Arundhati Roy’s Extraordinary Eloquence, Poetically Incising the Truth

I wasn’t going to do another blog till I complete my book. However I decided to listen to the entire Democracy Now news hour while I chopping vegetables preparing my dinner, when I saw that Amy Goodman would be interviewing here. I am once again absolutely blown away with how sharply Arundhati Roy incises the truth with her vision.

I first learned of Arundhati Roy decades ago, after the September 11th attacks in the United States. In her Come September speech in 2002, she peels the truth from the political and economic realities of the constructs of our world, to expose power and powerlessness. It is of the context of what was going on at that time, and is STILL THE TRUTH.

I blogged about Arundhati Roy’s profound speech, “Come September” in 2009 https://digesthis.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/arundhati-roy/

Come September is A PROFOUND BEARING OF TRUTH. Roy speaks poetically to power on the US’s War on Terror, globalization, the misuses of nationalism, and the growing chasm between the rich and poor.

Arundhati Roy full speech 2002 Come September

Her first fiction novel is entitled “God of Small Things”

Please take the time to listen to each of the interviews. She is profound in her imagery and astounding insightfulness.

Each of these segments have the transcripts. I suggest you trying to find as much of here writings (fiction and non-fiction) and speeches, as you can!

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/13/arundhati_roy_a_us_attack_on

Arundhati Roy: A U.S. Attack on Iran Would Be “Biggest Mistake It Has Ever Made”

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/13/arundhati_roy_capitalism_is_a_form

Arundhati Roy: Capitalism Is “a Form of Religion” Stopping Solutions to Climate Change & Inequality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKaU8skVKnU

Arundhati Roy on the Power of Fiction: “Literature is The Simplest Way of Saying a Complicated Thing”

Arundhati Roy Interview Democracy Now

“As the ice caps melt, as oceans heat up and water tables plunge, as we rip through the delicate web of interdependence that sustains life on earth, as our formidable intelligence leads us to breach the boundaries between humans and machines and our even more formidable hubris undermines our ability to connect the survival of our planet to our survival as a species, as we replace art with algorithms and stare into a future in which most human beings may not be needed to participate in or be remunerated for economic activity, at just such a time we have the steady hands of white supremacists in the White House, new imperialists in China and neo-Nazis once again massing on the streets of Europe, Hindu nationalists in India, and a host of butcher princes and lesser dictators in other countries to guide us into the unknown.

While many of us dreamt that another world is possible, these folks were dreaming, too. And it is their dream, our nightmare, that is perilously close to being realized. Capitalism’s gratuitous wars and sanctioned greed have jeopardized the planet and filled it with refugees. Much of the blame for this rests squarely on the shoulders of the government of the United States. Seventeen years after invading Afghanistan, after bombing it into the Stone Age with the sole aim of toppling the Taliban, the U.S. government is back in talks with the very same Taliban. In the interim, it has destroyed Iraq, Libya and Syria. Hundreds of thousands have lost their lives to war and sanctions. A whole region has descended into chaos, ancient cities pounded into dust.

Amidst the desolation and the rubble, a monstrosity called Daesh, ISIS, has been spawned. It has spread across the world, indiscriminately murdering ordinary people who had absolutely nothing to do with America’s wars. Over these last few years, given the wars it has waged and the international treaties it has arbitrarily reneged on, the U.S. government perfectly fits its own definition of a rogue state. And now resorting to the same old scare tactics, the same tired falsehoods and the same old fake news about nuclear weapons, it is gearing up to bomb Iran. That will be the biggest mistake it has ever made.”

Pope Francis Encyclical on Climate Change

 

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December 10th, 2018 Carol Keiter

Borders on Vox | Johnny Harris Filmmaking & Journalism Excellence

Suddenly he was popping up on Facebook. He was in China and Hong Kong specifically for a while, now at the border between Columbia and Venezuela.

Johnny Harris Borders Senior Producer filmmaker_journalist

The theme Borders couldn’t be more appropriate in today’s world. I read that the senior producer of Border, Johnny Harris, has a BA in international relations from Brigham Young University and an MA in international peace and conflict resolution from American University, each based in Washington D.C.

