have decided to focus on Trócaire and Concern, two Irish organisations passionately involved in debt relief for the Third World. Concern has been in existence since the Biafra famine of 1968, and has become internationally recognised in the intervening years. Trócaire was set up by the Irish Catholic Church in 1973 as a response mechanism to combat disasters, famines, and to offer aid to the “world’s poorest and most oppressed peoples”. (http://www.trócaire.org). ... read full story / add a comment
limerick / anti-war / imperialism Sunday February 12, 2006 - 01:46 by Martin Garcia Mortell
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All oil is traded using the American dollar and the American dollar only. This means that anyone wishing to purchase oil must do so using US dollars. . . ... read full story / add a comment
international / environment Friday February 10, 2006 - 19:11 by waterboy
World Water Forum has an anti alternative media policy - What have they got to hide? ... read full story / add a comment
dublin / environment Thursday February 09, 2006 - 17:14 by jim travers
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A private opinion on why we should not pay waste charges and to question why public money is squandered while we are forced to contribute to increasingly local authority mishandling of our hard earned cash. ... read full story / add a comment
international / miscellaneous Thursday February 09, 2006 - 07:52 by Seán Ryan
The story continues...... This time I look at how to resolve paradox, how paradoxical ideas can be used to create propaganda. Fairly long article covering lots of ground, including science, philosophy and politics. A speech by Liz O'Donnell, on neutrality is torn asunder to illustrate propaganda and deceit. And an ideological difference between Fianna Fail and the PD's is finally discovered and discussed. ... read full story / add a comment
international / sci-tech Wednesday February 08, 2006 - 21:00 by Seán Ryan
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The story continues..... This time the author attempts to prove that any description applied to the possibility of the existence of God, is a man-made one. The overall point of the author is not to disprove the existence of God, but to prove that man is wasting his time, trying to define an aspect of something they equate with 'everything.' ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-capitalism Wednesday February 08, 2006 - 20:50 by Yompy
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Values such as political freedom, capitalism, individualism, democracy, scientific inquiry, rationalism, and open debate form an especially lethal combination when applied to warfare. ... read full story / add a comment ![]()
Kevin Myers, Google, China, Celtic Cubs and unfortunately yet more bullshit about the ideals of 1916
international / rights, freedoms and repression Wednesday February 08, 2006 - 18:49 by inverted antimatter atomised m-dimensional string being
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The usual meandering. ... read full story / add a comment |
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