Millions of citizens from across Venezuela traveled to the capital and cued for hours last Thursday in a miles-long procession to see Hugo Chavez's body as it lay in state. So many in fact, the interim government of vice president, Nicolas Maduro announced, following his funeral Friday, the "Comandante" would lie in state an extra week. While death marked his finish, as it ends us all, the work Hugo Chavez began as South America's first modern reformist president is not over; not by a long chalk, if the cries of Venezuela's "Chavistas" are to be believed.
The send off Chavez received in the "Western" press was decidedly unflattering; a series of black epitaphs running the A to B gamut; from the celebratory Fox, to the barely contained gleefulness of Canada's State broadcaster, whose radio news flagship reporter, Anna Maria Tremonti pronounced of his death on her program, 'The Current;
"In a country dominated by a cult of personality where information is not free, the death of the populist and polarizing Hugo Chavez leaves a gaping hole and endless questions." end quote.
Not least of those questions, for Canadians, should be: "Do we actually have to PAY for this crap masquerading as news!?"
Like Anna Maria Tremonti, Greg Palast is not a journalist, but he is an honest reporting investigator, whose peerless work for the BBC's Newsnight broke wide-open the similarly lop-sided and wrong-headed reportage surrounding the 2002 coup d'etat against Chavez and Venezuelan democracy. In an article he wrote at the Guardian about the coup almost eleven years ago, Palast observed;
"Thirty years ago, when US corporations demanded the removal of a bothersome president, the CIA thought it most important to aim propaganda at the Latin locals. Now, it seems, in the drumbeat of disinformation buzzwords about Chavez - "dictatorial", "unpopular", "resigned" - the propagandists have learned to aim at that more gullible pack of pigeons, the American and European press."
How little has changed. While still working with Newsnight and the Guardian, Palast also writes a weekly column for Vice Magazine and is the author of the New York Times bestsellers, 'Billionaires & Ballot Bandits,' 'The Best Democracy Money Can Buy,' and 'Armed Madhouse.' He's also author of the highly acclaimed, 'Vulture's Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates, and High-Finance Carnivores.'
Greg Palast in the first half.
And; while the 2002 attempt against Hugo Chavez was a rare failure of Western democracy's economic hit men, lessons learned there certainly helped guarantee the success of 2004's usurpation of Haiti's mild reformist president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The former liberation theologist priest Aristide was spirited farther out of the country than Chavez, all the way to the Central African Republic, from where there could be no triumphant return. Aristide's two short-lived administrations are contrasted by the Papa and Baby Doc Duvalier reigns of terror, together lasting more than three decades, and seeing uncounted numbers of Haitians tortured, killed, and disappeared. Baby Duvalier was too flown out of Haiti courtesy of the US government, but his exile was a self-imposed, luxurious vacation in France that only ended when the booty he looted from the treasury on leaving began running out.
Duvalier returned to Haiti just over two years ago, and has danced with the judiciary there ever since. That jig picked up pace last Monday, seeing the former "president for life" in court answering questions about human rights abuses committed on his watch. Just hours after his first scheduled court appearance, the 61 year old was reported to have been hospitalized, his lawyer Reynold Georges saying only Duvalier "was sick." It's a sentiment long held in Haiti.
Kim Ives is a journalist, co-host of the WBAI radio program, 'Haiti: The Struggle Continues,' and co-founder of the international weekly newspaper Haiti Liberté. He's also a writer and editor with Haiti Progres newspaper and a documentary filmmaker who has directed and worked on many films about Haiti, including: 'Bitter Cane,' 'The Coup Continues,' and 'Rezistans.' He also works with the Haiti Support Network (HSN), has led numerous delegations to Haiti, and frequently speaks about Haiti before church, student, and community audiences, and on Haitian and U.S. radio programs.
Kim Ives and tales from the dictator's fall in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from our city's streets and beyond. But first, Greg Palast and the passing of a president.
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/
It's said; "March comes in like a lion..." and from Ireland to Norway to Vancouver the month begins with the 'March for Wild Salmon,' an international link-up of citizens', environmental, and indigenous groups roaring its determination to halt the spread of the transglobal fish farming industry.
Vancouver's mobilization is led by the Indigenous Salmon Defenders, kicking off a month-long campaign consisting of a series of events, culminating on the final day of March with a global vigil for wild salmon. The timing is no accident, as the coming Spring is the most crucial moment for the next generation of salmon smolt, who must transit a veritable gauntlet of disease-ridden, sea lice spawning fish feedlots dotting their migratory route to the open ocean.
Dawn Morrison is founder of the Indigenous Food Sovereignty Network, a group formed in conjunction with the BC Food Systems Network. She also coordinates the Vancouver Native Health Society's Urban Aboriginal Gardens and Kitchen Project. Morrison is too a leader for Indigenous community engagement in association with the BC Bioregional Food Assistance Planning Project, and she'll be at the head of the March for Wild Salmon. She says the message is simple: “Stop Norwegian Fish Farms from Killing Wild Salmon!”
Dawn Morrison in the first half.
And; fully three years since the great earthquake that destroyed much of Haiti's capital, Port au Prince thousands still remain homeless, jobless, and dependent on foreign aid - such as it is - to survive.The usual, and suspect, agencies are all represented in Haiti, chiefly among them being the United Nations' Minustah, or "stabilization mission."
