12/29/21 12/29/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> it was strange, my father could hear me but he did not know what was happening on his beloved -- 4000 pple are dng not only due to the hurricane, but profound negligence of

donald trump. amy: as we continue with our year-end conversations, we will speak to the poet martin espada, who just won the national book award for his collection "floaters." plus, arundhati roy will join us from new delhi to talk about the pandemic, speaking out against u.s. wars and the state of journalism. >> need to worry about how we are going to continue because it is probably the biggest thing that is under assault right now. all kinds of ways that 20 years ago we would not have dreamt up. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. u.s. coronavirus infections have reached an all-time high, surpassing even january's

terrible peak, with daily cases now averaging 267,000 and rising rapidly. hospitalizations are up, too, with nearly 80,000 u.s. beds filled, though that figure is out half of the numb hospitalized ding last winter's surg on wednesday, the cdc revised its estimate of the percentage of u.s. omicron variant infections downward, suggesting the dangerous delta variant is continuing to circulate widely. the fda is warning that over-the-counter rapid antigen tests might be less sensitive to detecting the omicron variant. the warning comes as the biden administration is preparing to make a half-billion tests available for free to u.s. households. here in new york, there has been a fivefold increase in the number of children hospitalized with covid-19 this month. dr. james schneider -

>> we are saying recognize her of admissions of children's from newborns to 21 years of age in hospitals and i's with icron. not to say that it is more severe, b my experience so far it is t less sere in kids, just much more contagious. amy: denmark i france, greece, italy, portugal, the united kingdom. in india, warning of a new wave of infections with a spike of omicron infections in new delhi. meanwhile, new data show south america has surpassed europe as the world's most vaccinated continent with nearly 63% of adts having received at least two shots. africa is at the bottom with just 8.6% of adults fully vaccinated. in afghanistan, dozens of women took to the streets of kabul tuesday condemning the taliban's recent attacks on women's rights, including banning long-distance travel for afghan women unless they have a male escort.

>> taliban site, do not enter any car without a man. where can we get a man? what about widows? where can they find a man? this is not the proper way. we are not women of 20 years ago. we are educated women and we wi not keep silent. amy: tuesday's peaceful action was violently repressed by taliban soldiers who fired their rifles into the air to break up the protest. a number of the afghan women were reportedly injured after the taliban gunfire set off a stampede. the united nations envoy to yemen says the war between houthi rebels and the saudi-led coalition has escalated sharply in recent weeks, threatening the lives of civilians. hans grundberg said in a statement -- "2021 is ending on a tragic note for yemenis, millions of whom are struggling with poverty, hunger, and severe restrictions on their freedom of movement."

palestinian leader mahmoud abbas traveled to central israel tuesday for talks with israeli defense minister benny gantz. it was abbas' first visit to israel in more than a decade. it's not clear what the pair discussed. after the talks, israeli prime minister naftali bennett told reporters there was no peace process under way with the palestinians, adding, "and there won't be one." abbas has faced protests among palestinians after he canceled planned legislative and presidential elections earlier this year. in brazil, the death toll from unprecedented flooding in the northeastern state of bahia has risen to 20, with some 35,000 people displaced after a pair of dams collapsed over the christmas holiday. 81-year-old vitoria rocha lost her home, and nearly lost her lifeafter her town became engulfed in flood waters. >> when i got here and saw the destruction, i could not believe it. it seemed as what i was seeing was not happening.

my home, torn apart. all of my things, destroyed. amy: here in the u.s., the climate emergency is leading to more extreme winter weather. alaska set a record-high december temperature of 67 degrees fahrenheit in the town of kodiak on sunday, while other parts of alaska saw record december rainfall with temperatures as much as 45 degrees above average. meanwhile, in california, lake tahoe has recorded more than 16 feet of snow in december, breaking a snowfall record set in 1970. a new report by the charity christian aid finds the combined toll of 2021's worst climate disasters cost the global economy nearly $200 billion. topping the list was hurricane ida, which killed 115 people while causing $65 billion in damage. other costly weather events included the texas winter storm and intense flooding in europe over the summer. the report found the six costliest years for climate disasterhave all come since

