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51% Show #1190

FM: National Productions
DT: Friday May 4, 2012
RE: 51% Show # 1190
 
STATIONS: If you have comments or suggestions, please contact Susan Barnett at SBARNETT@WAMC.ORG
 
We encourage stations to air the entire show in full, but you can also excerpt portions, with appropriate credit given upon notification of WAMC.
 
Here is this week's information on 51% #1190.
 
(SHOW THEME)

BILLBOARD – Susan Barnett (Music Out)

(:47)

United Nations relief agencies are warning that lives of millions of people in the Sahel region of West Africa are at risk. The Sahel is belt of land across the entire continent of Africa that creates the transition between the Sahara desert in the North and the Sudanian Savannas in the south.  Across that belt, there has been years of conflict and months of drought.

The UN estimate that 15 million people don't have enough food and close to 1.5 million children are on the brink of starvation.

The agencies say that efforts to respond to this growing humanitarian crisis are being hampered by a lack of funding. According to the agencies, only half of the nearly $800 million required to help avert a disaster in the Sahel has been received. Elisabeth Byrs, spokesperson for the World Food Programme tells Patrick Maigua that time is running out.

2:27  Sahel

That report comes to us courtesy of UN Radio.

Hunger and poverty don’t stop at the shores of other countries.  According to the US Census, poverty rates have been steadily climbing in the US, reaching 15 percent of the population in 2010. Those numbers are expected to have increased significantly as the recession continues. A study by Feeding America indicated that more than 14 percent of households in America are “food insecure”, and another five percent had very low food security. In January the World Economic Forum published a report citing severe income disparity and chronic fiscal imbalances as the top two risks, facing business leaders and policy makers this year and over the next decade.  Yet America, in particular, has accepted the widest income disparity of any developed nation in the world… a growing cavern between the haves and the have nots.

Sister Helen Prejean, of "Dead Man Walking" fame, discusses her spiritual awakening and the problems she has with how wealthier people look down on the working class.

This interview was produced by This Land Press. For more information, visit ThisLandPress.com.

4:15  Sr. Helen Prejean  PRX

Sister Helen Prejean was interviewed by This Land Press production. Visit ThisLandPress.com to find out more.

Coming up, the problem of invisible women, and meeting the woman your mother used to be. If you missed part of this show or want to hear it again, visit the 51% archives at wamc.org.  This week’s show is #1190.

(9:16)

We are living in a political climate where women are clamoring to be heard, whether they’re incensed at policies they say limit their freedom, or frustrated with policies they say are undermining society.  There is no worse feeling than being invisible. Writer Kathe Kokolias says that’s a feeling common to almost every American woman once she’s past the first blush of youth.  But she found that some cultures not only see older women – they appreciate them.

7:00  Invisible Women  Kokalias

Kathe Kokolias is an artist and the author of two memoirs: Spandex and Black Boots - Essays from an Abundant Life, and What Time Do the Crocodiles Come Out: A Travel Memoir of Mexico. She lives with her husband in Colonie, NY and Ixtapa, Mexico.

Finally, an essay that seems perfect for Mother’s Day:  a chance to meet the woman your mother once was. Rosemary Christle Reynaud got that opportunity unexpectedly, and was wise enough to recognize it for the gift it was.

6:02  Another Mother  Renaud

Rosemary Christle-Renaud is currently working on a book. She lives in New York’s Capital District.

You can read more at her website, rosemarychristlerenaud.wordpress.com.

(14:18)

That’s our show for this week. Thanks to Katie Britton for production assistance.  Our theme music is by Kevin Bartlett.

If you’d like to hear this show again, or visit the 51% archives, go to our website at WAMC.org. You can also find a regular column related to 51% at feminist.com.

Thanks so much for joining us…we’ll be back next week with another edition of 51% The Women's Perspective.

(:20 pads out to 25:00)

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