Gregory Berger and Ben Wisner
Greg Berger is a documentary filmmaker and long-time resident of Mexico. His video about Hurricane Dean, produced by Mario Viveros, premiered in Panama in 2008. You can find Greg's video account of how Native Americans were "invisible" in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on Democracy Now! Greg and Ben Wisner have worked together before on two videos about preparing for disasters in Mexico City and Los Angeles. Ben is a hazards expert with the Environmental Studies Programme at Oberlin College, Ohio, and Benfield Hazard Research Centre at University College, London.
Mexico's flood survivors blackmailed into biofuels
Did you know that Mexican farmers who lost everything in floods last year are being forced to grow African oil palms for biodiesel? I was in southern Mexico covering another story, and found flood victims being offered loans and grants by the Mexican government to resume their farming activities, but with a catch. They need to agree to stop growing corn and beans - their traditional crops - and replace them with the oil palms that are native to West Africa. ...
The story behind Mexico's official hurricane success
When Dean, a category five storm of historic proportions, slammed down on the coast of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, crossed the gulf of Mexico, and went on to unleash massive amounts of rainfall upon the central states of Hidalgo, Puebla and Veracruz, government officials stepped across party lines to congratulate one another for their coordinated mitigation and safety efforts, which they credit for having kept the death toll to less than ten. But the storm tossed the sheet metal, asbestos slabs and thatch that the poor use for shelter into the air, exposing not only the inhabitants beneath, but also the deep fissures that 20 years of strict neo-liberal policy have created within Mexican society. ...
