AT THE MOMENT

Dr. Maureen McCue on Health and Life in Haiti

2010-06-19T11:13:00.000-07:00

Anchee Min on life in communist China, Pearl S. Buck....and intestinal parasites

2010-05-29T11:12:00.001-07:00

Anchee Min is the bestselling author of Red Azalea, a memoir about her life growing up in Communist China. Her books have been praised for their "raw, sharp language and historical accuracy," and the New York Times has called her "a wild, passionate and fearless writer."

On April 26, she spoke at Prairie Lights with passion about her childhood of deprivation and starvation: winters when she had to beat her socks to unfreeze them, her case of tapeworms, and the sacrifices of her mother. She told us about her new book, Pearl of China, a historical novel about the writer Pearl S. Buck.

Anchee Min's talk was part of Prairie InSight, a collaboration between Prairie Lights Bookstore and International Programs at the University of Iowa.

Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe and the Legacy of Colonialism as told by a Madhinga Bucket Boy

2010-05-15T10:57:00.000-07:00

Philemon Matibe, author of Madhinga Bucket Boy, is an extraordinary and charismatic writer, businessman, farmer and political exile from Zimbabwe. His life spans colonial Rhodesia, the revolution and the dictatorship of Robert Mugabe. He was forced to flee Zimbabwe when he challenged Mugabe's political party.

Madhinga Bucket Boy is unlike any other memoir to come out of Africa in recent years. It is not the story of a soldier-child, a ghetto street survivor, or a white colonialist rising above (or wallowing in) an apartheid-like regime. It is a coming-of-age story written by a black African born in Rhodesia, himself a "product of excessive motorcycle speed, alcohol, and raw tribal passion between two native lovers."

At a live event at Prairie Lights Bookstore, he told us about the purchase of African diamond mines by Cecil John Rhodes, creating the colonial Rhodesia, life under segregationist policies as a child, and his political awakening and life as a refugee. An incredible storyteller, he tells a vivid story about life as a black person in Rhodesia; forced to live downwind from the white people's outhouses, when revolutionaries were forced to empty white families' chamber pots and referred to as "Madhinga Bucket Boys."

Philemon Matibe was born in Zimbabwe and is an agriculturalist. He writes African folktales, is a helicopter pilot, coffee roaster and agro-business entrepreneur. He is a member of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, Indian Association of Agricultural Professionals and The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements. Philemon was educated in Zimbabwe, the United Kingdom, and South Africa, and is currently studying for a degree in Intelligence Studies in the USA. Philemon has two children and lives in exile in the USA.

Matibe spoke in March 2010 at Prairie InSight, a collaboration between Prairie Lights Bookstore and the University of Iowa International Programs.

Creating a Sustainable Local Food System

2010-05-08T10:51:00.000-07:00

I spoke with Jason Grimm, the Food System Planner for Iowa Valley Resource Conservation and Development, about a plan to develop Johnson and Linn County's local food system.

Rural Development and Cultural Exchange in India.....Jay Seghal and Sindhu Suresh

2010-05-01T11:16:00.000-07:00

The Institute of Rural Research and Development (IRRD) is an award-winning organization that addresses rural development in India. Their water management projects have won them a UNESCO award four years in a row, and they count Ashoka and the Clinton Global Initiative among their many supporters.

I spoke with Jay Seghal of the Seghal Foundation, IRRD's parent organization, about their water management projects in a cluster of 460 rural villages in northern India and their integrative approach that addresses education, health, women's rights, village governance and empowerment. Their model village is a place where other village leaders can come and see workable projects that can improve their quality of life.

Check out this video on IRRAD's work:

Second, I spoke with Ms. Sindhu Suresh, who is the Administrative Assistant of the UI Semester in South India program and Program Coordinator of Vivekananda Institute of Indian Studies.

The University of Iowa Semester in South India study abroad program was developed in 1998 in collaboration with the UI Office for Study Abroad and UI South Asian Studies Program faculty. Sindhu Suresh, Administrative Assistant, became involved in the program in 2008 when the University of Iowa partnered with the Swami Vivekananda Institute for Indian Studies (SVIIS), an undertaking of the Swami Vivekananda Institute for Youth Movement.

The Swami Vivekananda Institute for Youth Movement (SVYM) was created in 1984 by a group of young medical students led by Dr.R.Balasubramaniam at the Mysore Medical College who endeavored to make a positive impact on the lives of the poor & marginalized through institution-based and community based health and education projects. Over the years, the group continued creating new health and educational initiatives focusing on Child Rights & Education, Gender Issues & Women's Empowerment, Tribal Development, Public Health and Rural Healthcare, HIV/AIDS Awareness, Eye Car, Tuberculosis Control and more.

The Crisis of Higher Education...a conversation with UC Berkeley professor Ananya Roy

2010-04-17T11:25:00.000-07:00

Last year, protests at UC Berkeley nearly erupted into violence. In the midst of the state’s now infamous budget crisis, Gov. Schwarzeneger cut UC’s state allocation 20% - which would cut 2000 staff positions and mandate 4-10% salary cuts in furloughs, and UC President Yudof proposed that student fees be raised 32%. Tens of thousands of students were excluded from admission at UC, Cal State and community colleges this year.

On March 4, 2010, thousands of students and faculty gathered in Sacramento "to insist that those who have benefited from public education cannot now pull the ladder up after themselves."

Prof. Roy, a very popular professor at Berkeley, became an unofficial spokesperson for the movement. She argues that this country's budget priorities are short-sighted, and today's students are facing lives in which, burdened by debt, they are less optimistic about their future than their parents were.

Ananya Roy is Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley, where she teaches in the fields of urban studies and international development. She also serves as Education Director of the Blum Center for Developing Economies and as co-Director of the Global Metropolitan Studies Center. From 2005 to 2009 Roy served as Associate Dean of International and Area Studies.

November 8, 2009....Torture and War with Ret. Major General Paul Eaton

2009-11-08T13:27:00.000-08:00

Ret. Major General Paul Eaton and I spoke about torture, Iraq, Afghanistan and the ethics of warfare.

More information coming soon.

November 4, 2009.....Inside the Health Insurance Industry with Wendell Potter

2009-11-08T13:16:00.000-08:00

Listen Now!

Wendell Potter is a former health insurance industry insider who has become and advocate for health care reform. His testimony in July before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce exposed unfair and deceptive practices by the industry.

He gave a great interview on Bill Moyers' Journal this summer:

Bill Moyers and Wendell Potter on "Profits Before Patients"

October 25, 2009...Gillian Sorensen on Faith, Justice and the United Nations

2009-10-25T13:24:00.001-07:00

Gillian Sorensen is a senior adviser and national advocate for the United Nations Foundation. She moved to New York City in her early 20s and began her career as a "diplomat's diplomat" not long thereafter, when she served as the New York City Commissioner for the United Nations and Consular Corps.

After this, she served as a policy adviser under Secretary-General Boutros-Boutros Ghali, and then under Secretary-General Kofi Annan as Assistant Secretary-General for External Relations. In this role, she worked with "parliamentarians, the academic world, religious leaders and other groups committed to peace, justice, development and human rights."

Ms. Sorensen and I discussed the role of faith groups in working with the United Nations, as well as broader challenges facing the UN in the 21st century, including peacekeeping, development and climate change.

Jake Colvin on the Global Financial Crisis, U.S. Cuba policy, and carbon trading

2009-10-18T13:48:00.000-07:00

Jake Colvin is the Vice President of the National Foreign Trade Council, a business organization that advocates a rules-based world economy. We spoke about the role of tariffs and protectionism in exacerbating economic crises, the benefits of opening trade and lifting other barriers in relations with Cuba, and some of the nuances of global carbon emissions trading.

Prior to joining the NFTC , Colvin was a consultant with the Washington, DC-based firm International Business Counselors (IBC), where he advised U.S. and foreign corporate clients on economic and trade matters. Colvin has appeared on nationally-syndicated talk radio programs and has written for national publications on a variety of international economic and tax topics. Originally from Long Island, New York, he earned an M.A. in International Economics from the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies and a B.A. from the University of Richmond.

