The Real Zombie Apocalypse: Reagan-Thatcher Neoliberalism

Perhaps the most poisonous idea of the 1980s is Thatcher's claim that there is no society only individuals and families. Everyone for themselves became the universal unquestioned mantra, completely infecting the U.S. to the point where people regularly turn on each other in crisis rather than helping each other. The cost to the individual and family is apparently irrelevant, not to mention the devastation to society (which doesn't exist so it doesn't matter). Wealth has been concentrated, hoarded, and stashed in tax havens bankrupting countries and essentially making government useless, as intended. The privileged few hide in their heavily armed compounds while the hoards stumble hopeless about them. And, as always, the poor and ignorant ape them believing themselves to be among the chosen.

From CBC's Ideas:

Monday February 22, 2016

The Coming Zombie Apocalypse

Listen to Full Episode 54:00

Zombies are zeitgeist --  shuffling, moaning metaphors for all our apocalyptic fears. It's so easy to imagine the end of the world: climate change, economic collapse, wildfire, pandemics. Some say it's too late. Some say the apocalypse started with colonization.  Garth Mullins, with Lisa Hale, asks why it's so hard to imagine any alternative to catastrophe. Can't we resist? **This episode originally aired October 27, 2015.

Undead broadcaster Garth Mullins

Native Studies scholar Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy explains that Indigenous peoples have been facing the apocalypse for generations. For her nation, colonization was the end of the world and she sees parallels in The Walking Dead TV show. 

Afrofuturist sci-fi writer Nalo Hopkinson says that for people of colour, the apocalypse is already here, with unemployment, marginalization and deadly police violence.
But why is it so hard to imagine any alternative to the End - any fundamental change? Is it too late? Can we resist? 

Complex systems theorist Brad Werner has run models on possible future scenarios. He asks: "are we F&*ked?" and looks at how resistance can slow down the destruction of the planet.  

So many have dreamed of changing the world. Now they're just trying to survive its end. Megan Adam is a community activist, working for social justice, but she has an escape plan in case that doesn't work out. 

And Thea Munster identifies with the undead. It's the heavily armed survivors she fears. So she started Zombie Walks, to unite the horde. 

East Vancouver comedian Charlie Demers and I both feel torn between paralyzing despair and cautious optimism. He talks about Thatcher's notion that there is no such thing as society and how we must rebuild one. 

This is not so much a show about zombies. Rather it's about how we survive and resist in a precarious world, where the apocalypse is mainstream and real change is marginalized.  
Follow Garth Mullins on twitter @garthmullins and Lisa Hale @lisa_hale. Check out East Van Calling podcast for longer interviews with some of the guests and our Tumblr for images.
Music by: Jacob Dryden, Garth Mullins and Kai Paulson

Related Stories

 
5 reasons the apocalypse and zombies are zeitgeist

Three stories about three evils: ISIL, Putin, and the Saudi family.

Here are interviews from CBC's The Current, important to understanding much of the mess the world is dealing with right now.

Monday February 22, 2016

Former ISIS hostage Nicolas Hénin says Western bombing only helps Islamic State

Held captive by ISIS for 10 months, Nicolas Henin on the best strategy for defeating ISIS 2:05

Listen 23:17

For 10 months, French correspondent Nicolas Hénin was a prisoner of ISIS in June 2013.
One of his captors was the notorious extremist known as "Jihadi John" and his fellow captive was U.S. reporter James Foley, whose brutal beheading was filmed for Islamic State propaganda. Other fellow captives were also murdered on camera by their ISIS handlers.

Nicolas Hénin gets off the helicopter upon his arrival with three other French journalists taken hostage in Syria in 2013 and freed Apr. 20, 2014, at the Villacoublay air base southwest of Paris. (Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images)

But Nicolas Hénin survived to tell his story, and to share the insights he's gleaned into ISIS. The French journalist joined Anna Maria to share what he thinks is the best strategy for defeating ISIS.

