When recently in Beirut and Cairo for Arab preparatory meetings for Rio+20, Diana Bronson had a chance to sit down with Adnan Melky, a long-time civil society activist from Lebanon, who has worked on environmental issues and democratic reform in Lebanon, and throughout the Arab region. Excerpts from their conversation are reproduced here.
Diana Bronson: What is your view of how the Arab Spring started and how do you understand it today?
Ellie Gordon-Moershel interviews Marusya Bociurkiw and Terri Roberton about collaborating on their new graphic memoir series, The Femme Monologues. Written by Bociurkiw with graphics by Roberton, the series appears monthly in Xtra! Toronto and in Capital Xtra! (Ottawa).
An interview with the General Secretary of UNI Global Union, Philip Jennings, on the broader context of the negotiations between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and the looming strike.
Interview between Dr. Gavin Fridell, Chair of the Department of Politics at Trent University, and Dr. Trevor Norris, Assistant Professor of Philosophy of Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. This interview is a shortened version of the discussion that took place during the book launch of Consuming Schools: Commercialism and the End of Politics in the Hart House Library on Thursday Feb 24, 2011.
Gavin Fridell: To begin with, the forward to your book is written by Benjamin Barber who talks about consumerism as "a new ethos of infantilization" as corporations corrupt children and "dumb down" adults. I wonder what you think of this idea of "infantilization"?
Egyptian novelist and activist, Adhaf Soueif, reports on the protests at Tahrir Square.
Nada discusses why she's joined other pro-democracy demonstrators on the streets of Cairo.
In the first of a series of interviews with Egyptian pro-democracy activists, Nadia, a Cairo resident and mother of two, gives a firsthand account of living under Mubarak's regime.
The Voice of Hope is based on recorded conversations between Aung San Suu Kyi and Alan Clements that took place in Suu Kyi's home in Rangoon, Burma between 1995 and 1996. At the time, Aung San Suu Kyi had been officially released from six years of house arrest, and unknown at the time, more years of house arrest were soon to follow.
Originally published in 1997, this book is a timeless tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi's unwavering vision of peace and commitment to democracy in her military-run home country of Burma. Reading Aung San Suu Kyi's words, it is clear that years of seclusion under house arrest have not damaged her spirit or political aspirations. In fact, it appears as though her resilience and hope has taken on renewed strength over the years.
