Published on Nov 11, 2015
Turkey is preparing to host the G20 summit of the world’s major economic powers in the coastal resort of Antalya. Concerns about economic slowdowns in China and elsewhere are expected to be high on the agenda, with climate change and global security also seen featuring in the talks. VOA’s Henry Ridgwell reports.
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Published on Nov 25, 2013
Suzanna Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian author and political activist who is best known for the 1998 Man Booker Prize for Fiction winning novel The God of Small Things (1997) and for her involvement in environmental and human rights causes. Roy’s novel became the biggest-selling book by a nonexpatriate Indian author.
In a 2001 opinion piece in the British newspaper The Guardian, Arundhati Roy responded to the US military invasion of Afghanistan, finding fault with the argument that this war would be a retaliation for the September 11 attacks: “The bombing of Afghanistan is not revenge for New York and Washington. It is yet another act of terror against the people of the world.” According to her, US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were guilty of a Big Brother kind of doublethink: “When he announced the air strikes, President George Bush said: ‘We’re a peaceful nation.’ America’s favourite ambassador, Tony Blair, (who also holds the portfolio of prime minister of the UK), echoed him: ‘We’re a peaceful people.’ So now we know. Pigs are horses. Girls are boys.
War is peace.”
She disputes US claims of being a peaceful and freedom-loving nation, listing China and nineteen 3rd World “countries that America has been at war with — and bombed — since the second world war”, as well as previous US support for the Taliban movement and support for the Northern Alliance (whose “track record is not very different from the Taliban’s”). She does not spare the Taliban: “Now, as adults and rulers, the Taliban beat, stone, rape and brutalise women, they don’t seem to know what else to do with them.”
In the final analysis, Roy sees American-style capitalism as the culprit: “In America, the arms industry, the oil industry, the major media networks, and, indeed, US foreign policy, are all controlled by the same business combines.” She puts the attacks on the World Trade Center and on Afghanistan on the same moral level, that of terrorism, and mourns the impossibility of imagining beauty after 2001: “Will it be possible ever again to watch the slow, amazed blink of a newborn gecko in the sun, or whisper back to the marmot who has just whispered in your ear — without thinking of the World Trade Centre and Afghanistan?”[37]
In May 2003 she delivered a speech entitled “Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One, Get One Free)” at the Riverside Church in New York City. In it she described the United States as a global empire that reserves the right to bomb any of its subjects at any time, deriving its legitimacy directly from God. The speech was an indictment of the US actions relating to the Iraq War.[38][39] In June 2005 she took part in the World Tribunal on Iraq. In March 2006, Roy criticised US President George W. Bush’s visit to India, calling him a “war criminal”.
In August 2006, Roy, along with Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and others, signed a letter in The Guardian called the 2006 Lebanon War a “war crime” and accused Israel of “state terror.”[41] In 2007, Roy was one of more than 100 artists and writers who signed an open letter initiated by Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism and the South West Asian, North African Bay Area Queers and calling on the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival “to honor calls for an international boycott of Israeli political and cultural institutions, by discontinuing Israeli consulate sponsorship of the LGBT film festival and not cosponsoring events with the Israeli consulate.”
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Published on Apr 4, 2013
Chomsky and Roy interviewed by Amy Goodman at MIT
Part 2 –
Global Climate Change
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Published on May 6, 2012
See Full Text of “Instant Mix….” – 13 May 2003
Speech given by Arundhati Roy at the Riverside Chruch in New York City. May 2003. Visit www.weroy.org for more information.
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Published on May 6, 2012
In this acclaimed Lannan foundation lecture from September 2002, Roy speaks poetically to power on the US’ War on Terror, globalization, the misuses of nationalism, and the growing chasm between the rich and poor. With lyricism and passion, Roy combines her literary talents and encyclopedic knowledge to expose injustice and provide hope for a future world.
Lannan Foundation
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Published on Nov 10, 2015
Paul Salopek has been out for a walk — a very long walk — since 2013. His route stretches from Ethiopia’s Great Rift Valley to the very southern tip of South America, tracing the path of humanity from its African origins, across deserts and mountains. Hari Sreenivasan caught up with the two-time Pulitzer-winning foreign correspondent in the nation of Georgia to discuss his journey so far.
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Published on Nov 11, 2015
On a years-long hike across the globe, journalist Paul Salopek is following the path humans took after the Ice Age. One of the most important human migration sites in the world is in Dmanisi, Georgia, where people have walked for nearly 2 million years. Hari Sreenivasan joins Salopek in learning more about the first pioneers to wander that part of the world.
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Published on Nov 11, 2015
The transition from military to civilian life often brings challenges in both how one lives his or her life and what the future holds in careers. A program in Colorado is helping veterans make that transition with an eye to new beginnings as farmers.
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Published on Nov 11, 2015
Nigerians recently marked 20 years since the death of prominent acivist Ken Saro-Wiwa. He was executed by the military regime for the work he did. But it’s far from over – and the anniversary of his death has spurred Nigerians from the Ogoni community to call for more government action when it comes to oil pollution in the Niger Delta. Leslie Mirungu reports
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Published on Nov 11, 2015
Climate change is the most serious threat our planet faces, and will impact people around the world. That’s why this December, representatives from 195 countries will meet at a United Nations conference in Paris to reach a new international climate agreement. But what should the agreement include? This video describes the 3 key ingredients for the COP21 Paris agreement.
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