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Alternative Radio for December 06, 2010
1:00 PM - 1:58 PM
[Program Website]
Today's Highlight: Fatima Bhutto – "Pakistan: The Jackals Rule"
Pakistan has received billions in U.S. aid. Where is that money? Much of it has gone missing. The jackals rule in Pakistan. A series of venal military and civilian leaders have devastated and looted the country. Historically, the U.S. has used Pakistan as a strategic asset. Its backing of fundamentalist dictator Zia ul-Haq had disastrous consequences. It was General Zia who greatly expanded Islamic law and religious schools. And he was a conduit for arming the mujahideen. Pakistan‘s current head of state is Asif Ali Zardari, who was married to Benazir Bhutto. Zardari was touring London and Paris and staying at $11,000 a night hotels while much of his country was under water during catastrophic floods. Zardari is deeply unpopular and his regime teeters between the ineffectual and the criminal.
Fatima Bhutto is a Pakistani writer. She published her first book, “Whispers of the Desert,” a collection of poetry, when she was 15. An independent journalist, her articles appear in the “New Statesman,” the “Guardian,” and “CounterPunch.” She is the author of “Songs of Blood and Sword.”
Alternative Radio is a weekly one-hour public affairs program offered free to all public radio stations in the U.S., Canada, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and on short-wave on Radio for Peace International.
Established in 1986, AR is dedicated to the founding principles of public broadcasting, which urge that programming serve as "a forum for controversy and debate," be diverse and "provide a voice for groups that may otherwise be unheard." The project is entirely independent, sustained solely by individuals who buy transcripts and tapes of programs.
Its "headquarters" is situated to correspond with its position in the mainstream mass media: down an alley, behind a house, on top of a garage in Boulder, Colorado. From this rarefied location, AR's programs manage to reach over 125 radio stations and millions of listeners. AR is part of the non-profit Institute for Social and Cultural Change.
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