Rating: 
Summary: It awakens your mind to the dirt our elected officials do.
Review: "The New Rulers of the World" is the most important and informative book I have ever read. I was shocked at the facts exposed in this beautifully written book. It is divided into a number of chapters each of which is an issue Pilger has covered in his most distunguished and honourable career as the worlds best investigative journalist. Chapters include topics such as Indonesia, Iraq and Globalisation (which is the common thread linking chapters apart from the final chapter which covers Austrailia). Many of the topics are discussed from a recent historical perspective and highlights the dire high-crimes 'our' western leaders do, covered-up by the ever centralised and controlled media. The book has given me 20/20 vision on global events; how it is constructed, manipulated and who pulls the levers. I was depressed after reading it but only becasue I now know of the immense suffering dished out to some of the worlds most vulnerable people by those that we elect in power. Although depressed, I felt it was glad to be so becasue I knew that I educated myself as to the horror done for our sake and exapanded my comprehension of what it means to be human. You cannot go wrong in readng this book. Well done John Pilger. The best book I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Pilger's First-Rate Journalism
Review: 'The New Rulers of the World' contains much outstanding journalism by John Pilger. His prose is remarkably clear and precise, his descriptions vivid and well drawn. I can easily recommend his book to anyone opposed to the unfortunate fate of the defeated peoples of the world, namely, the men and women lacking an advantageous place in the 'western imperial order.' Pilger achieves the elusive goal of letting his subjects shine through his narrative. He does this by tempering his descriptions of those victimized by the holders of wealth and power with the personal dignity and humanity of those very same people. For North Americans especially, 'The New Rulers of the World' provides salutary correctives to the obfuscations offered by their 'value-neutral' journalists.The book's 2002 publication was a timely one as well, for war against Iraq is now certain and for reasons which should be known to those who have read Pilger's book.
Rating: 
Summary: An explosive book
Review: Author is a renowned journalist-Aussie by birth-who resides in London.Mr Pilger owing to his anti establishment views has incurred wrath,displeasure of ruling circles of UK US including his native country.
Author condemns American policies in Afghanistan,Iraq which he terms nothing but genocide.War on Iraq was motivated American greed to control that country fabulous oil weath.Similiarly author says Anglo-American attack on Afghanistan was prompted by desire to establish a foothold in resource-rich Central Asia.War on terrorism along with attempts to nab Al-qaeda supremo Osama Bin Laden has served to veil the above agenda.
Pilger exposes American hypocrisy on so-called 'War on Terror'.In the aftermath of Sep 2001 bombings efforts to bring Osama to justice without resorting to violence was sabotaged .Taliban was willing to extradite Osama to Pak city Peshawar to face trial.But President Musharraf yeilding to Washington's pressure vetoed this proposal.
Further author challenges popular view that Washington's support to Islamic fundamentalist groups was in response to Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.USA sought to destabilise Barbarak Karmal's PDPA regime because its revolutionary policies became a role model for other coutries to follow.Soviet decision to intervene in Afghanistan stemmed from Moscow's aim of preventing religious fundamentalism unleashed at its backyard.
Author is equally critical of his native country because of brutal ,inhumane treatment towards indigenous aboriginal peoples.Australia 's human rights trackrecord is vey deplorable;Canberra's glamorous and charming exterior has managed to mask this.
To conclude the book offers the readers to gain a different perspective of 'War on Terror'
Rating: 
Summary: save your money
Review: I stumbled onto the "World renowned jouranlist" John Pilger and his peculiar style of partisan rant a few months ago. I was doing some research and there pops up John in the Daily Mirror and The New Statesman. His articles are all on line; free for everyone to contemplate, and that alone should give one pause. Why would he give them away? Atlantic magazine doesn't do that.
Well foks, they're free because that's what they're worth. I ordered New Rulers to see if maybe this zany old man actually had something to say - and is he the "World renowned" journalist he claims (over and over) to be? You know, it's those small touches like sources, footnotes, even anticdotal evidence, that seperate the zealots from the newsmen. For those of you familiar with the notion of journalistic integrity you'll be dissapointed.
Yet he has something, and I couldn't quite put my finger on what that something is. The more I read the more I felt vaguely uneasy. Where have I heard this loon before? What is it about the cadence of his language; the unrelenting disgorgement of unsupported "facts;" his feverish delivery?
I've got it! It's movement-speak. I turn to his biography - and there it is! The poor devil is from the 60s. That explains it all. I'm sorry now that I was ever annoyed with him.
So, if you can't contain yourself, I advise you to do the following: save your money and simply peruse the many many Pilger articles on the web, because once you've read one Pilger howler you've read them all.
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Summary: One Rule for the Big Boys....
Review: John Pilger details in four case study essays, the means by which the strongest western nations hold life and death powers over millions living in the world, and how those powers, through a mixture a of corporate, military, and state "Imperialism" are routinely misused when it's one rule for the "big boys", and another rule for the rest. Essay one retraces Indonesia's bloody initiation into the global corporate market through the western support of it's murderous dictator, General Suharto, who, after taking control, literally opened the gates to the flood of corporations who took control of the country's vast resources. Billions were "lost" from the "loans" provided by the World Bank and IMF which today are literally impossible to repay. Indonesia's working poor, living on less than two dollars a day, and who work and live in intolerable conditions, have inherited this burden from a regime that was supported by the west for becoming "democratized". Essay two focuses mainly on the 13 years of economic sanctions imposed on Iraq and the devastating impact on its people. The skyrocketing cancer rate, especially among children, is largely attributed to the 300 tons of Depleted Uranium left to blow in the winds and settle in the drinking water after the Gulf War. The manipulations of the US and Sanctions Committee, which routinely delayed or even denied certain cancer treating medicines, pain killers, or even desperately needed hospital equipment is nothing short of obscene. Pilger examines the means by which economic and political exploitations have been used over the years to keep the disparity of nations on an uneven keel, and the western public largely misinformed. The contradictions of words versus practice, hypocrisy of policy, and just plain bullying have resulted in the biggest "rigged game" ever with humanity paying the ultimate price. Finally he examines Australia to reveal behind the modern façade of a wealthy westernized nation, one who ranks among the lowest in the world with respect to infant mortality rate of it's indigenous population, and tries to front an integrated image while the country's Aboriginal people are force to live under apartheid like conditions. In each essay, the numbers who paid the price are staggering, the story shameful, and as history reveals, nothing short of genocide. By comparison, the carnage left in the wake of the strongest nations corporate, state, and military plunders, backed by the 'moral leaders' of yesteryear and today, makes the world's second baddest boogie man, Saddam, look like a fledgling novice.
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Summary: Mindless nonsense
Review: John Pilger is absolutely clueless. Really, really clueless. I took the time to read this nonsense and at least three things struck me: (1) A man with some sort of paranoid delusional mind can actually get published.
(2) How many mindless sheep would probably even believe his nonsense.
(3) Marxists will never let their delusional world-view go, no matter what. John Pilger is brain dead...clinically brain dead.
Rating:
Summary: Where to start...
Review: Pilger offers a detailed and well documented account of gross global injustices and their lingering implications. He explains the underlying causes of poverty and terrorism and asserts that imperialism constitutes the most dangerous threat to international peace and stability. After you finish reading this book you will learn that human lives are not equally important (for example, American lives are much more valuable than those of Afghanistan, Iraq etc). Consider one of the most cynical concepts ever coined- collateral damage which implies that any means justify the end, that is, certain human lives may be sacrificed but only if these lives are not American. September 11 was a horrible tragedy, let there be no doubt about that. Nonetheless, countless tragedies occur every day in other parts of the world of which we hardly even hear, much due to mass medias extreme bias. The images of the two planes crashing into the Twin Towers have been permanently imprinted on our memory. In fact, there are not many people in the world who are not familiar with the September 11 attack. On the other hand, how many people know what happened in Srebrenica in 1995? How many people know or even care about the number of the victims killed (inadvertently or not) by unilateral U.S. interventions? How many people die in Iraq as a result of depleted uranium and the sanctions? These stories are considered to be of minor importance by the mainstream media and are rarely even accounted for in major newspapers. Clearly, some lives are more important than others. Pilger argues that only by eliminating poverty and oppression and by respecting human rights can we obliterate terrorism. If the worlds only remaining superpower shows contempt for international law and treaties, can we expect others to abide by international laws? It would be extremely hypocritical to demand that others respect human rights while simultaneously displaying a flagrant disregard for all international laws. Pilger correctly points out that we have to practice what we preach; failure to do that is indicative of gross hypocrisy and cynicism. This book further exposes gross economic inequalities between the West and the Rest. You will further learn how the World Bank impedes the progress of the developing countries through the imposition of preposterous loan conditions. Not many people know that the U.S. collaborated with Saddam and even vetoed a U.N. resolution calling for a condemnation of Saddam's massacres against the Kurds. When it serves the U.S. strategic and economic interests then collaboration with a tyrant is justifiable. Discover why developing countries become increasingly poorer and how the wealth of the West is constantly increasing. No one seems to think that it is extremely unjust that an executive can make up to 100,000 dollar a month while a great number of people live below the poverty line and do not even have enough food to survive. In fact, did you know that people working for Nike and the Gap in Indonesia receive 1 U.S. dollar a day? Did you know that the working conditions of these people are gruesome? Their employers are apathetic and indifferent individuals who show a flagrant disregard for human suffering! We keep ignoring Pilger's truth at our own peril.
