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Deep Water: The Epic Struggle Over Dams, Displaced People, and the Environment
GUEST: Jacques Leslie, author of “Deep Water”

Today we spend part one of the program on the politics of dams, in terms of the impact of dams on populations and the environment. Older dams in industrialized nations show that dams are seriously hampering fish migration, leading to extinction of species. During the twentieth century, 45,000 large dams were built in 140 countries. Many of these are complicated projects that are now being recognized as major environmental and humanitarian disasters. Meanwhile, the government of Pakistan is getting ready to build big dams across the country to meet its irrigation and electricity needs. President Musharraf said, “If dams are built, Pakistan will emerge a ” Strong Pakistan”. Jacques Leslie is the author of “Deep Water: The Epic Struggle Over Dams, Displaced People, and the Environment.” In his book, he looks at the struggle over dams by focusing on three people intimately connected with dams: Medha Patkar, a leading activist against the Sardar Sarovar dam in India, Thayer Scudder, a dam resettlement expert and consultant to the World Bank, and Don Blackmore who regulates dams in Australia.

For more information visit www.jacquesleslie.org.

Witness to Torture: A March to Visit the Prisoners in Guantánamo
GUEST: David McReynolds, spokesperson for War Resistors League, Jackie Allen, with the Catholic Worker, live via cell phone from Cuba

Last Monday, a Bosnian woman began a hunger strike to urge the release of her Algerian husband detained at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Along with other Algerians, her husband was transferred over to U.S. authorities in 2002 despite a ruling by the highest court in Bosnia saying that they should be released. The US government decided in 2001 that the Geneva Convention would not apply to Guantanamo prisoners and would not have the constitutional right to habeas corpus. Many prisoners, as well as former Army chaplain James Yee have described cruel and inhuman treatment by US soldiers. To highlight the torture, a group of 25 Americans with the War Resisters League and Catholic Worker began a march to Guantanamo to visit prisoners on a hunger strike of their own. They are making the 50 mile long trek from Santiago de Cuba to Guantanamo. Upon arriving, activists hope to be able to enter the compound to interview detainees. If refused, the group will hold a fast outside the compound.

For more information visit www.witnesstorture.org.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

Dorothy Day once said, “People say, what is the sense of our small effort. They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time.”