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Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded on the dates, May 31st and June 1st, 2021
Last November, the federal government of Ethiopia, in concert with the dictatorship of neighbouring Eritrea, launched a military invasion of Tigray. Since, millions have been displaced and millions more are in dire need of humanitarian assistance in what the Biden administration said last week is shaping up to become the greatest manufactured disaster since the Ethiopian famine of the 1980’s.
Last week, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock told the UN Security Council, president Abiy’s troops and its allies have, as well as committing “mass rapes and murder“, “attacked, obstructed or delayed [deliveries of] life-saving assistance… and killed at least 8 aid workers since November“.
Selamawit Gebremeskel is an Ethiopian emigre who has lived in Canada for nearly thirty years. Selam, now a health care professional in Victoria, has relatives in Tigray caught up in a war the government there is waging against its civilians.
Selam Gebremeskel and Meron Dejene in the first half.
And; Day 295 of Direct Action against timber company Teal Jones’ clear-cutting of the Fairy Creek watershed was marked by more than 2,000 blockaders joining the nine months-long campaign in defiance of a BC court injunction and the massive presence of Canada’s paramilitary federal police, the RCMP. Despite scores of protesters arrested to date, or perhaps because of it, the size of the blockade has continued to grow. And the stakes are high. According to the Rainforest Flying Squad in the face of biodiversity and climate crises the logging of old growth forests must stop. It’s just as British Columbia’s own Old Growth Strategic Review Panel recommended last year, but the cutting continues.
Bill Johnston is a retired officer of the Canadian Foreign Services and active Green Party member. He and partner Jan have been traveling up island to participate directly in the blockade. They were up there Saturday, just two of the more than two thousand that showed up to slow up the clear-cuts.
Bill Johnston and the fight to save Fairy Creek in the second half.
But first, Selam Gebremeskel, Meron Dejene and Ethiopia’s engineered catastrophe in Tigray.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: https://cfuv.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com