Independent Thought & Freedom

A Story Club: Global Politics S2 E5 streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Thursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm IST repeated Friday on the UNC Network in Trinidad and Tobago 6pm AST Today the West -- embodied by that imperial relic known as the G7 -- is embarking on a New Cold War directed at China and Russia.What a far cry from the end of the original Cold War in 1990 when the promise of a New World Order and globalisation sought to bring the world together in a cooperative spirit. That decade saw a lot of progress in developing countries, so much so that by the 21st century, the BRICs emerged as some of the world's largest economies, displacing the old G7 grouping from their position as the world's leading industrial nations.However, the rise of Russia and China, in particular, has been greeted with hostility and fear by the West and NATO, and new "Berlin Walls" are being attempted to once again pit the world into warring and competitive camps.How will this affect global development, especially for developing countries? For those of us who are part of neither the G7 nor Russia and China, what are our options? Do we take sides or do we remain neutral?To discuss these issues, I am privileged to have as my guests Helga Zepp-LaRouche from Germany -- the centre of the old Cold War with the Berlin Wall -- and Ralph Maraj from Trinidad and Tobago.Helga Zepp-LaRouche is the President and founder of the International Schiller Institute in Germany, and the Bürgerrechtsbewegung Solidarität party (BüSo) (Civil Rights Movement Solidarity). Together with her late husband, the American economist, theorist and political leader, Lyndon LaRouche, she was at the forefront of spearheading the New International Economic Order for a just global economy in the 1970s and 1980s, and the World Landbridge which became the foundation of the New Silk Road in 2013.Ralph Maraj is a former Minister of Foreign Affairs in Trinidad and Tobago, as well as a holder of other Ministerial positions. Notably, he has held Cabinet-level positions across opposing administrations in the 1990s. He is also an accomplished playwright and actor, starring in what many -- including me -- believe is the best film ever made in Trinidad and Tobago, Bim, about the rise and fall of an outsider politician. 

A Story Club: Global Politics S2 E4streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Thursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm ISTrepeated Friday on the UNC Network in Trinidad and Tobago 6pm ASTComparing the constitution and electoral experience of two very similar small island states, Mauritius and Trinidad and TobagoMy guests are Jean-Marie Richard from Mauritius and Timothy Hamel-Smith  from Trinidad and Tobago.Jean-Marie Richard is Principal Consultant and CEO of Imagine Communications in Mauritius, dealing with Government and Corporate clients in Africa and the Indian Ocean particularly. He has also worked as a Communications and Media Consultant for the Ministry of Rodrigues in the Government of Mauritius.Timothy Hamel-Smith is Partner Emeritus at Hamel-Smith, a law firm that has existed for over 110 years in Trinidad and Tobago. He is also a former President of the Senate with a notable political pedigree.

A Story Club: Global Politics S2 E3streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Thursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm ISTrepeated Friday on the UNC Network in Trinidad and Tobago 6pm ASTWelcome to Season 2 Episode 3 of A Story Club: Global Politics & Cultures, brought to you by Bulletproof Podcast Formula.My name is Dr. Kirk Meighoo and I'm the public relations officer of the United National Congress, the official Opposition Party in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.This is a unique venture, streaming simulataneously from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Dehra Dun in India, and San Franciso in the United States. We speak with people around the world, trying to understand different issues and problems relevant to my own country, Trinidad and Tobago, and also to people in sometimes very similar and sometimes very different situations, cultures, histories, politics, sociology, etc.The goal is to learn from each other, build networks, widen our perspectives, and work for solutions in our distinctive contexts.Today's episode is titled, "The Economics of Covid-19 Lockdowns & Opening Up"15 months ago, Trinidad and Tobago had one of the lowest infection and death rates from covid in the world. We watched the BBC, CNN and other news outlets relay what looked like horrific situations in New York, Italy, and saw harsh lockdown measures instituted in the UK, Australia, Germany and elsewhere.Today, the situation is reversed. We in Trinidad and Tobago are looking at some of those very countries with envy, as we see the Brit Awards, football matches, and late-night clubbing with large, maskless crowds and no social distancing in the UK, or life apparently returning to normal in New York City.Trinidad and Tobago, on the other hand, is experiencing an upsurge of infections and deaths unlike anything experienced in the months previous, with the covid death toll this month alone exceeding all covid deaths for the previous 14 months. A severe State of Emergency has been declared, but in the meanwhile people and businesses are experiencing economic hardship on an unprecedented scale.This raises the questions, what have the covid lockdown experiences and policies been like in different countries? What social and economic effects has it had? How have different societies coped with saving lives and livelihoods? What is the way forward?This week, I am honoured to have as my guests Sir John Redwood from the UK, and Peter George, Jr. from Trinidad and Tobago.Sir John Redwood is  Member of Parliament for Wokingham in Berkshire. He was formerly Secretary of State for Wales in the Major government and subsequently served in the Shadow Cabinets of William Hague and Michael Howard. He was the co-chairman of the Conservative Party's Policy Review Group on Economic Competitiveness and the author of 8 books, by my count. Sir John has recently insisted that the faster UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson relaxes coronavirus restrictions, the quicker the economic bounce back, arguing that the pace of the recovery will remain mainly determined by the rate of relaxation.Peter George, Jr. is CEO of the Trent Restaurants Group in Trinidad and Tobago, one of the largest indigenous restaurant chains in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean. He is well-known for his outspoken, independent views on politics and the economy, and has recently called for a radical liquidity injection in the Trinidad and Tobago economy in the face of the continuing covid lockdowns. 

