Alternative News this evening brings you a report on that from Free Speech Radio News (www.savepfacifica.net/strike/news/index.html). The show airs from 5-6 p.m. on KUCI, 88.9 fm in Orange County, Calif., and is Web-cast at kuci.org simultaneously.
There's also a report on the battle between South Africa and drug companies over AIDS drugs.
In addition, WBAI management has yanked off the air an interview with Congressman Major Owens, a librarian; it's one more incident in a continuing saga of the deterioration of Pacifica network under the present regime.
And a California university has just started a Central American Studies program; and Nigerians speak out against abuses by a major oil company...
On KUCI, we'll also update listeners on the controversial ID law in Anaheim. Anaheim has suspended its ID law and plans to repeal it March 20. For my essay on why enforcement was resurrected recently for this 36-year-old law, see:
Show Us Your Scars!
http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/01/27/news-tsang.shtml
In addition, we'll bring listeners the latest edition of Making Contact, a production of National Radio Project (radioproject.org). This week features a look at large-scale mining and its impact on indigenous communities.
Also, many of you have asked for reviews of restaurants... i recently reviewed (under the code name DCT) 14:
Holy Mackerel!
http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/01/21/cover.shtml
thanx, dan.
March 9, 2001
ZAPATISTAS MARCH ON MEXICO CITY
On New Year's Day in 1994, as the North American Free Trade
Agreement
went
into effect, the Zapatista National Liberation Army took over the
southern
Mexican state of Chiapas. Since that revolt and the subsequent
retaking of
Chiapas by the Mexican military, the Zapatistas have waged a war of
ideas.
Their latest offensive is a three-week caravan from Chiapas to Mexico
City,
where the Zapatistas are scheduled to arrive on Sunday. As Thatcher
Collins
reports from the caravan route, the Zapatistas aim to place the
rights of
indigenous people at the center of Mexican national politics.
PATENTS V. PEOPLE IN PRETORIA
A South Africa this week began its consideration of a case which
pits
the
right of international drug companies to protect their intellectual
property
against the right of millions of people infected with the HIV virus
to have
access to drugs which could save their lives. The Pharmaceutical
Manufacturers Association of South Africa, a trade group representing
a
number of major international drug companies, sued the South African
government over its 1997 Medicines and Related Substances Control
Act. That
act would have allowed for the production or import of cheaper
generic
versions of patented anti-retroviral drugs. The companies say that
would
violate their property rights under the South African constitution
and
international trade agreements, but health officials and some two
thousand
protesters who rallied outside the courtroom say that the AIDS
epidemic
legally justifies setting aside patent protections. For now, the
court has
delayed the case until April, when South Africa's leading AIDS
pressure
group, the Treatment Action Campaign, will offer testimony on the
devastation caused by the disease. Host Matt Martin asked Free Speech
Radio
News correspondent Patrick Bond to describe the scope of the health
emergency which has made this issue so urgent for South Africans.
FIRST EVER CENTRAL AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAM LAUNCHED
It's estimated that there are more than 2 million Central
Americans
in the
United States today. Most came during a wave of immigration in the
1980's
when hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans, Guatemalans and
Nicaraguans fled
war and economic collapse in their countries. So far, there's been
little
academic research on the Central American population in the United
States,
and even less written by Central Americans themselves. But, as Robin
Urevich
reports, that may be changing, as one California university has
developed
the nation's first Central American Studies Program.
NIGERIANS CONDEMN ABUSES BY SHELL OIL
The Anglo Dutch Oil Company Shell Petroleum is one of the richest
corporations in the world. It makes fourteen percent of its profits
in
Nigeria, a country which relies almost solely on crude oil for its
export
earnings. With control over more than half of Nigeria's crude oil
production, Shell effectively controls more than half of the
country's
export economy. Villagers in the Niger Delta where Shell operates
recently
told a human rights commission that the company uses its economic
power to
violate their rights. They say the company's monopoly power must be
broken
to prevent further abuses and strong-arm tactics. Sam Olukoya has the
details from the Niger Delta.
PACIFICA RADIO GAGS A MEMBER OF CONGRESS
The bitter two year-old fight over control of the nation's oldest
listener-sponsored radio network is about to spill over on to the
floor of
Congress. That after the General Manager of Pacifica Radio's New York
station WBAI yanked Brooklyn Congressman Major Owens off the
station's
airwaves after he violated a rule laid down by management forbidding
discussion of internal matters on the air. The struggle at WBAI is
part of
a larger conflict over control and direction of the non-profit
Pacifica
Foundation, which owns five stations across the country. Long-time
supporters of Pacifica, which was founded by a group of pacifists,
fear
that the Foundation's board is trying to weaken the radical tenor of
its
stations' programming. Aaron Glantz has the story.
Making Contact: a weekly international radio program
March 7, 2001
"Digging for Profits: Impacts of Large-Scale Mining"
By many accounts, large-scale industrial mining projects have
caused ecological devastation, and harm to communities around the
world. In particular, mining projects have displaced many Native
peoples, and cancer-causing chemicals at mine sites have poisoned
workers and the environment. On this program, we take a look at the
impacts of mining on communities in the United States, Peru, Ghana
and South Africa. photo:
FEATURING:
Danny Kennedy, Project Underground
Say-Okla Kindness, Indigenous Mining Campaign Project
Lori Goodman, Din Citizens Against Ruining the Environment
(Din CARE)
Julio Marin, Federacon Femininas de Rondas Campesinas (Peru)
Shanna Langdon, Project Underground
Rachel Kyte, International Finance Corporation
Lwazi Kubukeli, Project Underground
Immanuel Agyapong, Friends of the Earth-Ghana
Daniel C. Tsang
Host, Subversity, now Tuesdays, 4-5 p.m.
Host, Alternative News, now Fridays, 5-6 p.m.
KUCI, 88.9 FM and Web-cast live
selected shows available as RealAudio files
URL: http://kuci.org/~dtsang/
E-mail: dtsang@kuci.org
Daniel Tsang, KUCI, PO Box 4362, Irvine CA 92616
also check out:
Home Page: http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~dtsang
especially:
WWW News Resource Page
http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~dtsang/netnews1.htm
Alliance Working for Asian Rights and Empowerment
http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~dtsang/aware.htm
UCI Tel: (949) 824-4978
UCI Fax: (949) 824-2700
UCI Office: 380 Main Library
Member, National Writers Union.
The only labor union committed to improving the economic and working
conditions of all freelance writers. For more information visit NWU's Web
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