Tuesday, September 28, 2010

US Navy Bombarding Our Oceans, Land, and Atmosphere

Listen to US Navy Bombarding Our Oceans, Land, and Atmosphere

Over the next 5 years the United States Navy plans to increase the number of its military exercises or expand the areas in which they may occur, and virtually every US coastal state will be affected.
Some of these exercises may occur in the nation's most biologically sensitive marine habitats, including National Marine Sanctuaries and breeding habitat for the endangered North Atlantic right whale. The Navy anticipates more than 2.3 million takes per year or 11.7 million over 5 years. A "take" is a significant disruption in marine mammal foraging, breeding, and other essential behaviors.
Rosaline Peterson, California President and Co-Founder of the Agriculture Defense Coalition (ADC) talks about the impact of these tests.

Two file formats
Local listening: 24 kbps
Broadcast quality: 128 kbps

Read the Counterpunch article: "Dumping the Navy Way"

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Listen to "You can bet that your kid, grandkid, niece or nephew is a target for military recruiters: Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC)"

Youth leader Sothay Meam of Bay Peace - baypeace.org - and Riva Enteen of National Lawyers Guild focus on how Junior Reserve Officer Training corps - JROTC - functions in high and middle schools to recruit youth into the US military.

Read the ACLU report to the UN, Soldiers of Misfortune

Two file formats:
128 kbps

24 kbps
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Sunday, September 12, 2010

Anti-Islamic trends in the U.S. ...and anti-U.S. trends in the Islamic World

Listen to "Anti-Islamic trends in the U.S. ...and anti-U.S. trends in the Islamic World"

Dr. Yannis Toussulis is professor of inter-cultural conflict and he focuses on Muslim-majority nations and the U.S. He is a Muslim convert as well as author of a soon-to-be-published book on the Islamic tradition of Sufism. Here, Dr. Toussulis discusses anti-Islamic trends in the U.S. as well as anti-U.S. trends in the Islamic World. He paints a picture of these trends in broad strokes and invites listeners to explore the myths and realities about Islam that are alive and well in our world today.

Two file formats, 128 and 24 kbps

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Monday, September 6, 2010

"Workers in this country are terrorized!"

Listen to "Workers in this country are terrorized!"

Bio-tech workers - from scientists to lab tech - are being contaminated by patented genetically engineered products and no-one is looking after their health interests.
"There is a systemic corruption in this industry that controls our government," says Steve Zeltzer, chairman of California Coalition form Workers Memorial Day.
What role, if any, do unions play in the bio-tech and high-tech industries today?

Two file formats:
128 for broadcast
24 for local listening

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Sunday, August 29, 2010

On again, off again: Troy Davis...and war and its effects of people and land

Listen to "On again, off again: Troy Davis...and war and its effects of people and land"

After 20 years on Georgia's death row and several stays of execution Troy Davis has one more week of life. Or does he? The justice system has refused his appeals and set his execution date four times. Is the fourth time the last?

Veterans tell their stories and the Veterans Health Research Institute advises troops and their families on how to welcome home a loved one from the wars. Then, the Presidio in San Francisco, a former military base, is now the Presidio Trust, a mixed use federal land trust with unique and imaginative ways of transforming what was once a nerve center for war into a nerve center for innovation and people-centered communities.

Two file formats:
128 – broadcast quality :
24 – for easy local listening

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Sunday, August 22, 2010

Dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico and Theater and the Arts in Kabul

Listen to "Dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico and Theater and the Arts in Kabul"

An update from author activist Dahr Jamail who just returned from the disaster zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Despite what we are being told in the media, all is not coming right in the Gulf -- in fact, it has been turned into a vast toxic lake. 
Then Kayhan Irani, artivista and playwright with the Theater of the Oppressed recently returned from Kabul in Afghanistan where she conducted and facilitated workshops for Afghan actors and artists.

Two file formats
128 kbps
24 kbps

HuffPost Green article on staph infections, hepatitis, and other diseases from our contaminated oceans

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Immanuel Wallerstein and Grace Lee Boggs in Conversation at the 2010 US Social Forum

Listen to "Immanuel Wallerstein and Grace Lee Boggs in Conversation at the 2010 US Social Forum"

A segment with two "national treasures" and elders of the U.S., Immanuel Wallerstein and Grace Lee Boggs. Both have spent their lives, from different directions, moving the U.S. forward into a more real democracy, a place that takes care of its people, educates its youth, brings We The People together into a community that celebrates our human similarites rather than separates us into unitary working stiffs along the lines of empire which is to divide and conquer.
To link to the full presentation (2 hours): http://www.commondreams.org/video/2010/07/31

Presented by the Boggs Center - boggscenter.org and filmed by Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin of Moving Images - movingimages.org.

Two file formats
128 kbps mono
24 kbps mono

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Obama, Stop Building Nuclear Weapons

 Listen to "Obama, Stop Building Nuclear Weapons"

Tanemori San speaks about the vengeance in his heart...that eventually dissipated.

Straight talk about the ongoing expansion of - and the billions spent on -- our nuclear weapons arsenal...despite treaties, test bans, and Obama's hopeful words that talk the talk but do not walk the walk.
Outside Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California on August 6th, hibakusha or survivor of Hiroshima's holocaust, Takashi Tanemori tells his story.
Show includes one-on-one interviews with Normal Solomon, native American Patricia St. Onge, and others.
Two file formats:
128 kbps
24 kbps

Read the articles:
1) to End the False Security of Nuclear Weapons
2) Rationalizing the Bombing of Hiroshima: Confronting a Mindset. Published in Counterpunch, August 5, 2010.

Monday, August 2, 2010

US Senate Aide - and Others - Contend, “The Bombing of Hiroshima was Right”

Listen to "US Senate Aide - and Others - Contend, “The Bombing of Hiroshima was Right

 A brief update with Dahr Jamail from the Gulf of Mexico
Then, on the eve of the 65th anniversary of the bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Dr. Joseph Gerson joins us with his perspective as a co-convener of the May 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review.
We talk also with Marylia Kelley, Executive Director of Tri-Valley CAREs - Communities Against a Radioactive Environments - near the Lawrence Livermore Lab in California.


NOTE: Two file formats:
128 kbps
24 kbps

www.raisingsandradio.org

Monday, July 26, 2010

Superfund Sites, Brownfields...and the People who Must Live upon Them

Listen to "Superfund Sites, Brownfields...and the People who Must Live upon Them "

Superfund sites clean up into brownfields...then communities go about their business upon them, families live in the houses built upon them...and, not infrequently, cancers, birth defects, nose bleeds, skin rashes, and other diseases follow.

Irma Anderson lives in Midway Village, California, and has a history of health problems. Ladonna Williams lived there too and saw the two-headed frogs the children brought home when they unknowingly played on contaminated land. For decades both women have tried to get elected officials hear what they're saying: the land remains dangerously contaminated.

Marie Harrison of GreenAction reviews the many issues she and other members of her Hunters Point/Bay View neighborhood face as that former military base and Superfund site transitions to a Brownfield.

Note: Two file formats:
128 kbps for radio stations
24 kbps for local listening

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Dahr Jamail's update from the Gulf; Ariel Luckey's explores America's violent history

Listen to "Dahr Jamail's update from the Gulf; Ariel Luckey's explores America's violent history"

Another update from the Gulf of Mexico's disaster zone with independent journalist Dahr Jamail, this time from Alabama. Has 'the cap' really capped the flow from 5000 feet below the surface? Or, does the low pressure signify other, more insidious leaks that we may not know about? Can we trust BP or the president to tell us if there are more leaks?

