2009

On October 23rd, Crude made its debut in D.C. at the Landmark E Street Cinema. Crude, a documentary about the $27 billion dollar “Amazon Chernobyl” case, is making similar debuts across the nation in 2009.  Here in Washington, viewers piled into the theater, even at the10:15 PM showing, only to be greeted by director Joe Berlinger whoopened the film stating, “I don’t want to say enjoy the film, because it’s not enjoyable. I hope that it’s provocative so that we can talk about it.” And talk about it we did.

UPDATE:  The United Nations has voted 187 in favor, 3 against (US, Israel, Palau), and 2 abstentions (Micronesia, Marshall Islands) to condemn the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba.

The United Nations General Assembly will vote on a resolution whichcondemns the U.S embargo against Cuba on Wednesday, October 28th, forthe 18th year in a row. According to a CBS news report written afterthe 2008 U.N vote, “The U.S. embargo has cost Cuba $230 million a yearin foreign investment and caused the country more than $93 billion ineconomic damage since its inception, according to Cuban officials.”

Hear LAWG's director talk on Chicago Public Radio's Worldview program about the "two Colombias" : The one in which the war is winding down and all is going well; and the other one, in which hundreds of thousands of people are still fleeing their homes from violence, the army as well as guerrillas and paramilitaries are killing civilians, and the government is illegally wiretapping the institutions that are the basic building blocks of democracy.

Click here to listen to it on the Chicago Public Radio website.