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Summary: Another great book from John Pilger
Review: Relevant to anyone who's ever read a newspaper. Another truly great book from John Pilger, and perhaps his most accesible. He builds a bridge between the rhetoric and euphemisms we read or hear in the media each day, and the experiences of those who are at the receiving end of our 'moral crusades', our 'defence of civilised values', etc. He does this by telling the stories of ordinary people he has met on his visits to the countries he writes about. He visits Iraq gives a picture of the effects of sanctions and bombings on people whose are almost unmentionable in mainstream media. A chapter on Indonesia (The Model Pupil) describes a nation's transformation from independence and democracy into the kind of state that fits the globalisation ideal. A chapter (The Great Game) deals specifically with globalisation - history, theory and practice. A chapter on Australia deals with the heroic stuggle of aboriginal people and the treatment of refugees......For me as an Australian, it's a shock to realise that Pilger is using the example of the openly racist and beligerant attitudes of Australian politicians to show the essentially imperialist arrogance and indifference buried in the psyche of the 'civilised world'. - Our unwillingness to recognise human rights as belonging to all human beings. His analyses are always clear and well researched. Interstingly his sources are often those that his opponents would find difficult to quibble with - UN reports, The New York Times and government press releases. (The information, for example, that George Bush Snr is still employed as a consultant to the bin Laden family, comes from the Wall Street Journal.)
Rating:
Summary: A fiery, passionate, thought-provoking account
Review: The New Rulers Of The World by British journalist John Pilger is a stringent and articulate denunciation of globalization, calling it a "myth", and categorizing it as a contemporary facade for American and Western European imperialism. Expanding the original message of the television film by the same name, The New Rulers Of The World insightfully examines the suffering and death that the World Bank allegedly levied upon Indonesia; the ill results of the decade-long embargo on Iraq; reflections on the hypocrisy behind Australia's Olympics and its continued subjugation of Aboriginals, and much, much more. A fiery, passionate, thought-provoking account, The New Rulers Of The World is highly recommended reading for students of International Economics, International Relations, and Contemporary Social Issues as exemplified and exacerbated by the phenomenon of corporate and governmental globalization.
Rating: 
Summary: Over-rated mix of good reports and ultra-left analysis
Review: This book is a curious mixture of good reporting and dogmatic 'ultra-left' opinions: it does not provide what its title promises. Instead, it includes an account of 1966's NATO-backed massacre of a million Indonesians, which the Australian embassy in Jakarta called a 'cleansing operation', and an essay on the Australian government's appalling treatment of the Aborigines. The central part of the book consists of two longer essays, one on globalisation and the war on terrorism, which Pilger wrongly conflates, and the other on the proposed attack on Iraq.
Pilger denounces the war on terrorism, but surely a war on the feudal-minded terrorists who targeted and killed thousands of innocent workers is not wrong. He stigmatises what he calls the 'leading terrorist states in the world', instancing Algeria, China and Russia. These are all states that have fought Islamic fundamentalist terrorist groups. So it's terrorist to fight terrorists?
It is wrong to link the war on terrorism with the proposed attack on Iraq, as both Bush and Pilger do. But Pilger is right to oppose Bush's proposed attack on Iraq and his illegitimate threats against states unconnected to the Al Qa'ida terrorists.
Pilger cites the New York Times, "The Central Intelligence Agency has no evidence that Iraq has engaged in terrorist operations against the United States in nearly a decade, and the agency is also convinced that President Saddam Hussein has not provided chemical or biological weapons to al-Qa'ida." There is no evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction: Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector, summed up, "Does Iraq have a chemical weapons programme today? No. Does Iraq have a long-range missile programme today? No. Nuclear? No. Biological? No. Is Iraq qualitatively disarmed? Yes."
We do not need a Second Front in the war against terrorism: we do need, contra Pilger, to focus on defeating the Al-Qa'ida terrorists. When it comes to the practicalities of what to do next, workers must always think for themselves and never let themselves be guided by gurus or 'grand old men of the left'. We should always be wary of heroes and hero-worship.
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