Saturday, August 28, 2010

The Drive to War Against Iran



New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 35 -- August 28, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #130, August 31 & Sept.4:

The Drive to War Against Iran

In brief

The run-up to war on Iran sure looks a lot like the run-up to war on Iraq. For example, our government is demonizing the country's leadership, ensuring that all negotiations fail, and loudly denouncing a nuclear-weapons program that does not exist.

In an interview with Canadian host Brandon Stone, Richmond (Virginia) activist Phil Wilayto lucidly describes and explains the U.S. geopolitical, diplomatic, and military strategies concerning Iran. Also discussed: the real reason the U.S. is determined to crush Iran . . . the insanity of a military strike . . .and the need for peace activists to organize.

Of particular interest is Wilayto's discussion of how the U.S. play-acts at negotiating a diplomatic settlement--while ensuring no settlement is reached and destroying settlements negotiated by third parties (e.g., the Brazil-Turkey deal to enrich Iran's reactor rods). The object of the charade is to persuade people that military attack is the only remaining option. Sounds like a Conspiracy Theory, but Dennis Ross, Obama's chief advisor on Iran, has described this policy in writing.

Top: Phil Wilayto. Bottom: Veteran diplomat Dennis Ross--
a neoconservative, a Zionist, and a longtime advocate for Israel--
is chief White House advisor on Iran. Most photos: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links

Thanks to Brandon Stone, co-host of the program "Unusual Sources" on station CFMU-FM in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "Yum-Yum Tree") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

Feedback to kdowst at hotmail period com.
Free weekly NWN email newsletter on request.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. New World Notes' main audio archive is at radio4all.net. Installments beginning with #90 are archived also at The Internet Archive, in a variety of file formats. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.


Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

  • September 7 -- Labor Day Musical Special
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):



A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net


Saturday, August 21, 2010

Food, Hunger, and Globalized Corporate Agriculture (1)

New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 34 -- August 21, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #129, August 24 & 28:

Food, Hunger, and Globalized
Corporate Agriculture (1)

In brief

The price of food spiked in 2007-2008, greatly increasing hunger--and triggering food riots--worldwide. The riots drew attention to the bizarre system now in place, in which a handful of huge, vertically integrated corporations control food production and distribution globally. They are aided by corrupt transnational institutions such as the World Bank and corrupt national governments.

And financial speculators know that food bubbles can be just as profitable as high-tech bubbles and housing bubbles--even if they involve starving a few dozen million additional people.

This installment features a lively discussion of such matters by food-and-agriculture experts Katarina Wahlberg and Raj Patel (recorded in 2008) and a reading of Paul Craig Roberts' recent essay, "Chelsea's Wedding: Let Them Eat Cake."

Top: Church soup kitchen in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City.
Bottom: Somewhere in Africa. Most photos: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links

This installment on agriculture is the first of a series. We'll have the next installment (insh'allah) in three weeks.

Thanks to the weekly radio program "Building Bridges," and to producers Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg, for the Wahlberg-Patel dialogue.

I have condensed Paul Craig Roberts' essay. The original is printed here. Thanks to Roberts and to counterpunch.org .

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "What, me worry?") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

Feedback to kdowst at hotmail period com.
Free weekly NWN email newsletter on request.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. New World Notes' main audio archive is at radio4all.net. Installments beginning with #90 are archived also at The Internet Archive, in a variety of file formats. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Bottom: In the background stands the Kansas National Guard Agribusiness
Development Team, shortly before being packed off to Afghanistan. What
the heck?? By now you know I'm not clever enough to make stuff like
this up. Check out the Official Story.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

  • August 31 -- The U.S. War Against Iran, featuring Phil Wilayto.
Catch New World Notes(all times Eastern):



A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net


Saturday, August 14, 2010

Class, Health, & Health Care



New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 33 -- August 14, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #128, August 17 & 21:

Class, Health, & Health Care

In brief

In this installment, Canadian health-care activist Susan Rosenthal, MD, discusses

  • the horrors of working-class life in England during the Industrial Revolution (ca. 1845)
  • the problems with Canada's "single-payer" health-care system
  • how the profit motive and computers have brought us "assembly-line medicine" and
  • the successful health-care reforms established in Chile, under Allende, in the 1970s

From our telephone conversation of July 2.

Susan Rosenthal and her new book. The "read it now" link doesn't work
here. Try the links at susanrosenthal.com. Most photos: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links

Susan Rosenthal's new book--Sick and Sicker: Essays on Class, Health and Health Care--is available in paperback (from her) or as a "Kindle" electronic book from Amazon.com. http://susanrosenthal.com/ .

Part 1 of our conversation, program installment #123, remains available.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "aegis") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

Feedback to kdowst at hotmail period com.
Free weekly NWN email newsletter on request.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. New World Notes' main audio archive is at radio4all.net. Installments beginning with #90 are archived also at The Internet Archive, in a variety of file formats. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Salvador Allende's government introduced sweeping reforms to the
health-care system in Chile in the 1970s--much to the displeasure of
the Chilean Medical Association. What the Chileans did we could do.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

  • August 24 -- Food, Hunger, and Globalized Agriculture.
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):



A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net


Saturday, August 7, 2010

Cell Phones



New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 32 -- August 7, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #127, August 10 & 13:

Cell Phones

In brief

Trying to lighten up a bit, I look at consumer electronics, especially cell phones--and find myself in the midst of a bloodbath in Congo. There rival factions rape, mutilate, and slaughter the citizens, attempting to control the mines that produce minerals our gadgets require--tungsten, tin, tantalum, gold, and coltan. 5+ million have died. Consumers are pressuring electronics manufacturers to monitor their supply chains and to avoid purchasing Congolese "conflict minerals."

Contributors to this installment include Lisa F. Jackson, Nicholas Kristof, John Prendergast, Mac vs. PC, and Janis Joplin.

Top: Soldier or militiaman in Congo, 2008.
Bottom: human-rights crusader John Prendergast. (Yes,
the resemblance is striking.)
Most photos: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links

Clarification: Coltan is the ore from which the metal tantalum is refined. I didn't understand this when I recorded the program.

www.raisehopeforcongo.org

Passage by Lisa F. Jackson courtesy of Mike McCormick's program, Mind Over Matters. Nicholas Kristof's, "Death by Gadget" appeared in the New York Times "Week in Review" section, June 27, 2010, p. 11.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "counter") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. New World Notes' main audio archive is at radio4all.net. Installments beginning with #90 are archived also at The Internet Archive, in a variety of file formats. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Top: Children, reported to be slaves, mine coltan in Congo.
Bottom: Cell-phone recycling center.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

  • August 17 -- Dr. Susan Rosenthal, on the causes and cures of North America's bad health-care systems (Part 2).
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):




A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net