Our man in the Solomons

(Via Gummo Trotsky) Big Western Benito is an Aussie ex-pat blogger who recently arrived in the Solomons, apparently on an extended stay. It’s fortuitous given that his arrival coincided with that of the Australian-led peacekeeping contingent.

Benito’s blog is certainly one to monitor IMO. Fairly obviously, he’ll lack the intimate local knowledge of a Salam Pax in Iraq, but might make up for it with a level of detachment that Salam by definition can’t achieve (I’m afraid I still harbour a nasty suspicion that SP may have strong but well disguised Baathist links and sympathies.

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James Russell
2025 years ago

I don’t know enough about the Pax story to tell one way or the other. Why do you harbour that suspicion?

Geoff Honnor
Geoff Honnor
2025 years ago

I’m not sure that I would read a paean of undergraduate praise for Fidel as “detachment” Ken, but you may be right: his ‘growth’ in the next little while may be instructive for all..

Ken Parish
Ken Parish
2025 years ago

Oh yes. I hadn’t scrolled down that far. What a moron! However, as you suggest, it will be interesting to see whether “Benito” manages to maintain his adolescent enthusiasm for brave guerilla heroes (like Harold Keke), and corresponding disdain for the evil neocon empire, in the face of inconvenient reality. I’d almost be prepared to bet that he ends up concluding more in sorrow than anger that, while they really are a bunch of murderous thugs, it was the CIA and exploitative global capitalism that made then that way. But you never know, I might be pleasantly surprised.