Alternative Radio

November 30, 2022 National, News & Public Affairs

History Lessons

Is history just a bunch of innocuous cold facts and dates? Or is it something more? What can we learn from the past? History is not neutral. It’s an ideological battleground. Witness the vitriolic attacks by establishment figures on those who want a reckoning of African American slavery. They want to obfuscate that sordid history. Or take the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983. What was that about? Or the CIA coup in Chile? Gee, never read about that in school. Elites can lie outright about history. Or they can omit facts that might lead to inconvenient conclusions. The rulers want to keep to their sanitized version of the past and maintain myths about enlightened leaders. Sure, here and there a few bad apples made mistakes but they were the exception, not the rule. Were they?

November 23, 2022 National, News & Public Affairs

History Lessons

Is history just a bunch of innocuous cold facts and dates? Or is it something more? What can we learn from the past? History is not neutral. It’s an ideological battleground. Witness the vitriolic attacks by establishment figures on those who want a reckoning of African American slavery. They want to obfuscate that sordid history. Or take the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983. What was that about? Or the CIA coup in Chile? Gee, I never read about that in school. Elites can lie outright about history. Or they can omit facts that might lead to inconvenient conclusions. The rulers want to keep to their sanitized version of the past and maintain myths about enlightened leaders Sure, here and there a few bad apples made mistakes but they were the exception not the rule. Were they?

November 16, 2022 National, News & Public Affairs

The rhetoric accompanying war is always saturated with noble sentiments and symbols. Flag, country, duty. We have enemies thus we need better weapons. The military-industrial complex grows and grows. The Pentagon has carte blanche. It asks for a new aircraft carrier, submarine or fighter jet. The answer from the White House and Congress is, “Sure. How many do you want?” The legendary Marine Corps General Smedley Butler said, “War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. It’s an economic imperative which must be stimulated, however deviously.”

November 9, 2022 National, News & Public Affairs

Gig Economics

At first blush, it seems like a dream job and a great way to make money. You always wanted to be your own boss. You’re free and independent. You work where and when you want. It could be a side job giving you that extra income you need. The gig economy has exploded in recent years. But it’s not all that its cranked out to be. Workers are vulnerable. There are no benefits. Some workers wind up working for peanuts. With no regular income, the gig economy can be stressful especially if you have a crisis. What are the ins and outs of gig economics?

November 2, 2022 National, News & Public Affairs

Azadi! Freedom!

“Azadi!”—Urdu for “Freedom!”—is the slogan of the freedom struggle in Kashmir against Indian occupation. Abroad, New Delhi promotes itself as the world’s largest democracy. At home, the picture is quite different. India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, the BJP, led by Narendra Modi espouses Hindutva, Hindu nationalism. It promotes Islamophobia and stifles dissent. What it wants from largely Muslim Kashmir is submission. To ensure that it has deployed hundreds of thousands of troops making the Himalayan region the most densely militarized zone on earth. Kashmir is an unresolved issue dating back to the partition of India in 1947. For decades Kashmiris have been in revolt against Indian rule. Many tens of thousands have been killed. Many more have been displaced. What do Kashmiris want? Azadi.

October 19, 2022 National, News & Public Affairs

Afghanistan: Past & Present

Afghanistan, land of the Afghans, more than two millennia ago, this may surprise you, was a major center of Buddhism. Situated on the fabled Silk Road this mountainous landlocked country has an old and rich history and culture with great poets like Raabia Balkhi, Khushal Khattak, and most renowned of all, Rumi. Afghanistan has been called “the graveyard of empires.” Just ask the British, the Russians and the Americans. Today, it is ruled by the Taliban, notorious for their rigid brand of Islam. The situation in the country is bleak. It is under sanctions. Hunger and poverty are widespread. Violence, though reduced, continues. Education for girls is limited. Ahmed Rashid, author of the bestseller Taliban warns, “Unless the Taliban are prepared to moderate their policies Afghanistan will remain the fulcrum of unrest and turbulence in Central Asia for years to come.”

October 12, 2022 National, News & Public Affairs

Notes on Resistance

Resistance. How does one move from a position of dissent to resistance, direct action? As a political tactic resistance requires careful thought and must be freely undertaken. Practitioners include most famously Gandhi and Dr. King. It can come with a price. Both Gandhi and King were assassinated. Dolores Huerta, a major organizer and leader of farmworkers was arrested more than 20 times. John Lewis, the civil rights icon was severely beaten. What forms should resistance take? There is no one size fits all answer. Take Thoreau. He was opposed to the U.S. war on Mexico. He refused to pay taxes and went to jail. During the Vietnam War resistance took the form of men refusing to fight. Today young people in Extinction Rebellion and the Sunrise Movement, engage in resistance defending our planet against destructive corporations and the states that enable them.

October 5, 2022 National, News & Public Affairs

A Tribute to Barbara Ehrenreich

Barbara Ehrenreich was a renowned social critic, journalist, feminist and author. She was born in Butte, Montana and studied chemistry at Reed College in Oregon and later received a Ph.D. in cellular immunology at Rockefeller University in New York. But she left a possible career in science and teaching to become a seasoned muckraker in the tradition of Ida B. Wells and Lincoln Steffens. She wrote many books. Her articles appeared in Ms., Mother Jones, and The Progressive. She wrote incisively and with compassion about working people and the hardships they endure. To write about the underclass she went underground and took low-wage jobs such as hotel maid, cleaning houses, nursing home aide and waitressing. Through her work, she made the invisible working poor visible. She was long active in the DSA, Democratic Socialists of America. In 2012 she founded the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, seeking to place the crisis of poverty and economic insecurity at the center of the national political conversation. Her best-known book Nickel and Dimed, a classic in social justice literature, has sold millions of copies. She passed away on September 1, 2022. Katha Pollitt in The Nation wrote “Barbara accomplished so much, but what I love most about her work is that it was never boilerplate. She always found a way to take her argument to a deeper level. And there was always empathy—for the people who are overlooked, whose struggles are disregarded, who have to fight for food and shelter and a halfway decent life, for every shred of dignity and recognition.”

September 28, 2022 National, News & Public Affairs

The RSS: Fascism in India

The realities of India are in sharp contrast with the image it projects internationally. For example, you probably haven’t heard of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the RSS. It is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary organization. The RSS, with its millions of members, exerts enormous influence and power in India. Its political party is the BJP, the Bharatiya Janata Party led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organizations called the Sangh Parivar, which has a presence in all facets of Indian society. It promotes a Hindu supremacist ideology that is intolerant of India’s minority communities, especially Muslims. India, particularly under the current regime of Narendra Modi is in Arundhati Roy’s words “a dangerous place” where “a deeply flawed, fragile democracy has transitioned– openly and brazenly–into a criminal, Hindu-fascist enterprise.”

September 21, 2022 National, News & Public Affairs

Our Planetary Existential Crisis

Our planet and humankind are in danger. The warnings coming from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres could not be more unambiguous. He says we are heading “towards an unlivable world. We are on a fast track to climate disaster. Major cities under water. Unprecedented heatwaves. Terrifying storms. Widespread water shortages. The extinction of a million species of plants and animals. This is not fiction or exaggeration,” he continues. “It is what science tells us will result from our current energy policies. We are on a pathway to global warming of more than double the 1.5-degree limit agreed in Paris. If you care about justice, and our children’s future, I am appealing directly to you. Climate promises and plans must be turned into reality and action, now. It is time to stop burning our planet, and start investing in the abundant renewable energy all around us.”