The Current

I have been listening to podcasts of a radio show these past few week.  The Radio Show of choice this last few days has been The Current, which is on the CBC.  It is a more in depth look at the events in to world and the country.  It is very well researched and the people they speak to on the issues are well versed and balanced, facts and gender.  Which is to say they have a mandate to interview female experts for the questions of the day, if they exist and balanced in facts, but not to the point of stupidity.  

Many people think balanced means that you need give equal time for both sides of a controversy. This is not true and could be potentially dangerous.  As an example Climate Change.  Ninety-nine percent of scientists believe it is happening, one percent do not, but people listening to "balanced" reporting believe it is closer to fifty fifty, because every scientist interviewed has another interviewed from the other side.  Balanced reporting of climate change means interviewing one hundred scientists of whom only one disagrees from the rest.  

The quantity and quality of interviews is also great, the show lasts for ninety minutes five days a week with usually about six stories a day and two to three people interviewed per story. 

I do have one problem with it; a lot of the stories are tough to listen to.  But almost every story is thought provoking and informative.  This is what good radio should do, teach you something and knock you out of complacency.  

The thing is if everyone knows about the bad shit that is happening in the world and if people voice that it is bad and our Governments know that we do not want that stuff happening, perhaps they will enact measures to stop them from happening again.

An example.  In the nineteen nineties in Rwanda, the ruling tribe attacked and slaughtered the majority tribe, murdering nearly a million people in a week.  The UN observers were shocked and surprised and did not know what to do, I say this because I want to give them the benefit of the doubt.  And the entire world was shocked and everyone vowed that they would never let it happen again.

Forward to 2009 in Sri Lanka, government forces in the last days of a 26 year war against the Tamil Tigers refuses to allow a cease-fire to allow civilians to flee the area and presses the attack.  The UN workers and observers in the area are pulled out for their safety and when they return, the war is over.  But there were allegations that captured rebels were executed and depending on the reports up to 240,000 civilians were also killed.  All civilians who surrendered were interred into camps and tortured to find out if they were rebels.  Many who were released felt persecuted and fled the country as refugees.  Many of these people did get refugee status in this country, but some did not, those deported were reinterred and tortured again, but my country is still sending them back.  You see the refugees got here a year ago, but the report of the genocide was not released by the UN until last month and then it was not publicized.  

I did not here about this on the news, but on The Current an interview with one of the UN observers and his observations and guilt.

Makes you think and it is not comforting.  It makes me think about the horrible things happening in Syria and that we are doing nothing to stop it.