Tag: Isaias

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Selam Gebremeskel/Meron Dejene, Bill Johnston June 3, 2021

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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

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Dave Lindorff, Finian Cunningham December 31st, 2020

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Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded on this date, December 31st, 2020.

It’s fitting now to focus on finishings as this over-long year two thousand and twenty slouches toward its unlamented finale. And what better emblemizes the demise of the Covid Year 2020 and what it represents than the parallel curtain call of the Donald J. Trump presidency; unwanted yet stubbornly clinging to both the body politic and global consciousness burr-like, or perhaps better sticking as a wad of chewed gum on the sole of our collective boot?

Dave Lindorff is an award-winning journalist, author, and founding member of the media collective, ThisCantBeHappening.net. Lindorff’s book titles include, ‘The Case for Impeachment: Legal Arguments for Removing President George W. Bush from Office’ and ‘This Can’t Be Happening! Resisting the Disintegration of American Democracy.’ His recent article, ‘A Red State Secession Movement from the US of A is a Great Idea!‘ encourages Republicans intent on the continuation of a Trump, or Trump-like presidency, to “Go For It!”

Dave Lindorff in the first half.

And; it’s been almost two months since the unelected government of Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia mobilized full military attacks against the country’s northernmost province of Tigray. Press coverage of the humanitarian crisis in the making has been scant in the West, while contextual analysis is almost entirely absent. Abiy convinced the African Union his “Operations to Restore Law and Order” would quickly end and stabilize the country, but two months on his promises stand in stark contrast to “facts on the ground”; facts that include the indiscriminate aerial bombardment and artillery shelling of cities, civilian massacres by the soldiery, and a massive and growing refugee crisis.

Finian Cunningham is a long-time and prolific journalist who worked as an editor and writer for major U.K. media outlets The Mirror, Irish Times, and Independent. The two-time Serena Shim Award for Uncompromising Integrity in Journalism recipient’s articles on international affairs appear at numerous online outlets, including at Sputnik, where I found his new article, ‘BBC Glosses Ethiopia Horror’.

Finian Cunningham and loosing a CIA Frankenstein on Ethiopia in the second half.

And; CFUV Radio broadcaster and host of Plant Powered Radio, Janine Bandcroft is off this week. So first, Dave Lindorff and leave takings at long last of Donald Trump and the end of the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic.