Host: Basima Farhat

Previously Aired On: Tuesday, November 15, 2011 – Listen to the Show!
 

The son of the former Miss Jordan, Rami Kashou was born in Jerusalem in 1976 and raised in the West Bank city of Ramallah. His talent for design carried him through the challenges of a childhood interrupted by turmoil. “I grew up under military occupation. I used to sketch to escape the harsh reality and in an ugly situation I would create beauty.” Kashou remembers telling his mother and grandmother what to wear from the time he was five years old.

By age nine, he had started sketching designs for the women in his Ramallah neighborhood. “Women from the neighborhood would come to our house to drink coffee and I would show them my new designs. They would bring their fabric and I would design based on the fabric and then accompany them to the local seamstress and she would make the dresses.”

Upon arriving in the U.S. in 1996, Kashou worked in retail for several years. This eventually led him to a buying and merchandising position at a well-known boutique in Los Angeles. After a stint of traveling to Europe as a buyer, Kashou bit the bullet and purchased two sewing machines. He vigorously studied pattern making from the local vintage boutiques. “I would buy a piece and take it apart and inspect it, then I would learn.” Kashou said. After three years of self-education, he began creating what would later be known as the “One of a Kind” collection that was picked up by various notable Los Angeles boutiques.

A seasoned veteran of runway shows, Rami Kashou has shown his devotion and passion for groundbreaking feminine design, and as a result has become one of the most coveted runway shows to attend during fashion week, attracting celebrities such as Jessica Alba, Christina Aguilera, and Amy Smart. He was honored with the Gen Art Alumni sponsorship to showcase his collection in the tents of Bryant Park in addition to his numerous seasons at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios in Los Angeles.

Known for his dramatic red carpet gowns, Rami has draped the silhouettes of celebrities and trendsetters such as Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan, Penelope Cruz, Malin Akerman, Dita Von Teese, Heidi Klum, Jennifer Lopez, Fergie, Becki Newton, Paris Hilton, and Lindsay Lohan to name a few. His designs have graced the pages of the New York Times Magazine, Vogue, Women’s Wear Daily, Interview, Elle, In Style, and Flaunt amongst many others.

Rami Kashou has been recognized in the U.S. and abroad as an innovative designer. In 2005, Kashou was commissioned to create the costumes for America’s Next Top Model national ad campaign. Rami has also been honored by a variety of prominent institutions such as the Make a Wish Foundation, American Task Force on Palestine, the LA Fashion Awards, Seeds of Peace, and the Los Angeles City Council.

Rami’s television appearances include Live with Regis and Kelly, the Tyra Banks Show, Behind the Velvet Ropes on the Style Network, HSN, E! News, Fashion Team on the TV Guide Channel, Movie and a Makeover, Wealth TV, Alarabiya TV and Al Hurra. Most notably, Kashou was a finalist on Bravo’s Project Runway, showing yet another stunning collection at Bryant Park during Fashion Week.

Known for his signature draping, Rami seeks to bring out the goddess in every woman with elegance, femininity and style. Starting with his mother, women have always served as his muse. “I wake up every day to celebrate women,” says Kashou.

Kashou’s signature element – draping – is “undoubtedly inspired by Palestinian style. A big part of Palestinian culture is presentation. Women are well dressed in Palestine even if they don’t have access to the latest fashions. As a young designer I saw beauty in the way the fabric moved and I think that whispers in my work today.”

“Being Palestinian gave me strength because in many people’s eyes we don’t exist. I am determined to exist through my work. Palestinians don’t have freedom or equal rights today. But I have my talent and my dream and no one can take that away from me.”

Host: Basima Farhat

Previously Aired On: Tuesday, November 8, 2011 – Listen to the Show!
 

Ellen Brown, J.D., developed her research skills as an attorney practicing civil litigation in Los Angeles. She is the author of 11 books, and will be releasing another in 2011 focused on public banking. In Web of Debt, her most recent book, she traces the history and evolution of the current private banking system. She shows how it has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves, and how we the people can get it back. Ellen has written nearly 100 articles on this subject since Web of Debt was first published, and is the inspiration and thought leader behind the Public Banking Institute, where she serves as Chairman and President. She has degrees from UC Berkeley and UCLA School of Law.

About “WEB OF DEBT”
This book exposes important, often obscured truths about our money system and our economic past and future. Our money is not what we have been led to believe. The creation of money has been “privatized,” or taken over by a private money cartel. It is all done by sleight of hand, concealed by economic double-speak. “Web of Debt” unravels the deception and presents a crystal clear picture of the financial abyss towards which we are heading, pointing out all the signposts. Then it explores a workable alternative, one that was tested in colonial America and is grounded in the best of American economic thought, including the writings of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. If you care about financial security, your own or the nation’s, you should read this book.

Ellen Brown has applied her training as a litigating attorney, researcher and writer to the monetary field, unearthing facts that even the majority of banking and financial experts ignore: ranging from the privatization of money creation, to the Plunge Protection Team, to the Federal Reserve’s `Helicopter Money.

ABOUT THE PUBLIC BANKING INSTITUTE
The Public Banking Institute (PBI) was formed in January 2011 as an educational non-profit organization. Its mission is to further the understanding, explore the possibilities, and facilitate the implementation of public banking at all levels — local, regional, state, and national.

PBI’s vision is to establish a distributed network of state and local publicly-owned banks that create affordable credit, while providing a sustainable alternative to the current high-risk centralized private banking system. This network would act in the public interest, using its counter-cyclical credit-generating capacity to stabilize potential credit crises, maintain the floor against threats of asset devaluations, build infrastructure, and fund expansion of critical industrial productive capacity. Most important, public banking would create jobs, by partnering with local banks to fund local business, advancing credit for public infrastructure, and augmenting government revenues.

PBI’s mission includes analyzing U.S. and global financial events to facilitate public banking, sharing best practices and lessons learned from research and initiatives in the U.S. and globally, using PBI’s online resources, website, webinars, blog, and in-person conferences. PBI’s activities include:

•Publication of research involving the U.S. private banking system, past and current;
•Evaluation of existing and historical public banking models, in the U.S. and abroad;
•Publication of research regarding the legal requirements, structure, and daily operations of existing and proposed public banking and financing systems;
•Publication of a semi-annual legislative guide and presentations to aide local public banking initiatives; and
•Organization of public forums that enable state and local public banking efforts.

Host: Basima Farhat

Previously Aired On: Tuesday, November 1, 2011 – Listen to the Show!
 

Born in 1888 in Oklahoma Territory, Jim Thorpe was a Sac and Fox Indian. After attending the Sac and Fox agency school and Haskell Indian Junior College in Lawrence, Kansas, he transferred to Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. At Carlisle he led the football team to victories over some of the nation’s best college teams-Army, Navy, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Pennsylvania, and Nebraska. In 1912 he participated in the Olympic Games in Stockholm, winning both the decathlon and pentathlon. It was then that King Gustav V of Sweden dubbed him “the world’s greatest athlete.”

In 1913, strict rules regarding amateurism were in effect for athletes participating in the Olympics. Athletes who received money prizes for competitions, were sports teachers, or had competed previously against professionals, were not considered amateurs and were barred from competition.

Thorpe’s Medals and record were stripped by the IOC after they decided he had played baseball during 1909 and 1910 earning money as a college student. The IOC declared that he was a professional although protests leading to this disqualification came 6 months after the 30-day rule for such allowable contesting.

Between 1913 and 1919, Thorpe played professional baseball for the New York Giants, the Cincinnati Reds, and the Boston Braves. In 1915 he began playing professional football with the Canton (Ohio) Bulldogs. When the top teams were organized into the American Professional Football Association in 1920, Thorpe was named the first president of the league, which was renamed the National Football League in 1922. Throughout his career he excelled in every sport he played, earning King Gustav’s accolade many times over.

Thorpe’s achievements received great acclaim from sports journalists, both during his lifetime and since his death. In 1950, an Associated Press poll of almost 400 sportswriters and broadcasters voted Thorpe the “greatest athlete” of the first half of the 20th century. That same year, the Associated Press named Thorpe the “greatest American football player” of the first half of the century. In 1999, the Associated Press placed him third on its list of the top athletes of the century, following Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan. ESPN ranked Thorpe seventh on their list of best North American athletes of the century.