A Story Club: Global Politics S2 E2streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Thursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm ISTrepeated Friday on the UNC Network in Trinidad and Tobago 6pm ASTWelcome to Season 2 Episode 2 of A Story Club: Global Politics & Cultures brought to you by Bulletproof Podcast FormulaMy name is Dr. Kirk Meighoo and I'm the public relations officer of the United National Congress, the official Opposition Party in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.This is a unique venture, streaming simulataneously from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Dehra Dun in India, and San Franciso in the United States.We speak with people around the world, trying to understand different issues and problems relevant to my own country, Trinidad and Tobago, and also to people in sometimes very similar and sometimes very different situations, cultures, histories, politics, sociology, etc.The goal is to learn from each other, build networks, widen our perspectives, and work for solutions in our distinctive contexts.Today's episode is titled, "Building Global and National Health Infrastructure in the Wake of Covid.""The only way that the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic can be stopped, is by re-thinking the solution. We must have modern health care systems in every country. This means infrastructure for public health, and for medical care delivery at modern standards, to all populations. One model for this is the U.S. Hill-Burton Act (“Hospital Survey and Construction Act of 1946,”) whose principle was to state how many hospital beds per 1,000 residents must be in each locality (at that time, 4.5), and deploy accordingly to build them, including modern equipment and staff.Look at instances of our ability to do this today. The 1,000-bed Huoshenshan hospital was built in 12 days in Wuhan in 2020. In the U.S., multiple field hospitals were built in record time last Spring by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. We must do this simultaneously around the world.This means that all countries must work together to accomplish this. We must put aside tensions and conflicts for the time being.There are new strains of the SARS CoV2 that are showing up, that are more aggressive, and more transmissible. These can make vaccines obsolete... Thus, our response to the pandemic seen in these terms is a question of existential importance to the human species. It requires the cooperation of all major industrialized nations."This is a quote from a statement by the Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites, for the Global Health Summit in Rome, May 21, 2021, and for general circulation, which we will be discussing more in-depth on today's episode.This week, I am so pleased and honoured to have as our guestsDr. Joycelyn Elders, former US Surgeon General, professor emerita of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, pediatricianDr. Tim Gopeesingh, former Cabinet Minister in the Govt of Trinidad and Tobago, former Clinical Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of the West Indies, gynecologic oncologistMarcia Merry Baker, Economics Co-Editor of the EIR News Service 

A Story Club: Global Politics S2 E1streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Thursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm ISTrepeated Friday on the UNC Network in Trinidad and Tobago 6pm ASTWelcome to Season 2 Episode 1 of A Story Club: Global Politics & Cultures brought to you by Bulletproof Podcast Formula.This is a unique venture, streaming simulataneously from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Dehra Dun in India, and San Franciso in the United States.We speak with people around the world, trying to understand different issues and problems relevant to my own country, Trinidad and Tobago, and also to people in sometimes very similar and sometimes very different situations, cultures, histories, politics, sociology, etc.The goal is to learn from each other, build networks, widen our perspectives, and work for solutions while remaining grounded in our distinctive contexts.Today's episode is titled, "Global and National Food Security in a Post-Covid World"During this covid crisis, it is said that we are all in the same boat. Unfortunately, this is not true: we are all only in the same storm. Some have yachts, others have rafts, and others are drowning.The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) currently puts the number of people at risk of starvation at more than 270 million. This is double the pre-pandemic figure. The COVID crisis has greatly exacerbated the situation for those already suffering from poverty, armed conflict, and other material insecurity.While we track the 12,000+ global daily deaths from coronavirus, we have ignored the 20,000+ globaly daily deaths from hunger that have been deepened by the covid lockdowns.Global food supply chains have been disrupted, as well as the global production and distribution of food. Food security is a major issue.What does this mean for food self-sufficiency? For farmer security? The relative roles of large corporate agriculture and smaller family farms? Food exports and food imports?Today I am honoured to have as my guests Mike Callicrate and Ved Seereeram.Mike Callicrate is an independent cattle producer, business entrepreneur and political activist from Boulder, CO, USA. Mike is a founding member of several farm advocacy groups including the Organization for Competitive Markets, R-CALF and the Kansas Cattlemen's Association. He also was a lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against the world's largest meatpacker, IBP, now part of Tyson Foods, alleging unfair and discriminatory marketing practices.Mike has been an advisor for the films Food Inc. and FRESH, and is cited in several books including The Omnivore's Dilemma and Fast Food Nation. He is revered as the “go-to expert” for understanding negative consequences of trends in the modern meat industry.Ved Seereeram is owner of Inverness Sugar Estates, and a former banking executive and financial consultant, from Trinidad and Tobago. Ved worked with Citibank for 8 years and was Managing Director of Citicorp Merchant Bank, before he called them out for banking fraud in the early 2000s, and was featured in Time magazine.Ved has since served in the Senate of Trinidad and Tobago and on several State Boards. He now owns and runs a small sugar estate which produces pancake syrup, muscovado sugar and jaggery/panela, and is very interested in issues of agriculture and social, economic and environmental sustainability. 

Catch the full interview here at https://newbooksnetwork.com/war-for-eternityor on Megaphone here: https://megaphone.link/LIT8703677091This is an excerpt from a very interesting discussion I had with Benjamin Teitelbaum on his book, "War for Eternity: Inside Bannon's Far-Right Circle of Global Power Brokers" (Dey Street Books, 2020).We discuss Steve Bannon, Traditionalism, Aleksandr Dugin, Nationalism and Anthropology, Jason Reza Jorjani, and more.The publisher's book blurb is as follows: "An explosive and unprecedented inside look at Steve Bannon's entourage of global powerbrokers and the hidden alliances shaping today's geopolitical upheaval.In 2015, Bloomberg News named Steve Bannon “the most dangerous political operative in America.” Since then, he has grown exponentially more powerful—and not only in the United States. In this groundbreaking and urgent account, award-winning scholar of the radical right Benjamin Teitelbaum takes readers behind-the-scenes of Bannon's global campaign against modernity in War for Eternity: Inside Bannon's Far-Right Circle of Global Power Brokers (Dey Street Books, 2020).Inspired by a radical twentieth-century ideology called Traditionalism, Bannon and a small group of right-wing powerbrokers are planning new political mobilizations on a global scale—discussed and debated in secret meetings organized by Bannon in hotel suites and private apartments in DC, Europe and South America. Their goal? To upend the world order and reorganize geopolitics on the basis of archaic values rather than modern ideals of democracy, freedom, social progress, and human rights. Their strenuous efforts are already producing results, from the fortification of borders throughout the world and the targeting of immigrants, to the undermining of the European Union and United States governments, and the expansion of Russian influence.Drawing from exclusive interviews with Bannon's hidden network of far-right thinkers, years of academic research into the radical right, and with unprecedented access to the esoteric salons where they meet, Teitelbaum exposes their considerable impact on the world and their radical vision for the future."  

Catch the full interview here at https://newbooksnetwork.com/a-lie-of-...or on Megaphone here: https://megaphone.link/LIT4842104326This is an excerpt from an interview which is part of a Special Series on Malcolm X and Black Nationalism on the New Books Network. In this series, we delve into the background of Malcolm X's action and thought in the context of Black Nationalism, correcting the fundamentally mistaken notion that Malcolm X was a civil rights leader. He certainly did not see himself in that way, and explicitly argued otherwise. This helps us place the Afro-American struggle in its dimensions beyond the current American nation-state, including the Black Atlantic, and beyond.In this episode, my guest is Jared Ball, co-editor of A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable's Malcolm X (Black Classic Press, 2012).A Lie of Reinvention is a response to Manning Marable's biography of Malcolm X, A Life of Reinvention. Marable's book was controversially acclaimed by some as his magnum opus. At the same time, it was denounced and debated by others as a worthless read full of conjecture, errors, and without any new factual content. In this collection of critical essays, editors Jared Ball and Todd Steven Burroughs lead a group of established and emerging Black scholars and activists who take a clear stance in this controversy: Marable's biography is at best flawed and at worst a major setback in American history, African American studies, and scholarship on the life of Malcolm X.  

