Interviews

On the International Day Against Nuclear Tests, the 29th of August 2011, IKV Pax Christi’s NoNukes Campaign launched NUKEM, a Facebook application that makes the effects of nuclear weapons visible to facebook users.

Hugo Muleiro, a journalist, head of the editorial staff for ANSA news agency, specialising in news relating to infancy and adolescence, leads a programme on Radio de las Madres (Mothers’ Radio) and is a member of Comuna (Comunicadores de la Argentina). He agreed to give Pressenza an interview and told us what this new organisation is about.

Despite attempts by Chinese authorities to suppress any form of social change, young Chinese people both in and out of the country are constantly finding new ways to be heard. In 2010 alone there were 320,000 incidents of civil unrest. A move is underway to unite the diverse protests and rebrand them the “Jasmine Revolution”, following in the footsteps of Tunisia.

The UN Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development recognizes that the challenges inherent to the global water crisis can’t be met by governments alone. All key sectors of society have to be engaged and mobilized to collectively address the problem. Dr. Reza Ardakanian says the media can play an important role in mobilizing different players to respond to the water crisis.

It’s more than two thousand years since Greece was a superpower, yet its leaders prefer bombs to books, says Steve McGiffen. “The fact that the principal suppliers of these arms are two of ‘austerity’s’ biggest proponents, the USA and Germany, should not surprise us. Year on year, Greece has been spending money it does not have on weapons it does not need.”

Exclusive Report on Ousted Honduran President Zelaya’s Return Home 23 Months After U.S.-Backed Coup.

In a Democracy Now! global broadcast exclusive, we take you on the plane of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya as he and his family return home after almost two years in exile. We speak with Zelaya and some of the many who accompanied Zelaya home.

During this week the United Nations General Assembly discussed international standards that grant nature equal rights to humans. Similar protocols have been adopted by over a dozen U.S. municipalities, as well as Bolivia and Ecuador. Renowned environmentalists Maude Barlow and Vandana Shiva join us for this interview.

Ai Weiwei was being monitored around the clock by the secret police when **Time Out Hong Kong** gained access to his Beijing studio to discuss the ‘Jasmine Revolution’. This must be the last interview before his disappearance. Although Mr Ai has had numerous run-ins with China’s state security apparatus he has never been formally detained or disappeared in this way before.

Below is a letter from Anne, an English teacher living in Japan for the last 10 years. Having survived the Earthquake she writes about the very human response to the tragedy that is afflicting the people in this part of Japan in stark contrast to the scenes of looting and violence that seem to accompany other natural disasters around the world.

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?’