Johnny Harris Borders Producer Filmmaker Journalist Vox

Here is his current most recent video, on the other side of the globe from China, in South America.

Why Colombia has taken in 1 million Venezuelans

 

I’m posting a blog about him so that more people can become aware of his series. I think he’s an excellent journalist, weaving in history, talking to people. I see that he asks locals with any historical information they deem appropriate to his videos, to offer their insights. He’s obviously got a nice tool, a camera attached to a drone which makes for some fantastic footage. And his series on Borders couldn’t be more appropriate at this time.

COP21 Activists Sharing their Stories & Solutions to Seed the World

Snap decision to go to Paris to be among the flurry of events around the COP21 – which most people call cop as in policeman, rather than spelling out ‘see oh pee’. The actual commencement of the talks between the delegates began on the 30th of November. You can watch these live at any of the following links.
http://unfccc6.meta-fusion.com/cop21/           http://www.cop21paris.org/agenda
http://unfccc.int/meetings/paris_nov_2015/meeting/8926/php/view/schedule.php

Place de la République shoes Nov 29 representing marchers

The huge anticipated March in Paris was announced by the government on the 18th of November to be cancelled due to the attacks on the 13th in Paris. The French coalition of at least 250 different activist groups http://coalitionclimat21.org/en answered this by organizing a shoe in, where at Place du la Republique’ in Paris people placed their shoes, representing that their presence in spirit for the March.An Sung Sui as well as Pope Frances expedited their shoes to place them there as well.

Aung San Suu Kyi delivered her shoes

Pope Francis delivered his shoes to Place de la Republique

The photograph, compliments of a Frenchman from Lyon, who together with a group of other lawyers and judges are organizing legislation as a means to protect spaces that are ‘in between’ other countries’ ownership and property: the air, water…

10000 people form a human chain Place de la République

I’m so very fortunate to be staying at the St. Christopher’s Inns which has been occupied by Place to B

Place to B, Agenda COP 21 Events, Program, Seminars, Radio…

which is packed with continued events and information, speakers. There are 600 people booked here representing 40 different countries and a plethora of different movements. Many of the women in my dorm room in the hostel are members of Act!onaid | ActionAid International. Women who have come from numerous countries in Africa, the director from Johannesburg, South Africa.

An Inconvenient Youth, by Slater Jewell-Kemker

Basically all the different groups here have organized meetings and methods to place themselves and their activities into the public’s eye; organizing and staging peaceful & quiet public demonstrations in the streets to inform and place their activities into the public’s awareness. http://www.globalplatforms.org/about-activista

TM Transformational Media Summit Storytellers, media professionals and changemakers

I’m presently attending a workshop regarding ‘creative storytelling and how this compels people to action’. Hosted by Katherine Adams, a woman who has used her talents in many different ways, among which is the director of Goodness T.V. Reporters d’Espoire : Pour une information qui donne envied d’agir/Reporters of Hope: for information that fuels the desire to act Emotion is at the heart of creative storytelling and this is what will induce people into action. Stories that tell of innovative solutions can be shared so that these will spread all over the world. One person’s resilience and solutions can be shared. The words here among the network of people here at Place to B is talking about how the media has to change the way in the way that they transmit information. The message has to be towards the solution.

‘Climate Heroes’ film by Maxime Riché, Project Founder, Photographer

The day has been packed with a string of events; a summit with numerous different panelists talking to an audience of bloggers, writers, journalists, entrepreneurs, designers and more – a full repertoire of very valuable information that is being extended by people who have made differences in all different arenas. They and the messages they are exchanging are about making the necessary changes to the world – economically, politically and economically, from the bottom up. I’ve only participated for one day and am quite blown away with all of the captivating information shared through workshops I’ve attended, hosted by the Place to B platform of discussions about confirming new paradigms and ways to talk about a variety of subjects. Many of the talks are in French as well as English. This evening had big enough names and a big enough crowd to use a live simultaneous translator for Naomi Klein and the climate scientist James Hansen. At different times the Place to B program brings in musicians and artists to discuss as well as perform. There are lots of creative and passionate people who really are ‘following their bliss’. There’s a plethora of stimulation and fantastic exchanges that occur when you’re among a bunch of people with a mission to use their hearts and minds to make positive changes. Many of the talks are about how to change the paradigm of how the media and art can inspire the public with messages that deliver hope. And that change – which must be imminent – can best happen from the grass routes level, as people spread among one another success stories from all over the globe that ripple into more and more communities following to create more of the same.

