Speaker 1: You know when you're gonna leave church, and your mom
Speaker 1: would be like, all right, baby, come on, let's go.
Speaker 1: I'm ready to leave. And then she proceeded to talk
Speaker 1: a million extra hours with her friends and you're just
Speaker 1: standing outside and then you with the second you go
Speaker 1: play with your friends, she'd be like, nah, I told
Speaker 1: you we're ready to go, right, that's us who you know,
Speaker 1: been going to church our whole life and know that story.
Speaker 1: So that's what this episode is. Uh, this was supposed
Speaker 1: to be a one partner and then me and Jake
Speaker 1: got to talking and got to talking for a long
Speaker 1: time and now it's a two partner. So here go
Speaker 1: part one this computer. There go you, Jake, thanks for
Speaker 1: having me. Hey man, I'm honored, man, Jake Hanrahan, I'm like,
Speaker 1: um fighting all urges to do any sort of like
Speaker 1: South London, East Essex. Yeah, I'm saying it. I'm not
Speaker 1: even from anywhere near that I know. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. That's why I like, it's even funnier like
Speaker 1: to be honest with you guys like I started watching,
Speaker 1: uh well made it even worse as I started watching
Speaker 1: season two of Top Boy. So I'm like, I'm like
Speaker 1: I'm in it. Like I'm like, yeah, yo, I mean,
Speaker 1: we will have the same slang and stuff from from
Speaker 1: but it is a little bit different accent wise, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. I think I think like we're
Speaker 1: such a small island and we have so many accents
Speaker 1: that when when Americans are like is it from here there,
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, I get why you don't know, because
Speaker 1: it's it is mad, Like there's so many accents. Even
Speaker 1: where I live, like a ten minute drive down the
Speaker 1: road that a town where they have a kind of
Speaker 1: Scottish accent. Yeah. Yeah, because in the eighties loads of
Speaker 1: Scottish people moved that because of the steel works that
Speaker 1: are like people, I'm like, Twine is so weird, man, listen, okay,
Speaker 1: cool because I'm like, so my first time do it?
Speaker 1: Like first of all, what's up her politics? I got
Speaker 1: ja con rahnd Popular Front, uh all the other like
Speaker 1: um expose a joints, the Q clearance, the dude, the
Speaker 1: g dude jumps into war zones on purpose. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm saying, uh. But when I when you know, through music,
Speaker 1: when I first you know I had a chance to
Speaker 1: go toward the UK, Like that's when I finally caught on,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like when you went, when
Speaker 1: we went, you know, four or five hours north to Birmingham,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh they Burmingham, they got the droll,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: and I couldn't the same thing. I couldn't tell the
Speaker 1: difference until you start moving around out there then like okay, man,
Speaker 1: I was like, yo, wait so stains and it was
Speaker 1: like yeah, no, it's a whole different you know. It's
Speaker 1: like yeah, that's a whole different areas. So just the
Speaker 1: more I was around there, yo, and here's the funniest part.
Speaker 1: So uh just so American of me, right, Like I
Speaker 1: mean it's still like my Space years, so uh yeah
Speaker 1: the best times. Right. So we get off the plane
Speaker 1: and dudes like, hey, yeah, I look for see these brothers.
Speaker 1: They're musicians, they're super dope. Right there, was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're two Asian brothers. Like well, like you can't miss us.
Speaker 1: Mal walked by them dudes three times because they're Indian.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah you were you were thinking of like I
Speaker 1: was thinking like Asian, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: Some people in Britain, Yeah, we have different ones with
Speaker 1: different things. Yes, they were Punjabi Indian and I was like,
Speaker 1: why do you say you Asian? There was like because
Speaker 1: India's in Asia. Yeah. They looked at me like I
Speaker 1: don't known the state of the question. It was like
Speaker 1: you know what it sure is. You know. It's like
Speaker 1: like we have like a really do you know what?
Speaker 1: The one thing I will say about Britain is we
Speaker 1: do have like a very people are very like quite
Speaker 1: open about like talking about race, you know, yeah, but
Speaker 1: like no, it's not like a thing to be like,
Speaker 1: oh that Asian guy. Yeah, people are like yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe maybe like posh kind of people they
Speaker 1: feel like, you know, but generally, like you know, in school,
Speaker 1: it's like which guy that guy? And it's normally like
Speaker 1: the race or the or the where he's from. Like
Speaker 1: my friend who is like half Afghan, it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: the Afghan kid, you know, yeah he doesn't you know.
