Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20240622

I boots riley. Music, in particular right now, at that point for me, hiphop, is something that could be used as a rallying cry, as a people to understand the common necessity, a common feeling, a common emotion to get people to join movements. Amy all that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. As many as ten thousand people fleeing violence in their home countries are surging through the balkans in efforts to reach hungary before the country seals its border. Many of the people are fleeing wars in syria and afghanistan. They are traveling by busses, on foot, in wheelchair and wheelbarrows. Once people reach hungary, they can travel freely throughout most of the european union. The hungarian government has said it will completely seal its border by august 31. Meanwhile, in germany, a sports hall that has been converted into an emergency refugee shelter caught on fire this morning in the eastern town of nauen. The town has seen antiimmigrant protests by rightwing groups in recent days. The fire comes after rightwing protesters clashed with police during demonstrations against a newly opened migrant shelter in a small town outside of dresden over the weekend. German chancellor Angela Merkel denounced antiimmigrant violence by rightwing protesters on monday. There was an aggressive move that is in no way acceptable. It is repulsive to see how rightwing extremist and neonazis are voicing her hatred , but it is just as disgraceful to see how german citizens and even families with children are supporting this and marching along with them. Amy in news from financial markets, the chinese stock market has continued to drop, following a dramatic plunge yesterday dubbed black monday. The decline shook markets around the world. After the new york stock exchanges opening bell at 9 30 monday morning the dow jones , immediately plummeted more than 1000 points. It eventually closed down nearly 600 points. In china, the decline continued on tuesday, sparking fears that the worlds second largest economy may be much weaker than expected. I think it must be an omen of a coming Global Financial crisis. Not only is at the chinese stock market, but also europe and the United States stock markets dropped a lot yesterday. It is not only chinas business, it may be an omen of a coming financial crisis to the world so i think it is pretty serious. Im not optimistic about the future of the market. Amy over the last three days, the markets decline has erased nearly 3 trillion in value from stocks globally. In the u. S. , stock prices are expected to stabilize today. We will speak with economist Michael Hudson after the headlines. In news from the philippines, a u. S. Marine has testified in court that he choked a filipino transgender woman until she was unconscious, but he claims he did not kill her. U. S. Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton is on trial for the 2014 murder of 26yearold jennifer laude, who was found dead in a hotel room near a former American Naval base that still frequently hosts u. S. Ships. He testified monday that he punched and choked laude after learning she was transgender. The case has strained relations between the u. S. And the philippines, with some filipino lawmakers calling for changes to the rules permitting American Military forces in the country, which is a former u. S. Colony. North and south korea have reached an agreement to diffuse the rising tensions between the two countries, following an exchange of artillery fire and threats of increased military action last week. South korean leaders agreed early Tuesday Morning to shut off a loudspeaker that has been broadcasting antinorth korea propaganda near the border, while north korea indirectly acknowledged responsibility for planting landmines that recently killed two south korean soldiers. The south korean director of National Security announced the agreement. North korea expressed regret over lisette land recent land mine event in a deep militarized zone along the d formation line demarcation line. South korea agree to hold the propaganda broadcasts from 12 00 local time on august 25. North korea agreed to in the cause i state of war. A court in the netherlands has ordered russia to pay compensation for costs and damages after seizing the greenpeace ship the arctic sunrise and arresting its crew during a protest against Arctic Oil Drilling in 2013. The group of 28 activists and two journalists were jailed for two months for trying to stop russian oil drilling in the arctic. The Russian Foreign ministry rejected the courts authority. In news from washington, state, Officials Say the wildfires burning across more than one court of a millionaire errors acres in Central Washington are now the largest in the states history. More than 1000 Fire Fighters and 700 National Guardsmen are battling the blazes. Meanwhile, in eastern washington, fires have forced the School District on the spokane indian reservation to postpone the beginning of school due to poor air quality and firefighting on nearby roads. The wildfires comes as a new study links Climate Change to drier conditions that are helping fuel increasingly strong wildfires across the pacific northwest. Meanwhile at the end of the month, obama will visit the arctic or youll emphasize the impact of Climate Change. The visit comes on the heels of the obama administrations decision to issue the final permit clearing the way for Arctic Oil Drilling. Meanwhile, president obama has announced new measures to promote solar energy including bolstering a federal program to help people switch to using rooftop solar panels to generate their electricity. Obamas speech at the National Clean Energy Summit in las vegas monday came on the heels of the administrations announcement earlier this month of a plan to cut Carbon Emissions by an average of 32 . So were taking steps allow more americans to join this. Evolution with no money down you dont have to share my passion for fighting Climate Change. A lot of americans are going solar and becoming more energy efficient, not because of tree huggers come although, trees, you know, are important. Just want you to know. Ut because their cost cutters they like saving money. Saving all for consumers money. Because i means they can spend it on other stuff. Solar isnt just for the green crowd anymore. It is for the green eye shade crowd, too. Amy a judge in ferguson, missouri, has withdrawn as many as 10,000 arrest warrants as part of a series of changes to the court system announced monday. The der withdraws all municipal warrants issued before 2015. It also changes the conditions for pretrial release and creates a pathway for people to have drivers licenses reinstated if the suspension was due to failure to pay fines or show up to court. A Justice Department probe found ferguson has been targeting African Americans for arrests and then profiting off of their fines. The changes come after a year of widespread protests over the Police Killing of michael brown. And in california, members of a Womens Book Club say the Company Running a touristy tour a tour through the napa valley kicked them off the train because they are black. Ten of the 11 members of the book club are african american. They say they were ordered off the train on saturday because they were laughing too loudly. One of the women was 83 years old. The move immediately drew criticism for being racially motivated, and the hashtag laughingwhileblack began trending on twitter. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Black monday. Thats how economists are describing yesterdays market turmoil which saw stock prices tumble across the globe from china to europe to the United States. Chinas stock indexes fell over 8 on monday and another 7 today. On wall street, the Dow Jones Industrial average initially fell a record 1100 points on monday before closing down nearly 600 points. The decline also caused oil prices to plunge to their lowest levels in almost six years. Joining us now to try to make sense of whats really behind the fluctuations in the market is economist Michael Hudson. President of the institute for the study of longterm Economic Trends, a wall street financial analyst, and distinguished Research Professor of economics at the university of missouri, kansas city. His latest book is, killing the host how financial parasites and debt bondage destroy the global economy. Welcome to democracy now it is great to have you with us. Professor hudson, talk about what happened in china and here in the United States. What happen in china doesnt have very much to do at all with what happened in the United States. Wall street would love to blame china, and the obama industry would love to blame china, and europe would love to blame china. The most of the chinese stocks went down because Small Chinese investors were borrowing from lets say the equivalent of payday loan lenders to buy stocks. There was a lot of small speculation in chinese stocks pushing it up. But this was an internal chinese phenomenon. China has a whole doesnt really of the problems. China the real problem is we are the aftermath of when the bubble burst in 2008 that all of the growth in the economy has only been in the Financial Sector, the monopolies, only for the 1 . It is as if there are two economies and the 99 has not grown. So the American Economy is still in a debt deflation. The real problem is, stocks have doubled in price since 2008 in the economy, for most people, certainly who listen to your show, hasnt grown at all. Finally, the stocks were inflated really by the central bank, by the fed creating an , 4. 5ous amount of money trillion to buy bonds that have pushed the yield down so high so low, to about 0. 1 for government bonds, Pension Funds and investors say, how can we make money . So they buy stocks. They borrowed at 1 to buy stocks that may be deal at 4 . Who are the largest people who buy the stocks . The companies themselves that of done stock buybacks. There the managers of the companies that have used their earnings essentially to push up stock prices so they get more bonuses. 