Bill Kelsey « Antiwar Radio with Scott Horton and Charles Goyette

Scott Horton Interviews Bill Kelsey

Scott Horton, September 05, 2008

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Bill Kelsey, libertarian activist and sometimes relief pilot for an NGO in Africa, discusses the crises in Congo and Sudan, what he learned about libertarianism growing up in the Middle East and how it relates to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

MP3 here. (54:47)

Bill Kelsey is a relief pilot for an NGO and oil companies in Africa.

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Comments to “Bill Kelsey”

DJ Toman
September 6th, 2008 at 7:26 am

An excellent interview with a fascinating fellow.
It’s clear that the idea of a single “ethnic” state is nothing but a quaint 19th-century idea that’s incompatible with the 21st century. The idea persists in the popular media because they tend to be sympathetic to one side…through fanaticism or ignorance…or money…
In the US, we have ethnic enclaves that live nicely within the state. In New York, as in other places, ethnically-based neighborhoods thrive and contribute to the vitality of the region. We’ve seen that it works here, yet we support through state-sponsored theft, the amoral suggestion that ethnically-based states can work elsewhere. It does everyone a disservice to perpetuate the idea.
The question remains…How do we, as Libertarians, turn the tide?

redsaunas
September 6th, 2008 at 11:22 pm

DJ Toman literally took the words from my mouth. Excellent interview, fascinating guest with very compelling views.

But one of Scott’s comments really rang bells with me. It’s a point I’ve made often myself. Every time I read/see/hear a mainstream media article covering any topic about which I have specific and detailed knowledge, the ‘journalists’ ALWAYS make fundamental errors some important point, and in many cases get the entire thing backwards. Sometimes I put this down to boneheadedness, but other times I believe they deliberately misrepresent facts in order to make some ‘case’, either their own or their boss’s hobbyhorse, or to make the article fit with ‘mainstream’ perceptions.

When we’re not being lied to, we’re being misled. No wonder the world’s a bloody mess.

eCAHNomics
September 9th, 2008 at 7:22 am

Sudan: “Why can’t the farmers and the cowboys jest be friends?”

Matt Fay
September 9th, 2008 at 7:48 am

Great interview! Truly interesting. I am fascinated by Scott’s comment that Mia Farrow is interested in hiring Blackwater for security in Darfur. I actually wrote an article on this very idea for the Prometheus Institute (URL below). I agree with Bill and have a moral objection to the very idea, but I do feel that if private groups want to raise the money to hire these mercenaries, then by all means go ahead. It may actually accomplish some good, and no matter what it is better than having the U.S government take that sort of action in our names and with our tax dollars.

http://theprometheusinstitute.org/index.phpoption=com_content&view=article&id=670:profit-making-peacekeeping&catid=94:blog&Itemid=176

Jayne Cobb
September 10th, 2008 at 1:27 pm

Like eCAHNomics, I, too, heard echoes of the mid-twentieth-century westerns’ tales of range wars between cowboys and sod busters.

Matt Fay, your link didn’t work for me, but I found your article here:
http://theprometheusinstitute.org/politics/blogarchive/670-profit-making-peacekeeping

Great to hear the observations of someone whose life has given him a perspective so far outside that of us provincials. Better still to hear that perspective expressed with sympathy for the real individuals involved and not just their abstract collective identities.

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