“Green is the new black,” says ForestEthics founder, Tzeporah Berman, with a laugh as she talks about the rest of the world finally starting to catch up to British Columbians on environmental issues.
In 2007, the former Greenpeace organizer talked politics in Hollywood with Paris Hilton and played politics in Bali with Canada’s environment minister, John Baird.
Last week’s interview covered Berman’s role in Leonardo DiCaprio’s cinematic plea to save the planet, The 11th Hour, the upcoming battle of Athabasca and her life under the media microscope.
This week, in the conclusion of our special two-part podcast, Berman deals with the founding of ForestEthics and catalogues some of their major victories . . . including their war against environmentally dirty underwear.
The uncompromising activist also talks about the challenges of making compromises, the power of powersuits, staying hopeful and discussing lingerie with Gloria Steinem.
Check out the newest podcast of 2008, by Darren Ell…
Since early 2006, Canadian photographer DarrenEll been working on an extensive project about the consequences of Canadian foreign policy in Haiti. You can find some of this work in his Citizenshift dossier, The Damage Done: Canada and the Coup in Haiti and on the HaitiAction website. There will be a public exhibition of this work in September 2008 in Montreal.
In this two-part podcast, Darren interviews Roger Annis of the Canada Haiti Action Network. Roger is one of Canada’s most dedicated and lucid voices on the subject of the ongoing impact of Canadian policy in Haiti.
In this interview, Roger describes what he calls a social and economic calamity in Haiti and traces key elements of this crisis to the 2004 coup d’état in which Canada, France and the US participated, and to a foreign aid system which is keeping Haiti dependent. He addresses what he describes as the failures of NGO’s and human rights organizations to defend democracy in Haiti, the propaganda campaign that deluded the public as to the events surrounding the coup d’état of 2004, and foreign-imposed economic policies that are destroying the country and undermining its sovereignty.
The interview includes a discussion about the way forward for Haiti in light of the new developments in neighbouring South America.
From starring in The 11th Hour for Leonard diCaprio to fighting to survive the 11th hour in Bali, last year Tzeporah Berman was everywhere.
At a party in Vancouver a few months ago celebrating ForestEthics’ astonishing victory in convincing the BC government to preserve 2.2 million hectares of habitat for the world’s only mountain caribou the key players in the group were introduced to the audience and applauded. Everyone else in the organization was identified by their official title. Berman was introduced as, “our rock star.”
A former star with Greenpeace and one of the founders of Forest Ethics, the woman BC Premier Glen Clark once called an “enemy of the state” has been on the frontlines of the Canadian environmental movement for over a decade. But in 2007 she became… a rock star… achieving Suzukisque status when she was chosen as one of the featured players (along with Dr. David) in Hollywood’s cinematic plea to save the planet, The 11th Hour and scored an official audience with the media icon of our age, Paris Hilton.