Thorpe was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963, one of seventeen players in the charter class. Thorpe is memorialized in the Pro Football Hall of Fame rotunda with a larger-than-life statue. He was also inducted into halls of fame for college football, American Olympic teams, and the national track and field competition.

President Richard Nixon, as authorized by U.S. Senate Joint Resolution 73, proclaimed Monday, April 16, 1973 as “Jim Thorpe Day” to promote the nationwide recognition of Thorpe. In 1986, the Jim Thorpe Association established an award with Thorpe’s name. The Jim Thorpe Award is given annually to the best defensive back in college football. The annual Thorpe Cup athletics meeting is named in his honor.

In 1982, Robert Wheeler (author of Jim Thorpe: World’s Greatest Athlete) and his wife Florence Ridlon established the Jim Thorpe Foundation and gained support from the U.S. Congress. Armed with this support and evidence from 1912 proving that Thorpe’s disqualification had occurred after the 30-day time period allowed by Olympics rules, they succeeded in making the case to the IOC. In October 1982, the IOC Executive Committee approved Thorpe’s reinstatement.

Controversy followed Jim Thorpe even at the time of his burial in 1953. During a Native Ceremonial burial in Oklahoma, Thorpe’s body was claimed by his wife Patsy who then eventually turned it over to a newly formed town that agreed to name itself Jim Thorpe.

In June 2010, Jack Thorpe – one of Jim Thorpe’s sons, filed a federal lawsuit to have his father’s remains returned to Oklahoma for a proper burial. The basis of his lawsuit was the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 that allows American Indian descendants to determine and have control over their ancestral human remains.

The case was allowed to continue should his remaining 2 brothers and the Oklahoma Sac & Fox Nation support the lawsuit. Jack recently passed away and the brothers William and Richard as well as the Sac & Fox Nation have joined the fight for the return of Jim Thorpe’s remains to Oklahoma.

The 2012 Olympics will mark the 100th year anniversary of Jim Thorpe’s victories at the 1912 Olympics. The world will hopefully be reminded of the extraordinary achievements of Jim Thorpe and hopefully his accomplishments given the full honor and recognition they deserve.

Host: Charles Giuliani

Previously Aired On: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 – Listen to the Show!
 

Steven Earl Jones is an American physicist. For most of his career, Jones was known mainly for his work on muon-catalyzed fusion. In the fall of 2006, amid controversy surrounding his work on the collapse of the World Trade Center, he was relieved of his teaching duties and placed on paid leave from Brigham Young University. On October 20, 2006, he announced his retirement. He holds that the World Trade Center was destroyed by controlled demolition during the September 11 attacks.

On September 22, 2005 Jones presented his views on the collapse of the World Trade Center towers and World Trade Center 7 at a BYU seminar attended by about 60 people. Pointing to the speed and symmetry of the collapses, the characteristics of dust jets, and reports of molten metal in the debris, Jones suggested that the evidence defies the mainstream collapse theory and favors explosive demolition. He called for further scientific investigation to test the controlled demolition hypothesis and the release of all relevant data by the government. Shortly after the seminar, Jones placed a paper “Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Collapse?” on the Physics department web site.

He subsequently defended the research twice more at BYU, also at Idaho State University, Utah Valley State College, University of Colorado at Boulder and University of Denver, the Utah Academy of Science, Sonoma State University, University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Texas at Austin.

Jones’ paper has been the center of controversy both for its content and its claims to scientific rigor. Jones’ early critics included members of BYU’s engineering faculty; shortly after he made his views public, the BYU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and the faculty of structural engineering issued statements in which they distanced themselves from Jones’ work. They noted that Jones’ “hypotheses and interpretations of evidence were being questioned by scholars and practitioners,” and expressed doubts about whether they had been “submitted to relevant scientific venues that would ensure rigorous technical peer review.”

Some of Jones’ colleagues have defended his work on 9/11 to varying degrees, and Project Censored lists his 9/11 research among the top mainstream media censored stories of 2007.

