Guinea Worm

This week was really affected by photogrpahs from Ben Stirton depicting the ravishes of Guinea worm.

Naked for Climate Change in Copenhagen

Sunbathers took to the Streets of Copenhagen this week for Climate Change and for project
"HOPE IN HAGEN".

"When the whistle blew, the green and white towels were spread out and the clothes were dropped! The sudden happening came as some surprise to the many bystanders who stared in amazement as the 50-something people between 11 and 71 years of age who apparently enjoyed lying on the square, naked in 9 degrees celsius."

Filmed beautifullly by Soren of @KADAVER

"The world’s climate issues need to be approached with creative thinking and alternative means. According to the city and the people of Copenhagen that also applies to the way we communicate the message." ~ Soren

I have been really inspired by the energy of this team. Søren Bo Steendahl and crew, recently drove an ambulance from Copenhagen to Sierra Leone to raise awareness for the needs of the Masanga hospital there. Their projects to bring about social awareness and highlight injustice are original and sustainable. People who TRULY affect change...

Best Inovation I've seen in Years.

Support the poor and Marginalised via the Iphone
~from Samasource/GIVEWORK

"Samasource and Crowdflower present Give Work, their new iPhone application. Give Work lets you support refugees in Dadaab, Kenya—the world’s largest refugee site—in minutes by completing short, on-screen tasks. The refugees are training to complete these same tasks and, by volunteering to tag a video or trace a road, you will generate money to support their training as well as valuable data to help focus future training programs."


Samasource derives its name from the Sanskrit word sama, which means equal. Their mission is to reduce poverty by connecting people to dignified, computer-based work.

View a video of their project work here

Help Needed

Lesego Semenya
is 21 years old, from Johannesburg, South Africa
Grew up in Soweto, South Africa, through the peak of the freedom struggle. Lived through the defeat of Apartheid and has been writing since 12 years of age.

Help needed

I heard her cry last night

Her tears drowned by drumbeats

She doesn't even fight

Her body used to atrocities

What is one more wound?

She's had millions before

What can some more pain do?

Murderers have run through her door



I saw her dying last night

It was clear in the moon light

Her chest taking its last breath

Her body depleted of all strength

She saw me watching from behind the tree

Her forlorn stare reaching out for me

Like a tired lion she rested her soul

Even eternal lives have their time to go



I saw her dead last night

Murdered by neglect

Over her wealth others would fight

Her lands a cause of conflicts

But she just lay, stripped of all pride

Her welcoming ways forgotten

Even when abused, she still smiled

But now her body lay rottenI saw a light last night I

t blinked at me through the nights' clouds

It showed me something I'd never seen

Her heart still beat inside

I ran miles last night

Fetched water to revive her

To bring her back to her lost mightS

he breathed again but to awake her will take time

©2007, Poets against war

The Dangers of a Single Story

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie of Nigeria, author of Half of a Yellow Sun, makes reference to the need for a TV channel for diverse stories of the people of Africa to enhance dignity and bring social awareness ~ the need for "a balance" of stories from Africa...
Stories to empower, heal and humanise.

This is why the project at "hillsidedigital" is so important.



"There is never a single story about any place....when we get that, we gain a kind of paradise"

The Story of Charity : Water

Never doubt a small group of thoughtful, commited citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

– Margaret Mead

Just A Band

Love this new single & video from Kenyan group JUST A BAND.
Thier second album "82" releases this week.

Prelaunch

Friday, October 2, 2009 at 10:00pm
End Time:	Saturday, October 3, 2009 at 3:00am
Location:	The Blue Times Lounge, Museum Hill
Street:	Junction of Museum Hill Road and Westlands Road
City/Town:	Nairobi, Kenya

Dear Mandela

Dear Mandela (5 min cut) from Sleeping Giant on Vimeo.

Dear Mandela is an upcoming documentary film due for completion in June 2010. It describes South Africa's "new apartheid", where forced evictions and extreme poverty are an ongoing way of life, where no longer the country is divided into black and white but rather the increasing margins between rich and poor. At present about one million people live in shack developments in Durban, South africa. In time for the World Cup 2010, the city has been aiming to "erradicate the slums". Sadly much of this has been happening at gun point and people are being fined up to 20 000 rand if they don't evict their properties.

Often shackdwellers are left homless and in fear of their life.

