The UN General Assembly's yearly get-together is a time for high-flying international diplomacy between world leaders. The General Debate, in particular, allows all world leaders who participate in the United Nations to deliver a public address to the General Assembly. As such, it has been used as a highly-visible platform by many countries' representatives to push their views.

This year's debate theme was "Adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations by peaceful means," which seems a little tongue-in-cheek given the current situation in parts of the Middle East and Africa.

As BBC Arabic reported that Somali and African forces were closing in on the final al-Shabab stronghold of Kismayo, Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Ali gave his remarks at the Assembly, saying that there was no place in Somalia for the "few ideological extremists" in the Islamist group's ranks.

Barack Obama's appearance at the UN was brief, which some say was to avoid tough discussions with other world leaders on Iran and Syria. He honored Libyan Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was killed in an attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi, and condemned the American-made film that criticized Islam's Prophet Muhammad and sparked anti-US riots across the Muslim world. Meanwhile, Libya's new president, Mohamed Yousek al-Magariaf, apologized for the attacks, and apologized to the world on behalf of Libya for Muammar Gaddafi's decades-long rule.

With regard to Syria, world leaders condemned the violence across the board, but their approaches to end the conflict varied greatly. According to IBA News, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Jordan's King Abdullah II both called for Bashar al-Assad to step down, saying that the Syrian president's ouster is vital to the success of peace efforts.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad supported the Syrian regime, and criticized the efforts by the Western world to interfere in what he sees as an internal conflict. Ahmadinejad, in his last speech to the Assembly as a world leader, also spoke of his belief in the imminent arrival of Jesus Christ and the twelfth imam, Imam al-Mahdi, whom Shiites believe will come at the end times with the prophet Jesus to help humanity. The United States and Israel were both absent from the General Assembly Hall when he gave his remarks.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also addressed the United Nations with a long-anticipated bid to join the UN General Assembly as an observer. The Palestinian Authority previously asked the UN for full member status last year, but had been rejected by the Security Council, which has the Israel ally, the United States, as a permanent member with veto power. Press TV reports that Abbas also lambasted Israel for its "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians, as well as the ongoing occupation of Palestinian land. A UN report that came at the beginning of the week and before the General Assembly meeting echoed similar statements-- that Israel must do more to halt the abuse of Palestinian rights.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stole the show by using a prop, which has not been done in the General Assembly since the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi pulled out a copy of the UN Charter and threw it in the air in 2009. Netanyahu used a picture of a cartoon bomb and drew a red line through it to illustrate how far Iran has come in enriching uranium, and how the United Nations must draw a red line for the country before it acquires enough enriched uranium to make a nuclear bomb. Press TV analysts expressed concern over Netanyahu's mental health following this incident.

Outside of the Assembly Hall, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Rahmin Mehmanparast captured the attention of the American channel Fox News after he was attacked by a group of "about 100" Iranian dissident protestors on a New York City sidewalk. He managed to flag down an NYPD police car, but according to Dubai TV, the cops appeared "uninterested."

Image: Benjamin Netanyahu draws a red line on a bomb illustration at the UN General Assembly, September 27, 2012. Press TV / United Nations

The Summer Solstice brought a plethora of free performances in and around NYC, and the one I opted for was the Griot Summit at the Wave Hill Gardens overlooking the Hudson, in the Bronx. Who could resist getting away from the burning pavements of the city to saunter through bucolic splendor while listening to masters of the Griot tradition?

For those of you who are not familiar with the term "griot" (or jali, or jeli, depending on where the griot is from) a quick explanation: the griot is the repository of the history of his or her people, knowing geneologies and major epic songs by heart. Descended through the family line, the griot is not just a musician, but a living library, an advisor, and on occasion, a gadfly. Understanding the function of the griot is a great way to gain insight into the culture of West Africa. But I have started my video with a good description, straight from the horse's mouth, so I'm sure you'll figure it out.

