Interviews

In his early thirties, Kamakura-born Koichi Nakatani will never forget the day he stepped outside his isolated Hokkaido home and began as usual to breathe in the beautiful day when the thought struck him…. ‘oh, radiation is in the air, I shouldn’t really breathe deeply; oh my open sea and sky, will I ever be able to breathe deeply here again?’

Steven Starr from Physicians for Nuclear Responsibility wrote for Pressenza about the events in Japan at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. “If enough brave people sacrifice their health and lives, against all odds they will manage to get the situation under control at Fukushima Daiichi. If not, then large areas of northern Japan could be left uninhabitable for centuries.”

Forces aligned with Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi have launched new assaults to regain control of several towns captured in a popular uprising over the past two weeks. Meanwhile, two U.S. warships have moved through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea toward Libya under orders by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Amy Goodman’s interview to Horace Campbell.

-What is Amnesty International doing about the protests in Egypt and elsewhere in the region?
We’ve sent a delegation to Egypt to help witness, record and expose human rights abuses being committed during the uprising, as we did during the unrest in Tunisia earlier in the year. We’re doing this in close cooperation with local human rights activists.

In recent weeks, popular uprisings in the Arab world have led to the ouster of Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the imminent end of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s regime, a new Jordanian government, and a pledge by Yemen’s longtime dictator to leave office at the end of his term. We spoke to MIT Professor Noam Chomsky about the situation in Egypt.

Zubin Mehta, renowned Indian conductor of western classical music — who commutes between the major music centers in Europe, the United States and Israel — remains emotionally attached to the country of his birth, particularly the diversity of its nature.
He conducted Europe’s first charity concert in Berlin to promote nature conservation in north-eastern Himalayan region.

Nose-flute player and human rights activist Dom-an hails from Sagada, Mountain Province, in the Cordillera Central mountain range of north central Luzon, Philippines. November 28, 2005, her husband Pepe was killed by rogue elements among the military. Transcending her plight she has opened her search for justice to similarly distressed people.

Pinagpalang Kamay Association or PKAI is an NGO formed by Ms. Mina Tecson to aid two communities in need, one a poverty-stricken community in Payatas on the outskirts of Quezon City, and the other a home for abandoned physically and mentally ill children residing at Cottolengo Filipino, Montalban Rizal, quite nearby. I toured both in December 2010.

*Has the target to promote peace and non-violence ‘gone to the dogs’ I was thinking on entering the Sunday-noisy Krispy Creme café situated in up-market Bonifacio High Street at Global City, Taguig, Manila. I was to meet Patricia Carrascoso of Pets for Peace & the Labrador Retriever Owner’s Club. I was in for an awakening!*

Exclusive Interview with Clara Charf, president of Women for Peace and organizer of the Brazilian selection of 52 women chosen for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. She talks about the advances of Resolution 1325 in Brazil and the “historic” moment that the country is going through with the election of the first female president.