Got to be Free – Cuban American Hip Hop

During the 2007 Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba, some American Hip Hop artists collaborated with some Cuban musicians to produce this song.

Gorilla RAdio with Chris Cook, Vincent Mosco, Zoe Blunt, J9 Mon. July 21, 2008

This week: Vincent Mosco and begging the question, “Will media’s sheep look up?” Zoe Blunt chronicles the wee peoples’ fight on the south island; and, Janine Bandcroft from sunny Texas.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, 104.3 cable, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://GorillaRadioBlog.blogspot.com

Latin American School of Medicine

Just outside Havana. the Latin American School of Medicine trains students from all around the world.

The Cuban Five

These five men are imprisoned in various American jails, unable to visit their families. They’ve been in jail about 10 years, the corporate media blurred the story by instead focussing on the strange tale of the kidnapped Gonzales boy that happened about the same time. The audio is a discussion about it.

Talking about Democracy with Cubans

Recorded in Havana with an elected representative, a translator, and audience participation from various Pastors for Peace Caravanistas plus a Cuban on-looker. Apologies for the poor sound quality.

Cuban Revolutionaries in Sancti Spiritus

Fighting alongside Che Guevara for Cuba’s revolution, these survivors share some stories and answer some questions.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook,William Blum, Sarah Bjorknas Mon. July 14, 2008

Whether a president who starts wars without just cause, or a soldier who slaughters an innocent family, but never faces justice, they both commit atrocities that leave their victims no due recourse. It could be the retroactive “authorization” for crimes, as the recent amendments to the FISA Act in the United States proposes, or the slew of pardons the unimpeached president Bush will necessarily decree for crimes committed by those in his service in some short months time; but whatever the reasons, what we see today from the headlines to the frontlines to the breadlines is a growing culture of impunity, undermining that most basic foundation of our society: Justice.

Without equality before the law, civilization dies. Without the guarantee that those endangering the life and liberty of the polity will be arrested their illegal endevours, and brought before a panel as impartial as is possible to be judged and sentenced accordingly, anarchy prevails: Not the anarchy of literalists, poets, or utopians, where Humankind is finally freed the fetters of the arbitrary diktats of Church and State, but a jungle where savagery rules. It’s a dangerous moment, as empires go; the only stage of development following the crapulent flourishing of unanswerable criminality is collapse.

William Blum is an America author and creator of The Anti-Empire Report, an internet bulletin marking the passage of that sad nation at its most corrupt moment. Blum’s, who gave up his position with the Johnson administration in objection to his nation’s activities in Vietnam, book titles include: ‘Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II,’ ‘Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Super-Power,’ West-Bloc Dissident, a Cold War Memoir,’ and his latest, ‘ Freeing the World to Death: How the United States Gets Away With It.’ He’s also a contributor to the newly released anthology of our times, ‘International Justice and Impunity: The Case of the United States.’ William Blum in the first segment.

And; American war resister, Robin Long was scheduled to appear before a hearing into his status in Canada today in Vancouver. Long was arrested by Canada’s increasingly muscular Border Services agents in Nelson recently, and charged with violating conditions of his residency permit; charges he denies. Sarah Bjorknas is with the Vancouver chapter of the War Resisters Support Campaign and she’ll be here in the second half to bring us up to speed with Robin Long’s application for a stay of deportation.

And; Goods for Cuba caravanista, Janine Bandcroft has reportedly left the country, but we’re not sure if she’ll be able to touch down at the bottom of the hour with her doubtlessly interesting travellogue; but first: Getting away with it with William Blum.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Alexandra Morton, Jack Etkin July 7, 2008

It happened again last week; with the tiresome inevitability of an unwanted visit by a least favourite relative, another massive “escape” of Atlantic salmon from a “fish farm” near Campbell River has resulted in at least 30,000 of the invasive species being loosed into coastal waters here. Escapes like the Canada Day one from the Marine Harvest operation is just one of the myriad problems to the health of indigenous species posed by B.C.’s burgeoning fish farm industry, again highlighting the great peril this business promises.

Alexandra Morton is founder of the Raincoast Research Society, and Director of the Salmon Coast Field Station. She’s based on the British Columbia mainland’s mid-coast, at the Broughton Archipelago, where she has studied sea and wildlife for more than twenty years. Alexandra Morton in the first segment.

