Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi speaks with Susan R. Rice, the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations during the Republic of South Sudan Independence celebrations on July 9 2011. Photo courtesy of USAID / Jenn Warren.

The Ethiopian government is one of the most active jailers and intimidators of journalists.

The land-locked nation on the horn of Africa has forced more journalists to flee for their lives and their freedom in the past 10 years than any other country. Journalists are imprisoned in facilities known for their torture of inmates. And, newspapers and radio stations are routinely forced out of business.

Now a seemingly ludicrous, but chilling law has led to charges of terrorism against 10 prominent journalists. Yes, terrorism, with a possible sentence of 10 to 20 years for committing blatant acts of journalism, like interviewing the opposition party, or criticizing the government’s response to a drought.

Several of the Ethiopian journalists charged are working in the U.S., a country that sends about $1 billion to Ethiopia each year in food programs and security. This week, two Ethiopian journalists and a U.S. based blogger were tried in absentia and convicted of terrorism charges. They could face the death penalty.

On Dec. 21 two Swedish journalists were found guilty and sentenced to 11 years in prison for ‘supporting terrorism’, which added to the international outcry.

I sat down to talk about this with Mohammed Keita, advocacy co-ordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Africa program and a frontline fighter for press freedom on the continent.

It’s important to note that since this conversation, the U.S. has released a statement following the convictions of the Swedish journalists.

Francia Márquez in the PBS documentary "The War We Are Living."

In this new age of war and conflict–unlike any time in recent history–the primary targets for bloodshed, injury and death are not soldiers in uniforms; they are women and their children.

Violence and intimidation against civilians in Africa, South Asia, the Balkans and Latin America have transformed much of what we have thought of as war. The stories of both the survivors and the brave and determined women who are forcing their way into the peacemaking process are the most under-reported stories in the world.

Increasingly documentary filmmakers—many of them women—are telling these stories.

Pamela Hogan is the executive producer of Fork Films. She has been at the forefront of the Wide Angle series on PBS and produced 70 hours of films in 50 countries, many of them on them on the subject of oppression of women. She is one of three executive producers of the five-part series Women, War and Peace. This Tuesday, November 1st, their film, The War We Are Living, will premiere on PBS at 10 PM ET.

Garry Pierre-Pierre reports from the restaurant of the Villa Creole Hotel in Petion Ville, Haiti in January 2010.
Photo by Andre Chang.

Last January, an earthquake crippled the impoverished nation of Haiti, killing almost a quarter of a million people and destroying the homes and businesses of millions more.

The capital, Port au Prince, was largely leveled and now–11 months later–the sounds of machines razing damaged buildings fills the city. To add to the misery, a massive outbreak of cholera has killed 2,000 more and sickened nearly a 100,000.

The recent national election on Nov. 28 has ended with charges of corruption and violent protests. Thousands didn’t get ID cards before the election and official monitors reported voter intimidation and ballot fraud. The two leading vote getters are haggling over a runoff and other candidates are demanding a recount.

Garry Pierre-Pierre, editor, publisher and founder of the Haitian Times, talks with us from Port au Prince about the election, the brutally slow recovery from the earthquake, and the cholera epidemic.

Dr. Peter Bongiorno discusses naturopathic approaches for treating depression.

Holiday blues are a well-documented phenomenon that affects many people this time of year. Fortunately, many of these “cases” pass after the New Year. But depression–the debilitating illness– remains for some. It is more than a fleeting period of sadness and can last for years–or a lifetime without proper care.  The World Health Organization predicts that in 10 years depression will be the second most diagnosed disease in the world. According to the Centers for Disease Control, about 10 percent of Americans are depressed.

Today antidepressants are the most heavily prescribed medications. Once they start on the pills, patients are seldom weaned away from them. The drugs and their side effects are controversial. Some studies suggest they don’t help people with mild to moderate forms of the disease. With more people turning to natural medicine, some healers have found natural medicines and lifestyle changes to be more effective.

In this podcast, we talk with naturopathic physician, Dr. Peter Bongiorno. He is the author of Healing Depression: Naturopathic and Conventional Treatments. Dr. Bongiorno talks about natural treatments for some depressed patients, about the acceptance of naturopathic medicine by conventional physicians, and about the issue of licensing doctors who practice this medicine in New York State.

Percussionist and TED Fellow Susie Ibarra. Photo by Claudio Casanova.

Susie Ibarra has the spirit of a jazz drummer. Intense, joyful, even playful as she artfully blends the beats of modern jazz percussion with the ancient and haunting rhythms of the indigenous people of the Philippines. Her range as a musician is impressive. She has studied the urban polyrhythms of artists like Max Roach and the plaintive brass and wood gongs of the T’Boli, one of the Philippines’ 100 native tribes.

