hey guys i'm abby martin and this is breaking the set on this day last year new york and new jersey were getting wrecked by superstorm hurricane sandy overall the storm cost the city's sixty five billion dollars and took months of cleanup efforts no doubt it was a devastating storm and as we look back one year later what have we learned on the next time a storm this size hits we do know that the subway system will probably be shut down again due to massive flooding keep in mind there are still hundreds of people living out of hotels because they don't have a home to return to i'm sure congress eventually agreed to send fifty one billion dollars in relief to the victims of sandy but we don't know where that money went to the national center for disaster preparedness only twenty three percent has been dispersed of the agencies directly involved in the relief efforts and only fifteen percent of that has actually reached the hands of the victims but a lack of financial aid isn't the only glaring problem here those who were

fortunate enough to rebuild post sandy are doing so in locations that are red zones for flooding related disasters in the future basically they're setting themselves up for disaster all over again which brings us to the elephant in the room and no i'm not talking about chris christie i'm talking about climate change half of the politicians out there want to stick their heads in the sand and keep denying the obvious fact that climate change isn't only real it's already happening and thanks to sea levels rising at an alarming rate we sure to see some hurricane sandy style flooding or worse much more frequently according to a recent and a report meanwhile our do nothing congress wants to do nothing about climate change or carbon emission problems while the country they're representing continues to suck up twenty five percent of the world's energy until we all wake up and acknowledge the serious problems on the horizon disasters like sandy could become the norm. in the book please

please take a look very hard to take a. look. at her back with that her big hair. please. please. please. please. please. please. please. please. monsanto has made its presence known in nearly every corner of the world from europe to australia. has attempted to force its genetically modified seeds and pesticides across the planet one continent at

a time except for one africa that's quickly changing monolithic monolithic industries like du pont's and gent monsanto are moving in and threatening to destroy traditional farming practices that's why seven african countries including ghana participated in a stop on santo march back in may so despite this company's claims that there are increasing crop yields in helping to combat poverty and hunger local farmers say that's far from the truth earlier i spoke to a representative from one of the leading african organizations fighting this through take over food sovereignty ghana his name is all a mouse mahdi and i started by asking him why monsanto is only now making the push into africa. and some to hounslow down from further up to full. value noone. based on the logical its rejection by the civil society. and also on the

basis of non-us appearance on site scientific grounds we also have seen. brawled popular sage against the germ was in latin america brazil the farmers have sued monsanto you know there are so many problems i who said ted would health in india. what do you call it recently ruled that a supreme court. committee of spirits have. called for imposed an indefinite moratorium in fact before there was a ten year moratorium it went to the supreme court and the supreme court's the technical community based on very serious scientific evidence committee of its best decided that there should be an indefinite moratorium so it looks like.

it's only africa that is left for them and you've compared the entry of g m o's in africa to a new wave of colonialism why well i mean if it were just a matter of the new ip of colonialism would have accepted that it is worse than that it is even worse than slavery and here is why. dr henry kissinger once that food is a weapon whoever controls the food controls the population. and i think this is what we are seeing in africa they want our resources the want not only the food it is access to everything that they need and want in africa they don't want africa to stand in the way so if because starve us to death or make us succumb to what about the months they are imposing on africa the best way to do

that is true to control of our food and let's zero in on ghana which of course is what your focus is very now these giant ag corporations moving in to talk specifically about what you're concerned about as a relate to small farmers and the food buy in public. oh you're ok in facts. are the movement the what do you call it bio safety act put in place and that bio safety act calls for a bio safety authority and here we are in a situation where we have this promoters of germ will. sit on the bio safety committee through gruet jim crops and what do you call it that means bruce we are going to have what you call another law coming to. you popcorn prior client by

i believe before parliament now it doesn't really go into the first reading and by the end of november it will be go into the second and the third day in a hurry to impose the plant breeders bill on gun owners. and this automatically gives to the. motel six. chemical biotechnology companies signed determined by us and others. on access to a gun if this will indeed destroy local agriculture and gone out why do you think government is moving forward with it so what we have to be is that the government is in competition with the most rabid elements of our political class to own accept whatever the cost to gun is gonna so

that they cannot undermine dog can also be accepted by international community. and only many people believe that g m o's produce more yields to withstand droughts floods and that they're good for sustainability in developing countries do you disagree with these alleged benefits and what other health things should we be concerned about with these foods there's a big dichotomy if you look at the. issue there's a big dichotomy between promise and performance. the promise is that we must be climate change. we will reduce the use of pesticides it will increase you know when you look at. the use of pesticides there are a lot of in america north america in india and other places where they have tried the. increase in the use of pesticides. because the.

crops develop superbugs suppose which require more tech sick chemicals to do it so in fact you lose to much more use of insecticides and pesticides. groups because they don't have. those programs with it to the levels that we see with the group again in terms of you know. the use of g.m. crops have been seen to be poor because of the. controlled in the first. but then after after at least three years and look you know fossil the beauty of cotton there was a sharp decline after the fall and today we have less than fifty percent of people using it what do you call it. is there a middle ground to be found i mean when your organization support the introduction

of g.m.o. crops if there was proper regulation and mandatory testing and the labeling of g.m. others. our bottom line is that we want to it's good food we are not just like guinea pigs for multinational corporations to experiment on a bus and we don't have to complain and eat whatever to give to us and find out later in the route if everything is all right but it's not what you call it in fact the g.m. technology is so it's almost becoming obsolete today we know that the mechanical identification of a gene that confers subtle properties for. the plant is not correct and that it is a family of genes that work in the morning also we produce the beneficial effects.

there are several know. and i'll grow ecology that doesn't require genetic modification and i've gotten used to additional and selection to produce to do much more and more small powerful seeds but what we get from jim was so important we do you believe in it taking ownership over our food over our lives of our communities thank you so much for breaking this down for speaking out against this issue all a must madi chairperson food sovereignty gonna thanks so much for coming on and you've been watching. after the break one of america's staunchest allies is a horrific track record when it comes to human rights abuses like that is going to turn. the. technology innovation all the developments around russia we've got the future covered. limitation and free liquid intake should free

transport chargers free. range month free. free live studio type free lived on hold free blog as plug in video for your media projects a free media oh don the r t v dot com. players play. live. live live. in effect that means you can jump

in anytime you want. to live. i am. i was a new alert and if scripts scare me a little bit. there is breaking news tonight and we are continuing to follow the breaking news here. alexander's family cry tears of joy and a great thing. that has ever read at the core of what they found. is a story many sort of movies playing out in real life. as

much as we hear the government preaching about human rights abuses in iran iraq and afghanistan there is one middle eastern country that continues to be omitted from the discussion and it just so happens to be one of america's closest allies in the region saudi arabia and see this country governs under strict sharia law the strictest interpretation of islam and is perhaps the world's most oppressive patriarchy unlike other u.s. allies such as qatar that puts up the guise of progressivism saudi arabia as unabashedly repressive when it comes to women believe it or not it's the only country in the world that forbids women from driving a vehicle but before you start judging or a little study arabia there is a very good reason why just check out what one saudi cleric had to say on the matter. she should have been could. without them we're in the month. of the.

oh so it's not p.m.s. it's just that i've been driving too much thanks mr clear clearing that up. all kidding aside though this outrageous discriminatory policy has sparked a protest among saudi women for the second time in just three years dozens of saudis have taken to their cars and proudly driven through the streets of riyadh but as shocking as the forbidden practice may sound the western ears this ban on women driving actually has no legal basis in the country which is part of a larger system of customs meant to ensure that women stay in line and are obedient servants to their male counterparts. to get punished for you know. the first thing you need to this is as a woman you are the pope either you a father or you are this money is your god it's his job to the coffee is your

job to do you. know is amnesty international trying to bring the light to the seriousness of the situation the arabia every woman has to have a male guardian women need permission to do almost everything travel work go to school get medical treatment and talk to the opposite sex so the actions these women took were incredible considering how they are challenging the entire saudi culture and not just a fantasy law but the state of women is only a microcosm of the larger human rights epidemic taking place in the country appallingly enough saudi arabia is only one of only five countries in the world that still practices public executions including beheadings by sword and stoning to death according to saudi arabian law the following crimes are deserving of death adultery armed robbery of blasphemy burglary drug possession engaging in homosexual acts witchcraft and sorcery the methods of execution very however in the great

