Culturejam: Hijacking Commercial Culture delivers a fascinating rap on the 20th Century movement called Culture Jamming. Pranksters and subversive artists are causing a bit of brand damage to corporate mindshare. Jammers, cultural commentators, a billboard advertiser and a constitutional lawyer take us on a wild roller coaster ride through the back streets of our mental environment. Stopping over in
Part 1: Life,
In the first episode Richard Dawkins explains the basic mechanisms of natural selection, and tells the story of how Charles Darwin developed his theory.
He teaches a year 11 science class about evolution, which many of the students are reluctant to accept. He then takes them to the Jurassic Coast in Dorset to search for fossils, hoping that the students can see some of the evidence for themselves.
Dawkins visits Nairobi, where he interviews a prostitute who seems to have a genetic immunity to HIV, and talks to microbiologist Larry Gelmon. He goes on to predict that genetic immunity to HIV is a trait that will become more prevalent in the community over time.
Part 2: The Fifth Ape
In the second episode Richard Dawkins deals with some of the philosophical and social ramifications of the theory of evolution.
Dawkins starts out in Kenya, speaking with palaeontologist Richard Leakey. He then visits Christ is the Answer Ministries, Kenya's largest Pentecostal church, to interview Bishop Bonifes Adoyo. Adoyo has led the movement to press
Dawkins discusses social darwinism and eugenics, explaining how these are not versions of natural selection, and that "
He then meets with evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker to discuss how morals can be compatible with natural selection. He goes on to explaining sexual selection, with peafowls as an example. To find out whether sexual selection plays a role for altruism and kindness among humans, he visits women who are looking for sperm donors, as well as a sperm bank manager. Dawkins also explains kin selection and selfish genes.
Part 3: God Strikes Back
In the third and final episode, Dawkins explains why
In some of the poorest parts of Nigeria, where evangelical religious fervour is combined with a belief in sorcery and black magic, many thousands of children are being blamed for catastrophes, death and famine - and branded witches by powerful pastors. These children are then abandoned, tortured, starved and murdered - all in the name of Jesus Christ.
This Dispatches Special follows the work of one Englishman, 29-year-old Gary Foxcroft, who has devoted his life to helping these desperate and vulnerable children.
Gary and Sam introduce Dispatches to some of the rescued children who have been through unimaginable horrors, such as Ekemeni, aged 13, who was tied up with chicken wire and starved and beaten for two weeks, and Mary, aged 14, who was burnt with acid before her mother attempted to bury her alive. Other children display the hallmarks of witch-branding - acid burns and machete scars. Uma Eke, aged 17, has been left brain-damaged after having a three-inch nail driven into her skull.
Hospitals refuse to treat children associated with sorcery, so Sam's centre does its best to provide medical aid. As well as the physical scars, the children arrive at the shelter badly traumatised by their experiences, with many of them brain-washed into accepting they are possessed by the devil.
The parents or siblings of children torture them in an attempt to kill them or force confessions from them to admit that they are witches. As
Influential preachers from the more extreme churches brand the children witches or wizards and exploit their desperate parents by charging them exorbitant amounts of money in return for exorcising the spirits. The film features extraordinary access to some of the preachers who openly discuss their work. One preacher who calls himself 'The Bishop,' says he has made a fortune by carrying out 'deliverances' on children. He admits having killed 110 people in the past. Dispatches films him as he administers a mixture of pure alcohol, a substance known as 'African mercury' and his own blood to one child accused of witchcraft.
Exorcism is big business. Preachers can charge as much as a year's salary for an average Nigerian to treat children. They often hold the child captive until the parents can pay up. The Niger Delta area is oil rich - but very few have access to oil wealth; the average life expectancy is around 47.
Since this film was screened, the self-proclaimed Bishop at the centre of the Dispatches programme which revealed the extent of the abuse and torture of children branded as witches in
To what extent does the choice of news outlet affect opinion of the conflict?
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From the front-lines of conflicts in
While our airwaves are crowded with talk of a new world war, narrated by generals and filmed from the noses of bombs, the human story of this global conflict remains untold. The Fourth World War brings together the images and voices of the war on the ground. It is a story of a war without end and of those who resist.
The product of over two years of filming on the inside of movements on five continents, The Fourth World War is a film that would have been unimaginable at any other moment in history. Directed by the makers of This Is What Democracy Looks Like and Zapatista, produced through a global network of independent media and activist groups, it is a truly global film from our global movement.
(Apologies – no subtitles)
A filmed talk featuring Glenn Morris of 'Arctic Voice' and Brian Gardner, The
See also: Arctic Voice website and
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Clash of Worlds was a series of three documentaries broadcast between 2007 and 2008, which explored how past conflicts between a Christian West and Islam can help explain more recent violence.
Mutiny tells of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, in which both sides committed atrocities in the name of their faiths.
Mutiny
Slingshot Hip Hop braids together the stories of young Palestinians living in the
In spring 2003, award-winning filmmaker James Miller and reporter Saira Shah, set out to take a first-hand look at the culture of hate that permeates the
1. Shadows of Doubt. Jonathan Miller visits the absent
2. Noughts and Crosses. With the domination of Christianity from 500 AD, Jonathan Miller wonders how disbelief began to re-emerge in the 15th and 16th centuries. He discovers that division within the Church played a more powerful role than the scientific discoveries of the period. He also visits
3. The Final Hour. The history of disbelief continues with the ideas of self-taught philosopher Thomas Paine, the revolutionary studies of geology and the evolutionary theories of
Part 1. Shadows of Doubt
Part 2. Noughts and Crosses
Part 3. The Final Hour
The wild rage that stormed through the brains of the people... turning them into temporary madmen, incapable of seeing, hearing, or thinking correctly, has spent itself. Figures are beginning to appear in their true relative proportions, and there is some likelihood that sane words will be sanely listened to.
