Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Carol Linnitt, Steve Anderson, Janine Bandcroft Sept. 30, 2013

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

If J.R.R. Tolkien's Mordor, with its fantastical population of Ringwraiths, Orcs, and Trolls strikes a chord in the popular imagination today, it may be due to a recognition, however unconscious, of the transcendence of greed and selfishness as the motif governing our modern world, and the ever ratcheting up of social and environmental injustice needed to sustain it.

But for British Columbians, Mordor, Land of Shadows is much more than metaphor, it is the very real prospect of a great fouling of our lands, air, and waters by the distant, Alberta-Across-the Mountain's Tar Sands project.

Carol Linnitt is a research fellow and Site Manager and Director of Research for DeSmogBlog Canada, an organization dedicated to: "clear[ing] the PR pollution that is preventing us from having sensible public conversations about critical issues around the environment, social justice and the economy."

Listen. Hear.

With a core team of on-line news and opinion producers, and a broad spectrum of guest contributors, DeSmogBlog focuses on analysis of what they see as a deterioration of public discourse on issues of science and the environment in this country, in order to: "[E]xplore solutions for cleaning up Canada's polluted public square." Carol is also a doctoral student, right here at UVic, in the English, and Cultural, Social and Political Thought programs.

Carol Linnitt in the first half.

And; approaching the fourteenth anniversary of the Battle of Seattle, that famed convergence of the Orcs, Ringwraiths, and Trolls of international capital gathered to ratify the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, or MAI, arrayed against the forces of civil society, organized labour, student unions, and a variety of unaligned anarchist collectives determined to stop them, little has changed. The TPP, or Trans-Pacific Partnership is the latest manifestation of that creeping effort to undermine social governance in favour of an international Corporatocracy, and as with its MAI predecessor, the deal-making going on behind closed doors is barely known to most of those whose lives it promises to radically effect.      

Steve Anderson is founder and Executive Director of OpenMedia.ca, the award-winning civic engagement organization behind some of the most successful internet and emerging communications technology campaigns. Steve is an open Internet advocate and commentator, whose writing has appeared in print outlets like The Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, and National Post, and in a variety of on-line publications too. Steve is a contributing author to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives book, 'The Internet Tree,' and publishes his blog at OpenMedia.ca.

Steve Anderson and what the Trans-Pacific Partnership could mean for how you access and use the Internet in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of the good things going on on the streets of our city, and beyond. But first, Carol Linnitt and B.C. looking east to Mordor coming.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca.  He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.