American Promise is Coming...
Winner at the
More than 100 documentary films
were screened at this year's Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, including
37 feature films and 15 shorts in competition, that were selected from more than
1,200 total submissions. Films from 16 different countries were exhibited,
underlining the international profile of the Triangle's signature film event.
The festival's top prize - the
Reva and David Logan Grand Jury Award for feature-length documentary - went
to the film "American
Promise," which follows two African-American boys
from kindergarten through high school at New York's prestigious Dalton
School.
Co-directors Michele Stephenson
and Joe Brewster, parents of one of the two boys featured in the film, shot
footage during the course of 13 years to complete the project. "The one
thing we want to promote is family," Brewster said. "And what we
felt when we came here [to the festival] is that this is a family."
Click
Here to see trailer of
American
Promise.
Click
Here for More Information on American Promise.
|
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
American Promise is Coming...
Food Security. US; FDA Recall: Big Blue Fisheries is recalling ALL smoked products
Recalls, Market Withdrawals and
Safety Alerts for U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA).
This information has recently been updated and is now available.
This information has recently been updated and is now available.
09/30/2013 09:33 PM EDT
Big Blue Fisheries is recalling ALL smoked products from
all lots and codes, various sizes, in vacuum packages because the products may
not have been properly cooked and have the potential to be contaminated with
Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium which can cause life-threatening illness or
death.
Consumers are warned not to use the product even if it does not look or
smell spoiled.
For detailed information pertaining to this Recalls,
Market Withdrawals and Safety Alerts message, please click the link at the
beginning of this bulletin.
International: UNISDR. Finland set to launch HFA Peer Review
http://www.unisdr.org/archive/34883
Finland set to launch HFA peer review
GENEVA, 1 October 2013 – Finland is set to follow in the footsteps of the UK this week and launch a peer review of its national implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), the global agreement on disaster risk reduction.
The 4th European Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction (EFDRR) heard that Finland is aiming for the same impact as the UK’s peer review – the world’s first – which served as a catalyst for high-level engagement and reflection.
As Finland prepared for its review, which gets underway on 5 October, EFDRR members called for a better understanding of advances in governance and accountability of disaster management. They agreed to consolidate Europe’s learning in this regard.
Similarly, as part of consultations ahead of the post-2015 international framework for disaster risk reduction, EFDRR members reiterated support of work towards reducing disaster risks at the local level. Germany, Norway, Poland, France and the European Commission/DG Climate Action and the Council of Europe have been in the lead on this process thus far.
The Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) Regional Office for Europe, Paola Albrito, said: “The EFDRR confirmed the firm commitment of our European actors and regional partners for a sound joint collaboration towards building resilience to disasters in the region.”
European countries have achieved significant progress in implementing the HFA. The recent establishment of national platforms for disaster risk reduction in Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Greece has brought the total number on the continent to 25.
There has also been movement in the establishment of legal and regulatory frameworks for DRR. More countries are moving from a culture of reactive disaster response and recovery to proactive risk reduction and safety. However, significant challenges remain in implementing the HFA, particularly in terms of the lack of adequate resources to support DRR measures.
The Forum agreed it needed to strengthen its influence on policymaking and practice as part of the global consultations to forge a post-2015 international framework at the World Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction in Japan, in 2015.
Mr Dag Olav Hogvold, of the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning, highlighted two important principles for the Forum to continue to prosper.
“First, international cooperation benefits all of us; we don’t do it just for the sake of it. Second, we need to keep trying to work with nature rather than trying to beat it,” he said.
The European Forum was hosted by the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning and organised in collaboration with UNISDR and the Council of Europe.
The platform advocates for strong implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action and acts as a knowledge sharing platform for various European partners.
The 5th European Forum is due to be in Madrid, in September 2014 hosted by Spain’s National Office for Civil Protection.
- Date:
- 1 Oct 2013
- Sources:
- United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction - Regional Office for Europe (UNISDR EUR)
Sunday, September 29, 2013
2013 Slavery in our time. Families in Mali splintered by slavery
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/apr/03/families-mali-slavery-culture-conflict
Families in Mali splintered by slavery as culture and conflict converge
Tuareg rebels are capitalising on fighting in Mali to reacquire former captives whom they regard as their property from birth
• Mali's lax laws make an anti-slavery activism toughShare
• Mali's lax laws make an anti-slavery activism toughShare
- Celeste Hicks in Bamako
- theguardian.com,
"I haven't heard anything about my brother for more than a year," says Raichatou Walet Touka. She's been living at a safehouse in Bamako, Mali's capital, after fleeing the northern town of Gao following an attack by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), a Tuareg rebel group that briefly took over northern Mali in early 2012.
Thousands were displaced by the fighting, and the subsequent battle for control of northern Mali between Islamist rebels and the MNLA. But the situation facing Raichatou has been particularly perilous, for she comes from a family considered by many in the MNLA leadership as slaves.
"I can't sleep at night," she says, wiping away tears. "I wake up feeling bad and thinking about my family who are still there."
In 2008, Raichatou escaped slavery in the northern desert town of Menaka, heading for the relative safety of Gao. But when the MNLA took control, she fled, fearing her old Tuareg slave masters might try to recapture her.
Anti-slavery groups say the conflict and ensuing political chaos in Mali has worsened the situation facing the 250,000 people who live in conditions of slavery in the west African state. The MNLA leadership and parts of the Ansar Dine Islamist group, which fought for control of the north last year, come from Tuareg noble families, some of whom are responsible for continuing the practice of slavery in Mali.
Malian anti-slavery organisation Temedt has reported cases of slave masters profiting from the chaos of the past year to recapture former slaves, including at least 18 children seized from one village last September. Raichatou believes this is the fate that may have befallen her brother, Ismagir Ag Touka.
Although slavery is a crime against humanity in Mali's constitution, it remains deeply ingrained in the culture. For centuries, descent-based slavery – where slavery is passed down through the bloodline – has resulted in "black Tamasheq" (the Tuareg's language) families in Mali's north being used as slaves by nomadic Tuareg communities. Generations of children have been considered the property of the Tuaregs from birth.
Despite the constitution, slavery is still not illegal in Mali, making it difficult for anti-slavery groups to launch criminal prosecutions.
Raichatou became a slave at the age of seven when her mother, also a slave, died. "My father could only watch on helplessly as my mother's master came to claim me and my brothers," she says. She worked as a servant for the family without pay for nearly 20 years, and was forced into a marriage with another slave whom she didn't know.
"My master only wanted me to have children so that he would have more slaves in the future. My opinion did not count. I had to live with a man I had not chosen for three years. They told me that the only way I would get to heaven was to obey my master."
In 2008, she heard about Temedt and made her bid for freedom; finally, she was reunited with her father.
"My instinct for liberty was telling me to grab every opportunity to be free, but my slave mentality was telling me the opposite" she says.
Now, Temedt's work helping liberate people has been severely restricted. Its activists cannot travel safely and security is volatile.
Efforts to bring civil compensation cases to court on behalf of escaped slaves have stalled with the collapse of Malian state institutions across the north. At least 17 slavery compensation cases that were going through the courts remain unresolved. There has been no progress on Raichatou's case. "I feel like everything we achieved has come to nothing. I have no hope," she says.
"The absence of the state has left people without recourse or protection," says Sarah Mathewson, Africa programme co-ordinator at Anti-Slavery International.
Funding for Temedt has been drying up, as donors pulled out of Mali following the coup in March 2012. A microcredit scheme for women of slave descent and a legal clinic offering advice to escapees have closed.
"Our work has ground to a halt," says Intamat Ag Inkadewane, a community organiser for Temedt, who also fled Gao. "I'm just sitting here in Bamako; I'm not working, I'm not getting paid. There are things I want to do in the north, but we have no way of knowing when we can get back there."
The recent French intervention in Mali does seem to be paying some security dividends with most of the Islamist fighters driven out of the main urban areas. But many slaves and ex-slaves say they still do not feel safe, since a new Tuareg group, the Islamic Movement for Azawad, is in control of the remote town of Kidal.
Temedt's president, Ibrahim Ag Idbaltanat, says he hopes its work can soon resume. Elections due in July could provide a rare window of opportunity, according to Mathewson: "People of slave descent should be consulted and represented in national and international efforts to address the crisis so this issue is not forgotten."
International: GABON. Wildlife Crimes. Illegal Poaching and arrests of Chinese Nationals
PRESS
RELEASE
For the five Chinese wood buyers
recently arrived in Gabon it must have seemed like an exotic treat when workers
of the EBS (Emirates Bois Sarl) logging company operating east of Makokou in NE
Gabon invited them to sit down for a meal of freshly butchered roasted elephant
trunk. But acting on a tip off from a Gabonese citizen who was shocked to see
this behavior, a team from Gabon’s National Parks Service arrived before they
could savour their meal. The five visitors and a
further nine resident Chinese workers are in custody and a criminal
investigation is underway.
Senior Conservator, Dr. Joseph
Okouyi, described how his team found fresh and smoked meat from several
elephants in the kitchen, as well as ivory trinkets and chop sticks carved by
the forestry workers in their spare time from ivory purchased from local
poachers. They also had a stash of giant pangolin scales, used in traditional Chinese
medicine, a pair of horns from the rare Bongo antelope, and a Winchester rifle.
National parks staff subsequently
arrested one of the hunters who had provided elephant meat and ivory to the Chinese
buyers, confiscating an illegal elephant gun and a large tusk. A fresh carcass
was subsequently discovered in the forest. The investigation is ongoing and Dr.
Okouyi expects to prosecute on Monday morning.
Professor Lee White CBE, head of
Gabon’s National Parks Agency was in New York to attend a special event at the
Clinton Global Initiative hosted by Former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton
and her daughter Chelsea when he received news of the arrest. “This incident is
not an isolated one” he stated. “Unfortunately these guests in our country have
abused our hospitality and rather than contributing to the sustainable
development of Gabon through their forestry operations they are driving the
destruction of our natural heritage”. Professor White went on to stress the
fact that elephant and rhino poaching are out of control across most of Africa
and that 75% of all forest elephants have been slaughtered in the last decade
by poachers who are more and more aggressive and who have developed links to
organized crime”.
Speaking at
the United Nations President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon stressed that: “The
magnitude of illicit gains from rhino horn, ivory and other wildlife products,
has made organized criminal networks more and more aggressive. Today, many of
our wildlife rangers are involved in combat situations similar to that seen by
Special Forces in armed conflicts. Illicit wildlife trade is destabilizing
entire countries, and is negatively impacting the growth of national
economies”. He stressed the need for “concerted action from the international
community as a whole to tackle this issue”, saying that “source, transit and
market countries all need to work together”, calling for the UN Secretary
General “to appoint a Special Envoy for Wildlife Crime, who should be charged
with spearheading a global response to this pressing issue”.
The Gabonese
Ambassador to the United States, Michael Moussa-Adamo, who was present at the
Clinton Global Initiative ceremony, stated that “for many years, our country
has taken seriously the responsibility to preserve and protect the natural
environment. Gabon's people recognize the
threats that put our flora and fauna in danger – whether it is the threat of
poaching or the threat of climate change, which alters the precarious balance
among plants, animals, and people. We
welcome this opportunity to cooperate with the Clinton Global Initiative on
this significant new effort to conserve the lives and habitat of the African
forest elephant.”
Contacts
Prof. Lee White CBE, Executive
Secretary, Gabonese National Parks Agency, Tel. +24107840063; Email: lwhite@parcsgabon.ga
Ref. photo library on
website
11 Chinese forestry workers arrested for ivory poaching in
Makokou, NE Gabon, 25 September 2013
Chinese forestry workers had been working ivory provided by
local poachers. Also in picture two horns from the rare Bongo antelope and an
elephant gun seized by national parks staff