Speaker 1: It's not really like descriptor yeah. Yeah. It's like no
Speaker 1: one gives a ship, you know. But when you have
Speaker 1: like Asian and like yeah and you would think that
Speaker 1: in an Indian, it can be very confusing. I've heard
Speaker 1: a few stories like that from like Americans coming here
Speaker 1: and like our slang, like you know, like what we
Speaker 1: can cigarettes. Yeah, must have said that. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna you know, it's smoker, you know. And and
Speaker 1: this guy when I was voice was like what did
Speaker 1: you just say? I was like relax, relax, yeah, hey,
Speaker 1: chill hold me. Yeah yeah, like that's I I find
Speaker 1: much joy in that, you know, and realizing like like okay,
Speaker 1: so like we go get to the topic. But like
Speaker 1: I knew again just from doing music, I knew like
Speaker 1: London had its hoods, like it had like I knew it,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. But I used to be like, man,
Speaker 1: I can't take y'all serious because you just because like
Speaker 1: the British accent, at least to the American just sounds
Speaker 1: so proper. Yeah, you know what I'm saying, and you
Speaker 1: so you couldn't tell. Somebody was like, hey, help me
Speaker 1: for the murder you right now, Like that's a street
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And then now that like
Speaker 1: I can hear it, I'm like, and you hear the
Speaker 1: Jamaican part of it, like which is the part that
Speaker 1: you like really blow my mind? Where I'm like, do
Speaker 1: walk up to you is like wan go on and
Speaker 1: you're like what yeah, yeah, yeah, it's even it's it's
Speaker 1: like a slang vernacular note like everybody says that, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, it's um it's not even yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not just like the Jamaican thing either. It's fast
Speaker 1: night and it's everywhere. But you know, Britain has its
Speaker 1: hoods mind everywhere, even up north like Liverpool. Yeah man,
Speaker 1: it's getting rough. Yeah, well that's dope. Man. There's the
Speaker 1: speaking of which you know I'm saying. I think, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a there's a there's a saying among
Speaker 1: like African Americans, and there's a lot of different ways
Speaker 1: to say it, right, so, but essentially I'm a laand
Speaker 1: on like y'o. Ain't nothing changed but the weather like
Speaker 1: um or like you know, like yeah, same ship, different day,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like there's all these different
Speaker 1: things about you know how this is just normal. It's
Speaker 1: just a different place, right And I think when it
Speaker 1: comes to like like you said, living in these hoods,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like me like in the
Speaker 1: environments that we come from, it's not so much that
Speaker 1: like violence and tragedy and crime is something you get
Speaker 1: used to, but it's something that's a reality of your life,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. It's like and and you know,
Speaker 1: coming out of the other end of it, like if
Speaker 1: you happen to actually graduate from it, like anybody like
Speaker 1: who's being truthful about themselves are like, yeah, I have
Speaker 1: like PTSD from this, like I have trauma from it.
Speaker 1: I know there are certain things to trigger me. I
Speaker 1: know this stuff you like, if you're being honest about it,
Speaker 1: like you may get you may get like a like
Speaker 1: a thug or two here and there that might just
Speaker 1: be on something like No, that changed me. It's like, bro,
Speaker 1: come on homie, like yes, yes, yes it does, you know,
Speaker 1: And which is why I think people who experience that
Speaker 1: sort of like constant flow of violence or your your
Speaker 1: safety is like always in question in my mind, can
Speaker 1: empathize across any sort of border, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like you feel like, yeah, life a life affected by violence,
Speaker 1: no matter which way it was affected by it, it's
Speaker 1: still the same kind of reaction, right, Yeah, you just
Speaker 1: you know what it is, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So you, for some reason chose the path you chose
Speaker 1: you know, I'm saying to talk about to put yourself
Speaker 1: in those situations and report on it, you know, so,
Speaker 1: which I think is like I just it makes me
Speaker 1: stutter to be like that, because some people really gotta
Speaker 1: go do this. So first question is like, all right,
Speaker 1: so why the hell did you do that? Why would
Speaker 1: you choose to put yourself? I tell you. As I
Speaker 1: get older, I started to ask myself the same question.
Speaker 1: I'm thirty two, I feel about sixty two. But honestly,
Speaker 1: I've always been quite interested in war and conflict. I
Speaker 1: think really going back to when I was a child. Um,
Speaker 1: my granddad is Irish, and you know, I idolized my granddad.
Speaker 1: He died last year, God rest his soul, but I
Speaker 1: I really idolized him as a kid. As an adult,
Speaker 1: and he was a very very smart guy and he
Speaker 1: would always he I just remember some of the earliest
Speaker 1: conversations him, like telling me about like, you know, the
Speaker 1: horrors of like Nazi Germany, telling me about the revolution
Speaker 1: in Ireland and why that was you know, a good thing,
Speaker 1: for example, Whereas in school we didn't even hear anything
Speaker 1: about it. You know, there's a big difference in obviously
Speaker 1: the way English school teaches its history versus you know,
Speaker 1: the diaspora or any group that was in within Britain.
Speaker 1: So I think always there. It was always kind of
Speaker 1: something that I was aware of, especially when you know,
Speaker 1: you're when you're young, you're kind of told this guy
Speaker 1: in the balaclava or whatever, they're the bad guys, and
Speaker 1: then you know the other ones are the good guys.
