Zone5

In the absence of any original predictions of my own I wish all zone5 readers a Happy new Year and refer you to John Pilger’s menu of good news to celebrate in 2009.

John Pilger, investigative reporter and film maker and author of “Heroes” and “The New Rulers of the World” has been one of my heroes for a long time, and I was delighted to hear a fascinating interview with him on RTE last week.

Pilger spoke about many things including his experiences as a young journalist of seeing Cambodian children suffering from the effects of Napalm and realising that the war was also a “laboratory” for napalm and other weapns such as cluster bombs and daisy cutters; and how Pol Pot could nevr have come to power in Cambodia had it not been for the prior devastating American bombardment of the country, reducing it to a desperate nation willing to follow extremeists who were the only group able to offer people anything at all.

His comments about the “Murdochisation” of the media and the shrinking space afforded independent journalists such as himself was also sobering, and lamented the effective blackout of news coverage in the West of the most exciting developments politically in Venezuela and much of South America, where the most progressive moves towards democracy are actually taking place.

However, like Naomi Klein he feels that “people are unstoppable”, that Murdoch’s media is not really popular, just the only alternative offered, but that there is a genuine widespread desire for change and authenticity, and people are generally much better informed than the media gives them credit for.