This Week on GR
April 15, 2021
Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded on the dates, April 11th/12th, 2021
China’s meteoric rise to the uppermost echelon of international
affairs is but one of the signals of America’s declining global stature.
Russia too is testing its influence, both on its borders and further
afield. In the past few weeks, events in both the Baltic and east Asia
offer evidence the country no longer feels constrained by the whim,
wishes or wants of the United States and its “international community”.
In Myanmar, Russia has stepped in to quell U.S./ U.K efforts to use
UN Security Council sanction and threats of intervention to bludgeon the
military coup government there; and, in the Baltic the country’s
relentless drive to finish the Nord Stream 2 pipeline marches on,
despite being engaged in a bizarre cat and mouse game with an
off-the-hook Polish fishing fleet who, in concert with the Polish
military, seem intent on provoking an incident involving the nearly
completed operation.
John Helmer is a journalist, author, broadcaster, former political
advisor to government, and principal behind the news website, Dances with Bears. Among Helmer’s many books titles are, ‘The Lie That Shot
Down MH-17’ ‘Skripal in Prison’, ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About
Russia’, and his latest, ‘Hitler Didn’t Die in Berlin – He Moved to
Melbourne Where He Runs the State Government of Victoria: A True
Covid-19 Thriller’. His latest articles examine Russia’s foreign policy
tightrope walk on the political knife’s edge in Myanmar and Europe.
John Helmer in the first half.
And; despite Madrid’s state of denial, Spain’s separatist movement is
alive and well and living in Catalonia. Regional elections in February
maintained independence parties’ hold on a combined majority in the
parliament there, while street protests that erupted in Barcelona and
other towns following the arrest of popular rapper, Pablo Hásel serve as
an unsubtle reminder to Pedro Sanchez’ federal coalition government
just how tenuous its hold on the peace is.
Pablo Ouziel is a Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Victoria’s
Political Science Department and Centre for Global Studies whose
Fellowship Project at UVic, ‘Democracy Here and Now: The Exemplary Case
of Spain’ was interrupted by the Covid-19 closure of the University. He
currently resides in his native home, near Barcelona.
Pablo Ouziel and the trouble with democracy in Spain in the second half.
But first, John Helmer and RUSSIA AND MYANMAR – BALANCING ON A KNIFE’S EDGE.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: https://cfuv.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.com
