Palast & Pilger on Neocolonialism & Democracy

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This week in New World Notes, radio program #71, July 7 & 10:

Axis of evil or champion neocolonialism-busters? (L to R:) Hugo
Chavez (Venezuela), Fidel Castro (Cuba), Evo Morales (Bolivia).
All other photos: Click to enlarge.

Palast & Pilger on
Neocolonialism & Democracy

Or: Andes, Schmandes, Let's Have Some in Muncie, Indiandes!

Two dispatches from South America show progress from (1) colonialism to (2) neocolonialism to (3) neocolonialism disguised as democracy to (4) democracy. Greg Palast reports from Ecuador (Stage 3), ruthlessly exploited by & practically a colony of the World Bank and global financial institutions. John Pilger reports from Bolivia, which has recently and tentatively arrived at Stage 4. The US should be so fortunate!

Top: American writer & BBC reporter Greg Palast.
Bottom: Australian filmmaker, essayist, & correspondent John Pilger.

Credit where due:

We play selections (on Bolivia) from John Pilger's film, War on Democracy, adapted to radio by Lyn Gerry for the Unwelcome Guests Collective (www.unwelcomeguests.org). Many thanks thereunto. KD reads passages on Ecuador from Greg Palast's recent book, Armed Madhouse.

New World Notes is produced by Kenneth Dowst for WWUH-FM, "Public Alternative Radio," at The University of Hartford. Feedback to kdowst at hotmail dot com.

Songs--

• Chumbawamba, "The Bad Squire"
• Sam Cooke, "A Change Is Gonna Come" (Pilger film theme-song)

Coming soon (dates of WWUH Tuesday broadcast shown):

• July 14--Are Our Schools Bad on Purpose? (John Taylor Gatto, Part 1)
• July 21--The Art of the Rant, Part 1

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford, CT) & http://wwuh.org/
• Fridays, 7:30 to 8:00 AM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs, CT) & http://www.whus.org/
• Saturdays, 7:00-7:30 PM, KRFP-FM 92.5, Radio Free Moscow (Moscow, ID) & http://www.radiofreemoscow.com/
• Any time: Listen to or download any installment ... or subscribe to a podcast ... at A-Infos Radio Project: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=result&action=series&series=New+World+Notes
  

Dr. Seuss (Theodore Seuss Geisel), 1904-1991

The Art of Poetry--Lessons 1 & 1.5:

Happy birthday to me!
I'm 59, not 43.
I look like a mon-key,
And I don't watch TV!

[Segue:]

God . . . bless Vi-ag-ar-a!
Pill . . . that is good!
Stand beside it . . . and guide it . . .
[insert some words here] . . . whole neighborhood!
From [more words needed]
To . . . "
To Norwegians, white as foam!
God bless Vi-ag-ar-a!
Where-e're you roam!
God bless Vi-ag-ar-a!
[Last line needed. Suggestions?]

Astrodome? weighty tome? ev'ry home? Kookie, lend me your comb?, fertile loam?, genome? metronome? to frosty Nome? this here poem? old-age home? when in Rome? microtome? from her womb [sight-rhyme]? rhizome? Hillary, then you too would moan?

. . . Blue-dress Spot:
It may never come out, Monica, it may not! (???)

Aw, the hell with it--and apologies to Connecticut's own T.S. Geisel ("Dr. Seuss")--one of the few people I've heard of who died after having made the world a better place--along with another former neighbor of mine, the Rev. Fred Rogers, of Pittsburgh--whom I never had the courtesy to thank. And yes, I am a little old to be having another Midlife Crisis, but my first one didn't go well!

Happy Independence Day!

Ken

"Fredosaurus Rex", on the grounds of public TV station
WQED, in Pittsburgh, honors Fred Rogers.