Over the weekend, the Finnish-flagged M/S Estelle attempted to ferry aid into the besieged Gaza Strip, and like previous attempts was intercepted by the Israeli navy in international waters, its crew and passengers taken into port at Ashdod and imprisoned.
As of Sunday October 21st, there is little word of the conditions of captivity for former Canadian MP Jim Manley, though a release from organizers of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition confirms: Some of the Estelle's crew has been deported to Greece and Italy.
Reports from Israeli activists on the ship claim passengers were "tasered" by the Israeli boarding party. For its part, Israeli authorities lied about the cargo on board the Estelle, maintaining the ship contained "no humanitarian aid."
The Estelle's attempt to break the years-old blockade of Gaza comes on the heels of last week's publication of Israeli documents confirming that state's practice of a calorie counting regimen restricting the amount of food allowed into the Gaza enclave based on an estimated minimal caloric intake per person necessary to avoid wide-spread starvation. Also known as the "Gaza Diet," the revelation is not news to Palestinians, or most Israelis, but does present an international embarrassment to the government, which has always denied such a policy existed.
Jon Elmer is a Canadian photo-journalist who has reported from the Occupied Territories for more than a decade. Jon's work has taken him to some of the region's, and the world's, most troubled areas, filing reports for the Inter Press Service, Al Jazeera English, The Progressive, and Le Monde Diplomatique among others. His work can also be found at his website, JonElmer.ca. Jon Elmer in the first half.
And; the long-awaited October 22 manifestation is happening even now in downtown Victoria. The event, in part organized by the newly formed, Defend Our Coast coalition, and supported by a variety of international Environmental Non-Government Organizations hoped to rally British Columbians and others concerned about the Enbridge Gateway project, a massive pipeline proposal to sluice Tar Sands condensate-soaked bitumen to the port of Kitimat on its way to a trans-pacific voyage to the Asian market.
The format and nature of this demonstration is unique in my experience, and it has sparked some heated debate within the environmental community. I went down there this morning to record my impressions and those of the participants. Defending Our Coast in the second segment.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us her take on Defend Our Coast and other manifestations in and around our city. But first, Jon Elmer on blockades and other doings in and around Occupied Palestine.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/
G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.
Went down to the demo. to chill with several thousand fellow citizens concerned about oil tanker traffic off the coast of BC. Defend Our Coast, prominent organizers, message follows: The CBC is reporting 3,000 people are here today on this cold, just starting to get rainy October Monday. Our team thinks it’s closer to 5,000.
But remember: this is not just a protest rally. Hundreds of people have been trained (mainly over the past weekend) and intend to put their bodies on the line to get arrested. If we wanted sheer numbers, we would have held this on a weekend. The design of this action was for people who care passionately about protecting our coast to take direct action to show how strongly citizens across BC feel about this issue.
And as you can see from some of the earlier quotes from our First Nations allies, this direct resistance is just starting. And won’t stop until we win.
The late American writer, Kurt Vonnegut set the record straight in his great novel, Breakfast of Champions, where he wrote of the "discovery" of America by Columbus:
"1492. As children we were taught to memorize this year with pride and joy as the year people began living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America. Actually, people had been living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America for hundreds of years before that. 1492 was simply the year sea pirates began to rob, cheat, and kill them."
1862 is the date Victoria City would have us all remember with pride and joy, for that was the year "people" began living here. But actually, 1862 is the year pirates whose names grace our streets and byways yet executed a plan that rightly belongs atop the annals of world infamy; a plan that destroyed not only the lives of more than 100,000 individuals, but one meant to destroy entirely the peoples of the Pacific coast of what we now call British Columbia.
Genocide is a term loosely used today, but there is none better to describe the beginnings of European settlement at this place, and after 150 years, no better time to finally face the truth of it.
Tom Swanky is perhaps an unlikely historian. The retired businessman took on the research end of his son Shawn's film project on the Tslihqot'in War, and the hanging by the colonials of their Chiefs in 1864. It was during the research for that project, Tom noted the great gulf separating the victors' narrative from that of the vanquished, and discovered a paper trail leading to revelations he could hardly believe. Over ten years of research culminated in his book, 'The True Story of Canada’s ‘War’ of Extermination on the Pacific'. Tom will be presenting some of his research at the Seventh Annual Anarchist Bookfair, beginning September 8th.
Tom Swanky in the first half.
And; it's been said, "History doesn't repeat, but it does echo." and the echoes of the original colonial sins are ringing throughout the interior of British Columbia now. Though their suits may have changed in 150 years, the cut of the cloth has not; at this very moment, marauders cloaked in propriety plot to dispossess the natives, driving through their lands rightofways as paths to enrich themselves, and profit the distant government.