2011 and that without dramatic action to curb emissions, future climate disasters are likely to become much moreeadly and expensive. a south african court has ordered royal dutch shell to halt its plans to explore for oil in the pristine wild coast of eastern south africa. under the order, shell must immediately halt underwater seismic tests, which can devastate whales, dolphins, seals, and other marine animals. the court's ruling follows a massive campaign against offshore drilling led by south african environmental defenders. russia's supreme court has ordered international memorial, one of the country's oldest and most respected human rights groups, to close down. memorial focused on recovering and preserving the memory of millions of people who were executed, imprisoned, or persecuted during the soviet era. but russian officials accused the group of being a public threat receiving funding from western powers. rights advocates have denounced the court's ruling. this is an attorney with memorial. >> we disagree with the

decision. we think it is illegal and unjustified. these kinds of cases have a powerful political motivation. amy: in hong kong, the independent media outlet stand news has shut down after hundreds of national security police raided its newsroom on wednesday, arresting at least seven people, including senior staff. stand news launched in 2014 and was one of the most prominent publications in hong kong opposing china's one-party rule. in california, the family of valentina orellana-peralta is demanding justice after the 14-year-old teen was fatally shot last week by a los angeles police officer while she tried on dresses inside a department store's dressing room. valentina died in her mother's arms. this is soledad peralta speaking at an emotional family press conference tuesday. >> there is nothing i can do. to see a son or daughter die in

your own arms is one of the greatest and most profound pain that any human -- amy: valentina and her mother came to the u.s. from chile about six months ago. the girl's father, juan pablo orellana, recently reunited with his family in los angeles. at tuesday's press conference, he said -- "it is like my whole heart has been ripped out of my body." in colorado, a gunman went on a shooting spree in several locations around denver monday, killing five people and wounding two others, including a police officer, before he was shot dead by police. witnesses to one of the shootings described a chaotic scene they hid from gunfire in the storeroom of a cell phone store. >> there was probably maybe seven or eight gunshots and then another set of maybe five more. scary. scary this is what goes on nowadays. it is not an uncommon event for there to be public shootgs. it is scary. amy: the gun violence archive has recorded 687 mass shootings in the united states this year alone.

a federal judge in washington, d.c., will allow a major january 6 nspiracy casagainst leaders of the faright proud boys organization to proceed. on tsday, distct judge timothy kelly rejected claims by proud ys leader joseph biggs and three other defendants tt their actions at the deadly riot were protected by the first amendmt. they face a number of charges including felony obstrtion. anwhile, the house select committee investigating the january insurrection has agreed to defer its request for hundreds of trump administration records. the white house has rejected trump's blanket claims of executive privilege, but biden administration lawyers argue releasing all of the documents could compromise national security and undermine future presidents' cims of executive privilege. and harry reid, the nevada democrat who served as senate majority leader during the george w. bush and barack obama, the ministrations has died at the age of 82.

during obama's presidency, reid shepherded through several major bills including the affordable care act in 2010 and a $787 billion stimulus package that followed the financial crisis of 2009. obama paid tribute to reid tuesday,ritinghat heould not have become president had it not been for reid's encouragement and support. harry reid was one of the 77 senators who voted to authorize the u.s.-led invasion of iraq in 2002. reid would later call his vote a "horrible mistake," telling the nevada independent -- "it tainted my heart. it was the wrong thing to do. but i was sucked in by general colin powell and others and i believed them. so i regret that, yes, i do." and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. when we come back, the national book award-winning poet martin espada with his year-end interview. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: tom morello performing his song "let freedom ring,"

recorded for democracy now!'s 25th anniversary celebration. yes, this is this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we continue our year-end conversations, we turn now to the poet mártin espada, who recently won a national book award for his collection of poetry, "floaters." e book honors asylum seekers who've drowned trying to cross the rio grande into texas. mártin espada became just the third latinx poet to win the national book award. mocracy now!'s juan gonzalez and i recently interview martin from his home in shelbourne falls. he talked about the title of his book "floaters." >> well, much of the book focuses on the theme of migrants and migration. and that ranges from the migrants crossing the southern border to the migrants who made their way to puerto rico -- from puto rico, rather, to the united states.

and so that encompasses not only oscar and valeria, who were the salvadoran father and daughter who drowned crossing the rio grande in june 2019 and then were the subjects of that photograph we all remember that went viral, it also encompasses people like my father, francisco luis espada, frank espada, who came to this country in a boat. and he, too, was a migrant. so that makes me the son of a migrant. and so much of the book focuses on that sort of struggle, that sort of survival or loss of life, and ultimately, some form of tnscendence for that community and the descendants of those who cross over.

