www.araustralia.org

Alternative Radio (Aust.) PO Box 687 Cowes Victoria 3922 Australia tel. 61-4-1359 7828 inquiries@araustralia.org

(31 Dec) 070902 Russell Means - For the World to Live Columbus Must Die For too many of us, for too long, the indigenous peoples of this continent have been curiosities that existed somewhere over the horizon between fantasy and reality. The popularly crafted images were of medicine men, squaws and peace pipes, teepees, tom toms and tomahawks, war bonnets, war paint, war whoops and war parties. The only Indians we knew were named Tonto, Geronimo and Crazy Horse. In recent years a lot of these clichˇs have disappeared. The American Indian Movement has done much to break down the conventional stereotypes. AIM articulates a program of self-awareness and pride. It promotes treaty and land rights and religious freedom for Native Americans. Russell Means, an Oglala Dakota and a prominent voice in the continuing struggle for indigenous rights, is a founding member of AIM and one of its leading spokespersons. He is Chief Executive Officer of the American Indian Anti-Defamation Council, an organization which monitors anti-Indian racism in the media and politics, and has organized and lectured throughout the world. (24 Dec) 070903 Stephen Bezruchka - Is America Driving You Crazy? The number of Americans suffering from mental illness has nearly doubled since 1987. That's when Prozac, the first of the "wonder drugs" was introduced. Mental disorders are reported in more than 25% of returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan. And more than 1 in 4 college students are now on anti-depressants. With all the new drugs available for treatment, depression and anxiety disorders continue to rise. Is our drug-based system of care fueling this epidemic? With an unstable future and fewer family and community ties to help deal with problems, anxiety is also heightened by other factors related to modern society, such as war, global warming, advanced technology and globalization. What can we do to create a healthier society and treat those afflicted with mental illness in a more effective way? Stephen Bezruchka teaches at the University of Washington and works as an emergency room physician in Seattle. His particular areas of research are population health and societal hierarchy and its application to health. He is author of numerous articles and essays. His most recent contribution is to Sickness and Wealth, a collection of essays on the effects of global corporatization on health. (17 Dec) 060602 Stephen Bezruchka - Damaged Care The most enduring and quoted tradition in medicine is the Hippocratic Oath. It states, "As to diseases, make a habit of two things, to help, or at least, to do no harm." Yet, the U.S., which spends more on healthcare than any other country in the world and is known for its medical schools and state of the art treatment, has a higher rate of infant mortality, heart disease, cancer and depression than most other rich nations. In fact, it is often the treatment that is making patients ill. A recent report indicates that tens of thousands of people die in American hospitals every year from medical errors. Although healthcare providers, insurance and drug companies are partly to blame, the structure of the healthcare system plays a bigger role. Healthier societies recognize that the primary causes of disease are social and economic, therefore, the remedies must be social and economic as well. Stephen Bezruchka teaches at the University of Washington and works as an emergency room physician in Seattle. His particular areas of research are population health and societal hierarchy and its application to health. He is author of numerous articles and essays. His most recent contribution is to Sickness and Wealth, a collection of essays on the effects of global corporatization on health. (10 Dec) 070901 David Zirin - The Athletic Industrial Complex Sports play a central role in many societies, perhaps nowhere more so than in the United States. From Michael Vick to T. O., to Barry Bonds and A-Rod, athletes are under the microscope. They are multi-millionaire gladiators. Their every dropped ball, at-bat, comment, and gesture are grist for the sports talk mill. There are hours of radio and TV devoted to their triumphs and failures. Every detail is carefully scrutinized. Fans are knowledgeable and are fearless in criticizing players and teams, coaches and managers. It is not unusual to hear indignant calls insisting that so and so is a bum and should be traded or fired for doing a lousy job. Fair enough. It's curious that politicians are rarely the targets of similar demands for performing poorly. Dave Zirin, (Zy-rin) winner of Press Action's Sportswriter of the Year Award, has been called "an icon in the world of progressive sports." He is both a columnist for SLAM magazine and a regular contributor to the Nation magazine. He is a commentator on Air America radio. He's the author of What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States. His latest book is Welcome to the Terrodome. (03 Dec) 060603 David Zirin - Sports and Politics Marx once wrote "religion was the opiate of the masses." If he were writing today he might add sports. Few activities generate as much attention and passion as sports. From March Madness to the Super Bowl, there is enormous media coverage. Athletes are objects of adoration and idolization, that is, as long as they don't stumble off their pedestals. O.J. Simpson. Mike Tyson, Pete Rose and Barry Bonds are among those who have fallen from grace. Sports stars are often confined to just talking about their profession. They are not to have any political interests or heaven forbid actual opinions on important issues of the day. However, today some athletes are breaking from the mode, in the tradition of Muhammad Ali, and are speaking out. Dave Zirin, (Zy-rin) winner of Press Action's Sportswriter of the Year Award, has been called "an icon in the world of progressive sports." He is both a columnist for SLAM magazine and a regular contributor to the Nation magazine. He is a commentator on Air America radio. He's the author of What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States. His latest book is Welcome to the Terrodome. (26 Nov) 070803 Peter Kornbluh - Kissinger and the Coup in Chile The 1973 U.S.-directed coup overthrowing the democratically-elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile is one of the pivotal moments in 20th century Latin American history. The coup was ordered by Richard Nixon and implemented by Nobel Peace Prize-winner Henry Kissinger. After Allende's election in 1970, Kissinger infamously demonstrated his dedication to democracy when he said, "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go Communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people." The coup brought to power General Augusto Pinochet who immediately launched a reign of terror. Kissinger has never been held to account for what he did in Chile. Today, he continues his career as an honored media guest and advisor to Bush and Cheney on Iraq. Peter Kornbluh is senior analyst at the National Security Archive in Washington, DC. He is the author of Bay of Pigs Declassified: The Secret CIA Report and the The Pinochet File. (19 Nov) 070802 John Pilger - Lapdogs with Laptops A vital and independent press is essential to the functioning of democracy. In recent years, media concentration has accelerated. This has resulted in the closing down of many domestic and foreign bureaus and a sharp reduction in the number of working reporters. In pursuit of a juicy tidbit, too many journalists today cozy up to power. They take pride in being called on by their first name at presidential news conferences. They play golf and tennis with high administration officials and are invited to all the important dinner parties. We need a press that will hold the feet of the mighty to the fire and not drink cabernet sauvignon with them. Citizens are ill served by lapdogs with laptops. John Pilger is a leading journalist and documentary filmmaker. He's