Abahlali baseMjondolo, The Shack Dwellers Movement, has been facing considerable opression in trying to affect such change. In recent weeks some members have have had to go into hiding for fear of their lives.

Last weekend, residents of Kennedy Road settlement, in Durban, were attacked by a 40 strong crowd of men, with knifes and guns. The target was a meeting of the Kennedy Road Development Committee (KRDC).
Shots were fired and several were killed. Over thirty shacks were rampaged and destroyed.

Calls to the police were ignored. Thousands fled the community overnight.

See witness reports...

The Shackdwellers are upset at the thought that the World Cup simply symbolises a demolition of their own homes. This event at Kennedy Road marks a turning point. It signals that the concept of a 'rainbow nation' is now ending and, sadly political unrest due to this opression of the poor may become a defining fracture in the country.

The film, Dear Mandela follows the life of three young shackdwellers who have joined The Shackdwellers Movement to try to bring about a grassroots change in the Constitution in how shackdwellers are being treated.

International crew in the making of the film "Dear Mandela" are believed to have witnessed the attack.

A voice for the voiceless

I have been really impressed by a project taken on by Hillside Digital in South Africa which enables and trains impoverished, marginalised communities to use new media and basic journalism skills to access funding and communicate at a grassroots level with local business as well as the international community.



Kids playing with Danny's Camera in Alexandra TownShip, South Africa

See Danny Lurie, founder of the project explain how this works in practice.

Voice of the people

I am hoping at some point soon to link in person with the project at Hillside Digital, to support the people in training there on the ground & also to unite them with local community networks I link to here in Northern Ireland, who are willing to support both online and financially.

You can follow the project also on twitter www.twitter.com/hillsidedigital

Please take a look at this project ~ I have been so inspired and know for sure that giving people a voice empowers many and will be paramount in enabling change.

The flutter of a butterfly's wings can cause a hurricane on the otherside of the world.

A new journey

Just a little note to those of you who follow me here.
I have embarked recently on a new journey... that of documentary making!

You may wish to follow some of my progress here

Journey into Film


The last number of weeks have been hectic. But I do wish to thank so much those of you who have believed, supported and inspired me to this point. You have made such things possible...things that three months ago were not even a dream.

I will be writing shortly about how this journey started ~

And will continue to write here too about causes and people who inspire me.

Thanks,

Eva X

Women who Live Their Dream

A film by Gemma Cubero and Celeste Carrasco

There is no greater joy....

"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."

— Chris McCandless

Traffickers Exploit Global Downturn

The Peace of Wild things

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life
and my childrens lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water,
and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief.
I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world,
and am free.

— Wendell Berry

Thina Simunye ~ We are Together

Afew months ago I met this young man called Paul in a small one shop village called Gortahork in the Gaeltacht, the South of Ireland. Little did I know that his film was having such an impact throughout the world. I believe he was still at college when he volunteered to help at the Agape orphanage South Africa. ... this movie is the butterfly effect of what he saw there & filmed.

Thina Simunye ~ We are together

And as for Slindile ~ well.... one only has too look at her smile to see the beauty that transcends and will continue to affect peoples lives for many years to come....

Orphaned by AIDS ~ her story & that of her family, told here very simply but beautifully through the songs of the children of the Agape Orphanage, in KwaZulu Natal, reached the streets of New York and all around the world.

District 9

Released this week internationally is a science fiction film, written by Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell, located in Johannesburg, South Africa.

District 9 is based on Alive in Joburg, a short film also directed by Neill Blomkamp.





Official Page for District 9

what's Important

It's not about having everything go right;
~ its facing whatever goes wrong.

It's not about living without fear;
~it's about having the determination to go on in spite of it.

It's not about where you stand,
but the direction you're going in.

Remember to live just this one day
and not add tomorrow's troubles to today's load.

Remember that everyday ends and will bring a new tomorrow
full of exciting new things.

Love what you do,

do the best you can

and always remember

how much you are loved.
~ Vickie M. Worsham

Eva Cassidy ~ true colours

Lantern's Of Memories

“Kae Goh Ogura was just a little girl playing in the streets of Hiroshima, when she heard an ominous sound coming from the sky. She looked up to see a tiny airplane, an American B-29. She watched as a small black spot dropped out of the airplane. All of a sudden, the black spot exploded in the air.

I also was also moved this week by watching this video "Lantern's of Memory", taken in Hiroshima by my friend Velcrow Ripper, a filmmaker from Toronto.

“People need to tell their stories. They need to be heard. It’s a critical phase of the healing process. For the Hibakusha, like so many survivors I have met, their greatest hope is that what has happened to them, not happen to anyone else. They told me, “We know the pain we have been through, and we would not even want our enemies to suffer that way.” The act of speaking out is a way to transform tragedy, into a force of change. Today, Kae Goh Ogura travels constantly, telling her story around the world. She has made an inspiring leap, allowing the pain she has experienced to open her heart” ~ Velcrow Ripper

Why should we love our enemies? ~ Martin Luther King

“I shall write peace on your wings and you shall fly "

This week was the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. I visited the place with my friend from there some 11 years ago. I saw the palm of a child embedded into stone. Silently we hung origami cranes on the shrines.

A Japanese legend teaches that anyone folding 1,000 paper cranes (a bird believed to live 1,000 years) is granted a wish.

In 1955 a 12-year-old Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki developed leukemia 10 years after the bombing of Hiroshima. She began folding 1,000 cranes so she could make a wish to get well. She also wrote the Haiku – “I shall write peace on your wings and you shall fly around the world.” ~ Sadako died October 25, 1955.

But, Sadako’s story did “fly around the world”. Her friends came together and raised funds to build a memorial to her and to all the children who died from the effects of the atomic bomb. In 1958, her statue was unveiled in the Hiroshima Peace Park with this plaque:

“This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world.”

Cranes adorning the peace memorial Hirsohima Peace Park, Japan

Emmanuel Jal

"sometimes you gotta lose to win, Neve give up, never give in"

Offical page war child


film trailer ~ I put my fight into the music

But Jesus heard my cry...

"My dreams are like torment,
My every moment.
Voices of my brain
Of friends that were slain,
Friends who died by my side of starvation
In the burning jungle and the desert plain.
But Jesus heard my cry
I was tempted to eat the rotten flesh of my comrade."

Jal was bornin Sudan, "1980" he thinks. His father a rebel. His Mum killed by rebels. Soldiers raped his sister three times. He watched his aunt raped before his eyes and his entire village burned to the ground. At the age of seven he slept with an Ak47. One of the "lost boys of Sudan"~ a child soldier. Anger was white rage. Everything lost~ only thing to gain was revenge.

"I wanted revenge because I've witnessed my mom beaten in my face. I've witnessed my auntie getting raped. I've seen my village burned down. And that's so much bitterness, wanting to know who's this person doing all these things."

Very few people let go of this anger to turn it around. Most become so embittered and recycle the rage back into ruining more and more lives. Instead Jal has been restored. He was found in a refugee camp, adopted by aid worker Emma McCune and sent to England.
~ he now works to raise funds through his story and music for children in Africa.

"Jal's narrative flows between darkness and light, the terror that befell his family and kinsmen, the horrors he went on to inflict upon others, and a deep-seated desire to set things right." ~ Washington Post

Ireland saves Cuban Pianos ~ Una Corda

~ Chucho Valdes

Watched the fabulous and uplifting documentary 88 STRINGS ATTACHED, at the Galway Film Fleadh, yesterday!! ~ breathtaking ~ it describes the project Una Corda, a project where teams of Irish musicians & piano tuners travel from Ireland to Cuba to restore old pianos.

The reason for these unique travels is due to the desire to keep the art of music making in Cuba alive. For so long the country has had so little and due to US Sanctions piano tuners have been unable to find the tools and equipment to fix the pianos. Many old piano tuners from the National Workshop of Instrument Repair workshop set up by the Russians in the 70's have retired, are too old or have passed away.

In 2006, Ciaran Ryan began the Una Corda to create a movement to restore & retune old forsaken pianos of Havanna. The film describes the journey from its first fundraising efforts in Galway, to the music schools and concert halls of Havana, and back. Ciaran is filmed, along with fellow tuners from Ireland, meeting young piano tuners and teaching them how to repair pianos. He visits the key musicians and composers of the land, fine tuning their disbabled and broken piano keys, eventually interviewing the legendary five time Grammy Award winner Cuban pianist, Chucho Valdes.