"floaters," by the way, refers most literally to a term used by certain members of the border patrol to describe those who drown crossing over. so where i got it was after oscar and valeria drowned and that photograph went viral, there was a post in the "i'm 10-15" border patrol facebook group alleging that this photograph was a fake. and that's where i saw the use of the word "floaters" for the first time. and then there was a border activist of my acquaintance who confirmed that this was a term commonly in use. obviously, you know, this kind of oppressive force that's brought to bear on the border has its own vocabulary. and so "floaters" is a part of that.

juan: you mentioned your father, frank espada, himself a renowned photographer, activist, and chronicler of the puerto rican migration. he was a big influence on your life, big influence on my life. i met him 60 years ago and he was a mentor to me. could you talk about his influence on you, and also, if you can, maybe read one of the poems in the book where he figures? >> absolutely. my father frank espada was born in utuado, puerto rico, in 1930, died in pacifica, california, in 2014. he was a community organizer. he was a leader. some people would say the leader of the puerto rican community in new york city in the and early 1960's 1970's. that was a community of almost 1 million people.

he was also thee creator of something called the puerto rican diaspora documentary project, a photodocumentary of the puerto rican migration, because he was a great documentary photographer. his work is now included in the collections of the smithsonian museum of american history, the smithsonian museum of american art, thee national portrait gallery, and the library of congress. he also published a book by that name "puerto rican diaspora." and so his photographs hung on the walls of our apartment in the linden projects of east new york, brooklyn, from earliest memory, which means they're also hung on the walls of my imagination. and i was able to see from earliest memory and earliest imagination from my youth, the nexus between art and activism,

the nexus between craft and commitment. to me, it was all one. i thought everybody did it this way. and so my father, although he was a photographer, had a great influence on me as a poet and as a poet of political commitment, a poet of the political imagination. well, all this came back for me when hurricane maria struck the island of puerto rico four years ago. we just marked the fourth anniversary of hurricane maria. and my father, of course, was already gone. and yet i couldn't help thinking about him. why? because suddenly i saw his hometown of utuado everywhere. i saw it on television. i saw it online. i saw it on social media. i saw it in the articles coming from major publications like the washington post.

in fact, jonee anderson, in the pages of "the new yorker," said that utuado had become "a byword for the island's devasttion." and here i was in western massachusetts watching helplessly. and so i began talking to my father. now, it's not unusual for people to talk to the dead, especially if it so happens you have their corporeal remains in your possession, as io. i have his ashes in a box on my bookshelf wrapped in a puerto rican flag, which is the way he would have wanted it. and so i began talking to the box. and it was strange, because i was talking to the box as if my father could hear me, but he did not know what was happening in his beloved utuado, his beloved puerto rico, where ultimately 4000 people would die, not only

due to the hurricane, but of course, due to the profound negligence of donald trump. and so in the poem i wrote for him, i tell him what's happening, but then i call on him to rise again. the poem i ultimately wrote, which is the last in this book "floaters," is called "letter to my father: october 2017." "you once said, my reward for this life will be a thousand pounds of dirt shoveled in my face. you were wrong. you are seven pounds of ashes in a box, a puerto rican flag wrapped around you, next to a red brick from the house in utuado where you were born, all crammed together on my bookshelf. you taught me there is no god, no life after this life, so i know you are not watching meet type this letter over my

shoulder. when i was a boy, you were god. i watched from the seventh floor of the projects as you walked down into the street to stop a public execution. a big man caught a small man stealing his car, and everyone in brooklyn heard the car alarm wail of the condemned, he's killing me. at a word from you, the executioner's hand slipped from the hair of the thief. "the kid was high" was all you said when you came back to us. when i was a boy, and you were god, we flew to puerto rico. you said, my grandfather was the mayor of utuado. his name was buenaventura. that means good fortune. i believed in your grandfather's name. i heard the tree frogs chanting to each other all night. i saw banana leaf and elephant palm sprouting from the mountain's belly.