Lake Sebu in southern Mindanao is the site of a huge tilapia farm and the T’Boli, a people known for their skills with cloth and their trance-like chanting, are suffering because of it. Their traditional way of life has been disrupted and their music is in danger of fading from memory. In 2005, Ibarra began making field recordings of seven indigenous tribes in the Philippines. She and her husband, the percussionist Roberto Rodriguez, are also making a documentary, Song of the Bird King, about the music, the people and the land.

This past winter, Ibarra was named a 2010 Ted Fellow for her efforts. The fellowships are meant to assist “world-changing innovators.” In this interview, she talks about her mission, plays music on a hand made kulintang (gong set) and reflects on the future of indigenous people in a country of over 7000 islands that faces many challenges from Islamic militants to a central government that has been steeped in corruption for years.

Novelist and memoir writer, Edwidge Danticat. Photo by Nancy Crampton

Haiti is the oldest and poorest democracy in the western hemisphere. It is also a black country with a history of U.S. interference in its chaotic and often disastrous politics. On Jan. 12, at 4:53 p.m. a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck southwest of Port-au-Prince. Since then almost 60 strong aftershocks have shaken the region. The numbers are staggering. By official tally, more than 222,000 people have died, about 300,000 people were injured and about 1.3 million people — 15 percent of the population — lost their homes.

The acclaimed novelist and memoir writer Edwidge Danticat was one of many Haitian Americans, who returned to her native country in the weeks following the disaster. She wrote about her cousin Maxo’s death and her family in Haiti for the New Yorker.

In this interview, Danticat joins us from WLRN’s studios in Miami. She talks about family, the novelist’s craft, and the resiliency of Haitians.

This podcast begins with the music of Charles Mingus. He wrote this piece, Haitian Fight Song, to commemorate the country’s slave revolt, which led to the establishment of Haiti as a free black state in 1804.

About Danticat
At age 12, Edwidge Danticat arrived in Brooklyn from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. She joined her parents who had emigrated when she was just a toddler. Danticat spoke only Creole at the time and Brooklyn was a tough adjustment for her. She took refuge in books and was a story teller from an early age. Folk tales and her family history helped shape her literary imagination.

Last year, Danticat was awarded a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Fellowship Program. Her works include a series of short stories, Krik? Krak!, novels, Breath, Eyes, Memory, The Farming of Bones,, and a memoir about her father and his brother, Brother, I’m Dying.

Jill Lester from The Hunger Project discusses the global food crisis with host Lonnie Isabel. Photo by John Smock.

Hunger is surging in New York City and the rest of the world.

Whatever the causes–the global recession, global warming, political turmoil, fuel prices adding to the cost of food production and distribution–this winter has been the season of empty stomachs and malnourished families. More New Yorkers than ever are heading to food pantries for the first time.

According to the United Nations World Food Program, more than a billion people, about one in six, don’t get enough food to be healthy and about 20,000 people die of starvation each day. But–hunger is not confined to South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the two regions with the most persistent problems. Around the U.S., hunger is at a 14-year high and people are using food stamps at record levels. New York City advocates for the hungry say demand at food pantries and soup kitchens has increased 20 percent this year, with many more people coming who had never asked for a meal before. About 1.3 million New Yorkers are “food insecure,” meaning they have no idea where their next meals will come from.

Hunger is more than the absence of proper food. It is the primary symptom of poverty and a soul debilitating condition that deflates a sense of independence and hope for the future. Children particularly suffer from poor health, poor school work, and a sense of hopelessness.

The goal of cutting hunger in half by 2015 now seems unattainable.

In this podcast, Kerry Birnbach, who works on policy research at the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, and Jill Lester, president and CEO of The Hunger Project, working to fight hunger in 13 of the hardest hit countries, talk about the problem and offer possible solutions.

Chloe Temtchine leaves her mark at the Bitter End in the West Village. Photo by Lorenzo Dominguez.

New York is a city pulsating with music, a haven for singers and songwriters. In our latest podcast, we bring you a special in-studio performance.

Three musicians from the New York Songwriters Circle talk about their art and the changing music industry.

Originally, from the Twin Cities, Caleb Hawley is an accomplished guitarist, and singer-songwriter. He comes from a musical family, joking that his dad was a lot like James Taylor. Also in the studio, soulful and charismatic New York native Chloe Temtchine started singing after listening to the choir at a Harlem church she visited as a girl.

