by cameron | Jul 20, 2009 | geopolitics
Most of the media coverage of the recent bombings in Jakarta seem to be skirting around the edges of… something.
It seems that the target of the Marriott bombing was a regular business meeting held there – but a regular business meeting involving which companies and organisations?
From combing the various reports, it appears that it was a meeting run by a US-based consulting company called CastleAsia "a Jakarta-based consultancy helping multinationals access local markets." Several mining-related companies were involved, including:
Considering the recent attacks on employees at the Freeport mine in Papua, which have been linked to the country’s own security forces, and Freeport’s history of paying huge amounts of money to members of the corrupt Indonesian military for "protection" and it’s shocking human rights record, perhaps the media and our governments might somehow start to connect these acts of violence with the actions of foreign-owned mining companies in Indonesia?
There are lots of suggestions that Jemaah Islamiyah (or a JI splinter group) is behind the bombings but, as far as I’m aware, they are yet to claim responsibility. On top of that, some analysts are suggesting that JI has been wiped out.
Who stands to benefit from the bombings?
Perhaps it *was* JI and perhaps it *is* a senseless bombing of innocent civilians by a group of crazed religious fundamentalists. However it might also be an easy escape goat, a diversion tactic, a neatly-packaged up scenario to stop most of us thinking further about the issue.
Who stands to benefit from the bombings?
The Marriott share price went down.
The Freeport share price went UP.
Who might want to cause trouble in Indonesia?
The guy who lost their recent Presidential election, Prabowo Subianto, a former General and son-in-law of former President Suharto? Let’s remember that Suharto, friend of Australia and the USA, was an incredibly corrupt and evil man. He was also a great friend of Freeport – as was his son-in-law, Prabowo.
Is there some connection between the election result and the recent violence? Have Freeport changed who they are paying protection money to and this is the payback?
by cameron | Jul 16, 2009 | Podcast
I am privileged today to have, as guests on the show, the director and subject of the film that won the Grand Jury Prize award in the U.S. documentary category at the Sundance Film Festival this year (which makes Ondi the first and only two time Grand Jury Prize winner in Sundance history!).
The film is called “We Live In Public”, “the story of the Internets revolutionary impact on human interaction as told through the eyes of internet pioneer and visionary Josh Harris. As far back as the early 90s, Harris predicted a future dominated by life online and created the companies that were direct predecessors to MySpace, Facebook and YouTube. The tale turns ugly when his underground NYC bunker housing dozens of permanent “citizens” and outfitted with hundreds of surveillance cameras is busted by FEMA as a millennial cult — Harris decides to take the experiment a step further and in doing so becomes a media casualty.”
We Live In Public (Official Site)
Do you want an independent media?
Delicate Noise
“Filmezza” (mp3)
from “Filmezza”
(Lens Records)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
by cameron | Jul 14, 2009 | Catholicism, Christianity
Yet another Catholic leader turns out to be a paedophile – Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado. The only problem is that he’s dead and he escaped punishment. He also apparently had an affair with a woman, fathered her child, and misused funds.
Maciel was the founder of the Catholic congregation called the "Legion Of Christ", which claims to have 70,000 members.
The Independent has a length article on him.
by cameron | Jul 13, 2009 | Christianity, Jesus mythology, Podcast
Tim Freke is the co-author (with his writing partner Peter Gandy) of many books about the Jesus myth – including THE JESUS MYSTERIES and THE LAUGHING JESUS. I chatted with him recently about one of their books “The Gospel of the Second Coming”, a marvelous book that manages to combine humour and insight – it explains the Jesus myth as a Gnostic parable. As Tim points out during our chat – nobody really thinks there was an historical “good Samaritan” or “prodigal son”. They are understood to be parables. Tim explains that the whole Jesus story is a series of parables wrapped up in another parable – the parable of Jesus himself.
Click on the above image to order your copy today from BookDepository (free shipping!).
Do you want an independent media?
by cameron | Jul 2, 2009 | Brisbane
I’m very excited today to release the news that I’ve partnered up with ourbrisbane.com to co-produce the "Brisbane Confidential" series that I’ve been talking about for the last year. Brisbane has a surprising number of cool, funky places and I want to show them to you. Each week the series will showcase some of the funkiest cafes, bars, restaurants, boutique stores and events in Brisbane. New episodes will be available each Thursday on ourbrisbane.com, BrisbaneConfidential.com and through iTunes.
Partnering up with ourbrisbane.com is exciting because they are THE site to tell you about what’s happening around Brisbane. They have huge reach in Brisbane, about 500,000 people visit their site each month. When I made a decision to move up here early last year, the first site I ended up on to learn more about Brisbane was ourbrisbane.com and I remember thinking at the time "I wish they had some podcasts".
Well, now they do. 🙂
