May 28, 2010

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Whole Show Blow-by-Blow

Today's guest host was Erica Johnson.

It's Friday, May 28th.

Facebook has announced new privacy controls that it says will be easier to use.

Currently, Facebook made the announcement from somewhere inside your house.

This is The Current.

Jamaican Ties - Peter Bunting

The residents of Tivoli Gardens in the western part of Kingston, Jamaica have grown accustomed to the sounds of gun shots. But the sound of automatic gunfire has died down this morning as Jamaican security forces claim to have gained control over the neighborhood. That's because yesterday they spent hours kicking down doors and arresting dozens of people in the bullet-ridden slum.

The man at the centre of this week's gun battles is still at large. Christopher "Dudus" Coke is the leader of the Shower Posse and a reputed drug lord. It's believed he slipped out of the neighbourhood while 73 people died trying to protect him from a U.S. extradition order.

Jamaica's Prime Minister Bruce Golding originally opposed that extradition order so when parts of the Jamaican capital turned into a war zone this week the relationship between Jamaica's politicians and local gangs like the Shower Posse was thrust into sharp relief.

And it's a relationship that Peter Bunting says needs to change. He's an MP with Jamaica's opposition People's National Party. He's also the opposition shadow minister for national security and he was in Mandeville, Jamaica.

Jamaican Ties - Philip Mascoll

The Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner went to the streets of Kingston to see what people thought about the possibility of separating politics from crime. We aired a clip.

Some observers hope the Jamaican Government's aggressive response to the gun battles in Tivoli Gardens might be a sign that it is looking to move forward. Philip Mascoll is among them. He's a former Toronto Star journalist who was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. He was in Toronto.

Article of Interest: Jamaican Shower Posse connected to Toronto gangs

PART TWO

Hate for Oil Companies - John Hofmeister

It'll be at least 48 hours before the world learns if BP's "Top Kill" operation has succeeded in stopping the surge of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. But at least BP's attempt to stanch the flow by pumping drilling mud into the broken well, hasn't made things worse.

A top kill has never been attempted before so deep under water. BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said the company is also considering shooting small, dense rubber balls or assorted junk such as golf balls and rubber scraps to stop up a crippled five-story piece of equipment known as a blowout preventer to keep the mud from escaping.

According to U.S. Government scientists, the damage is perhaps 12 to 25 times worse than BP's original estimate of a thousand barrels-a-day and considerably worse than the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989.

In the wake of that revelation, President Barack Obama has extended a moratorium on offshore drilling for another six months. And Liz Birnbaum -- the head of the Minerals Management Service which has been widely criticized for slack regulation on offshore drilling -- has resigned.

In short, it has been a bad couple of weeks for the oil industry. So the timing couldn't be better for a new book called Why We Hate The Oil Companies: Straight Talk From an Energy Insider. The man who wrote it is John Hofmeister. He was the President of the Shell Oil Company from 2005 to 2008. He's also the founder of Citizens for Affordable Energy. He was in our Toronto studio.

Articles of Interest: Arctic Drilling, "imagineering" not "engineering" , Hidden Costs of Fossil Fuels, Why We Hate Oil Companies

PART THREE

Quitting Facebook - Vivian Moreau

Facebook is a social media juggernaut with 400-million users. But that doesn't mean it's invulnerable. Earlier this week, Mark Zuckerberg -- Facebook's founder and CEO -- held a press conference to introduce new privacy and information-sharing controls.

Privacy concerns have dominated the debate about Facebook. And lately, they have pushed some people to quit the service and even organize others to do the same.

Vivian Moreau was a Facebook user for three years. She had 60 friends... some might say - not a huge haul - but a respectable presence. And last weekend, she quit ... cold turkey.

It has been less than a week since Vivian Moreau cut her facebook ties and she joined us from Victoria.

Quitting Facebook - Matthew Milan

Vivian Moreau isn't the only one re-examining her relationship with Facebook. Matthew Milan is the co-founder of Quit-Facebook-Day.com. He plans to quit Facebook on Monday. He was in Toronto.

Quitting Facebook - Ben Parr

Our friends at CBC Radio's Spark are looking at Facebook this week too. Host Nora Young spoke with Debbie Frost, Facebook's Director of International Communications and Public Policy and asked her about the new privacy settings the company introduced this week. We aired a clip.

The whole interview will air on Spark this Sunday at 1 pm, 4 pm Pacific. Or, if you want to hear the full, uncut interview right away, head online to cbc.ca/spark.

In that interview, Ms. Frost acknowledges that the changes Facebook implemented to its privacy features were, in part, a response to concerns expressed by Canada's Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart. So we checked in with Ms. Stoddart yesterday and aired a clip with what she had to say.

But not everyone is so down on Facebook. Ben Parr is the co-editor of Mashable.com, a blog about Social Media. He was in San Francisco.

Last Word - Betty White

Earlier in this half hour, you heard Vivian Moreau talk about quitting Facebook. She quoted Betty White, a Hollywood veteran known for her comedic timing in the Mary Tyler Moore show and the Golden Girls.

About a month ago, Betty White hosted Saturday Night Live. But the only reason she was even considered for the gig was because of Facebook. A campaign launched on the site reached critical mass, and convinced the brass at NBC to give Betty a hosting slot. So, Ms. White did what any thankful performer would ... she thanked Facebook in her opening monologue. We ended the program with some of her gratitude.