And; Canada needs a free press; this according to media and social justice activist, and friend to GR, Jack Etkin. Tomorrow, Jack and his fellow travellers will again be on the streets to bring to the people of the city the message Victoria’s highly concentrated media will not: The time for media reform is NOW.

Jack Etkin and massaging the “mainstream” message in the second half.

And; wayward Gorilla Radio contributor Janine Bandcroft has at this hour completed her journey to Cuba with the 19th annual Goods for Cuba Caravan. We’ve managed to receive her progress reports up until now, but Cuba presents communication problems we have so far been unable to solve. But tune in next week, and we’ll likely have her updates. But first today, Alexandra Morton and what Marine Harvest’s spilt fish means for B.C.’s Pacific salmon.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Brewster Kneen, Mahboob Khawaja, J9, Sheila Nopper, Mon. June 30, 2008

It’s one of the planet’s biggest corporations, but is hardly known outside the business world. Chances are, just about everything you will eat or drink today, and everyday, has passed first through the hands of Cargill Incorporated. In 1995, Canadian farmer, educator, publisher, broadcaster, and author, Brewster Kneen wrote ‘Invisible Giant: Cargill and It’s Transnational Strategies,’ and at the request of Pluto Press revisited the subject for a second edition. Kneen says: “I was shocked and amazed at the changes I found since the first edition appeared.” Brewster Kneen in the first segment.

And, though less well known, Canada too has rubbished eight hundred years of Western jurisprudence in the wake of 9/11, enacting so-named “Terrorism Laws” that effectively toss out the concept of Habeas Corpus, that right to maintain the freedom of one’s own body notwithstanding a public charge, prosecuted in an open court, abiding by universal evidentiary rules, and allowing the accused be provided the opportunity to face her accusor; that in Canada today is history. Dr. Mahboob Khawaja is a Canadian university professor whose son, Momin was arrested in Ottawa March 29th, 2004 for alleged complicity in a British bombing conspiracy. Momin Khawaja’s trial began last week, more than four years after his arrest. Mahboob Khawaja and Canadian justice delayed in the second segment.

And; skyrocketing ferry fares has British Columbians crying no fair…and it’s about to get worse. While a deterent to tourism, an extra cost of doing all business on the islands, and an irritant to occassional commuters, the continued rise of fares is now threatening the viability of island life for B.C.’s coastal communities. The situation has motivated the masses to form Rock the Boat Coalition, an organization of concerned islanders determined to stem the tide of rising ferry costs. Sheila Nopper is a Denman-based writer and founder of the coalition. Sheila Nopper, rocking the boat in the third segment.

And; Janine Bandcroft will peek in from her journey to cuba from somewhere in America with the 19th Goods for Cuba Caravan near the bottom of the hour. But first, Brewster Kneen making apparent the beast with a return to the lair of the “Invisible Giant.”

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Chris Hedges, Lee Zaslofsky, J9 Mon. June 16, 2008

Though you would be hard-pressed to prove it looking out on the peaceful campus of the University of Victoria, where bunnies and birds cavort in the late Spring sunshine, we are living in a time of war. President Bush is a "War President," and by extension Stephen Harper is a War Prime Minister; and Gordon Brown, and all the heads of the so-named "coalition of the willing" nations, are Commanders in Chief.

Bush and his lesser leaders tell us the battle field of this most unusual war is everywhere, and nowhere to be seen; it exists in cyberspace, and outer space, and the space between men's ears, and in the bosoms of women folk longing to be free. It is an abstract war, a war like the emperor's clothes of fable that could be invisible but for the very real bloody bodies of the innocent that overflow the morgues of Baghdad, and lay unattended in the streets of Mogadishu, fodder for dogs and carrion birds. Most of these are "unintended" casualties, merely men and women and children who got in the way of the bullets and missiles and bombs meant to destroy something, or somebody else; they are "collateral damage."

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, former war correspondent for the New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor, and author. Some of his book titles include: 'What Every Person Should Know About War,' 'War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning,' 'Fascist America: The Christian Right and the War on America,' 'I Don't Believe in Atheists,' and his latest, 'Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians.'

Chris Hedges in the first half.