October 11, 2009....An Afghan activist speaks out

2009-10-11T13:22:00.000-07:00

I spoke with Zoya, an activist in the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, about the impact of U.S. and NATO involvement on the people of Afghanistan. She is a vocal women's rights activist and critic of both foreign involvement and fundamentalist influence. She speaks eloquently about her view that the Afghan people have suffered under the cynical political manipulation of her country by foreign governments. Author of the critically acclaimed Zoya's Story: An Afghan Woman's Struggle for Freedom, she has a compelling personal story as well as a strong political stance.

After both her parents were killed by the predecessors of the Taliban, the Mujahideen, Zoya took up her mother's work in RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan and, with her grandmother, journeyed to Pakistan, where she could receive an education at a school run by RAWA. A few years later, Zoya returned to Afghanistan to help her people and get firsthand accounts of the horrors of the Taliban reign. Zoya herself witnessed public executions and amputations, but she also witnessed heartening displays of courage--women defying the Taliban by holding secret classes and shopping in the marketplace. Zoya remains skeptical about the future of Afghanistan after the Taliban, afraid that after the U.S. involvement ends, the Mujahideen will return to their old ways.

--Kristine Huntley, Booklist. Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Zoya's visit to Iowa City was sponsored by the Feminist Leadership Majority Alliance, and the Afghan Women's Mission.

October 4, 2009..."Rising from Ashes": Monira Rahman speaks on acid violence against women in Asia

2009-10-11T13:20:00.006-07:00

Acid-throwing is a form of particularly viscous violence against women that is prevalent throughout South and Southeast Asia. Victims of acid attacks are often left with permanent physical and psychological wounds. Many suffer burns that expose the bone and leave permanent damage, including scarring and blindness. These attacks are motivated by rejections of sexual advance, demands for dowry and land disputes.

Monira Rahman is a remarkable woman from Bangladesh who founded the Acid Survivors Foundation. The foundation provides medical assistance, including reconstructive surgery, legal intervention, and social reintegration services to victims of acid attacks. They also advocate for tougher laws against this type of violence and justice for perpetrators. Perhaps most importantly, they equip women who have suffered from this kind of attack to view themselves not as victims but as advocates.

We spoke about the causes and consequences of acid violence, its prevalence, barriers to justice and the work of the Acid Survivor's Foundation in helping victims as well as advocating for its end.

My thanks to Barbara Latenser for sponsoring Ms. Rahman's visit to Iowa City.

September 27, 2009....Two African legal scholars discuss their battle to reform women's rights in Mauritius and Senegal

2009-10-11T13:20:00.005-07:00

Listen to my conversation with two African women visiting the United States as part of a State Department-sponsored International Visitors Leadership Program delegation on "Women and the Law." We discussed the state of the legislative and justice systems as they pertained to women's rights in their countries, and some of the broader struggles that women across Africa are facing. They told me about their plans to form a network of women working for justice and the work they have already done to advance women's rights in Africa.

I also interviewed the entire delegation on Iowa City's Public Access Television. They told me about their hopes for women's rights in the future and their view of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's initiatives to mainstream gender issues:

September 20, 2009

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September 13, 2009

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September 6, 2009

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August 16, 2009

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August 9, 2009

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August 2, 2009....Engineering a Sustainable World with Marcelo Mena and Forrest Meggers

2009-10-11T13:18:00.003-07:00

Marcelo Mena and Forrest Meggers, both alumni of the University of Iowa College of Engineering, are both on the cutting edge of sustainability issues. Both try to live by example, embracing sustainable lifestyles while promoting policy and technology that will solve environmental problems while meeting the needs of the 21st century.

After obtaining his Ph.D. in 2007, Marcelo Mena moved back to his home country of Chile, where he is both a ground-breaking professor. He also briefly served in the Chilean government as "Air Pollution Czar" for the country.

Forrest Meggers lives and works in Switzerland, where he conducts research on sustainable building practices at a cutting-edge university in Zurich. He has his M.A. in Engineering from the University of Iowa, and is co-author of a textbook on engineering.

