July 29, 2009

LENY ANDRADE RETURNS THIS SUMMER from RIO TO NEW YORK

BY “POPULAR DEMAND !”

BIRDLAND IN NYC and an IMPORTANT TOUR !

After a very successful week last summer at the legendary club Birdland in NYC where LENY ANDRADE received a rave review from the New York Times, she’s been invited back to Birdland and will go on tour to important Festivals and clubs in and around NY: The Litchfield Festival, Concerts on the Hudson in NJ, Scullers in Boston, Belleayre Music Festival in Belleayre NY (in the Catskills), and back to Birdland.

“To Describe Ms. Andrade as both the Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald of bossa nova only goes so far in evoking a performer whose voice seem to contain the body and soul of Brazil.” Stephen Holden, The New York Times

Tour: The Litchfield Jazz Festival in Litchfield, Conn. – August 1st
 http://www.litchfieldjazzfest.com/

‘Summer Concerts on the Hudson’ in Weehawken on the Waterfront, NJ – August 5th
 http://www.hrpac.org/

Scullers Jazz Club in Boston – August 7th
 http://www.scullersjazz.com/

Belleayre Music Festival in Belleayre, NY (in the Catskill Mountains)- August 8th
(with Cesar Camargo Mariano and Romero Lubambo Duo)
for lodging and tourist info: 1-800 942 6409
Belleayre is a wonderful place for a beautiful weekend with great music ‘in the country’…
 http://www.belleayremusic.org/

Birdland in NYC - August 12,13,14,15……..in NYC
 http://www.birdlandjazz.com/

This legendary vocalist sings her heart out with total sincerity and connection to the audience until you are having a love affair with this remarkable legendary artist from Rio!

To learn more about Leny Andrade visit:  http://cliquemusic.uol.com.br/en/Artists…

From the Press in New York City – about Reverend Billy who is Bill Talen:

“His collar is fake but his calling is real” – says Alisa Solomon of The Village Voice.

“He’s Elmer Gantry plus Michael Moore” – said The Wall Street Journal.

“The most pointed and courageous political theatre in New York” – said the New York Times.

——————

Mayor Bloomberg, Like Honduras President Manuel Zelaya, took steps to change the Law of Succession and some even say that this suspends democracy in the city, like it does when a whole country is at stake… Mayor Bloomberg will thus run this November for a Third term on his record of achievements that disputed by those that believe that democracy in a large city, like New York, can come about only if recognition is given to the city’s neighborhoods – so that this large city is viewed rather like a collection of a large number of villages, with the people in charge of their own neighborhoods… the assumption being here that the people know best what is best for them.

Add to this issues like climate change and preponderance of business centralization and growth, and those that in the past believed in what Mayor Bloomberg was saying on these topics, now look back and do not find that the promised progress did actually occur. With the economic collapse propelled by US over-consumption, people that were inclined to say that good life takes into account that small is beautiful, were shocked in horror by all this global talk of stimulus packages and ask stimulus for what? Is it really necessary for us to continue that shopping binge and our collection of unnecessary trinkets that among other impacts have ballooned our National Debt, and are also reasons for CO2 emissions into the atmosphere?

In short – for years Reverend Billy has sung with his choir about “STOP SHOPPING” and then, we guess in order not to be seen as unloyal to Washington, changed this to “After Shopping” – in both cases obviously he sings that shopping did not make us happier. The main theme is that WE WILL ALL BE CONSUMERIZED – DEMOCRACY HAS BECOME THE FREEDOM TO CHOSE BETWEEN ONE PRODUCT AND ANOTHER.

Bill Talin is Green at Heart, and when he diced this March that he will turn his campaign into a political campaign, the GREEN Party came on board – so they will be having his name on their column this coming November.

Backing comes also from locations afar. Last night one of those speaking for him came from New Paltz – just a little North of New York on the Hudson River. But fund raisers were held also in San Francisco and even in London. Let’s face it – even if Billy does not win – his campaign promises to be fun and educational at the same time.

Bill Talen is right in what he says, and our website is glad to back him in his endeavor. He is about SUSTAINABILITY that can be achieved only within the context of a CULTURE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.

Neighborhoods are about mom & pop stores – not Walmarts – and Billy sings and dances to that idea – so do we.  Reverend Billy asked “WHAT WOULD JESUS DRIVE? a long time ago – and it clearly was not going to be a General Motors made vehicle.