90 of all the earnings of the Biggest Companies in america in the last five years have gone for stock buybacks and dividends. It is not being invested, not building new factories, not employing more people. So the real problem is that we are in a nonrecovery in america and europe is in an absolute class war of austerity that is what the euro zones, and austerity zone. That is not growing. That is what is happening. All that you saw on monday was sort of like a tectonic shift as people realizing, the game is up, time to get out. And once a few people want to get out, everybody sees the game is up. Amy and china . China, largely a small borrowers who have borrowed from intermediate lenders that have borrowed from the big banks. So a lot of individuals in china that tried to get rich fast by writing the stock market, all of a sudden find out they have a lot of debt to intermediate nonbank lenders insiders, it who banks will into is like the british banks winning to real estate speculators to lend out to homebuyers. It is essentially the attempt to get rich by writing the stock market in china went way overboard. Chinese stocks are still above what they were at the beginning of the year. This is not a crisis. This is not very much, it is just the artificial increase in some ofet has now ended the artificial push up, and it is so artificial and will still go down some more. Amy unsurprised you say what happen in china and the United States are not related. They are related in a way, but the u. S. Funds have not invested very much in the chinese stocks. Most of the china fund stocks are in hsbc. Which lends to china, the bank. Break first happen in china, but the break itself was within china and this showed investors, this is a symptom. That what happened in china is going to happen in europe and going to happen in the United States. Worldalk about chinas second largest economy, and what you think would be the healthiest relationship between china and the United States. The economy is not the stock market. Chinas economy had to acumen late large amount of foreign reserves just to withstand the kind of American Financial war that brought the asia crisis of 1997. So china acted defensively. It exported a lot. It developed Huge International reserves to make itself independent of the west. And now, it is in the middle of shifting away from an export economy to begin to reduce for its own people. Why should china Chinese Workers spent all of their lives making goods for walmart to sell in the United States and europe, why go they make goods for themselves to raise the own standard of living . That is what china is doing and that means china doesnt have to export more, and theres really nowhere to export to. If europe and u. S. Consumers are not spending, obviously, the attempt is to make china itself grow, but the chinese took the money instead of consumer goods, they bought stocks. Amy as markets in china plunged monday, former u. S. Treasury secretary and president emeritus of harvard, Larry Summers tweeted this dire prediction , as in august 1997, 1998, 2007 and 2008 we could be in the early stage of a very serious situation. Is he overstating whats going on here . Cook the question is, what does he mean by situation . When he says situation, he means his constituency, the 1 . He doesnt mean the economy as a whole, the 99 . He is been wrong on almost everything he has told. What he is calling for now is you have to cut taxes on the 1 more. You have to give the 1 more money and it will trickle down. This is part of his talk time to support his usual rightwing position. You have to be very careful when you listen to Larry Summers. Amy Michael Hudson, your book is titled, killing the host how finanacial parasites and debt bondage destroy the global economy. Explain what you mean. Most people think of parasites as taking money from the economy and the 1 is sort of sucking up all the income from the 99 . But in nature, what parasites do, they dont simply take, in order to take the have to take over the brain of the host. Aonomists it is for foreign country that lets american investors in. Smart parasites help the host grow, but the parasite come a first of all, has to make the host believe that the intruder is actually part of the body. To be nurtured and taking care of. And that is what has happened in National Income accounting in america and in other countries. Media,spapers and the not your show, but most of the media, treat the Financial Sector as if that is really in economy. When the stock market goes up, the economy is going up. But the economy is not going up at all. Somehowncial sector defeats itself as the brains of the economy and it would like to replace government. What Larry Summers said is what governments have to pay their debts by privatizing more, essentially, by doing what Margaret Thatcher did in england. That is his solution. All the governments have to do is balance the budget, selecting to wall street on credit, and we wont have any more problem. That is basically the Financial Sector is almost at war not only against labor, as most of the socialist talk about, but against government and against industry. It is a cannibalizing industry. So now most of the corporations in america are using their income not to do what industrial capitalism did a century ago, not to build more factories and employ more people and make more profits, theyre just using it, as i said, to push it to pay dividends and buybacks their shares and a somehow manipulate the Financial Sector in the stock prices, not the economy as a whole. There is been a divergence between the real economy and what i call what economists call the Financial Sector. Theyre going in separate directions. Amy you have been an advisor to the city syriza party in greece. Your friend of the former finance minister yanis varoufakis. Can you talk about what is happening now and what that votes for the economy, not only in greece, but in europe, maybe even here . The story begins about four years ago when greece had very large foreign debt taken on basically by the military government and what followed. Theas obvious as soon as socialist party came in, they said, look, the debt is much larger than we thought, we cant pay it. And they were going to write it down. The imf looked in and said, greece cant pay the debts, we have got to write them down. The board said, they cant pay the debt. Within the European Central banks came in and said, look, our job a central bankers is to support the banks. Greece owes the bank essentially french and german banks, and we have to support them. So despite the fact the imf was pushing for a debt writedown for years ago, the head of the imf at that time dominique strausskahn, wanted to run for president of france. He was told by french president sarkozy, wait a minute, french banks hold most of greek debts, you cant, the imf, say were going to write down the debt, so they didnt. Meanwhile, the eurozone said, we wont let you, the imf, be part of our program, the troika, if greecet pretend that can pay the debt. Greece was left with the huge debt. It was pushed into depression. The gdp fell worse than it did in the 1930s. Finally, the syriza came in in january engineering and varoufakis and super slot, we can to the finance ministers that you cant expect to push these into a depression, push more austerity, and somehow austerity will enable us to repay the debt. That is crazy. And he thought he could reason with them. Just whoeans, who is he was reasoning with said, were not here to talk about economics. We are lawyers. Were here to collect money. It doesnt matter that youre going to go into a depression. It doesnt matter that youre going to have to have another 20 of your population emigrate were were only here to collect the payments. And if you dont pay, we are one of pulled the plug. They pulled the plug on the great banks of humans ago and said, were not going to accept any of the Bank Transfers payments with great banks here. If you are exporting and you want credit for export, youre not going to give it to you. Were on a treat greece like amerco treated cuba and america treated north korea. Tsipras said we dont want to bring an absolute total crisis breakdown because that would bring the rightwing the power. Varoufakis said, well, he agrees that there is no alternative but to sort of surrender for the present and try to join hands with italy, spain, and portugal. But he wasnt going to be the administrator of the depression, so you had the referendum and well, nos now say, matter what, were not going to pay. The eurozone says, then were going to just wreck you or smashing grapples that amy i want to ask about president ial politics, about two of the republican president ial candidates jeb bush and john kasich, both worked for lehman brothers. John kasich after he ran for after he was a congressman. Jeb bush, according to the wall street journal, bush signed on with lehman after leaving the florida governors mansion, making it clear he wanted to work as a handson investment banker. I believe you made Something Like he made Something Like 14 million working for lehman and then barclays. Both parties are basically run by wall street. The democratic hardy, ever since bill clinton was run by robert rubin, and all of the secretaries of the treasury, the officials, have basically come from goldman sachs. Especially, timothy geithner. One of the problems in greece, by the way, was obama and geithner, coming from the rubin group, met at the group of 8 meetings and told we are told , basically greece, you have to pay because the american banks have made so many big bets on greek bonds that if greece is a in 2011,is was back then the americaif we go under,o under, were going to pull europe down. The american banks, were talking about wall Street Investment firms, theyre called Investment Bankers but they dont invest. They gamble. We are in much more casino capitalism then finance capitalism. You have wall street people they sickly running politics whether basically running politics whether they are actual politicians. Obama did not work on wall street, but worked with a real estate families. No matter who the president is, theyre going to appoint treasury has an Federal Reserve heads from wall street. Wall street has the veto power on all the major cabinet positions and so essentially, the economy is being run by the Financial Sector for the Financial Sector. That is the problem with politics in america today. Amy Michael Hudson, thank you for being with us, president of the institute for the study of longterm Economic Trends a wall , street financial analyst and distinguished Research Professor of economics at the university of missouri, kansas city. His latest book killing the , host how financial parasites and debt bondage destroy the global economy. When we come back, we look at south sudan. A new film is out. Stay with us. [music break] amy joined by boots riley in a moment. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Earlier this month, peace talks between south sudans warring sides failed to reach a deal to end a civil war which has claimed tens of thousands of lives in the worlds youngest nation. Last week, the United States proposed implementing a United Nations arms embargo on south sudan and new sanctions unless the government signs a peace deal to end the conflict. South sudan is the subject of a new documentary about modernday colonialism in africa. Austrian director Hubert Saupers, we come as friends, provides an aerial view of the conflict in sudan from a shaky, handmade twoseater plane. The film depicts american investors, chinese oilmen, United Nations officials, and christian missionaries struggling to shape sudan according to their own visions, while simultaneously applauding the alleged independence of the worlds newest state. What emerges is a devastating critique of the consequences of cultural and economic imperialism. The film just made its theatrical debut in new york and will be opening up in select theaters nationwide. Bbc worldwide north america has acquired full rights to film. Well, democracy now s Nermeen Shaikh and i recently sat down with director Hubert Sauper to discuss, we come as friends, the film took him six years to make. His 2004 film, darwins nightmare, was nominated for an academy award. I began by asking sauper about the message he hoped to convey in his new film. Friends is my latest film. The title includes arty the most cynical line that you can imagine somebody trying to take over a land to say, were here is your friend, we just want to help. Which is basically the case. I was trying to describe the pathology pathological mindset of colonialism, which is not over. It is still happening. That aree elements very important of colonialism is landgrab. Colonialism is taking the land of someone else and not only the land, but also the workforce in the control over the people on the land. So i found this specific story of one specific landgrab in south sudan and south sudan became independent of 600,000 ares being taken away from local committee, basically, by one contract, by one company, by one man, basically, from texas. The institute in oakland had researched that and basically tracks down, it took me a week to find this community in the middle of nowhere, and i go there with my little airplane, which i had to make the movie. Amy wait, wait, before we continue with this, you cant just gloss over that. In your previous films, youre always showing airplanes a sort of a symbol of globalization and also what comes in and out of a country, whether it is weapons going in and resources going out. But here you major own plane. How . Well, its not Rocket Science to make a very amy i think it is Rocket Science. Toit is not Rocket Science make a little airplane which is built like in the 1920s. It has a little engine, carries two people. Amy was it an engine used for a drone . Forhe same engines are used drones. They are made in europe. A that is another story. I was a bit uptight because i couldve been mistaken from being a drone. But we were in it. It was not unmanned. It was manned by two film makers. I self and my copilot. He is a very fine phone maker from america. Amy he dared to get in this plane with you from your home outside paris . He did for stuff he is dedicated to film making. Sweating andly terrified the airplanes, but he learned to fly over the civil war zone, basically. Amy you flew from your home in paris to . I have a small old farm outside of paris and i started to build with my this airplane called sputnik. It is a word meaning companion. You may have pictures of it. From my backyard, i took off with this airplane to tunisia, to libya, which was in the hands of gaddafi. Experience,leasant i must say. It took me a month to go through libya and egypt. Of very be with a lot half crazy people or totally crazy people in uniform. I had to explain a was not working for mossad or the cia. Amy why would they be crazy to think that . I mean, this little plane flying over one country after another, i dont think would be allowed in the United States. Nermeen is certainly would not be. If i were cia, i maybe would come up with these kinds of but ideas. Kinds of it im not working for the cia. I dont want to be hired by them. I dont think they want to hire me anyways. As a film maker maker, you have to come up with an idea and to come up with a way to find access to your idea, access to your subject and access to your locations. When you want to make a film in a wartorn zone like sudan and you start calling the minister of information and say, can i have an official invitation . Two weeks later, another minister of information. The old one asks you for 10,000 for a letter. So you dont even start doing this. It is not working. Basically, you have to come up with some kind of anarchist approach because it is area of anarchy. So if you are not an anarchist yourself, you are eaten literally and figuratively. You have to find a way to infiltrate in an environment which is hostile, but which you can still be in. Filman you how can you chinese oil fields in the middle of nowhere where theres no access to roads . Nermeen in sudan. In sudan when all around there is civil war. You have to find a way to get there. Friends with the president of china or you can also just fall from the sky and say, well, im here. Im sorry, i had to land. There are really frilly people everywhere. ,hen you can make people laugh like our plane was so small and ridiculous, everyone was laughing at us. Including ourselves. It is just like a big joke and it is kind of like a trojan horse. The whole thing is a joke, no . Worere pilot uniforms pilot uniforms. We did not do this in the beginning but at one point we were so harassed by military come every time we landed nice guess from our own airplane, they would not believe we were just making a film, so we ended up dressing up as pilots, airline pilots. I put myself four stripes as a captain on my shoulders. Like dictators who put on their own crowns. It was so ridiculous. We were just laughing. This was so odd, you know. As soon as we got to the next military camp, the soldiers would salute us and the commander would invite us for tea and would call is captain and so we had to we had mutated ourselves into what i hate most. I cant stand uniforms. Uniforms as itself is the theme of the film. Uniforms is part of the colonial legacy. Nakedzers came up at the people into dresses and uniforms and boots in lockstep and all this stuff is a part of the colonial legacy. Nermeen lets go back to the issue of land grabs and play a clip from we come as friends. In the scene, tribal leader in south sudan comes to understand that he has leased about 2300 square miles of Community Land to a dallasbased Company Called the now trading and developing corporation or ntd. It is explained to buy a group of political activists. In 2d has full rights to including the right to elop, produce, and explore export. R nermeen that was a clip from we come as friends. 20 300 square miles of land is approximately the equivalent of the greater much paladin chicago area. You talkauper, can about that in the significance of these land grabs in south sudan . As i said before, this specific, one single land deal i knew about it to the research, which is based in america. This contract was very officially signed by the government south sudan or southern sudan then, and when it became known to the Oakland Institute and through the bbc the bbc had made a show about it , a radio show about it. Then the government south sudan suddenly started to be afraid, started to kind of back out. They said, well, it was a mistake in the contract is neutralized. But it doesnt mean that things are now fine, just means that theres going to be another contract, another layer of another attempt. This specific contract, actually, apparently, is out of is no longer valid because of the work of the Oakland Institute and because of the bbc coverage of it. Thats it. Therea film maker, i was with this group of activists and of the the content contract to the manhood signed it, who had signed up his land. Apparently, he was unaware of what he had been signing and was kind of forced to sign. And why i used this in the movie is not to denounce the terrifying reality of this very contract, i was trying to make a link to another historic legacy to colonialism, which was the technique of how to steal some of these land. King leopold of bilge um, for example, he was using the services of morgan stanley, the famous explorer, and king leopold sent stanley into the congo and said, the sale of the river congo and take all of the local chiefs and you make all of them sign off their land to the king of belgium. The people at that time, 120 years ago, of course, did not know how to write. So you put down the fingerprints of the colonialists or stanleys assistance would hold their hands and make some kind of signature. And that was the end of many cultures. And it was the end of the life of millions of congolese, by the forcedcause they became labor. They had to produce how you say . Rubber for export at the time. Just another example. But these kind of things are always referred to as historic and like i said, new york was sold off for a piece of a cup of tea or something. It is not historic. It is present. It is happening today. Landgrab is a very, very terrifying reality today. Great danger to be taken over by foreign powers, by companies, by amy by companies, countries. You talk about china and you talk about the United States. Lets go to another clip, the u. S. Invested her to south sudan speaking at the opening of a new power plant near the kenyan border. At one point, his address is interrupted by a protester. United states of america. I am delighted to congratulate the members of this timely event. The power plant conserve approximately amy bringing light, the u. S. Ambassador to south sudan described describe this whole scene for us. We come as friends is a study of the pathology of colonialism and a lot of things, if you are a part of a pathology and all of us, i would say, you dont necessarily realize the grave, the implication of what you say sometimes. Theyne of the things that did was using religion, the arabs are using islam, and the west or lets say europe or america are using christianity as a tool. The argument of christianity was we have to bring peace, we have to bring civilization, we have to bring god and light versus darkness. It was referred to as the dark continent or black huntsman or shadowland or whatever. So we obviously are civilized into light. And these words are so increased into our souls that the ambassador of the United States speaks it out. This is literally and figuratively, we bring light, saying we will electrify your village and then you will become civilized and not as savage anymore, as you can see im not saying this, im just quoting. What is behind it. I dont know. It is good intention. I mean, i think it is an elegant person, the ambassador. He is doing what yes to do. He works for his country. He says, we come as friends. Opens up our station of electricity in an area, by the way, where people are starving, dying from famine. This powerximity of station, people are dying from starvation. Which is