twice won British journalism's highest award, that of Journalist of the Year. His latest book is New Rulers of the World. His documentaries are seen all over the world but rarely in the US. His most recent film is Palestine is Still the Issue." (12 Nov) 070801 Rami Khouri - Double Standards: U.S. Middle East Policy The dictionary defines double standard as a rule or principle applied more strictly to some than to others. Double standards are seen as unjust because they violate fairness, that everyone is equal before the law. When this basic principle is violated, it creates anger and resentment. U.S. policy in the Middle East has long engaged in the practice of double standards. Washington's staunch ally Saudi Arabia is one of the most theocratic, puritanical countries in the world. The Riyadh regime, a family-run dynasty, is a state sponsor of religious intolerance, discrimination, homophobia, and misogyny. It has notoriously funded some of the most extreme madarssas, Islamic seminaries, which have been incubators of jihadis. Not withstanding all that it gets a free pass from Washington. Rami Khouri is a well-known journalist in the Middle East. Based in Beirut, he is editor-at-large of The Daily Star. He is also the Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut. He appears on NPR, CNN, BBC and his articles are syndicated in major newspapers around the world. He is recipient of the Pax Christi International Peace Award for his efforts to bring peace to the Middle East. AR's David Barsamian interviewed him in Beirut. (05 Nov) 070704 Abdel Bari Atwan – Al-Qa’ida Al-Qa'ida, the base in Arabic, first emerged in an embryonic form in 1988. Its core consisted of the Arab mujahedeen fighters who went to Afghanistan to oust the Soviets. It was established and led by the Saudi, Osama bin Laden. The mujahedeen gave their "bayat" (oath of allegiance) to bin Laden, the "emir" or leader. Al-Qa'ida wants to mobilize the "umma," the Islamic community, in a struggle against its putative enemies. Since the mid-1990s, it has carried out numerous attacks in different countries, the most spectacular of course being September 11 in the United States. After all these years little is known of al-Qa'ida or of its now various offshoots. Abdel Bari Atwan is editor-in-chief of Al-Quds al-Arabi, the London-based Arabic daily newspaper. His articles and commentaries appear in The International Herald Tribune, Newsweek as well as leading British newspapers. He is one of the very few who has interviewed Osama bin Laden. He is the author of The Secret History of al-Qa'ida. AR's David Barsamian interviewed him in London. (29 Oct) 070103 James Ingalls and Sonali Kolhatkar - Afghanistan: War and Occupation Afghanistan has always been the sideshow to the main event in Iraq. In the last year, the situation in that impoverished, war-ravaged, land-locked Central Asian country has gone from bad to worse. While U.S. favorite Hamid Karzai sits in Kabul, events outside the capital are deteriorating. Warlords divide regions into fiefdoms. Opium production is at an all-time high. The Taliban is resurgent. Suicide bombings and I.E.Ds., heretofore unknown in Afghanistan, have been copied from Iraq. Military and civilian deaths are increasing. It was supposed to be a quick easy war. It hasn't quite worked out that way for Washington policymakers. They may be learning, as other conquerors have, that it is easy to invade Afghanistan but difficult to pacify and control it. James Ingalls is a Staff Scientist at the California Institute of Technology. Sonali Kolhatkar is host of "Uprising" a daily program on KPFK, Los Angeles.Ingalls and Kolhatkar are co-directors of the Afghan Women's Mission. Their articles appear in various magazines and journals. They are the authors of Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, & the Propaganda of Silence. (22 Oct) 031102 Chris Hedges - War as an Addiction War is an emotionally intense and exhilarating experience. From ancient times war and the warrior have been celebrated. The adrenaline rushes of combat, the parades, the medals and the adulation are all part of the allure of war. It is imbued with ideas of nobility, selflessness and glory. General George Patton, one of America's most famous warriors said, "Compared to war all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance. God, I do love it so." War is an elixir that gives some who wage it purpose and resolve. If one is not careful, as Chris Hedges warns, it can become addictive. Chris Hedges joined The New York Times in 1990. Before that he reported for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor and National Public Radio. He has seen war up close in the Balkans, the Middle East and Central America. His book War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning received the 2003 Overseas Press Club award. The Los Angeles Times calls it, "A powerful message to people contemplating the escalation of the 'war against terrorism." (15 Oct Sept) 070402 P. Sainath - Journalism that Matters Journalism is in decline. At the pop tabloid end there is "People" magazine. It assigns seven reporters to cover the latest activities of Britney Spears. Then there is the high brow, serious genre. In this realm, powerful seductive forces lure journalists away from actual journalism. A system of perks and privileges keep reporters tethered. If you don't make waves you'll be invited to all the right parties and state dinners, hobnob with the nabobs and muckamucks, and have the president call you by your first name at press conferences. If you step out of line and rock the casbah? Well, you might soon be covering traffic accidents or sports. P. Sainath is an award-winning journalist who writes about the crisis in the Indian countryside. He is Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu, one of India's most important newspapers. "I cover the people who live at the bottom end of the spectrum," he says. He is author of Everybody Loves a Good Drought: Stories from India's Poorest Districts. (08 Oct) 070304 Nader Talebzadeh - Dateline: Tehran No doubt wanting to build on its "enormous successes" and "progress" (Cheney) in Iraq and Afghanistan the Bush administration is now threatening Iran with war. For the propaganda masters it's a dream. All they have to do is change the q in Iraq to an n and they are good to go. They can recycle the same scripts. Ahmadinejad is the new Hitler or Saddam or bin Laden or maybe all three combined. Iran is "a growing threat," the vice-president warns us. CNN's Glenn Beck says, "Iran is a global threat as big as we've seen since the Nazis." Nader Talebzadeh (Nah-dir Tah-leb-zah-day) is an Iranian journalist, TV producer and host, and documentary and feature filmmaker. He is based in Tehran. (01 Oct) 070303 Rashid Khalidi - Palestine: The Iron Cage How was Israel able to forge a state while the Palestinians have been unable to? A key element in establishing Israel was British colonial control of Palestine and the 1917 Balfour Declaration. In 1936-39 the Palestinians rose up in revolt against their British masters. Key cadres were killed and exiled. Thus crucially in the decisive 1947-1948 period the community lacked leadership. Compounding their inability to achieve statehood, the Palestinians were divided by factions and less than sagacious political leaders. Overwhelming U.S. economic, military, and diplomatic support for Israel further seriously disadvantages the Palestinians. Now they are faced with an unviable statelet consisting of Bantustans. An outcome that is hardly the basis of a lasting peace. Rashid Khalidi is a University of Chicago professor and director of the Center for International Studies at the University of Chicago. His publications include The Origins of Arab Nationalism and Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness. (24 Sept) 031203 Edward Said - Out of Place A fatal medical diagnosis prompted Edward Said to leave a record of his youth in Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt. "The start of chemotherapy had been a point of no return, he said, "but a memoir would