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The Raving Reporter

Thoughts and reports by Tony Cross

  • I’m a journalist, based in Paris. I’ve covered France, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey and many other countries. I also teach a course in Strategic Studies, Asian politics at Paris 13 University. The views expressed on this blog were my own at the time of writing and do not, so far as I know, reflect those of my employers.
  • Read all about me! Find links to some of my journalistic work here

Tony Cross

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@tcross4751aol-com

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Opinion, analysis

  • Moderate, extremist and other words that skew the news
  • Austerity – the new normal
  • The white working class – does it exist and should you despise it?
  • Charlie and me – Islamophobia, racism, freedom of expression and equality in France
  • Death of a circumflex – France’s spelling-change panic and why we’re so conservative
  • Corbyn’s election sends British right wing back to the 1980s, can his supporters resist?
  • Corbynmania and the Sanders surge are a rejection of consumer politics
  • The Greek debacle and the education of Yanis Varoufakis
  • Beware Greeks bearing ballot boxes
  • Why the US will start a war with China (perhaps)
  • War, what is it good for?
  • Spam and a can of worms

French politics & current affairs

  • Charlie and me – Islamophobia, racism, freedom of expression and equality in France
  • Death of a circumflex – France’s spelling-change panic and why we’re so conservative
  • Record French tax haul shows how much corporate tax dodgers cost us all
  • Why is support for France’s Front National rising?
  • Why did IS attack Paris?
  • Pursuing tax-dodgers , even half-heartedly, nets France 20bn euros for France

RSS Some of my work for RFI

Reports from Turkey

  • Turkey’s divisions run deep as referendum result shows
  • A bomb, a baby, a hunger strike – the Kurds and Turkey’s referendum
  • Turkey referendum – Not a fair fight for No campaign
  • Turkey turns to Russia amid allegations of US coup complicity
  • How far will Turkey’s post-coup purge go?
  • Turkey’s post-coup purge brings fear of media witch-hunt
  • Two rallies and a purge – Istanbul after Turkey’s failed coup
  • Who was behind Turkey’s military coup?
  • War with PKK, assaults on media freedom and clampdown on dissent to continue after Erdogan’s win in Turkey’s election
  • At the martyrs’ cemetery – death and destruction in a Turkish military security zone in Kurd country
  • Before the Paris attacks – IS’s dangerous liaisons in Turkey
  • Liberated areas, military repression and Kurdish politics in Diyarbakir before Turkey’s 2015 election
  • Peace and authoritarian Erdogan – issues in Istanbul in Turkey’s 2015 autumn election
  • Turkey presidential election 2014 – Erdogan’s victory showed signs of troubles to come

Afghanistan, Pakistan, India

  • Eyewitness: Afghanistan 2001 after the fall of the Taliban
  • Ethnic powerbroking, warlords and corruption in Afghanistan’s ‘fairly democratic’ 2004 presidential election
  • Women, warlords, drug-runners and NGOs … eyewitness to Afghanistan’s 2005 legislative election in Kabul and Herat
  • Pakistani atheist infiltrates jihadi training camps
  • Pakistan votes to end military rule under shadow of violence
  • In rural Pakistan politics is still a violent, feudal, family business
  • Crime, poverty, Baloch nationalism and politics in Karachi
  • Between Islamists and the military – two voices of the Pakistani left
  • Family business – Pakistani powerbrokers the Gujrat Chaudhrys plan to stay in the post-Musharraf game
  • Lions, tigers and tight security as Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) builds on Punjab base
  • Peoples Party trades on Benazir martyrdom to harvest votes from poor in Pakistan’s 2008 election
  • Kidnapped, tortured, sold to the Americans … Pakistan’s missing persons, casualties of the war on terror
  • Pakistan’s Islamist parties – a legacy of military dictators and Afghanistan’s wars
  • Hamid Gul, the spy who went into the cold
  • India 2004: Gangsters, politics, poverty, caste and communal violence in Modi’s Gujarat and Bombay

Iraq & Middle East

  • Israel’s 2009 offensive on Gaza – a turning point in the Israel-Palestine conflict
  • Iraq 2003: Families search for Saddam’s victims
  • Looting, firefights, occupation … Eyewitness in Baghdad 2003 after Saddam
  • War, what is it good for?

