From time to time there are comments and posts on OS about the sorry state of the western media. Some have lamented the fact that the news, whether in print or on TV, is filtered through the requirements of the corporate oligopoly. Some have cried out for a news outlet that… Read full post »

For whom Nobel tolls

In the controversy about the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama, we should not forget about some of the previous recipients. Kissinger won it in spite of bombing the shit out of Cambodia and delaying the end of the Vietnam… Read full post »

 The badger grunting on his woodland track

With shaggy hide & sharp nose scrowed with black

Roots in the bushes & the woods & makes

A great hugh burrow in the ferns & brakes

With nose on ground he runs a awkard pace

& anything will… Read full post »

El ángel exterminador 

 OS sometimes reminds me of the Bunuel film The Exterminating Angel.

The film begins with a very formal dinner party. People eat and chat and drink. At the end of the evening, the guests gradually and casually get up and… Read full post »

The discussion on BBE’s blog led me to revisit a post I did following Obama’s election.

Dawn and Disillusion: the Bathetic Blair and Brown Era

“Bliss was it in that dawn… Read full post »

‘I guess I wasn't the only one who thought this site had a tendency to draw the middle/upper class green status symbol crowd.” 

Edgar Alverson on Lexus sponsorship.

OS Sponsorship, Shell, The Devil's Excrement and Greenwash

Part Four

Kerry’… Read full post »

 OS Sponsorship, Shell, The Devil's Excrement and Greenwash

Part Three

Shell

Shell now paints itself as a caring company wishing to dissociate itself from past 'mistakes' in Nigeria and 'accidents' in the North Sea. In 1993, mass protests by the Ogoni people in Nige… Read full post »

OS Sponsorship, Shell, The Devil's Excrement and Greenwash

Part Two 

Sri Lanka and Oil

Sri Lankans have been getting excited at the possibility of oil riches.

Currently the country imports nearly 30 million barrels of oil,… Read full post »

 OS Sponsorship, Shell, The Devil’s Excrement and Greenwash

Part One

 He that touches pitch  shall be defiled.

Shell in Nigeria

On June 8 2009, a statement was issued in New York announcing an eve of trial settlement agreement in which Royal Dutch… Read full post »

J Lee Davis pointed out some intriguing aspects of the terms of service.

"Advertising served by Salon itself or by Salon in cooperation with third party advertising programs ("Salon Advertising"), may appear on the Site. Salon Advertising may appear on your Profile Page. You understand and agree tha… Read full post »

The European Court of Human Rights in March 2009 served the British government with papers asking for a response by June 12 on the question of the right to abode of the displaced people of the Chagos Archipelago. The Chagossians have been to the High Court of Justice in… Read full post »

 Post-Colonial Western Hypocrisy and Sri Lanka – loose talk costs lives.

“Champions of global democracy with a deplorable human rights record cannot expect others to take them seriously” - editorial in The Island newspaper.

A friend of mine in the UK was… Read full post »