Jones’ placement on paid leave drew criticism from the American Association of University Professors and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. Both organizations are long time critics of BYU’s record on academic freedom. Jones “welcomed the review” because he hoped it would “encourage people to read his paper for themselves,” however the review was abandoned when Jones elected to retire, effective January 1, 2007.

Jones has been interviewed by mainstream news sources and has made a number of public appearances. While Jones has urged caution in drawing conclusions,] his public comments have suggested a considerable degree of certainty about both the controlled demolition of the World Trade Center and the culpability of rogue agents working within the U.S. government. In one interview, he asserted that the attacks were “an ‘inside job’, puppeteered by the neoconservatives in the White House to justify the occupation of oil-rich Arab countries, inflate military spending, and expand Israel.” His name is often mentioned in reporting about 9/11 conspiracy theories.

In April of 2008, Jones, along with four other authors, published a letter questioning the NIST findings in The Open Civil Engineering Journal, titled, ‘Fourteen Points of Agreement with Official Government Reports on the World Trade Center Destruction’.

Recently, Jones has been concentrating on what he was involved with since the 1980′s – an alternative energy source. He calls it Non-Conventional energy dealing with Electro Magnetism. In a way, it brings him full circle. One might say that the 9-11 attacks provided the reason for American’s military entrance and expansion in the Middle East on a level never before witnessed in history. Now with Osama bin Ladin, the supposed culprit of 9-11 disposed, the USA continues to expand its military ventures into other countries way beyond Afghanistan and into Africa with many charging that the ‘War on Terror’ which had been justified by the 9-11 attacks, is simply a cover for securing and furthering American control and interest over 3rd world country resources such as oil.
Jones was the one of the first if not the first academic to courageously question the science responsible for the collapse of the World Trade Center. He now is resuming his original quest for addressing the real problem – a need for a viable, economic energy source.

Host: Basima Farhat

Showtime: Tuesday, October 11, 2011 – Listen to the Show!
 

Rula was born in Haifa, Israel in 1973 and then lived with her family in East Jerusalem. She was brought to Dar El-Tifel orphanage at the age of 5 after the death of her mother. She studied here and graduated in 1991. In 1993 she got a scholarship from the Italian government to study medicine. She received a degree in physiotherapy from Bologna University. She went back to school specializing in journalism and political science. She immediately started working for newspapers such as Il Resto del Carlino, Il Giorno e La Nazione and Il Messaggero. Her area of expertise is foreign affairs related to the Arab Israeli conflict and the uprising of Islamic movements.

In 2000, she started working in television where she became the first foreign anchorwoman broadcasting the 8pm news.

In 2004, she started her daily talk show, Ominibus. She interviewed the most important and prestigious personalities from Italy, Palestine, Israel, and Europe. These included: Silvio Berlusconi, ex prime minister, Massimo D’Alema, the president of the Parliament, Lamberto Dini, minister of foreign affairs in France, Bernard Kouchner, Palestinian President, Abu Mazen along with Nobel Prize winner El Baradei.

She worked on national television stations, Rai 1, Rai 2 and Rai News 24, hosting her own political talk shows. Also private channels like Channel 7, where she created a show about the international moratorium against the death penalty. In 2004 she was awarded her first prize from Media Watch for her courage in covering the Iraqi war. In 2005 she received the International Ischia Award for Best Journalist of the Year, presented to her by the President of the Republic, Carlo A’zeglio Ciampi.

In 2006, she became the co-presenter of Anno Zero, the most important and controversial political television show in Italy, together with Michele Santoro.
She produced and broadcasted a TV show in Egypt in 2009 where she interviewed influential people like the Lebanese author Elias Khoury, the minister of finance, Youssef Boutros-Ghali, and the minister of trade and economy Rashid Mohamed Rashid. This show was acclaimed as the most independent in the history of Egyptian television.

She has written three books, Miral, La promise d’Aswan, which obtained the International Fenice Europe Prize, and Divieto di soggiorno, a study on the history of immigration in Europe.
Rula speaks Italian, English, Arabic, and Hebrew fluently.

Recently, she wrote the screenplay for the film Miral based on her book. The film, directed by Julian Schnabel, is scheduled to premier at the 2010 Venice Film Festival.

