Description: Nate reviews two books on political genocides of Southeast Asia during the Cold War: “The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anti-Communist Crusade and the Mass Murder that Shaped our World” by Vincent Bevins (2020) and “First They Killed My Father” by Loung Ung (2000, adapted as a movie in 2017).
Theme music by Stunt Bird.
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Topics: Water utility privatization in the United States and beyond; the Sanders-Warren recovery plan for Puerto Rico. People: Bill, Rachel, Nate. Produced: Dec 17th, 2017.
Episode 208 (51 min):
AFD 208
Note: No new episodes until January 9th.
– AFD 208 Articles Discussed (PDF)
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Music by friend of the show Stunt Bird.
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Topics: The arrival of Finland’s baby box program to the US; US combat deaths in Niger; CIA document releases on the 1960s Indonesia massacres. People: Bill, Nate. Produced: Oct 24th, 2017.
Episode 201 (53 min):
AFD 201
– Partial list of links from Bill and Nate on these three topics (PDF)
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Music by friend of the show @StuntBirdArmy.
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Description: Interventions, Interference, and Invasions: Nate and Bill lead a world tour of the post-WWII history of countries entering other countries’ civil wars and uprisings, for good or ill, and what it means for the future. (We talk about Cuba, Angola, Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Indonesia, Guatemala, Libya, Central African Republic, Mali, Somalia, and many others.) People: Bill, Nate. Originally produced: October 20th, 2014. Re-edited and abridged: April 19, 2017.
– Kissinger’s plan to bomb Cuba and what the future of the embargo is
– CIA history: Why arming rebels has often failed and what it means for US plans in Syria now
– What does the future hold for international and unilateral military interventions in armed conflicts and crises? Is the UN still relevant?
Episode 104-Abridged (54 min)
AFD 104
– NYT: Kissinger Drew Up Plans to Attack Cuba, Records Show
– AFD: Jimmy Carter’s Election Prevented a Disastrous War in Cuba
– NYT: CIA Study Says Arming Rebels Seldom Works
– AFD: Confusion in Libya as Egyptian jets bomb Benghazi
– AFD: US suddenly surprised to find Mideast states acting unilaterally
– AFD: Is the US-led Syria operation vs ISIS legal under international law?
– AFD: France announces indefinite Sahel deployment
– AFD: France: Back to Africa?
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A catastrophic milestone has been reached. The carbon-dioxide-rich peat bogs (and tropical forests) being set ablaze in Indonesia to clear land for farming are now producing repeated single-day spikes of emissions exceeding the daily output of the entire U.S. economy, according to the World Resources Institute.
79% of Indonesia’s greenhouse gas emissions result from the destruction of its carbon-rich tropical forests and peat bogs for conversion into palm oil plantations, other agricultural uses, or development – according to the World Resources Institute.
This is a critical problem because Indonesia, which only has the world’s 16th-largest economy, is now the world’s fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
Indonesia also has the third largest tropical forest cover by area. (And lots of marshy peatlands.) Still, this forest cover has rapidly declined in recent decades. For example, the large Indonesian island of Sumatra went from 50% forested to 25% forested between 1985 and 2008.
Troublingly, many of the uses for which this newly cleared land is being diverted (such as palm oil production) could actually be located on other sites with previously degraded or clear-cut land.
Additionally, Indonesia’s September 2015 climate action plan only promises emissions reductions against project 2020 levels, although it does include more pledges to limit deforestation.
This post produced in conjunction with The Globalist Research Center.
Topics: Big Ideas – Cash transfers for poverty; Nigerian politics; US state legislatures. People: Bill, Nate, Sasha. Produced: December 1st, 2014.
– Big Ideas: Are cash transfers more effective on poverty than “workfare” and tax cuts?
– Is Nigeria’s ruling PDP feeling threatened in the upcoming elections? Are Boko Haram attacks widening?
– What should we expect from US state legislatures after heavy Republican wins in 2014?
Episode 109 (53 min)
AFD 109
– AFD: “Social inclusion, anti-poverty policy are great for the economy!”
– The Globalist: “Bolivia: Where Socialism Appears to Work”
– AFD: “Weirdly, tax cuts don’t solve poverty, finds UN in New Zealand”
– AFD: “Indonesia debuts world’s largest cash transfer program ever”
– AFD: “Report: Tear gas used in Nigeria parliament”
– AFD: “Nigeria government raids opposition offices”
– AFD: “Kano: Boko Haram strikes Nigeria’s 2nd largest city”
– African Arguments: “Nigeria Forum – What Happens When Oil Prices Fall?”
– AFD: “Beyond the Senate: The 2014 state losses”
– Al Jazeera America: “The Democratic comeback plan”
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Earlier this year, Indonesians elected Joko “Jokowi” Widodo as their new president. The Jakarta governor’s background was unusual in Indonesian federal politics extremely humble:
A former carpenter and furniture exporter who was born in a slum in Central Java Province, he will be the first president in Indonesian history not to emerge from the country’s political elite or the ranks of former army generals.
For Indonesia’s very poor and near-poor, this election choice is already paying dividends — quite literally:
As part of the three-card package comes a pre-activated mobile phone SIM card linked to a saving account at state-owned Bank Mandiri. Using this system, the government said it hopes to transfer 200,000 rupiah ($16.50) a month to 15.5 million poor and homeless families to ease the pain of the fuel subsidy cuts. Beneficiaries will be able to cash in their payments at designated bank branches and post offices. If successful, the new system will become the world’s largest government-funded cash-transfer programme, bigger than Brazil’s Bolsa Familia, a similar scheme that has covered 12 million families since its launch in 2003.
Previously from Arsenal For Democracy — on cash transfer experiments in Brazil and Bolivia: “Social inclusion, anti-poverty policy are great for the economy!”
President Jokowi, then Governor of Jakarta, shakes hands with a crowd in January 2013. (Credit: Provincial Government of Jakarta via Wikimedia)
