WorldFocus — World AIDS Day, Cervical Cancer in Nicaragua

With my curmudgeonly consumption of corporate bobblehead fake-news scaled back down to sane pre-election levels (i.e. almost zero), I've nevertheless picked up one additional nightly TV habit in recent weeks: WorldFocus on PBS. The program has only been around for a couple of months, and although it's obviously impossible to touch upon all the important stories happening around the world in 25 minutes per day, I've been generally impressed by the breadth and quality of pieces they're running.

I'm increasingly convinced that one of the fundamental keys to national security and international stability in the 21st century — beyond the jaundiced jingoism and fearful futility of militaristic fortress-building — is the ongoing elevation of global consciousness and cross-cultural dialogue, especially in the US. The basic notion of interdependence has gained widespread acceptance in mainstream discourse, yet far too many US citizens remain stunningly ignorant, even stubbornly immature and self-absorbed, in their views of world geography, history, politics, and culture.

Effectively tackling the great challenges of our time will require a critical mass of people in the US and around the world to become serious about their civic and social responsibilities as citizens of a planet in profound peril. I feel that it's especially important for people of color to take leadership in raising consciousness, building bridges between continents and cultures and connecting grassroots struggle to global analysis. Viewed in this light, the election of Barack Obama might be seen as an auspicious omen indeed.

And so I may start taking this blogspace in a slightly more internationalist direction; or perhaps I should say, even more so than before, since I've always been passionate about bringing a global perspective to anti-racism and progressive activism. I'll likely be writing about and posting YouTube clips from WorldFocus (if you like, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel here, though I can't guarantee any particular thematic coherence to the clips I end up posting). I'll continue my series of posts on economics and the current convulsions of global capitalism. I hope to open a new dialogue on international racism and its continuing impact on the world economy, on war, on disease and deprivation, on how the world works together. I'll probably have things to say about the Obama administration's role in all this. I guess we'll just see where it goes.

To kick things off, here's a segment from yesterday's WorldFocus which opens with a brief clip on World Aids Day, then takes a longer look at how women are addressing the high rate of cervical cancer in Nicaragua.

Comments

[Vincent]

Intriguing editorial shift.... The global economic, health, safety, security, climate, labor, trade, and energy context we live in demands that we, as a species, embrace the concept and practice of interdependence quickly. Not surprisingly, racism, class, and sexism are countervailing threads that run through many of the issues that impede us from recognizing the complexity of our challenges, and interdependence required to meet our challenges. I agree as people of color we have an opportunity to contribute greatly. That is a noble call to service.

Bravo Brother!

[Kai]

Hey bro, thanks for the good word! Couldn't agree more about the urgency of interdependence and the countervailing forces of division. A noble call to service indeed! Peace.

[kyledeb]

Well put, Kai. It's something I've long advocated. Though recently I've gotten a bit sucked into the U.S. national dialogue surrounding migration policy, the issue just doesn't make any sense unless you consider it from a global perspective. The same is true with so much else. I'm glad to know you're taking the blog in this direction. You're coverage of the Phillippines and the Pacquiao fight is an excellent example of a story of global dimensions.