It's long been believed in the country, it was Nepalese soldiers seconded to Minustah who introduced cholera into the water supply downstream of their base, setting off an epidemic so far credited with killing at least 8,000 Haitians, and sickening many hundreds of thousands more. Though the provenance of the outbreak was obvious, the United Nations has steadfastly denied responsibility. Investigations began, eventually finding, fully two and a half years after the fact, the UN's troopers were indeed the source of the disaster.
Last week, claims for compensation, duly filed by the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, or IJDH on behalf of the those afflicted, were rejected out of hand by the UN, with that organization's number one, Ban Ki-moon expressing "profound sympathy" for the suffering caused by the worst outbreak of its kind in the world today, while refusing to accept responsibility for it.
Brian Concannon Jr. is Director for the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, and he joins us from Boston with reaction to the UN's decision in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from our city's streetz, and beyond. But first, Dawn Morrison and a month of Marching for the Wild Salmon.
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/
While New York City, and the rest of America's eastern seaboard digs out from Hurricane Sandy, and electricity is returned to the "city that never sleeps," little media coverage is being devoted to the primary victims of the "Super Storm" in Haiti.
Nearly three years past the massive earthquake that destroyed much of the capital, Haitians struggling to get back on their feet have had to cope with serial tropical storms and hurricanes, wide-spread governmental corruption and mismanagement, an imported cholera epidemic, drought, and now Sandy.
Early reports put Sandy's death toll at 52 souls, but what is really worrying is the reemergence of cholera among the hundreds of thousands still living in crowded, poorly serviced, unsanitary, and exposed tent cities.
Roger Annis is a Vancouver-based trade unionist and social activist; a member of Vancouver's Stopwar.ca coalition, Roger has also been involved with the Canada Haiti Action Network and runs the website, A Socialist in Canada.
Roger Annis in the first half.
And; long-serving Victoria MP, Denise Savioe stepped down in August, surrendering her seat for health reasons. Savioe held the seat through six years and three election campaigns, following her community service in Victoria as a city councillor. The Victoria seat had, until Denise's first victory in 2006 had virtually belonged to Liberals through the aegis of former cabinet minister, David Anderson.
Now, by-elections have been called for three ridings, including Victoria for November 26th. Victoria's Liberal hopeful is Dr. Paul Summerville, currently an adjunct professor here at UVic in the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business. Summerville worked previously for Deutsche Bank, Jardine Fleming, and Lehman Brothers. I spoke with Paul in March on energy policy in Canada.
Paul Summerville and our energy future in the second half.
And; Victoria Street News publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us newz from our city's streets and beyond.
But first, Roger Annis and Haiti, island in the heart of the storm.
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 see journalist and author, Jeb Sprague on his book, Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti' at the University of Victoria Saturday.
This week: It's been said, "Behind every great fortune there is a crime." but Balzac never knew Mitt Romney, the mega-rich Republican candidate who would be president, for if he had he may have said, "Behind every fortune there are a great number of crimes."
Mitt has yet to answer for that great number of crimes he's complicit in committing; yet to be brought to book for the bloody profits he and Bain Capital reaped to the cost of thousands of lives.
Few of the flag-wavers at the recent Republican National Convention in Florida recall, or care to remember, Reagan's Dirty Wars in Central America in the 1980's and '90's, but the most fervent in their willful forgetting must be Romney's camp followers, the ones with the most to lose should the truth of their leader's character become more broadly known.
Sandy Smith-Nonini is adjunct assistant professor in the Departments of Anthropology and the Curriculum in Global Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. In those terrible days of Reagans reign of terror in Latin America, Sandy worked as a freelance news reporter for the New York Times, and served as a field contributor to the American Medical News. Sandy Smith-Nonini is also author of the book 'Healing the Body Politic: El Salvador's Popular Struggle for Health Rights from Civil War to Neoliberal Peace,' and recently contributed the article, 'Romney's Blood Money' to the web news site, Counterpunch.
Sandy Smith-Nonini in the first half.
And; in 1994, Haitian democracy was the envy of the world. The populist president of the country, former priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide enjoyed a 92% approval rating, and was beginning to reform the profound corruption at all levels of government left in the wake of the despotic father and son Duvalier regimes. After two centuries of social turmoil, things were finally looking up for Haiti. And then things changed.
Jeb Sprague is a journalist, and PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Jeb is the recipient of a Project Censored Award for a 2008 article, co-authored with Haitian journalist Wadner Pierre and he's written for the Inter Press Service, TeleSUR, Al Jazeera, Z Magazine, NACLA, Haiti Liberté, Haiti Progrès, among numerous journals. His first book, 'Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti' is now out. Jeb Sprague will be appearing here at the University of Victoria this Saturday at 4pm in the David Strong building to talk about his book and the situation in Haiti. Jeb Sprague and the paramilitarists assault on Haiti's democracy.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of the newz unfolding on our city's streets and beyond. But first, Sandy Smith-Nonini and following Romney's Blood Money.
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
2013-03-12
Categories 
Posted by admin
This audio file has been downloaded 73 times
loveuseeme
