PRI's The World » 12/11/2009

Entire program – December 11, 2009

The World — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:30:15 +0000

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Today on The World: A closer look at America’s not-so-secret drone war inside Pakistan. Also, a ruling on food labeling in Britain highlights the divide between Israelis and Palestinians. Plus — why some say Ontario’s aggressive renewable energy plan could help the earth, but harm people.

The drone war

The World — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:28:58 +0000

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At least three suspected militants have been killed in a US drone attack in north-western Pakistan, officials say. Two missiles fired from the drone hit a car near Miranshah in North Waziristan district, close to the Afghan border. The areas of North and South Waziristan are a major sanctuary for al-Qaeda and Taliban militants. Hundreds of people, many of them civilians, have been killed in drone attacks in the past year. Top Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud was among them. Pakistan has publicly criticized drone attacks, saying they fuel support for the militants. The US military does not routinely confirm drone attacks, but the US armed forces and CIA in Afghanistan are the only forces capable of deploying drones in the region, analysts say. Noah Shachtman of Wired magazine is just back from the region.

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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. A US drone aircraft attacked a target inside Pakistan today. Some news organizations are reporting that the attack killed a senior al-Qaeda leader but there’s been no official confirmation or clarification. One report quotes an unnamed US official who would only say the target was not Osama bin Laden or his deputy. It is a graphic reminder of the not-so-secret war being waged from the air by the United States in Pakistan. Noah Shackman of Wired magazine is just back from a close up look at the drone war. So Noah tell us where you were and what you saw.

NOAH SHACKMAN: I was in an undisclosed location in quote-on-quote Southwest Asia. It’s an undisclosed location you can find pretty easily on Google.

WERMAN: Okay so not so secret.

SHACKMAN: Yeah well it’s like semi-secret. And the facility itself was classified and I needed to get an interim secret clearance from the air force in order to get on base. But I can tell you what I saw there which is you know this drone war in Pakistan which has been sort of allegedly credited to the CIA and therefore you know is so secret that it can’t be talked about. In fact the regular US military is actually playing a role in this drone war in Pakistan.

WERMAN: What does this place look like where you were at?

SHACKMAN: The particular facility I’m talking about is a converted medical warehouse. It’s I’m going to guess like maybe 80 feet long. Maybe longer.

WERMAN: Kind of in the middle of nowhere or near any sort of city?

SHACKMAN: No it’s in the middle of this big US base that shows up on Google but you can’t talk about. And it’s surrounded by a bunch of big, high, concrete walls. And you need to get a special pass from a special heavily armed guard within the base in order to walk into this place. And the lights are all turned down low. And at the front of this converted warehouse is a giant screen that has digital maps of both Afghanistan and of Iraq. And marked on those maps are teal dots marking the position of every aircraft, every US and every NATO aircraft, above Afghanistan and Iraq. But there’s a couple of aircraft that aren’t exactly above Afghanistan. In fact they’re a little bit east of Afghanistan, next door in Pakistan. So I had been told for a while that the US military was involved in this drone war but there was sort of visual confirmation of it right there.

WERMAN: Do you have any sense now of how many drones we’re talking about in the airspace over Pakistan? And how does the US kind of manage them all?

SHACKMAN: So the US has exactly 39 orbits or air patrols of drones over what’s called the US central command area, basically the Middle East and Central Asia.

WERMAN: And does that mean 39 actual drones? Or are these 39 kind of clusters of many other drones?

SHACKMAN: It’s 39 clusters. But basically you can figure about 39 are up at any one given time. And that’s the number. Some of those drones are put under the operational control of the CIA for a certain amount of time. But there are 39 orbits and they belong to the US military. The US military also has to keep an eye on where all those drones are. They can’t just let them fly around. Just like you want to have planes fly around LaGuardia Airport or Logan Airport. Right there’s some measure of air traffic control that the US military has to exert. And thirdly, you know when those planes are flying around and are heavily armed and dropping bombs and missiles you can’t just have that happen willy nilly there needs to be some kind of central control or at least some awareness by the US military that that stuff is going on. So it’s yet another way that the US military sort of supervises or looks over all of the drone flights over Pakistan.

WERMAN: Okay so a little difficult to square off boxes and say the CIA’s in charge of this part of the war and the Defense Department is in charge of that part of the war. But from what you saw Noah do the drone attacks on Pakistan fit seamlessly with the operations in Pakistan as kind of a separate conflict to the war in Afghanistan?

SHACKMAN: Well there’s certainly very different rules that apply from Afghanistan to Pakistan. You know in Afghanistan the air strikes have got to be very tightly constrained. You know you really can’t drop a bomb in Afghanistan without layers and layers and layers of approval. And you have to be very careful about civilian casualties. In Pakistan if the media reports are at all correct you know you’re having two, three, four dozen people get killed at a time in these drone attacks and let me tell you they are not all terrorists or militants. There’s got to be some civilians involved when you’re getting that many people killed at once. So there’s a very different feel to the air war in Pakistan. And they don’t seem to be taking the kind of care that they do in Afghanistan.