i gnaw a mango's pit, and the sweet yellow hair stuck between my teeth. i said to you, you came from another planet. how did you do it? you said, every morning, just before i woke up, i saw the mountains. every morning, i see the mountains. in utuado, three siste, all in their 70's, all bedridden, all pentecostales who only left the house for church, lay sleeping on mattresses spread across the floor when the hurricane gutted the mountain the way a butcher slices open a dangled pig, and a rolling wallf mud buried them, leaving the fourth sister to stagger into the street, screaming like an unheeded prophet about the end of the world. in utuado, a man who cultivated a garden of aguacate and carambola, feeding the avocado and star fruit to his nieces

from new york, saw the trees in his garden beheaded all at once like the soldiers of a beaten army, and so hanged himself. in utuado, a welder and a handyman rigged a pulley with a shopping cart to ferry rice and beans across the river where the bridge collapsed, witnessed the cart swaying above so many hands, then raised a sign that told the helicopters, campamento los olvidados -- camp of the forgotten. los olvidados wait seven hours in line for a government meal of skittles and vienna sausage, or a tarp to cover the bones of a house with no roof, as the fungus grows on their skin from sleeping on mattresses drenched with the spit of the hurricane. they drink the brown water, waiting for microscopic monsters

in their bellies to visit plagues upon them. a nurse says, these people are going to have an epidemic. these people are going to die. the president flips rolls of paper towels to a crowd at a church in guaynabo, zeus lobbing thunderbolts on the locked ward of his delusions. down the block, cousin ricardo, bernice's boy, says that somebody stole his can of diesel. i heard somebody ask you once what puerto rico needed to be free. and you said, tres pulgadas de sang en laalle -- three inches of blood in the street. now three inches of mud flow through the streets of utuado, and troops patrol the town as if guarding the vein of copper in the ground, as if a shovel digging graves in the backyard might strike the ore below, as if la brigada swinging machetes to clear the road might remember the last uprising.

i know you are not god. i have the proof -- seven pounds of ashes in a box on my bookshelf. gods do not die and yet i want you to be god again. stride from the crowd to seize the president's arm before another roll of paper towels sails away. thunder spanish obscenities in his face. banish him to a roofless rainstorm in utuado, so he unravels, one soaked sheet after another, till there is nothing left but his cardboard heart. i promised myself i would stop talking to you, whe box of grey grit. you were deaf even before you died.

hear my promise now. i will take you to the mountains, where houses lost like ships at sea rise blue and yellow from the mud. i will open my hands. i will scatter your ashes in utuado." amy: that's martín espada reading his poem "letter to my father," the last of the poems in his national book award-winning anthology called "floaters." juan: martín, i wanted to ask you, you have appeared on democracy now! numerous times over the last 25 years. what has this show meant to you as a poet, academic, and activist? >> democracy now! was a place where i could get the truth. democracy now! was always different.

democracy now! was not network television. it was not cable televisio it was not center to right. it was not mildly liberal. it was a place where i could get the truth, the real story, where i could count on the voices i wanted to hear broadcast, of course, over both television and radio. i can remember many times drivindown the road somewhere, going to my next gig, because poets are that way. we're like jazz musicians in that sense. i'd put on the radio, and there was your voice, amy, or your voice, juan. and it felt like home.

not to mention all the times that i was able to appear on this program and speak my own truth -- not something to be taken for granted at all if you happen to be a left-wing puerto rican poet. kind of a narrow window there. so it's meant all that and more. and i want to -- i want to acknowledge that on this 25th anniversary, to keep telling truth. amy: mártin espada. he recently the national book award for his book of poetry "floaters." when we come back, the great writer arundhati roy joins us from india. >> thank you for being an important platform of speech.