Speaker 1: And then I guess my granddad was like, well, no,
Speaker 1: you know, these the rebels, not we're not talking about
Speaker 1: the provisionals. We're talking about like nineteen sixteen. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: he was like, you know, the rebels did the right thing.
Speaker 1: You know, they had to. They were you know, it
Speaker 1: was illegal. I don't think people realize this, but at
Speaker 1: one point it was not only illegal to speak Irish
Speaker 1: language in Ireland, it was illegal to speak English with
Speaker 1: an Irish accent, or at least you could get like
Speaker 1: punched up for it, a right like madness, mad stuff man, Yeah, absurd, yeah,
Speaker 1: complete like you know, um, and so so you know
Speaker 1: it's like I kind of grew up I think with them,
Speaker 1: my ideas in my head, and I think that really
Speaker 1: germinated as I got older, and I was just fascinated
Speaker 1: by it, and as I was when I was kind
Speaker 1: of making my journey into becoming a reporter, I looked
Speaker 1: at what I liked, or at least what I was
Speaker 1: most fascinated by, and it was from what I felt
Speaker 1: was most important. And I always had this feeling of
Speaker 1: if people are getting murdered, you know, and killed for
Speaker 1: I don't know what they believe in, or that they
Speaker 1: live on a piece of land that somebody else wants
Speaker 1: for me, I was like, that seems really important to
Speaker 1: kind of show the world that, you know, what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: And not not that I was ever on a moral crusade.
Speaker 1: I just felt like it was important work. And you know,
Speaker 1: I you know, to some degree, there is some level
Speaker 1: of excitement within conflict and war. Everyone that tells you
Speaker 1: that there isn't is a liar, you know, there is
Speaker 1: some level of that. But but that is just and
Speaker 1: I don't mean the actual violence, I mean the going
Speaker 1: on the adventure. So so that was interesting. That was appealing,
Speaker 1: and just meeting all new people that I would never
Speaker 1: normally meet, you know, before I before I got a
Speaker 1: decent reporting job. When I started at Vice News, I
Speaker 1: think I've been out of the country like four times,
Speaker 1: and it was all to like Spain or like Spain,
Speaker 1: you know, my grand it took me to Italy. Actually
Speaker 1: as a kid that was really cool, but you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, so I hadn't really been that far.
Speaker 1: So for me it was like, yeah, I was like
Speaker 1: I can see the world, I can talk to people
Speaker 1: I'd never meet, and I can do something really important,
Speaker 1: which I feel is important putting myself into these areas
Speaker 1: to kind of contextualize it and say, hey, look at this,
Speaker 1: this is what's happening. And as I started to do it,
Speaker 1: I felt like I had a knack for it. You know.
Speaker 1: I was like, you know, I understand a lot of
Speaker 1: these people. Not I can't really say that I understand
Speaker 1: fully because I never could. But there was some level
Speaker 1: of like, you know, the people most hurt in war
Speaker 1: are always like the poor people, the people that don't
Speaker 1: have a lot, you know. Every time I certainly I
Speaker 1: want to say I come from a background the same
Speaker 1: as someone in like Syria, for example, but I grew
Speaker 1: up you know, for Britain, you could say I grew
Speaker 1: up poor and I grew up around you know, kind
Speaker 1: of various things that you probably shouldn't see as a kid.
Speaker 1: And I just felt like I was quite lucky in
Speaker 1: that sense because it gave me a different perspective on people.
Speaker 1: And when I got out to these flicks, I was
Speaker 1: I felt I just one of the first times in
Speaker 1: my life, I felt very comfortable in my working environment,
Speaker 1: Like I felt completely comfortable meeting someone in a different
Speaker 1: society and a destroyed building, and it's like, Okay, we're here.
Speaker 1: You appreciate that I'm here because I want to show
Speaker 1: the world what's happening. And I appreciate that you're taking
Speaker 1: the time to talk to me. And I just I
Speaker 1: just felt like this is really I feel like this
Speaker 1: is right, you know. And that was it. Man then
Speaker 1: and once that up, and I guess I just carried
Speaker 1: on and on and on. And you know, when I
Speaker 1: was younger, I was quite reckless. I would say I
Speaker 1: was very It's almost like I didn't realize I could die,
Speaker 1: you know. And then at yeah, yeah, And then at
Speaker 1: one point as a few things happened and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: calm down. And now I you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: I'm thirty two. I've been doing this since I was
Speaker 1: twenty four. Um, and I feel a lot more. You know,
Speaker 1: I feel ready, I feel like everything well more than ready.
Speaker 1: I feel like accomplished in that sense. But I also
Speaker 1: feel like I fully understand the levels of the danger
Speaker 1: blah blah, and for me now I just feel like, yeah, many,
Speaker 1: it's all work. And you know, it's all of this
Speaker 1: long path because I didn't do uni, I dropped out
Speaker 1: of school. But eventually, after the end of this path,
Speaker 1: it's starting to work, you know. M h man, that's told, dude.