One could say that Reverend Billy is on the left side of the political spectrum. Another would be contender for the New York Mayoralty will probably be the Naked Cowboy known to New Yorker just for that – being naked and playing music for tourists at Times Square. He also makes ideological statements and they sound like Sarah Palin. No, he is not a favorite of ours.

On the other hand, Rev. Billy does make sense to us and many other progressive minded people – and as evidence – no less then famed Joan Baez from the music world of the sixties and the sane anti-Vietnam War rebels of the American youth of forty years ago, was at hand last night at the Highline Ballroom to launch officialy this campaign.

 http://www.revbilly.com/participate/reta…

 http://www.voterevbilly.org/platform

THE REVEREND BILLY PLATFORM FOR MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY:

New York City is the sum of its Neighborhoods. The idea that the corporation is the only grown-up institution, and the corporate leader the only true leader – is a costly lie. It is time for fresh ideas and new leadership. It is time for the neighborhoods to rise up and lead New York City, because cities are neighborhoods made of people, not subsidiaries made of money.

Many of us have lost a beloved part of our city, the long-time shopkeeper, the cop on the beat, an affordable place to live. New York City’s strength is its diversity, and our future relies on hard working New Yorkers being rewarded for their contributions and hard work, not forced out by development and “prosperity” we can’t afford.

What a feeling of openness and opportunity we have at this point in history. We now have the chance to journey back beyond ordinary economic theory, to talk directly about human beings living together, families and children, and the everyday function of a healthy neighborhood, because a healthy neighborhood IS the engine that will drive the greatest city on earth to become truly Viable, Vibrant, Healthy and Safe for EVERYONE!

As Mayor of New York, Reverend Billy Talen will continue the work he has done for more than a decade as a champion of local ingenuity and neighborhood know-how. United as he already is with the city’s many communities, his administration will be the connecting force reaching out to all New Yorkers, to create a city that is sustainable, just and free; defending public space, self-determination, and the right for every New Yorker to earn an honest, independent living.

Here are our initial ideas for creating the kind of city we would want to live in, discussed and hammered-out by folks from all five boroughs. Visit VoteRevBilly.org for updates and to share your ideas. Your candidate is listening.

—–
Keep our Neighborhoods Viable and Vibrant, Healthy and Safe

VIABLE:  Instituting locally based, sustainable solutions that will not only see us through our current crisis but allow us to live in stable, viable communities for the long term. Thoughtful urban planning, managing growth, and preserving the local physical and built environment will be a priority.

A Green New Deal! The emerging green economy should be an engine for neighborhood job creation, harnessed to elicit bottom up solutions and entrepreneurial opportunities. We must also scale up the proposed retrofit programs, and meet the President’s targets for energy conservation and emission reductions.
Hail the Local Economies! We call for tax policies and retail zoning reforms that will protect, support and encourage local, community-owned businesses.
Protect The Stability Of Neighborhoods! We want to make rent affordable for working families and local businesses. All new developments must be community-driven and community-approved.
We want a sweat-free city! We call for the city of New York to commit to purchasing ethical, fair trade, union, sweatshop-free products and supplies for government use.
Let’s get New York City Moving! We want to get New Yorkers where they need and want to go with efficiency and ease by implementing free mass transit and congestion pricing.  Such measures will help stimulate economic activity by allowing increased freedom of movement.

VIBRANT:  Promoting vibrant communities by improving education and expanding programs that enhance quality of life for everyone.
Education For All! Every school in every neighborhood must be fully and fairly funded. Local communities must be empowered to manage and direct resources to best serve the children of their neighborhoods. College tuition must be made affordable for all people with the talent and motivation to seek a higher education.
Arts and Culture Make New York City Great! Art, theater, and music programs should be supported and funded throughout the 500 neighborhoods, bringing people into the parks and into the streets. New York City’s museums should be made free to all residents, and its cultural institutions should support local community-based artists and community-based art projects.
Green the Commons! Parks and community gardens make our neighborhoods more livable. Parks must remain fully and permanently public. Parks in all neighborhoods must be funded and maintained properly. Community gardens and gardeners should be encouraged and supported. We want to see quiet green spaces in every corner of the city, for all the children of the city!

