The analysis of the 2011 ‘Blackberry’ riots in England reveals conflicting perspectives on the role of inequalities. Conservatives view the riots as lawlessness driven by moral decline, while radicals highlight socio-economic disenfranchisement as a key cause. This essay urges addressing underlying inequalities to prevent future unrest rather than merely punishing the rioters.
This is the second of Ioan Grillo’s books that I have read and I found this volume equally as good as my first encounter with this talented British journalist. Gangster Warlords focuses on 4 separate crime gangs across the Americas. For each group we identify leaders, politics, often brutal and…
View More Review: Gangster Warlords – Drug Dollars, Killing Fields and the New Politics of Latin America – by Ioan GrilloThis autobiographical account of Brit drug smuggler, Pieter Tritton, is a flowing, page-turning journey that documents his twelve years locked up in Ecuador’s notorious, corrupt and highly dangerous prison system. Tritton is already in trouble back in the UK where he is being sought by police for large scale international…
View More Review: El Infierno – Drugs, Gangs, Riots and Murder – My Time Inside Ecuador’s Toughest Prisons – by Pieter TrittonA doctor conversing with one of his elderly patients in Japan, reveals this amazingly quaint story of a Yakuza gang leader. Set in the heart of Tokyo in the early twentieth century, our hero comes from an ordinary background and works his way into a veritable life in the underworld,…
View More Review: Confessions of a Yakuza – by Junichi Saga
The Last Narco: Hunting El Chapo, The World’s Most Wanted Drug Lord by Malcolm Beith My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a fast-moving story of the rise of Mexico’s most feared and influential drug lord, El Chapo. The Sinaloa cartel occupies the number one position in terms of…
View More Review: The Last Narco: Hunting El Chapo, The World’s Most Wanted Drug Lord – by Malcolm Beith