Speaker 1: I think, uh, one thing I latched on on that
Speaker 1: is like the perspective of like Granddad being a part
Speaker 1: of like the Irish stuff and like you know, um,
Speaker 1: I know, you know, like the culture war is happening
Speaker 1: out here around like the teachings of like critical race theory,
Speaker 1: YadA YadA, like and just people just really honestly not
Speaker 1: as a side note, having no idea what what what
Speaker 1: it means you say it is one thing, but like secondly,
Speaker 1: I think what you hit on is something that like
Speaker 1: why I'm like, why this why that ship is so
Speaker 1: important because I'm like the what the Irish went through.
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, that's like you said, like it was
Speaker 1: illegal to speak English with an Irish accent. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like that's white supremacy, Like it's that's
Speaker 1: what it's. It's a fruit from the same tree, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. And I'm like, when you understand that,
Speaker 1: like this idea is the trunk and it has all
Speaker 1: these different branches, like because at the time they thought
Speaker 1: y'all was a different race, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, you know what I'm saying when you
Speaker 1: look at like because I know me, it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a black man in America, Like I couldn't understand,
Speaker 1: couldn't get my brain around the Holocaust, like in a
Speaker 1: sense of like I don't understand why you think they're
Speaker 1: different than you. You know what I'm saying, Like show me,
Speaker 1: you know. And it's like it's because they honestly thought
Speaker 1: the Jews were a different you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, so this this idea of like trying
Speaker 1: to suppress somebody under you, it's like that staining continues
Speaker 1: to permeate and shows itself in different ways and then
Speaker 1: evolves over time. But being you know, being on the
Speaker 1: wrong end of that, like you said, developed this like, look, man,
Speaker 1: it's suffering people everywhere, you know what I'm saying, And
Speaker 1: like people need to people need to see these stories.
Speaker 1: And like you said, like you just jumping into that
Speaker 1: space you like, I already connect with you, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Yeah, in a way, you know. And again,
Speaker 1: I really hate to be like this. I don't like
Speaker 1: the idea of acting like oh I get it, because like, no,
Speaker 1: I don't know. My house hasn't been bummed, my whole
Speaker 1: family isn't dead. But I don't know, I just feel
Speaker 1: like I feel happy in like local environments, you know,
Speaker 1: like when when people I'm I don't know. I think
Speaker 1: the way I was raised was a very kind of
Speaker 1: warm kind of you come into our house, come in
Speaker 1: and eat dinner, have what you what you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, And it's it's a very I like that
Speaker 1: kind of interaction with people. I like real life. You know,
Speaker 1: I named war. Unfortunately, um, you do actually see a
Speaker 1: lot of that because there's all of the things that
Speaker 1: people thought. Because I love it. I love it. This
Speaker 1: is why you're perfect for this. So as you know,
Speaker 1: as as Russia gets they debo on and is trying
Speaker 1: to just like just bully bullying entire country into like
Speaker 1: coming into their own sort of thing, and atrocities everywhere.
Speaker 1: Refugee crisis. We have watched and I know you've watched
Speaker 1: also the UM a lot of mainstream correspondence like essentially
Speaker 1: say the quiet things out loud on some life. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Yeah, like man, this this, this
Speaker 1: is different. You know that. It's like it's it's not
Speaker 1: like somewhere far away like Syria or Iraq with like Muslims.
Speaker 1: This is relative. Like these people, this is different. This
Speaker 1: is like like when they came out with that civilized line. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like these people watch Netflix. It's like, what do you
Speaker 1: think people do in the Middle East? Eat rocks for breakfast?
Speaker 1: Like yeah, like it's it's exactly the same. They do
Speaker 1: the same things exactly that honestly, Like, yeah, there's been
Speaker 1: a lot of stupid race talk around all of this,
Speaker 1: but when I saw that, I was like, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: that is one completely their faces. Yeah, there's no excuse.
Speaker 1: And and the fact that like they probably don't even
Speaker 1: know it, Like that's the thing to the thing that yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, But that's what I mean.
Speaker 1: So so for us we was like, no, that's why
Speaker 1: I was like, yo, it's there ain't nothing changed but
Speaker 1: the weather. This is yet another conflict among the other
Speaker 1: conflicts that we've been living with for the last hundred years,
Speaker 1: you know. And and y'all shot you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like y'all like, oh my gosh, I can't believe this happened,
Speaker 1: you know, And then treating like kids who are in
Speaker 1: fact heroes by being able to pack up their little
Speaker 1: their little lunch boxes and run the borders, and then
Speaker 1: getting the camera on them and poland accepting them, and
Speaker 1: it's like, oh my god, this is beautiful where I'm like, yo,
Speaker 1: it's happening two hours south of my house at the
Speaker 1: Mexican border, and they put them in little camps and
Speaker 1: they're in cages, you know what I'm saying. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: so then when it's like, hey, you know, we really
Speaker 1: need to care about what's happening in Ukraine. We got
Speaker 1: factions in America that's on something like listen, we're not
Speaker 1: spending no American money nobody. And I'm like, y'all, the
Speaker 1: all lives matter, folks, you know what I'm saying, Like
Speaker 1: y'all was that was like, you know, I'm like, well
Speaker 1: with them, then people actually only mean only my life
Speaker 1: matters that you mean you understand what I'm saying. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because because and and we're the ones going nah we
Speaker 1: I'm giving to them just like I'm giving to kids
Speaker 1: in Syria, just like like fighting for freedom here, just
Speaker 1: like here. So what I wanted to do today was
Speaker 1: to highlight of the nine to fifty major conflicts happening
Speaker 1: across the world right now. I wanted to zero in
Speaker 1: on three of them, so, which is essentially on some
Speaker 1: like yo, you think this you crazy situations, so crazy, Like,
Speaker 1: let me tell you about some other stuff that's literally
Speaker 1: happening right now that's not in our news, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So I wanted to talk about Ethiopia,
Speaker 1: Yemen in Venezuela. So I listened to your show a lot, uh,
Speaker 1: and it's and you have a way of like tapping
Speaker 1: in with like some of the most like interesting people
Speaker 1: who do some of the most incredible work and are
Speaker 1: able to like really break down sort of what's uh,
Speaker 1: what's going on, what's happening everywhere else? You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So I think today we'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you about you said Venezuela something like you're pretty
Speaker 1: pretty familiar with, So I would love to hear from
Speaker 1: you about Venezuela. Then I'm gonna come in and kind
Speaker 1: of lay out some stuff about Ethiopia, and then we
Speaker 1: could talk about like as of as far as the
Speaker 1: u N is concerned, the number one humanitarian crisis, which
Speaker 1: is in Yemen. Yeah, men and men and children were
Speaker 1: starving to death, like what two years ago and Yemen, Yo,
Speaker 1: they said, they said, yeah, it was like, Yo, they're
Speaker 1: a population of twenty nine million people and twenty four
Speaker 1: million are relying on humanitarian aid. So like that's like
Speaker 1: the entire population of Australia needing. Yeah, I'm saying yeah.
Speaker 1: So anyway, so YO, tell us about Venezuela. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: I would just say as all that before before I
Speaker 1: go into that, like, I would preface it by saying,
Speaker 1: like I agree with you is in like, um, it
Speaker 1: is important to care about Ukraine. You know. It's like
Speaker 1: you said, Russia is an imperialist country right now, you
Speaker 1: know that this is a complete imperialist invasion totally. Um,
Speaker 1: And I agree with what you're saying. It's like and
Speaker 1: I do understand as well. It's like, why do people
Speaker 1: care in Europe so much? Well, because it's in Europe.
Speaker 1: How we're playing it right, But it's like, okay, but
Speaker 1: so are the refugees that came from the other wars
Speaker 1: that we started there in Europe as well. So I
Speaker 1: agree with you definitely, And to be honest, as part
Speaker 1: of Popular Front for the whole time we've started, you know,
Speaker 1: like we say, we're we cover war and conflict in
Speaker 1: a niche way, and we cover under reported conflict. And
Speaker 1: I'm really glad that you you've been listening because that
Speaker 1: is what we do. We've been trying to do this
Speaker 1: for years, being like, hey, you should care about maybe
Speaker 1: not even care, at the very least you should have
Speaker 1: to know about this whilst you're in peace. You should
Speaker 1: know about this group, this group, this group. So yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you bring me on for this. Venezuela
Speaker 1: is a funny one because it's you know, it's kind
Speaker 1: of died down. Um. I think right now America trying
Speaker 1: to make friendly with Madoro because of the oil situation,
Speaker 1: because we can keep by now we know, Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: always down to the black lifeblood of the planet, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. But but the the situation was
Speaker 1: that Maduro was just getting increasingly authoritarian and the people
Speaker 1: there was a popular movement of young people mostly that
Speaker 1: we're just like, look, we're absolutely sick of this. We
Speaker 1: we want to be able to say what we want.
Speaker 1: And you know, it was unfortunately really dialed in and
Speaker 1: framed into this chronically online political discourse of oh, it's
Speaker 1: the CIA coup and it's like, no, it's not a
Speaker 1: CIA coup. Yeah, the CIA horrible all the time. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: they've been they've been up to no good. But but
Speaker 1: the problem is when you start calling everything that doesn't
Speaker 1: agree with your political ideology a CIA coup, you're essentially
Speaker 1: taking off agency from a whole race of people, a
Speaker 1: whole nation. Oh they couldn't those brown people that couldn't
Speaker 1: possibly rise up on their own, It must be the CIA.
Speaker 1: It's like an invited racist idea. To be honest, Um,
Speaker 1: we're not been invited, but right side up racist. Yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah exactly. So that to me it was really really annoying.
Speaker 1: But I was really focused on it at the time
Speaker 1: and it was very fascinating. There was literally footage of
Speaker 1: Maduro on TV. UM there's a famous video of him.
Speaker 1: He's accidentally caught on camera like he's such a fat pig,
Speaker 1: he couldn't go anywhere without a sandwich, so he's like
Speaker 1: eating a sandwich on live TV whilst people were literally
Speaker 1: in bins, like eating out of bins, you know, and
Speaker 1: you know, you had these often cremling link media was saying, oh,
Speaker 1: it's this, it's a lie, it's a Western whatever. I
Speaker 1: had friends that went there, um and not even I'm
Speaker 1: fairly politically, you know, I'm deeply anti authoritarian, anti fascist
Speaker 1: my whole life. But other than that, I'm not. I'm
Speaker 1: obsorticularly you know, tied to any ideology. I'm not interested
Speaker 1: in is um schism, this and that. But I have
Speaker 1: friends that are like you know, reporters that don't not
Speaker 1: really you know, don't give a ship about politics. And
Speaker 1: even they went there and we're like, yeah, no, this
Speaker 1: is There are children like you know, have it, like
Speaker 1: the can't starving literally like you know what I mean
Speaker 1: in Venezuela at the same time as maduros on TV
Speaker 1: eating burgers and stuff. So you know, there was this
Speaker 1: really genuine movement and there was extremely tough clashes in
Speaker 1: the streets. There was even a group trying to kill
Speaker 1: Maduro with like a drone mounted bomb, so you know,
Speaker 1: like a d g ey drone you can get from Amazon,
Speaker 1: you know, like influences get them and that they're pretty useful. Um, people,
Speaker 1: this has happened all over the world by the way,
Speaker 1: like Isis have used it, the Kurds have used it.
Speaker 1: Um It's been used in Ukraine right now. There's a
Speaker 1: way to like attach a grenade to it basically, so yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: very yeah, yeah yeah. So so they did that at Medua,
Speaker 1: like they tried to attack him like that. There was
Speaker 1: this there's this guy. I think Guido was the opposition.
Speaker 1: He was very comfortable with America. But again it's it's
Speaker 1: one of these ones where and anyone annoys me. I'm
Speaker 1: very critical of America, but it's one of these ones
Speaker 1: where it's like if you're on the back for an
Speaker 1: America guy, like do you want her hand? What you're
Speaker 1: gonna do? No, sorry, some people on the internet are
Speaker 1: gonna get really mad with me, like no, of course
Speaker 1: you're okay, yeah, you know, like you know, it's a
Speaker 1: lot of people are having to go at the Kurds
Speaker 1: because you know, there are kind of left libertarian organization
Speaker 1: in Java and they were like, oh, these hyper online
Speaker 1: communists or Stalinists. Most of them were like, oh, we
Speaker 1: hate them because they took assistance from America. Now, what
Speaker 1: you're saying there is these Kurds should have died, perished,
Speaker 1: and been wiped out by isis to make us happy
Speaker 1: here in America because of our ideology. People are pragmatic
Speaker 1: in war. And yes, look look the name on a gun.
Speaker 1: Do matt as weapons? Like Ja Stuck said, a weapon
Speaker 1: has no ideology. A weapon has no ideology. Exactly, it's like, look,
Speaker 1: when you're hungry, you'll take birth, saying themselves, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. And yeah, and that's and that's I
Speaker 1: love how you tapped on that, and especially like why
Speaker 1: they're making nice with America because it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: we out here complaining about these gas prices. But again,
Speaker 1: I'm from the city, and I understand sometimes the price
Speaker 1: of something is much more than what you're paying, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So if it's like, if I'm
Speaker 1: gonna come get this oil from Russia, you understand what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, then that put me in a situation where
Speaker 1: I'm like Russia, you you're gonna owe them, You owe
Speaker 1: them mold than what you're paying them, So you better
Speaker 1: find you a new connect, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So it's like, so even if even if you go
Speaker 1: to mess around here and pretend like like as America
Speaker 1: you find a pretend like the president who's the president,
Speaker 1: who ain't really the president because ain't nobody actually vote
Speaker 1: for this, you know what I'm saying. But if you like, look,
Speaker 1: if he got some roil, like I take it from
Speaker 1: this mess, then I will from that mess because it's
Speaker 1: gonna cost me less. Absolutely, And I really think people
Speaker 1: need to understand that it's a harsh reality, but there is.
Speaker 1: There is not really moral governments. Everything is a business
Speaker 1: transaction at the end of the day. Um, And I
Speaker 1: think that's that's not conspiratorial, it's obvious. You know. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's sorry to get America political, but I
Speaker 1: remember when people were like, oh, Biden and Kamala are
Speaker 1: these great But it's like whoa, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: they're not great people the same as everyone else. You
Speaker 1: just would rather them like, let's not get it twisted, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I really I don't. There's a thing like that in
Speaker 1: Europe as well, Like people are like NATO, it's amazing ambivalent,
Speaker 1: like not ambivalent, like like ethical organization. And it's like, no,
Speaker 1: they're not ethical there, there is no ethics. It's just
Speaker 1: it's a it's a coalition of people that are in
Speaker 1: the same group that don't want to stop war on
Speaker 1: their doorstep. I get it, of course, it makes sense
Speaker 1: and and to some degree I'm glad it exists for
Speaker 1: my own selfish reasons totally. But that doesn't mean they
Speaker 1: haven't done horrible things as well. You just look like
Speaker 1: I'm like this, you just need to have a list
Speaker 1: of people that will jump in if you're getting jumped exactly, Like,
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what there you know, and I don't care.
Speaker 1: We should talk about this briefly about Ukraine. So obviously
Speaker 1: there's a problem with far right extremism neo Nazism in Ukraine,
Speaker 1: of course. Of course it's in Eastern Europe. Million people
Speaker 1: lived there, you know, Yes, of course the point the
Speaker 1: Nazis occupied the place. Yeah, there's a real big problem
Speaker 1: with it. However, if you're an old woman and you're
Speaker 1: in some house and the Russians are trying to literally
Speaker 1: blow you up and your kids. And the Nazi comes
Speaker 1: to the door and says, oh, we're coming to protect you.
Speaker 1: She's not going to go hang on, let me check
Speaker 1: your ideology. Yeah, it's just gonna be like, you know,
Speaker 1: save it, save us whatever. And again they are actually
Speaker 1: you know, they're getting a lot of exposure because everybody
Speaker 1: jumps on it, but they're actually a really small part
Speaker 1: of the fighting force. You're talking about a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty I think thousand regular troops versus uh a neo
Speaker 1: Nazi battalion of maybe two three thousand, which is bad.
Speaker 1: Don't get me wor um. You know, there's also Jewish battalions.
Speaker 1: There's a whole anti fascist battalion which I'm going to
Speaker 1: film with soon. There's a Muslim battalion. There's a had
Speaker 1: This battalion, you know, you had this battalion fights alongside
Speaker 1: one of the Nazi battalions. Look, war is crazy. That's
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, man, like, when the bullets fly,
Speaker 1: you like, we'll deal with this later, you know, the exactly.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't mean it's good. It doesn't mean it's good,
Speaker 1: but it's happening, and deal with it, you know, and
Speaker 1: people are dealing with it. I spoke to a Jewish
Speaker 1: guy in a battalion the other day about the I
Speaker 1: was like, look, come on, might be honest, there's a
Speaker 1: fascist problem here. He's like, well, yeah, he was like,
Speaker 1: but Russia is trying to bomb us. He's like, I
Speaker 1: don't care. He's like, I don't care. That's like, we'll
Speaker 1: deal with that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's easy for me,
Speaker 1: you know. And I have been very vocal about as if.
Speaker 1: I've been reporting on them for eight years. You know.
Speaker 1: I made a documentary with them, showing all of the
Speaker 1: Nazi and far right imagery amongst them and what they do.
Speaker 1: But it's very easy to be in a safe spot
Speaker 1: on the internet and oh well they shouldn't they're bad,
Speaker 1: And it's like, no, they are bad. But right now, um,
Speaker 1: I think the people that you know are in the
Speaker 1: town where they're fighting, just happy anyone is there. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying the same reason that a lot
Speaker 1: of Muslims in Syria that live in Idlib, for example,
Speaker 1: don't believe in the ideology of high terrier el Sham
Speaker 1: that run Idlib. They have a very hardline frankly far
Speaker 1: right ideology fascist, you know, like an islam of fascist
Speaker 1: kind of ideology. Um, and most of the the people in
Speaker 1: Italy are lovely, you know what they're getting people, But
Speaker 1: what they're gonna do say like no, get out, No,
Speaker 1: they have to just deal with it, you know. It's
Speaker 1: the same sort of thing, to be honest, that's good man. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And it's it's like it's very easy to I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's easy to be I'm sure people will listen to me,
Speaker 1: but like, oh my god, he's an apologist. It's like, no, man,
Speaker 1: I'm not. I've just and look at my work. I
Speaker 1: really am not, you know, like I've done. You know,
Speaker 1: my reporting has helped to win to do Punt Award,
Speaker 1: my report and on far right militancy in America, I
Speaker 1: hate them. But war is war like ones. You know,
Speaker 1: you have to seen it, you have to have understood
Speaker 1: it just to just to realize that. And it's also yeah,
Speaker 1: it's also like being in it. Like my father, former
Speaker 1: black panther, he was in the Vietnam War. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: was like he was like his his like battalion chiefs.
Speaker 1: So you know, sergeant whatever, he's like from the Deep South,
Speaker 1: horribly racist. You know what I mean. And he was like,
Speaker 1: it is what it is. The bullets are flying, like,
Speaker 1: you know, funk that guy. But like, if the bullets
Speaker 1: are flying, you know what I'm saying. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm a shoot into the smoke, you know, and and
Speaker 1: like and and it is what it is, you know.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's complicated and war. It's real life. It's
Speaker 1: it's real life. Everybody has been so twitterized in their
Speaker 1: ideologies and their opinions, and it's like, no, it's real life.
