December 1 - Mobilizing Against Inequality; A Crack in the Brutal Burmese Curtain; Shining a Light on Saudi Repression

Full Program	LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM
Part 1	We begin with an analysis of why inequality has gone up so much, with Jared Bernstein who was up until recently the chief Economist and Economic Advisor to Vice President Joe Biden, Executive Director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class and a member of President Obama’s economic team. We discuss the “occupy” movement as a countervailing force against income inequality and the impact that a crash of the Euro will have on our already weak economy and next year’s elections.
Part 2	Then we discuss the apparent opening up of Burma with the Secretary of State’s visit and try to determine both the extent of political reform underway and the broader strategic role that the U.S. is engaged in challenging Chinese influence in a brutalized country emerging from fifty years of oppressive military rule. A specialist on both Burma and Buddhism, Juliane Schober, the Director of the Center for Asian Research at Arizona State University joins us to look through a crack in the wall of repression that has ravaged this resource-rich, strategically important country.
Part 3	Then finally we discuss the just-released report by Amnesty International accusing Saudi Arabia of reacting to the “Arab Spring” by launching a wave of repression. The founder and director of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, Dr. Ali Alyami joins us to examine the arrests in the mainly Shia Muslim restive Eastern province and the fate of those that defy a permanent government ban on protests.
	MUSIC: My Morning Jacket - Two Halves; Bright Eyes - Easy/ Lucky/ Free; Fugazi - The Argument; The Clash - Rock The Casbah