Product Description

John Pilger is one of the world's pre-eminent investigative journalists and documentary film-makers. His best-selling books of reportage, which include "Heroes and Hidden Voices", have in the words of Noam Chomsky 'been a beacon of light in often dark times'. In "Freedom Next Time", he looks at five countries, in each of which a long struggle for freedom has taken place; in each the people, having shed blood and dreams, are still waiting. In Afghanistan, Iraq and South Africa, there has been the promise of hope, and even an 'official' freedom, but the reality of these divided societies is that they are still waiting for real freedom. In Palestine, the cycle of violence continues with no resolution in sight. And the island of Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, is a microcosm of the ruthlessness of great powers. The island was sold by the British to the American military in the 1960s. The indigenous population, descended from slaves, were forcibly removed to the slums of Port Louis in Mauritius. They have continued to fight for the return of their homeland ever since - three years ago the High Court granted them the right of return, but this has subsequently been blocked. The island remains the US's third biggest military base; a base from which they are able to launch attacks against the Middle East. Once again, John Pilger gives a voice to the people living through these momentous times and, in gripping detail, shows us the lives behind the headlines.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39065 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

From the Inside Flap
When Nelson Mandela stepped out of prison to freedom in 1990, the elation in South Africa and around the world was palpable. But true freedom for his people remains a distant dream. Why?From South Africa to India and beyond, a rapacious economic system condemns millions to poverty while men in decorous offices far away impose a ruthless political order with tariffs and embargoes, bombs and bullets, distorting the very language of freedom, causing suffering they never know, spilling blood they never smell.

In Freedom Next Time, renowned journalist and film-maker John Pilger describes how courageous people battling to free themselves often glimpse freedom, only to see it taken away. He challenges us in the West to ‘look in the mirror’ at the actions of ‘our’ governments for the true source of much of the world’s fear and insecurity – and terrorism. In our name, often duplicitously, they operate a secret agenda, as in Diego Garcia, a paradise island in the Indian Ocean whose entire population was expelled clandestinely and brutally by the British government to make way for a huge American military base.

In Palestine, India, South Africa, Afghanistan, Britain and the United States, John Pilger’s vivid eyewitness reporting and tenacious interviews, backed by meticulous research, blow away the secrets and lies of our rulers and turn a searchlight on to events consigned to the shadows by an unrecognized yet virulent censorship. With humanity, wit and passion, he salutes people who refuse to be victims and defiantly demand their freedom. They could soon be us.

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From the Back Cover
When Nelson Mandela stepped out of prison to freedom in 1990, the elation in South Africa and around the world was palpable. But true freedom for his people remains a distant dream. Why? From South Africa to India, Palestine to Afghanistan and beyond, a rapacious economic system condemns millions to poverty while men in decorous offices far away impose a ruthless political order with tariffs and embargoes, bombs and bullets, distorting the very language of freedom, causing suffering they never know, spilling blood they never smell.

Freedom Next Time is renowned journalist and film-maker John Pilger’s brilliant depiction of how courageous people battling to free themselves often glimpse freedom, only to see it taken away. He challenges us in the West to ‘look in the mirror’ at the actions of ‘our’ governments for the true source of much of the world’s fear and insecurity – and terrorism.

In Palestine, India, South Africa, Afghanistan, Britain and the United States, John Pilger’s vivid eyewitness reporting, backed by meticulous research, blows away the secrets and lies of our rulers and turns a searchlight on to events consigned to the shadows by an unrecognised yet virulent censorship. With humanity, wit and passion, he salutes people who refuse to be victims and defiantly demand their freedom. They could soon be us.

‘Pilger is the closest we have to the great correspondents of the 1930s…The truth in his hands is a weapon, to be picked up and brandished and used in the struggle against evil and injustice’
Guardian

‘John Pilger is the antidote to easy, comfortable thinking, to smugness, to ignorance’
Daily Telegraph

About the Author
John Pilger grew up in Sydney, Australia. He has been a war correspondent, author and film-maker. He has twice won British journalism's highest award, that of Journalist of the Year, for his work all over the world, notably in Cambodia and Vietnam. He has been International Reporter of the Year and winner of the United Nations Associated Peace Prize and Gold Medal. For his broadcasting, he has won France's Reporter Sans Frontieres, an American television Academy Award, an Emmy, and the Richard Dimbleby Award, given by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2003, he received the Sophie Prize for 'thirty years of exposingdeception and improving human rights'. His website is www.johnpilger.com

