• Podcast 019 | Week of 25.11.2012
Download entire podcast (320 kbps mp3).
All posts by Wayne K. Spear
The “Gaza Wars”
IN THIS LATEST of the Gaza Wars, a little noted symmetry offers insight into developments which doubtless portend the years ahead. The symmetry to which I refer concerns the names attached to the battles of 2008-09 and 2012.
Palestine, R.I.P. Twinkies, David Petraeus, Texas Independance, Xenoceratops, Idiots
If Greece’s disease doesn’t kill it, Golden Dawn’s cure may
AS THE POLITICAL and economic fortunes of Greece grow more precarious, it becomes harder to separate symptoms of a disease from the side effects of cures. The country’s Finance Minister, Yannis Stournaras, has projected a twenty-five percent contraction of the Greek economy for the years 2008-2014 and a 1930s-styled Depression, both the presumed outcomes of EU-imposed austerity measures.
What Should One Remember on Remembrance Day?
EVER SINCE November 1919 the 11th of November has been designated Remembrance Day throughout the Commonwealth, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month having been set aside by decree of King George V as a time of “remembrance for the men and women who have served, and continue to serve our country during times of war, conflict and peace.”
For the GOP, it’s 2050 in America
I HAD JUST finished reading the New York Times article “Republicans Reconsider Positions on Immigration” when confirmation of President Obama’s Florida victory arrived. Had more Republicans heeded the advice of Florida’s Jeb Bush, this article, and the contest it describes, might have concluded differently. Having absorbed this uncontroversial bit of information, Republicans are at last coming around to the Bush and company point-of-view, which ten years ago was summarized as “The Big Tent” and the Party of Lincoln, and whose current mantra is the phrase path to citizenship.
An Interview with Cindy Blackstock
CINDY BLACKSTOCK is a member of the Gitksan Nation, the Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, and an Associate Professor at the University of Alberta. Last year, she became the subject of media headlines when it was widely reported that the federal government had been spying on her. I spoke to her about her life, her work, and a human rights complaint launched by the Assembly of First Nations and FNCFCS against the Canadian federal government.
Please visit I Am a Witness.
Download the interview (320 kbps mp3).
Bill McKibben, Hotel of Doom, Tim Hortons, D-Day pigeon, Payphones, China’s Great City, and more
Garnet Angeconeb’s Journey of Healing, Hope and Reconciliation
IN MANY RESPECTS, Garnet Angeconeb is representative of the countless Aboriginal children beaten and raped in Canada’s Indian residential schools. For years he told no one, including his wife. Angry, pain-filled and confused, he drank heavily to dull his feelings. The turning-point in his life arrived during a business trip to Ottawa, on October 31, 1990:
An interview with Meaghan Daly
MEAGHAN DALY is the President at Boxx Media. A former Bay Street equity trader, she specializes in capital markets, advanced trading and financial literacy. She is currently developing a line of computer game software to teach financial literacy in the public school system. I interviewed her near her Toronto home. This interview was published in the Fall 2012 edition of the Journal of Aboriginal Management.
Podcast 16: Hurricane Sandy, Sassy Squaw, Abercrombie & Fitch, Zombie Planet … and more
A Police Chief Prays for Peace
THE ACTING CHIEF of Winnipeg’s police is correct that his comments about prayer and crime were taken out of context. Here is an excerpt of the interview as it appeared in Christian Week on October 11:
Podcast 15: Lincoln Alexander, George McGovern, Malala Yousafzai, Drone Strikes, Terry Jones … and more
Why We Learn Nothing from the Presidential Debates
I‘VE TAKEN IN all the US presidential and vice-presidential debates. Over the years these have become highly rehearsed and scripted affairs, meticulously polished and doubtless focus group vetted and — well, who knows what else the candidates do these days. Computer modelling, maybe. Virtual reality simulations. Testing on non-human animals. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that media experts and pollsters and psychics are also consulted. The result of all this engineering is debate not unlike processed food: enjoyable, but who knows what’s really in it.
The Limits of Honesty in Writing
TRUTH, LIKE WEATHER, arrives in degrees. Just as the weather is all around, so too dishonesty in writing. Indeed, the taking of the media’s temperatures is a primary moral responsibility of the modern reader. The question which confronts us is how do we read well in an age where dishonesty on many of the important topics may be taken for granted.
Journalism, Essays, Broadcasting, Books 