WBEZ's Worldview

Ken Burns’ latest documentary, The Central Park Five, is centered around the story of five men who were arrested and convicted of assault and rape in 1989 for an attack on a jogger in Central Park. The five men were innocent and were freed in 2002 when a convicted rapist and murderer confessed to the crime. Filmmaker Ken Burns and film contributor Milos Stehlik join us to discuss the film.

Elizabeth Powley believes that “every child has the right to learn.” She envisions a world in which “every girl and boy in Africa has access to secondary school.” For Global Activism, we’ll talk to Elizabeth about her group Every Child is My Child, a non-profit organization funding education for children in Burundi and Rwanda.

A group of at least 130 CEOs from the aerospace and defense industry sent congressional leaders a letter urging them to work out a deal to avoid the “fiscal cliff.” William Hartung, author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex, tells us how he thinks the impending budget cuts would impact the defense industry.

On Saturday, the 46-year-old attorney and former governor of Mexico State,Enrique Peña Nieto, was sworn in as Mexico’s new president. Meanwhile, riots broke out in Mexico City in protest. Some are leery of Nieto’s PRI party, which ran the country for 70 years prior to 2000. We’ll assess the new administration’s pledges and challenges with Laura Carlsen, director of the Americas Program of the Center for International Policy.

Chicagoan Paul Karner is the founder of the Carrefour Collaborative, an organization dedicated to providing support for Haiti’s music community. He helped get the Messiah Brown Studio up and running in Leogane, Haiti.

The U.N. has suspended its aid operation in Syria due to worsening security conditions on the ground. Chicago attorney Mazen Asbahi says people in Damascus are concerned that a battle for control of Damascus is imminent. Mazen serves as the government affairs director for the Syrian Expatriate Organization, an expat organization that supports the revolution and advocates for greater U.S. intervention in Syria. He’ll update us on the work he’s been doing. Zaher Sahloul, a Chicago doctor who is president of the Syrian American Medical Society, also joins us. He’s helped organize several medical missions to Syria since the fighting began there. He’s currently in Washington, meeting with the National Security Council.

A bombing raid on Sunday by the Colombian military killed at least 20 guerillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, more commonly known as FARC. The raid threatens peace negotiations that began in October to end the nearly 50-year conflict. We’ll discuss the latest in the negotiations and the efforts at complex land reform with Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America.

On Tuesday's show: The global community's increasing concern over the possible creation of chemical weapons in Syria and a look into the quest for peace in Colombia.

Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi has called for a December 15th referendum on Egypt's disputed constitution, following continuing protests throughout the nation. Cairo-based journalist Ashraf Khalil, author of Liberation Square: Inside the Egyptian Revolution and the Rebirth of a Nation, joins us to discuss the latest developments.

Sometimes when you turn off your television, computer or cable box, “off” doesn’t really mean “off.” Standby loss, popularly known as “vampire power” or “phantom load,” loses up to ten percent of residential energy in developed countries. For today's EcoMyths segment, Jerome and EcoMyths Alliance president Kate Sackman talk about the phenomenon with Eric Masanet, staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and associate professor of engineering at Northwestern University.

We look into the continuing political turmoil in Egypt, as the country gets closer and closer to drafting a constitution. And, in our EcoMyths segment, we talk about the energy suck that is "vampire power."

In March 2012, Mae Azango was forced into hiding after her story on the practice of female genital cutting by Liberia’s traditional societies brought death threats against her, her 9-year-old daughter and FrontPage Africa. Mae explains why the issue is so divisive in her country.

The Global Wake-Up Film Festival is organized by the United Nations Associations-USA Greater Chicago Chapter in support of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. Film contributor Milos Stehlik tells us about the films at this year’s event and fillmmaker Wendy J.N. Lee tells us about her film Pad Yatra: A Green Odyssey. It's playing at the festival.

Global citizen Nari Safavi helps you plan your international weekend, starting with a documentary about Soviet prisoners of war kept in Poland after the War of 1920.

Liberian journalist Mae Azango, The Global Wake-Up Film Festival, and Weekend Passport