be the opposite-a going back, an effort to rescue from oblivion a time and place that had all but disappeared." But Out of Place, his book, set off a controversy. His very origins were challenged by Commentary magazine and then picked up by others. Said said, the attack "is to smear Palestinian claims to dispossession and the right of return." Edward Said, internationally renowned Columbia University professor, practically invented the field of post-colonial studies. His great work, Orientalism has been translated into many languages and is widely used in colleges and universities. The New York Times called him, "one of the most influential literary and cultural critics in the world." As one of the few advocates for Palestinian rights in the US, he was the target of vilification, death threats and vandalism. The Economist said he "repudiated terrorism in all its forms and was a passionate, eloquent and persistent advocate for justice for the dispossessed Palestinians." He was a trenchant critic not just of Israeli policies, but also of Arafat, the corrupt coterie around him and the despotic Arab regimes. He felt strongly that intellectuals had a special responsibility to speak out against injustice, challenge power, confront hegemonic thinking and provide alternatives. His memoir Out of Place won the New Yorker Book of the Year Award. Edward Said died in New York on September 25, 2003. (17 Sept) 040705 Edward Said - Culture and Imperialism Imperial power is constructed on a bedrock not only of force but of culture as well. Culture provides the underpinning, justification and validation of empire. Its crudest manifestation is perhaps Kipling's White man's burden. A more refined version is the French 'mission civilisatrice', civilising mission. Imperialism is often thought of as a European phenomenon of the past. In fact it continues today in new shapes and forms. The US carries out its imperial policies behind the facade of democracy and freedom. Culture and politics produce a system of control that transcends military power to include a hegemony of representations and images that dominate the imaginations of both the oppressor and the oppressed. Edward Said, internationally renowned Columbia University professor, practically invented the field of post-colonial studies. His great work, Orientalism has been translated into many languages and is widely used in colleges and universities. The New York Times called him, "one of the most influential literary and cultural critics in the world." As one of the few advocates for Palestinian rights in the US, he was the target of vilification, death threats and vandalism. The Economist said he "repudiated terrorism in all its forms and was a passionate, eloquent and persistent advocate for justice for the dispossessed Palestinians." He was a trenchant critic not just of Israeli policies, but also of Arafat, the corrupt coterie around him and the despotic Arab regimes. He felt strongly that intellectuals had a special responsibility to speak out against injustice, challenge power, confront hegemonic thinking and provide alternatives. His memoir Out of Place won the New Yorker Book of the Year Award. Edward Said died in New York on September 25, 2003. (10 Sept) 011001 Edward Said - Origins of Terrorism The horrendous terrorist attacks on New York and Washington stunned the country and the world. The images from September 11 are etched in our memories forever. Now, slowly the collective psyche is healing and questions are being asked. What would prompt people to inflict such terrible carnage and in the process take their own lives? Do they, as the White House and the media repeat in tandem, simply 'hate' America? Or were there deeper reasons connected to US alliances and policies? It is clear that a more nuanced understanding, background and context are needed. Edward Said, internationally renowned Columbia University professor, practically invented the field of post-colonial studies. His great work, Orientalism has been translated into many languages and is widely used in colleges and universities. The New York Times called him, "one of the most influential literary and cultural critics in the world." As one of the few advocates for Palestinian rights in the US, he was the target of vilification, death threats and vandalism. The Economist said he "repudiated terrorism in all its forms and was a passionate, eloquent and persistent advocate for justice for the dispossessed Palestinians." He was a trenchant critic not just of Israeli policies, but also of Arafat, the corrupt coterie around him and the despotic Arab regimes. He felt strongly that intellectuals had a special responsibility to speak out against injustice, challenge power, confront hegemonic thinking and provide alternatives. His memoir Out of Place won the New Yorker Book of the Year Award. Edward Said died in New York on September 25, 2003. (03 Sept Aug) 000101 Edward Said - Unresolved Geographies, Embattled Landscapes The standard imperial strategies of "divide and rule" and "partition and quit" have had disastrous consequences in Ireland, Palestine and India. The ravages of identity politics and skewed nationalist impulses have further contributed to turmoil and war. Independence for many post-colonial states has meant little more than replacing a foreign system of oppression with a local one. What are the ways to create new forms of affiliation and communal existence in order to overcome difference and resolve conflicts? Edward Said, internationally renowned Columbia University professor, practically invented the field of post-colonial studies. His great work, Orientalism has been translated into many languages and is widely used in colleges and universities. The New York Times called him, "one of the most influential literary and cultural critics in the world." As one of the few advocates for Palestinian rights in the US, he was the target of vilification, death threats and vandalism. The Economist said he "repudiated terrorism in all its forms and was a passionate, eloquent and persistent advocate for justice for the dispossessed Palestinians." He was a trenchant critic not just of Israeli policies, but also of Arafat, the corrupt coterie around him and the despotic Arab regimes. He felt strongly that intellectuals had a special responsibility to speak out against injustice, challenge power, confront hegemonic thinking and provide alternatives. His memoir Out of Place won the New Yorker Book of the Year Award. Edward Said died in New York on September 25, 2003. (27 Aug) 070703 Jules Boykoff - Squelching Dissent What happens to the fragile sinews of democracy when the government itself engages in criminality? From the Palmer Raids after World War 1 to the McCarthy witch-hunt to launching wars of aggression in Indochina, Washington has sought to squelch dissent. Today there are new attempts to intimidate opposition to state policies particularly the war on Iraq. Some of it is comical such as preventing someone from boarding a flight because he wore a T-shirt with Arabic on it. Much more threatening and serious is the violation of civil liberties and the Constitution with warrantless wiretapping, e-mail and postal intercepts and other forms of domestic spying. Jules Boykoff is professor of politics and government at Pacific University. He is the author of The Suppression of Dissent. His latest book is Beyond Bullets: The Suppression of Dissent in the United States. (20 Aug) 070702 Jeremy Scahill - Blackwater: Mercenary Army A hidden story of the U.S. war on Iraq has been the use private contractors, a shadow force almost as big as the American army. The major company operating in Iraq and raking in millions of dollars in taxpayer money is Blackwater. The well-connected North Carolina-based firm is the elite Praetorian Guard of the so-called war on terror. Blackwater and other private armies apparently operate with no supervision or oversight. Their crimes go unpunished. Gen William Caldwell, the top spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq, said: "Contractors are out of our lane, and we don't comment on them." Jeremy Scahill is the author of the bestseller Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army He is the recipient of the Polk Award for journalism. He is a frequent contributor to"The Nation magazine and "Democracy Now!" (13 Aug) 070701 Laura Flanders - Blue Grit Something is really rotten in Denmark when Bush invokes the name of Truman. Truman and his four-time elected predecessor, FDR spoke more to the common man than to the Rockefellers and Morgans. However over the decades, a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. The Democrats, perhaps seeking to out Republican the Republicans, drifted away from their New Deal roots into the warm embrace of Wall Street. Today the political map is divided between red states and blue states. But many citizens are in a gray area, not excited by, as one comedian says, Demopublicans or Republicrats. The 2006 election saw the Democrats narrowly capture the Congress but fully 60% of voters did not bother to turn out. Laura Flanders is the host of the "Radio Nation" on Air America Radio. She is the author of Real Majority, Media Minority and Bushwomen. Her latest book is Blue Grit. (06 Aug) 050702 Gar Alparovitz - Hiroshima: New Facts and Old Myths 60 years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the event still arouses controversy and passionate perspectives. Ever since the Enola Gay dropped the bomb on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, questions surrounding the first use of what is now called weapons of mass destruction persist. Advocates say it quickly ended the war and saved a million U.S. casualties. Critics argue that Japan was essentially defeated and looking for a settlement. They also say the bomb was really about setting the stage for post-war power relations with the Soviet Union. New research and declassified government documents have shed much light on why the bomb was dropped. Gar Alperovitz is one of the most highly regarded experts on Hiroshima and U.S. policy. He is professor of political economy at the University of Maryland. His articles appear in the Washington Post, Tikkun, The Nation and Dollars & Sense. His books include Atomic Diplomacy and America Beyond Capitalism. His award-winning book The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb, is a classic. (30 Jul) 070603 Phyllis Bennis - Challenging Empire: US Middle East Policy "Saddam Hussein and his weapons are a direct threat to this country," warned President Bush just two weeks before launching the war. U.S. troops will be greeted as "liberators," the Vice President predicted. A servile press corps, perhaps better called a press corpse, went along and asked few questions. Washington invades Iraq on totally false pretenses and then turns a SNAFU into a FUBAR with "Mission Accomplished" photo ops, bogus stories about Jessica Lynch, endless turning points, tipping points, milestones and a so-called surge. Meanwhile in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, the U.S. is building the largest embassy in the world, elsewhere in Iraq it has built permanent bases. For Iraqis, the carnage is destroying their country, one of the cradles of civilization. Phyllis Bennis is a Fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington. She appears as commentator/analyst on PBS, NPR, BBC, and CBC. She's the author of Before & After: U.S. Foreign Policy and the September 11th Crisis and Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today's UN. Her latest books are Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict and Challenging Empire. (23 Jul) 070602 Chip Berlet - Apocalypse Now: Christian Fundamentalism Fundamentalist preachers and doctrines have for long been part of the American landscape. In recent years, starting with Billy Graham, they have moved prominently into the political arena with bromides and nostrums on domestic and foreign policy. Take Pastor John Hagee, a Texas-based evangelical. He broadcasts on radio and TV and has reportedly millions of listeners and viewers. His flock buys his many books in large numbers. He offers this sagacious advice on the Middle East to his followers: "The United States must join Israel in a preemptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plans for both Israel and the West. This is a biblically prophesized end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to Rapture, Tribulation and the Second Coming of Christ." Chip Berlet (Ber-lay) is senior analyst with Political Research Associates, an organization which monitors and reports on right-wing movements. His articles appear in The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Progressive magazine. He is the editor of Eyes Right: Challenging the Right Wing Backlash and co-author of Right-wing Populism in America. (16 Jul) 070601 Robert Jensen - White Supremacy, Patriachy and Capitalism There is a close connection between who rules and who benefits. Today in the U.S the gap between rich and everyone else has reached levels not seen since the 1890s. Tax breaks and tax cuts have enabled the top 1% to corner 20% of the nation's income and more than 40% of the wealth. Those numbers make the U.S. more unequal than any other advanced industrial country. The free press calls this the free market. The "ism" in Capitalism makes some people uncomfortable so better to speak in euphemisms. The systems of power and domination are glossed over or elided altogether. "It wouldn't do," as Orwell sarcastically used to say, to be too specific. Best to keep the natives in the dark. Robert Jensen is professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Writing Dissent and Citizens of the Empire. His latest book is The Heart of Whiteness. (09 Jul) 070504 Tariq Ali - Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope Simon Bolivar, the great liberator of South America, prophetically said, "In the name of freedom, the United States of North America seem to have been destined by providence to plague America with miseries." And so it has been. From the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 to the present the U.S. has routinely intervened in the internal affairs of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.Invasions, occupations, coups, economic warfare, gunboat diplomacy were and remain part of Washington's arsenal. The major threat to U.S. hegemony is independent nationalism. It is seen as a "virus" which might spread. Hence the hostility to Fidel Castro's overthrow of the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship in Cuba in 1959 and today to Hugo Chavez's Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela. Tariq Ali, an internationally renowned writer, was born in Lahore in 1943. It was then a part of British-ruled India, now in Pakistan. For many years he has been based in London where he is an editor of New Left Review. He's written more than a dozen books on world history and politics. A charismatic speaker, he is in great demand all over the world. In his spare time he is a filmmaker, playwright and novelist. He is the author of Clash of Fundamentalism, Bush in Babylon, and Speaking of Empire & Resistance with David Barsamian. His latest book is Pirates of the Caribbean: The Axis of Hope. (02 Jul) 060704 Helen Caldicott, Hillel Freedman and Jacob Grech** - Nuclear Power is Not the Answer The Australian government has refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and have stood by the major Kyoto refuser, the US under former oilman president, George Bush. On a recent visit to the US, Prime Minister Howard reignited the nuclear debate in Australia by calling for an expansion of uranium mining and he even floated the idea that nuclear power could replace green house gas producing coal fired power stations. Critics were quite willing to point out the weaknesses of Howard's arguments and those of the nuclear industry promoters. After half a century and billions of dollars of public money subsidising the nuclear power industry, the threats remain the same and no progress has been made in finding solutions to the dangers posed by nuclear power. In the 1950s Dr Helen Caldicott trained as a paediatrician but by the 1970s was fully enmeshed as part of the emerging global anti nuclear movement. She has devoted the past thirty-five years to an international campaign to educate the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age. Dr. Caldicott is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, the recipient of the 2003 Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom and the inaugural Australian Peace Prize awarded by the Peace Organisation of Australia. She is the bestselling author of uclear Madness and Missile Envy. Dr Caldicott divides her time between the central coast of New South Wales and Washington, DC where she is President of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute. She launched her latest book, Nuclear Power Is Not The Answer to Global Warming or Anything Else at Melbourne's Trades Hall in July 2006. The opening speaker for the evening was Hillel Freedman from Nuclear Free Australia. He was followed by Jacob Grech a long time anti-nuclear campaigner, a former Nuclear Disarmament party candidate and co founder of the Victorian Peace Network. ** CD only (25 Jun) 070503 Jeff Cohen - Cable News Confidential The advent of CNN, the first 24/7 news channel in 1980, was hailed as a revolutionary development in media. It was soon to be followed by others. The results have not been encouraging. Most of the so-called news consists of fluff pieces on celebrity deaths, divorces, marriages, adoptions, babies, affairs and kidnappings. Recall Fox's Geraldo grilling the police chief of Aruba in the Caribbean as to the missing blond American teenager Natalee Holloway. He was in his face practically yelling at him. Where was he talking to Cheney like that? It's hard to measure but it's plausible that those who watch cable news know less about substantive national and international events than they did before its heralded coming. One study actually demonstrated the more people watch TV news the less they knew. Jeff Cohen is founder of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), the New York-based media watch group. His columns appear on commondreams.org and other websites. He's author of The Way Things Aren't: Rush Limbaugh's Reign of Error, and Wizards of Media Oz. His latest book is Cable News Confidential. (18 Jun) 070502 Araxie Barsamian and Robert Fisk - The Armenian Holocaust In 1915, the Turkish government launched a premeditated organized campaign to eliminate the millennia-old Armenian people from their traditional homeland in what is now southeastern Turkey. The Turkish officials responsible for the genocide were never brought to account. This was not lost on Adolf Hitler. Just days before launching World War Two he told his generals, "Who today, after all, speaks of the annihilation of the Armenians?" What makes the 20th century's first holocaust unique is that Turkey refuses to acknowledge it ever happen. And that denial is the final stage of genocide: closure and justice is denied to the victims and their descendents. Araxie Barsamian, mother of AR's David, survived the Turkish genocide of the Armenians. Her parents, four brothers, and other members of her extended family were not so fortunate. In 1986, just a few months before her death, she spoke about her experiences to a history class at the University of Colorado at Denver. Robert Fisk, based in Beirut, is the Middle East correspondent for The Independent. He is the author of Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon. He is winner of the Amnesty International UK Press Award and the Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom. His latest book is The Great Clash of Civilizations. (11 Jun) 070501 Bill McKibben Public opinion on global warming has dramatically shifted. Perhaps it was the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" or people finally feeling the heat. Eleven out of the dozen years from 1995-2006 were among the 12 hottest on record. A recent poll reveals 86% of respondents favored action to deal with the problem. An authoritative UN report in early April 2007 states, "Changes in climate are now affecting physical and biological systems on every continent." And how is the president responding? A House committee reports, " hundreds of instances in which a White House official," who previously worked for the American Petroleum Institute, the main oil industry lobbying firm, "edited government climate reports to play up uncertainty of a human role in global warming or play down evidence of such a role." The White House official is now working for ExxonMobil. Bill McKibben, a former ew Yorker staff writer, first sounded the alarm on global climate change with his bestselling book The End of Nature. He is a leading journalist on the environment. His other books include The Age of Missing Information and Hope, Human and Wild. His articles appear in Harper's, The Atlantic and The New York Review of Books. His latest book is Deep Economy. (04 Jun) 070404 Tariq Ali - Jihad: Theirs and Ours Now in its fifth year, how is "mission accomplished" in Iraq going? The National Intelligence Estimate says, "The Iraq conflict has become the 'cause celebre' for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement." A newly released study "Iraq Effect" reports the war on Iraq has increased terrorism seven fold worldwide. The great leaders in Washington, the jihadis of empire, seem oblivious to the consequences of their monstrous actions. They still mumble words like "victory" and "success" while escalating troop levels. And for Iraqis? Rivers of blood. Tariq Ali, an internationally renowned writer, was born in Lahore in 1943. It was then a part of British-ruled India, now in Pakistan. For many years he has been based in London where he is an editor of New Left Review. He's written more than a dozen books on world history and politics. A charismatic speaker, he is in great demand all over the world. In his spare time he is a filmmaker, playwright and novelist. He is the author of The Clash of Fundamentalisms, Bush in Babylon, and Speaking of Empire & Resistance with David Barsamian. His latest book is Pirates of the Caribbean: The Axis of Hope. (28 May) 070403 Chris Hedges - American Fascists: The Radical Christian Right Over the last several decades there has been a growth in fascist ayatollahs and mullahs in the United States. Pat Robertson called for the U.S. to "take out" Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He's a "terrific danger" whose country, says Reverend Pat, is "a launching pad for communist infiltration and Islamic extremism." Imagine that. Robertson suffered no opprobrium or penalty. And he still hosts his 700 Club TV show. So it's cool to advocate the assassination of an elected head of state. But Pat's small potatoes compared to the grand vision of televangelist John Hagee who says, "The United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the WestSa biblically prophesized end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ." Chris Hedges reported for The New York Times for more than a decade. Before that he worked for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor and National Public Radio. He has covered wars in the Balkans, the Middle East and Central America. His book, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning received the 2003 Overseas Press Club award. His latest book is American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. (21 May) 070402 P. Sainath - Journalism that Matters Journalism is in decline. At the pop tabloid end there is "People" magazine. It assigns seven reporters to cover the latest activities of Britney Spears. Then there is the high brow, serious genre. In this realm, powerful seductive forces lure journalists away from actual journalism. A system of perks and privileges keep reporters tethered. If you don't make waves you'll be invited to all the right parties and state dinners, hobnob with the nabobs and muckamucks, and have the president call you by your first name at press conferences. If you step out of line and rock the casbah? Well, you might soon be covering traffic accidents or sports. P. Sainath is an award-winning journalist who writes about the crisis in the Indian countryside. He is Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu, one of India's most important newspapers. "I cover the people who live at the bottom end of the spectrum," he says. He is author of Everybody Loves a Good Drought: Stories from India's Poorest Districts. (14 May) 070401 Bill Moyers - Media Reform A vibrant media is the oxygen of a living democracy. When the media are dominated by a handful of big corporations, citizens of a democracy are on a respirator gasping for air. James Madison, founding father, understood this well when he said, " A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but the prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power that knowledge gives." Today, media reform, once thought to be impossible, is an important issue. A growing grassroots movement is demanding change. Bill Moyers is one of America's best known and respected journalists. He was senior correspondent for CBS News, and producer and host of many of public television's most heralded documentaries and interview series. He is the winner of the more than 30 Emmy Awards, and the author of several bestsellers including Moyers on America. A longtime fixture on PBS, his new program is Bill Moyers' Journal. (07 May) 031202 Kurt Vonnegut - In Conversation Kurt Vonnegut has become a cultural icon. His observation of the destructiveness and dehumanisation of the 20th century, distilled by his rich imagination and quirky view of events and their time frames, make for delightful reading and listening experiences. His irreverence is palpable, as is his disdain for Bush and the current administration. Asked by a journalist for an idea for a really scary reality TV show, Vonnegut responded, "C Students From Yale, it would stand your hair on end." In his book Hocus Pocus, published in 1990, he wrote, "Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe." Kurt Vonnegut was an infantryman in WW II and was captured during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. He was then taken to a POW camp in Dresden in time to experience the horrific Allied firebombing of the city from the relative safety of an underground meat locker. The destruction wrought was greater than that of Nagasaki. He is now a self-described "fourth-generation German-American living in easy circumstances." He has written over 20 books and ranks among America's most widely read and best loved authors. Kurt Vonnegut died on the 11th April 2007. (30 Apr) 070304 Nader Talebzadeh - Dateline: Tehran No doubt wanting to build on its "enormous successes" and "progress" (Cheney) in Iraq and Afghanistan the Bush administration is now threatening Iran with war. For the propaganda masters it's a dream. All they have to do is change the q in Iraq to an n and they are good to go. They can recycle the same scripts. Ahmadinejad is the new Hitler or Saddam or bin Laden or maybe all three combined. Iran is "a growing threat," the vice-president warns us. CNN's Glenn Beck says, "Iran is a global threat as big as we've seen since the Nazis." Nader Talebzadeh (Nah-dir Tah-leb-zah-day) is an Iranian journalist, TV producer and host, and documentary and feature filmmaker. He is based in Tehran. (23 Apr) 070303 Rashid Khalidi - Palestine: The Iron Cage How was Israel able to forge a state while the Palestinians have been unable to? A key element in establishing Israel was British colonial control of Palestine and the 1917 Balfour Declaration. In 1936-39 the Palestinians rose up in revolt against their British masters. Key cadres were killed and exiled. Thus crucially in the decisive 1947-1948 period the community lacked leadership. Compounding their inability to achieve statehood, the Palestinians were divided by factions and less than sagacious political leaders. Overwhelming U.S. economic, military, and diplomatic support for Israel further seriously disadvantages the Palestinians. Now they are faced with an unviable statelet consisting of Bantustans. An outcome that is hardly the basis of a lasting peace. Rashid Khalidi is a University of Chicago professor and director of the Center for International Studies at the University of Chicago. His publications include The Origins of Arab Nationalism and Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness. (16 Apr) 070302 Amiri Barkaka Culture is an area of conflict and contention. Supposedly top Nazi Hermann Goering once said, "Whenever I hear the word 'culture' I reach for my gun." In the U.S. in recent decades there are cultural wars over books, movies, language and life-styles. It's the grist for many a radio and TV show. Listeners and viewers call-in and express their strong opinions on extramarital affairs of celebrities, or should Mark McGuire be inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame, and whether the film "Apocalypto" is too violent. Substantive issues are ignored and marginalized. For example, who manufactures and controls culture? What are its ideological goals? Who earns huge profits? Amiri Baraka, a major figure in African American culture, rose to fame in the 1960s as LeRoi Jones. His 1964 off-Broadway play, "Dutchman" created a sensation. Later he became Amiri Baraka and was a central figure in the Black Arts movement. He is an award-winning playwright and poet and recipient of the American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement. (09 April) 070301 Noam Chomsky - South America Rising From one end of the continent to the other, South America is rising. After centuries of colonial, semi-colonial rule and Monroe Doctrine U.S. gunboat diplomacy and coups, the erstwhile "banana republics" are saying, "Basta!" With Chavez in Venezuela and Morales in Bolivia taking the lead, they are being joined by Correa in Ecuador, and to some extent Kirchner in Argentina, Bachelet in Chile, Lula in Brazil and Ortega in Nicaragua in trying to form a new set of relations with the U.S. As Morales says, "We want partners, not bosses." While Washingron is fixated on the Middle East, events in South America indicate that formerly subordinate and servile countries are staking out new parameters of independence. Noam Chomsky, internationally renowned MIT professor, practically invented modern linguistics. In addition to his pioneering work in that field he has been a leading voice for peace and social justice. He is in huge demand as a public speaker all over the world. The New Statesman calls him, "Our greatest unraveller of accredited lies." Author of scores of books, his latest are Failed States, Perilous Power and the bestseller Imperial Ambitions. (02 April) 030403 Martin Luther-King - Beyond Vietnam Every year, almost like clockwork Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech gets airplay. The charismatic orator is frozen on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963. No doubt it was a great presentation, deeply moving and full of dazzling poetry and inspiring images. But it was not his most important speech, nor was it his most courageous one. That was to come on April 4, 1967 in Riverside Church in New York. There King demonstrated his political maturity and understanding of how the system works. He moved beyond a simple race analysis to include class and foreign policy issues. He forcefully denounced the war in Vietnam. He called the US "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world" and he deplored the "giant triplets of racism extreme materialism and militarism." Exactly one year later King was assassinated in Memphis. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Nobel Peace Prizewinner, is one of the 20th century's most enduring figures. He was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta. He was an early convert to civil disobedience and non-violence. He said, "Christ gave us the goals and Mahatma Gandhi the tactics." He rose to national prominence in 1955 during the epic 382-day Montgomery bus boycott. He went on to spearhead a movement which effectively ended juridical apartheid in the US. (26 Mar) 070204 Vandana Shiva - The Politics of Food Just a few years ago, Globalization was being hailed as the cure all for the world's economic problems. There were cascades of platitudes about "level playing fields" and "a rising tide lifts all boats." Prosperity for all was on the horizon. It hasn't quite worked out that way. But it's no surprise. The rich North has used so-called free trade agreements to further pauperize the South. The principle mechanism is massive subsidies to corporate agribusinesses who then dump their grains in Third World countries at below market prices. Farmers in India, Pakistan, Egypt, Mexico, and elsewhere can't compete and face ruin. On another front the big multinationals are trying to patent seed stocks forcing farmers to buy new seeds from them. People in the Global South are organizing to defend their rights. Vandana Shiva is an internationally-renowned voice for sustainable development and social justice. A Renaissance-type woman, she's a physicist, scholar, social activist and feminist. She is Director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy in New Delhi. She's the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, the alternative Nobel Prize. Author of many books, her latest is Earth Democracy. (19 Mar) 070203 David Korten - From Empire to Earth Community From the beginning of the United States the prevailing ethic was not to accommodate but to dominate. Indians were called "merciless savages" in the Declaration of Independence. They would be wiped out in great numbers and their culture destroyed. Nature was seen as wild and warranted conquest. Patterns of overconsumption and environmental degradation continue today. The U.S. has a huge war-making capacity which is linked to its rapacious appetite for resources inconveniently located in other countries. With less than 5% of world's population, the U.S. uses about 30% of the planet's resources. That equation is a prescription for conflict and disaster. Will we turn from empire to earth community and secure a sane and stable future or will we destroy our host like a cancer metastasizing? David Korten was an insider in the development establishment for about thirty years. He worked for the Ford Foundation and USAID. Having severed his ties to the past, today he is president of the People-Centered Development Forum and board chair of the Positive Futures Network, which publishes Yes! magazine. He is the author of When Corporations Rule the World and The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism. His latest book is The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community. (12 Mar) 070202 Howard Zinn - Overcoming Obstacles In a time of war, imperialism and official lying it's hard to be optimistic. The monopolistic media function as a weapon of mass distraction. They say, Don't fret about affairs of state. Turn to the sports pages or worry about clothes or whether Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes will be happy. Public apathy about serious matters seems to a problem. One often one hears comments like, "Why bother? Nothing we do matters." It's odd to hear these kind of views in a country that is relatively free and where many of us, particularly the privileged, have so many opportunities to work for social change and justice. Howard Zinn, professor emeritus at Boston University, is perhaps this country's premier radical historian. He was born in Brooklyn in 1922. His parents were poor immigrants. During World War II, he saw combat duty as an air force bombardier. After the war, he went to Columbia University on the GI Bill. He was an active figure in the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements. Today, he speaks all over the country before large and enthusiastic audiences. His masterpiece, A People's History of the U.S. continues to sell in huge numbers. His latest books are Original Zinn with David Barsamian, and A Power Governments Cannot Suppress. (05 Mar) 070201 Al Gore - The Attack on the Constitution Political leaders in the United States often refer to the Constitution in reverential tones with a touch of awe. The Founding Fathers, who crafted the document, are lauded for their wisdom and sagacity. But now that very base of the republic is under attack. Using September 11th as a justification, the Bush administration has made unprecedented claims of executive powers including warrantless wiretapping, secret evidence, suspension of the right to a speedy trial, domestic spying and the use of "coercive interrogation", i.e. torture. Many citizens are worried that civil liberties are being sacrificed in the name of national security. Al Gore was ViceŠPresident of the United States from 1992-2000. Before that he represented his home state of Tennessee in the House of Representatives and then in the Senate. He was defeated for the presidency in a controversial election in 2000. Gore's documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth has heightened awareness of global warming. (26 Feb) 070104 P. Sainath - Neoliberalism and India's Farm Crisis A hidden tragedy is unfolding in rural India: an epidemic of suicides has left more than more than 100,000 dead. And the toll is mounting. It's certainly not the stuff of upbeat Thomas Friedman stories in "The New York Times" about cutting edge hi-tech computer software centers in gleaming glass towers. The farm crisis is acute. Under the dictums of neoliberalism, sometimes called globalization, India has opened its agricultural sector to foreign, mostly U.S. imports. Grains and cotton come into India at below market prices. Why? Because they are heavily subsidized by American taxpayers. Indian farmers can't compete in this so-called level playing field. To try and keep up they go heavily into debt. Many face disaster and total ruin and in despair take their own lives. They are victims of neoliberal economic policy. P. Sainath is an award-winning journalist who writes about the crisis in the Indian countryside. He is Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu, one of India's most important newspapers. "I cover the people who live at the bottom end of the spectrum," he says. He is author of Everybody Loves a Good Drought: Stories from India's Poorest Districts. (19 Feb) 070103 James Ingalls & Sonali Kolhatkar - Afghanistan: War and Occupation Afghanistan has always been the sideshow to the main event in Iraq. In the last year, the situation in that impoverished, war-ravaged, land-locked Central Asian country has gone from bad to worse. While U.S. favorite Hamid Karzai sits in Kabul, events outside the capital are deteriorating. Warlords divide regions into fiefdoms. Opium production is at an all-time high. The Taliban is resurgent. Suicide bombings and I.E.Ds., heretofore unknown in Afghanistan, have been copied from Iraq. Military and civilian deaths are increasing. It was supposed to be a quick easy war. It hasn't quite worked out that way for Washington policymakers. They may be learning, as other conquerors have, that it is easy to invade Afghanistan but difficult to pacify and control it. James Ingalls is a Staff Scientist at the California Institute of Technology. Sonali Kolhatkar is host of "Uprising" a daily program on KPFK, Los Angeles. (12 Feb) 070102 Arundhati Roy & Eduardo Galeano - Writers and Resistance Great writers, since ancient times have delivered disturbing truths to the ears of the powerful. That tradition continues to the present. Harold Pinter of Britain may be the most eminent living playwright in the English-speaking world today. He was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature. In his acceptance speech he said, "The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis. The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law." Pinter's speech, widely covered in Europe and around the world, was barely reported on in the United States. Arundhati Roy is the celebrated author of The God of Small Things and winner of the prestigious Booker Prize. The New York Times calls her, "India's most impassioned critic of globalization