Today on Sojourner Truth we rebroadcast a show from Alternative Radio, featuring a May 19, 2020 talk given by Naomi Klein and Arundhati Roy, moderated by Asad Rehman, and narrated by David Barsamian.
Naomi Klein is an aware winning journalist and columnist and Glory Steinem endowed chair in media culture and feminist studies at Rutgers University. She's the author of many books, including The Shock Doctrine, This Changes Everything, and On Fire; The Burning Case for a Green New Deal. She's co-founder of the climate justice organization, The Leap.
Arundhati Roy is a world renowned writer and global justice activist. The New York Times calls her India's most impassioned critic of globalization and American influence. She's the author of the novels the God of Small Things for which she received the Book Arppise, and The Ministries of Utmost Happiness. A collection of her essays My Seditious Heart is published by Haymarket. Arundhati Roy spoke from New Dehli, Naomi Klein, from New Jersey.
Naomi and Arundhati spoke about The Corona Virus, climate change, and The Green New Deal.
What will tomorrow bring in the age of COVID-19? There is so much uncertainty. Arundhati Roy sees an opportunity. She writes, Whatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality. Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.