Yu, u Nobuntu

Guinea Worm

2009-10-25T04:15:00.000-07:00

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

Naked for Climate Change in Copenhagen

2009-10-15T06:39:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-10-14T04:44:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-07T13:46:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-03T01:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-01T01:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-30T05:32:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-27T07:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-26T03:29:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-24T04:26:00.000-07:00

A film by Gemma Cubero and Celeste Carrasco

There is no greater joy....

2009-09-20T10:49:00.000-07:00

"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

2009-09-20T10:45:00.001-07:00

The Peace of Wild things

2009-08-24T13:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-24T13:29:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-15T06:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-15T06:05:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-09T05:10:00.000-07:00

“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 "

2009-08-09T04:51:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-09T04:43:00.000-07:00

"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...

2009-08-09T03:40:00.000-07:00

"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

2009-08-09T03:39:00.001-07:00

Ireland saves Cuban Pianos ~ Una Corda

2009-07-14T06:42:00.000-07:00

~ 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

2009-07-14T01:48:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-07-05T10:56:00.001-07:00

Sunday Bloody Sunday ~ U2 for Iran

2009-07-05T10:43:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-05T10:07:00.000-07:00

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

& in the video ~

people reaching for change

Neda Salehi Aghasoltan

2009-06-22T01:37:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-20T00:41:00.000-07:00

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"

2009-06-04T04:32:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-30T13:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-28T03:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-27T04:46:00.000-07:00

"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

2009-04-25T14:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

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

Emily Haines ~ Help I'm Alive

2009-04-22T04:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-21T05:01:00.000-07:00

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 ~

2009-04-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

"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

2009-04-17T10:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-17T10:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-16T01:16:00.000-07:00

"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

2009-04-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

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.

Lyubov Sirota on Chernobyl

2009-04-15T13:38:00.000-07:00

To Vasily Deomidovich Dubodel, who passed away in August 1988, and to all past and future victims of Chernobyl.

They did not register us
and our deaths
were not linked to the accident.
No processions laid wreaths,
no brass bands melted with grief.
They wrote us off as
lingering stress,
cunning genetic disorders . . .
But we--we are the payment for rapid progress,
mere victim (of someone else's sated afternoons.
It wouldn't have been so annoying for us to die
had we known
our death would help
to avoid more "fatal mistakes"
and halt replication of "reckless deeds"!
But thousands of "competent" functionaries
count our "souls" in percentages,
their own honesty, souls, long gone--
so we suffocate with despair.
They wrote us off.
They keep trying to write off
our ailing truths
with their sanctimonious lies.
But nothing will silence us!
Even after death,
from our graves
we will appeal to your Conscience
not to transform the Earth
into a sarcophagus!

Translated from the Russian by Leonid Levin and Elisavietta Ritchie

"Lyubov Sirota and her little son lived in the neighborhood of Pripyat closest to the nuclear plant. The night of the April 25th was very warm and clear. Lyubov couldn't sleep. She went outside to breathe the fresh, fragrant spring air. She was one of the first--one of the few--people in Pripyat to see above the Chernobyl plant the evil flash of light, the star Wormwood (in Russian, Chernobyl ), which two thousand years ago was prophesied in the Book of Revelation, and which that night abruptly incinerated people's hopes and plans. If she had only known then that she should have closed her eyes and run, not looking back, away from this dawn glow, from this air rich with spring blossoms."

"Nobody knew anything."

From " A voice from Dead Pripyat" by Adolph Kharash

Heavy Water

2009-04-15T13:25:00.000-07:00

Based on Mario Petrucci's award-winning book-length poem, "Half Life: a Journey to Chernobyl" tells the story of the people who dealt with the disaster at ground-level: the fire-fighters, the soldiers, the 'liquidators', and their families. Poetry read by David Bickerstaff, Francine Brody, Juliet Stevenson, David Threlfall and Samuel West. www.heavy-water.co.uk

Emar Music

2009-04-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

I first heard of Emar through a mutual Canadian friend & blogger Chung

Emar (Melissa Rebronja) was born in Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia, now Serbia. Shortly after her birth she and her family moved to Toronto where she spent her early childhood, moving back to Belgrade when she was six for almost a decade. Her music exhibits poignant influences from these early memories. Just before the country's collapse she moved back to Toronto. Some months after I met Emar online, I discovered she was to release her latest album Sacred Soul in October '08. Myself and another friend from Belfast were priviledged to be invited to the launch party in Toronto, where we enjoyed a covetted live performance. Emar's music breathes life, spirituality, peace, love and mysticism. Songs are in English, Serbian, Hindi, Persian, Arabic and Church Slavonic.Through world music instrumentation it encompasses a unqiue fusion of influences from East meeting West, Islam meeting Christianity.