It's not gold for Empire this time, but energy they crave; the new coin of the realm. The Enbridge pipeline project hopes to make of the province a conduit for Alberta's bitumen mines, sluicing the toxic goo through pipes to the sea at Kitimat. Last week, the project sprung another leak, with VanCity announcing divestiture of all investments in the companies behind the scheme.
Zoe Blunt is a Victoria-area based environmental activist, organizer, and facilitator. She's a citizen journalist whose work has been instrumental in the implementation of myriad campaigns locally, and throughout the province designed to protect the ecological integrity of B.C.'s wild lands, ensuring habitat viabililty for the animals in it, and cultural continuity for the people depending on it. Zoe was front and centre in efforts to convince VanCity to change their investment portfolio options, excluding Enbridge related vehicles.
Zoe Blunt and plugging the pipeline's progress in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us in the second half to bring us up to speed with some of the good things going on in and around Victoria in the coming week. But first, Tom Swanky and the Great Darkening at the heart of our colonial beginnings.
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, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/
This week: Rod Mariner is a long-time environment defender, a co-founder of Greenpeace International, navigator of the Sea Shepherd vessels Farley Mowat and Steve Irwin, among others, Chair of the BC Environmental Network, Listserve manager for the Landwatch Campaign, and Coordinator for PATH, or People's Action for Threatened Habitats. Rod departed with the Caravan to Wet'suwet'en from the lower mainland a couple of weeks back, and joins us in the first segment with reports of the caravan and their getting in the path of a promised pipeline at the heart of B.C.
And; they're baaack. Yes, the Neocons have resurfaced! Rebranded and up to their bloody elbows in mischief again, the folks that brought you the Balkans, Iraqs I and II, Afghanistan, and Libya, are front and centre of the Washington war lobby pack and afroth at the mouth for more gore. Syria is just one project for the Foreign Policy Initiative, or FPI. That is the new monicker for the war mongers formerly known as the Project for the New American Century (PNAC).
Ramzy Baroud is a Palestinian-American journalist, editor, educator, and former Al-Jazeera producer. Ramzy is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Palestine Chronicle and author of the books, 'Searching Jenin: Eyewitness Accounts of the Israeli Invasion,' 'The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle,' and his latest book, 'My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story.' Ramzy's work can also be found at his website, ramzybaroud.net. Ramzy Baroud and Neocons on the Wing over Syria in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us newz from the city's streets and beyond. But first, Rod Marining and the next stage of resistance to Big Oil in B.C.
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, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://GorillaRadioBlog.blogspot.com
The two best known pipeline project proposals for British Columbia are the so-called "twinning" of the existing Kinder Morgan pipeline, that has until now quietly issued Tar Sands product all the way from Alberta's Satanic Mills, disgorging at Vancouver, and the proposed creation of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline that hopes to see the Tar Sands goo transported to Kitimat, where it will then be shipped through the treacherous fjords and inland islands en route to China's insatiable industrial monstrosities, and perhaps to car mad California.
Lesser known than these though is the Pacific Trail Pipeline, designed to facilitate gas fracked from B.C.'s Northeast.
Last week, the Caravan to Wet'suwet'en launched from towns and cities across B.C. and North America, to converge at the Pacific Trail/Enbridge Northern Gateway right-of-way.
Rod Mariner is a long-time environment defender, a co-founder of Greenpeace International, navigator of the Sea Shepherd vessels Farley Mowat and Steve Irwin, among others, Chair of the BC Environmental Network, Listserve manager for the Landwatch Campaign, and Coordinator for PATH, or People's Action for Threatened Habitats. Rod departed with the Caravan to Wet'suwet'en from the lower mainland last week, and joins us in the first segment.
And; last week, details about the source of Mitt Romney's great wealth broke. Mitt it turns out accepted millions to set up his vulture capital fund from the first families of El Salvador at the height of the dirty wars there in the 1980's. A footnote in U.S. policy atrocity now perhaps, but the death squad terror supported by Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and businesses like Mitt Romney's Bain Capital set the stage for the horror to follow in Iraq, and across the middle-east.
Robert Parry is an old-time investigative journalist and founder of the news website, Consortium News. Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his sons, Sam and Nat, and can be ordered at neckdeepbook.com. His two previous books are: Secrecy & Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq; and, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & ‘Project Truth’. Revisiting Robert Parry and the death squad legacy of Latin America in the second segment.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from Victoria's streetz and far beyond. But first, Rod Mariner, the Caravan to Wet'suwet'en, and resistance in an age of environmental madness.
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, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://GorillaRadioBlog.blogspot.com
G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in corporate and state media. Gorilla Radio airs live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 102FM, 104.3 cable, and on t
2012-10-23
Categories 
Posted by admin
This audio file has been downloaded 145 times
Louise