Today tourists continue travelling back and forth from Ireland contribute to the project by becoming Una Corda's mules, carrying a packages of piano parts with them in their luggage when they go. So far over three hundred kilos of parts have been carried in luggage. One such mule is Catherine Bruton of Galway who travelled there last month taking a bag of felt and nails. It was her fourth trip ~

"I don’t think you can separate Cuba from music. Music is central to the lives of Cubans,the people there don’t have many material things, so everything is celebrated through music. People don’t go out and buy a new car to celebrate, for instance, since there aren’t new cars to buy.” ~ says Catherine, via To Havana on a string, in The Irish Times.

“One of the reasons I keep going back to Cuba is because of the music,” she explains. “It’s unique. A lot of the music is untouched and pure, because it hasn’t had the same levels of influence. I get the impression it’s very authentic to the roots of what it’s always been.”

"The piano players of Cuba face challenges that musicians in Ireland can scarcely imagine. It’s an island famed around the world for its music, but in a climate that is particularly hard on strings and wood, Cuba’s pianos need plenty of tender loving care. But pianos are not always a priority on an island raked by hurricanes and struggling to overcome the effects of years of the US trade embargo." ~Una Corda

David Creedon of Cork, Ireland, has taken an ethereal series of photographs of the National Workshop of Instrument Repair warehouse. David is an internationally acclaimed conceptual documentary photographer

Next week, Chucho Valdés will play a solo concert at the Cork School of Music on July 20th, and with a full band, at Vicar Street on July 21st.

Una Corda hope set up a training school for Cuban Piano tuners in Galway, where they will have intensive training and return to Cuba to carry on the skills that were once fading and restore music back to the communities. The term Una Corda means "one string" its amazing how out of one persons passion for music a whole participation across countries can begin...

It only takes one string ~



Elizabeth C. Jones directed 88 strings attached ~

Elizabeth, started her career as a reporter for Newsweek magazine. In 1992 she bought a small video camera and a Land Rover and travelled across Africa to start making television news features. Aside from covering many of Africa's wars, she has also worked in Afghanistan, Iraq and the West Bank. She has played a part on a number of award-winning series and programmes, including directing BBC's Holidays in the Axis of Evil, which won a Foreign Press Association Award and was shortlisted for a Grierson Award. She has been a finalist for the Rory Peck Award five times since the award was founded nine years ago, and for her work in Jenin in 2002, she was shortlisted

Clown Around Lesotho

Last weekend I attended the Galway film Festival ~ had a wonderful time & will be mentioning afew of the films that inspired me here.

"Clown around Lesotho"

is a heartwarming & extremely funny doc by director Mike Casey ~ who in a state of drunkenness gave me this dvd at 4am @ the infamous "Rowing Club" on 12th/7/09 ~ such a sweetie ; )

The film describes the journey of a group of clowns ~ led by Galway actor Jonathan Gunning & Bryan Quinn of Dublin, who travel around the schools and communities of Africa with the voluntary organisation "Clowns Without Borders" entertaining and bringing smiles.

Here they are pre trip ~ Why we do it....

Mike followed the clowns to film in Lesotho, which is one of the smallest countries in Africa, adjacent to South Africa. It's one-third the size of Ireland, a population of two million, with 40 per cent below the poverty line. Over 8,000 Lesthoto kids are infected with the HIV and there are 180,000 orphaned.

"Clown around Lesotho" premiered at the festival and had the audience in stitches the entire time. Absolutely inspiring ~ a slice of JOY.

How long must we sing this song?

Sunday Bloody Sunday ~ U2 for Iran

July 02, 2009 in Barcelona, 360 tour Bono reaches out to the people of Iran dedicating “Sunday Bloody Sunday” to the Iranian cause.

Irish rebels always lend a hand ~

And the battle's just begun
There's many lost but tell me who has won
The trench is dug within our hearts
And mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn apart

The Green Balloons ~ Iran

.... and when they ran out of green balloons they used trash bin liners

& in the video ~

people reaching for change

Neda Salehi Aghasoltan

As they tried to save her after being shot in the heart ~



as she was ~

She was a philosophy student at the University and was shot by a police sniper in the heart whilst watching the protests. Footage of her death travelled swiftly through the online media channels and perhaps her voice may be the one emotion reaching out to the world saying "enough". Interestingly her name in farsi means "calling" or "voice of the call".

Video footage of her death

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxjJZqjEMos

Toronto Pow Wow

The logo's above have been selected for T-shirt designs by a friend of mine who has been resident at the Native Men's Residence in Toronto for the last 9 months. The shirts which will be on sale today at the Annual Pow-Wow Event, Wells Hill Park.


Na-Me-Res provides a 63 male bed shelter to house and serve the needs of homeless individuals in Toronto. Their objective is to reduce the number of homeless and to prevent those at risk of becoming homeless, by equipping them with the tools of empowerment, self-reliance, and economic independence.

I personally have been very moved over recent months to witness the tranformation in my friend through the care and support given by this organisation. Homelessness can happen to anyone but it is not primariliy solved by getting a job ~ instead renewing self-confidence, emotional healing and a sense of community are all elements that serve as a solutions to people who have for a variety of reasons been marginalised. In unique ways the community at this residence has addressed these issues and I have been able to witness stories of change unfold online through photos shared of retreats, healing ceremonies, sweatlodges and out door pursuits. I have been very blessed to witness this & see someone who I care about from a distance recieve such much needed support & blessing. He has already created t-shirts for my kids & friends here in Ireland. I have been very touched.

There are four principle teachings that the Creator gave to us to know:

Be kind above all, to be honest in all things, to share all that we have, and if we do these things correctly, then that is where we gain our strength. .

Irish Youth Choir share stage at Glastonbury with "the boss"

The Omagh Community Youth Choir from Northern Ireland will play this year in Glastonbury as part of "Playing for Change".

Playing for Change is a group of musicians from around the world with the collective aim to promote peace through music. Their album released afew weeks ago went straight in at No 10 on the billboard charts. The youth choir, who sing along with Bono of U2 on the album, was created some ten years ago in the wake of the Omagh bombing. Out the success of the album, the choir has been asked to be the headline act on the Jazz/World stage at the Festival, sharing stage with acts like Bruce Springsteen.

Omagh Community Youth Choir

29 people were killed and over 220 people injured as a result of the Omagh bombing in Northern Ireland on the 15th August 1998. The choir aims to bring together young people from various backgrounds and religious divides for peace and reconciliation, and to provide some comfort to those who have suffered as a result of this nationwide trauma.

"There is no better way of bringing people together than through music or song." says Daryl Simpson, choir founding member.

Here is the Bob Marley song ~ "war no more trouble" from the album performed by the Omagh Community Youth Choir, Bono and others

"Until the philosophy which holds one race
Superior and another inferior
Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned
Everywhere is war, me say war

That until there is no longer first class
And second class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man's skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes
Me say war ~ we dont need no more war"

Thank you

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you,"
that would suffice. ~ eckhart ~

In today's world with the hysteria of swine flu, depression of the economy, terrorist threats and multiple natural disasters, wars and famine our systems have become so heightened with anxiety and fears that its quite simply too hard to "switch off". Worries all around us on top of everyday family and work related stresses are like an onslaught of disaster upon the biochemical makeup of our bodies and minds. We are strangled by fear, hopelessness and worry.

It is well known by scientists and physicians that fear creates an inate "flight or fight" response in the body, increasing levels of Cortisol and Adrenaline, leaving us weakened, exhausted and irritable. The amygdala is the portion of our brains where fear resides and this forms 90% of our response pattern, such that we are often in "hunter" or "survival" mode 24/7. The triggering of the response is automatic and in times of prolonged stress can lead to overload, making the body susceptible to increased risk of physical and mental illnesses. Despite this, our brain can be programmed to overcome this. Allowing space for the mind to unwind and recharge, along with increasing happiness. Also allowing the body to rest in a place where the brain is functioning in a much rarer state, using the neocortex, where we can train it to let go of fear and instead find an inner peace and stability.

According to medical psychologist Dan Baker, Ph. D., author of What Happy People Know, it is neurologically impossible for the brain to react to fear when one exhibits a state of gratitude and thankfulness. Being grateful for what you have rather than what you don't have increases your positive feelings about life and reduces anxiety levels. When you practice appreciation, according to Baker, you'll improve your mood, as your brain focuses on the elements that produce Serotonin (the Happy Hormone) rather than Adrenaline (which increases heart rate and prepares the body for a "fight/flight" response). You can simply learn to "channel" your nerve pathways to an alterior route!

The habit of each day writing down or concentrating on five things that you are grateful for, or showing appreciation to others around you is not a quick fix. It has to become a regular habit over months of practice for the brain to adjust its responses and serotonin levels.

