The New Rulers of the World [Paperback]

John Pilger has an incisive writing style, a sharp focus, and apparently endless energy. For years, now, he has been castigating our political and economic masters, exposing the abuses of power and uses of corruption which dominate international relations and internal politics. In his "New Rulers", Pilger shines his investigative light into areas the press is usually happy to abandon to darkness.

It's a well judged package - looking at the plight of the indigenous population in Australia, at ethnic conflict in East Timor, at Turkish abuses of Kurds, at Western abuses of Iraq and Afghanistan, and at the tensions of the Middle East. It's a world in which globalisation is not just a word, it's a world where globalisation means manipulation of silence - thousands of people will die today, tomorrow, and the next day because it is to the advantage of the West and the political status quo.

This is a timeless enquiry. The abuses Pilger exposes have not gone away. They will not go away until investigative journalism, or crusading journalism of Pilger's quality becomes the yardstick by which we judge our newspapers, magazines, television and radio coverage. Implicit in Pilger's analysis is the recognition that we, each of us, have to get up and make our voices heard. We have to demand greater press freedom, we have to demand better standards, and we have to take to the streets and ballot boxes and protest ... until people like Blair and Bush are forced to take note and not simply try to explain away the suffering of the world as a necessary toll in their war against 'terrorism'.

Like a lot of people, I always thought that 'we' were the good guys, and that our governments, while not whiter-than-white, were at least a fairly light grey. But the evil (there's no other word) perpetrated by our leaders, as described in this book, is of a type that I thought only existed in movies and the heads of conspiracy lunatics.

But Pilger outlines it, documented fact by documented fact.

I never cry, but I lost count of the times I wept as I read this book. For me, it's been a totally life-changing experience. The world I thought I knew has been turned totally upside down, and I'm left with the challenge of how to integrate this knowledge and DO something about it.

I'll end this review, because if I really start writing about the book, I won't know where to stop. But if you live in the Western World, you MUST read this book and discover what atrocities are being carried out in your name (and financed by your taxes). And it's a grave shock to find out that by purchasing products that are household names, you're helping to create a living hell for people who are already poorer than we can begin to imagine.

The book is very readable (and re-readable). I recommend it more highly than anything else I've read for years.