A Critical Ear » Palestine

Gaza, Afghanistan, Haiti: ACE for 17 December

andrew — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:59:47 +0000

Today we ended up recording the show on a tight turnaround, so it’s shorter than usual (so we could get the file uploaded to air during our timeslot on WRFU). We talked about the Dear Colleague letters circulating in the House of Representatives that push for improvement of conditions in Gaza, Obama’s surge in Afghanistan, and upcoming elections in Haiti.

Also, Bob shared that he’ll be in Eygpt and Gaza from 27 December, so we’ll be hoping to bring you news from him during his trip. Watch out for updates.

We like to include information on how you can intervene in the news stories we cover: see this call from JustForeignPolicy.org about asking your representative to sign onto the letters being circulated.

Download now from:

Radio4All.net

Indymedia Radio

Will also be available shortly on AudioPort (login required).

Georgia: behind the headlines

andrew — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:40:58 +0000

On this week’s show, we spent most of our time talking about Georgia, in light of the recent events there. We wanted to get beyond the headlines and usual frames of coverage, and believe we accomplished this through two approaches. First, we talked with Jodi Blumenfeld. A graduate student at the University of Illinois, she has participated in archaeological excavations in Georgia, and she spoke with us a little about Georgian culture, giving a more three-dimensional portrait of the country than is usually achieved in news coverage.

Second, Bob and I (Andrew) spoke about the news frames being used, and how we might contextualize the conflict. Is it as simple as “Russia is an aggressor?” Is it sufficient to look for a ‘good guy’ and a ‘bad guy’? How does this relate to resource issues (Georgia is an important distribution route for gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe)? What about politics in other former Soviet states and Eastern bloc nations?

Then a brief update on events in Bolivia and Ecuador – where offers of mediation by the government in the lawsuit against Chevron may not be the positive development one might think.

Finally, in a tribute to Mahmoud Darwish, Bob recites (in the original Arabic) from the 1964 poem Identity Card.

Write down!
I am an Arab
And my identity card number is fifty thousand
I have eight children
And the ninth will come after a summer
Will you be angry?

We close with salutations in Georgian, from Jodi.

The show is now available on Radio4All (direct mp3 link), on Audioport (mp3), and Indymedia Radio (mp3).

ACE 2008-04-17 now online

andrew — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:24:56 +0000

You can listen to our latest show online here or here. Yesterday’s show included discussion of Carter’s visit to Palestine as well as an interview with Allison Hantschel about Douglas Feith (the focus of her book, Special Plans). Note that we’re now sharing our content on Audioport, radio.indymedia.org and from the WRFU site. If you’re interested in re-broadcasting the show you can grab it from any of these sources – though do let me know, so I know who’s depending on downloads from which sources, by what deadlines. At present I’m getting Audioport up by Thursday night, and try to get it onto either radio.indymedia.org or WRFU by Thursday too, with links added here, and the third audio source, by some time Friday.

Critiquing Petraeus – latest show online

andrew — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 22:24:45 +0000

Yesterday’s edition of the show included an extended discussion of the Petraeus testimony, an update on the Colombian trade agreement, a brief discussion of events in Ecuador, and of former President Carter’s visit to Palestine. Available for download from WRFU or on Pacifica’s Audioport. Starting, of course, with the Interworld Radio news bulletin.

And some advance notice: next week we’ll be interviewing author Allison Hantschel about her book “Special Plans” and neo-con Douglas Feith, whose memoir is due out shortly. Send us an email with any questions you want to ask her.