French journalist Nicolas Henin (R), reunites with his family at the Villacoublay air base southwest of Paris, Apr. 20, 2014. Four French journalists, Edouard Elias, Didier Francois, Nicolas Henin and Pierre Torres had been captured in two separate incidents in June 2013 while covering the conflict in Syria. (Thomas Samson/AFP/Getty Images)

Nicolas Hénin's book is called Jihad Academy: A Former ISIS Hostage and Veteran Middle East Journalist Explores Misperceptions of Islamic State and Their Consequences. 

This segment was produced by The Current's Howard Goldenthal.

RELATED LINKS
♦ Nicolas Hénin: I was held hostage by Isis. They fear our unity more than our airstrikes
♦ Why Are Russian Engineers Working at an Islamic State-Controlled Gas Plant in Syria?

Monday February 22, 2016

Re-engagement with Russia a dangerous proposition, says anti-Putin activist

Anti-Putin activist Bill Browder cautions Putin will laugh at Canada's efforts to influence Russia through re-engagement. (Ivan Sekretarev/AFP/Getty Images)

Listen 27:20

At the 2014 G20 Summit, then prime minister Stephen Harper famously avoided Vladimir Putin completely, except for a tense handshake and a gritted message for the Russian leader to quote "get out of Ukraine."

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper walks past Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit, Sept.5, 2013, in St. Petersburg, Russia. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

Now, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Stephane Dion wants to thaw the relationship and start talking again. And Russia's ambassador to Canada, appears to welcome the new tone too.

"We need to restore true dialogue between Russia and Canada. We need to go back to the common sense as opposed to name calling and brinksmanship statements that we so often heard before October elections" -  Russia's ambassador to Canada, Alexander Darchiev on CBC, Jan. 2016

While some degree of re-engagement with Russia would definitely seem to be on the way, there remains questions about just how cordial relations should be.

Guests in this segment:

• Bill Browder, anti-Putin activist, CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, and author of Red Notice.
• Jeremy Kinsman, formerly Canada's ambassador to the Russian Federation from 1992 to 1996.

The Current did request an interview with Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion, as well as Russia's ambassador to Canada, Alexander Darchiev. Neither was available.

This segment was produced by The Current's Karin Marley.

RELATED LINKS
♦ All parties signal support for Magnitsky law to sanction Russian officials
♦ Bill Browder: When Russia's money runs out, the 'real trouble starts'

Monday February 22, 2016

Canadian weapons may have fallen into hands of Yemen rebels

Experts have concluded this weapon held by a suspected Houthi figher in Yemen is likely the Canadian-made LRT-3 sniper rifle manufactured in Winnipeg. (Twitter)

Listen 17:19

The civil war in the small, Middle East country of Yemen is already the cause of a humanitarian catastrophe. It's a bewilderingly complex conflict that's drawn in the militaries of virtually every state in the region.
And now, it seems, it has drawn in Canada too.

A Yemeni boy checks the damage following a mortar shell attack on the southern city of Taez, Feb. 3, 2016, as clashes between fighters from the Popular Resistance Committees, loyal to Yemen's fugitive president and Shiite Huthi rebels continue. (Ahmad Al-Basha/AFP/Getty Images)

Canadian-made rifles have shown up in the hands of the Houthi rebels, as they take on the pro-government forces there.  Experts believe the riles, among them an LRT-3 sniper rifle, are made by a Winnipeg-based company, PGW Defence Technologies. And they were first spotted in photos and videos emerging from the area.

"There is an obligation on the part of the Canadian government, once they authorize arms transfers, to make sure that they don't get diverted into the wrong hands." - Ken Epps, former policy advisor on the Arms Trade Treaty at Project Ploughshares

The most likely explanation is that they were exported legally to Saudi Arabia. And their appearance in Yemen raises new concerns about Canadian arms companies doing business with the kingdom.
CBC's Nahlah Ayed brings us the story.

