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Starving Out the Hungry

Ever since Lindsay started writing for In These Times, I’ve become a regular reader of their work. One recent article on food donations from the US and how the food donation system works has sparked my attention as a topic for an upcoming podcast.

According to their investigation, the US food aid system, which is supposed to feed starving people throughout the world, actually works against that goal. By selling off much of the food, encouraging factory farming, using genetically modified foods, and seeking to boost US influence in different regions, the food aid program can actually increase the level of hunger in the world.

50% of the world’s food donations are said to come from the US… but clearly that fact in itself does not tell the whole story. And while you often hear about how a country donates food to help starving people, there is significant evidence that what is really happening is the creation of a corrupt and inhumane shadow economy where political agendas and profit seeking supersede the aim of assisting those in need.

More on this topic coming soon in a podcast.

bmtv57 Racism and Xenophobia, Brussels.

During my most recent trip to Brussels, there was a demonstration against Islam. (!) The event was organized by one of the far right parties that recently became a very significant force in government. This video comes from no-comment, the video-podcast from euronews.net.

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Hello Community Radio

In my world, podcasting is my primary method of getting information and learning about what is happening now or in the past. Sometimes it gets so that I forget there are still plenty of people who listen to regular radio in an effort to get similar information. Recently here in Amsterdam I find myself spending time with people who produce material for regular radio, and it is a funny sort of reminder… of the significance that radio still has and to some extent will always have.

Then I read the words of the great Amy Goodman as she talks about the situation in the United States and how for various reasons, there is a chance next month for community groups to apply for FM radio liscences. This is extremely rare, as I recall, having a community station on FM is extremely difficult not to mention expensive. But of course, radio is going digital in the US, so the old-school analog spectrum is going to loosen up, leaving room for groups that have been routinely shut out, to have access to the kind of audience you get with radio.

There is even a useful website where you can get informed on how to get your own community radio station. Which makes me think there are lots of groups that might not know about this and would like to have a radio station. I think about the various Portuguese communities throughout the NorthEast US, or the cool land cooperatives like the MLC which I visited in Florida this past spring… so many types of communities could benefit from finally being able to broadcast on the FM dial.

Naturally I’m still a proponent of podcasting as the best way to reach people and ensure the freedom that people can listen when they want and where they want. Not to mention having diverse and passionate voices and points of view. Still– it is good for me to get out of my terrestrial radio denial, and see that not only is radio alive and well, but in the case of the US, there’s a new chance to start up new stations that will truely serve communities and encourage diversity.

Cliché Day is Over

I’m relieved that international cliché day has now passed.

I don’t want to hear anymore “I remember where I was when JFK was killed” style stories.

No more using people’s deaths as an excuse to kill.

People who are close to us and people we don’t ever think about are dying everyday, and on most of those occasions… it is also unnecessary.

In previous years I tell stories and record podcasts related to how I remember that day and how our community took action and how things looked from my house.

But I’m tired of the cliché. Especially from the mouth of allegedly qualified political leaders. Tired of pointless war and torture and violence in the name of another cliché.

Even writing these words becomes redundant and fake-sounding. So I’ll stop. I’m just relieved that date has again passed.

I yield my time to the gentleman from the city of Angels.

Belgian Waffling

After my most recent trip to Brussels, I found myself extremely frustrated with articles I had read in the newspapers, conversations with my family and friends.. all revolving around what really does look like a country on the verge of breaking up.

It almost sounds like a relationship doesn’t it? Yes this old married couple called Belgium, more specifically Wallons and Flemish, seem to have reached a tipping point and will soon divorce. And like so many marriages gone wrong, the craziest part will be to negotiate who gets what and how.

But nevermind the analogy, Belgium is in a terrible funk that people in different parts of the world can probably never understand and even I, a frequent visitor to the country and someone who reads every bit I can on the topic, am still baffled.

Naturally a discussion of history is in order, to understand what happened in the past that resulted in the things we see today. Who took what from whom, who killed whom, and who deserves what, somehow, as a result. Like any European region there are plenty of wars, cultural differences, economic booms and busts, and yes … even a dash of colonialism.

But I’m not going to try to summarize the history right now.

For now all I have to say and I hope the world will take notice soon, is that there is a lovely country called Belgium, where people live a very admirable quality of life and have come a long way in terms of achievements as a nation. (look at their dominance of tennis!) But these same people are whispering about each other indoors. Their political parties spread untruths and revise history for the sole purpose of drawing on people’s anger and poor judgment. Everyone is convinced they’re being used, duped, or mistreated in some way. They fail to understand people who have been their neighbors and fellow citizens for many generations.

For all the achievements of the Flemish and all the achievements of the Wallons, in my eyes, the inability to stay together as a country or simply to view your neighbors as equals tells me that neither culture is as courageous or creative as I thought.

Weekend Thought On Media

Watching the French news channels all weekend, I have but one simple statement… more of a rhetorical question. It came to me as I watched the Bin Laden video, followed by a security analyst, a beard analyst, a nothing analyst, and a guy who wrote two books with the world security in the title.

If the TV news didn’t air the Bin Laden video… would it really matter?

Or does the Bin Laden video matter, because the TV news airs it.