not the fault i mean, im not blaming the ambassador, im just saying the realities are so crazy and when you think of it, why of all places, in this very village, suddenly an electric power station. And there may be a connection. I am just suggesting something, threei cannot prove, but quarters or so of all of the reserves of gold in south sudan and it is a huge amount of gold and three quarters of that gold is in this very spot. Nermeen you talked about the role of christianity and of missionaries and colonialism. I want to play another clip from we come as friends. An evangelist from oklahoma is preaching to a group of students at a missionary school in that same small town here the kenyan border in south sudan. All that to tell you im very proud of you. We need leaders who are young who trustmen of god in god and know that he will answer your prayers. Want is what god pray, ihat means when i am crying just like jesus prayed i am praying just like jesus prayed. Whether you believe that whatever you pray for god will do. First now what . The the you know what the first requirement is forgot to answer your prayers . First, you must allow him to change your heart. The heart has to change. Nermeen that was a clip from we come as friends. Can you talk abouthe significance of these american evangelicals in south sudan . Significance. Well, again, we come as friends is a film about the mindset of colonialism and about the mechanism of colonialism. And european colonialism was very much accompanied and driven and supported by religious ideas and religious forces, and religious people. Today, theppens center of africa is being fought over by many. China wants the oil. Many Asian Countries want the oil. Arabic countries also want land to grow food because you dont grow much food in saudi arabia, for example. A lot of times, using religion also to come to certain regions. South sudan was by definition, nice, i mean, by the north sudan over many years. The north sudanese governments, mostly islamic regimes, were trying to send islamic russian area is to south sudan, were trying to make sure that naked children would Wear Clothing and were uniforms and march in step. They gave them guns to fight, etc. And now the western people are just doing the same. Were sending our missionaries. Theyre also trying to dress up naked children, trying to give them uniforms. We are giving us pple arms and then they go after eac other, and thene ca it tribal wars. And the tribal wars, like at this very moment in south sudan, there are tribal clashes. Terrible trouble clashes. Between two tribes. Why are they fighting . They are really fighting because thewarlords, the chief of one side is the president of south sudan at this moment and is opponent is called to make a long story short, these warlords are fighting over who has control over the resources, who is the power and theyre taking the whole country hostage. Theyre saying, we are the we should go after the others. Press and american even in the bbc, all these years about the two tribes fighting a basically suggesting the savage africans fighting against each other and now we have to do is comment, bring the u. N. And bring the missionaries and bring peace, but nobody really talks about the source of the problem is are ready the presence of money and people who want the oil and people who give the arms to these people. Amy what about the competition between china and the United States . The same pattern. The same story. Into two was split in 2011. Banquets italy, the new border cuts through exactly through the places were there is oil. I dont know why. Can you explain why . The north and south sudan are split up exactly in the new border, which divides, which is just the dividing role as part of the problem in africa. Borders or part of the problem. So this new border was created, 2000 kilometers long, and as soon as it had been created, it was on fire because it is where the oil is. In the end of my movie, by the way, the end of my movie is the first war on the border between the north sudan and south sudan. And now, actually, this point, south sudan in itself is on fire. Again, two groups and warlords are fighting over basically fighting over oil. Amy that is herbert sauper, director of we come as friends. The film has just opened in theaters now. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. When we come back, the rapper boots riley artist and writer and activist. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Boots riley tell Homeland Security we are the bomb. Thats the name of a new book by boots riley. He is best known with his work with the hiphop group the coup. Hes been deeply involved with political activism for decades. He joined more than 1000 black activists, artists, scholars and signing onto a statement supporting, the liberation of palestines land and people. Boots riley is been speaking out in defense of his cousin carlos riley, accused of shooting a Police Officer in germ, North Carolina in 2012. Just two weeks ago, jurors found carlos riley not guilty of shooting the Police Officer. Boots riley joins us in studio. Elcome back to democracy now lets start with your cousin and what actually happened in this highly unusual trial and what he was accused of. A cop stopped my cousin Early Morning december 2012. For what, we dont know. Somehow, they lost the records of why he was stopped. The cop started assaulting