July 19, 2009

2009-10-11T13:18:00.001-07:00

July 12, 2009....Women Peacemakers: A Conversation with Mary Ann Arnado of the Philippines

2009-07-17T13:47:00.000-07:00

As a lawyer and for several years the deputy director of Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID), a regional institution that promotes solidarity among the peoples of Southeast Asia, Mary Ann Arnado coordinated the grassroots peacebuilding and peace advocacy program in Mindanao, one of the Philippine islands, with the goal of promoting the participation of women in the peace process between the government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

In that capacity, Arnado organized the successful Bantay Ceasefire monitoring team, worked directly in zones of conflict to educate warring factions on international humanitarian law and human rights and was appointed by the government peace panel to serve as an official advisor on ancestral domain.

I spoke with Mary Ann Arnado about her reflections on conflict, its resolution and impacts.

July 5, 2009....Perspectives on Climate Change from Small Island Nations

2009-07-17T13:37:00.000-07:00

I was joined in the studio by visiting leaders from Malaysia and Samoa, two Pacific island nations, to talk about their perspectives on climate change and renewable energies. Both come from relatively poor countries that will be disproportionately affected by climate change.

Ms. Nilakrisna James, Malaysia, is a lawyer, human rights and environmental activisit and writer. Mr. Wairapa Young, Samoa, is the Renewable Energy Officer for an electric company.

They were in Iowa as part of the U.S. State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program.

Sunday, June 28...Jerry Schnoor on Climate Change Policies

2009-07-08T15:04:00.000-07:00

Listen to the show!

Jerry Schnoor is the Co-Director of the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research at the University of Iowa.

I spoke with him about the science of climate change and its environmental, human and economic impacts. We also explored recent domestic and international policy developments, with a special focus on the climate legislation that narrowly passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday, June 26th.

Sunday, June 21st....Fatemeh Keshavarz's Windows on Iran

2009-06-19T12:24:00.000-07:00

Listen to the show!

Fatemah Keshavarz is an Iranian writer, academic and social commentator. For the last several weeks, she has been sending email dispatches - and now blog posts - about facts on the ground in Iran: "Windows on Iran." Here's a sample, from an anonymous email from a medical student:

I only want to speak about what I have witnessed. I am a medical student . . . . Last night, nine people died at our hospital and another 28 had gunshot wounds. All hospital employees were crying till dawn . . . This morning the faculty and the students protested by gathering at the lobby of the hospital where they were confronted by plain clothes anti-riot militia.

According to her last email, things in Iran are escalating seriously:

If you believe in praying, it is time to pray for Iran. Things are getting worse and worse.

Riot police have blocked all the streets to the Azadi Square.

People are being arrested in large numbers.

After dark, shotguns and cries of Allaho Akbar from the rooftops are heard.

On the streets, the chants have now changed to "Down with Khamenei."

What's happening in Tehran right now? How did they get to this point? Who are the protestors and what are they risking to be there? What will happen if the government cracks down even more brutally? Is Obama's stance on Iran appropriate? What can and should we be doing as Americans to support the Iranian people?

I met Professor Keshavarz briefly after a talk she gave about her book, Jasmine and Stars: Reading More Than Lolita in Tehran, which is a thoughtful response to the popular Reading Lolita in Tehran in which counters stereotypes about Iranians by sharing personal stories of her life growing up in Iran as well providing a taste of the complexity and beauty of Iranian culture. In 2008, she was a guest on American Public Media's Speaking of Faith in an episode that won the Peabody Award, The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi.

Sunday, June 14 2009....The Lives and Times of Nigerian Email Scammers

2009-06-12T19:35:00.000-07:00

Listen to the show!

Here's a quote of a quote from an article on Wikipedia on the impact of Nigerian scammers:

"We have confirmed losses just in the United States of over $100 million in the last 15 months," said Special Agent James Caldwell, of the Secret Service
financial crimes division." (1997)

Who are these infamous Nigerian scammers? What motivates them? What is the political and social context that they come from?

Today I'll talk with Sunday Goshit, Nigeria native and (newly minted!) University of Iowa Ph.D. He'll give us some cultural context on Nigerian scammers from his unique perspective, and fill us on the past and future for Nigerians.