Catch the full interview here at https://newbooksnetwork.com/mythologies-without-endor on Megaphone here: https://megaphone.link/LIT7765417053This is an excerpt of an interview I did for the New Books Network with Jerome on his book "Mythologies Without End: The US, Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1917-2020" (Oxford University Press, 2020).The history of modern Israel is a fiercely contested subject. From the Balfour declaration to the Six-Day War to the recent assault on Gaza, ideologically-charged narratives and counter-narratives battle for dominance not just in Israel itself but throughout the world. In the United States and Israel, the Israeli cause is treated as the more righteous one, albeit with important qualifiers and caveats.In Mythologies Without End, Jerome Slater takes stock of the conflict from its origins to the present day and argues that US policies in the region are largely a product of mythologies that are often flatly wrong.Focusing on both the US role in the conflict and Israel's actions, this book exposes the self-defeating policies of both nations policies which have only served to prolong the conflict far beyond when it should have been resolved.Join us for a fascinating discussion.

This is an excerpt of an interview I did for the New Books Network with Mark Sedgwick on his book "Key Thinkers of the Radical Right".Mark Sedgwick is a British historian specialising in the study of traditionalism, Islam, Sufi mysticism, and terrorism. He is Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at Aarhus University in Denmark and chair of the Nordic Society for Middle Eastern Studies. He was formerly secretary of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism.In this clip we discuss how he accidentally got interested in the topic from his field research into Western Sufism in Italy, and how he discovered this Radical Right, which is quite distinctive from the mainstream (pro-capitalist) right-wing.Apologies for the audio quality on the guest's side. It was beyond our control.Join us for a fascinating discussion.

This is an excerpt from my interview with Spencer Critchely about his new book, "Patriots of Two Nations: Why Trump Was Inevitable and What Happens Next" (McDavid Media, 2020).Very interestingly, he analyses the United States as being divided between those that are part of the "Enlightenment" and those that are part of the "Counter-Enlightment". In other words, there are those who believe America is an idea, founded on liberal ideals which include rational progress, and those who see America as a nation of the American people, with a peculiar history, traditions, and customs, not all necessary rational, but which tie "blood and soil" over time.Join us for a fascinating discussion. Catch the full interview here at https://newbooksnetwork.com/spencer-critchley-patriots-of-two-nations-why-trump-was-inevitable-and-what-happens-next-mcdavid-media-2020or onMegaphone here: https://megaphone.link/LIT8971283474

This is an excerpt of my interview with Saladin Malik Ambar, author of "Malcolm X at Oxford Union: Racial Politics in a Global Era", published by Oxford University Press in 2013, for my Special Series on "Malcolm X and Black Nationalism" on the New Books Network.In this series, we delve into the background of Malcolm X's action and thought in the context of Black Nationalism, correcting the fundamentally mistaken notion that Malcolm X was a civil rights leader. He certainly did not see himself in that way, and explicitly argued otherwise. This helps us place the Afro-American struggle in its dimensions beyond the current American nation-state, including the Black Atlantic, and beyond.Catch the full interview here at https://newbooksnetwork.com/malcolm-x-at-oxford-unionor on Megaphone here:width="100%"> 

The world needs to know about the Election Fraud in Guyana and its long, terrible history.Thankfully, this struggle was waged successfully and, although it took almost two years, the fraud was not allowed to stand.This was an interview with me and Dr. Vishnu Bisram on Rajiv Malhotra's Infinity Channel, as part of our efforts to raise global awareness about this issue, in this case, most especially with the Indian Diaspora, who have some ancestral connection to the people of Guyana. 

Today is a Diwali special, looking at the phenomenon of Global Indians, by two persons of Indian origin who are NOT Indian nationals.What does Indian identity mean? Does the Indian nation-state get to define what is Indian? What place and relationship do Indian communities outside of India -- some existing for centuries -- have with India?Is Indian Identity important, or is it just another identity a trap which we should avoid, in order to embrace our universal humanity?Join me with Rajan Singh Nazran, founder of the Global Indian Series, an immersive platform that provides original and exclusive content based around the lives of people of Indian origin. You can find out more about it here: https://globalindianseries.com/

This is a Facebook Live episode I did for A Story Club in April 2020, talking about how I wrote the book "Politics in a Half-Made Society" (published in 2003): the challenges, the inspirations, the people who I looked up to , the people who helped me, the conceptual stumbling blocks I faced, and my own determination to make a book that would last 20 years and stand the test of time  

I was a guest on the HTJ podcast to speak about the post-pandemic world. I am sharing it on my channel now.About HTJ:"We are a team of cross border tax consultants.  Our focus is on international tax in general and US international tax in particular.Based in Singapore, www.HTJ.TAX is a member of Moores Rowland Asia Pacific with over 30 offices across China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, The Philippines, Tajikistan and Thailand.We created this Podcast channel to do a series of interviews with those in our network whom we consider senior thought leaders. Those who move and inspire others with their innovative ideas; whose ideas turned into reality.We hope that these interviews along with their stories, insights and tips inspire you too"  

A Story Club: Global Politics S1 E8streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Thursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm ISTIs China on its way to becoming the leading global superpower? Should we be fearful of that? Should other countries try to stop or counter its rise? Is China a hostile or non-cooperative force, responsible for the spread of not only the coronavirus, but also totalitarian lockdown measures?Or is China undergoing a peaceful rise, helping hundreds of millions of people around the world experience real development for the first time, and advancing humanity as a whole technologically, economically and otherwise?What should the rest of the world's relationship to China be? Europe, Britain, the US, India, Africa, the Muslim countries, and even its allies Russia and Iran?With the upcoming US Presidential elections and Britain transitioning out of the EU, join me, Dr. Kirk Meighoo, in discussion with Sir Vince Cable, former leader of the Liberal Democrat party and Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills, and Daniel Burke, LaRouche Independent Candidate for the US Senate (New Jersey)