Voltairine De Cleyre
Noam Chomsky is a renowned scholar, the founder of the modern science of linguistics, a philosopher, a political and social analyst, a media critic, an author of more than 70 books, a winner of numerous prizes and awards and ranks with Marx, Shakespeare and the Bible as one of the 10 most quoted sources in the humanities.
In this remarkable
Professor Chomsky presents his reasoning with astonishing and refreshing clarity, drawing from a wealth of historical knowledge and analysis. "Only those who are entirely ignorant of modern history will be surprised by the course of events, or by the justifications that are provided..."
This booming multinational industry of fish and weapons has created an ungodly globalized alliance on the shores of the world’s biggest tropical lake: an army of local fishermen, World Bank agents, homeless children, African ministers, EU-commissioners, Tanzanian prostitutes and Russian pilots.
One Nation Under Siege is a forceful unmasking of the
Through the research of over a dozen internationally distinguished authors, journalists, doctors, and military experts you will begin to understand the massive and ceaseless control projected onto an unsuspecting population by a government that may have finally crossed the line from a representative republic to a fascist state.
One Nation Under Siege features a cast of award winning journalists, writers, military experts and physicians all speaking out on issues that affect every American. Guests include:
Quotes from the film:
A globalist is someone who believes in globalism and globalism, essentially, is the drive for one world government, one world military, one world economy, which on a broad philosophical basis may not be that bad after all we are one humanity living on one planet, and frankly I can see the day coming when somebody’s going to say ‘where do you come from?’ and you’ll say ‘I’m from Earth.’ But the problem is we are being pushed into globalism by secrecy and by deceit and nobody’s getting a chance to consider the ramifications, or consider the methodology that’s being used to push us into this globalization.
I think it’s important to understand that most of the educational programs that are implemented in the United States stem from the National Education Association. And, the NEA was actually founded by John D. Rockefeller. And John D. Rockefeller, I think, voiced the beliefs of this ruling elite that wants to try to homogenize our education system when he was quoted as saying ‘I don’t want a nation of thinkers - I want a nation of workers’. So I think the education system is not only pushing people into a socialized version of government, but also dumbing the individual down to the point to where he’ll be a good worker in the factory or he’ll be a good worker in silicon valley - he may know a lot about computers, but he is not gonna’ have a classic education that would allow him to take all of the facets of the culture and society and put it together and really form an intelligent opinion as to to what’s going on and what might be in the best interest of the individual.
Ok. We say we’ve got freedom of the press in this country. And some folks have said you’ve got freedom of press as long as you own it. Well who owns the media? And, when I say that, I mean not literally, but as far as who controls the information that goes out in the media. Example: NBC is owned by General Electric. And General Electric is one of the top ten if not one of the top five defense contractors. Is NBC going to expose a news story that might in some way impede a contract negotiation which could mean a lot of money for General Electric? I don’t think so. So the point here is that we have elected officials, both republicrats and demopublicans, that cater to who?…certainly not the common people. We don’t have the huge amounts of money to contribute to their election campaigns. The people that contribute the most amount of money are the corporations. So that representative, or senator, is going to do what is going to be in the best interest of those corporations. So if the corporations are controlling and influencing our elected officials we must also take a look at the mainstream media. Who pays the bulk of the advertising dollars that keep the mainstream network news going..it’s the major corporations. So what we have now is we have corporate control of elected officials, corporate control of the media…and this is why now some people are calling it the corporate Borg because they have assimilated several different areas of our entire society. The corporations control agriculture, technology, manufacturing, industry, education, communication. They control our elected officials. This is not a government by and for the people. It is a government of, by, and for the corporation. And by definition when business controls government that is inescapably fascism.
The average American would be shocked to find out there is something called COINTELPRO. The FBI’s covert action programs against American citizens. That’s the name of their document - the government document, not my rendition of it. In fact it is report 94-755 called Supplementary Detailed staff reports of intelligence activities and the rights of Americans—–. This is a hearing that occurred in 1976. Now, some notable people that sat on this hearing: Philip Hart, Walter Mondale, Gary Hart, Howard Baker, Barry Goldwater, and Richard Schweiker. Now, this senate report tells what the FBI was doing against the American citizens, literally. Here is their statement. COINTELPRO began in 1956 in part because of the frustration with the supreme court rulings limiting the government’s power to precede overtly against dissident groups. It ended in 1971 with the threat of public exposure. But in the intervening fifteen years the bureau conducted, their terms, a sophisticated vigilante operation aimed squarely at preventing the exercise of First Amendment rights of speech and association. This is incredible. When you look at this and when I was able to get a copy of this document, which is over three thousand pages long, I was shocked.
One of the things we’re doing is developing all sorts of technology. Not to spy on the Russians, not to spy on the Chinese, not to spy on Osama Bin Laden, but to control the American people. We have satellites… are they monitoring what’s going on in
