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Vanda Shiva – In Sanskrit the word “shakti” means "female creative power." In Hindu cosmology Shakti is the divine force, manifesting to destroy demonic forces and restore balance. Humanity is facing unprecedented threats, a veritable perfect storm of dangers from climate change to water and food shortages. anda Shiva suggests maybe we all need some Shakti. Vandana Shiva is an internationally renowned voice for sustainable development and social justice. Her latest books are "Earth Democracy" and "Soil Not Oil."

In the effort to save the economy, political leaders said many of the banks were “Too big to fail.” Nomi Prins says, “When you’re too big to fail, life is a one-way bet. When you gamble and win, you walk off with the profits. When you gamble and lose, the taxpayer picks up the tab.” The banks gambled, they lost, and the taxpayer picked up the tab. And now there is talk about regulatory reform, but the foxes are designing the hen house. Nomi Prins is a former investment banker turned journalist. She worked at Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns. Her articles appear in major newspapers and magazines. She is the author of "It Takes a Pillage."

Peter Balakian:  On April 24, 1915, the Turkish government launched the genocide of the Armenians. The state-sponsored mass murder campaign destroyed the millennia-old Armenian people in their historic homeland. Their churches and schools were razed to the ground. Their homes and lands were seized. Their culture and memories erased. Today, Armenians and human rights advocates everywhere demand justice and acknowledgement but Turkey continues to deny the genocide. Peter Balakian, historian, poet, and professor at Colgate University. He is one of the foremost authorities on the Armenian cause.

Every year, almost like clockwork around his birthday, Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream?” speech gets airplay. It was a great and historic presentation. But he gave another significant speech on April 4, 1967 in Riverside Church in New York. There, he moved beyond a simple race analysis to include class and foreign policy issues. He forcefully denounced the war in Vietnam. One year later he was assassinated in Memphis where he had gone in solidarity with striking sanitation workers.

Richard Becker: Myths, Empire & the Middle East:  The great historian Howard Zinn always reminded us of the importance of knowing history, not the imagined and fabricated past but what actually happened. Powerful states have incentives to invent history and they have varied instruments at their disposal to achieve their ends. Few areas in the world are as deeply contested as the Middle East with its strategic location astride Europe and Asia and its unparalleled oil and natural gas reserves. Today the U.S.

Vandana Shiva:  In Sanskrit “Shaki” means "female creative power." In Hindu cosmology Shakti is the divine force, manifesting to destroy demonic forces and restore balance. Humanity is facing unprecedented threats, a veritable perfect storm of dangers from climate change to water and food shortages. While the military-industrial complex attracts some attention, the industrial agri-foods complex gets virtually none.

There are multiple insurgencies all over India. Many of the struggles are taking place around the corporate exploitation of natural resources and the displacement of largely indigenous people who live in areas rich in minerals and timber. But there's a lot of push back. People are organizing to defend their land and culture against predatory corporations who are working hand in hand with the government. Nandini Sundar is prominent Indian academic who has spent much time doing research in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. She is a professor of sociology at the Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University.

Richard Grossman: Revoking Corporate Charters: From ExxonMobil to Wal-Mart corporations dominate society and politics. Over the last 100 years corporations have accrued enormous economic power and legal standing. A corporation is licensed to do business. These licenses are called charters. In theory, when a corporation violates its charter, it can be revoked. That used to happen but not any more. And now corporate power has gotten a big boost. On Jan. 21, 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that there are no limitations on campaign contributions by both domestic and foreign corporations.

First consolidation put fewer and fewer corporations in charge of more and more media outlets. Then, the economic downturn forced the closure of large and small newspapers across the country. And finally, the relentless drive for profits at any cost has put hundreds of professional journalists out of work. The question is: how can democracy survive when there is no one watching the people in power? The answer, says Amy Goodman, Jim Hightower, Robert McChesney and Bill Moyers is a strong, active, financially healthy, community-based media.

Hear what they have to say about the importance of community and local media like KSER…and stand up and be counted.

We are entering a new food era, one marked by higher prices, growing numbers of hungry people, and an intensifying competition for land and water. The global cost of wheat, rice, corn, and soybeans has roughly tripled, reaching historic highs. What are the alternatives? Local communities and international social movements are promoting sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty. Eric Holt Giménez is the executive director of FoodFirst/Institute for Food and Development Policy. He is co-author with Raj Patel of "Food Rebellions! Crisis and the Hunger for Justice."

Howard Zinn: Against Discouragement. It wasn’t that long ago when the United States labeled the African National Congress and its leader, Nelson Mandela, as terrorists. Then because of a massive grassroots movement and international support through boycott and divestment, Mandela is released from prison and South Africa frees itself from its apartheid regime. Throughout history people have overcome tremendous odds to advance the cause of justice. Take the civil rights movement. The entire apparatus of power from the courthouse to the statehouse was controlled by segregationists.

The political establishment determines the boundaries of conventional discourse. The media mostly function as a kind of Hallelujah chorus praising the system of power and privilege but ever quick to highlight the sexual peccadilloes of individual politicians, celebrity sightings and divorces, steroids and sports, extreme weather and sensational crime usually missing children. The trees are closely examined and the forest is totally missed. An independent media free from corporate control can break through the spin and be the span that provides genuine information that links citizens to reality rather than fantasy.

Mark Danner: Torture: Stripping Bare the Body  The U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere have involved torture and human rights violations replete with black sites, secret prisons, extraordinary rendition, that is, kidnapping and in some instances custodial deaths all accompanied by the now infamous waterboarding, stress positions, extreme temperatures, dogs, beatings, threats and loud and incessant music. Mark Danner wonders, “Can anyone say torture or the Geneva Conventions” Obama does not want to hold those responsible for crimes accountable.

Irene Khan: Poverty and Human Rights.  The problem of the world's

The presence of religion in U.S. politics is extensive. Some tend to be strongly conservative and promote a right-wing agenda. But there is a counter-tradition from the progressive side. It goes back to Dorothy Day, the Berrigan brothers, Martin Luther King, Jr., to the present with Sister Helen Prejean struggling to end the death penalty and Father Roy Bourgeois fighting to close the School of the Americas in Fort Benning. Robert Jensen is professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin.