David Barsamian
I went for an interesting lecture by David Barsamian, the founder of alternative radio at the Attic.
A description of the talk is below. He had just come back from Pakistan and Iran and he spoke about his experiences their. Pakistan he said was filled with protests, using the revolutionary poetry of Faiz Ahmad Faiz, not wanting military dictatorship but wanting democracy. Jamuriyat Zindabad, Amiryat Murdabad. He felt the citizens of Pakistan were aware of the lack of real choice between the lack of conscience Benazir Bhutto and the utterly corrupt Nawaz Sharif. He felt America treated Pakistan like an object, a place where it can set up military bases.
An Islamic Fascism awareness conference had recently been held in the States, where right wing commentators like Ann Coulter, had proclaimed the Muslim world should be occupied and the people converted to Christianity. The council on foreign relations a NY based think tank divides the world in to different spheres, similar to the Monroe doctrine. Iran has oil, that is why it is so strategicalsly interesting to U.S. foreig policy. The organizing principle for U.S. foreign policy seems to be the fight against Islam or the Al Queda.
In reference to Iran, he gave the figure of 5 billion dollars as the Iranian military budget, while that same amount was what was being spent in a week by the U.S. in Iraq.
He did not feel any of the current U.S. presidential candidates are substantially different from each other in terms of policy. He was critical of U.S. media that obfuscates the real issues and focuses more on Britney Spears custody battle. Also the media and the politicians who are hand in glove, keep repeating the same words together..Islam, 9-11, Al-Queda, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Oil, Pakistan. Once these words are heard often enough people start making connection and are subsequently misinformed. Democracy runs through money exchanging hands from politicians to the media.
He was fluent in Urdu, a student of the sitar and critical of neo-Fascist ideas in the US. His talk was also heard by Arundati Roy, who was in the audience.
DESCRIPTION:
‘How to demonise a country – Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran?’ a talk by David Barsamian.
The Taliban was first demonised and then a country destroyed. The “illegal and immoral” war in Iraq was preceded by a ‘manufactured consent’, through a spoon fed media for an imperialist war of aggression. Iran is now staring down the barrel of a gun to appease the insatiable appetite of the US Neo-cons for unending war. : “There is a structural relationship between media and state power. They are closely linked. Who are the media? Not just in the United States, but around the world, they’re a handful of corporations that dominate what people see, hear, and read.
I’ll just give you one example: the New York Times, this great liberal newspaper, had 70 editorials between September 11, 2001 and the attack on Iraq, March 20, 2003. In not one of those editorials was the UN Charter, the Nuremberg Tribunal, or any aspect of International Law ever mentioned.”
David Barsamian talks this evening about a wide range of subjects: Illegal wars and war crimes, the servility and sycophancy of journalism and his interviews with the cream of alternative voices – Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Eqbal Ahmed, Edward Said, Tariq Ali and Arundhati Roy.
David is a radio broadcaster and writer and director of Alternative Radio, a syndicated weekly talk program heard on some 125 radio stations in various countries. His interviews and articles also appear regularly in The Progressive, The Nation, and Z Magazine. He is best known for his series of interviews with Noam Chomsky, which have been published in book form and translated into many languages, His other books include Confronting Empire (2000) (interviews with Eqbal Ahmad)
Culture and Resistance (1994) (interviews with Edward Said)
The Future of History (1999) (interviews with Howard Zinn)
The Decline and Fall of Public Broadcasting (2001)
The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile (2003) (interviews with Arundhati Roy)
His latest books are ‘Targeting Iran’ and ‘What We Say Goes’ w/ Chomsky.
A description of the talk is below. He had just come back from Pakistan and Iran and he spoke about his experiences their. Pakistan he said was filled with protests, using the revolutionary poetry of Faiz Ahmad Faiz, not wanting military dictatorship but wanting democracy. Jamuriyat Zindabad, Amiryat Murdabad. He felt the citizens of Pakistan were aware of the lack of real choice between the lack of conscience Benazir Bhutto and the utterly corrupt Nawaz Sharif. He felt America treated Pakistan like an object, a place where it can set up military bases.
An Islamic Fascism awareness conference had recently been held in the States, where right wing commentators like Ann Coulter, had proclaimed the Muslim world should be occupied and the people converted to Christianity. The council on foreign relations a NY based think tank divides the world in to different spheres, similar to the Monroe doctrine. Iran has oil, that is why it is so strategicalsly interesting to U.S. foreig policy. The organizing principle for U.S. foreign policy seems to be the fight against Islam or the Al Queda.
In reference to Iran, he gave the figure of 5 billion dollars as the Iranian military budget, while that same amount was what was being spent in a week by the U.S. in Iraq.
He did not feel any of the current U.S. presidential candidates are substantially different from each other in terms of policy. He was critical of U.S. media that obfuscates the real issues and focuses more on Britney Spears custody battle. Also the media and the politicians who are hand in glove, keep repeating the same words together..Islam, 9-11, Al-Queda, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Oil, Pakistan. Once these words are heard often enough people start making connection and are subsequently misinformed. Democracy runs through money exchanging hands from politicians to the media.
He was fluent in Urdu, a student of the sitar and critical of neo-Fascist ideas in the US. His talk was also heard by Arundati Roy, who was in the audience.
DESCRIPTION:
‘How to demonise a country – Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran?’ a talk by David Barsamian.
The Taliban was first demonised and then a country destroyed. The “illegal and immoral” war in Iraq was preceded by a ‘manufactured consent’, through a spoon fed media for an imperialist war of aggression. Iran is now staring down the barrel of a gun to appease the insatiable appetite of the US Neo-cons for unending war. : “There is a structural relationship between media and state power. They are closely linked. Who are the media? Not just in the United States, but around the world, they’re a handful of corporations that dominate what people see, hear, and read.
I’ll just give you one example: the New York Times, this great liberal newspaper, had 70 editorials between September 11, 2001 and the attack on Iraq, March 20, 2003. In not one of those editorials was the UN Charter, the Nuremberg Tribunal, or any aspect of International Law ever mentioned.”
David Barsamian talks this evening about a wide range of subjects: Illegal wars and war crimes, the servility and sycophancy of journalism and his interviews with the cream of alternative voices – Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Eqbal Ahmed, Edward Said, Tariq Ali and Arundhati Roy.
David is a radio broadcaster and writer and director of Alternative Radio, a syndicated weekly talk program heard on some 125 radio stations in various countries. His interviews and articles also appear regularly in The Progressive, The Nation, and Z Magazine. He is best known for his series of interviews with Noam Chomsky, which have been published in book form and translated into many languages, His other books include Confronting Empire (2000) (interviews with Eqbal Ahmad)
Culture and Resistance (1994) (interviews with Edward Said)
The Future of History (1999) (interviews with Howard Zinn)
The Decline and Fall of Public Broadcasting (2001)
The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile (2003) (interviews with Arundhati Roy)
His latest books are ‘Targeting Iran’ and ‘What We Say Goes’ w/ Chomsky.
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