We talk with performance artist Ariel Luckey whose piece, Free Land, explores the underbelly of American history and Manifest Destiny. Ariel Luckey is one of the few white men in American who grapples with the reality that he and his family, like most of the white population in the United States today, derives privilege from a very violent past. He says, "It is about truth...and moving on from a history that most prefer to ignore...."

NOTE: Two file formats:
128 kbps, broadcast quality
24 kbps, local listening

Links mentioned in this show:
www.dahr.org
www.arielluckey.com


"A giant flame - the burning off of methane and benzene - roared off the side of a rig, leaving a chemical gas floating lazily to the south as it rose" from the article; see Erika Blumenfeld's pix and read the update on Truthout

Monday, July 12, 2010

An Update from Dahr Jamail in the Gulf; Mike Lynes on the Impact of Wind Power

Listen to "An Update from Dahr Jamail in the Gulf; Mike Lynes on the Impact of Wind Power"

Independent journalist Dahr Jamail joins us again from New Orleans with an update on what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico where even the crabs are fleeing toxic water....
The Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area is located in Central California's Diablo Range and is one of the earliest wind farms in the United States. Golden Gate Audubon's Conservation Director Mike Lynes talks of these wind turbines and how they affect the natural environment.

Note two file formats: 128 kbps and 24 kpbs mono

Links mentioned on this show:
Dahr Jamail Dispatches
Golden Gate Audubon

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Monday, July 5, 2010

Dahr Jamail in the Spill Zone...and the Drill Baby Drill Lobbyists....

Listen to "Dahr Jamail in the Spill Zone...and the Drill Baby Drill Lobbyists...."

Israel and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty...and goods into Gaza.
Dahr Jamail reports from the Gulf spill zone on how media is treated, how locals fare day-to-day, and how the future looks.
The "Drill, Baby, Drill" proponents in Congress and state government fare very well from the oil and gas lobby. We look at their handsome handouts and then examine the true cost of oil, to America's bottom line as we examine whether fossil fuels are in the best interests of the American people even in the short term.
In a recent survey, one listener said he appreciated Raising Sand Radio because the host is "unbought and unbroken" . Help us maintain our independence by donating to our work... and there are several ways to do that....

NOTE - two file formats:
128 kbps mono
24 kbps mono

Links to websites mentioned in this radio show:
Power without Petroleum video
Dahr Jamail's updates :
Institute for the Analysis of Global Security

Monday, June 28, 2010

More Unpleasant Truth about Oil Companies...and the Governments they Control

Listen to "More Unpleasant Truth about Oil Companies...and the Governments they Control"

Even as people around the world grieve - and protest - the oil soaked catastrophe in the Gulf, oil companies continue with business as usual.

We listen to voices from Hands across the Sands then turn to a little known - at least in the U.S. - region in Western Australia that has "been there, done that." As energy and minerals industries work with state government to open up the pristine wilderness area of the Kimberley, Australian environmentalist work to educate the world about what it may lose. And, they offer alternative visions for the region.

Finally, we explore the the Obama administration's collusion with oil companies' latest adventures in the Arctic: BP's manmade island, "Liberty" avoids the definition of "off-shore"; Shell -- with a disturbing environmental record -- has permits to drill five exploratory wells in the Arctic.
Read Tim Dickinson's Rolling Stone Magazine article, "BP's Next Disaster"
View Australia's 60 Minutes show, "Battle for the Kimberley"

NOTE: two versions of this show, 128 kbps and 24 kbps Mono.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Protests against Israel Shut Docks; Suzanne Stone on Wolves; Wounded Knee on Native Spirituality

Listen to "Protests against Israel Shut Docks; Suzanne Stone on Wolves; Wounded Knee on Native Spirituality"
(NOTE: Two versions of the show offered: 128 kbps for broadcast; 24 kbps for local listening.)

Voices from protesters at the Oakland, California docks on Sunday June 20 demanding an end to the siege of Gaza. Up to eight hundreds people in the early morning and more than 200 in the late afternoon blocked the gates to Berth 57 and prevented longshoremen from unloading a cargo ship belonging to the Israeli shipping line, Zim.