Emar herself is a phenomenal person who is full of light & positive energy, a priviledge to know and share with.

For the album she worked with three world renowned producers, Genie Award-nominated Sean Eyre, Canadian Music Awards winner for Best World Music Group & 2009 JUNO Awards Nominee, Andrew McPherson of Eccodek and noted film composer Igor Vrabac. Also playing on five of the album’s tracks is World Music multi instrumentalist Boris Sichon. For me my favorite track is the Serbian "Sutra" (for we are love) featured here.

April 6th Egypt

2009-04-06T14:35:00.000-07:00

Bloggers suffer for Freedom of speech

in Egypt

Violence Against women

2009-04-06T13:35:00.000-07:00

By Walter Astrada

winning photographer of the Alexia Foundation award for Professional Photojournalism 2009

"Violence against women is not only the most widespread example of a human rights violation, but probably the least evident, going largely unpunished. This is shown by the reports published and research conducted by the United Nations, international human rights agencies and the global women's and feminist movements which have been denouncing this situation for decades.

It takes many forms, from domestic abuse to rape, sexual abuse and harmful cultural practices ranging from genital mutilation and honour crimes to premature marriage. In the context of wars in which most of the refugees and displaced population are women and children, women are raped, kidnapped, mutilated and used as sex slaves; the systematic rape of women and girls has been used as a weapon in numerous armed conflicts."

Walter Astrada

on Violence against Women

I found all of Walter's photos deeply moving & provocative

Today listening to Weary by Amel Larrieux

This woman is growing weary
Of having to be so strong
Of having to pretend I’m made of stone
So I won’t end up with no broken bones
I can’t fight every battle alone

I want someone to lift me
Heal my wounds and give me kisses on my head
Say words that should be said
Fear is not the matter
I would so much rather open up my heart
And lay down my guard

Blood into Gold

2009-04-06T03:42:00.000-07:00

"Over 12 million people worldwide are trafficked for forced labor or sexual exploitation" ~ United Nations

Blood into Gold is the compelling new song from Peter Buffett featuring Akon, pinpointing the issue of human trafficking and slavery. The poignant video, produced by UNICEF, is a powerful visual representation of the songs message, utilizing moving images and video from around the world that depict the severity of this issue. As a complementary advocacy tool to the song, the hope of the video is to call attention to the issue and inspire others to help bring an end to the atrocities associated with human trafficking.
(press release)

Visit Is there something I can do
for more information on Human Trafficking

2009-04-06T03:27:00.000-07:00

"Justice at its best is love correcting all that stands against love."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nicole still missing in Syria

2009-03-29T07:54:00.000-07:00

Family and friends world wide are still wondering what happened to Nicole Vienneau two years after mysteriously disappearing in Syria on March 31^st 2007. This weekend Nicole's mother travels again to Damascus to search for her missing daughter. The two million Syrian pound reward still stands. As yet there is no body, no scent, no witness and no leads. Nicole was last seen by staff at the Cairo Hotel in Hama. She never returned and hasn’t been seen since. No emails have been sent from her accounts, no contacts to friends or family and no sightings. She left behind her travel journal and photos.

When she didn’t return to her hotel room political police were called to search her belongings as she was deemed a possible threat as it was thought she had possibly disappeared underground. This was found not to be the case. She is not a political suspect. Sadly criminal police were not called at the time by the hotel as there was no sign of a crime. Nicole is the first person in Syria to be a foreigner, unaccounted for and missing. Guide books such as the Lonely Planet, now mention her disappearance as a warning to others travelling there alone. On March 31^st 2007, a hotel clerk said she planned to visit Qasr Ibn Wardan in the desert.

Strangely she left behind her handwritten instructions in her guidebook for directions to that Bedouin area. Nicole was a seasoned & organised traveller. It seems most unlikely she would have left this behind to go to a remote location.

To date most of the questioning and searching has been carried out by her Mother, Brother and fiancée See interview footage Video news )

Her brother, has kept a detailed web diary of his work in trying to trace her Live Journal . Canadian police were not allowed to participate. Today her mother is back in Damascus trying to find some closure on what happened.