The day started out with the various musicians scattered around the grounds, so that you could catch solos and larger groups as they performed in lushly green walkways, formal gardens and woodland areas. Then they all gathered for a massive display on the main stage, to get everyone riveted, then up and moving. Personally, I was entranced and dazzled by the regal appearance of the griots. I guess I'm just a sucker for African Formal Wear; all those robes, headdresses and intense colors and bright white against dark skin knock me out. I was also struck by the obvious musical links between what these musicians were conveying in its purest form, and the roots of our own American music: the glissandos, time signatures, the improvisations; it was all there to hear and mark as building blocks of the blues.

All in all it was an amazing gathering, and it was a tribute to Sylvain Leroux the curator, Isabel Soffer of Live Sounds, and the musicians, that it all came together so wonderfully well. After all, you can't just assume that Jalis from Guinea are going to play well with Jalis from Burkina Fasso or Mali. But they certainly did here!

The day was hot, and this was shooting on the fly -- no way to deal with the light, the sound, the terrain, so I will beg your pardon for the occasional visual burn, bumpy camera work, and some audio distortion.

The participating musicians were: Abdoulaye Diabate (Mali), Toumany Diabate (USA), Tapani Sissoko and her mother (Mali), Yacouba Sissoko (Mali), Mamady Kouyate (Guinea), Makane Kouyate (Mali), Ismael Diarra (Burkina Faso), Abdourahmane Mangara (Gambia), Aissatou Kouyate (Mali), Famoro Dioubate (Guinea), Andy Algire (USA), Sam Dickey (USA), Bailo Bah (Guinea), Ibrahima Soumano (Guinea), Mmah Doumbouya (Guinea), Ayiba Doumbouya (Guinea), Bebe Camara (Guinea), Nagna Diabate (Guinea), Hasan Bakr (USA), Zoumana Diabate (Mali), Moussa Diabate (Mali), Anette Lipson (USA), Kewulay Kamara (Sierra Leone), Lankandia Cissoko (Senegal), Yacouba Diabate (Burkina Faso), Sylvain Leroux (Canada).

For more of Michal's world music videos visit inter-muse.com

"Ever since the Arab Spring, many people here have been pining for an American Autumn," says Charles Blow in the New York Times. "The closest we've gotten so far is Occupy Wall Street." For almost four weeks, Occupy Wall Street activists have gathered in Manhattan's financial district to protest corporate greed, corruption, and social and economic inequality, among other things. The movement's website states, "We Are the 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends." 

Many disagree. Blow describes the protests as "a festival of frustrations, a collective venting session with little edge or urgency, highlighting just how far away downtown Manhattan is from Damascus." James Joyner at Outside the Beltway states, "What these movements have in common: frustrated youth loosely organized using social media …It's simply insulting to compare the two."

What can the American protestors learn from the more experienced "Arab Spring" protestors? In a Foreign Policy Magazine article entitled "From Tahrir Square to Wall Street," veteran Egyptian protestor Mosa'ab Elshamy offers his advice to the Occupy Wall Street activists on what makes a successful protest movement. Most importantly, Elshamy says, is that protestors have a unified platform. They must first agree on a set of simple and broad demands in order to attract a wide base of support, which is exactly what Occupy Wall Street lacks, according to most critics.  

Almost one month after the start of protests in New York City, the Occupy Wall Street movement has shown surprising staying power. The movement has spread to over 70 US cities and has been endorsed by several labor unions, celebrities, and politicians. But will it succeed in bringing accountability and equity to the US financial system, or will it fizzle as protestors are dispersed by a cold New York winter? 

(Photo: Occupy Wall Street protestor marches up Broadway in New York.  Mike Segar / Reuters)

Once again, I am bringing you a performance from one of New York's many small venues which are outlets for all the talent that is attracted to the city. The Caffe Vivaldi is a tiny, informal place in the West Village of New York. It has live music regularly; mostly singer songwriters. On this night Neil Pearlman brought his ensemble, and proceeded to expand the palette of Scottish music with healthy injections of Jazz harmonies and Latin rhythms. I had gotten a shout from Rachel over at Rock Paper Scissors publicity, and so I grabbed my camcorder and hoped for the best.

The band played mostly songs from Pearlman's new CD "Coffee & the Mojo Hat" along with some new tunes they were working up. Regarding this performance, Neil says: "That set... in particular is centered around the tune called the Sailor's Wife. It is interesting because I alter a traditional jig (6/8 time) and turn it into a 2/2 Latin groove. In order to bring that alteration out for people who don't already know the tune I start it off in its traditional form before bringing in the rest of the band."

I found the music to be a sweet hybrid because Pearlman, who has been performing Scottish and Cape Breton music with his family since he was a kid, obviously truly loves the trad stuff. And though he has felt the need to break out of the strict interpretations of the melodies, that affection never departs. The ensemble also has an amiable sound, everyone plays well, and although my video does not quite capture it, drummer Alex Cohen's precise yet relaxed rudiments are real ear candy.

Neil can be reached at www.neilpearlman.com

Click here for another performance by Neil Pearlman.

For more of Michal's original world music videos visit inter-muse.com

(Associated Press: 0851 PST, March 18, 2011) Facing the prospect of an air assault by countries enforcing a United Nations no-fly zone, Libya says it is stopping military operations against rebels. Also in the country, missing New York Times journalists are found.

Libyan Foreign Minister Announces Ceasefire

(France 24: 0739 PST, March 18, 2011) Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa makes a televised statement announcing an immediate ceasefire by government forces, but reports of fighting continue.

(Democracy Now! 1000 PST, February 4, 2011) Hundreds of thousands of Egyptian pro-democracy protesters have returned to Cairo's Tahrir Square in defiance of violent attacks from supporters of President Hosni Mubarak in the past two days.

The New York Times reports the Obama administration has opened talks with Egyptian officials on Mubarak's immediate resignation. The proposal under discussion would see Vice President Omar Suleiman lead a transitional government before elections later this year; however, Suleiman remains deeply unpopular in Egypt.

Pro-democracy organizers have labeled today the "Day of Departure," a final push for Mubarak's immediate resignation. The demonstrations immediately swelled at the end of Friday prayers. Democracy Now! senior producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous reports live from Tahrir Square in Cairo.

Click here for important background information on the unrest in Egypt.

(France 24: 0700 PST, February 4, 2011) Reports indicate U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has been in talks with his recently appointed Egyptian counterpart Omar Suleiman about the possibility of Suleiman leading a transition government.

Read the full New York Times report.

Click here for important background information on the unrest in Egypt.

Earlier this week, Jennifer Kirby, Link TV's COO, and I were invited to be guests on a show called Open at the local cable access channel BronxNet in the Bronx to talk about our organization and why we are partnered with so many PEG channels. Jennifer Kirby has been working with Link TV for many years, and she is as New York as you can get, having been born and raised in the city, with roots in every borough including her Italian side from the Bronx. It was very meaningful for her to be able to promote Link TV to this special community, and exciting for me to be a part of this incredible opportunity as well. You can watch our interview here (we come in at 27 minutes, but please, if you have time, enjoy the whole segment!):

Open is a weekly series on BronxNet that focuses on international news and gives voice to those who are marginalized in the diverse neighborhoods of the Bronx. The channel is received in 1.5 million households, 60% of which have been shown by independent marketing studies to be tuning in! Link TV is thrilled that BronxNet is airing explore three times a week, bringing Charlie Annenberg's global findings through his unique message of philanthropy, "Never Stop Learning", to the people of the Bronx. 

It was so much fun to meet the staff at BronxNet, to see their station, and witness the youth mentoring and media training program in action. BronxNet is the only public access station in the nation that operates six different channels, including one that is made by young people for young people! Now that Link TV has an engagement department that works with an active youth network of over 160,000 through YouthNoise, we are excited about all of the ways Link TV can engage the audiences and young media professionals who are trained through programs like this one at BronxNet. 

At the end of our interview, we were asked if BronxNet could put more Link TV programs on their channel... to which we gladly replied that they should take as much content as they possibly can! A special thank you goes out to their Executive Director, Michael Max Knobbe, who has kindly helped connect Link TV with the neighboring public access channels in both Queens and Brooklyn. Michael has been working at BronxNet for almost two decades, since before it was even BronxNet! This kind of dedication and longevity is not uncommon at public access stations. In fact, every single leader I've met in public access has been working for their channel for many, many years. The only other place I know of that retains employees to that extent is Link TV, which also is still run by the same people that started it over ten years ago. We could all probably get much higher paying jobs somewhere else in the media landscape, but the work that we do is so rewarding and important, I'm not sure any of us would feel like ourselves if we were to leave it behind.  And so we are proud to keep moving things forward, protecting independent media, alternative information, and freedom of expression. 

Thanks for checking in, and please come back soon for our next update on Public Access where Link TV is able to be a part of thinking globally, and acting locally!

Every time I visit a coffee village I hear the same question: why is the price of coffee to us farmers so low? Why is there no relation between the costs of production and a reasonable (if any) profit and the price we get for our beans? These questions apply to 99% of the coffee in the world, fortunately not ours. But here is the answer, from my perch atop a waterfall in northern Peru:

In New York City, half an earth away  from the coffeelands, a room full of overcaffeinated young men (who’d probably never heard of Yirgacheffe or Atsabe) are shouting themselves hoarse bidding down the lifeblood of rural coffee farmers. In the middle of this room is the circular trading floor of the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT), known to its denizens as “The Ring.” Here, investment houses, banks, financial speculators and large coffee companies bid on the future price of coffee. For the companies, the goal is to insure a future supply at a known price – a necessary planning tool for a business based on an agricultural commodity. But for the rest of the frenzied traders the point is to make a profit on the “float” between what they pay for coffee futures and what they hope to sell them for later. For two centuries, coffee had been a dull commodity, traded on a somnambulant market. Yet somewhere in the last decade, it had morphed from a morning brew into a raging speculative commodity on the trading floor.

In this wired world, these Lords of the Ring are supplied with up-to-the-minute financial, political, meteorological and other data from an army of consultants. An early frost in Brazil? The flowers necessary for the budding coffee fruit to develop could wither and die, shrinking the coming harvest. Supply down, price up; bid two cents more for March deliveries. A rumored peace deal in Colombia? Easier deliveries in three months; hold off and let the price drop. The rumors and intelligence are translated into Buy and Sell orders, little slips of paper carried across the floor by the Runners, the traders-in-training. Their street clothes covered in tunics carrying the colors of their houses, the Runners grab the slips from the phone and computer banks owned by the Lords and race them down to their warriors in the Ring, who scream out their offers to buy for a penny more or sell for a penny less. These players make the prices rise and fall in an incestuous system unrelated to the true cost of growing and processing the crop, and with no consideration at all for the needs of the growers to feed their families and keep their kids in school. As one trader told me:

“Traders are not guys with moral fiber when it comes to the conditions of the farmer’s lives. We’re seeing money and we’re making money."

It always amazes (and angers) me that when the market price determined by the Lords of the Ring goes up, roasters and retailers are quick to raise their prices to the consumer. “We have to charge the replacement value of the coffee” one broker told me. But when the world prices go down, these same brokers and buyers never drop their prices.

To me, Fair Trade is not just a formula to keep the price at a level sufficient for the farmers to rely on to improve their lives, it is a deeper commitment to social change that challenges the basic assumptions about the market and the human relations that lie beneath the surface.

While I sat above that waterfall, the market price dropped below 60 cents per pound - the price it costs a farmer to grow and harvest the coffee. From that day forward, each pound produced would drive the farmer who grew it deeper into debt and bewildered despair. For half a decade to come, farm families would suffer malnutrition and infant mortality would soar. At the same time, corporate profits were about to rise to historic heights, as the Lords of the Ring made their killing.