THIS EPISODE HAS A HISTORIC REVEAL: 4 OF JUDAS'S 30 PIECES OF SILVER!NOT SEEN IN PUBLIC SINCE 1972A Story Club: Global Cultures S1 E8streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Thursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm ISTThe global dominance of Western Christianity (both Catholicism and Protestantism) is somewhat of a historical accident. This is because the lands of the original Christians are now Muslim-ruled (in the Muslim view, however, the original Christians actually practiced Islam).The Western (Latin/European) Church inadvertently became the biggest surviving body, and later, though European Imperialism, it became the dominant form of Christianity that the world knows today.However, throughout the Middle East and even in India, surviving descendants of the original Believers remain.Two such examples are the followers of St. Thomas (the doubting Apostle), who founded a Church in south India (Malabar coast) on the Rome-India spice trade route; and the Mandaens, who are followers of John the Baptist (but not of Jesus), whose last large population was located in Iraq.The Gospel of St. Thomas and the Mandaen Book of John are not accepted by the Western Church as part of the Canonic Bible, but are sacred to these followers.While the followers of St. Thomas have lived peacefully in India, the Mandaeans have been persecuted in the Middle East, and after the recent “liberation” of Iraq in 2003 by George Bush, Islamic radicals have committed a genocide against the majority of them.Join me, Dr. Kirk Meighoo as we discuss with experts on these two peoples, Charles Haberl and Jo Nambiar  

The upcoming US election is happening in one of the strangest circumstances in history: an unprecedented social and economic lockdown in response to coronavirus, nationwide rioting and violence surrounding the Black Lives Matter and Antifa movements, and a fear of fascism and white supremacism.At the centre of all this has been Donald Trump. He is like a lightning rod, electrically concentrating passions of immense hatred from one side, and devotion from another.Trump's politics, however, are not traditionally Republican or Democrat and he has attacked opponents from both parties, including his own. He has caused much confusion and shaken up the political landscape.People on both extremes seem to agree his re-election will have tremendous historical consequences for America – and everything they believe it stands for: one side says he will save it, the other says he will destroy it forever.Join me, Dr. Kirk Meighoo, to discuss these issues with Marxist, Bill Martin, and former Marxist, Michael Rectenwald, philosophers and public intellectuals who support Donald Trump with very interesting analyses not found in mainstream discourse

A Story Club: Global Cultures S1 E7streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Thursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm ISTWhat is the hidden history of European Paganism? What is it? What does it mean?How has it survived centuries of Christian dominance, prejudice and hostility?What are its connections to other cultures of the world, in particular wider Indo-European culture, and also the world that Europe colonised?Is paganism a subculture of hippies and nonconformists that has no place in responsible, modern society?Or are we actually unaware of the power of the European pagan tradition, its survivals – through Graeco-Roman culture, arts, science and philosophy; elite Secret Societies; and persisting European folk traditions – the way it has shaped the modern world, and may contribute to a more harmonious world?Join me, Dr. Kirk Meighoo as we discuss with author Christopher McIntosh, author of several books on the subject of paganism, Secret Societies, esoteric traditions and nature-oriented belief systems, and former information officer with the United Nations Development Programme and UNESCO 

A Story Club: Global Politics S1 E6streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Thursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm ISTGuyana, a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) but located in South America, is currently experience a spate of political-racial violence in the aftermath of an 18-month long strongly resisted transfer of power from one government to the next.Guyana has a long history of racial violence, Cold War superpower interference, economic underdevelopment and astonishing under-population, despite it being a land of abundant resources including newly discovered oil and gas reserves on par with the richest countries of the Middle East.While the world concentrates on the Black Lives Matter movement originating from the United States and concentrating on the relations between whites and blacks, the relationship between Africans and Indians in Guyana (and other former British colonies, in particular) is much more complex, and in some cases reversed.How can we understand properly what is going on in Guyana at the present moment? What is its source? Is there a solution to the racial-political problem? Can development occur in such a context? Join me, Dr. Kirk Meighoo, to discuss these issues with Charrandass Persaud, the former MP whose vote brought down the last Guyanese government, and Selwyn Pieters, a prominent Canadian-Guyanese human rights lawyer 

A Story Club: Global Cultures S1 E6streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Thursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm ISTWhat is it like being a heavy metal and rock fan in the Caribbean, or a blues fan in India? What about being a musician in those genres? Can one make a living? Is this music “foreign”, “Westernising” and “imperialist”? Does it count as “local” or “national music”?What is the rock or blues scene like in these countries? Join me, Dr. Kirk Meighoo (a musician, too, in another life), as we discuss with Nigel Rojas guitarist and singer of the Caribbean's biggest rock/metal band, Orange Sky, and Rudy Wallang, the guitarist of India's biggest blues band, Soulmate  

A Story Club: Global Politics S1 E5streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Thursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm ISTHave we fundamentally misunderstood Iran?How many of us understand that Iran is Ancient Persia, one of the greatest empires and civilizations in world history – at least equivalent to Greece and Rome, but perhaps closer to India and China in its longevity and importance.When the Shah of Iran was overthrown in 1979, that had put to end a royal dynasty that was over 2,500 years old, stretching back to the Achaemenid Empire by Cyrus the Great. Persia (Iran) has been a great centre of architecture, the arts, poetry, music, science and civilization for millennia. Its language dominated the educated classes of the region from Turkey in the West to Muslim India in the East, like Latin did in Europe, or Greek in the Mediterranean world.In addition, Iran means “Land of the Aryans”. This gives it very close ancient ties to India and the Indo-Aryan culture and language family, which stretches from India to Europe, and now over the whole world because of the English language.Despite the current Iranian regime's fundamentalism, ordinary Iranians remain a fundamentally modern and open people.Has it been wrongly blamed for global Islamic terrorism and jihad, which are more closely tied to extremists in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan? What role can it play in play in countering the violently fanatic currents of Wahhabism, Salafism and Debandism out of these other places?Join me, Dr. Kirk Meighoo, to discuss these issues with Jason Reza Jorjani, an Iranian American philosopher and theorist and author of Prometheus and Atlas, Lovers of Sophia, World State of Emergency, and Iranian Leviathan: A Monumental History of Mithra's Abode   

A Story Club: Global Cultures S1 E5streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Thursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm ISTThis week my guest is Annie Paul, writer and editor based in Jamaica for over 30 years. A “Syrian Christian” from Kerala, India (from the Church founded by St. Thomas, Jesus's disciple), Annie moved to Jamaica, where she became deeply involved in academic publications in the social sciences, journalism and the promotion of Caribbean literature. In addition, to her writing as a columnist and internationally quoted blog (in Jamaica, the UK, the US) she has recently finished a biography of a key founder of Cultural Studies in the UK, the Jamaican-born Stuart Hall.Cultural studies is a field of analysis and activism that looks at the political dynamics of contemporary culture, its historical foundations and conflicts, how culture relates to wider systems of power, ideology, class structures, national formations, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, and generation. It was started by British Marxists in the 1950s and was given shape in the 1960s and 70s in Birmingham most notably by Jamaican-born Stuart Hall and his colleagues and graduate students. Join me, Dr. Kirk Meighoo, as we discuss with Annie moving between India and Jamaica, writing and publishing from the Caribbean, her reflections on Stuart Hall's life, and what it means to her. 

