December 31, 2008

It's Wednesday, December 31st.

Sarah Palin's 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, has given birth to a son, named Tripp ... a nephew to Palin's sons Track and Trig.

Currently, Apparently the family overruled the name the father of the baby suggested ...Trapped.

Benny Morris - Israeli Historian

Israel is a country where history is never really past, and where politics leeches into all quarters of society. No historian is merely an academic or a chronicler of the times. What he or she writes, in some cases, becomes the starting point of painful and contentious self-examiniation.

Benny Morris is one of Israel's most famous and respected historians. He is also probably its most controversial. This week he had an editorial in the New York Times titled Why Israel Feels Threatened expressing sentiments many would have been shocked to have read twenty years ago.

Benny Morris is a professor of Middle Eastern history at Ben-Gurion University in Israel and is the author of 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War.
The Current reached him at his home, southwest of Jerusalem.


Israel - Discussion Continued

What many are calling the ideological migration of Benny Morris was a severe blow to Israels' progressive intellectual community. Gershom Gorenberg has known Benny Morris for decades. He is one of the founding editors of the Jerusalem Post and is the author of The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977. Gershom Gorenberg was in Jerusalem.

Gershom Gorenberg is one of the founding editors of the Jerusalem Post and is the author of The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977. He was in Jerusalem.


Listen to Part One:

Contemporary Stories about Aboriginal Canadians


At this year's Hot Docs film festival in Toronto a documentary called Club Native caught the attention of critics and took home an award for Best Canadian Documentary.

Club Native is written and directed by Tracey Deer, a filmmaker who grew up in Kahnawake, a reserve on the outskirts of Montreal. Her film is shot mostly on the reserve. And it examines identity, group membership and the social and emotional cost of marrying outside the Mohawk Nation.

It is a difficult subject matter, but Deer does not shy away from a challenge. She is only 30 years old but already has 3 films to her credit, with another 3 on the way. This year Tracy Deer launched her own production company, Mohawk Princess Pictures and -- along with her fiancee -- purchased the community newspaper in Kahnawake called The Eastern Door. Tracey Deer was in Montreal.

Listen to Part Two:

Negotiations with the Taliban

At the start of the war in Afghanistan we often heard about the dire conditions women were living in under Taliban rule. Indeed, many argued that usurping the Taliban from power would help free the country's women from oppression and violence.

In a radio address, U.S. First Lady Laura Bush gave back on November 17, 2001 talking about the freedoms women in Afghanistan were enjoying with the Taliban regime ousted from power.

But seven years on and the political players are singing a different tune. The efforts now are focusing on ways to engage the Taliban - in hopes of bringing stability to the country. But these efforts to negotiate with the Taliban is concerning some Afghan women who fear it will be detrimental to women and women's rights in the country.

Nadene Ghouri is a freelance journalist who has been working in Kabul for the last eight years. We reached her in Paris for the show.

The Current's Letter Pack with Tom Harrington and Lara O'Brien

Even over the holidays our dedicated listerners continue to weigh in and so The Current's Lara O'Brien joined guest host Tom Harrington in studio.

50th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution

On Christmas Eve we heard from reporter Michael Maclear who interviewed Fidel Castro in 1959 for the CBC. Anna Maria Tremonti spoke to Michael Maclear about the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution.

That prompted Paulette Lachance of Outremont to write: "The UN has voted many many times to lift US sanctions against Cuba often called the US Blockade. The most recent vote: 184 countries YES and only 2 NO's: USA and Israel. Due to veto power of USA the overwhelming majority of YES votes do not count. Cuba has become renowned around the world for its Education, Health and Humanitarian assistance even in the face of such sanctions in place since 1961 or so. Cubans have survived and developed and are a symbol around the world for what 'the people' can do all the while standing tall only 90 km from the largest superpower in the world.

Year End Political Panel

And on Monday's show we gathered together our year end political panel to get their take of 2008. The Current spoke with former Liberal strategist and author Warren Kinsella. Peggy Nash a former Toronto NDP member of Parliament and Harvie Andre a former member of parliament and Cabinet minister in Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservative government.

That panel prompted Margaret Tyson of Ottawa to write: "The Conservative participant in the conversation spoke of the coalition as if it were some kind of nefarious plot. He also criticized it because it represented a change in policy from that expressed by the opposition parties during the election. Finally he objected to the separatists having the role of balance of power. He needs to understand a few things: 1/ Coalitions are part of our Parliamentary tradition and this one represents 54% of Canadian voters. 2/ Policy reversals have been de rigueur since January 2005 as evidenced by the multitude of Harper's stunning about-faces. 3/ The Harper Conservatives represent a de facto coalition of Alliance, Reform and P.C. members, some of them western separatists amongst whom Stephen Harper must be counted."

Gaza Witnesses

On Tuesday's show we the led our coverage of the ongoing crisis in Gaza by speaking to residents on the ground.

That prompted Wallace Rice of Toronto to write: "Why are you so one-sided? I listened to The Current this morning where you interviewed Gaza residents of their plight, but not one Israeli was called to describe the terror under which they have lived for months--the constant rocket attacks. Are their lives not as worthy?"

If you have any thoughts about anything you hear on the program -- you can email us from our website cbc.ca/thecurrent. Click on the Contact Us link. You can call us toll-free day or night at 1 877 287 7366. Or write to us via Canada Post. Our postal address is Box 500, Station A, Toronto, M5W 1E6.


Last Word

We ended the show with what might be the funkiest version of Auld Lang Syne you'll ever hear. This is from the band Black on White Affair, a Seattle-area band from the early 70s. And here's a little odd fact - official time keepers around the world will wait a full second before they belt out Auld Lang Syne. It's called a 'leap second' and it accounts for the ever-so-slight slowing of the Earth's rotation. So don't be thrown off by the pause before you break into song later tonight.

Listen to Part Three: