Monday, February 22, 2010

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Headlines

  • Peter Hallward on "Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide, and the Politics of Containment"

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    Haitian President René Préval said Sunday that the death toll from the earthquake could reach 300,000 once all the bodies are recovered from the rubble. We speak to Peter Hallward, professor of Modern European Philosophy at Middlesex University. "Unless prevented by renewed popular mobilisation in both Haiti and beyond, the perverse international emphasis on security will continue to distort the reconstruction effort, and with it the configuration of Haitian politics for some time to come," wrote Hallward recently. "What is already certain is that if further militarisation proceeds unchecked, the victims of the January earthquake won’t be the only avoidable casualties of 2010." [includes rush transcript]

  • After Decades-Long Wait, US Navy to Study Health Effects of Water Contamination at the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base in North Carolina.

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    We turn now to a story of environmental contamination that has been brewing for decades. Last week, the US Navy finally agreed to pay over $1.5 million to fund a study looking into the health effects of water contamination at the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base in North Carolina. The study could show a link between toxic water at the base and the illnesses and deaths of Marines and their family members over a thirty-year period from the late 1950s to the late 1980s. Thousands of Marines and their families who were stationed at Camp Lejeune have long complained of illnesses and deaths linked to exposure to toxic water. Health officials estimate that one million people were exposed to contaminated well water at the base before the main well was shut down in 1984. [includes rush transcript]

  • Malcolm X: "By Any Means Necessary"

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    We end today’s show with the words of Malcolm X. Sunday marked the forty-fifth anniversary of his death. He was assassinated February 21, 1965, as he spoke before a packed audience in Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom. He was just thirty-nine years old. This May 19th would have been his eighty-fifth birthday. This is an excerpt of a speech Malcolm X gave at the Audubon Ballroom about half a year earlier. It’s called “By Any Means Necessary.” [includes rush transcript]