A Story Club: Global Politics S1 E4streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Thursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm ISTIs liberalism really liberal? Do liberals tolerate those who are truly different?Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X and many others saw very clearly the hypocrisy of liberalism with regards to race relations in the United States.In India, where Hindus were liberal long before the ideology of liberalism existed, they also have criticized the hypocrisy and double standards of liberalism.In Eastern Europe and the Muslim world, as well, they have experienced the devastating hypocrisy of “liberal” imperialism and “liberal” wars, while daily they pound the war drums against Russia and China, anxious to “free the world” of “tyranny”.Throughout the Third World, and more recently even within the West itself, “neoliberalism” has relentlessly made the rich richer, made more people poorer and put them in deeper and deeper perpetual debt. How can we reclaim a truly liberal world, where all of us can live side by side in peace and prosperity, without imposing our values and worldviews on others?Is conflict between China, the US, Russia, and Iran necessary? Does there have to be a single “ruler of the world”? Is this merely an inescapable fact of history?Or is this struggle for world domination actually the product of a specific view of the world?Is it possible to have a Multi-Polar world, with no single centre? Will this lead to more peace or more war?Aleksandr Dugin, Russia's greatest living philosopher, has been exploring these questions for decades, from the last days of the Soviet Union, through they Yeltsin years, up to the present under Putin.His “Fourth Political Theory” seeks to create a world order without domination and with true respect for all cultures of the world.Join me, Dr. Kirk Meighoo, in a fascinating and insightful discussion with Professor Dugin as we discuss his ideas and work on this important topic 

A Story Club: Global Cultures S1 E4streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Thursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm ISTAre Indians racist toward darker coloured peoples than themselves, such as Africans? If so, is this because of caste?Is Hindu + Muslim Kashmir an oppressive nationalist aspiration, or has there always existed cultural and religious diversity in Jammu & Kashmir, which has been dangerously misanalysed by the rest of the world?Is the tradition, discipline and the culture of India justly viewed as oppressive by liberals around the world? Or is their understanding of Indian culture deeply ethnocentric and imperialist?It is not often recognised that India was liberal long before the 19th century ideology of “liberalism” was invented. Indian societies fostered plurality and diversity of thought and action, providing refuge for persecuted people around the world, from the Zoroastrians of ancient Persia (who are extinct elsewhere, including their homeland) to the Dalai Lama of Tibet.These subtle cultural differences and philosophies can be difficult for Westerners to understand politically, even as they increasingly embrace yoga and meditation, as Indian CEOs become more common in leading Western multinationals, Indian immigrants play a large part in countries around the world, and Indian music, movies, food and culture are increasingly present.East, West and Southeast Asia have long been influenced by and interacted with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Indian civilization from ancient times to the present.At the same time others have misunderstood, and sometimes deliberately distorted, key aspects of Indian society, including caste, nationalism, “Hindu fundamentalism”, “paganism/polytheism/idol worship”, the Kashmir issue, and relationships with other religions and peoples, including Muslims.What are some of the most important misunderstandings and distortions of these issues in the Western media, academia, and foreign policy-making? Why do such misunderstandings exist? How can these be dispelled?Join me, Dr. Kirk Meighoo, along with my distinguished guests Rajiv Malhotra and Professor Kapil Kumar, as we have a lively and enlightening discussion about these issues on “A Story Club: Global Cultures” Thursday 20 August 2020 at 12pm EDT / 9am PDT / 9:30pm IST.

A Story Club: Global Politics S1 E3streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Thursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm ISTThe global economy is sick. The unprecedented lockdowns occurring simultaneously across the world has thrown many people out of work, stopped international travel, hindered trade, closed entire industries, and increased money printing, debt and government cash disbursements around the world.Where is this all leading to?What is the “New Normal” that the world is being asked to accept?Is the “Old Normal” something we want to return to? Or is there a better alternative?Can We Create 1.5 Billion New, Productive Jobs Around the World?At a time when people are asked to stay home, stay away from work, stay away from school, stop domestic and international travel, what effect will this have on our societies and economies?Does this mean that there will be an inevitable crash?Are we supposed to accepting a decline into a “New Normal” of stagnation and slow growth?How will this affect the poorest in the society, and the world?The International Schiller Institute, following its 40-year mission to create a just international economic order, has worked with some of the world's most important leaders over that time -- including Ronad Reagan of the US, Indira Gandhi of India, Michael Lopez Portillo in Mexico and the Governments of China and Russia – to achieve this end.Join me, Dr. Kirk Meighoo, in a fascinating and insightful discussion with Helga Zepp LaRouche, founder and President of the International Schiller Institute in Germany (https://schillerinstitute.com/), as we discuss how the Institute's international activities have helped to push progress for all nations – including developing nations such as Trinidad and Tobago, India, others throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia, and also for the ordinary mass of peoples of Europe and North America. 

My Presentation at 1st International online conference on Fourth Political Theory: Global Perspectives, New Challenges, Epistemological Problems 1 August 2020In my view, the Fourth Political Theory is an elegant articulation of a universal truth.When I first came across this Theory, I was amazed at how it fit perfectly with the work that a small group of us have been doing in the Caribbean for decades.I come from a local intellectual tradition called the New World Group, which was formed from the time we were becoming independent in the 1960s, and some of us resisted the Cold War between American liberal capitalism and Soviet Communism.I want to share our insights so that we can collaborate.Let's start with the Caribbean's place in MOdernity.The Caribbean was the birthplace of Western Imperialism and the Modern World, even before many places in Europe.  This is where Columbus came and his voyages were.Whole societies were created out of pure economic interests, vulgar and brutal materialism. We were foundational to the internationalisation of production, finance, distribution and trade chains and extreme inequality. All our production was exported, all of our necessities were imported, we produced nothing for our own use. We created vast proto-industrial plantations based on imported cheap (slave) labour. The predated industrialial capitalism in Europe.We represent the dark side of modernity. We have also been engaged in a long struggle against it.Both in the form of trying to create autonomous societies that try to free themselves of imperialism, and also in the form of providing some of the most cogent critiques of that imperialism, including the hypocrisy of its chief ideology, Liberalism. My presentation provides four main insights.The full conference can be found here: http://paideuma.tv/en/announce/1st-international-online-conference-fourth-political-theoryhttp://4pt.su/en

A Story Club: Global Cultures S1 E3streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Thursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm ISTWhat can the world learn from a small, Caribbean twin-island state, like Trinidad and Tobago?Trinidad and Tobago is a fascinating place. It has been my family's home for six generations. A product of an exceptionally global history, it also has made unique contributions to the world. For it's small size, it has produced a very large number of global thinkers, writers, entertainers, artists, athletes, writers, political activists.Spanish, French, English, African, Indian, Hindu, Muslim, Catholic, Anglican, Protestant, Yoruba, Chinese, Portuguese, and Syrian-Lebanese peoples have been living together and inter-acting with each other for generations, creating a unique multi-layered cultural complex and dynamic.Trinidad and Tobago has given the world a large number of leading personalities --intellectuals, political activists, entertainers -- for its size. These include: Nobel Laureate V.S. Naipual, Pan-Africanists Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) and Henry Sylvester-Williams, political sage CLR James, rapper Nicki Minaj, historian and statesman Eric Williams, dancer and actor Geoffrey Holder, cricketer Brian Lara, footballer Dwight Yorke, singer Billy Ocean, Islamic Eschatologist Sheikh Imran Hosein, Chinese nationalist revolutionary Eugene Chen.All from a tiny state of 1.3 million people.Its fascinating history tells the story of colonialism, decolonization and independence, of the challenges and promises of cultural diversity, the process of blending of East and West in the New World, the challenges of economic development for small and formerly colonial countries.Not only has Trinidad and Tobago contributed much to the world, the world can learn a lot by knowing more about Trinidad and Tobago.Join me, Dr. Kirk Meighoo, along with my guest Professor Selwyn Cudjoe and writer, satirist, and social critic Kevin Baldeosingh, as we seek to understand the lessons of Trinidad and Tobago over the past 100 years, with a view to its future, and what the world can learn from it.  

A Story Club: Global Politics S1 E2streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and TobagoThursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm ISTThe Black Lives Matter movement started out in the US, but has spread around the world, sometimes in the most unexpected places.This spread has included both peaceful and the more controversial destructive aspects of the movement, such as the tearing down of statues and renaming of historic place names to revise our current consciousness of history.What does this mean in a place like the Caribbean, where the history of the coloniser and the colonized is so intertwined, and where African peoples have been politically in charge of independent states for decades now?How does this movement both share and differ from the historic civil rights struggle in the United States, led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?The “Black Lives Matter” movement has made many thoughtful and concerned persons conflicted.The overwhelming majority of people around the world support the fundamental goals of dignity and equal human rights for African-Americans, African peoples, and other oppressed and/or marginalized peoples in the US and around the world.However, calls for tearing down historic public statues, violent destruction of public and private property, looting and anarchy, defunding the police, renaming geographic locations to remove certain names from public memory, setting up of “autonomous zones” complete with ruling “warlords”, mass rituals of kneeling, anti-white racism and other aspects do not enjoy the same support.Join me in a fascinating and insightful discussion with Dr. Barbara Reynolds, long-time US civil rights activist who began in the struggle alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, and Dr. Carolyn Cooper, Professor Emerita at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, who has long championed the diginity of lower-class, Afro-Jamaican folk culture. 

A Story Club: Global Cultures S1 E2streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and TobagoThursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm IST People like to say that they are “global citizens”. What does that mean?What place do cultural differences have in this? How many of us can cross cultural boundaries and excel in each one?My guest on this week's episode of “Global Cultures” is the amazing Farrukh Dhondy, one of the most qualified people in the world to give rich insights into these questions.Imagine not only winning some of the highest literary, play and television awards in the UK, but also writing 2 blockbuster Hindi-language screenplays in Bollywood (“The Bandit Queen”, and “Mangal Pandey: The Rising”).Not only that, but becoming close friends and confidants of two of the Caribbean's (Trinidad's to be specific) greatest minds, who were politically opposite: the conservative Nobel Laureate, V.S. Naipaul, and the Marxist C.L.R. James, while being politically active in the UK's Race Today Collective.At the same time, also writing a new translation of the ancient Pesian poet, Rumi, and writing the screenplay for “The Path of Zarathustra” trying to defend against his people's disappearance in history.This is the work of the amazing Farrukh Dhondy, my guest on this week's episode of “Global Cultures”.Is Dhondy a “global citizen”? Or is he a unique crosser of specific global cultures? How does he integrate his specific Parsi, Indian, or British identities, which he juggles so expertly at the same time?#BanditQueen #Bollywood #Naipaul  

A Story Club: Global Politics S1 E1streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and TobagoThursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm IST A New World Order & A "New Normal":  The World in 2020 and beyond w/ Dr. Paul Craig Roberts and Dr. Cynthia McKinneyAre a New World Order and the so-called “New Normal” something to be welcomed or feared?How much of where we have reached has been an accident, how much has been foreseen, and how much actually planned for?Are the proposed changes to people's rights, economic livelihoods, independence and privacy inevitably going to be restricted, or can we fight for a different, freer and more prosperous future?Join me in discussion with my fiercely outspoken and distinguished guests Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, a former member of the US Reagan Administration and Dr. Cynthia McKinney, former six-term Congresswoman who was the first black woman elected to represent Georgia.  

A Story Club: Global Cultures is a new programme broadcasting every week live on FB from San Franciso, Dehra Dun (India), and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean.Our first episode of Season 1 is on the theme "Global Diasporas".Are you part of a Diaspora? African, Indian, Chinese, French, Arab, Chinese, Irish, etc.?In this election season, questions of race, identity, nationalism, loyalty and ancestry inevitably arise.How can we think about Diaspora in a Global Perspective, so we can put our debates in a larger context, and work out our issues productively?My guests are Professor Robin Cohen from the University of Oxford (author of Global Diasporas: An Introduction (1997, with many subsequent editions and translations)Professor Steven Taylor from American University, author of "Exiles, Entrepreneurs, and Educators: African Americans in Ghana".

It is my pleasure today to be speaking with Hanne Nabintu Herland, bestselling Scandanavian author and founder of the Herland Report website and YouTube channel, which has been read and viewed by millions.  theherlandreport.comhannenabintuherland.comHanne is author of the newly released book, New Left Tyranny, which she adds to her list of 9 other books written in Norwegian and English, including "Alarm! Reflections on a culture in crisis" and an autobiography "Respect" published in 2012.Hanne is a Scandinavian historian of comparative religions, bestselling author, columnist and TV producer, known from the media for sharp analysis and fearless speech. She was born and raised in Africa, has lived in South America, the Middle East and travelled extensively in Asia.In our wideranging discussion, we speak about:- the global coronavirus overreaction- growing up in Africa, the Congo, East Africa- her culture shock at returning to Europe at the age of 19- the fear of non-Western foreigners by many Norwegians - the hypocrisy of the West with regard to its foreign "allies" and "enemies"- her new book, New Left Tyranny- the importance of historic Christian values to Western Civilisation- the neo-Marxist assault on Western civilisation and historic values- how her bestselling blockbuster book in 2010 allowed her to start the Herland Report as an independent media house- the emergence of simplistic race thinking on the right and left- censorship in Norway vs. US and UK- Black Lives Matter and Donald Trump- How the Viking Spirit was quenched in Scandanavia to a meek socialism- her Christian foundation and how she relates this to interaction with people of other religions and faiths- Jurgen Habermas and his turnabout with regard to secularism and Christianity- The murderousness of atheism, e.g. Stalin, Pol Pot, Hitler- the powerlessness of Donald Trump- the US being in a state of civil war, with the President powerless in the face of the Deep State- globalism and the dominance of corporations- the danger of a strong state being able to be controlled by a small group- the danger of socialism- the merging of NGOs with global billionaires and multinational corporations- the importance of diversity and difference and the nation state- Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life 

Listen to the FULL INTERVIEW with Douglas Murray here: https://newbooksnetwork.com/douglas-murray-the-madness-of-crowds-gender-race-and-identity-bloomsbury-continuum-2019/Douglas Murray reflects on the ideological and philosophical problems that conservatives face in trying to counter extremist Social Justice Warriors, foreseen by Nietzsche and Lyotardhttps://megaphone.link/LIT2937115017  

Listen to the FULL INTERVIEW with Douglas Murray here: https://newbooksnetwork.com/douglas-murray-the-madness-of-crowds-gender-race-and-identity-bloomsbury-continuum-2019/Douglas Murray offers a very interesting explanation of why the richest corporations have taken on the causes of Antifa, the Social Justice Warriors, Black Lives Matter and the radical left. 

LISTEN to the FULL episode 62: Patrick Moore | From Greenpeace Founder to Environmental Doomsday Critic BELOW!This is an excerpt of my interview with the incredibly brave, iconoclastic, free-thinking founder of Greepeace, Dr. Patrick Moore, looking at the hoax of "Carbon Pollution" and other made-up environmental "catastrophes".Here he shows how the environmental movement has been derailed by imaginary crises, such as with the polar bear population and global warming. 

LISTEN to the FULL episode 62: Patrick Moore | From Greenpeace Founder to Environmental Doomsday Critic BELOW!This is an excerpt of my interview with the incredibly brave, iconoclastic, free-thinking founder of Greepeace, Dr. Patrick Moore, looking at the hoax of "Carbon Pollution" and other made-up environmental "catastrophes".He was de-platformed from a confernce that was to be held on 19 May 2020 for daring to speak about "Fake Invisible Catastrophes". An alternative venue was then set up to allow him to speak.Little did any of us know that an even BIGGER Fake Invisible "Catastrophe" would be conjured up in the meanwhile: Coronavirus.His choice of topic, therefore, was more prophetic and ironic than any of us imagined. 

LISTEN to the FULL episode 67 of "Independent Thought & Freedom" w/ Bill Martin BELOW!Bill Martin has abandoned the left and the Democrats, understanding that they have nothing constructive to offer, only the destructive agenda of neoliberal globalism, and that they no longer serve the role of helping society reach what he regards as true, humane, non-statist communism.He argues that Trump's exposing of the Deep State is one of the most important political developments in our lifetime, and makes him much more "progressive" than any Democrat of left winger in bed with the CIA. 

Listen to the FULL INTERVIEW here: https://newbooksnetwork.com/max-blume...In this excerpt of my interview with the excellent international affairs and war journalist Max Blumenthal, he gives his views on the misinformation campaign of Rachel Maddow on Russiagate, and how this has diverted attention away from real issues with Donald Trump and the coronavirus pandemic.https://megaphone.link/LIT9460881847

Listen to the FULL INTERVIEW here: https://newbooksnetwork.com/max-blumenthal-the-management-of-savagery-how-americas-national-security-state-fueled-the-rise-of-al-qaeda-isis-and-donald-trump-verso-2019/In this excerpt of my interview with the excellent international affairs and war journalist Max Blumenthal, he takes aim at John Brennan, the CIA and the neoconservatives who funded ISIS and Al Qaeda groups in Syria, which created the massive refugee problems that created the non-interventionist, anti-immigration right, which they now ironically claim to "Resist".width="100%">https://megaphone.link/LIT9460881847   

LISTEN to the FULL episode 48 of "Independent Thought & Freedom" w/ Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai BELOW!https://youtu.be/OUioVdu0sC4This is an excerpt from my fascinating interview with Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, the inventor of email and contender for the Republican Senate candidate for Massachusetts, where he explains his life of struggle for truth and justice. He has been going viral recently with his amazing insights into the current coronavirus pandemic, and deservedly so.In this excerpt of our discussion, he talks about when the military-academic-industrial-technological complex tried to deny him credit for his revolutionary invention of email as a young 14 year old immigrant boy in Newark, New Jersey.Little did they know they were screwing with the wrong Indian. He was a veteran fighter, but this was the first time he had to fight for his own personal cause. 

We have been saying for a few years now that we are living in historic times. Well it is more apparent, and more fundamental, now more than ever.Even before the coronavirus crisis and the collapse of the world economy which we are witnessing today, the rise of Donald Trump was very much a part of this radical transformation in economics, society, politics, international relations, ideas, class structure -- both as a signal and a symptom of something much bigger than him, while also embodying, being a cause and major agent of the change.Today to talk and think about these questions, my guest is Bill Martin.Bill Martin is an American philosopher and a musician, author of nine books in both philosophy and music.He has been working on a "The Trump Clarification: Disruption at the edge of the system" for a while now, challenging people with his unorthodox interpretations of the Trump Phenomenon.In our wide-ranging discuss we cover:- Communism and Donald Trump- Jacques Derrida, Alain Baidou- The Deep State- The rut of Left wing politics: Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, neoliberalism, globalism, Bill Gates, Anthony Fauci, the State, FBI, CIA, and the lack of creativity- FH Buckley, right wing Marxism and the Republican Workers Party- anti-lockdown protests, the white working class, and anti-Southern white sentiment in the left- Buddhism, Christianity, the logic of redemption and contingency- capitalism, George Friedman, geopolitics, and coronavirus- George Orwell- populism- Jimmy Dore, communitarianism, individualism, sectarianism, communitarianism and libertarianism, thoughtful conservativism, Steve Hilton, positive populism- isolationism, internationalism, American nationalism- spiritual emptiness, nihilism, materialism, the Sartrean project, religious traditions, optimism, pessimismand much more

