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/
Following the Soviet fall, triumphalist American economists declared an end to history, as though human progression through time had reached a just and stable equilibrium. Capitalism was Number One, and it was here to stay.
But, and it was indeed a very big "but", those optimistic prognosticators hadn't figured on the rise of George W. Bush, or more properly, "Bush's Brain" in the form of Karl Rove.
Though not alone, Rove ushered in a new age of Crony Capitalism through his relentless assault on both American Justice, and the laws governing the political process. So successful has Karl and his cohorts been, they have effectively hijacked every major election in America since the year 2000, and stand ready to do the same in 2012.
Greg Palast is a multi-award winning reporting investigator and the serial best-seller author of 'The Best Democracy Money Can Buy,' 'Armed Madhouse,' Vulture's Picnic,' and his most recent, 'Billionaires & bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps'.
Working both sides of the pond, Palast's reports for the BBC's flagship news program, Newsnight have rocked corporate crooks and struck terror into the hearts of political bagmen in Britain and America. The too few outlets brave enough to carry his investigative journalism in the United States include: Harper's, The Nation, and Rolling Stone magazine, while Democracy Now! is virtually alone in covering Greg's television work, rebroadcasting portions of his BBC exposes.
Greg Palast in the first half.
And; more than eighteen months after the destruction of Fukushima's Daiichi Nuclear facility radiation continues to spew from the plant. Four of the six reactors housed there were destroyed in the aftermath of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and still neither the plant's operators, TEPCO nor the Japanese government has any idea how to contain the meltdown.
Arnie Gundersen is a former nuclear power engineer and recipient of the Atomic Energy Commission Fellowship for his Master Degree in nuclear engineering. He is a former licensed reactor operator, nuclear industry senior vice-president, and nuclear safety patent holder.
Over the course of his 40-plus year career, Gundersen managed and coordinated projects at 70 nuclear power plants within the United States. Arnie Gundersen has filed reports on the unfolding situation at Daiichi, and the current conditions of many of America's nuclear facilities, through his energy consulting company, Fairewinds Associates.
Arnie Gundersen charting the course of the nuclear power industry 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 newz from our city's streets and beyond. But first, Greg Palast and taking the next election the easy way.
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://www.GorillaRadioBlog.blogspot.ca
Last Friday, trans-Atlantic reporting investigator, Greg Palast held a press conference. Coinciding with the second anniversary of the disastrous BP Deepwater Horizon oil platform blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, Palast reports; BP knew they had major problems with the Deepwater Horizon, knew it was an environmental time-bomb certain to go off, and yet did nothing to prevent the predictable catastrophe that followed.
Greg Palast's latest book recording the everyday depravity that is the modern world is, 'Vultures' Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates, and High-Finance Carnivores.'
'Vultures' Picnic' joins Palast's previous best-sellers, 'The Best Democracy Money Can Buy,' and 'Armed Madhouse' completing a chilling trilogy chronicling corporate malfeasance and personal moral turpitude endangering all life on Earth. It is, quote: "a journey into the corrupt heart of Big Oil, and behind it, Bigger Finance, exposing once and for all the corporate vultures who feed on the weak and poison our planet."
Greg Palast in the first half.
And; I went down to the Creatively United for the Planet Festival in Victoria yesterday to hear famed Canadian naturalist painter, Robert Bateman give a keynote address. Bateman famously smeared in black one of his paintings in a Youtube video famously protesting the proposed Gateway Pipeline project that he believes will certainly result in the destruction of British Columbia's rich coastal environment. Bateman's retrospective, 'The Art of Robert Bateman,' recently toured Canada and the USA, and his one-man show toured cities in Russia.
Robert Bateman in his own words in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz producer 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, Greg Palast and what BP knew about Deepwater and when, and why they did nothing about it.
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
This Week: "They were all vultures, and the rest of us were just food." So begins reporting investigator Greg Palast's latest recording of the everyday depravity that is the modern world, 'Vultures' Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates, and High-Finance Carnivores.'
'Vultures' Picnic' joins Palast's previous best-sellers, 'The Best Democracy Money Can Buy,' and 'Armed Madhouse' to complete a chilling trilogy chronicling the corporate malfeasance and personal moral turpitude literally endangering the lives and well-being of every living creature on Earth.
Greg Palast, in pursuit of petroleum pigs, power pirates, and high finance carnivores in the first half.
And; down at this end of the oil pipeline, where you and me, and those who drive internal combustion engines need to go to get their fuel, the price of that fix has risen, not only in a steady progression, but by fits and spurts, sometimes yo-yoing by ten and twenty percent at points of purchase in a single day! It wasn't always this way; so, what's changed?
Paul Summerville and tracking the international economy at the gas pump in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of the things going on on the streets of the city and beyond. But first, Greg Palast takes us on a Vultures' Picnic.
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
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