♪♪ [music break]

amy: lila downs performing a cover of manu chau's "clandestino." that version was recorded for democracy now!'s 25th anniversary celebration. this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman. we go now to speak with acclaimed india writer and activist arundhati roy. democracy now!'s nermeen shaikh and i recently interviewed arundhati from her home in new dei. amy: it is so amazing for us to come into your home in new

delhi. we see the spiral bookshelves behind you. travel the world at home right now through the pandemic. but you were on democracy now! for the first time like 20 years ago, two decades ago, and then, from then on, all the landmark moments. i think of the iraq war and you coming to the united states and your speaking around the world against it. can you just talk about -- well, first of all, hello. and, nermeen, join in. hello. >> well, hello. nermeen: hello, arundhati, and welcome back to the show. >> hi, nermeen. nermeen: we really wish you were here in studio with us. well, i really wish i were in the studio, to begin with. >> i wish you were at home with me. that would have been nicer. it's so strange, isn't it? so intimate in one's home and

yet soisembodied. it's such a peculiar me. but what are two decades, you know? and really, this shouldn't be about me. it should be about you and what amazing work you've done for so many years, you know, for 25 years, how to hold the line. it's, you know, at a time when media is in such crisis, not just structurally but conceptually, i think. we really need to worry about how we are going to continue, because i think it's probably the biggest thing that's under assault right now in all kinds of ways that 20 years ago we wouldn't have dreamt of, right? nermeen: arundhati, explain what you mean by that. what do you mean that media, independent media, is under threat in many different ways,

including conceptually? >> well, what i mean by that is, of course, independent media has always been swimming against the current. but now, in a way, we have a media that's independent of independent media, right? you have this atomization of how news and fake news and stories are being sort of pipelined across the world, and how does -- and social media, which is ushering people into echo chambers from which they cannot -- they're then sealed into a kind of, you know, micro-ideologies and you can't speak across those barriers. and so, somehow, those of us who do what we do are in the middle of this.

you know, on the one hand, the giant corporate media. and the other hand, this corporatized, atomized social media, which has a very malign algorithms that are now creating a problem and creating so much information that the human brain can't really process. so how do we navigate our little boat through the storm? amy: arundhati, when you first came on democracy now! 20 years ago, it was october 19, 2001. think about that moment. it was, you know, a month after september 11 attacks, and you had just written a piece in the guardian titled "the algebra of infinite justice," in which you said --

"america is at war against people it doesn't know, because they don't appear much on tv. before it has properly identified or even begun to comprehend the nature of its enemy, the u.s. government has, in a rush of publicity and embarrassing rhetoric, cobbled together an 'international coalition against terror,' mobilized its army, its air force, its navy ,and its media, and committed them to battle. the trouble is that once america goes off to war, it can't very well return without having fought one." 20 years ago, right after the u.s. invaded afghanistan. >> and look. i mean, look at the narrative symmetry of what we saw just a few months ago when it withdrew, after -- in such a shameful way. i don't know what to say, you

know, right now because i remember -- i remember so clearly the time when i wrote that essay, you know, being told by everybody, "don't do it," because anger was at such a height in the u.s., nationalism was at such a peak. you know, every car was flying four flags. and "don't do it," yoknow? and i just couldn't not write it. but then i learned something because when i came there, i learned never to confuse, you know, all people with their government, rit? so it opened up so many friendships and conversations and relationships that have lasted for so many years. and today, i find -- one of the things i find most unnerving is that you will have media, which

20 years ago, when i wrote this, wajust -- i remember being at a war tribunal in iraq and somebody reading out something from a right-wing magazine in india -- in the u.s., where they said, "i'll be on the side of anyone who takes a bunker buster to arundhati roy." and i said, you know, this is what i mean about the disproportionate use of force. why a bunker buster when a bullet would do? but now the same media is saying what we were saying 20 years ago. you know, now it's become something that you're allowed to talk about in those spaces. but the trouble is, it's too late. you know? so i just watch people who derided people like myself, who said she should be taken to a psychiatrist, she's hysterical, she's crazy, now saying exactly the same thing, you know?

and just a sort of deep silence settles on me sometimes. nermeen: i want to go back to the point you were making earlier about the threat to independent media. in anntervi in the collection of interviews what you called the shake of the beast, you settled him "one of the things that needs to be done is for the alternative media to reach a stage where the corporate media becomes irrelevant. you mentioned earlier the fact of this atomizing effect of the social media, of social media, which in a way is more pernicious simply because it is accessed by many more people all across the world. so could you talk about this,

the importance, the significance of independent media when it faces these almost when threats? -- tn threats? >> that social media that appears independent and appears to say we amplify the voices of the unheard and so on, is actually more corporate than the corporate -- traditional corporate media. so we are now in a situation where we are between, like i was saying, between these two axis. you take india. that mainstream media, the television media, the print media, the hundreds of 24 channels all run basically with corporate money, and in the scandals that are coming out now about facebook and whatsapp and

