Showing posts with label BP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BP. Show all posts

Saturday, October 9, 2010

BP Then and Now



New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 41 -- October 10, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #136, October 12:

BP Then and Now

In brief

British oil company BP specializes in disasters--political as well as ecological. The U.S. government then helps by making the disaster worse.

Reporting from the Gulf, Anne McClintock details how the government is reducing BP's legal liability for the blowout by sinking the oil with millions of gallons of the extremely toxic "dispersant" Corexit. This unprecedented policy is greatly compounding the damage.

In 1953, Iran was a democracy with an anti-Soviet, pro-American government. They tried to negotiate a new oil contract that would require BP to pay some royalties for taking Iran's oil. The CIA helped BP by overthrowing the democratic government and installing the Shah as dictator of Iran. (Then they gave Iran's oil to the Rockefeller empire.) Strategic analyst William Engdahl tells this fascinating and outrageous story.

Top: Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq, on a state
visit to the U.S., reverently touches the Liberty Bell. At the far
left is Philadelphia Mayor Bernard Samuels. In 1953, the U.S.
overthrew Iran's pro-American, democratically elected
government and installed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (bottom)
as dictator. The Iranian government had threatened BP's profits.
Most photos: Click to enlarge.


Notes, credits, & links

This week's music: Tom Lehrer, Pollution (1965).

Anne McClintock's article from CounterPunch, August 23, 2010. http://www.english.wisc.edu/amcclintock/index.htm

William Engdahl interview from Ken MacDermotRoe's "History Counts" radio series.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "Executive Dining Room") 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.

Top: recent scholarly book by Anne McClintock. Bottom: An iconic
image of the Vietnam War: Police General Nguyen Ngoc Loan summarily
executes a man believed to be a Viet Cong guerilla. The photo is the
inspiration for the graphic at the top of the page.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

  • October 12 on WWUH -- Special hour-long live broadcast for Pledge Marathon week.
  • October 12 elsewhere -- Corporations (R)
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):



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


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Saturday, October 2, 2010

Gulf Oil


New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 40 -- October 2, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #135, October 5:

Gulf Oil

In brief

The Gulf of Mexico oil disaster is not over--it's only beginning. Our first look at the subject features fine reporting from two independent journalists.

Anne McClintock (read aloud) shows the incestuous, conflict-of-interest relationships of the U.S. government, BP, and a consulting firm, CTEH, hired to monitor the health effects of the disaster. It's a win-win-win situation ... except for the poisoned people of the Gulf states.

Then Dahr Jamail, talking with host Dori Smith, exposes the government's lies about the safety of Gulf seafood. He also details the Coast Guard's program of camouflaging the scope of the disaster by (temporarily) sinking the floating oil with millions of gallons of highly toxic "dispersants" sprayed in the dead of night.

Hiding the oil lets BP and the government claim that less was spilled, thus reducing BP's financial liability.

Top: Professor Anne McClintock. Bottom: Dahr Jamail, speaking in
Hartford, September 20, 2009 (photo by Kenneth Dowst).
Most photos: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links

This week's song: MOTU, Death Comes to Louisiana

Anne McClintock's article from CounterPunch, August 23, 2010. Dahr Jamail from the August 19 installment of Dori Smith's radio program Talk Nation Radio .

http://dahrjamailiraq.com/
http://www.english.wisc.edu/amcclintock/index.htm

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "imprimatur") 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)

  • October 12 -- BP Then and Now.
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):


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



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Friday, July 16, 2010

It's Not Character Flaws: It's Policy



New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 29 -- July 17, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #124, July 20:

It's Not Character Flaws:
It's Policy

Baghdad, 2003. All this mayhem because Bush is a dry drunk, and
Dad preferred Jeb? Most photos: Click to enlarge.

In brief

Pundits like to attribute bad government policies to supposed "character flaws" in the Chief Executive.

Bush smashed Iraq because he's a "dry drunk" who feels the need to prove himself to Dad (who always preferred Jeb)--the explanation goes. Not in order to increase U.S. control over the Middle East's countries and oil.

Why did Obama let Wall Street destroy the U.S. economy and then reward it with a gift of a trillion dollars? Why did he let Big Oil destroy the Gulf and our Gulf states? According to Times pundit Frank Rich, because Obama is "too deferential" to the opinons of experts. He's "too trusting" in the advice of his own staff. Character flaws. Not because Obama is a tool and handmaiden of Big Finance and Big Oil (both of which were also Big Campaign Contributors).

First I and then political scientist Michael Parenti argue that Presidents push bad policies in order to further benefit the ruling elite at the expense of the rest of us. I focus on Obama and include a reading from Frank Rich's preposterous op-ed, mentioned above. Parenti (speaking in January 2008) touches on G.W. Bush's economic policies, Iraq war, and ethnic cleansing of New Orleans. He argues that all were deliberate policies--ruthlessly executed and largely successful--not unfortunate results of character flaws.

Goldman Sachs and BP get away with murder because Barack Obama (top,
with Rahm Emanuel) is too deferential, too trusting of the advice of experts.
Or so pontificates New York Times columnist Frank Rich (bottom). The photo
of Obama appears to be the basis of the famous "Hope" campaign poster.


Notes, credits, & links

This week's music: Utah Phillips, NPR Talking Blues; and David Rovics, Before the Oil Wells Ran Dry

Michael Parenti's remarks--recorded January 22, 2008--courtesy of Maria Gilardin and TUC Radio.

Frank Rich's balderdash was from the New York Times "Week in Review" section, Sunday, June 6, 2010, p. 10.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "thumb") 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. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. 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.

Did FEMA "mismanage" the New Orleans disaster (bottom) owing to
"incompetence"? Michael Parenti has a contrary notion: letting the
poor neighborhoods of New Orleans drown was a ruthless act of
ethnic cleansing, gentrification, urban redevelopment, and
political realignment.

Coming soon (Tuesday broadcast debut dates shown)

  • July 27 and August 3 -- War Made Easy. A 2-part radio adaptation of this video documentary from 2007. Shows the techniques with which our government and our media drum up public support for war in a well-planned campaign of propaganda and lies. The same techniques are used each time. Features commentary by Norman Solomon and Sean Penn, plus much TV footage from the 1960s through 2007.

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):




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


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