On the days leading to her disappearance many people saw Nicole but on the date of March 31^st onwards no one saw her at all. In a country where women dress conservatively and in traditional Muslim dress, Nicole, as a Western tourist, would have been quite noticeable. No one, save the hotel clerk, saw her from 8.30 that morning.

On the 31^st March only one man registered to visit Qasr Ibn Wardan. In Arabic, he wrote, his name as Amin Ben Yahia امين بن يحيى. He had an Algerian passport, born 1984, parents Abba and Monica. Believed to be connected to Switzerland (or even Germany). Gatekeeper recalls him as being Swiss. He has not come forward. Coincidentally on March 17, 2007 Nicole logged that she had a dinner date with a Swiss man in Damascus, her only dinner date logged.

We are most grateful for all the help around the world online who have tried to help find Nicole, particularly Syrian News for blogging about the story in 2007 and again this weekend, two years later.

Please use any form of online international communication you can to highlight this story and communicate with her family via the webpage dedicated to her story Find Nicole Vienneau

An ancient Bedouin saying states, “The way to keep a trail alive is to walk on it.”

2009-03-26T14:47:00.001-07:00

البحث عن أمين بن يحيى الذي كان في سوريا 07 مارس

Friendship

2009-03-26T12:18:00.000-07:00

amazing Sand art

"Friends are like windows through which you see out into the world and back into yourself… If you don’t have friends you see much less than you otherwise might." ~Merle Shain

You've Got a Friend

Down but Not Out

2009-03-26T11:07:00.000-07:00

Once a successful business man & real estate agent Ron Craven presents his own personal video of the slippery life as a homeless person on the streets of Toronto. Down but not Out

"I won't say that most people feel that homeless people deserve to die on the streets because they are substandard human beings, not better than vermin, but far too many Torontonians feel that way."

View Ron's own Blog @ downbutnotout

Drink your way out of poverty ~ tea bag art saves families

2009-03-25T10:17:00.001-07:00

Original TBag Designs

is a community of South African artists who live using recycled tea bags as their canvases. The money earned by their art helps support a community of 125 people. Pictured here is Nomsa, who was able to buy a house with the proceeds from her paintings with tea bags.

“The most wonderful thing in the world is hearing the rain on the roof and knowing my children are warm and dry.”

YOu can purchase the artwork online or via retail outlets mentioned on their page.

Ballet

2009-03-24T13:20:00.000-07:00

She with one arm ~ he with one leg ~
together hand in hand

A Ballet

Performed by Ma Li (馬麗) and Zhai Xiaowei (翟孝偉).

The music is composed by San Bao. This music is originally from a very popular TV episodes in China, named Qian Shou

Corrective Rape in South Africa

2009-03-24T06:20:00.001-07:00

A woman carries her belongings through the rubble of shacks in the Ramaphosa squatter camp photo by Kim Ludbrook

Very moved and angered today by the grim story in the Guardian newspaper reporting the practise of correct rapes on lesbains in South Africa. Similarly I have also been outraged by the rape of women there wearing the Kanga ~ a traditional Africa dress.

See the video news Bulletin here

"Every day I am told that they are going to kill me, that they are going to rape me and after they rape me I'll become a girl," said Zakhe Sowello from Soweto, Johannesburg. "When you are raped you have a lot of evidence on your body. But when we try and report these crimes nothing happens, and then you see the boys who raped you walking free on the street."

Its such a shame that a country that has fought so hard for its rights againts the injustice of Apartheid shames its women in this way.

"Political freedom without economic empowerment is a hollow victory. However, economic empowerment without spiritual emancipation is not only hollow but deadly"

~ Mmatsilo Motsei in her book "The Kanga and the kangaroo court"

Men particularly from a patriarchal society, such as South Africa are born into communities where it is the norm to exploit and abuse women both verbally and physically as a way of exerting power. It is a huge challenge to re educate the value sytems that allow such injustice to take place. Women feel powerless to take a stand for fear of their lives. It is critical that women can walk the streets with out fear ~ a place which has a rape a minute. Change can only come about with a moral and spiritual awakening that values the equality of women in a society by men who have learned to love and respect themselves.

"When we track down and kill another person or persons, we ourselves individually die some. We place the best in ourselves the human spirit, otherwise called God ~ in unspeakable jeopardy." ~ African Elder, Eskia Mphahele

I am Khanga

I wrap myself around the curvaceous bodies of women all over Africa

I am the perfect nightdress on those hot African nights

The ideal attire for household chores

I secure babies happily on their mother’s backs

Am the perfect gift for new bride and new mother alike

Armed with proverbs, I am vehicle for communication between women

I exist for the comfort and convenience of a woman

But no no no make no mistake …

I am not here to please a man

And I certainly am not a seductress

Please don’t use me as an excuse to rape

Don’t hide behind me when you choose to abuse

You see

That’s what he said my Malume

The man who called himself my daddy’s best friend

Shared a cell with him on [Robben] Island for ten whole years

He said I wanted it

That my khanga said it

That with it I lured him to my bed

That with it I want you is what I said

But what about the NO I uttered with my mouth

Not once but twice

And the please no I said with my body

What about the tear that ran down my face as I lay stiff with shock

In what sick world is that sex

In what sick world is that consent

The same world where the rapist becomes the victim

The same world where I become the bitch that must burn

The same world where I am forced into exile because I spoke out?

This is NOT my world

I reject that world

My world is a world where fathers protect and don’t rape

My world is a world where a woman can speak out

Without fear for her safety

My world is a world where no one , but no one is above the law

My world is a world where sex is pleasurable not painful

"On May 8, 2006, the South African Judge Willem van der Merwe ruled that ANC leader Jacob Zuma was not guilty of the rape of Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo, the daughter of his late friend Judson Kuzwayo, his fellow prisoner on Robben Island who died in exile in 1985. Zuma did not deny having sex with her, but claimed since the victim wore a kanga, a traditional African wrap around cloth and that she had “asked for it.”

She performed this poem in Amsterdam at the opening of the exhibition “Identity, Power and Connection,” It was her first response to the verdict.

Procrastination

2009-03-24T03:09:00.000-07:00

Procrastination is opportunity's assassin. ~Victor Kiam

Inspiring Animated Design video "Procrastination" By John Kelly

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.
- William James

Oh Mother

2009-03-23T01:50:00.000-07:00

Up to 50% of all homeless mothers and children are fleeing from domestic violence

25% of pregnant women have been subject to domestic assault.

One of the likeliest cause of death for women in the age range 18 to 40 is at the hands of a partner who is violent

Violence against women is primarily intimate partner violence

Oh Mother

~ a moving song written by Christina Agilera who witnessed dometsic abuse as a child and now dedicates time and resources to supporting victims of Domestic Violence via the 1736 family crisis centre

Christina Agilera

"She was so young with such innocent eyes
She always dreamt of a fairytale life
And all the things your money can't buy
She thought he was a wonderful guy
Then suddenly, things seemed to change
It was the moment she took on his name
He took his anger out on her face
She kept all of her pain locked away

Oh mother, we're stronger
From all of the tears you have shed
Oh mother, don't look back..."

Piñatas for the Homeless

2009-03-16T07:35:00.000-07:00

Chicago artists released hundreds of paper mache piñatas stuffed with space blankets, created by a local Piñata factory. The display of functional public art created huge attention and awareness to the issue of homelessness and the spaces (in this case highway underpasses) that act as shelters.

Over 100 Chicago area youth and more than 40 community members participated.

View imges of Piñata making here. Picasa album

Homelessness

2009-03-16T05:16:00.000-07:00

These last few days I have been thinking about homelessness ~ reasons for it and those who try and bring about change for this. I have been very much inspired by the amazing House of Cards advert created by Leo Burnett featuring Radiohead for the charity ~ Shelter

Online I have been moved by numerous stories of how virtual communities are coming together to help the homeless.

Here’s one example of how a “FlashMob” was organised in Vancouver, after just one Tweet in December 08, to provide blankets for those sleeping rough. (Twitter helps Homeless)

Sometimes it takes more than that ~ its recognising that those on the streets are the most invisbile and disregarded by society and its hearing their stories that brings us closer to undertsanding their needs.They come from all walks of life but often have simply lost faith in their abilities to face the world.The greatest things you can do is befriend.

I also discovered a new video blog called Invisible TV that gives a voice and face to the homeless documenting their stories across the web.

“To have the confidence to actually do something about where you are is especially hard because you have to build up that confidence. By the end of the time you come on the streets you've lost all confidence in yourself and you think I cant do it even if I try I'm not going to be able to do it.”

~ Rebecca, a once homeless woman, who set up the charity in Australia Rebecca’s Community

This week I gave several pairs of socks to the homeless person who made this photograph.