Indonesia

  • Aceh 1999 – Indonesia’s dirty war against separatists in the Gateway to Mecca
  • Street-kids, poverty, pollution … Jakarta after the 1997 financial crisis

Recent Comments

  • Tony Cross on Coronavirus diary day 55 – Storms over Paris and sex in a time of Covid-19
  • Grace McConnell on Coronavirus diary day 55 – Storms over Paris and sex in a time of Covid-19
  • Tony on Coronavirus diary day 39 – Don’t cheer healthworkers if you don’t want to pay tax
  • Vivien Walsh on Coronavirus diary day 39 – Don’t cheer healthworkers if you don’t want to pay tax
  • Ian Noble on Coronavirus diary day 30 – Macron’s plan to help Africa and a delicate matter concerning China

Recent Posts

  • People of Afghanistan – Mazar-e-Sharif
  • People of Kabul – photo collection
  • Fascists on the rampage – then and now
  • Police brutality in France – it’s not that new
  • Coronavirus diary day 87 – France’s history of racist policing, toppling statues and doves in Afghanistan

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Categories

  • Aceh
  • Afghanistan
  • Ahmed Shah Masood
  • AKP
  • Analysis
  • Ankara
  • Atheism
  • Attacks
  • Austerity
  • Autonomy
  • Baghdad
  • Balochistan
  • Banks
  • Benazir Bhutto
  • Bernie Sanders
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  • Blogging
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  • Charlie Hebdo
  • China
  • CHP
  • Christine Lagarde
  • Claude Verlon
  • Comment
  • Communalism
  • Communism
  • Congress
  • Conservatism
  • Consumerism
  • Coronavirus
  • Corruption
  • Coup
  • Crime
  • Crisis
  • Daesh
  • Democracy
  • Diyarbakir
  • Economic crisis
  • Economics
  • Election
  • Eurasia
  • European Union
  • Exxon Mobil
  • Facebook
  • Faisalabad
  • Fascism
  • Fatah
  • France
  • Gaza
  • George Bush
  • Geostrategy
  • Ghislaine Dupont
  • Greece
  • Guantanamo Bay
  • Guerrilla
  • Gujarat
  • Hamas
  • Hamid Gul
  • Hamid Karzai
  • HDP
  • Human rights
  • Humour
  • IMF
  • Imperlalism
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Intelligence
  • Internet
  • Invasion
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  • ISI
  • Islam
  • Islamabad
  • Islamic State
  • Israel
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  • Jakarta
  • Japan
  • Jean-Claude Juncker
  • Jeremy Corbin
  • Jeremy Corbyn
  • Journalism
  • Karachi
  • Karl Marx
  • Kashmir
  • Khyber-Pakhutnkhwa
  • Kobane
  • Kurds
  • KYD
  • Labour
  • Lahore
  • Landmines
  • Language
  • Law
  • Linguistics
  • Mahmoud Abbas
  • Marine Le Pen
  • May Day
  • MHP
  • Military
  • Military dictatorship
  • Missing persons
  • Mumbai
  • Murder
  • Narendra Modi
  • National Front
  • Nawaz Sharif
  • Occupation
  • Oil
  • Opinion polls
  • Pakistan
  • Palestine
  • Panjshir Valley
  • Paris
  • Pervez Musharraf
  • Peshawar
  • Photography
  • PKK
  • PMLN
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  • Pogrom
  • Politics
  • Poverty
  • PPP
  • Press freedom
  • Prostitution
  • Punjab
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  • Recep Tayyip Erdogan
  • Referendum
  • Reporting
  • Repression
  • Robbery
  • Russia
  • Saddam Hussein
  • Sectarianism
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  • Shia
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  • Social media
  • Socialism
  • Soviet Union
  • Spam
  • Street food
  • Suharto
  • Sunni
  • Syria
  • Taiwan
  • Taliban
  • Tax dodging
  • Taxation
  • Terrorism
  • Trade unions
  • Transport
  • Turkey
  • Uncategorized
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • Urban development
  • Vladimir Putin
  • War
  • Warlords
  • Women
  • Yanis Varoufakis
  • YDG-H
  • Zionism

Recent Posts

  • People of Afghanistan – Mazar-e-Sharif
  • People of Kabul – photo collection
  • Fascists on the rampage – then and now
  • Police brutality in France – it’s not that new
  • Coronavirus diary day 87 – France’s history of racist policing, toppling statues and doves in Afghanistan

Recent Comments

  • Tony Cross on Coronavirus diary day 55 – Storms over Paris and sex in a time of Covid-19
  • Grace McConnell on Coronavirus diary day 55 – Storms over Paris and sex in a time of Covid-19
  • Tony on Coronavirus diary day 39 – Don’t cheer healthworkers if you don’t want to pay tax
  • Vivien Walsh on Coronavirus diary day 39 – Don’t cheer healthworkers if you don’t want to pay tax
  • Ian Noble on Coronavirus diary day 30 – Macron’s plan to help Africa and a delicate matter concerning China

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