WERMAN: Noah Shackman of Wired Magazine. Thanks very much for speaking with us.

SHACKMAN: Thanks for having me.

WERMAN: You can hear a longer version of that interview on our weekly technology podcast. To listen or subscribe just go to The World dot org slash technology.

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Ontario’s green energy plan prompts back wind

The World — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:27:50 +0000

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Earlier this year, Ontario adopted a sweeping green energy plan that could make it a world leader in phasing out polluting sources of electricity. The plan paves the way for what supporters hope will be a massive expansion of solar, geothermal and wind power. But the province’s headlong rush toward renewables is roiling some rural communities, which fear massive wind farms will harm their economies and possibly their health. Anita Elash reports. (Photo: flickr.com/photos/canadagood)

MARCO WERMAN: EU leaders would also like to see stronger emission cuts from Canada. Earlier this year the province of Ontario adopted a sweeping green energy plan that could make it a world leader in phasing out polluting sources of electricity. The plan paves the way for what supporters hope will be a massive expansion solar, geothermal, and wind power. But Ontario’s rush toward renewables is roiling some rural communities. As Anita Elash reports the communities fear massive wind farms will harm their economies and possibly their health.

ANITA ELASH: Downtown Picton, Ontario is the heart of bustling tourist district on Lake Ontario 135 miles east of Toronto. Visitors are drawn to a new wine industry, the town’s old brick storefronts, and thriving waterfront artist’s community. Dan Taylor is in charge of local economic development.

DAN TAYLOR: People are coming here to get away from it all. They’re not coming here for industrial experiences. They’re coming here for country experiences. And I guess we’re suggesting that there’s a bit of a conflict.

ELASH: The conflict Taylor is referring to is between the rustic flavor of Picton and scores of giant windmills planned for the area. Nearly 200 turbines are proposed for surrounding Prince Edward County and another 140 just offshore.

TAYLOR: I mean imagine if we were looking over these buildings right now and you saw a large wind turbines overlooking that. I mean that’s not what we’re all about.

ELASH: It’s a conflict that’s playing out across Ontario. The province’s new green energy plan is the most ambitious in North America. Its goal is to wean Ontario off dirty coal-fired power plants in just five years through a combination of energy efficiency and new solar biomass and wind power installations. That would be good for the environment but critics say the province is pushing a plan that will result in thousands of turbines without evaluating their impact on local communities and residents.

JOH LAFORET: A big concern is with how it’s being rolled out.

ELASH: John Laforet is president of Wind Concerns Ontario, a group organized to fight what it calls industrial wind power. Laforet says the government plan is going too far, too fast.

LAFORET: I think it’s going to lead us into a situation where families will be forced to leave their homes because turbines have been put in too close.

ELASH: The province has responded to these concerns by imposing some restrictions on where new turbines can go. For instance the structures must be at least 600 yards from the nearest building. Opponents argue that’s still too close but supporters say any farther would put too much land off limits. And they say when it comes to siting turbines there’s only so much leeway.

BEN CHIN: Windmills have to be built where there’s wind.

ELASH: That’s Ben Chin of the Ontario Power Authority.

CHIN: And windmills need transmission lines to be able to feed into the grid.

ELASH: The power authority has found that in Ontario some of the best mix of wind conditions and access to power lines is found in populated areas along the Great Lakes. Chin says that might mean putting turbines where some people would rather not have them. But that’s the price of helping tackle climate change.

CHIN: We’re not going to stand still as a society. And this province has made a conscious decision to get off of greenhouse gases. That comes with implications. That means that projects have to be built.

[WINDMILL NOISE]

ELASH: But the concerns about the windmills go beyond esthetics.

GAIL KENNY: That’s noise. That’s pretty noisy.

ELASH: Gail Kenny lives on tiny Wolf Island in Lake Ontario site of one of the most hotly disputed wind projects. Eighty-six turbines have been built on the island and Kenny says the noise is relentless.

KENNY: When they are really thumping the atmosphere is full of them. So you feel it. Sometimes it even just affects your equilibrium a little bit because sound is vibration.

ELASH: Kenny is concerned the turbines could affect people’s health and Laforet of Wind Concerns Ontario says there’s good reason to worry. His group has collected about 100 reports from Ontarians who claim that nearby wind turbines are causing headaches, dizziness, sleep loss, ringing in the ears, and depression.

LAFORET: There’s a clear correlation between the audible sound that we can hear with our ear and negative health effects through sleep deprivation. That’s undeniable.

ELASH: Laforet’s group wants the province to stop allowing new turbines until it does detailed studies that prove those health problems aren’t connected to wind power. That’s a tall order since proof is often in the eye of the beholder. The Ontario government says it believes its 600 yard setback provides more than adequate health protection. But some independent researchers say the issue remains murky. Mary English is an environmental policy analyst at the University of Tennessee Knoxville who’s looked at the issue for the US National Academy of Sciences.

MARY ENGLISH: It’s a difficult question and one that’s not easily resolved particularly since the type of problem that’s being created is regarded by some people as trivial.

ELASH: Ontario has promised to appoint a watchdog to make sure that any new wind installations are safe. But whether or not the debate has ever settled English says Ontario faces a classic societal tradeoff in siting its new zero carbon energy facilities.

ENGLISH: Given where we are right now we have a choice that includes making some people arguably worse off in order to make a number of other people arguable better off.

ELASH: English says technological advances could some day allow wind farms to be built mostly out of the way of people. But until or unless that happens Ontario leap into the energy future likely will continue to generate protests along with clean power. For The World I’m Anita Elash in Toronto.

And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Vinyl

The World — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:26:38 +0000

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On this first night of Chanukah, Marco Werman talks with Roger Bennett, co-author of And You Shall Know Us By the Trail of Our Vinyl about his work saving decades of American Jewish music from obscurity.

Listen:

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head

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Hava Nagila

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Fiddler on the Roof

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Kol Nidre

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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. At sundown tonight Hanukkah begins which means we can play great Hanukkah music like … . No don’t worry we’re not going to hear the dreidel song. Let’s listen instead to some music that often gets overlooked.

[MUSIC]

That would be none other than Motown greats The Temptations doing their version of the Fiddler on the Roof overture. So Roger Bennett you tell us how come no one ever talks about The Temptations [INDISCERNIBLE] music?

ROGER BENNETT: I think that’s a lot down to the triumph of Barry, Barbara, and Neil that would be Manalo, Streisand, and of course Neil Diamond, the Holy Trinity of Jewish musicians who kind of define what Jewish music is for a generation like myself who grew up after a time when Jews had mostly left the city, entered the suburbs, and moved very quickly from tradition to modernity. And all their careers, all the Jewish music, and the musicians on whose shoulders they were kind of standing all of those guys were written out of history. And our job, the Idelsohn Society is to reclaim them and reinsert them into the present.

WERMAN: Right and Roger you and fellow Jewish music aficionado Josh Kun authored this informative and very entertaining book titled, “And You Shall Know us by The Trail of Our Vinyl.” Explain the title and what you and Josh Kun are doing with this music. I mean it’s turned into a major project; a non-profit you run called the Idelsohn Society.

BENNETT: Absolutely. It’s also David Kutz Nelson, a record label executive from San Francisco and Courtney Holt, the president of MySpace Music. I mean the four of us just found these albums, these Latin Jewish combos from the 1950s like Irving Fields who did Bagels and Bongos, Juan Kelly and his Latin [INDISCERNIBLE] who did Mazel Tov Mis Amigos. And this music blew us away. We found this crazy world of Jews making Latin music; non-Jews making Jewish music and we were just amazed that we’d never inherited any of this history. And we set about over the past eight trying to save as much of this vinyl as possible getting it sent to us by our website, the Idelsohn Society dot com but also going down to Boca which is where Jewish vinyl goes to die.

WERMAN: Boca Raton, Florida.

BENNETT: Absolutely. And I know that place better than I ever dreamt. And our goal was to save the vinyl. We started to reissue it. And now we’ve moved into getting the performers back on stage, 80 and 90 year old performers, and if any of the original performers from the ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s are listening to you today we’d love to hear from you. We’ve raised funding to record your stories, preserve them, because the history is literally being edited out of the present.

WERMAN: Well let’s hear another example. We’re about to hear the Barry Sisters. Give us a quick line on who they are and then we’ll hear their Yiddish version of … . Well our listeners will figure it out pretty quickly. Who are they?

BENNETT: I mean the Barry Sisters were one of many sister-sister combos that were popular in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Their great skill was to take popular music favorites of the present and translate them through to Jewish linguistics of the ‘40s and ‘50s Yiddish. The track you’re about to hear is a masterpiece when you drop a little bit and it can blow the audiences mind.

[MUSIC]

WERMAN: The Barry sisters there and Roger Bennett I mean they were Jewish but they’re covering like the ultimate [INDISCERNIBLE] AM radio tune, Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head. Did Jews take this seriously when it came out or did they feel like this was cute and campy but not really Jewish?

BENNETT: I mean I think the cute and campy is really just a projection back from the present onto the past. Back in the day the Jewish music purchasing audience was veracious. And a testament to that is the incredible number of non-Jews who recorded Jewish music. Everybody from Perry Como, Connie Frances, and The Temptations and of course Johnny Mathis recorded Jewish albums teaching themselves Hebrew, Aramaic, and often Yiddish in the process to do so. This stuff was treated very, very seriously. What they are are kind of icons of identity and in collecting them really what we’re trying to do is ask ourselves who we are, what we’re inheriting, what we know about it, and what it really means to us.

WERMAN: Right and on that tip I mean you devote a chapter in your book to the Latin tinge and how it crossed over into Jewish music and vice versa. Here’s Latino musician Joe Kihano with a very danceable version of [INDISCERNIBLE].

[MUSIC]

WERMAN: Roger Bennett what was the Latino reaction at the Palladium Ballroom for example in New York when the DJ dropped that tune, [INDISCERNIBLE]?

BENNETT: That whole album is exquisite and it was one of many that have been lost to history. And the whole Latin Jewish story raises questions about community, the mixing and matching, the borrowing of traditions that did go on and how both communities tell that story or don’t tell that story. And I think the more we know about it the more we’re blown away by symbiosis culturally between the two communities in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

WERMAN: Well Roger let’s go out with this quite serious and beautiful version of the [PH] Col Nidre the inaugural prayer of Yum Kippur. This is the golden voice of Johnny Mathis. A quick line on this. You mentioned him earlier.

BENNETT: Johnny Mathis released an album of songs of faith in the late ‘50s of mostly Christian hymns. But he also recorded three Jewish songs. I asked him why, how did this come to be? And he said I spent time in the studio recording songs of faith and after a while I was looking around and I realized the whole band was Jewish and it was the band that persuaded him to transliterate the Aramaic into kind of the English pronunciation and in a couple of takes nailed it. And when we go down to Florida and we play the music we found for the 80 and 90 year olds we speak to on a regular basis when we play this song by the end of it they are normally just weeping with joy.

WERMAN: Alright we’ll go out with Johnny Mathis and [PH] Col Nidre. It’s a wonderful book that’s uncovered some extraordinary songs. Roger Bennett is co-author of “You Shall Know us by the Trail of our Vinyl” and the co-founder of the Idelsohn Society. Very good to speak with you Roger.

BENNETT: Thank you Marco.

[MUSIC]

WERMAN: Johnny Mathis there singing Col Nidre. Not a song for tonight. Still we wish you all a Happy Hanukkah. By the way you can see some very entertaining album covers from Roger’s book at The World dot org. our secular theme song was composed by Eric Goldberg from the Nan and Bill Harris Studios at WGBH in Boston. I’m Marco Werman. Thank you for joining us.

[MUSIC]

Venezuela’s “socialist” toys

The World — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:26:22 +0000

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The Venezuelan government has invested $1.4 million in toys to sell them at a 70% discount at their big “Socialist Toy Fair”. BBC Mundo’s Anahí Aradas checked out the merchandise in Caracas, Marco Werman talks with her.

BBC Mundo story (en español)

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. A lot of what happens in Venezuela under President Hugo Chavez is described as socialist. Chavez himself says he’s leading a socialist revolution to benefit the people. His critics of course say Chavez is more like a socialist tyrant. Politics aside we were still surprised to hear that socialist toy fair opened in Venezuela this week. The BBC’s Anahi Aradas went to the fair to take a peek. She joins us from downtown Caracas. Anahi tell us first off what the Venezuelan government means by socialist toy fair. They’re not selling toy hammers and sickles right?

ANAHI ARADAS: Okay it’s no such thing as socialist toys. They are toys as sold in a socialist fair. A socialist fair is any kind of special shop that the Venezuelan government sets to sell food, to sell different kind of objects. It’s not the first time that the Venezuelan government does that in Christmas. Last year it was about all the necessary ingredients to do Christmas dishes. And this year has been toys mainly because of [INDISCERNIBLE] so high, especially high because of inflation as well. That’s why there were so many people in these two fairs set in Caracas.

WERMAN: Right I mean people are buying these toys at cost, 70% off the retail prices. How did this come about? I mean here in the US it’s regular Americans who donate toys for Christmas to disadvantaged children. How can the Venezuelan government have no problem investing one and a half million dollars in toys?

ARADAS: That’s quite strange but it’s true that Venezuela has a lot of deals with China. They can go over the big companies in Venezuela that are trying to sell toys to inflated rates.

WERMAN: Anahi you may not know this but here in the United States we’ve got this shopping day, the day after Thanksgiving, called Black Friday when stores sell items below regular price and people start their Christmas shopping you know as early as midnight. Now I’m wondering if this socialist toy fair, once it started, I mean was it also kind of like a rush on Black Friday here? Did people have to stand in line for hours or even days?

ARADAS: Oh yes. That day when I was there on Wednesday there were 5000 people according to the government in this fair. When I got there there were dads, moms, grandpas, all waiting in a long cue in the center of Caracas.

WERMAN: How long were they waiting in line?

ARADAS: How long? I asked the first people in the cue and they were waiting since 3:00 in the morning. So they slept there.

