I was fascinated to read about the Sentinelese recently – a tribe of 250-odd hunter-gatherers living on a fairly big tropical island off the coast of India. They are extremely hostile to visitors and appear to have had no more than cursory contact with people from the outside world. This picture is the typical view [...]

Culture, Freedom, Linkage, Non-state actors, Pacific, Photos, Science, World | 2 Comments »

The 17 Tuhoe Terrorists ‘Alleged’ Terrorists (well, the seventeen that the police have evidence against) have been committed to trial. They are, as usual, making outlandish claims of their complete innocence. Bailey, as the only individual who had all charges against him thrown out, says his sister and brother are still going to trial. “It’s [...]

Culture, Firearms, Freedom, New Zealand, Non-state actors, Police, Terrorism | No Comments »

This is a cross-post from a thread about heroism at SOLO Passion (Sense of Life Objectivism), an Objectivist forum. I do not identify myself as an Objectivist, merely a libertarian who found Atlas Shrugged inspiring. I think there are at least two kinds of heroes promoted here: Heroes of talent, who have pushed their own [...]

Culture, Libertarianz, Non-state actors, Personal | 1 Comment »

This article originally appeared in SOLO. On the 15th of October 2007, several hundred armed police officers executed search warrants around New Zealand. They cordoned off Ruatoki, a small Maori village south of Whakatane, seized a number of firearms, and arrested 17 people. The police claimed that the raids, carried out under post 9/11 anti-terror [...]

4GW, Black globalization, Infrastructure, New Zealand, Non-state actors, Police, Terrorism | 7 Comments »

Originally posted on Coming Anarchy. If you would like to comment, please do so there. Lihir gold mine, Papua New Guinea A history of conflict As has been explored in previous Oceania Day posts, conflict in Oceania – particularly in Melanesia – is often related to resources. The prime example is Bougainville, where in 1989 [...]

4GW, Black globalization, Development, Energy, Failed states, Infrastructure, Mercenaries, Non-state actors, Pacific, Resilience | No Comments »

Originally posted on Coming Anarchy. If you would like to comment, please do so there. Home-grown street gangs are a growing threat to Oceania’s island states. In addition, criminal organizations from around the world have taken advantage of the economic vulnerability and weakness of the Pacific islands, using them as bases for money laundering, drug [...]

Black globalization, Failed states, Non-state actors, Pacific | No Comments »

The preface of Edward Luttwak’s classic work on how to overthrow a government reads as follows: AS THE EVENTS in France of May 1968 have shown yet again, insurrection, the classic vehicle of revolution, is obsolete. The security apparatus of the modern state, with its professional personnel, with its diversified means of transport and communications, [...]

4GW, Black globalization, Development, Failed states, Infrastructure, Non-state actors, Technology | 7 Comments »

Shloky on the decline of the state, and the rise of the empowered individual: As individuals are progressively empowered, which is to say progressively accentuated as humans, large scale collective movements – like nationalism – die. This is the divergent nature of multiple empowered decision cycles. This is what is termed “a sapping of national [...]

4GW, Non-state actors | No Comments »

FOR CENTURIES, the sovereign state has been the dominant form of political organization in the Western world. The most successful variant of the state was the nation-­state, which harnessed the power of nationalism and was eventually exported around the world. Today, there are more than 200 nation-­states. But, as I will argue, the nation­-state is [...]

4GW, Black globalization, Empire, Failed states, Mercenaries, Non-state actors, Politics, Resilience, Terrorism, World | 11 Comments »

PORT MORESBY: Riot police have been sent to a remote mountainous village in Papua New Guinea after a gun battle between police and members of a cult involved in human sacrifices, local media reported. The National newspaper said several people were killed and many injured in the fighting last week in the Finschhafen area of [...]

Black globalization, Culture, Development, Empire, Failed states, Non-state actors, Pacific, Religion | 3 Comments »