Customer Reviews

A truly shocking and vitally important expose
This book gets to the very heart of the way injustice is perpetrated in the world. In the best traditions of investigative journalism, Pilger examines in depth a number of ongoing situations in the world involving exploitation and injustice. The first of these relates to the plight group of islanders evicted from their Chagos island home using blatant deceit and brute force and given so little compensation that they were consigned to a life of penury in Mauritius. Why? So the British could give their American allies an island paradise as a new military base. The fact that most of us have never even heard of the Chagos islanders demonstrates the complicity of the world media in selectively reporting the news we often naively assume to have at least a modicum of impartiality.

The true shock of the book comes with the following chapters, however, where we are systematically shown the perspectives of those who have suffered most in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Afghanistan and since the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa. Did you think the average black South African has more opportunities to get ahead since the end of apartheid? or that the average Afghan woman is much better off since the ousting of the Taliban? I did - but completely erroneously as it turns out.

Pilger combines a concise summary of the facts with vivid snapshots of the situation on the ground in each location. He gives us excerpts from interviews with the victims that allow the reader to get a very personal perspective and juxtaposes these with excerpts from interviews with those responsible for the decisions that brought about the suffering. The combination is powerful and enlightening.

If I were to criticize the book it would be to say firstly that the chapter in India does not have the depth of the other chapters and adds little to the book. Secondly, Pilger very occasionally commits the same sin of telling only part of the truth that he accuses other journalists of. For example, he relates that the US has intervened 72 times in the affairs of other nations, including the overthrow of democratically elected social democracies such as in Guatemala, Brazil, Iran and Chile. I doubt that some of those governments would really have qualified as having been democratically elected by the standards that Pilger himself would apply to democracy. To be fair, this is a rare occurrence in the book and does not in any way detract from the substance of what Pilger has to say.

Brilliant and appalling
This is a shattering, first hand investigation of some of the greatest injustices still being perpetrated in today's world. The fact that most of them are given little or no mainstream media coverage is a damning indictment of the type of selective reporting we have in this country. I wonder how many people have ever even heard of the Chagos islands, let alone are aware of one of the most outrageous and criminal acts of territorial theft to take place in the second half of the twentieth century. This crime, originally committed by Wilson on behalf of Britain's US masters, has been covered up and ignored by every succesive British government, up to and including Blair's. It is fascinating and appalling reading. And how many people believe that now apartheid has officially finished in South Africa, everything in that country is fine, and everyone is benefiting from 'democracy' and 'the free market'? When we are sickened by acts of terror perpetrated by Palestinians, how many of us feel the same sense of bitter outrage when dozens of innocent Palestinian schoolchildren are slaughtered by random missile attacks by US supplied Israeli F-16 aircraft? The answer is probably not very many, as these things get very little coverage. And when they are reported, it's done in a sanitised, watered down way.
Anyone familiar with the work of Noam Chomsky will find Pilger's book complements his writings, but whereas Chomsky is academic and heavily ironic, Pilger is an investigative journalist who really shows you firsthand the reality of situations. It is a very powerful piece of work, but sadly, those who should read it probably won't, and will continue to live in blissful ignorance.
I'm sorry I have only given it four stars, and not five. I'm a very tight reviewer, and for me 5 stars is the sort of holy grail of writing; it can't be improved on. Someone may come up with a more important and powerful piece of investigative journalism than 'Freedom next time' one day, but it will be damned hard to do so.

A superbly researched and detailed analysis of the major injustices today
I cannot recommend this book more. It is an insightful, thought provoking and an incredibly moving account of the harsh realities of unrestricted Western power. For those of you who question the 'Looney Left' for their radical views I implore you to read this book. It is written with compassion and enthusiasm for the cause of those people who have no voice and no power to reject brutal colonisation (Israel on Palestinians) or heartless forced ejection (Diego Garcia).

I challenge anybody who has a conscience to read this and not feel moved to try and do something to help those who have no rights, no future and no life.

John Pilger's previous books include one called 'Heroes'. I believe Pilger himself can call himself one now.




Daniel Clayton