Reporters Uncensored (RUTV)Behind the Global Web series-- Tala Dowlatshahi (Creator and United States Correspondent)
We are a month into the show. Iranian-Americans like me have spent the last several weeks protesting the election outcome against some tough and brutal odds. Last week, innocent people were beaten by police at the grave site of Neda -- the symbol of this "green" movement. And tomorrow, the President will be sworn in for another term against the wishes of more than half his own government. And the trials of Iranian protesters and political prisoners this month have the international human rights community in an uproar, labeling the proceedings an illegal sham. Reporters Uncensored (RUTV) will be presenting news on Iran weekly in our program. We want to keep you all posted on the week by week chaos, as it unfolds.
Our main topic this coming week will be the broad theme of corruption. We will look at corruption within governments and multinational corporations and the effects on the environment. Olajobi Makinwa, Issues Manager for Anti Corruption at the UN's Global Compact will join us in studio to set the scene on global environmental corruption and what the Compact is doing to protect the planet. Corrupt practices are heavily impacting the environment and devastating indigenous communities.
The UN's Global Compact lists corruption as one of the world's greatest challenges and costs the world one trillion dollars per day. The group states:
"It is a major hindrance to sustainable development, with a disproportionate impact on poor communities and is corrosive on the very fabric of society. The impact on the private sector is also considerable -- it impedes economic growth, distorts competition and represents serious legal and reputational risks."
Tomorrow night, we will underscore how economic greed breeds corrupt governments and increases environmental risks including land degradation, waste production and depletion of natural resources. We will focus on the Peruvian government, which has signed in new laws that encourage foreign mining in the rain forest. We want to know whether multinationals are seeking short term gains at long term costs to indigenous communities. And what role is the current president Alan Garcia playing in abetting these practices? Are his free trade policies endangering his country's natural resources? To answer some of these questions, we will run a clip from RUTV's Youth Correspondent, Nicolas Tami Landa on the complaints voiced by Amazonian indigenous peoples against the government. Nicolas will be joining us right after via skype in Peru to talk about his investigation.
We will then move on to talk more in-depth abut Ghana and the oil boom. Are the government's current actions against local fisherman illegal? RUTV's Africa/Political Analyst Omoyele Sowore traveled to the country last month to cover US President Obama's visit--but his interest was also sparked by a visit to a local fisherman's village to document the corruption that goes on in the fight for oil. Ghana is on the verge of an oil boom. Nearly 20 billion expected by the year 2030. But 80 percent of Ghana's population live on less than 2 US dollars per day.
It will be interesting to hear from our guests about the role governments and multinational corporations play in this global game of corruption. We're live at 6pm (EDT) Wednesday and on demand at www.livestream.com/reportersuncensored.