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Pacifica/FSRN Reports from WTO in Hong Kong
PRODUCED BY: Monica Lopez, Aaron Glantz, Ngoc Nguyen, Dante Toza

Trade Ministers at the WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong have failed to make any headway in the deadlock over contentious farm subsidies paid out by the US and Europe to its farmers and agribusinesses. Most of the developing world, including Brazil and India have demanded these unfair farm subsidies be abolished by 2010. Pacifica and Free Speech Radio News are in Hong Kong and today we present an excerpt of their coverage. FSRN’s Aaron Glantz has these WTO headlines, followed by an interview with Tanya van Meelis of the South African Trade Union Confederation.

Ringside Seat to a Revolution
GUEST: David Romo, author of “Ringside Seat to a Revolution: An Underground Cultural History of El Paso and Juarez: 1893-1923.”

During the Mexican Revolution of 1910, residents of the city of El Paso, Texas would climb atop rooftops to watch battles unfold across the border in Juarez, Mexico. This phenomenon led David Dorado Romo to entitle his new book, “Ringside Seat to a Revolution: An Underground Cultural History of El Paso and Juarez: 1893-1923.” Countering the narratives of Old West mythologies, Romo reveals a history driven underground; that of revolutionary journalists, anarchists, curanderas, and bath house riots. Generously illustrated with historical photographs, Romo’s narrative emphasizes the importance of El Paso in the Mexican Revolution. Published by Cinco Puntos Press, Ringside Seat to a Revolution was noted by people’s historian Howard Zinn as “people’s history at its best”. Gabriel San Roman and I spoke with David Romo recently.

Click here for more information.

Controversial Changes Proposed to Natl’ Park Management
GUEST: Theresa Pierno, Vice President of Regional Operations with the National Parks Conservation Association, NPCA

A Congressional Review is scheduled today on controversial revisions to US National Park management policies. The revisions propose weakening existing guidelines. Critics fear it would worsen problems affecting national parks, such as commercialization, reduction in personnel, and air pollution. Because national parks are home to a majority of the US’s endangered species, critics also note that the policy revisions would weaken protection of wilderness areas. Current National Park Service research shows that smog is worsening in national parks all across America. Conservation groups have been challenging the steadfast refusal of the Environmental Protection Authority to strengthen Clean Air Act provisions designed to protect the air quality of natural areas, including National Parks.

For more information, visit www.npca.org.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

“The national park is the best idea America ever had.” — James Bryce, British Ambassador to the U.S., 1912