This segment was produced by The Current's Lara O'Brien.

The Cancer in the Heart of Modern America

With a fortune created serving Stalin and Hitler, critical to the German war machine, the Koch brothers have gripped America tightly in their tentacles. Drawing deep on the Tar Sands, they have gathered the American oligarchs and are changing the country to suit their desires, to service them.

Tuesday February 16, 2016

Journalist Jane Mayer follows money trail to billionaires behind U.S. radical right

Investigative reporter for the New Yorker, Jane Mayer, tracks the hidden history of billionaires and the radical right in her new book, Dark Money. (Cindy Ord/Getty Images)

Listen 23:59

Read story transcript
For Democrats, Charles Koch and his brother David have become the not-so-hidden hand of corporate America, ever pushing the country further to the right.

"In the last campaign in 2014, 80 per cent of the dark money was on the right. If it had been the other way around, I'd probably be writing a book about the dark money on the left." - Jane Mayer, author of Dark Money

As voters show up in droves to back their preference for president in the U.S. primaries, it is the flood of money flowing into those candidates' campaigns that is increasingly important in deciding who gets to the White House.

Activists hold a protest near the Manhattan apartment of billionaire and Republican financier David Koch on June 5, 2014 in New York City. Dark Money author Jane Mayer says she was target of reprisals for investigation of Koch brothers. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

New Yorker journalist Jane Mayer has spent years looking into the political activities of the Koch Brothers and other billionaires, and writes about her findings in her new book Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right.

This segment was produced by The Current's Howard Goldenthal.

RELATED LINKS
♦ Jane Mayer: Rebranding the Koch brothers
♦ Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy 2.0
♦ Author Jane Mayer on How the Koch Brothers Have Changed America

#Slavery: An Important and Informative Interview

From CBC's Ideas:

What do the shrimp on your plate, the cell phone in your pocket and the rising pollution levels in the developing world have in common? Kevin Bales says, in a word: slavery. Paul Kennedy talks with the author of Blood and Earth: Modern Slavery, Ecocide and the Secret to Saving the World. **This episode originally aired February 11, 2016.

"Americans energy-rich lifestyle and the by-products of livestock farming contribute the most to global warming. But every slave holder cutting down mangroves for shrimp or fish camps in the protected forest is increasing the likelihood of that catastrophe as well.

Slavery and environmental destruction are doing a deadly dance. The scale of their joint disaster is so great that it simply has been too big to see until now. It is also subtle, a creeping erosion of life wrought by the hands of millions of slaves compelled to destroy their own livelihoods even as they destroy any chance of arresting global warming."

Kevin Bales has spent decades travelling the world meeting with slaves and slaveholders. He is the co-founder of Free the Slaves, the largest abolitionist organization in the world, and lead author of the Global Slavery Index which estimates the number of slaves in 167 countries. It seems almost impossible that today more than 35 million people are slaves. Kevin Bales says that those of us living in comfortable, consumer-driven societies must shoulder some of the blame. We want our electronic toys, clothes and food to be plentiful and cheap. These material wants enslave people and help maintain business models that rely on cheap, and even free, labour.

Blood and Earth: Modern Slavery, Ecocide, And The Secret To Saving The World is published by Random House.

About the image gallery:

In 2008 CBC national reporter David Gutnick spent time in Mauritania, Togo, and Ghana putting together stories on slavery. In Mauritania it turned out that his interpreter was a slave owner. In a small village in Togo, David met with former child slaves who had escaped and formed a club to educate parents about child trafficking; and in Ghana David followed anti-slave activist Jack Dawson as he went from village to village along the shores of Lake Volta looking for children as young as four and five years old who were forced to fish. David is now a producer with IDEAS.

Related websites:
Global Slavery Index
Kevin Bales
United Nations Human Trafficking Portal
Watch Kevin Bales Ted Talk: How to Combat Modern Slavery