Last week I talked about the rainbow families rescue work that Rob was involved in throughout the United States. Today I thought of him as I listened to RFI reporting about how extremely terrible the forest fires in Greece have now become. Photos of the earth published by NASA show just how huge the fires have gotten as the smoke is visible from space.
Amidst all this tragedy and the struggle to combat the fires, I get a strange sort of positive feeling from listening to the news reports. This is because I listen closely to the part about Firefighters coming from all over the world to battle the fires. France sends several hundred firefighters. Spain, Germany, and Italy also send firefighters who specialize in these types of fires. My dear Portugal, which struggles year after year with similar fires, sends re-enforcements. Canada, the United States, Russia, and Israel .. all send firefighters, water dropping planes, and equipment. Even Romania sends an elite unit of firefighters to take part in the battle to control the fires.
Imagine being there… being one of the firefighters standing amongst all those nationalities.. all those languages.. the different uniforms.. all with one common goal. So often in history the story is about some conflict or invasion where a few countries get together to kill another country’s people, or to defend people from being killed by killing other people… variations on that theme. Yet here we get to see what is possible.. the kind of world that CAN exist when nations put all the other issues aside and focus on one – helping each other.
I read a recent report from the AP that Venezuela gives more money to Latin American countries than the United States. An interesting fact, if it proves true.
Through direct investment, aid, and grant programs, Hugo Chavez’s government has offered 8.8 billion dollars for development and infrastructure to countries like Bolivia and Nicaragua.
Of course it can be said that through private companies and supragovernmental organizations like the world bank, the US provides more funding… but any student of history knows that a loan from the world bank is more often a curse then a blessing.
For all the criticism and hate directed towards Chavez’s administration, seeing this fact is an example where they’ve done right for the region. By right I mean leading the way to provide an alternative to the US influence and domination over the region. If nothing else, making it OK for Latin American nations to stand up and say “we can do things our way” instead of feeling dependent on international loan schemes or empty private investment promises.
It is quite hard to find an article on Sierra Leone on your average day in your average newspaper. Forgotten by some, written off by others, the country presses on – electing a new president while a special war crimes tribunal continues to do its work. We’re talking Sierra Leone today with journalist and blogger Pauline Bax in the Ivory Coast.
We Discuss:
– Recent History in Sierra Leone
– The special tribunal
– Public Opinion
– Civil War Effects
– Resources and money
– Working as a journalist there
– Media attention
Much like I do on a daily basis in Amsterdam, this morning I hopped on my bike and rode into town here in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal. And much like I do in Amsterdam, I’m sure to load up my mp3 player with recent podcasts so that I can learn about the state of the world while weaving past crazy drivers… crazy being the operative word for Portuguese drivers.
The one recent podcast that I soaked up today was from the program Amsterdam Forum, focusing on the Zimbabwean crisis. While I’ve spoken about and spend a good amount of time learning about conditions and developments in that country, I still seek more and more explanations to understand not only how this happened but creative and potentially effective solutions. In this program Amsterdam Forum, yet another great production from Radio Netherlands, brings in alot of interesting voices who managed to teach me more and give me even more facts and history regarding why and how Zimbabwe got to where it is. There are even some interesting theories which I had never heard about why Mugabe has allowed the country to slip into such a terrible situation.
To hear the whole thing, and I do highly recommend it, go to the Amsterdam Forum website. You can either read or listen.. me I love to listen.
Howard Zinn, historian and war veteran, has dedicated much of his life’s work to telling the FULL history of the United States. This means including the dark and often upsetting truths of how the nation and its government has carried itself since its inception. In this special brief podcast, I read Zinn’s text entitled “On July 4, Put Away the Flags”.
Also audio from Utah Phillips and a fantastic statement from Joe Strummer.
When the international community hears from Cameroon it is most commonly related to soccer or music. Yet the nation known as mini-Africa has alot more to offer. In this podcast, blogger and activist Josh Goldstein talks about his work and recent visit to Cameroon.
His blog: In An African Minute
The organization: Global Youth Partnership for Africa
We Discuss:
-How and why he ended up in Cameroon
-The organization
-The recent history of Cameroon
-The language divide
-City versus Countryside
-Technology and Access
-Support for and interest in the program
-Cultural Products
-Future Plans