Similarly according to research Professor Robert Emmons, of the University Of California, the quality of "being grateful" boosts the immune system and increases mental health. Grateful people are generally more optimistic, happier , suffer less depression and are more resilient in the face of stress.


Sharing with others and appreciating others around you, seeing good, genuinely valuing their worth and ignoring their faults, gives you a deeper feeling of satisfaction in your life.

To be happy we should "learn" to be grateful for the small blessings we do have, the simple beauties around us and most of all to share.

Our Media Is the Wall

Alt Artist™ - video series coming soon from Alt Artist on Vimeo.

"Here in Beirut we have more freedom than anywhere else"

The AltArtist is a forum for artists that aims to reveal the innovative spirit of artists who live in areas renowned for conflict, and in communities under-represented by the world's media by providing a 60 second documentary of their work.

One of the first artists represented is street artist Oras from Beirut

"I had this idea to bring fun stuff to the streets of Beirut - which can make people smile..."

You can follow The AltArtist on twitter @altartist

Intended Consequences

"I am slowly beginning to appreciate that the younger daughter is innocent"

Screenshot from Exposures site © J. Torgovnik

Israeli Photographer Johnathan Torgovnik has made repeated visits to war torn Rwanda after being moved by the stories of women who were raped at the hands of Hutu militia during the 1994 genocide. Using photographs of the women with their children he has documented their heart-wrenching stories. It is believed that some twenty thousand children were born of these rapes, many of whom have contracted HIV and AIDS. Not only that, their mothers live each day in their communities with the complexities of the stigma attached to having borne a child to the enemy.

Photographs may be viewed at Aperture Foundation Gallery

View the documentary of their narratives Intended Consequences at the clickable link below

Jonathan Torgovnik’s photographs have been widely exhibited and published in numerous international publications, including Newsweek, Aperture, GEO, Sunday Times Magazine, and Stern, among others. He has been a contract photographer for Newsweek magazine since 2005, and is on the faculty of the International Center of Photography School in New York. In 2007, Torgovnik won the National Portrait Gallery’s Photographic Portrait Prize for an image from Intended Consequences. He is co-founder of the non-profit organization Foundation Rwanda.

Women are Heroes

The Women are Heroes project aims to show the pivotal role of women in society by photographing them going about their daily lives and posting them on huge posters on the walls around their country. They serve to highlight the struggles and importance of women in desperate & traumatic communities around the world.

Photos are taken by a French photographer by the name of JR.

"The expressiveness of their faces testifies to their strength, their courage, and their will to fight, which keeps them going, keeps them alive."

Paix Tshirts support peace in the Congo

the PAIX Shirt [VIDEO] from Discover The Journey on Vimeo.

"qui veut la mort prepare la guerre mais qui veut la paix offre le pardon" ~who wants death prepares for war, but who wants peace offers forgiveness" ~ Francois~.

Discover the Journey

[ALL proceeds from the sale of these shirts will fuel Discover The Journey’s quest to tell the story of child soldiers in the Congo.]

Baskets and Beads of Marrakesh

Photographs via my favorite blogger from the land of Sooth sayers and Souks Marrayam in Marrakesh

Emily Haines ~ Help I'm Alive

Also watched this video yesterday with Emily Haines discussing her move to Buenos Aires for inspiration to write & likewise thought ~ we really need to slow down, get away from the hysteria and competition. Live life alittle more, with passion, freedom simplicity and gentleness.

"If you’re still alive
My regrets are few
If my life is mine
what shouldn’t I do?
I get wherever I’m going
I get whatever I need
While my blood’s still flowing
And my heart still beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer

Help, I’m alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer
Hard to be soft, tough to be tender
Come take my pulse, the pace is on a runaway train
Help, I’m alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer " ~ Help I'm alive

Emily on her new Album "Fantasies" ~ released this month

France Fights Sex Traffic

ECPAT France and Air France have launched an advertising campaign to raise awareness involved in child pornography and sex trafficking. The campaign uses video (television, Air France ticket offices and on-flight), spot radio, posters, brochures, inserts and internet banners.

