WNR Strikes Back
By · CommentsAfter a long hiatus, WNR is making a resurgence. I think the most coherent way is to explain the new WNR is through some questions and answers.
Why WNR? How is that different from the old model?
Two weeks ago, several staffers got together to discuss what to do about WNR. The meeting concluded with the belief that while we had been right to expand our platform and move away from a radio show that was both outdated and inefficient, our decision to switch topics was wrong. The original topic of conflict, which has spread beyond Iraq and Afghanistan, was a unifying factor for our mission, structure, and community.
We are returning to the War News Radio name, but rebranding it exclusively as WNR just as National Public Radio has rebranded itself to NPR. Read More→
This Week’s Video Newscast
By · CommentsCheck out this week’s video newscast for updates on the latest news and information about our current pieces and upcoming content.
After the War: PTSD and Veterans’ Care
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BATTEN: Matthew Letterman came home from the Gulf War in 1991, but in some ways, he says, he never really left Iraq.
LETTERMAN: I left a piece of myself over there. You know, I would like to either go there and get it and bring it back, or be buried there with it.
BATTEN: When he returned to the US, Letterman knew something was wrong –
LETTERMAN: Bad dreams, flashbacks, night sweats, extreme jumpiness, hyper alertness.
BATTEN: But he couldn’t figure out what it was. Letterman has now been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, as well as Gulf War syndrome, an illness caused by exposure to chemical toxins. But in 1991, Letterman says, it seemed as if no one wanted to tell him that.
LETTERMAN: It was a hey man, suck it up, move forward type thing… it’s all in your head. I went for over five years before I seen a counselor or a psychiatrist through the VA. And I can’t help but wonder how things would have turned out if I could’ve at least got the help that I needed in 1995.
BATTEN: Veterans’ care has come a long way since Letterman struggled to find a psychiatrist in 1995, but the system can still be improved. A new wave of American troops has been returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, sometimes bringing home their struggles with PTSD. As mainstream media coverage shifts away from these wars, veterans’ care may lose the attention it deserves.
BATTEN: Studies cited by Veterans Affairs, or the VA, indicate that 9% of Gulf War veterans suffer from PTSD. But the numbers are even higher for veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2001 and the present — one in every five veterans is battling PTSD or depression. But is the United States government doing enough to help?
Letterman says that in 1995, the answer was decidedly no. Read More→
Interview with Bill Marczak of Bahrain Watch
By · CommentsOn February 11, Huwayda Ahrraf and Radhika Sainath were arrested in Bahrain after they attended an anti-monarchy protest with an American activist group called Witness Bahrain. The story of their arrest and subsequent release to the United States, told in a forthcoming piece from War News Radio, got me curious about how other activists in Bahrain continue to face human rights abuses under Bahrain’s government. Earlier this week, Bahrain’s National Commission released a report detailing their progress in implementing recommendations from the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, or BICI, which outlined human rights reforms in November 2011. While King Hamad of Bahrain claims that the National Commision’s progress report is evidence of positive change, international observers and advocacy groups maintain the improvements are superficial at best. One such group is Bahrain Watch, an organization which launched a website called “Government Inaction” earlier this month to monitor the BICI reforms. On Thursday, I spoke with Bahrain Watch founding member Bill Marczak about the shortcomings of the BICI reports, the Government Inaction project, and whether “cyberactivism” can really improve government accountability.
Additional footage from Al Jazeera, and images from Bahrain Watch.
BALDONADO: There are 10 veterans who die a day, because of their old age. Like myself, I’m 85 years old already. My comrade is 93. We had a meeting the other day and they said: we are losing our people around.
SOMOSOT: That was Regalado Baldonado, Commissioner for Veteran Affairs of the City and County of San Francisco. Filipino and Filipino-American veterans have been repeatedly denied recognition and refused their right to receive full military benefits since WWII ended 65 years ago. Now, they are lobbying for the United States Congress to pass House Resolution 210, or the Filipino Veterans Fairness Act, which will bring them the acknowledgment of service that they have long been waiting for.
HR 210 intends to repeal the 1946 Rescission Act, which American President Truman issued at the end of WWII to strip these veterans of all military benefits they were promised at the start of the war. The government’s official rationale was that they had fought for the Philippines and not for America, according to Filipino-American documentary filmmaker Sonny Izon. Read More→
Pakistan’s Afghan refugees face uncertain future
By · CommentsHAMEED: On Islamabad’s Faqeer Aipee Road, a child leads a camel along the dirt path while an SUV races past on the pavement. It has become an ordinary scene to locals, scores of people and a sudden collection of shanties to the sides of the road. This is a place known as Afghan Basti, a makeshift settlement that is home exclusively to refugees who have arrived in the city from Afghanistan.
Afghan refugee communities in Pakistan face abominable living conditions with little ascertainable hope for change. With their government-issued residency cards set to expire at the end of this year and no structure for repatriation, the situation for Afghan refugees remains unclear. Read More→