and American influence." Her latest books are The Checkbook & the Cruise Missile, with David Barsamian, and An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire. Eduardo Galeano of Uruguay is one of Latin America's leading writers. His classic work is The Open Veins of Latin America. He is also the author of the award-winning Memory of Fire trilogy. His latest book is Voices of Time. Both he and Arundhati Roy are recipients of the Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom. (05 Feb) 070101 Michael Parenti - Race, Gender and Class Struggle Albert Einstein once said that it is easier to split the atom than to crack a prejudice. Prejudices abound about all cultures and societies. In the U.S., we pretend there is no class or that we are almost all satisfied members of the middle-class. Class struggle? What's that about? Are you some kind of Marxist? The evidence is clear and unambiguous. There is massive and growing inequality and huge disparities in wages and benefits. The average CEO earns $42,000 a day. Wall Street bankers and traders are getting year-end bonuses of up to $50 million. When the privileges of the ruling class are not being justified, their existence is being denied. And the politicians, with some exceptions, enable the rich in amassing ever more wealth. Michael Parenti is one of America's foremost independent political analysts. He has taught at major colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad. He is the author of numerous books including the classic Democracy for the Few, Against Empire and the highly acclaimed The Assassination of Julius Caesar. His latest is The Culture Struggle. (29 Jan) 061004 Sut Jhally - Advertising and the End of the World It's no accident that the rise of modern advertising coincides with the rise of mass production. As capitalism became better and better at making more and more stuff, it required new methods that would convince people to keep buying. Today's hyper-consumerism is driven by ever more sophisticated advertising and public relations techniques. The specific product is secondary. What they're really selling is lifestyle, ideology and sometimes, even war. Sut Jhally is Professor of Communications at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He is the founder and executive director of the Media Education Foundation and the author of The Codes of Advertising. He co-directed the critically acclaimed documentary, Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of American Empire. (22 Jan) 061003 Antonia Juhasz - Oilgarchy The iconic moment of the U.S. invasion of Iraq was the toppling of the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square in Baghdad. It was a staged event with extras supplied by the now discredited neocon favorite Ahmed Chalabi. What was really important was going on in the rest of the city: massive looting. Government offices and buildings including hospitals were ransacked. U.S. troops stood by and watched. The anarchy in the streets was of little concerned to Washington. As Rumsfeld said, "Stuff happens." But there was one building the U.S. military cordoned off and protected: the Ministry of Oil. It was no surprise. The big oil companies, with close ties to the oilgarchy in the White House, have long coveted access to Iraq's huge oil reserves. Antonia Juhasz (Yoo-haas) is an expert on international trade and economic policy. She is a visiting scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies. An award-winning writer, her work has appeared in a number of leading newspapers and journals. She is the author of The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time. (15 Jan) 061002 Arun Gandhi - Gandhian Civil Disobedience and Non Violence Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is an epic figure of the 20th century. He was dubbed "Mahatma," great soul, by another remarkable Indian, Rabindranath Tagore. Gandhi led a unique struggle to free India from Britsih colonial rule. He decided to resist the British with, what he called, "satyagraha," or truth force. It was based on the principles of nonviolence and the tactics of civil disobedience. Gandhi's successful defiance of the British inspired and influenced liberation movements all over the world including Martin Luther King, Jr and the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. Einstein said of Gandhi, "Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such a one as this walked upon this earth." Born in 1934 in Durban, South Africa, Arun Gandhi is the fifth grandson of India's late spiritual leader Mohandas Karamchand "Mahatma" Gandhi. In 1946, just before India gained independence from Britain, Arun's parents took him to live with his grandfather for eighteen months. At twenty-three, Arun returned to India, worked as a reporter for The Times of India, and cofounded India's Center for Social Unity, whose mission is to alleviate poverty and caste discrimination. Arun and his wife, Sunanda, migrated to the United States in 1987 and in 1991 founded the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in Memphis, Tennessee. (08 Jan) 061001 Amy Goodman - Breaking the Sound Barrier: Democracy Now Corporate control of print, TV, and radio poses serious problems for the communication needs of a democratic society. Without a broad spectrum of information and perspectives citizens are offered narrow choices on critical public issues. For example, discussions on Iran are limited to one guest saying, "Why wait? Let's attack now and get it over with." And the other saying, "Now is not the right time. Our military is overextended in Iraq and Afghanistan. Let's wait till later." Where is the view expressing, "An attack on any country, not just Iran, that is not threatening you is a grave breach of the UN Charter and international law and would constitute a major war crime." Amy Goodman is the award-winning host of Democracy Now, the daily syndicated radio and TV program. Her reporting on East Timor and Nigeria has received top awards. Howard Zinn says, "Amy Goodman has carried the great muckraking tradition of Upton Sinclair, George Seldes, and I.F. Stone into the electronic age, creating a powerful counter to the mainstream media." Her book The Exception to the Rulers was a bestseller. Her new book is Static. (01 Jan) 030302 Barbara Bernstein - Rivers That Were (Pt. 2) The Columbia River, flowing through the Pacific Northwest, is the fourth largest river in North America. The Colorado River, the major river in the desert Southwest, is a tiny stream compared to the Columbia, but it is probably the most litigated river in the world. Both these rivers once flowed with a force that overwhelmed the people who tried to navigate their rapids or control their currents and flood flows. That was until the Hoover, Bonneville and Grand Coulee Dams were built in the 1930s, finally taming these wild rivers and conscripting them into industrial service. These two hours explore the long-term consequences of over a century of redesigning nature to suit commercial and industrial needs. The programs contrast these historic mindsets with new approaches that try to design with nature. The programs juxtapose the voices and viewpoints of Native Americans, barge operators, water engineers, environmentalists, policy makers and others who live and work in the watersheds of these two mythic Western rivers. Part One: Working Water compares two environmental crises. On the Colorado River Basin, it's the ongoing effort to restore the Salton Sea. On the Columbia, it's the confounding crisis of how to clean up one of the most toxic sites in the world, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Part Two: Beaver Taught Salmon How To Jump recreates the once natural and free-flowing tributaries and mainstem of the Columbia River, the Great River of the West and compares what was with a transformed landscape of culverted urban creeks, inundated waterfalls and rapids and industrialised waterways. Barbara Bernstein is a nationally acclaimed radio producer. Recipient of many awards, she is one of this country's finest independent producers.