Radio Adelaide's home of international news and current affairs analysis
Archive for February 2008
The National Party was the governing party of South Africa from June 4, 1948 until May 9, 1994, and was disbanded in 2005. Its policies included apartheid, the establishment of a republic, and the promotion of Afrikaner culture
We spoke with Christi van der Westhuizen – an editor with Inter Press Service and an honorary research fellow with the School of Politics, University of KwaZulu-Natal – about her new book on the rise and fall of the National Party.
With all the focus on the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan not as much attention is paid to the enormous build up of arms and the political manoeuvrings that are occurring in Northern Asia. The US, China, Russia, North and South Korea, and Japan have all been involved in brokering a deal between the US and North Korea to end the stand-off between these two nations.
We spoke with John Feffer, co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the International Relations Center about the relations between the countries and its impact on the region.
This week, Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, opened the Australian Parliament with a formal statement saying sorry to the members of the Stolen Generation.
We spoke with Mary Hooker, one of the Stolen Generation and member of the Stolen Generation Commmission in NSW.
Japan and China have a long history of conflict. In the 970s the two countries normalised relations but, there still is a lot f bad feeling between the two nations which continues to frustrate closer ties.
We spoke with Professor Mel Gurtov, Professor of Political Science and International Studies at the Hatfield School of Government, Portland State University and Editor-in-Chief of Asian Perspective, on his ideas fro reconciling the two great Asian nations.
Since the term of President Emile Lahoud came to an end, the Lebanese Parliament has attempted to meet 13 times to choose the next President but every time negotiations have broken down. This despite the two major factions in the Parliament both happy with the suggested candidate.
We spoke with Timor Goksel, for 25 years the spokesman for United Nations Interiom Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and now lecturing in politics at the American University of Beirut.
The protracted nomination process for the US Presidential candidates for the next election is dragging on at present. It’s about halfway through and the numbers are finally beginning to thin – John McCain appears to have the Republican nomination sown up but Hilllary Clinaton and Barack Obama are slugging it out to become the Domocrat nominee.
We spoke with Professor Stepehen Zunes, Professor of Politics and International Studies at San Francisco University. He has served as a US political analyst for local, national, and international radio and television, and is a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter and CommonDreams.org.
On the 27th January, former President of Indonesia, Suharto, passed away. We spoke with Professor Tim Lindsey, Director of the Asian Law Centre & Associate Dean (International) in the Faculty of Law at the University of Melbourne, about the Suharto legacy.
After some months of covert work, members of Hamas managed to pull donw the wall between Gaza and Egypt and thousands of Gazans flooded across the border to stock up on the essentials denied to them by the constant Israeli blockade of Gaza.
We spoke with Jeff Halper, founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) a non-violent, direct-action group originally established to oppose and resist Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories.
