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Chuck D and Johnny Juice on hip-hop and America pt.1
Chuck D On The Real Off The Record: Rap getting less and less relevant to today's world

July 2 - Public Enemy's Chuck D speaks to DJ Johnny 'Juice' Rosado about rap artists and rap music in troubled economic times in the latest video from TRNN's On the Real, Off the Record series.

"Rap has unfortunately devolved into the 'me first, I gotta get mine' [mentality]. Rap is an American music in every way, 'cause America's about the almighty dollar, and that what's it's about," Rosado says.

"[Rap music] reflected the Clinton administration superficially," he says. "But as far as culturally, it's always been  'What can I do for myself?' And you know, how can a rapper talk about something like the conflict in Palestine, or a conflict anywhere, when they don't even know what is happening outside their five-block radius in Brooklyn?"

Regarding the current economic crisis, Rosado says that most rappers have lost touch with the reality of the situation and are still living in their own worlds. "At one time, rappers could talk about how hard they had it. But they didn't talk about it with a pride, they talked about it as a way of bringing it out and trying to overcome it. Now, there's a shame that's involved in talking about those things, so people don't want to mention how bad they have it, they want to mention how much money they have, even though they have no money," Rosado says.

To view the complete video, please click here.

For Press Inquiries, please contact:
Sharmini Peries
Senior Editorial Board Member
Email:  sharmini@therealnews.com

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G-20 or G-192: Which is more 'global'?
UN General Assembly vying for leadership over global economic crisis,
despite objections from the West


July 2 - "[The] G-20 is not a legitimate organization in the sense that it does not represent the countries. It's a self-appointed group," Martin Khor says of the G-20 meeting this past April. "And many countries that I
spoke to say that 'I do not feel included in the G-20, and our views are not represented there and the decisions have nothing to do with us. So, there is a feeling of being left out, of being excluded."

At the London Summit 2009 in April, G-20 countries gathered to discuss global solutions to the economic crisis, focusing on the themes of "growth, stability, jobs." The summit emphasized global by discussing xtending invitations to all of the United Nations 192 member countries to join the General Assembly.

At the summit, current President of the UN General Assembly Miguel D'Escoto-Brockmann said of the invitations: "We have built a globalized economy. Now is our chance to create a globalized policy and ethics based on the many cultural experiences and traditions of our peoples."

Byron Blake, Ambassador to the UN from Jamaica, also serves as a Special Adviser to D'Escoto-Brockmann and says that the G-20 was expanding its definition of "global" in the midst of the economic crisis.
"[The] G-20 conception was that they think it's only peripherally affecting the developing countries, it really is affecting the developed countries, and therefore the solution must be in the developed countries," Blake says. "This conference is making it clear that the impact is much more on the developing countries, which had nothing to do with the origin of the crisis. But they are the one picking up the real hard impacts of it."

Blake also says that it was not just the people in developing countries that should be angry at the system that has brought on the economic crisis. "[B]ecause the people in developed countries are also suffering. It's that all people, they should have to be angry about the system which allows that kind of thing to take place, and therefore justify the need for really changing the system fundamentally going forward."

In the second part of the video series, TRNN producer Jesse Freeston analyzes how the dynamics of the global economic discussion will alter when the General Assembly expands from the G-20 to the G-192.

To view the complete video, please click here.

For Press Inquiries, please contact:
Sharmini Peries
Senior Editorial Board Member
Email:  sharmini@therealnews.com

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Chavez, why?
Keivan Shamami: Why does Chavez, who opposes neo-liberalism at home, support Ahmadinejad in Iran?

July 1 - In  the first in a series of interviews with young Iranians about their feelings and opinions about the conflict in Iran, TRNN Senior Editor Paul Jay speaks to PhD student Keivan Shamami.

Shamami says that he has been disappointed and dumbfounded by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez's support of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration. Chavez said on an Iranian television show that the people of Iran have to respect the elections results that proclaimed Ahmadinejad the landslide winner.

Shamami also lists the vast political differences between Chavez's anti-privatization policies in Venezuela and Ahmadinejad's. Shamami quotes a 2009 figure announced by the  Iranian Privatization Organization that says privatization in Ahmadinejad's government has been increased 18 times between 1991 to 2003.

"So here my question for people like President Chávez is how come? How come you support people like Ahmadinejad? His own government is saying that the privatization in four years has been 18 times that of the period between 1991 to 2003," Shamami asks. 

In the next video of the series, Shamami and Jay will discuss the role of the Revolutionary Guards, Ahmadinejad, and the Supreme Leader and corruption in the Iranian state.

To view the complete video, please click here.


For Press Inquiries, please contact:
Sharmini Peries
Senior Editorial Board Member
Email:  sharmini@therealnews.com

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Health care reform debate
Thousands of supporters of Obama's plan rallied in Washington but some say his reform is not enough.

June 30 - Last Thursday, politicians like Democrat Representative Xavier Becerra and Senator Sherrod Brown spoke to supporters of a public health option crowded in front of Congress.

"We stand here today," Senator Bob Menendez spoke at the rally, "to say that we want something that not only saves our budgets, but saves our lives. We're here for something that shouldn't be considered a privilege, but should be a right on the greatest country on the face of the earth."

Advocates of a single-payer plan, like doctor Clark Newhall, also showed up at the rally. "We are single-payer advocates. We believe our health care is a right, and that it should be paid for by taxes, that insurance companies have no business in the health care equation," Newhall says.

Adrian Campbell-Montgomery is also a single-payer advocate and cancer survivor. "They're fighting for some sort of mediocre plan that's not going to benefit this country as a whole," Campbell-Montgomery said of the public health option supporters. "What's going to benefit this country as a whole is having single-payer when we have no deductibles, no premiums, no co-pays, [and] cheap, free affordable medications where people don't have to choose between food and their prescriptions. That's what we need to fight for."

Adelle Rogers, president of Retired Members of the CWA, Local 1180, said that she believes in US President Barack Obama's ability to deliver a public health care option. "I feel he is the right guy at the right time, personally," she said.

Obama has demonstrated his support for a public health insurance option in the past. He also stated that a single-payer option could be viable only if America could start from scratch.

"You have to start from scratch at this point. The system is broken, it's shattered, we can't fix it. You have to start from scratch," Campbell-Montgomery said of Obama's stance on single-payer.

To view in the complete video, please click here .



For Press Inquiries, please contact:
Sharmini Peries
Senior Editorial Board Member
sharmini@therealnews.com

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