The People Speak, January 20, 2009
Host: Basima Farhat
Previously Aired On: Tuesday, January 20, 2009!
This special show opens with a song by Michael Heart We Will Not Go Down which has swept the internet receiving over a quarter of a million hits on YouTube worldwide in less than 2 weeks drawing attention to the plight of the people in Gaza.
Basima Farhat is joined by Michael, as well as Greta Berlin - Co-Founder of FreeGaza.org who shares her decades of dedication and organization on behalf of the people of Palestine, sometimes at the risk of her own life. Joining Greta is her friend Cynthia McKinney, whose entire career has been in support of justice for the Palestinian people. Both on Capitol Hill as a Congress member and now as a recent passenger on the SS Destiny which was rammed by the Israeli Navy before it could reach its destination in Gaza laden with tons of medical supplies, doctors and journalists. Living to tell the tale the courageous Cynthia McKinney shares her experience with the media in an attempt to bring awareness to the situation in Gaza.
Guest, Cynthia McKinney
CYNTHIA MCKINNEY bio
After serving in the Georgia Legislature, in 1992, McKinney won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. She was the first African-American woman from Georgia in the U.S. Congress. She was the first Member of Congress to demand an investigation of the events of 9/11/2001. McKinney was criticized and as a result, she was defeated in 2002; however, she ran again and was re-elected in 2004.
In 2005, McKinney was a vocal critic of the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina. Cynthia introduced legislation to release documents related to the murders of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Tupac Shakur. She was the first Member of Congress to file articles of impeachment against George W. Bush; and she voted against every war-funding bill put before her. In 2008, Cynthia McKinney won the Green Party nomination and ran for U.S. President.
In December 2008, Cynthia made international headlines when her boat was rammed by the Israeli military as she was attempting to deliver medical supplies to Gaza. In 2009, Cynthia attempted to reach Gaza again, this time armed with crayons, coloring books, and school supplies. Her boat was overtaken in international waters by the Israeli military and she was kidnapped to Israel. Cynthia spent 7 days in an Israeli prison. Finally, Cynthia entered Gaza by land in July 2009 with George Galloway's Viva Palestina.
Cynthia completed a cross-country bicycle ride with Bike4Peace 2010. In August 2011, Cynthia visited 21 cities to end the bombing of Libya. More recently, Cynthia participated in Malaysia’s Perdana Peace Organization and served as a Juror on the Bertrand Russell Tribunal on Palestine.
In 2015, Cynthia completed her dissertation on the transformational leadership of Hugo Chavez and was awarded a Ph.D. in Leadership and Change.
Cynthia currently possesses technical proficiency in the French language, but because Cynthia’s current research interest centers on Asia, Eurasia, and the U.S., she is now learning Chinese.
Cynthia is a member of the Working Group for the Great Caribbean Studies, Latin America Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), The Latin American Studies Association (LASA), and The International Leadership Association (ILA).
Cynthia has two books to her credit and several Chapters that she has authored in the books of others.Mahathir Mohamad’s efforts to “criminalize war.” She has appeared in Kuala Lumpur several times, declaring that city the Peace Capital of the World. She recently reported on her experience in Libya in the “Arab Uprising” Conference organized by the Perdana Global Peace Foundation and served as an official observer at the historic Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal that, on 22 November 2011, found former President George W. Bush and former Prime Minister Tony Blair guilty of the crime of aggression and other crimes against the state and people of Iraq.
ABOUT 'Ain't Nothing Like Freedom'
Elected six times to the House from the state of Georgia, Cynthia McKinney cut a trail through Congressional deceit like a hot ember through ash. She discovered legislators who passed laws without reading them. Party leaders who colluded across party lines against their constituents' interests. Black-skinned individuals shilling for the white status quo. She excoriated government lassitude over Hurricane Katrina, uncovering dark secrets. She held the only critical Congressional briefing on 9/11, introducing counter-testimony of scholars, investigators, former intelligence agents.
As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, she held Rumsfeld to account for malfeasance by military contractors and missing billions in the Pentagon's budget. Then she hammered him on the reasons for the failure of NORAD air defenses on 9/11. She read truth into the Congressional Record, held town halls and hearings, led protests, showed up while others played along to get along, took the side of the people against the will of the Party. And when she got too truth seeking and speaking, the Republicans rigged the Democratic primaries to boot her out, leaving behind a trail of achievements mostly won singlehandedly. But McKinney rose again like a Phoenix, answering the call to run as 2008 Green Party candidate for President, challenging the corrupt two-party stranglehold on American democracy.
Then it was on to the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza, to be seized on the high seas and imprisoned in Israel. On to Tripoli, to serve as witness to the NATO terror bombing of Libya. On to Malaysia to serve on the War Crimes Commission... Often introduced as the Sojourner Truth, the Harriet Tubman of our age, McKinney reflects here on the Biblical figures of Esther, Deborah and Naomi. This is the Cynthia McKinney saga as it stands to date--what she saw, what she learned, and how she fought for change.
Guest, Greta Berlin
Greta Berlin has been an advocate for justice for the Palestinians since the early 60s. She is the mother of two Palestinian/American children whose father was born and raised in Safad, Palestine and is a 1948 refugee. She has a masters degree in Theatre and a bachelor’s in English and, when she’s not working with the Palestinians, has spent the past 32 years teaching engineers and scientists how to design and deliver presentations. She has been in the West Bank three times (over five months total) since 2003 with the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian-led movement that applies nonviolent principles to resist the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.
Greta, along with 10 other ISM volunteers, was wounded by Israeli gunfire in July 2003 while trying to pull down the gate in the fence at Anin, just outside of Jenin. She has spent most of the time in the occupied territories as media coordinator in the ISM offices in Beit Sahour and Ramallah.
She is one of the founders of the Free Gaza Movement, which seeks to break the siege of Gaza through seaborne nonviolent action and was onboard the Free Gaza, the first boat with internationals to reach this besieged strip of the Mediterranean in 41 years.
You can read some of her articles and interviews by GOOGLING Greta Berlin, Palestine. She has spoken around the world at universities, and organizations about what she has witnessed in Palestine and how to advocate for an occupied people.
The People Speak
The People Speak has evolved over the years with many great guests who have been interviewed by some very fine hosts.
We are a 55 minute show airing every other Sunday between 5-6pm Pacific/8-9pm Eastern. The show features a guest interview from any number of realms of interest (entertainment, science, philosophy, healing, spirituality, activism, politics, literature, etc.).
The guests share their stories, lives, strategies, books, philosophy, films, music, or whatever it is they use as a vehicle for making a difference for the better.
The radio show name, The People Speak, is based on the idea of allowing our audience - the People - a chance to interact with the guests during the hour, and we take phone or text questions from them during the interview.
Past guests include such notables as Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the late Howard Zinn, Nobel Laureates Mairead Maguire, Shirin Ebadi, Kathryn Najimy, Oliver Stone, Jesse Ventura, Richard Belzer, Cynthia McKinney, Cindy Sheehan, Scott Horton, Joan Jett, Willie Nelson, George Galloway, Roseanne Barr, Ed Asner, Chevy Chase, as well as various reps from Amnesty International, UN World Food Programme, and many others.