RULA on Miral – the book and film…

Each story told in my book and in this movie is true. I changed names, I merged different personalities and characters—but everything I have told here I have seen with my own eyes. There is no space for imagination in the Middle East. Every day, something that is imposed on you in this place makes you decide who you are and what you have to do.

After I left Jerusalem for Europe, I felt that my childhood had been stolen. I understood that in order for me not to lose my identity I had to tell my story, I had to connect my past with my future because there are so many girls who have gone through and are still going through these same things. Miral is me…she’s also these girls. I wrote this book for all children, who deserve a chance, and for all the other Mirals who still live in Jerusalem.

In turning the book into this film, I appreciated the intellectual honesty and respect with which Julian treated these stories and characters. He asked me so many questions — who, where, what and why. He tried to grasp the subject in all its depth. When we started scouting the locations and casting the movie, he wanted to go everywhere. He wanted to see everything with his own eyes; he wanted to talk to people from every perspective. We went to Ramallah, to Jaffa, to the refugee camps. He wanted to understand the inner conflicts that split the Palestinian people. Before each take, he would always ask me: “Is this authentic? Does this seem right to you?”

Like Miral, there came a turning point for me at which I felt I had to scream against the injustice. Today, I can say that the love and values I received from my father Jamal Shaheen and Hind Husseini—who believed in the virtues of education—saved my life. Later, I had the opportunity as a journalist covering conflicts in Iraq, Kosovo and Lebanon, to understand that education is indeed the best weapon. This is what this movie is about. It shows how education can dismantle and disarm fanaticism.

It seems so often these days that the solutions considered are military—and yet, the only real hope for ordinary people trying to lead normal lives is diplomacy and peace. And diplomacy and peace prosper when ordinary people have access to education.

—Rula Jebreal

Rula’s book is available on Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Miral-Novel-Rula-Jebreal/dp/0143116193

Host: Basima Farhat

Previously Aired On: Tuesday, September 13, 2011 – Listen to the Show!
 

Paul Larudee was born to an Iranian Presbyterian minister and his American missionary spouse in 1946 and grew up in the American Midwest. He has a Ph.D. in linguistics from Georgetown University and spent 14 years in Arab countries as a contracted U.S. government advisor, Fulbright-Hays exchange lecturer, teacher, training administrator and graduate student.

Paul has visited the Palestinian region many times since 1965, including four times with the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian-led movement that applies nonviolent principles to resist Israeli human rights violations. Paul was among seven ISM volunteers wounded by Israeli gunfire in April, 2002 in an otherwise nonviolent attempt to help Palestinian families. In 2006, he was held in Israeli detention for two weeks while unsuccessfully appealing a decision to deny him entry. He helped organize nonviolent resistance in Lebanon during the 2006 Israeli invasion. He is one of the founders of the Free Gaza Movement, whose boats, on August 23, 2008, became the first in 41 years to enter Gaza by sea, breaking the Israeli naval blockade. He is also a founder of the Free Palestine Movement, which also seeks to challenge Israel’s blockade and denial of access to all of Palestine by sea, air and land.

Paul, a former student of Noam Chomsky, became a Professor of Linguistics himself and remains a good friend and colleague of Professor Chomsky. Working with the NorCal branch of the International Solidarity Movement, Paul is very much a believer in and practitioner of Gandhi’s principles of non-violence. Paul was one of the 5 USA delegates aboard the Sfendoni, a ship of the Freedom flotilla attempting to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza.

ABOUT THE GLOBAL MARCH TO JERUSALEM (GMJ)

On 30 March, 2012, one million or more people will march – peacefully and nonviolently, but with determination – to Jerusalem. The purpose of this march is to protest and defy Israeli attempts to prevent and restrict Palestinians and others from entering this city, and the abuse and denial of Palestinian human and political rights.

The GMJ is a coalition of organizations throughout the world, formed to implement this movement. It consists of geographical associations and international committees where the associations are represented. In addition, committees assigned to perform specific functions, such as media, finance and logistics, are created as needed.

