Oakland Institute's Anuradha Mittal on the G8 Summit (Audio)

ASIA PACIFIC FORUM
WBAI 99.5 FM, New York City
June 8, 2004

Audio Archive: http://www.asiapacificforum.org/

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Another side of Ronald Reagan

G8 Protests

"Persons of Interest" Film at the Human Rights Watch Film Fest

Poet Tina Chang

Tune in tonight as Asia Pacific Forum gets behind today's news and previews a couple of exciting upcoming events.

First, Ronald Reagan has dominated the airwaves this week, but mainstream media has offered little but panegyrics. We'll get a short corrective from author and scholar Vijay Prashad, especially on Reagan's legacy for Asians and other people of color.

Next we'll turn to the G8 summit, which began today in Savannah, Georgia. Only three years ago, the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy, led to massive protests and the murder of a global justice activist. This week's summit is likely to enter the news only as a backdrop for multinational negotiations over Iraq. We'll talk to Anuradha Mittal, former co-director of Food First, to get a sense of what's going on behind the scenes, as well as what the Georgia state of emergency portends for activists in America.

Then we will talk with directors Alison Maclean and Tobias Perse, whose documentary "Persons of Interest" will be screening at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, which begins Thursday. After 9/11, more than 5000 Arab and Muslim immigrants were taken into custody by the U.S. Justice Department, many to be subjected to secret detention, solitary confinement, and deportation. The Justice Department refuses to disclose the names and total number of these "ersons of interest" This film gives voice to the experiences of 12 such detainees.

And finally, we'll hear from poet Tina Chang, who was just awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts individual artist grant. She and other NYFA award winners will be appearing at a special NYFA night at the Asian American Writers Workshop this Thursday.