Another strenuously researched cramming of expert investigative journalism from Misha Glenny. Perhaps as an extension or off-shoot of his 2008 classic McMafia, which demonstrated organised crimes close co-action & mutual stimulus with Globalisation & Capitalism, Nemesis plunges into Brazil’s unique demographic & history at the table of modern illicit-empires in this socio-poverty-criminal epic. Continue reading Nemesis – The Hunt for Brazil’s Most Wanted Criminal (Misha Glenny)
An extraordinary book. Issued under the “key ideas in criminology series” & inscribed as Business Studies/Criminology/Governance it provides one of the most detailed, definitive & damning disclosures & investigations on the somewhat silent mega crisis of abject corporate & political criminality/corruption reigning rampant from the First World. One would expect both writers to have a weekly column in a publication such as the Guardian considering the vital & brilliant research & analysis they render on this emergency subject. Continue reading The Corporate Criminal – Why Corporations Must Be Abolished (Steve Tombs & David Whyte)
An excellent, short, plausible & lucid solution-based remedy on the fiscal villainy & mega malfeasance thats spiralling towards ever greater disaster in the banking & financial sectors. Written by a veteran of the field – David Shireff, who has been reporting on the finical world since the early 80’s, co-founded Risk magazine & also authored numerous books on the subject. David prefaces the book with – “this is not a radical book. At least, it shouldn’t be: Break Up The Banks! Is concerned with pragmatic ideas-not punitive or utopian ones. Still, for many, the measures that I am proposing might appear somehow beyond the pale. What I would argue, in response, is that fear of being radical has led to the situation we are in today.”
A seminal clarion to the obliteration of Syria. This is a very powerful, distressing & extreme account of an unbearable conflict from ground-zero. This awful internecine catastrophe churns on without abatement to the tune of external entities and their ongoing intervention & incursion… with the Syrian people suffering at the centre of this multi-faceted proxy tussling and the Assad regimes barely discriminating (if at all) butchery & besiegement of the Syrian people. Continue reading Syrian Dust – Reporting from the Heart of the Battle for Aleppo (Francesca Borri)
I dusted this magnificent book about two years ago. It’s impression remains very profound & I am writing this review after re-consulting all notes & rereading multiple marked sections that were designated during the first engagement. Published by one of the absolute greats in independent Middle-Eastern publishing – Al Saqi Books, these writings & their visual companions confront the Syrian tragedy head-on through an incredible inventory of artistic mediums comprising over fifty Syrian contributors, with examples of the Continue reading Syria Speaks – Art and Culture from The Frontline (multiple contributors)
“Now, several years on and with hundreds of thousands dead, something has changed irrevocably in his country. It will not return to what it was, not now, not ever. How can Syria ever be what it once was? It has been burnt alive by hatred.”
I was initially sceptical about this book & had no hitherto experience of it’s author. My suspicion was motivated only once I had brought the book & had a quick glance at who was recommending it on the jacket along with Giovanni’s sprawling CV, which had some pretty unsavoury institutions mentioned. Continue reading The Morning They Came For Us – Dispatches from Syria (Janine Di Giovanni)
A hugely informing book, with tons & tons of anonymous insider information & direct accounts from bankers & members of the financial sector on the industries internal machinations. Yes, that’s straight from the horse’s mouth, off-record (or rather with assured anonymity) revelations & insight from sources operating in the profession from a wealth of positions. Continue reading Swimming With Sharks – My Journey into the World of the Bankers (Joris Luyendijk)
So I am thinking on which angle to begin writing on this historical book? should it be on the “conspiracy theory”? or rather when the “theory”, after years of strenuous denial by the perpetrators, media & the regulators & legal operators that should have been bringing them down, gets total & utter public confirmation & an ‘oh yes! You were actually 100% right all along’ moment? Or should it be the Continue reading Blacklisted – The Secret War Between Big Business and Union Activists (Dave Smith & Phil Chamberlain)
A front-line testament of a revolution from writer & journalist Andrey Kurkov. Apparently never intended to be compiled into a book, Kurkov began writing a diary on Ukraine’s 2013 pro-European protests from a first-hand perspective (his flat being just a few hundred yards from Independence Square in Kiev). Getting accurate information on Ukraine can be difficult, as both Europe/The West & especially Russia deploy so much disinformation, hyper-bias, omission & propaganda. Continue reading Ukraine Diaries – Dispatches from Kiev (Andrey Kurov)
A year in the United Kingdom without spending so much as a single penny!? A concept/action of such importance, taken to a considerable extreme (of such) to fully demonstrate the capacity of human ingenuity & ability even in the modern day environment. It’s challenging to over exaggerate the importance of such experimentation. By taking it to such consummate frontier (an entire year on absolutely zero money) Continue reading The Moneyless Man – A Year of Freeconomic Living (Mark Boyle)