Suzanne Stone of Defenders of Wildlife as a judge in Missoula, Montana considers de-listing wolves in the Greater Yellowstone and northern Rockies region.

Wounded Knee, a member of an Ohlone tribe in the SF area of California, prepares to participate in a 500 mile run that is part of his spiritual tradition.

Read the article on Commondreams: Israeli shipping line Zim Shut out at Oakland Docks

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Nadia Tarzi on Afghanistan's Archaelogy

Listen to "Nadia Tarzi on Afghanistan's Archaelogy"
Notice two file formats.
24 kbps - fast download, good for computer listening
128 kbps - slower download, broadcast quality
Choose the one that fits your listening.

Nadia Tarzi Founder & Executive Director, of Association for the Protection of Afghan Archaeology and daughter of Dr. Zemaryalai Tarzi who is excavating the reclining Buddas in the Bamyan Valley. Afghanistan is the most looted country in the world today, its antiquities disappearing before scientists even have a chance to record what it is the world community is losing.

Monday, June 7, 2010

World Cup Soccer 2010 South Africa: Shame on the Beautiful Game

Listen to "World Cup Soccer 2010 South Africa: Shame on the Beautiful Game"

Updates on oil in the Gulf and on the Freedom Flotilla.
Then, despite the hype around what an honor it is for any country to host FIFA's World Cup Soccer, there are very real, long lasting drawbacks.
Professor Patrick Bond of the University of Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa, highlights some of these realities and how they are playing out for ordinary South Africans. FIFA has, he states, temporarily grasped the country's sovereignty...and that country's government is along for the ride.
Also, music for the games by Creamy Ewok Baggends's "Shame on the Game."

NOTE: One show in two file formats. Title above, linked to 24 kbps mono version for fast download.
128 kbps mono version for broadcasting on the air.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

On oil and Gaza...and author Alan Hart on Golda and Yassar

Listen to "On oil and Gaza...and author Alan Hart on Golda and Yassar"

"Top Kill" is dead.... The next operation to stop the flow in the Gulf may not be in place until August. We hear reactions from the Gulf.
Israeli forces board the aid flotilla in international waters and from 9 to 20 are reported dead. The international community is outraged.
Finally, author Alan Hart discusses volume one of his 3-volume set called Zionism: the Real Enemy of the Jews. We talk about his long career in Middle East issues and relationships with Golda Meir and Yassar Arafat.

NOTE: Two file formats:
24 kbps mono = fast download, lower bandwidth audio (listen on your computer)
128 kbps mono = slower download, high bandwidth audio (air on your radio show)

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Oil Spills, then and now....

Listen to "Oil Spills, then and now...."

Or a faster download, lower audio quality file

As the focus on the Deepwater Horizon "spill" -- isn't it more like a deluge? -- intensifies it shares common characteristics with past spills. We examine the unfolding story of this particular oil spill how history, politics, and even the news about it repeat. We hear from Greg Palast on the Exxon Valdez spill and from Rachel Maddow, Laura Flanders, and Liz Decker.

Take Raising Sand Radio's 2010 survey

Monday, May 10, 2010

Next year in Jerusalem? Sixty three years after the Nakba.

Listen to "Next year in Jerusalem? Sixty three years after the Nakba."

May 15 is the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba, the Palestinian "Catastrophe" of 1948 when more than 750,000 Palestinians were made into refugees to make room for the future state of Israel.

Palestinian Ziad Abbas talks about the Nakba, Vivien Sansour shares a poem and how Palestinian farmers continue to produce their crops despite the on going oppression. And cultural anthropologist and Misragi Smadar Lavie presents a little shared perspective of Eastern or Arab Jews in Israel.

Click here to take our survey.

NOTE: Two file formats:
128 kbps: http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/Nakba_mix-128Stereo.mp3
24 kbps: http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/Nakba_mix-24Mono.mp3

Monday, May 3, 2010

Mother's Day during War

Listen to "Mother's Day during War"

Our Mother's Day edition and we hear from Adele Kubein and Rita Dougherty, two American military moms whose adult children were deployed with the US Army to Iraq and seriously wounded there. They update us on how their family members are doing a few years after those life-changing events in Iraq.

Rae-Sue Sussman is the attorney who defended Army Specialist Alexis Hutchinson when she was threatened with court marshal. The young, single mom was unable to find childcare for her month old baby when due to deploy to Afghanistan.

And a look at Mother's Day in Palestine.

Read the article: Confessions of a Military Mom.

Note: two audio file versions
1) high bandwidth 128 kbps Stereo - long download time but broadcast quality
2) low bandwidth 24 kbps Mono - short download time for local listening

http://www.motherspeak.org
http://www.raisingsandradio.org

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Portland Depaves, GMO Food, and Poets Travel to Basra, Iraq

Listen to "Portland Depaves, GMO Food, and Poets Travel to Basra, Iraq"

In Portland, hundreds of Oregonians removed pavement and plan to replace it with urban farms, trees, and native vegetation.
May 3 is another hurdle in the struggle to keep GMO out of our food. We face the latest assault on our food or at least on our ability to know what is in our food, and look at how food standards are decided.
Poets Jack Hirschman and Agnetta Falk recently returned from Basra, Iraq where they met and mingled with Iraqi poets and poets from all over the world...all there to share in the creative world of poetry.

Links:
Sign the Letter to Keep GMO out of Food
Raising Sand Radio: www.raisingsandradio.org and http://raisingsandradio.blogspot.com/

NOTE:
Download the MONO 24 kbps SHOW: http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/GMO_Aggie-24-Mo-mix.mp3
The Stereo 128 kbps show: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/edit/program/?program_id=42239

Monday, April 19, 2010

San Francisco's “green” mayor has toxic sludge on this hands

Listen to "San Francisco's “green” mayor has toxic sludge on this hands"


San Francisco’s first 100 percent “off-grid” building, modeling solar power and alternative wastewater technologies opened at Bay View Hunter's Point on Earth Day.

Also this weekend was a deeply moving multi-day ceremony called Welcome to Ohlone Territory also held at Heron's Head Park.

And an update on the World Bank loan to South Africa's parastatal Escom.

Then John Mayer and John Stauber of Organic Consumers Association talk about toxic sludge and how San Francisco's “green” mayor has sludge on this hands.

Read article: The Green Mayor has Toxic Sludge on his Hands.

Visit:
Raising Sand Radio website
EcoCenter
Ohlone Profiles

NOTE: a low bandwidth 24 kbps version is downloadable at:
http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/SF_Sludge_mix_24.mp3

Monday, April 12, 2010

Compost: the highest tech method to preserve our planet and our health

Listen to the radio show:  "Compost: the highest tech method to preserve our planet and our health"


Robert Reed of San Francisco's Recology, one of the largest composting and recycling employee owned organizations in the country, is with us for the first half of the show. Then soil scientist and agronomist, Bob Shaffer shares the known secrets of composting and recognizes the secrets of humus that no one really knows.

Interviewed by Susan Galleymore for Raising Sand Radio: www.raisingsandradio.org

Read the Article: "Compost: the highest tech method to preserve our planet and our health"


NOTE: Two versions available:
High bandwidth for radio broadcasting, 128 kbps Mono
Low bandwidth for radio broadcasting, 24 kbps Mono

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Ziad Abbas Discusses the Growing Water Crisis in Palestine

NOTE: Our archive site has technical problems this week so we are creating a work-around. Cut and paste the links here to download and air this show for just this week only.