country of saudi arabia after your killed you can also be displayed on a giant cross in a public square next to your head for all to see although exact numbers are near possible to report because of a government blow. out on many of these executions amnesty international estimates that at least seventy nine people were executed in two thousand and twelve alone but it's not just murder for petty crimes of witchcraft or sex that we should be concerned with considering that fifteen out of the nineteen nine eleven hijackers were saudi the saudi government and gauged in a sustained assault on its citizens in the wake of the attacks on the guise of fighting terrorism that sounds familiar according to a two thousand and nine amnesty international report thousands of people been arrested and detained in virtual secrecy all those have been killed in uncertain circumstances hundreds more people face secret and summary trials and possible execution. one of the names of these people have been this close to giving the extreme secrecy of the trial process but we do know the majority of these prisoners

are prisoners of conscience or simply targeted for criticizing the kingdom in fact just today a saudi arabian human rights lawyer was sentenced to three months in prison for the mere act of signing a petition critical of the country's judicial system and it's not just citizens that are being persecuted there it's millions of foreign workers from bangladesh sri lanka indonesia and elsewhere who are battling this terror random product rule these people basically live in indentured servitude with no limit of work hours and extremely harsh conditions physical and sexual abuse is rampant in this industry and as of january forty five foreign maids were facing death row according to amnesty. so given this horrific track record why has the u.s. remained such a staunch ally of a criminal theocracy while the us still depends on the persian gulf for thirteen percent of its oil oil usage sorry not to mention that this country needs in order

to carry out its secret drone assassinations in yemen and pakistan say the cia's recently revealed drone base there is one of many u.s. military installations scattered across the country. maybe that's why we haven't tried to democratise saudi arabia and liberate its women just like we did in iraq right. united states works to help build a more hopeful and just society throughout the world and in particular the middle east in iraq saddam hussein once used rape rooms to brutalize women and dishonor their families. today because we acted irrationally him and voted voted in a free and democratic elections they live under a constitution that protects women's rights you know bush is right and theory according to iraq's two thousand and five constitution twenty five percent of parliament must be filled by women to fast forward to today according to multiple reports the conditions for women with regards to everything from my financial

security to legal protections to violence and sex trafficking are worse now than under saddam's rule look i'm in no means defending saddam's brutal dictatorship but the facts speak for themselves it's clear that the countries that are designated our allies or anime's have absolutely nothing to do with their finity for democracy or human rights but as obvious as this hypocrisy is so many americans continue to lap up the propaganda and fall into the political trap of manufacturing their consent hook line and sinker. there's a famous lyric by the clash that goes let me tell you about wayne and deals with cocaine a little more every day until the da walked away it's a line from the song jail guitar doors and it was written about the target of

a band mc five when kramer his self described a life of crime left him with a two year prison sentence after he recuperated and rejoin society has been worked . on an outreach program for other prison inmates who need a musical outlet for their frustrations within our two tiered justice system today when kramer joins me live to talk about his nonprofit organization jail guitar doors thank you so much for coming on wayne happy to be here thanks for the opportunity so wayne what got you involved in this tell me how you got passion about the issue well from the time i was released i'm a archetype of drug war prisoner i watched as first tens of thousands of people just like me went to prison and then hundreds of thousands and today millions of our fellow americans are under lock and key two point three million ten million under direct state law enforcement control and i just felt like

this was. an embarrassing international embarrassment and a national disgrace and i believe you know one person can make a difference and i think that these kinds of changes happen from the bottom up and so i got with my fellow musicians and i joined with the great billy bragg the true troubadour from england he had started doing this work in england and they were calling it jail guitar doors after the same clash song and i said i'll take this on for the united states so now today we're in about forty prisons in america we have a waiting list of fifty more wow and we have programs in their cook county correctional system in chicago in texas and in new york and in los angeles where i live is just so incredible that you don't really see art and music programs for prisoners in the part of the rehabilitation what's been the feedback from prisoners and also talk about what the program consists of well the the. the program and