WERMAN: And what time did you happen to speak with them?

ARADAS: I spoke with them about midday and they had been there for nine, 10 hours waiting. And some of them had been there also the day before.

WERMAN: Is that line still there today?

ARADAS: Yes, yes. The fair will be open until the 15^th of December.

WERMAN: Have they run out of toys yet?

ARADAS: Yes mainly of Barbies.

WERMAN: Mainly Barbies.

ARADAS: Because when I went there, no no Barbies.

WERMAN: I mean it seems hard to argue with the idea of making toys more readily available to underprivileged kids this time of year regardless of where the toys come from. Are there any critics though in Venezuela of this program?

ARADAS: Critics are saying why a socialist country is selling American toys or Chinese toys instead of Venezuelan toys.

WERMAN: Give me a couple of examples of like national products. What the most popular toy made in Venezuela?

ARADAS: There was an idea to sell Bolivar dolls.

WERMAN: Like Simon Bolivar dolls?

ARADAS: Simon Bolivar dolls. Yes.

WERMAN: That sounds cool.

ARADAS: Yeah but I didn’t see any.

WERMAN: Anahi Aradas with the BBC in Caracas, Venezuela. Thank you very much.

ARADAS: You’re welcome.

Protest minaret in Switzerland

The World — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:25:21 +0000

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We’re heading to a city in the French-speaking part of Switzerland this time. This city is located on the shores of Lake Geneva, but no – it’s not Geneva. It’s the other big city along the Lake. This one is home to the International Olympic Committee’s headquarters.That’s why some people call it the “Olympic capital.” The city had a chance to host the 1994 Winter Games. But residents protested — and voted against the idea. So, can you this Swiss city?

Geo Answer:

….and the name of this Olympic host city that wasn’t is Lausanne.

A local businessman there is currently engaged in a unique sort of protest. Guillaume Morand runs a chain of shoe stores. He was outraged recently when fellow Swiss voters approved a ban on on the construction of minarets – the structures that often tower over mosques. So Monsieur Morand, who by the way is not a Muslim , decided to protest the vote by putting up a symbolic minaret.

He speaks with anchor Marco Werman about his protest.

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Mock minaret built atop a chimney in Bussigny-pres-Lausanne, Switzerland (AP Photo/Keystone, Laurent Gillieron)

MARCO WERMAN: Hey tell you what? I’ll solve that mystery right now. That other big city on the shores on Lake Geneva is Lausanne. A local businessman there is currently engaged in a unique sort of protest. Geo Morand runs a chain of shoe stores. He was outraged recently when fellow Swiss voters approved a ban on the construction of minarets, the structures that often tower over mosques. So Monsieur Morand who by the way is not a Muslim decided to protest the vote by putting up a symbolic minaret.

GEO MORAND: The minaret is on my headquarter on the roof about 25 meters high on the chimney. When we built that we used the old chimney in stone and then we put the roof of the minaret in gold.

WERMAN: In gold. It must be really attractive in the neighborhood.

MORAND: Yes it’s very, very beautiful and you see it from the highway that goes from Lausanne to Geneva. Many people drive on this highway.

WERMAN: Well 57% of Switzerland voted for the ban. So what have your neighbors around your warehouse said about your minaret?

MORAND: We were building it in the morning and there was no problem. But suddenly the people in the factory beside saw there was the last piece of the minaret, they saw it was something Muslim and they began shouting. But it was nothing very … . Not very special.

WERMAN: You know we should point out there are only four minarets in all of Switzerland right now. Why did this referendum come about in the first place?

MORAND: This referendum should never have been placed in Switzerland because it’s not in the constitution so the parliament should have refused the fact that we vote on that.

WERMAN: Right but the bottom line though is that 57% of the Swiss public voted to ban minarets. So that either means that not many people came out to vote or that there are two Switzerlands – one that … .

MORAND: No the problem is that the way was just open for the right party because nobody was protesting against this right wing party. And it was really a shame.

WERMAN: Why not?

MORAND: Because you know after the vote they said oh we thought the people of Switzerland will refuse it. It’s not a reason. They did a big mistake because they didn’t do any campaign before. And after the vote they didn’t do their [INDISCERNIBLE] thing. They are doing mistakes. Doing no campaign. Nobody in Switzerland knew there were four minarets and nobody gives … . I mean it’s not a problem. We’ve got 400,000 Muslims in Switzerland and there are never ay problems ever.

WERMAN: I’m wondering if you actually voted two Sundays ago against the referendum.

MORAND: I voted yeah.

WERMAN: I was looking at your brand, Pump It Up, online and it seems you know your shoes seem very geared for young consumers, a very kind of hip hop graffiti esthetic. Have your employees reacted to your protest? Do they agree with your position?

MORAND: So 99% of my people working with are fully agree with me. You’ve got to understand the vote it comes also from some parts of Switzerland in the mountain and people maybe they don’t even ever seen a Muslim in their life.