This photo was taken the day they went homeless.

October 31st 2008.

I know them personally and try to help where I can. This person is my friend and someone I respect a lot. It’s a situation that can face anyone, regardless of stereotypes.

I too was homeless for a short time when in between jobs in Asia. I slept in a hovel, with several others, men and women, toilet and shower were shared with strangers, no privacy whatsoever. It was frightening and it reduces your dignity. No air conditioning, windows were open and my body was covered in mosquito bites after sleeping on the not so clean sheets. I felt incapable but at the same time my pride made me feel I couldn't ask for help. One wonders how people can end up in such a vulnerable situation, but it happens. Fortunately for me, some friends intervened, offered a temporary place to stay, until I found a job. I was grateful to have had the benefit of an education that secured me employment within a short space of time. To this day I won't forget the stench, of sweating bodies, lonely for a resting place in the sticky tropical humidity.

This is the bathroom I shared with about 15 others.

"When we bear witness, when we become the situation — homelessness, poverty, illness, violence, death — the right action arises by itself. We don’t have to worry about what to do. We don't have to figure out solutions ahead of time. Peacemaking is the functioning of bearing witness. Once we listen with our entire body and mind, loving action arises.

-- Bernie Glassman

Passion

2009-03-16T04:34:00.000-07:00

“ There is no passion to be found playing small, in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living ~ Nelson Mandela

SOULEYMANE DIAMANKA

2009-03-08T09:36:00.000-07:00

Today I fell in love with this wonderful poet ~ Born in Senegal, Souleymane Diamanka, who grew up in France, where he began working on words & poetry that was to become his intimate style.

Hear his beautiful voice here In Marchand de cendres

Nicole Vienneau نيكول

2009-03-07T04:39:00.000-08:00

An ancient Bedouin saying states, “The way to keep a trail alive is to walk on it.”

I just heard of Nicole Vienneau last week. She is someone I don’t know personally, but whom I have come to know through the love & care of my good friend in Canada, who once dated her. Just this week he found out that Nicole (Canadian) is missing…almost two years to the day and is deeply upset about this. You can imagine the shock.

I know that feeling as I too, being a traveller across continents, have “lost” people, unique people, soul people, people who only come into your life once in a lifetime & never completely go away. Nicole seems to be one of those people. Nicole is a traveller. A seasoned and responsible traveller. She has survived many terrains and countries over the course of her 34 years. Now after two years and intensive searches by her family and friends including a detailed weekly web log by her brother, there is still not a trace of what happened to her…

See the dedicated webpage ~ Find Nicole

Nicole was last seen in the Cairo Hotel in Syria on March 31^st 2007. Her belongings left behind intact. She was gone with just her light day travel ruck sack. Since this date her bank account has remained untouched, her email inactive and with no communication to anyone she knows.

Afew days before her disappearance she made a “long bike ride into true Bedouin territory” into the ancient ruins of Palmyra, known as the Bride of the Desert, located in an oasis 215 km along the road from Damascus. My Canadian friend, who knew her well and once travelled with her, has observed all the searches & has an instinctive feeling that if she is alive she could well be with the Bedouin.

The word ‘Bedouin’ - derives from the Arab “bedu”, which means “inhabitant of the desert”. The Bedouins are ancient travellers that have existed for thousands of years, long before Islam or biblical times. There are only "100,000" still living in Syria. They still live much as they would all those years of years ago, in animal skin tents with few possessions. Due to the harsh desert environment they hold passionately to values of justice & bravery. The Bedouin sing ancient poetry accompanied to handmade instruments such as the simimiyya (which is a five stringed lyre), a flutelike shabba and the rababa (a one-string violin). The lyre was introduced to Ethiopia by King Solomon himself, following his marriage to the Ethiopian Queen of Sheba.

The Bedouins are renowned for their hospitality. They easily shelter strangers and they would take care of someone like Nicole without asking questions.

Interior of a Bedouin Tent

You don't need any possessions or money. If she is alive it certainly seems that this is a likely possibility. The only other is that she has been the target of foul play or a fatal accident.

Nicole was the sort of person who lived frugally. She cherished her freedom & was a lover of the world. My friend says she would have found the Bedouin lifestyle attractive ~ a life style of the most basic possessions but one that maps journeys to starlight.

To follow this line of search we are asking for any photographers of Bedouin, who may have seen anything unusual, to provide us with contact details. Any other information on the whereabouts of Nicole is also welcome.

