Stan Van Houcke Audioblog

Lecture by the well-known American economist Richard Wolff on the 24th of January 2012 at the All Souls Church in New York titled: 'The Costs of Capitalism's Crisis: Who Will Pay?'

Lecture by James Peck, Adjunct Professor New York University, History and East Asian Departments. Author of ‘Ideal Illusions’, a critical study of how the US Government shaped human rights into a potent ideological weapon for purposes having little to do with rights, and everything to do with furthering America’s global reach. Peck was one of the speakers at the International Symposium Human Rights: Ideal Illusions? on 26 March 2012 – The Hague, Netherlands

Title of Lecture : Contours of Global Order: Domination, Stability, Security in a Changing World: the rise of Xenophobia in the West

Interview with Trita Parsi about his book Treacherous Alliance. The secret dealings of Israel, Iran, and the U.S. in which he shows that ‘in order for Israel to take center stage in the new Middle East, Iran would have to remain on the political fringe of the region and continue to be denied the role to which it believed it was entitled.’ According to professor Parsi: ‘The conflict between Iran and Israel wasn’t sparked by an ideological difference, nor is it ideological fervor that keeps it alive today.’ As the former Israeli minister of Foreign Affairs, Shlomo Ben-Ami, stated in 1997: ‘For everybody it was convenient that Iran becomes a major issue for the West because in that way we sort of submerged into a wider issue and relegated to a secondary status our problem with the Palestinians.\'

Interview with the Palestinian-American political scientist, filmmaker and human rights activist Mohammed Alatar about his filmdocumentary The Iron Wall.

A lecture by professor Kishore Mahbubani about his book The New Asian Hemisphere; the irresistible shift of global power to the east. Kishore Mahbubani (born 1948, Singapore) is dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. From 1971 to 2004 he served in the Singaporean Foreign Service, ending up as Singapore\'s Ambassador to the United Nations. In that role he served as president of the United Nations Security Council in January 2001 and May 2002. The lecture was part of the 23th Globaliseringslezing organised in Amsterdam on the third of November 2008.

Interview with Hamid Dabashi, professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at the Columbia University in New York about his book Iran. A People Interrupted, \"a brilliant analysis of the Iranian state of mind... Dabashi insists on a nuanced reading of the complexities of the Iranian social fabric,\" according to Hannan Hever, chair, Department of Hebrew Literature of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Interview with the American political scientist Norman Finkelstein, who held a lecture in Amsterdam under the title: The coming break-up of American Zionism.

Lecture by the American political scientist and author Norman Finkelstein under the title: The coming break-up of American Zionism.

Interview with the British author Jonathan Cook about his book Blood and Religion. The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State. Jonathan Cook, a former staff journalist of the Guardian and Observer newspapers, has also written for The Times, Le Monde diplomatique, International Herald Tribune, Al-Ahram Weekly and Aljazeera.net. He is based in Nazareth, the largest Palestinian town inside Israel.

Interview with professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and professor Stephen Walt of Harvard University, the American authors of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy November 2007 both authors spoke in Amsterdam about their book which had been translated into Dutch. The Dutch moderator during the meeting in the packed hall was himself a pro-Israel lobbyist. But this also happens sometimes in the US, both authors told me the next day, when I asked them if in general the public reactions were fundamentally different in the Netherlands than in the USA.

Interview with the Palestinian scholar Salman Abu Sitta. Dr. Salman Abu Sitta is well known for his research work and is an ardent defender of the Palestinian right of return. Beginning november 2007 he gave two lectures in the Netherlands. His latest publications are The Atlas of Palestine en The Return Journey. A Guide to the Depopulated and Present Palestinian Towns and Villages and Holy Sites. Both books deal with the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948, the disaster which the Palestinians themselves call the Naqba. Salman Abu Sitta is Former member of Palestine National Council. Researcher on refugee affairs and author of over 50 papers on the subject. Founder of Palestine Land Society. Director of international development and construction projects. Dr. Abu Sitta was and still the first of few to educate others about the plight of the Palestinian refugees and their Right Of Return. Abu Sitta\\\'s research in this matter is becoming a great asset to future historians and generations.

