John Pilger at the Ferens (1/5) By Martin J Deane Blair is the most right wing Prime Minister I have ever known. And that includes Thatcher!

(1/5), (2/5), (3/5), (4/5), (5/5).

In a wide ranging talk on Tuesday night, John Pilger shared his experiences of nearly 40 years of investigative journalism giving a flavour of the man who, over 40 years, has made it an art. In his opening remarks, John Pilger said how he used to cover northern England for the Daily Mirror and how it was always its labour history that first attracted him to Hull. His new book just out, Freedom Next Time, formed the basis of his talk covering 5 countries and looks at the kind of freedom each country has achieved.

It may not be rocket science but there are so few people of his calibre in mainstream journalism that many Britons may have never heard of the Chagos Islands, nor what we did to its people, or are convinced that peace and justice rule in Afghanistan or believe that going to war on Iraq was a good thing - were it nor for him. As well as outstanding articles and books such as Heroes, Pilger has made films like Breaking the Silence on the U.S. agenda behind Afghanistan and Iraq, and Palestine is Still the Issue (remade in 2002), on the persecution of the Palestinian people by Israel.

John Pilger spoke on Afghanistan, South Africa, India, Palestine, Chagos and took questions from the audience.

On Afghanistan John spoke of needing to get behind the facade of the situation. After 9/11, Afghanistan was the target for American foreign policy, and on Oct 7 2001 it was attacked. The Taliban were thrown out, true, but to say it has brought freedom is just untrue. Yes in parts: there was some liberation of Kabul but across Afghanistan, the liberation of women, for example, just has not happened.

Osama bin Laden was accused of being there but in fact was long gone. The Taliban at least prosecuted attackers of women. With them gone, women no longer have that protection and warlords frequently rape and enslave them.

If the Taliban's law was often harsh, now lawlessness is what dominates. Under Taliban rule you could drive from one end of the country to the other in relative safety. Now this is impossible. We are conditioned to accept and believe the Official Truth but need some insight into seeing how this can and does differ from the Real Truth. The truth is, it has not been liberated. Opium had been stopped under the Taliban. Now, with the warlords return, the poppy crops are back, as is the opium and the heroin. And the biggest customer for this is our country ... maybe Hull, maybe Glasgow.

Continued...Next Page (2/5)

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