Bedouin flutist

The lightly burdened shall be saved Bedouin proverb

U2, White as Snow & Ubuntu

2009-02-28T14:43:00.001-08:00

This week I have been particularly inspired by the latest from U2 which cumulated at the end of the week with an impromptu live performance by the band on the top of the BBC Broadcasting House to promote the launch of their 12th studio album No Line On The Horizon. (see Magnificent)

I was especially moved by radio play of the song “White as Snow” which describes the wintery landscape of a soldier dying from a bomb in the snow of Afghanistan.The song's melody is based on an old hymn, Oh Come, Emmanuel, that, according to The Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal, was composed by "an unknown author, circa 1100".

There is something about the song that catches you, causes you to ache & brings you to a sacred place where you sense the silent passage of a more peaceful horizon beyond the macabre futility of war. It hints of brutal divisons, forsken in the eyes of God, roads that refuse strangers where the only forgiveness of the bloodshed comes from a heart white as snow.

Once I knew there was a love divine
then came a time I thought it
knew me not.
Who can forgive forgiveness when forgiveness is not,
only the land as white as snow.

And the water, it was icy
as it washed over me
and the moon shined above me.

Now this dry ground it bears no fruit at all
only ? under a crescent moon.
The road refuses strangers,
the land, the seeds we sow
where might we find the land as white as snow.

As boys we would go hunting in the woods
to sleep the night shooting out the stars
now the voes of every passing stranger
every face we cannot know

For only a heart could be as white as snow,
for only a heart could be as white as snow

U2 have always been a leading voice in the world for both faith and social causes. This album would seem to bring a subtle emphasis on their stance on war.

official Site U2.com

Bono once commented on Ubuntu ~

"Essentially, what it means is 'I am because we are.' And it's about the interdependence, how we need each other and we have a stake in each other. One part of the community can't thrive truly while the other part of the community is in the dirt. In tending to them, we will be better off ourselves. It's that simple. Ubuntu."

A Mother's Journey

2009-02-22T03:09:00.000-08:00

“I long to accomplish a great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”

Helen Keller

Today I was very moved & humbled by this love journey

of a mother with her son through cancer

A Mother's Journey

The song at the end Because we Believe By Andrea Bocelli

Once in every life
There comes a time
We walk out all alone
And into the light
The moment won't last but then,
We remember it again
When we close our eyes.

Like stars across the sky
E per avvincere
Tu dovrai vincere
We were born to shine
All of us here because we believe

Mandela on Ubuntu

2009-02-20T05:40:00.000-08:00

“Ubuntu is a concept in the Bantu Language.

“It is about the essence of Humanness.

Simply put: ‘people are people through other people’

I am human because I belong. This concept acknowledges both the rights and the responsibilities of each citizen in promoting individual and societal wellbeing.”

Nelson Mandela

watch Mandela on Ubuntu

The Inaugural speech Of Barrack Obama ~20th January 2009

2009-01-20T15:47:00.000-08:00

photo by my mobile

My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America - they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted - for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day - because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control - and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart - not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort - even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment - a moment that will define a generation - it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed - why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Ubuntu

2009-01-19T15:50:00.000-08:00

On this Day, on the Eve of the Inauguration of the First United States President of Colour;
On this day, the day dedicated to the Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King;
On this day I have decided to begin a story.

A simple story, the story of people, everyday people, who like these great leaders, change the world. People who stand up for justice, people who stand up for truth, people who make a difference, people who give without taking, people who do small things that create great waves, people who make change.

Words, music, words, images, gestures that inspire & make a difference.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On my desk is a book, introduced by a man who in 2006 predicted that Barrack Obama would be President. A man who believed. Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I bought this book in Johannesburg, in the Apartheid Museum there.

The book is called "Dream"by PQ Blackwell and inside are the words and sayings of Martin Luther King. On the back of the book is an African saying ~
a saying that is the highest praise given to any man "yu, u nobuntu"

Ubuntu is central to the African being of what it means to be human.

People with ubuntu are, who I wish to describe..., people who follow to the rhythm of "a person is a person through other people"

"I am what I am because of who we all are" ~ this is the spirit of Ubuntu

I myself am not a writer. I simply write as I am, simply and through all of us and for those of us who need a voice.

Martin Luther King's Last Speech

2009-01-19T15:42:00.000-08:00

"The self cannot be the self without other selves" ~ Martin Luther King.