WERMAN: Well that’s what I was asking earlier. Do you think there are two Switzerlands? Do you think there are you know the people as you say from the mountains, the yodeler’s maybe, you know who don’t want minarets built anymore in Switzerland and then the people living in the cities like yourself who kind of understand this multicultural world we live in?

MORAND: I think most of the Swiss they voted like this from ignorance because they don’t know the Muslim world and also for fear. I think that also there’s two Switzerland or more Switzerland of people living in the cities. You can see the result of the vote. For instance in [INDISCERNIBLE] City where there are many Muslims they voted against the initiative.

WERMAN: Geo Morand the owner of the shoe store chain Pump It Up based just outside Lausanne, Switzerland. And the city of Lausanne by the way is the answer to today’s Geo quiz.

Israeli politics

The World — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:40:29 +0000

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The World’s Aaron Schachter reports on concerns by right wing groups in Israel that some international aid is going to help left wing groups who are vocal critics of the Israeli government.

MARCO WERMAN: In Israel today thousands of people marched in Tel Aviv to observe International Human Rights day. A hundred different organizations participated. Lately some of the groups have come under fire. Some Israeli lawmakers and others complain that foreign governments are funding these groups and they’re left-leaning agendas. The World’s Aaron Schachter reports.

AARON SCHACHTER: Israel has long bristled at criticism from inside and outside the country but the scathing reports on Israel’s conduct in last winter’s Gaza war touched off a new level of Israeli anger. Many of the reports were prepared by non-governmental organizations, NGOs. Now some in Israel are complaining that these NGOs rely on funding from foreign countries, especially in Europe.

GERALD STEINBERG: You have European governments making decisions and very much shaping an agenda and influencing perceptions of Israel, policies towards Israel.

SCHACHTER: Gerald Steinberg heads NGO Monitor. It’s a privately funded Israeli group that keeps tabs on NGOs tracking the Arab-Israeli conflict.

STEINBERG: You don’t see Europe going around and funding opposition groups and other democratic societies, whether in Europe, the United States. You don’t see the United States funding anti-abortion campaigns in Paris or other places. But the Europeans seem to feel that Israel is an empty playing field and they can manipulate domestic politics by pouring in large amounts of money through these NGOs.

SCHACHTER: One of the NGOs that especially gulls Steinberg is called B’Tselem, the Israel Information Center for Human Rights. Jessica Montell is the group’s executive director and she attended today’s human rights demonstration in Tel Aviv. Montell says the way European governments fund her organization and others is covered under a treaty.

JESSICA MONTELL: The agreement signed that regulates all relations between Europe and Israel defines human rights as one of the six shared values that should govern all aspects of the relationship. And the agreement also stipulates that both sides should be supporting, among other things financial supporting, those values.

SCHACHTER: But NGO Monitor accuses foreign governments of trying to hide their financial support of some Israeli NGOs like B’Tselem. Montell says that’s nonsense.

MONTELL: They are not looking at all organizations addressing the Arab-Israeli conflict the way they claim to be. They’re only interested in silencing criticism, legitimate important criticism in a democracy. You go to B’Tselem’s website you see a list of ever foundation. You go to the registrar of NGOs you see the financial sums donated by every organization, every foreign government. So transparency is something inherent to the human rights cause.

SCHAHCTER: Alright let’s look online – www dot B’Tselem dot org. Let’s go to about B’Tselem. And there we have a list of donors. The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Dan Church Aid from Denmark … .

DROR ETKIS: The money which comes to human rights organization can be tracked all the way to Oslow, or to London, or to Berlin, or wherever the money source comes from.

SCHACHTER: [PH] Dror Etkis has worked with Israeli human rights organizations for more than a decade. He calls the current campaign by NGO Monitor much ado about nothing.

ETKIS: Foreign money is part of the modern political democratic you know reality which we are living in.

SCHAHCTER: But NGO Monitor’s Gerald Steinberg says there should be limits and some Israeli lawmakers apparently agree. They held a hearing in the Israeli parliament on foreign government funding for NGOs earlier this month. Some officials say they hope to draft legislation banning such contributions. For The World I’m Aaron Schachter in Jerusalem.

Palestinian food gets its own label

The World — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:39:50 +0000

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The British government says produce from the West Bank that’s sold in British supermarkets may now be labeled as “Palestinian produce” because the land is not within the internationally recognized boundaries of Israel. That move has prompted an angry outcry from Israeli officials.

MARCO WERMAN: Israel is annoyed at the British government in particular for another reason. Britain has just issued new food labeling guidelines. They allow retailers to make a distinction between produce from Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and produce grown in Israeli West Bank settlements. The British government says it’s just responding to consumer demand. But Israel isn’t buying it. The World Carol Hills has more.