simple what we do is we donate guitars mostly sometimes some other instruments and the idea is that if we can get a guitar into prisoners. and tasked them with writing a song tell me your story in this song about how you got here maybe write a song. to your daughter to your son that that process is transformative it's the beginning of a change of heart that is necessary for the hard work of rehabilitation because ninety five percent of the people in prison today are going to be released they're going to live next door to you and me so it's in our own interests to help people change for the better while we have them in custody if we don't help them change for the better they will most certainly change for the worse why do you say that. this prison kind of spit you out worse than you were when you went in prison is is in its architecture itself is designed to tell you you are worthless that you have

no value in the world and the creativity of art of music of painting of acting and dancing and writing all is a great argument against that worthlessness it's the first step in rebuilding that integrity and self respect that you lose on your trip to prison and how have prisoners been reacting to the program have you seen a lot of progress with people you know do you visit the prisons back in kind of see these people tell me a little bit of the experiences from medium it's an easy. there is no downside to it first arts and corrections programs are incredibly cheap we have empirical evidence now through some scholastic studies longitudes longitudinal studies that prisoners that participate in arts and corrections programming have lower recidivism rates it also lowers the level of tension in the yard there's something

about when music comes on the yard that everybody kind of chills out a little bit and some prisons we've been in have great music program. but that's the exception to the rule with the coming of mass incarceration in america this disgrace of mass incarceration. rehabilitation programs went away all they could afford was more cells more guards more beds that's it i think there's a slight shift happening now i'm seeing a little change certainly on the state level the state prison systems where corrections professionals realize the value of arts and corrections programs the efficacy of the efficiency of the federal system is another thing to have a roadblock at the table that a whole other battle you know you're able as you're talking about this you know art and music having these amazing therapeutic effects and really just a source a great outlet for people why do you think that these programs are the first to be

cut not only i mean just and normal everyday things that are in prisons but in education systems across the country i mean considering how integral it is to someone's development and mental stability but hey i'm with you it's indefensible it's it's. it's suicidal you know art is the thing that puts us in touch with our humanity it's the thing that connects us with each other and if you take that out what are we left with more products. exactly you know as a former prisoner what other systemic issues do you see that really need to be dealt with in this prison system i mean it is that it's really an epidemic fibrous on the world's population twenty five percent of the world's prisoners what's going on here well like senator jim webb. there's only two possibilities either are the most evil people in the history of the world or we're doing something terribly wrong as regarding in the administration of justice you know this drug war

this thirty year drug war is the greatest failure of social policy in our country's domestic history i can go out on. in any street in america and buy higher quality cheaper cocaine and heroin today than i could thirty years ago when they locked me up so this is an abject failure and it's at this point bipartisan the right and the left both see it you know this was a this was a terrible error in judgment when they passed these mandatory minimum sentences and these severe drug sentences half the people in america's prisons are our nonviolent drug offenders they have no business being in prison in the first place prison should be the last resort for some but i couldn't agree more and now we're seeing of course the prison industrial complex and turn into a massive industry we have about thirty seconds left but talk about how people get involved help this organization flourish yes well you can go to our site jail

guitar doors dot org you can read everything about what we do there or there's film footage of the prison interventions. and you could even make a donation if you wanted to help us we really see what we do is kind of a new york anarchists in the coal syndicalist that you know we want other me we have other musicians in other cities around the country who all do the same we're let's keep it going grassroots bottom up thank you so much wayne kramer co-founder joe guitar doors thank you so much for having me. and that's going to do it for us tonight you guys thanks so much for tuning in will see if i can't break the set all over again tomorrow.

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carty dot com. i suspect it's. over but. did you know the price is the only industry specifically mention in the constitution which says that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy should correct all books. that are going on i'm sorry and on this show we reveal the nature of what's actually going out into the world if we go beyond identifying the problem to try to rational debate a real discussion critical issues facing america by a member ready to join the movement then welcome to the big. ball on tell harvard in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. it didn't.