Tina Shafer, the Circle’s artistic director, and a singer-songwriter herself, explained that the group is looking to find new ways to help musicians get their songs heard. For 19 years, Shafer has curated the circle’s bimonthly shows at the Bitter End in the West Village. These showcases have featured artists like Kate Voegele, Gavin DeGraw, and Norah Jones.

Last week, the company hosted its annual songwriting contest. Special guest, John Oates of the duo Hall and Oates, performed “She’s Gone,” a hit single from the 1970s. In this podcast, you’ll hear his special live performance.

Poet Ken Chen is interviewed in our studio. Photo by Drew Garaets.

Much of literature and journalism is about identity. Debates about contemporary issues –globalization, immigration, religious conflict–have identity as a basis.

Who are we?

How are we changed by the world around us?

What is our impact on others?

In this discussion with poet and winner of this year’s Yale Younger Poets Prize, Ken Chen and writer, journalist, and English professor Amitava Kumar, we explore the explosion of Asian American literature in this context.

This Saturday, Nov. 14, Chen and Kumar are among more than 40 Asian American writers, comics, journalists to gather at the Asian American Literary Festival in DUMBO.

They will come together to discuss, listen, and read work from the Asian American community. On Saturday evening, an awards ceremony will honor writers, including Jhumpa Lahiri, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Interpreter of Maladies, The Namesake and Unaccustomed Earth. Writers whose family backgrounds come from the vastness of Asia–the Philippines, India, China, the Koreas, Iran, Thailand, Japan and Vietnam will attend.

Chen and Kumar say Asian American writers, despite their widespread origins and national heritages, share an important commonality–otherness–the experience of belonging in two worlds. Kumar talks of writing a “love poem” to U.S. immigration officials and has titled his upcoming book, a report on the global war on terror, A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb. Chen’s poetry links the style of traditional Chinese poetry to the mad modernity of American life and his relationship with his immigrant family. His book collection of poems, entitled Juvenilia will be published in March 2010.

Lonnie Isabel and Alaa Majeed discuss the Iraqi refugee crisis in our studio in Times Square. Photo by Drew Garaets.

A war has a way of changing just about every life it comes near.

Alaa Majeed was a house wife at the start of the 2003 Iraqi invasion. She had a husband, two young sons and a successful dress shop in Baghdad.

“A normal life,” Majeed says.

She also possessed a valuable asset–a degree in English from Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad and excellent translating skills. Majeed began working with American reporters who came in droves with the military. She translated for dozens of correspondents moving them in an out of dangerous situations. In the parlance of foreign correspondents, she was a fixer.

It’s risky work for anyone, but for a woman it was particularly difficult. Women were strongly discouraged from working with foreigners, particularly men. Soon, Majeed grew from a valued fixer to a prize-winning reporter.

Today, Majeed is one of 5 million Iraqis displaced both inside and outside Iraq. Some of her family remains in Baghdad. A brother, who owned a grocery store, is still in Syria where he fled after his safety was threatened. A few months ago, Majeed won custody of her two young sons, who now live with her in New York.  In many ways she is typical of the millions of Iraqi refugees dispersed in Jordan, Syria, Sweden, Britain and the United States, where only a small number are allowed in.

The Iraqi refugee crisis, one of the largest forced displacements in the world, is an enduring legacy of the U.S. invasion. And, as the Obama administration shifts American resources to the battlefront in Afghanistan, some fear that the plight of Iraqi refugees will be forgotten. In this interview, Majeed–who now reports on refugee issues–reminds us that this must not happen.

“The situation is not natural at all in Iraq,” Majeed says, “About four months ago, I returned to Iraq three and a half years after I left. Thousands and thousands of young Iraq men are in prison. We still have about four million people who are refugees outside of Iraq. And thousands and thousands are displaced in the country. They are camped in the desert.”

The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism’s second International Journalist in Residence, Majeed was one of six Iraqi women to receive the International Women’s Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award for reporting in Knight Ridder/McClatchy’s Baghdad bureau. In addition to her heroic reporting at McClatchy, she has worked as a translator, reporter and producer for PBS, Al Jazeera International, UPI, 60 Minutes, The Christian Science Monitor, The Nation and NPR.es (London).

Majeed tells her story plaintively. It is a deeply personal story about the heartbreak of visiting her brother, a prosperous businessman who left after an associate was killed and he was threatened, in Syria where almost 2 million other Iraqis reside unable by law to work. And her voice breaks a bit describing her sons’ adjustment to a new land, new schools, and a new language.

As a journalist, Majeed sees the plight of Iraqi refugees as a story that is covered too infrequently in the press of her new country. Working with other refugees here, Majeed knows that others are facing economic hardships and that almost all of them want to return to safer Iraq.