Lecture by and interview with the Palestinian scholar Salman Abu Sitta under the title: The Longest War against a People: The Palestinians\\\' Struggle for Freedom. Dr. Salman Abu Sitta is well known for his research work and is an ardent defender of the Palestinian right of return. Beginning november 2007 he gave two lectures in the Netherlands. His latest publications are The Atlas of Palestine en The Return Journey. A Guide to the Depopulated and Present Palestinian Towns and Villages and Holy Sites. Both books deal with the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948, the disaster which the Palestinians themselves call the Naqba. Salman Abu Sitta is Former member of Palestine National Council. Researcher on refugee affairs and author of over 50 papers on the subject. Founder of Palestine Land Society. Director of international development and construction projects. Dr. Abu Sitta was and still the first of few to educate others about the plight of the Palestinian refugees and their Right Of Return. Abu Sitta

Lecture by the Canadian author Noami Klein about her book The Shock Doctrine. The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. The lecture was given on the 11th of October 2007 in Amsterdam.

Interview with Susan Akram, Professor of Law Boston University, about the violated rights of Palestinian refugees. Susan Akram (50) is one of the foremost legal experts in the world of the rights of Palestinian refugees. Beginning October 2007 she gave a lecture on this subject at the Insitute of Social Studies in The Haque, the Netherlands. The next day I interviewed her at Schiphol Airport about the pro-Israel lobby in the US and the future of international law.

Lecture by Susan Akram, Professor of Law, Boston University, about the violated rights of Palestinian refugees. Susan Akram (50) is one of the foremost legal experts in the world of the rights of Palestinian refugees. Beginning October 2007 she gave a lecture on this subject at the Insitute of Social Studies in The Haque, the Netherlands.

Interview with the American painter Jerry Fresia, author of \\\'Toward an American Revolution. Exposing the Constitution and other Illusions.\\\' Jerry Fresia is a former US Air Force Intelligence officer, who lives, works and teaches painting in Lenno, Italy. Almost twenty years ago he wrote that US terrorism is \\\'not a deviation from Constitutional principles but rather the logical consequence of a system which protects the freedom of a handful of Americans to control a good deal of the earth\\\'s resources, and, correspondingly, the lives of millions of people scattered around the globe... We live in an undemocratic system that is a major source of terror and repression, both at home and around the world. In large measure this is due to the tremendous concentration of unchecked corporate power.\\\'

Interview with American author Jack G. Shaheen about his book Reel Bad Arabs. How Hollywood Vilifies a People. Jack Shaheen is Professor Emeritus of Mass Communications at Southern Illinois University, and the world\'s foremost authority on media images of Arabs. James E. Akins, Middle East specialist and former US diplomat wrote about Reel Bad Arabs: \'If you think overt racism in America is dead, think again. Jack Shaheen has shown in depressing detail in his book Reel Bad Arabs, that anti-Semitism in motion pictures is more virulent than ever provides the Semites being portrayed are Arabs. Films from Exodus (1960) to Rules of Engagement (2000) have relentlessly stereotyped Arabs and Muslims in ways that would fit seamlessly into Der Stürmer and the films of Nazi Germany.\'

Early November 2008 Phyllis Bennis gave a lecture in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, about the future of the USA and the world under president Barack Obama and about her new book titled: \'Understanding the US-Iran crisis\'. The Bush administration spent years threatening Iran – for its alleged nuclear ambitions, support for terrorism, and ambitions in the middle East – and war has often seemed only a step away. How did relations between the US and Iran come to be in this state? Are these dire claims even true? Is Iran in fact a serious threat? This primer provides an essential history and analysis of US-Iranian relations. Bennis\'s illuminating discussion responds to calls for aggression toward Iran with alternative strategies for defusing the crisis. This book is invaluable for anyone trying to prevent a new war in the Middle East. Phyllis Bennis is a fellow of the institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC and of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam.

Interview with the American journalist and author Charles C. Mann. Interview with Charles Mann about his latest book 1491. New revelations of the Americas before Columbus.