This Week on GR
by C.L. Cook - GRadio.Substack.com
Chaos isn't the first thing that comes to mind while contemplating the immaculately coiffed and imperturbably poised figure of French president, Emmanuel Macron. But beneath that calculated, bureaucratic blandness, the long-serving Macron has lost nothing of the burning ardour of his former Minister of Economics, Industry and Digital Affairs self; perhaps explaining the hormonal turmoil his second administration has wrought for France's body politic.
Diana Johnstone is an author and journalist living in Paris and partaking for decades now the grand spectacle that is French and European politics. She served as press secretary to the Green Group in the European Parliament, and recounts the transformation of German Greens from peace to war party in her latest book, 'Circle of Darkness: Memoirs of a World Watcher'. Johnstone's other titles include: 'Fools’ Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO and Western Delusions', and 'From MAD to Madness: Inside Pentagon Nuclear War Planning', co-written with her father, Paul H. Johnstone, and her essays on global affairs appear at ConsortiumNews.com.
Diana Johnstone in the first half.
And; Mexico's new president, Claudia Sheinbaum celebrated last week the first anniversary of the inaugural run of the Maya Train, the mega-legacy project of her predecessor and political mentor, Andres Manuel López Obrador. Among the many promises made of the line circling the Yucatan Peninsula tourism mecca - and its not yet completed connecting Interoceanic line - was an improvement in the lives of the people where it runs; but that's a hard sell in Chiapas State where, as my next guest points out, "displacements in villages, including Zapatista territories, as a result of armed confrontations, and the government indifference [and denial] to it", and an "astonishing increase in violence since the pandemic".
Caitlin Manning is an American filmmaker and active participant in the movements against patriarchy, racism and capitalism. She's author of 'Resistant Mexico', a series of films documenting resistance to "neoliberal economic expansion, and retention of cultural modes, methods, and memory in Mexico". Manning's articles and films can be found at her site, CaitlinManningfilms.com.
Caitlin Manning and the Maya Train's promise and perils for Mexico's people and ecology in the second half.
But first, Diana Johnstone and Macron's French Farce.
Song: ‘So Many Ways to Kill a CEO’
Artist: David Rovics
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/ and on Telegram at: https://t.me/gorillaradio2024
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