7. Ibrahim al-Marashi on Iran sanctions, Arun Gupta on migrant rights, Shanice Nicole on resilience

Free City Radio

This is the seventh edition of Free City Radio podcast, which features a series of interviews, audio notes and music. In this program we begin with a musical piece by Karl Pricot, who is a drummer in Kalmunity, this is a piece recorded at Karl's home studio. Then we feature an interview with Kholoud Hussein, a Palestinian community organizer and medical worker who lives in Borj El Brajneh refugee camp in Lebanon, Kholoud speaks about the efforts taking place within the refugee camp to combat the spread of the pandemic within the economically and medically vulnerable Palestinian communities of Lebanon. Next in the show there is an interview with Mostafa Henaway @mostafa-henaway who speaks on the campaign by the Immigrant Workers Centre to combat the spread of the pandemic within the Dollarama workplace environment, particularly within Dollarama distribution centres around Montreal which employ a largely immigrant labour force, creating a marginalized work space within the context of the pandemic as Dollarama company hasn't been taking proper medical precautions, the Immigrant Workers Centre did win some victories and forced Dollarama to provide some safety equipment. follow Mostafa's work here : https://twitter.com/mostafah Then in the show we hear an interview with poet and community activist Shanice Nicole who speaks on the importance of resilience and self expression during a time of pandemic, Shanice also reflects on the pandemic in the context of diaspora identity and shares reflections. you can find Shanice's work here : https://www.facebook.com/shanicenicolespeaks Also in this podcast there is an interview with professor, writer and commentator Ibrahim al-Marashi who speaks critically about the sanctions that both the U.S. and Canada have sustained on Iran at this time of pandemic, Ibrahim speaks about how the sanction impact the public health care system. Ibrahim contributes regularly to both The Guardian and Al Jazeera, info on Ibrahim's writing : https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/profile/ibrahim-al-marashi.html Finally we hear an interview with investigative journalist Arun Gupta who speaks on a recent report worked on for The Nation magazine that explores the realities of U.S. government migrant detention centres at a time of pandemic. Arun's article is here : https://www.thenation.com/article/society/refugees-asylum-coronavirus-mexico/ Music featured in this show is by dArk mAtt'r, Antipop Consortium, Vox Sambou and Narcy, plus Sam Shalabi and Stefan @spirodon Christoff.