their predilection to support bjp and the right, so you are swimming in such a toxic soup 24 hour drip of venom. there are very few, mostly online and one or two print media magazine which you can turn to to know what is really going on. all of them sort of bravely trying to stay the course while they are attacked from every direction. sohat is the same with democracy now! in u.s. so you have a situation, which we don't know how to conceptually even handle because , you know, the amount of force

that has been put out, the amount of venom is just fracturing a country like india. and right now the one thing which, one nation, one religion thing is going to tear this country apart because it is a social fabric built from many communities, many languages, many religions, and whatever you want to call it, secularism, liberalism, whatever it is, that is the contract that makes this even possible. and if you're going to undermine that, by using this media it is just a question of time before it falls apart like the soviet union did or yugoslavia did, you know? just fractures into little bits. even the people who worked in these companies, whether it is facebook or whatever, they know

that. they know they are driving us into a cyclone from which there is no exit, you know? amy: arundhati, if you can talk about these 20 years since we first talk you after the u.s. invaded afghanistan. it did not just change american society or afghanistan. in india, of this radical anti-muslim movement also really growing after the 9/11 attacks. talk about how it shaped india, far larger than the united states, and what you see today as the media covers the u.s. pullout from afghanistan. >> well, it was a very important moment that time when you had, obviously, and first, the u.s. funding and stirring up a kind

of radical islam, funding what eventually became the taliban, funding the luger dean -- muja hdeen that sort of. ripple effect in this region because at the same time, had in india in 1989, the destruction -- in 1999,he right wing come to power. the polarization had begun. very interestingly to me, september 11, 2001 when the 9/11 attack happened and sort of internationalist islamophobia was gin a free pass, the fascist sort of organization called the iss whose ideologues

have opened -- written admiringly of hitler, we referred to the muslims as being the jews of germany, asking india to become a hindu nation and modi, the current prime minister, obviously had been a member of that group since he was a teenager i think. when 9/11 happened, the iss saw its moment. interestingly enough, just within a few weeks, modi was sort of parachuted into the position of chief minister of the state. in october. the next february aft the burning of a training in which a number of hindu pilgrs were cruelly burn to death -- and

still today we do not know who did that. there was this massacre of muslims by hindu right-wing groups. it was like thousands of people, a hundred thousand people driven from their homes, thousands killed, women raped, people burned alive after that, modi,who never really came out and apologized it, was called the emperor of hindu hearts and since then has not lost an election. so they rode the wind. today, we are in a position where i don't know on what grounds india can be called democracy. because just having elections does not make a democracy.

and we have an economy that is floundering. we have hundreds of people in jail -- activist, scholars, students, lawyers, anybody who races their voice is being put into jail. you may wonder why i am out. i keep inking and like the version of the canary in the coal mine. but friends of mine are all in prison. nermeen: could you elain the way in which the corporate mainstream media in india has covered these years of the modi government? as you say, he has not lost an election since he came into power, just right all of the issues that you highlight, including economic collapse, even if people are not so concerned about the number of politil prisoners. what re has the media played

in either downplaying or simply not covering the egregious policies that the modi government has pursued? you have spoken in your writing about some of the few independent media in india, including magazine, among others, that have tried to make up, to compensate for what the mainstream media and many aspects of social media have not addressed. so if you could elaborate on that? what are the things that have dominated the headlines in the mainstream media, including these massive 24 hour channels? >> so let me just start by saying there are some online portals, like "the wire" and print magazine like "caravan"

and hindu portals which have just done amazing work. i do want to salute them. with very little means and money, but aot of courage and intelligence. now, for the rest of the media, i just say that modi himself, to my mind, is a very mediocre person. but with the kind of media support he gets, anybody -- you could put up anybody and make them seem like a genius, and that is what has happened. all the cruelty, all of the massive failures of policy, the ambushing of the indian people -- suddenly announcing do monetization in the middle of the night, suddenly announcing a massive lockdown for corona