GMJ MISSION STATEMENT

We intend to march peacefully from all parts of the globe to Jerusalem as Palestinians who have the right of access to the city, as solidarity brothers and sisters of those whose right of access is being violated, and in solidarity with political prisoners who cannot be there with us. Together we will reassert and affirm the Palestinian refugees’ Right of Return and right of access to Jerusalem and all of Palestine.

Our intent is not to harm any person, and in fact, we refuse to do so, regardless of what anyone may do to us. However, we also refuse to be deterred from our goal, and will persist until we reach it. We believe that good will and determination will ultimately overcome all obstacles in our path.

We ask all persons and institutions who care for human rights and justice to support our peaceful, nonviolent effort with whatever means are at their disposal: by participating as marchers, by volunteering their services to the project; by legal, official and diplomatic intervention; and by financial support.

Let us prove that people of good will who are determined to pursue peace based on justice have nothing to fear from each other. Where better to do so than the historic City of Peace?

Please visit:
http://gmj-na.org
http://september15.org/

Previously Aired On: Tuesday, August 30, 2011 – Listen to the Show!
 

Mary Ann Wright has been a career military woman, a State Department diplomat, and for the past few years an influential spokesperson in the anti-war movement. Ann Wright grew up in Bentonville, Arkansas, and attended the University of Arkansas, where she holds a Master’s and a Law Degree. She also has a Master’s Degree in National Security Affairs from the US Naval War College. In her junior year at the University of Arkansas, she attended a three-week Army training program after meeting with a visiting Army recruiter. That experience helped inform her decision to join the service.

There she would remain for 13 years in active duty, with another 16 years in the Army reserves, retiring as a Colonel. Part of her work was special operations in civil affairs, in the event of troop invasions into countries like Iraq. Ann helped to develop, as she explained, “plans about how you interact with the civilian population, how you protect the facilities — sewage, water, electrical grids, libraries…It’s our obligation under the law of land warfare.” Ann requested a release from active duty from the Army and joined the State Department. For the next 16 years, she served as a foreign diplomat in countries such as Nicaragua, Somalia, Uzbekistan, and Sierra Leone. She was on the team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan in December, 2001, after the fall of the Taliban to US forces.

In all those years, Ann Wright was proud of her representation of America. However, on March 13, 2003, the eve of the US invasion of Iraq, Col.. Ann Wright sent a letter of resignation to then Secretary of State Colin Powell. She felt that without the authorization of the UN Security Council, the US invasion and occupation of a Muslim, oil-rich country would be a disaster. Only two other State Department officials resigned at that time over the imminent invasion. In an interview, Ann explained that, in Foreign Service, “Your job is to implement the policies of an administration…if you strongly disagree with any administration’s policies, and wish to speak out, your only option is to resign. I understood that and that’s one of the reasons I resigned — to give myself the freedom to talk out.”

Since resigning, patriotism for Ann Wright has been as an anti-war activist. She worked with Cindy Sheehan organizing Camp Casey, and appeared in the documentary “Uncovered: The Truth About the Iraq War”. She travels and lectures on foreign policy issues. She has been arrested five times in the past year for protesting Bush’s policies, and has referred to herself cheerfully as a “felon for peace”. This retired Army Colonel has also recently been temporarily banned not only from two military bases for placing postcards there about a showing of the documentary “Sir, No Sir”, but from the US Capitol area (her case is still pending), and the National Press Club (this a lifetime ban), for voicing opinions and questions concerning Bush’s policies and the Iraq war.

She is coauthor with Susan Dixon of “Dissent: Voices of Conscience”, the stories of those in the Bush administration and other governments who have had the courage to speak out, to be published November 2007 by Koa Books.

Ann was a passenger aboard the American boat The Audacity of Hope which was part of a larger Freedom Flotilla bound for Gaza this year but was prevented from going to Gaza according to this news piece from www.UStoGaza.org:

After a two hour stand off at sea, the U.S. Boat to Gaza – The Audacity of Hope – was seized by the Greek Coast Guard and forced to return to the port of Piraeus under military escort. The boat’s captain has been put in jail, charged with disturbing sea traffic–which includes endangering the lives of those on the ships– and disobeying a police order to remain at dock. The crew is being detained on the boat, which is being held at a military dock just outside Athens. Most of the 36 passengers remain on the ship in solidarity with the captain and crew.

Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army Colonel, responded strongly to the arrest of the American captain of the U.S. Boat to Gaza. “I think it’s outrageous what the Greek government is doing to our captain who was taking a group of Americans to challenge the illegal Israeli blockade. We call on the Greek government to release our Captain and dismiss all charges.”

Yonatan Shapira, a crew member on The Audacity of Hope and former Israeli Air Force captain, said the captain of the U.S. Boat should be praised, not condemned for his actions. “The captain acted out of concern for the safety of the passengers and boat by taking us away from the Greek port where other flotilla boats are being sabotaged,” Shapira said.

After five days of stalling, the Greek authorities produced the results of the inspection of the boat, which took place on Monday, June 27. The Greek government inspected the boat on the basis of an anonymous complaint alleging that the boat is not seaworthy. The anonymous complaint later turned out to have been filed by the Israel Law Center. The list of infractions cited on the inspection report included such things as technical details regarding the construction material of the hull and the fact that the private inspection report emailed to the authorities was unsigned. “None of these alleged infractions are actually regulations that boats are required to meet,” said group’s Greek lawyer Emmanuel Stephanakis. “It’s obvious that these are politically motivated, baseless charges calculated to stop the U.S. Boat to Gaza from sailing.”

“This shameful chapter in Greek history is symbolized by Prime Minister Netanyahu thanking his Greek counterpart Prime MInister Papandreou for his cooperation in helping thwart the flotilla, and by the fully-armed and masked Greek commandos at sea, pointing their guns at unarmed American civilians singing “We are a gentle, loving people,” says passenger Medea Benjamin.

The other boats in the flotilla that are docked in Greece have been denied permission to sail due to a variety of bureaucratic obstacles the Greek authorities have thrown in their way. Greece’s Civil Protection Authority confirmed Saturday the ban on departures of ships “with Greek and foreign flags from Greek ports to the maritime area of Gaza” was in place until further notice. Two of the boats have had physical damage done to them as well. All vow to pressure the Greek government to grant them permission to sail, and have activated their international networks. In the United States, the phones at the Greek Embassy and Consulates were so busy that callers could not get through.

While deeply disappointed that they have not yet been able to sail to Gaza, the passengers feel they have been successful at exposing the ongoing plight of the people of Gaza and the inhumanity of the Israeli government. “The success of the flotilla is shown by the huge expenditure of financial and personnel resources by the Israeli government to counter 10 civilian, unarmed ships with 300 citizen activists who simply want to sail to Gaza out of concern for the people of Gaza,” saya jazz musician and passenger Richard Lopez.

Host: Jeannette LaFeve

Previously Aired On: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 – Listen to the Show!
 

Personal Bio: I obtained a license as a psychoanalyst in 1988. Since then, I have mostly worked with young adults suffering from psychosis or personality disorders. I have also worked with refugees (in Sweden and Britain) who suffer from PTSD and other anxiety disorders, depression or psychosis after having been exposed to wars, terror and torture.

I worked for MSF – Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) in Hebron, Palesine 2010 to May 2011 in a mental heath project. The target population for the project are people who have been traumatized by the conflict. The objective is to offer psychotherapy or psychological support. There were also social and medical components in the project. In addition to the Hebron project, MSF has mental health projects also in Gaza and Nabalus.

It is difficult to mention an average patient. They are men who have been arrested and/or imprisoned, their wives, mothers and families, many patients are children. The medical services in Hebron Governate are functioning quite well, but the psychological services are very weak – next to non existent, and the need is huge.

As an employee of MSF, I worked for a year in Palestine but am now back in Sweden and taking this opportunity to share my experiences as a doctor formerly with MSF.

Host: Jeannette LaFeve

Previously Aired On: Tuesday, August 9, 2011 – Listen to the Show!
 

Basima Farhat is a writer, a poet and as a master healer in the art of Reiki. She teaches meditative practice in the area as a spiritual counselor. Her Corporate workshop S.O.S., Stop Ongoing Stress deals with creative change in high-pressure work areas and she is currently working on a number of projects in the field of human potential development. Basima has recently completed a screenplay call the Tatesville Casket Company whose subject matter deals with the death and dying process.

A well know poet and peace activist in the Michigan area, Basima has been invited by numerous organizations for poetry readings within the cultural community, most recently reading in the same venue as Tony Award winning poet Suhair Hamad, sponsored by the Palestine Office a grassroots peace organization that has hosted many political leaders, such as Dr Mustafa Barghouti, Micheal Tarazi, and Allison Weir.

This Summer 2011, Basima journeyed to Washington DC to lobby on behalf of Palestine. Meeting such notables as Ralph Nader, and several congress members she will share her experiences of this visit and a lifetime of efforts publicizing and working on behalf of the rights of the Palestinian people.

Host: Basima Farhat

Previously Aired On: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 – Listen to the Show!
 

With a broad background in finance, management, and political innovation, Laura Wells is ready to take the lead in California to go beyond the partisan deadlocks and interest-group politics of Sacramento that have divided us socially and ruined us economically.

Laura aims to solve California’s problems without resorting to the tradition of failed politics of desperation, demagoguery, gamesmanship, or fear that have landed us where we are now. Laura Wells makes positive changes happen by building on strengths and positive vision, not by manipulating weaknesses or using evasive rhetoric to disguise reality or avoid painful decisions.

In her professional life, she has taken stalled projects, sluggish organizations, and unworkable systems and turned them into smooth running, goal friendly, cooperative ventures. Laura’s level-headed leadership has been fully developed in the contrasting worlds of high finance and non-profit organizations; in small businesses and large corporations; in the public sector and the private sector. In her years as a professional financial systems manager, Laura mastered the intricate worlds of stocks, bonds, pension funds, and real estate mortgages.

Taking the initiative to go beyond the status-quo politics of vested interests, Laura participated in five international delegations to Canada and South America to study innovations in participatory democracy and new constitutions. As a committed citizen-activist, she worked in a range of volunteer and professional capacities to strengthen a coalition for alternatives to pesticides, prepare the unemployed for living wage work, and convert a navy base to civilian use.

These experiences strengthened Laura’s belief that traditional political leadership has had far too narrow a vision of the future, and that we need to return to people-centered values to re-build California as a beacon state of thriving communities, humane institutions, educated citizens, and sustainable lifestyles and businesses.

In her quest for institutional alternatives to the failing strategies of the nation’s two-party system, she served in numerous county and state-level leadership positions of the Green Party of California. In 2002 and 2006, she ran two high-achieving campaigns for State Controller.

Born and raised in Michigan, Laura was a scholarship student at Wayne State University in Detroit, where she learned “What’s good for General Motors” is not good for the U.S.A. She saw that huge corporations such as GM did not give back sufficiently to the neighborhoods they impacted. Housing, schools, the environment, and jobs were destroyed, not constructed. Laura learned that local businesses are the ones that create jobs and strong communities, and she has made it a priority to support them ever since.

In college she majored in foreign languages and was honored by election to the Phi Beta Kappa society in 1969 when she graduated from Wayne State University. She then mastered her professional skills in the world of finance, in business analysis, computer programming, and managing complex financial systems, and earned a Masters of Education at Antioch University.

California has been her home for more than 30 years. When she married, her daughter Natalia was born in Oakland. When her daughter was 12 the family of three went on a six-month trip around the United States, visiting 30 states in a vintage RV. While home-schooling their daughter, the family visited many historical and natural sites, and deepened their respect for America’s amazing beauty and diversity – both in nature and in people. Laura continues to enjoy living in Oakland – a city of far greater riches and promise than its mainstream media reputation leads the public to believe.

She is currently engaged to Charles Goodwin, a retired counselor in the juvenile probation division. That connection is a source of ongoing inspiration when young people approach them in a restaurant and say, “You counseled me when I was young, and now I’ve turned my life around.” Such experiences are important reminders that even tough situations can be changed for the better, and that everyone can be part of the new solutions we need.

Her values are the ones Californians share: optimism about the possibilities of the future; a safe and inspiring natural environment, affordable access to health care, a fair and world-class education system at all levels, and a belief that California can be a world leader in innovative solutions to complex problems in business, finance, and infrastructure.