High bandwidth Stereo (128 kbps: http://woodard.freemanbusiness.com/audio/Abbas_mix-Stereo128.mp3

Low bandwidth Mono (24 kbps:
http://woodard.freemanbusiness.com/audio/Abbas_mix-Mono24.mp3

Show Summary:
There is a growing water crisis in Palestine that affects agriculture, industry, and the health of virtually every adult and child.

The sole source of fresh water for the Gaza Strip is the Coastal Aquifer, a water source shared with Israel. This aquifer has been contaminated for years and it is deteriorating even further. Poor sanitation and over-extraction have polluted this limited water supply.

Today we take a look at the water crisis in the region with Ziad Abbas, a Palestinian refugee from Dheisheh Refugee camp in the West Bank and current associate director of Middle East Children's Alliance.

Links for more information:
Middle East Children's Alliance
Palestinian Academic Society for the study of international affairs, Jerusalem where you can find look up these facts and figures for yourself:
Inside Story: Palestine Water Shortage – entire segment.

Donate to Raising Sand Radio and receive author's autographed hardcover edition of radio host's book, Long Time Passing: Mother Speak about War and Terror.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

World Bank Loan will Fund More Coal Pollution and Greenhouse Gas

Listen to "World Bank Loan will Fund More Coal Pollution and Greenhouse Gas"

On April 8 the World Bank will vote on loaning South African energy parastatal Eskom $3.75 billion to build what will be the fourth largest coal burning power plant in the world. This 4,800 MW Medupi power plant will add an estimated 25 million metric tons of CO2 emissions per year to Eskom’s 40 percent share of South Africa’s overall total greenhouse gas emissions.
We talk to environmental activist Sunita Dubey about this loan and the growing world-wide opposition to it. And we hear what Eskom and bank officials are not saying: that there is no such thing as clean coal. If fact, from China to South Africa – where coal seams continue to burn in the ground long after mines have shut down – to India, where a major coal company will present investors an IPO later this year, coal mining and burning devastates land, communities, and people the world over.

For more information or to get involved, go to:
Bank center information
Friends of the Earth
Sierra Club
groundWork
Watch Sara Belcher's video report, UnderMined

NOTE: You have a choice of high bandwidth audio in stereo and mono, and low bandwidth in mono. Low bandwidth downloads faster if you just want to listen. Use high bandwidth for broadcast quality to re-air.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Daniel Ellsberg on Labor and War and Two Women in War Zones

Listen to "Daniel Ellsberg on Labor and War and Two Women in War Zones"

Daniel Ellsberg speaks at Plumbers Hall in San Francisco on March 20 about the connections between war and labor at the invitation of the San Francisco Labor Council and U.S. Labor against the War.
Kerry Philp and Adrienne Amudsen travel to Afghanistan and return to report on what they found there.

Thanks also to Joe Woodard Multimedia and San Francisco Labor Council and U.S. Labor against the War.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

A Tribute to Activist Women: Fatima Meer, Dudu Khumalo, and Annie Leonard

Listen to "A Tribute to Activist Women: Fatima Meer, Dudu Khumalo, and Annie Leonard"

A tribute to South Africa's Fatima Meer, one of the world's real heroines. It was said of her as she received her honorary degree from the University of Natal in 1998 that she “was among the first South Africans to have ever existed, a dutiful citizen before citizenship was enfranchised for her”.

We hear from Dudu Khumalo a water and rural lands activist in townships in and around Durban, South Africa. Dudu Khumalo is affiliated with the Center for Civic Society at the University of Kwa Zulu Natal and talks about the struggle she wages to create simple, healthy, and dignified communities in post apartheid SA.

And Annie Leonard talks with Steven Colbert about her work and new book The Story of Stuff.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Xenophobia: the fire next time

Listen to "Xenophobia: the fire next time"

The month of May will be the second anniversary of the xenophobic attacks that occurred around South Africa in 2008. There is a growing consensus that xenophobic attacks may be repeated if there is no concerted effort by civil society and government to address the underlying and systemic factors the give rise to xenophobia.

The Center for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu Natal in Durban is in the forefront of this effort. Professor Patrick Bond presents an overview of underlying factors that contribute to acts of xenophobia. Trevor Ngwane presents his research from the Bottlebrush community. Nobi Dube shares findings from her work in Ramaphosa settlement near Johannesburg and Baruti Amisi discusses xenophobia from the point of view of an immigrant from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

South Africa's Molefi Ndlovu of Durban Sings and Orlean Naidoo of Chatsworth flat dwellers community

Listen to "South Africa's Molefi Ndlovu of Durban Sings and Orlean Naidoo of Chatsworth flat dwellers community"

We hear from South Africa community activist and media specialist Molefi Ndlovu on the Durban Sings project. And from community organizer and flat dwellers' activist Orlean Naidoo on residents' responses to electricity and water cut-offs and rising tariffs.
Both Molefi Ndlovu and Orlean Naidoo are also community researchers at the Center for Civil Society at University of KwaZula Natal, Durban.

World Bank Loan to Fund Coal-Fired Power Plant Builds

Listen to "World Bank Loan to Fund Coal-Fired Power Plant Builds"


We look at the impact on carbon emissions, climate change, and our human environment if and when the World Bank makes a US $3.75 billion loan to South Africa's electricity supply commission to build new coal fired power stations. David Hallowes, Desmond D'Sa, Trevor Ngwane, and Prof. Patrick Bond discuss the impact on carbon emissions, climate change, and our human environment. This show was recorded at the Center for Civil Society based at the University of KwaZula Natal, Durban and moderated by center director Prof. Patrick Bond.

Read the article: The Seamy Side of Coal-Fired Power

20th Anniversary of Nelson Mandela's Release. What's Going on in South Africa?

Listen to "20th Anniversary of Nelson Mandela's Release. What's Going on in South Africa?"

Twenty year after then South African president F. W. de Klerk announced that Nelson Mandela and all political prisoners would be unconditionally released we hear several different perspectives. On the February 2 anniversary of the announcement many freedom fighters feel they have been betrayed by the current leadership after lifetimes dedicated to fighting for democracy in South Africa. Plus, the South African media reports on the the people and the latest scandal rocking Jacob Zuma's presidency and the African National Congress, the party Nelson Mandela spent his life developing and supporting.

Waste Pickers Unite for the Environment

Listen to "Waste Pickers Unite for the Environment"

Bobby Peek, director of the environmental justice NGO groundWork, shares the origin of this organization among residents turned activists in South Durban, South Africa and his soon-to-be realized vision for a school for training environmental justice activists.
We also talk with Musa Chamane who is engaged in creating networks of a new community of workers called waste pickers who recycle in South Africa's waste dumps and the challenges and successes of his work as Waste Campaign Manager.

Read the article: Wasting good waste

Thursday, January 28, 2010

The Seamy Side of Coal Generated Power: Eskom in South Africa

Listen to "The Seamy Side of Coal Generated Power: Eskom in South Africa"

Eskom, South Africa's electrical supply commission, is a parastatal or government entity that supplies the entire country with electricity. Eskom is proposing a 35 % rate hike for each of the next 3 years to pay off World Bank loans of up to five billion dollars for its so called 'new build' program.

The vast majority of SA's electricity is generated from coal and SA already has one of the heaviest carbon foot prints in the world. At the National Energy Regulator of South Africa hearings in Durban, KwaZulu Natal about 600 residents from South Durban added their voices to the public discussion. We hear from Patrick Mkize, spokesperson for Wentworth Development Forum, youth activist Bongani Mthembu from Umlazi Township, and Marveen King also from Wentworth. Following that, environmental research campaigner Rico Europido from the NGO groundWork shares the overall context in which to understand concerns raised during the Nersa hearings.

Read the article published on CommonDreams.org, Monday, January 25, 2010:
The Seamy Side of Coal-Fired Power
by Susan Galleymore