my cousin. Verbally told him, im going to kill you. Started to pull out his gun and shot himself while he was pulling out his gun. Amy the Police Officer shot himself . Shot himself in the leg while he pulled out his own gun. And this is somewhat common. My cousin took the gun from the officer, helped him get out of could get away. He had to take the gun because as we of scene from walter scott, he couldve been shot while he was getting away. And he did not want to be there while the police got there. Because we would not even talking about the story right now. He ran away. You turn himself in three hours later. He turned himself in three hours later. He was accused of shooting the cop, accused of assaulting a cop, and as you accused of robbing the gun from the cop, as if it was just a robbery. As we know, he took the gun so he would not be shot. All of the physical evidence come all of the witnesses the state brought to trial this went to trial theyll corroborated my cousin story. But i think the da thought that just the simple fact that there was a black man that did not let a cop this was a black cop but did not let a cop shoot him, they thought the jury would be incensed and find him guilty anyway, even though all of the physical evidence and witnesses backed up my cousins side of the story. He was found not guilty of everything that commonlaw robbery. The reason they found him guilty of commonlaw robbery had to do with the judges instructions. The judge did not allow the jury to think about him taking the gun in selfdefense. Amy the commonlaw robbery was they were saying robbing the Police Officer of the gun that he, the Police Officer, shot himself with. After threatening to kill my cousin. And the cop even testified on the stand that when my cousin had the gun, he looked at him and said, i dont believe you just tried to kill me. And then he helped the cop out by this time, the cop was in his car. It is crazy. Amy we have the polices gunshot report that we are showing for our viewers. For listers, you can go online at democracynow. Org. It states, one shot fired by officer. And the das all this, the whole Police Department knew this amy this did not come up in the trial . It was not presented by the state in the trial. But the state knew about it. They tried to railroad my cousin. They tried to still 38 years of his life. He is still in jail right now for robbing the gun robbing the officer of the gun he wanted that the officer wanted to kill him with. So there are appeals going on. The firsted to get time this lawyer had ever seen this, the lawyer attorney charms had has been doing Police Brutality cases for 32 years and the da tried to get him thrown off the case. Had a private session with the judge, tried to get them taken off the case for incompetence. The first time this has ever happened. The lawyer actually put this on the record in court. And stayed on the case. The state gets to decide who gets to do the appeal for my cousin, and they dont want attorney charms on their because he did a good job. Once more, so many public defenders would not take my cousins case. Best ipublicized as suspect because it was publicized as a guy shes a cop. Amy though he was acquitted of this. And the Police Report says the cop shot himself. Let me ask you about your look book. Tell Homeland Security we are the bomb. What is a mean . In one way, you could take it as bragging, we are the bomb. But in reality, we are the weapon against the state. Where the weapon against the ruling class. Amy can you perform for us . The shorter one, as we have not a lot of time . It is from a song called ghetto blaster. Listen to the shotgun sonata with a plot to rock harder than the second intifada. A more like i want that will slaughter, slaughter, slaughter. From the scholars, clear color of your black and white gala. Bush and obama, im a brawler, calling you all to come harder. I am from the land of free labor. A fan of radical bandits and bandannas who cram in the banana rat and read attack cap ta tat tat the next caliber, catch the program, not just my pentameter. Amy that is boots riley. We just have about 15 seconds. The importance of art in bringing that your political activism. Art are the words between the words. It unifies us and allows us to know that other people are thinking the same things we are. It is part and essential part of boot building a movement. Amy we will continue to conversation and posted online at democracynow. Org. Tell Homeland Security we are the bomb. That does it for our broadcast. Happy birthday to julie crosby. To johnolences randolph, our cameraman, whose mom died. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people w appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now democracy now p. music playing so look at that beautiful creamy burrata i have here. It just came straight out of the oven. I know youre going to love it. Im just going to put a little fresh pesto on it, and i have some prosciutto ham that im putting on top. Its easy to eat; you will love it. So once were at that stage, im going to flip over the bread, put two little picks in here, cut it in half delicately, and you see how beautiful and nice the sandwich is. Here we go. On todays show, i have some great brunch items that i will share with you. First ill make a pear galette, or a freeform tart, made with a golden brioche dough, pastry cream and deliciously poached pears