And; the illusion of a prinicipled Canada, that place where a caring people live and work to bring about the betterment of their fellow, if less fortunate, brethren around the globe suffered another dose of reality with the Harper government's refusal to grant asylum to conscientious objectors deserting America's unconscionable wars of aggression and occupations in foreign lands. Despite a motion recently adopted in the Canadian parliament, wherein a majority of legislators voted to stay deportation orders against some of the first U.S. soldiers to seek sanctuary here since the days of Trudeau and that other American war in Vietnam, Prime Minister Harper is yet to move to enact the non-binding motion, making of Canada a haven again for principled opposition to egregious foreign policies south of the forty ninth.

Lee Zaslofsky resisted his country's call to arms. Fleeing instead America to take refuge in Canada, he joined the estimated 50,000 young Americans refusing LBJ's and Richard Nixon's insistence they go to war to "join black men, sent by white men, to kill yellow men, to protect land stolen from red men."

Lee Zaslofsky and the growing Resisters movement in Canada in the second half.

Gorilla RAdio with Chris Cook, Andre Vltchek, J9 Mon. June 23, 2008

despite Canada’s place as one of the largest Pacific nations, we hear very little about the rest of our partners on the shores of the world’s largest ocean, or how our neighbours live. Andre Vltchek is a freelance journalist, author, and filmmaker specializing in the Pacific region. He’s a senior fellow at the Oakland Institute, co-founder of Mainstay Press, a publishing house for progressive political fiction, and serves as editorial director for the Asiana Press Agency. Some of Andre Vltchek’s book titles include: ‘Western Terror: From Potosi to Baghdad,’ ‘Exile,’ and his latest ‘Point of No Return.’ He also produced ‘Terlena – Breaking of a Nation,’ a documentary chronicling the life and legacy of Indonesian dictator, Surharto. Indonesian dictator Suharto. Andre Vltchek and a Pacific check in

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Mandeep Dhillon Mon. Jun 2, 2008

Some countries, those artifices made of lines drawn on maps of areas on this planet that spins around a yellow star, located in a small system, nestled on the edge of a spindly arm of the Milky Way, were created in large part by drunken pirates, thieves and murderers, whose successors now declare:

* “For some, existence is, in itself, in this place, a crime.”

These sons and daughters of buccanneers take it upon themselves to punish for the sin of living here those people they declare to be “illegal” with imprisonment in cages and concrete caves; to be watched over and hectored by sadists, and psychopaths; brutalized for the crime of simply being.

That these latter day pirates are racists is not necessarily their only motivation: Declaring some humans lesser than others is an ancient and effective method to make easier for the master’s conscience the forced extraction of the lives and labours of the slave class.

But, resistance to the slave masters is as ancient as this systemic barbarity, and today in slave nation Canada, resistance is growing.

No One is Illegal is an organization addressing the atrocities visited upon human dignity commited by the inheritors of the pirates who stole and named this land, and yesterday they and their supporters rallied in the cities and towns across the country so-named to declare their opposition to the furtherence of legislation drawn against the natural law of humanity in the form of bill C-50.

Mandeep Dhillon is a member of No One Is Illegal, herself a legally recognized Canadian human being who stands opposed to C-50, and he’ll be here to tell us why. Mandeep Dhillon and scrapping C-Five-0 in the second half.

And; Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with all that’s good to do in and around Victoria in the coming week.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Mel Hurtig, Janine Bandcroft May 26, 2008

Mel Hurtig is an author, businessman, political activist, and publisher. Among his many services and accompishments he published the first, and only, Canadian Encyclopaedia, founded the Council of Canadians, and ran as leader of the upstart National Party of Canada. Some of his book titles include: ‘The Betrayal of Canada,’ ‘A New and Better Canada,’ Pay the Rent or Feed the Kids,’ ‘At the Twilight in the Country,’ ‘the Vanishing Country,’ and his latest, ‘The Truth about Canada: Some Important, Some Astonishing, and Some Truly Appalling Things All Canadians Should Know About Our Country.’ Mel Hurtig in the second half.

And; Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with all that’s good going on in and around the south island in the coming week. But first, Jason Leopold and meeting America’s prospective new bosses.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Jason Leopold Monday May 26, 2008

Jason Leopold is a self-confessed news junkie, whose shingle includes stints with the Dow Jones Newswire, the L.A. Times, on-line sites, Truthout.org and Consortium News, and his investigative reporting has garnered him two Project Censored awards, uncovering the slime beneath American monster corporations Halliburton and Enron. He is also the author of the best-selling autobiography, News Junkie, and co-founder of the new news site, The Public Record. Jason Leopold in the first segment.