without having any idea where the millions of people -- where will they go without food, without work, without money? they will walk 1000 miles. it is as if he doesn't know what country he is the prime minister of. but all of this is papered over. i would say the news is not reported or downplayed, i would say many of the mainstream media, especially television news anchors, have worked like the captains and commanders of lynch mobs. they have put out false news that has got young students arrested. they have done things which some day i hope that will be called to account for because without them, the situation in india would not have arisen. today, everyone functions -- and

people within the media. nobody can say anything. including people, major politicians and the opposition, because all of them fear being jailed, you know, being framed, you know having their past deed dug up. they are all compromised in some way. so we really are like one party system now. the bjp is perhaps the richest political party in the world and it controls all of the levers of power and all the institutions penetrated by members of the rss . amy: i want to ask about this pandemic that we are still in around the world. you wrote a piece for the financial times last year called "the pandemic is a portal" that

was just quoted everywhere. in it you said, we can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcass of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our database and did ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us, or we can walk through lightly with little luggage, ready to imagine another world and ready to fight for it." so talk about what that journey would look like. and do you think anywhere you are seeing that -- were you able to come push that through this pandemic? what do you want to see at the other end? >> well, no, i wasn't. i have to say i didn't -- i don't see any attempt except obviously by individuals and

idealistic people, but other than that, i just see, you know, imaginations that are just weighted down by their own limitations, their inability to think outside what we -- what people have been conditioned to believe is what the human spirit needs or wants. conditioned to believe what you think of as happiness as you e on tv. so, no, i don't see that. whereas one has written for years and years about how there are communities and people who ought to be supported and fought for who do have a different imagination, but they are just being leveled. even when you look at the whole debate on climate change, you just see people able to say

something in a seminar room or conference or on an international podium for effect and that same person comes back and you see nothing changed. you see no single thing, no single project, no single idea put to rest because, oh, it is going to mean deforestation or it is going to mean the death of this river or it is going to mean this landscape come this mountainous landscape is going to be destroyed. no. it is going to go ahead. nermeen: arundhati, one of the most distressing responses to the pandemic has been the extraordinary inuity in access to vaccines. could you speak about that in the context of not only india, but the developing world, in general?

>> well, isn't it just so sad? you know, you see that in countries like the u.s. or in many countries in europe, people are -- you know, people who don't want the vaccine are protesting and there's so much vaccine just lying around. and in poor countries, that vaccine is just not available. in india, you have a very peculiar situation where almost all the vaccine manufacturing has been entrusted to just one company. and i think india is sort of committed to making vaccines for 92 countries, while here, of course, in june, while people even in the city i live in were dying on the streets, were being cremated on the pavement, where there were burial grounds and the rivers were full of dead bodies, and people, of course,

had not been vaccinated. there wasn't any vaccine. now a third, only a third, of the indian population has been fully vaccinated. but we have huge hoardings. in fact, quite soon after the horrible apocalyptic summer that we had where people were dying in their homes, people were desperate for oxygen, people who asked for it on twitter were getting arrested for, you know, showing the nation in a bad light. and just as the fires had barely died in e cremation grounds, when the huge hoardings went up saying, "thank you modiji for free vaccine," but, in fact, we had a tiered system of pricing for vaccinations. so some are free, some are not. and while the government has committed to supplying these other countries with billions of

doses, in india, still the poor are waiting. nermee and, arundhati, you know, we just have a couple of minutes. we know you just have a couple of minutes. and we wanted to ask about -- this is the 25th anniversary of democracy now! you've obviously appeared on the show many, many times. could you say what democracy now! has meant to you? >> it's meant a place to breathe, an oxygen cylinder in the world, which is sort of metaphorically dying of covid for many years. it's been a place where you can be sure that you will be met with facts, with intelligence, and with courage.

amy: the great writer arundhati roy speaking trust from her home in new delhi, india. thursday we will spend the hour with noam chomsky and on friday, we look back at 25 years of democracy now! to see our interview with edward snowden, go to democracynow.org. ■■■■■■■

(sophie fouron) this is japan. but people here don't call themselves japanese. it's okinawa, an island closer to taiwan than tokyo. there's something like a million and a half people here, and they're known to live longer than anyone else on the planet. there's a very strong american presence in okinawa. not only did the americans occupy the island after the second world war, they stayed. there's a very big military presence. the fact that these old enemies coexist on this tiny island, but coexist peacefully, says a lot about the people of okinawa.