Speaker 1: You know what you're saying. Your dad didn't like that guy,
Speaker 1: of course not. But what's he gonna do? Yeah, just
Speaker 1: like sorry, I'll just get shot or yeah, bro, like
Speaker 1: we're gonna do this, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: authoritarian Maduro streets rise up. I know they have an election,
Speaker 1: right right, like a few years ago. Yeah, and they
Speaker 1: elect them all last other dude, right, well this again, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so help me out. No, I'm a little rusty on it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so I think Guido I think he was elected,
Speaker 1: but then he won the majority. I could be wrong
Speaker 1: in this. I forget exactly he won something anyway, But
Speaker 1: the thing is Maduro was not going to let him
Speaker 1: win of you know what I'm saying, And it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: and I know a lot of Venezuelans actually through the work.
Speaker 1: I didn't at the time. I very nearly went there
Speaker 1: to film but it got too tricky. But you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of the antimoduro Venice Whalens, the Ice Polkes,
Speaker 1: you didn't really like guide though, but they were just like, well,
Speaker 1: he's better than who else. We're gonna vote for the
Speaker 1: option right now, you know. So that was that was
Speaker 1: one thing, um, and then yeah, he basically just didn't
Speaker 1: allow it. It's like, if you're putting people in prison
Speaker 1: for speaking out about certain things, it's very easy for
Speaker 1: him to just go, no, that doesn't exist. You know,
Speaker 1: that's like an I legitimate reason for it, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And it's just like right, it's it's
Speaker 1: the one oh one. You know, these these dictator types,
Speaker 1: they start off doing certain things, press freedom gets infringed on.
Speaker 1: Then it's like, well you're okay, song as your self censor,
Speaker 1: don't mention this. And you know, as we all know,
Speaker 1: it's a very very slippery slope. And you know it's
Speaker 1: it's like once that starts being allowed, um, then it
Speaker 1: ends with like we just said an election that they
Speaker 1: just kibosh and go na, no, that doesn't there's a
Speaker 1: problem with this. You know, it was US backed, US backed.
Speaker 1: That's the issue. I don't know about Guido he you know,
Speaker 1: he they I think they he was on the house
Speaker 1: arrest and stuff like that for a while. He was
Speaker 1: quite a brave guy, to be honest with you. He
Speaker 1: was like out in the streets kind of ignoring it.
Speaker 1: You know, he didn't really have He did have a
Speaker 1: lot of support, but it wasn't like overwhelming support like
Speaker 1: everyone on the streets was not like for guired though,
Speaker 1: it was for resistance to the authoritarians. Yeah, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. It was just like, yeah, we love
Speaker 1: guard though. I mean there's there's a little bit of
Speaker 1: that in um getting rid of old Trumpy. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're not fans of like you said, we're not fans
Speaker 1: of Biden, like like it's this is this is the
Speaker 1: He's the bare minimum, like just like just like it
Speaker 1: just I guess, I guess, you know what I mean. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: some people they can't I find And I really think
Speaker 1: this is a problem with the way the internet is
Speaker 1: these days. They cannot be against one thing without finding
Speaker 1: a side to be on, you know, like people are
Speaker 1: really disingenuous. Yeah, I'm not disingenuous. I'm actually opposite. I
Speaker 1: have kept if you checked my career, my work, what
Speaker 1: I say, I've kept exactly the same the whole time.
Speaker 1: It's just I'm not I don't you know. For me
Speaker 1: to say, right, I'm completely against Putin's invasion doesn't mean
Speaker 1: I'm then like Glonato nuke the place. You know. It's
Speaker 1: like that's yeah, yeah, yeah, people like nuances. I say
Speaker 1: nuances sacred word like and it's and it is as
Speaker 1: so much more interesting, all right, because you can get
Speaker 1: on with people that you don't always agree with. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. That's good man. All right, I might
Speaker 1: have to stop you all right here, because this mug
Speaker 1: is getting hell along. Uh. Tune in next week from
Speaker 1: part two. Yeah, this is your Thing was recorded by
Speaker 1: Me Propaganda and East Lows, boil Heights, Los Angeles, California.
Speaker 1: This smug was mixed, edited, mastered, and scored by Matt Osowski.
Speaker 1: I can totally say his name, guys. It was it
Speaker 1: was a stick. He's won by Matt now again because
Speaker 1: he got into some legal situations with the name Headlights.
Speaker 1: You know, common used to be called common sense. You
Speaker 1: know Tip t I was tipped Sometimes it Happens. Executive
Speaker 1: produced by the one and only Sophie Lichtman for a
Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media and the theme music by the one
Speaker 1: and only Gold Tips Gold Tips d J Shawn p.
Speaker 1: So y'all just remember listen every time you check in.
Speaker 1: If you understand city living, you understand politics. We'll see
Speaker 1: how next week two