I will be interviewing a few different people over the next weeks to add to my blog and sit some days at the location where the delegates are continuing their 2 week climate talks.

Journalist who Reveals the Truth | George Monbiot

Eureka, yesterday I made an astounding discovery, the writings of George Monbiot. I feel like I’ve struck gold. Perhaps this reveals my naïvité. I hadn’t been familiar with his name or writings, having not been a regular reader of the British Newspaper “The Guardian” among the places he has contributed. Monbiot’s candid humor amuses and his scope pierces your awareness. Recirculated by The Mind Unleashed | Uncover Your True Potential Monbiot’s article “The Eco-Apocalypse in Indonesia That No One is Talking About” was extracted from his writing within his website category Environment and the Natural World, Nothing to See Here. He states, “In the greatest environmental disaster of the 21st Century (so far), Indonesia has been blotted out by smoke. And the media.”

His website http://www.monbiot.com features a ferocious list of categories of articles he’s written about. The blog posted yesterday within this same category, is provocative, to say the least.The Dolphin Killers of Cardigan Bay/ Subtitled and predicated with the statement “Why does the Welsh government propose this gratuitous act of destruction? It refuses to say.” He talks of the absurdity that the primary place where dolphins gather in the British Isles, Cadigan Bay, which is – his words, ‘on paper’ – a ‘Special Area of Conservation’, is precisely where Welsh scallop dredgers and beam trawlers are given reign to destroy the seabed; the primary source of food for young dolphins.

Here’s a picture of George Monbiot as guest blogger on rspb | Royal Society for the Protection of Birds | Giving Nature a Home

His writings are crisp exposés, rather than soggy, one dimensional limping around the truth. His broad perspective brought to every analysis comes from his driving thoroughness in investigating the topic and background interest in the environment, politics and economics. This makes all of his writings on whatever subject refreshingly clear, in how he pierces into the truth rather than the typical white-washed and watered down mass media glimpses into a story.

Life-changing for me, because he’s a true journalist who cuts to the core, uncovering and revealing stories from multifaceted angles. “The Eco-Apocalypse in Indonesia That No One is Talking About” reveals promptly the difference between typical mainstream journalism and his crisp dissection of the real issues and correlation to the real sources of the problem. In this case, the continuing practice of clear-cutting and burning rain forests in Indonesia, to support the lumber and palm oil industries, which together with El Niño and climate change, are manifesting as the worst ecological disaster and highest input of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, to date. His exposé of the political and economic culprits behind this manmade disaster lie beneath the story of the damage that is being done to the inhabitants, wildlife and nature there.

Upon reading the title of one of his books, “The Age of Consent; A Manifesto for a New World Order”, I immediately thought of Noam Chomsky’s “Manufacturing Consent; The Political Economy of the Mass Media”. Chomsky proposes that the mass communication media of the United States are a system of effective and powerful ideological institutions carrying out messages that reinforce certain ideals and tendencies among the population – propaganda. He states that the former ‘anti-Communism’ model of social control was replaced by the present ‘War on Terror’. In The Age of Consent, Monbiot writes that “Our task is not to overthrow globalization, but to capture it, and to use it as a vehicle for humanity’s first global democratic revolution.”

In Michael Meacher’s “ review of Monbiot’s The Age of Consent ” for the Guardian, Meacher states, “This is an extremely important book. George Monbiot offers a searchingly rigorous analysis of the sources of American power and presents a package of proposals that would radically redraw the present world order. It is breathtaking in its radicalism, but for anyone who is serious about tackling the current US hegemony, it is difficult to fault the logic.”

There are plenty of topics George Monbiot has written about, which you can read and educate yourself to your heart’s delight.

http://www.theguardian.com/profile/georgemonbiot
http://www.monbiot.com