Sounds from the street

Radio from Greenpeace in Cancun

The underbelly of Cancun
Friends of the Earth organised a tour to take journalists out to see what is going on beyond the boundaries of the rich hotel zone, in which the WTO is taking place. Cancun is one of the areas with the greatest gaps in social and economic status; the poverty level is extremely high, and in this interview Helen talks about what she saw on the tour.
765 kb
1:36 mins
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/
http://cancun.mediosindependientes.org/media/all/display/343

reading_from_paper.mp3
We were sitting around one afternoon in the offices of the Greenpeace delegation, and Eric, who is doing our blog here at the WTO, asked Cecilia the Spanish speaking press officer to read us the interesting bits out of the paper. So I just grabbed my mike, hit record, and so we now bring you "Cecilia reads the paper!",
06.09.2003
5.45 min
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/

steet_medic_interview.mp3
This is an interview with Aoewen at the Indymedia centre here in Cancun. She and a few others have been training people to be street medics. As I walked past, she was training a young activist on how to rinse the eyes of a person blinded by teargas. I got this interview afterwards, asked her about what it's like to be a street medic, what kind of situations they are preparing for, and what the general feeling on the street is.
2.41 mins
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/

gerard_filtered.mp3
Gerard Greenfield went to a meeting of the Via Campesina, (the International Farmers forum) today. About 3000 farmers attended this meeting from indigenous communities from around the world. Gerard describes how the main issue of the meeting today is very much about food sovereignty and free trade. What was very interesting was that there were people from small farming communities from around the world, including South Africa and Thailand. Gerard says “The common theme that is coming out here that is very strong, in statements that are repeated throughout the meetings, especially from the campesina from the indigenous communities whose livelihoods are threatened, is the position: WTO out of agriculture, no patents on life, and yes on food sovereignty.”
2.22 mins
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/
http://cancun.mediosindependientes.org/media/all/display/151

Consumers Association
At the Via Campesina march today I interviewed two people from the organic consumers association. They are very concerned about genetically engineered food, and how this food, which is untested although corporations say it is, is making its way into food.

"I'm also concerned about how the WTO is concerned about corporations and profit, and not concerned about the people of the earth, or the air, the water, the land. It’s a process that destroys our beautiful planet, and I think it behoves the people to come together to say no to the WTO"
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/

Political analysis
Sebastion Risso, a Greenpeace delegate at Cancun with experience in political meetings, talks about trying to get ministers to recognise the priority of sustainable development.
00:03:34
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/
http://cancun.mediosindependientes.org/media/all/display/436

Commentary from the Farmers march
This longer piece has a few interviews with people from on the march, asking them why they are here and describing the march itself. It ends with a statement on Lee Kyung-hae. In English.
00:24:26
64 kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono
blog: http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/
http://cancun.mediosindependientes.org/media/all/display/441

Preparing for the WTO
We cover what it's like to be here on the eve of the WTO, and what Cancun is all about, touching a little on the reality of life for the Mexican people. We talk to some people here, some NGO's here. Then we talk to people from the Indymedia centre, the convergence center and the ecovillage.
00:48:50
ftp://ftp.radio4all.net/pub/radio/first_one_hour_piece_final.mp3
http://ftp.radio4all.net/pub/radio/first_one_hour_piece_final.mp3

Greenpeace interrupts US delegation on first day of Biosafety protocol
As the US delegation tried to give a press briefing today, Alehandro Cavillo of Greenpeace interrupted to say that that todaythe Biosafety protocol comes into effect. If the US pushes it's agenda, this protocol may be overridden by the WTO. One point that Alehandro made was that under this protocol governments have the right to protest their producers, consumers and biodiversity. This right is currently denied to Mexico, which suffers from the dumping of genetically modified grains from the US. The practices of ‘dumping' subsidized exports on the Mexican market has made sure that local farmers can't compete. 600 farmers a day are leaving the land and heading towards the city.
English. 00:04:25
http://ftp.radio4all.net/pub/radio/action_us_delegation.mp3

Food first interrupts US delegation
While some of the press cried "GET OUT! GET OUT!" counter voices from the press corps cried out "STAY HERE! STAY HERE!". The representatives from Food First struggled hard to yell above the abuse from the floor, to say "If the WTO listened to farmers we wouldn't have to be here. The WTO should listen to farmers instead of killing them."
English 00:00:59
http://ftp.radio4all.net/pub/radio/action_us_delegation_food_first.mp3