“Pornographie enfantine” and “Le tourisme sexuel” tell the story of young girls sold by their families to abusive photographers and pimps. At every step in the chains of abuse, masks replace the faces of people abusing the children, those who will become clients or those who look at photographs of the girls being ill-treated."

credits:

The ECPAT campaign was developed at BETC Euro RSCG, Paris, by creative director Florence Bellisson, art director Eric Astorgue, copywriter Jean-Christophe Royer, agency proucer David Green, account managers Valérie Albou, Muriel Kerommes, Magali Heberard, Timoti Auscher, advertising managers Carole Bartoli, Hélène Paillard, François Brousse, Christine Micouleau, Patricia Manent, Catherine Masson.

Filming was shot by director Asger Leth via Partizan Midi Minuit, Paris, known for his direction of “Ghost of Cite Soleil”, a documentary about the slums in Haiti called “Ghosts of Cite Soleil“.

Photography for the print campaign was by Marc Da Cumba.

ECPAT, (End Child Pornography and Trafficking) is an international organisation whose mission is to fight against commercial sexual exploitation of children - all forms of child prostitution, child pornography, sale and trafficking of children for sexual purposes.

You deserve more ~

"Hey little girl would you like some candy Your momma said that its ok The door is open come on outside No I can't come out today It's not the wind that cracked your shoulder And threw you to the ground Whos there that makes you so afraid You're shaken to the bone And I don't understand You deserve so much more than this " ~ Sarah McLachlan ~Good Enough

Every ten days in England and Wales one child is killed at the hands of their parent. In half of all cases of children killed at the hands of another person, the parent is the principal suspect.

Six per cent of children experience frequent and severe emotional maltreatment during childhood

Three-quarters of sexually abused children did not tell anyone about the abuse at the time. 27 per cent told someone later. Around a third still had not told anyone about their experience by early adulthood.

A quarter of children experience one or more forms of physical violence during childhood. This includes being hit with an implement, being hit with a fist or kicked, shaken, thrown or knocked down, beaten up, choked, burned or scalded on purpose, or threatened with a knife or gun.

Homeless Centre for Los Angeles ~ Prado Day Centre

Also reading about the fanstastic work by Hardly Normal highlighting the work of the Prado Day Centre Los Angeles

Every day, between 90 to 120 people seek refuge and assistance at the Center. Over 30 percent of the Center’s participants are now women and children. One of the many services the shelter provides is laundry. Clean clothes are so very important to a persons self esteem

Nathaniel Ayers & Steve Lopez

Jamie Fox And Robert Downey jr in The movie "The Soloist"

Nathaniel Ayers, a mentally ill musical virtuoso, was discovered living on the streets by Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez. Morley Safer reports on the unbreakable bond between them. On 60 minutes

"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these. " George Washington Carver

"Half Life" ~ remnants of Chernobyl by Nadav Kander

Classroom, Secondary School

Shoes in Dust

Hospital Assembly Room

Room 206, Hotel Polyssia

View from Central Square Apt to Reactors 3 and 4

"Reactor No.4 at Chernobyl's Nuclear Power Station exploded in 1986 leaving the surrounding area uninhabitable for many hundreds of years. I visited Chernobyl to mark its 20th anniversary, photographing the deserted spaces in what was once a model Soviet City.

Home to more than 40,000 people, the apartments, schools and hospitals that were hastily left following the controversial evacuation are stark reminders of past lives, leaving a disturbing sense of quite. An uneasiness that I had never previously experienced." —Nadav Kander

You can view the rest of these chilling photographs by Kander on his webpage Nadav Kander

As a young person living in Northern Ireland at the time of this disaster, it was holds for me my most terrifying memories. I recall running to stay indoors, fearing to go out, to breathe. The news told us of "the clouds" that were to rain toxic & deadly water upon us. Cattle and sheep were slaughtered. Everyone felt helpless. A silent, invisbile death wrapped around us. Online this week Swedish photographer Vahid Cullsberg introduced me to these powerful works by Kander, taken for the twentieth anniversary of the event. I was moved to tears, as not only have I experienced the fear of this invisible radaioactive destructor but I have met the victims, children and adults, who have visited Northern Ireland from the region, to gain some respite and fresh air from their contaminated legacy.

Kander has recently published in the New York Times "Obama's People", 52 photographic portraits of the leading men and women in Obama's Government, shot on the eve of the presidential inaugeration. The venue is the Birmingham Museum and Art gallery and the event will run from 18th April 2009 - 30th August 2009

He was born in Israel in 1961, brought up in South Africa and today lives in London with his family.