LISTEN to the FULL episode 23 of "Independent Thought & Freedom" w/ Hussein Askary BELOW!Sub-Saharan Africa has had some of the world's fastest growing economies in the world constantly in the past two decades. Yet the West never reports on this.The West sees development in Africa as a problem for global resources, which they want to have priority on. In the meanwhile, they lecture Africa on human rights, while keeping them economically underdeveloped.China on the other hand has allowed Africa to develop with high technology and needed infrastructure, which has produced sustained prosperity not before seen on the continent in decades, if not centuries.This is an eye-opening interview, and it leads very nicely into The International Schiller Institute's Conference: "Mankind's Existence Now Depends on the Establishment of a New Paradigm", happening this weekend, April 25-6, where Hussein and myself will be making contributions  

LISTEN to the FULL episode 23 of "Independent Thought & Freedom" w/ Hussein Askary BELOW!In this unprecedented meltdown of the oil market, the radical ideas of Lyndon LaRouche seem more sensible than ever for the oil-producing economies and war-torn countries of Southwest Asia (the "Middle East").Peace can only be the result of all the peoples and groups working together to solve the biggest and most fundamental problems of the region: develop a solution to the Water Shortage, institute Modern Agriculture techniques, develop nuclear power and use oil for technological and industrial development, rather than selling it for other countries to burn and keeping the money in Western banks.This is an eye-opening interview, and it leads very nicely into The International Schiller Institute's Conference: "Mankind's Existence Now Depends on the Establishment of a New Paradigm", happening this weekend, April 25-6, where Hussein and myself will be making contributions  

Listen to the FULL INTERVIEW here: https://newbooksnetwork.com/aleksandr-dugin-political-platonism-the-philosophy-of-politics-arktos-2019/The Nexus Institute in 2019 celebrated its 25th Anniversary with a celebrated and highly anticipated debate on stage between Bernard-Henri Lévy and Aleksandr Dugin, advertised as defenders of the Enlightenment and counter-Enlightenment.Dugin explains his disappointment with Lévy, and I fully concur. It was political posturing of the most trite and unfair kind, rather than a substantive, insight-generating debate. It was drenched Western arrogance, posing as so-called “liberal values”.Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin is a philosopher, former Professor and Advisor to the Kremlin, and one of the best-known writers and political commentators in post-Soviet Russia. He is a leading theorist of Eurasianism.A Soviet dissident in the 1980s, Dugin has authored more than 60 books, among them Foundations of Geopolitics (1997), which has been used as a textbook in the Academy of the General Staff of the Russian military, and The Fourth Political Theory (2009).  width="100%"> https://megaphone.link/LIT5823316981  

Listen to the FULL INTERVIEW here: https://newbooksnetwork.com/aleksandr-dugin-political-platonism-the-philosophy-of-politics-arktos-2019/Aleksandr Dugin is by far the most important and prominent living Russian intellectual. He has been called by some as the "Brain of Vladmir Putin"In this excerpt, he explains to me how he actually pre-figured the rise of Vladimir Putin with his critique of liberalism, communism and sea power, and advocacy for traditionalism, conservatism, and land power.This was a fascinating interview with one of the world's most important thinkers of the 21st century.Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin is a philosopher, former Professor and Advisor to the Kremlin, and one of the best-known writers and political commentators in post-Soviet Russia. He is a leading theorist of Eurasianism.A Soviet dissident in the 1980s, Dugin has authored more than 60 books, among them Foundations of Geopolitics (1997), which has been used as a textbook in the Academy of the General Staff of the Russian military, and The Fourth Political Theory (2009). width="100%">https://megaphone.link/LIT5823316981     

LISTEN to the FULL episode 63 of "Independent Thought & Freedom" w/ Charles Haberl BELOW!https://youtu.be/C70DCtIf5D4Many of the books of the early Christian era are lost, but some still survive, even though they are not included in the Bible.One of these is the Mandaean Book of John, which is still used by the existing followers of John The Baptist, and another is the Book of Thomas, which is used in India by the Church he founded there.Charles Haberl has translated the Mandaean Book of John into English and has worked with that community for decades. Sadly, they have been experiencing heightened persecution and near extinction since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. They are also the last surviving Gnostics.It is a fascinating discussion.You can also find the full interview in the iTunes store or on your favourite podcast host.

LISTEN to the FULL episode 63 of "Independent Thought & Freedom" w/ Charles Haberl BELOW!https://youtu.be/C70DCtIf5D4One of the distinctive features of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" is its use of Hebrew Aramaic and Latin. Is Aramaic as dead today as Latin? Are there still some surviving communities that speak it?Charles Haberl has been working with the Last Followers of John the Baptist, settled in Iraq for centuries. Sadly, they have been experiencing heightened persecution and near extinction since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. They are also the last surviving Gnostics.In this excerpt of my interview with him, we speak about his translation of their ancient "Mandean Book of John". He talks about the relation of the Mandean language with the Hebrew Aramaic used in "The Passion of The Christ", in which one of his personal colleagues was the Aramaic consultant.It is a fascinating discussion. 

LISTEN to the FULL episode 48 of "Independent Thought & Freedom" w/ Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai BELOW!In this excerpt of my fascinating discussion with Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, he explains how Science progresses through the discovery of truth, through Freedom of Discourse.The struggle is between Truth, Freedom and Health vs. Power, Profit and Control, and we must join in that fight.Now that YouTube has banned any dissent from the official WHO explanation of the origin of the coronavirus, we are seeing that the forces of Power, Profit and Control are sadly advancing.Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai is the inventor of email, a holder of four degrees MIT, including a Ph.D. in biological engineering, and he studies the human immune system as his job.He has been going viral recently with his amazing insights into the current coronavirus pandemic, and deservedly so.Dr. Shiva is running to be the Republican candidate for the US Senate in Massachusetts. He has my full support!

LISTEN to the FULL episode 48 of "Independent Thought & Freedom" w/ Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai BELOW!This is an excerpt from my fascinating interview with Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, the inventor of email and contender for the Republican Senate candidate for Massachusetts, where he explains his life of struggle for truth and justice. He has been going viral recently with his amazing insights into the current coronavirus pandemic, and deservedly so.In this excerpt of our discussion, he talks about his time in Hollywood when he was in a relationship with the comedienne Fran Drescher, the difference between celebrities and actors, and the documentary he made with Pierce Brosnan on the poisoning of Hawai'i 

LISTEN to the FULL episode 59 of "Independent Thought & Freedom" w/ E. Michael Jones BELOW!The controversial Catholic thinker E. Michael Jones explains how the integration movement in the 1950s actually broke up ethnic solidarity of Irish, Lithuanians (and even African-Americans) to create artificial -- and ultimately empty -- racial categories of "blacks" and "whites".