CAROL HILLS: Currently in Britain the label on West bank produce says just that – produce of the West Bank. The new guidelines give British retailers the option of labeling their West Bank fruits and vegetables Palestinian produce or Israeli settlement produce. This is not sitting well with many Israelis. Yigal Palmor is an Israeli government spokesman.

YIGAL PALMOR: We have expressed our concern and our disappointment to the British government. We think that this really means caving in to pro-Palestine and anti-Israel groups who have demanded that just that.

HILLS: Britain’s department for the environment, food, and rural affairs released the new guidelines. No one from the department was available for comment today. But in a statement released yesterday Minister Hilary Benn said importers, retailers, NGOs, and consumers have asked the government for clarity over the precise origin of products from the occupied Palestinian territories. She went on to say the label West bank does not allow consumers to distinguish between goods originating from Palestinian producers and goods originating from illegal Israeli settlements. But she did add that Britain opposes boycotts of Israeli goods. Ben Moxham supports the government move. He’s with Britain’s Trades Union Congress, a labor union umbrella group.

BEN MOXHAM: Firstly, under the Geneva Convention it is illegal to profit from occupied land where you are the occupier so there’s a sound legal argument to actually ban these goods. The British government is not going that far. What it is is providing clarity for consumers.

HILLS: But Israeli government spokesman Yigal Palmor says the optional labeling could lead to a boycott of Israeli goods and that Britain is singling out Israel.

PALMOR: Why doesn’t the British government advice to label all products from around the world according to their exact region of origin because I’m sure I’m not revealing anything new here, there are scores of conflictive areas and regions around the world about which the consumers may be concerned. This measure is singling out Israel so it’s definitely political and not just a concern about the information that consumers may want to have.

HILLS: But not everyone in Israel is concerned. The proposed new labels don’t worry [PH] Israel Medit at all. He’s a spokesman for the Yesha Council which represents Israeli settlers. He believes Israel is known for quality and that British consumers are discerning.

ISRAEL MEDIT: It definitely is a political decision and is also a consumer decision. If in anything the advancements made by indigenous Arabs in this area in the field of agriculture is probably only due to the fact that Israel is administering the territories and is giving them much know how and technical advancement. However I would presume that if indeed consumers in Britain are forced to know from where the goods are coming from I’m willing to take a gamble that they will be buying our products because I think that they have a better chance of getting more for their pound sterling in all sorts of ways.

HILLS: Those West Bank products range from fruits and vegetables to metals and plastics. For The World I’m Carol Hills.

Women on Italian TV

The World — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:39:14 +0000

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Correspondent Megan Williams reports on a campaign by Italian businesswomen Lorella Zanardo to change the way women are portrayed as sex objects on Italian television programs.

MARCO WERMAN: Now to a very different story from Italy. For decades Italian TV has featured showgirls. We’re talking women whose only onscreen role is to look beautiful for the viewer. They grace everything from TV quiz shows to serious news programs. Now as Megan Williams reports one Italian woman is challenging this televised sexism.

MEGAN WILLIAMS; Turn on Italian TV day or night and it’s hard to miss them – long legged young women with bursting cleavage, clad and skimpy outfits, prancing around male hosts. By last year though Milan business women Lorella Zanardo had had enough.

LORELLA ZANARDO: I switched on TV and I saw this horrible image of women treated like object or humiliated which made me really very angry. I was really angry because I said I want to stop this situation.

WILLIAMS: Zanardo and two male colleagues decided to make a video on the subject. The result is a half hour documentary called “Il Corpo delle Donne” – Women’s Bodies.

[ITALIAN]

WILLIAMS: The documentary consists almost entirely of scenes from recent Italian TV. In one game show a woman hangs from a hook alongside hams while a man stamps her bottom. On another popular show a young woman sits under a Plexiglas table like a caged animal and smiles at the audience. In her documentary Zanardo wonders aloud why Italian women accept this humiliation.

ZANARDO: I think that we are afraid that men don’t accept us, don’t like us anymore. The acceptance of man is very important to young women. And the fact that one woman can say listen I don’t want to follow this model anymore make herself feel very alone. So this is a terrible feel.

WILLIAMS: Zanardo is on a mission to change that. And her documentary has struck a cord in Italy. “Il Corpo delle Donne” has gotten almost a million views on the internet. Zanardo has had hundreds of invitations to show it around the country. She now spends most of her time traveling across Italy presenting it mainly to groups of young people.

ZANARDO: [SPEAKING ITALIAN]

WILLIAMS: On this day Zanardo is showing the video to high school student Genoa. After the screening the room is a buzz.

18-YEAR-OLD: [SPEAKING ITALIAN]

WILLIAMS: This 18-year-old says she hates the way young women are portrayed on TV. But she says a lot of girls she knows aspire to becoming showgirls because they think it’s an easy way to make money.

18-YEAR-OLD: [SPEAKING ITALIAN]

TRANSLATOR: It’s seems to me they’re not just victims. Those showgirls know exactly what they’re doing even if what they’re doing is humiliating. That woman who gets under the table in a game show is earning about 3000 euros to do it.

WILLIAMS: Another student in the room, a 20-year-old, says the film has got her thinking about how Italian TV has shaped her own view of herself.

20-YEAR-OLD: [SPEAKING ITALIAN]

TRANSLATOR: I hate to admit it but I do want to conform to the feminine stereotype and ideal we see on TV – high heels, a curvy body, and yes big breasts too.

WILLIAMS: Zanardo says she understands that young women take pride in their bodies and she doesn’t want them to feel shame in that. That’s not the point of the documentary. But she says a range of different kinds of women needs to be shown on TV. Some blame the status quo on the man who controls much of what Italians watch on TV – Prime Minister and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi. He’s been under fire recently for allegedly cavorting with young women and prostitutes. But Zanardo says Italian viewers share some of the blame for silently accepting what TV executives have put on their screens.

ZANARDO: It’s not only Berlusconi’s guilt. It’s an entire society responsibility.

WILLIAMS: Zanardo admits it’ll take time to change people’s attitudes. And she says in order for Italian women to take charge of how they’re represented on television they need to be willing to take risks.

ZANARDO: I am proposing to them but they can’t accept for a period of their life not to be loved the society by man. But the path towards independence, real independence, passes also through not acceptance.

WILLIAMS: That’s a message many young Italians seem ready to hear. And it’s not just women who are paying attention. Lorella Zanardo also has a blog. Almost half of the comments posted are from men. For The World I’m Megan Williams in Genoa, Italy.

EU pledge to climate fund

The World — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:38:31 +0000

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The European Union has pledged 10-and-a-half billion dollars over three years to help developed nations deal with climate change. Now it’s looking to other big polluters — like the US and China — to make a contribution. The World’s Gerry Hadden reports.

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH in Boston. A week into the Copenhagen climate talks the European Union is putting up some money. It’s pledged $10.5 billion over three years for a short-term fund to help poor countries adapt to climate change. Up until last night the EU was wavering on any new commitments. But now that EU has agreed on a sum, it’s calling on other developed nations to contribute. The World’s Gerry Hadden reports.

GERRY HADDEN: After embarrassing days of deadlock EU members have agreed to contribute $3.6 billion a year to an emergency fund for developing countries. After the announcement the United Nations climate change chief, Yvo de Boer, said Europe’s pledge would put pressure on other big polluters such as China, India, and the United States.

YVO DE BOER: One of the things that has been holding this process back is lack of clarity on how short-term financial support is going to be provided to developing countries. And the fact that Europe has now very clearly put a figure on the table will I think be a huge encouragement to the process.

HADDEN: The stopgap fund is supposed to provide $10 billion dollars a year for three years. It’s mainly for poorer nations to improve water usage, switch to draught resistant crops, and move to renewable energy such as solar and wind. It remains to be seen who will kick in the remaining $6.4 billion needed to round out the fund. President Obama has said the US would contribute its fair share to help developing nations but so far he hasn’t specified an amount. Today European Union Commissioner Jose Barroso said the money needs to start flowing now.

JOSE BARROSO: This is so important for developing countries, especially the poorest, the most vulnerable. I think about African countries, the small island states, whose future depends on immediate action.

HADDEN: But the fund itself is already under fire from some who question whether the promised funds will be new money and buy those who say it’s simply not enough. Billionaire George Soros said the developed world is letting the planet down.

GEORGE SOROS: Ten billion dollars a year is more than nothing but not much more because of the magnitude of the problem.

HADDEN: Soros wants to see 10 times more money in the fund. Whatever the amount the short-term fund is only supposed to operate until 2012. That’s when a new long-term agreement to fight climate change kicks in. That’s the main accord being negotiated now in Copenhagen. Europe had news on the long-term front today as well. It offered a new greenhouse gas reduction target – a 30% drop from 1990 levels by 2020. Currently Europe is aiming for a 20% reduction. But today Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said the new offer would be retracted if other developed nations didn’t step up.

FREDRIK REINFELDT: We can’t solve the climate problem ourselves. European Union countries only stands for 13% of global emission. We need to have a global answer to this global problem.

HADDEN: Japan and Russian have already pledged to reduce emissions by 25% from 1990 levels. The US, historically the world’s largest producer of greenhouses gases, has offered a 17% cut in emissions by 2020. But that’s only from 2005 levels. That number disappoints other world leaders. They’re hoping President Obama will deepen America’s commitment when he arrives in Copenhagen next week. For The World I’m Gerry Hadden.

Geo Quiz

The World — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:37:43 +0000

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Our daily geography quiz asks listeners to name the OTHER big city on the banks of Switzerland’s Lake Geneva.