An in-flight video features the Aboriginal runner Cathy Freeman, said to be Australia's one hope for an athletics gold medal at the Sydney Olympics. There is no hint of the true state of her people. A young Aborigine's death is a bitter reminder of how little progress we have made in reducing black deaths in custody. Dictators certainly don't. There they are, happily torturing opponents, oppressing their own people when Pilger turns up to expose their crimes.
Democracies fare no better.
They are shown selling arms to dictators, rigging the conditions of world trade which impoverishes the less developed world and discriminating against their own minorities. Australia is gearing up to host the 2000 Olympics, yet its own sporting history is far removed from the spirit of the Games. Some of its greatest sportspeople were denied the chance to make their mark. Because of the colour of their skin. And even today, to be aborigine, is to be a second-class citizen.