HEALTHY: The right to health is the fundamental cornerstone of community. The thriving city must be healthy on all levels and in every neighborhood.
Detox New York! We believe that all communities and neighborhoods have the right to clean air and clean water.  The city can no longer place threats to clean air and water solely in low-income communities of color.
Health is Wealth! All communities must have access to healthy, affordable food.  We will establish and expand local food systems that support improved nutrition and public health by increasing access to safe and wholesome food in every neighborhood.
Protect the Watershed! We must develop a Strategic Natural Resource Plan for the city that addresses water quality for the long term, water conservation, waste water service, and energy consumption.
SAFE Guaranteeing all New Yorkers in every neighborhood the right to walk down their streets without fear of harassment or violence regardless of race, creed, class, or sexual orientation.
Know Your Rights! We firmly believe that the First Amendment grants us the right to free speech, the right to express grievances, and the right to assemble in public space. We pledge to honor the 45 words of the First Amendment, and to defend those rights.
Community Policing Keeps Communities Safe! We call for: An end to racial profiling, an end to stop and frisk tactics, an end to the harassment of LGBTQ people, and establishing dialogue between police and the neighborhoods they patrol. We will foster working partnerships between communities and the NYPD to nurture mutual respect, identify concerns, and create community-based solutions, creating safe neighborhoods for all.
We are all Immigrants! Immigrants are the lifeblood of the New York City economy, and should be treated with dignity.  We want an end to the roundups, and call for the immediate closing of all immigrant detention centers in New York City.

Reverend Billy
the 30+ Voice Life After Shopping Gospel Choir
and the extraordinary Not Buying It Band

“The most pointed and courageous political theatre in New York.”
- The New York Times
“He’s Elmer Gantry plus Michael Moore.”
- The Wall Street Journal
Rise of the Fabulous 500 Neighborhoods
A Benefit Featuring the legendary
Joan Baez
+ other Special Guests

Monday July 27, 2009 7 PM Showtime!
Doors open at 6:00PM

@ Highline Ballroom
431 West 16th Street bet. 9th & 10th Aves. in Manhattan

Take the A,C,E or the L Train to 8th Ave and 14th Street
Tickets start at $15.00 – get there early, seating limited!
(Sorry, no Comps available for this show)
More info at www.revbilly.com

From Director Savitri D:
“Monday night we are having a Benefit at the Highline Ballroom. We are honored to be joined by the incredible Joan Baez  She is a musical legend for a reason. The Life After Shopping Gospel Choir will be there in force, along with Quitzow, Jollyship the Whiz Bang, Nashville favorites Greta Gaines & Raul Malo, City Council Candidate Jetta Kurland and of course Reverend Billy and myself.”

On Monday, if you or your friends are in NYC please join us for another high energy, rabble rousing show. You’ll hear plenty of singin’ and testifyin’ with Rev. Billy’s irreverent but insightful unique blend of social issues/politics, theater, humor and great gospel music. As “Church Organist” I can tell you that the 30+ member Gospel Choir and band get better all the time!

Rick Ulfik
Founder and Board Chair
We, The World
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Posted in Archives, Art Performance reviews, Future Events, Green is Possible, New York

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French First Lady Performs in New York.
By JOHN CARUCCI, AP

NEW YORK (July 19) – A flock of global entertainment notables and politicos, including France’s first lady Carla Bruni, toasted Nelson Mandela’s 91st birthday with an all-star concert at Radio City Music Hall.

The tribute, held Saturday night, celebrated the anti-apartheid icon’s birthday with a diverse collection of musical collaborations that ranged from pop to disco to gospel. French first lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy, who’s a singer, performsed at the ‘Mandela Day’ Concert to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 91st birthday at Radio City Music Hall in New York on Saturday.

Bruni made her American stage debut at the show paired with Eurythmics founder Dave Stewart as her husband, President Nicolas Sarkozy, sat cheering in the audience. She paid homage to Mandela’s social activism by covering Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” calling it a song by another famous activist.

For her first song, a slow French ballad, she told the crowd: “This one’s not good for dancing. But it’s good for dreaming.”
But from an early performance by disco queen Gloria Gaynor to the star-studded finale led by Stevie Wonder, the crowd was on their feet for most of the night.

The 22-year old pop singer Jesse McCartney, one of the evening’s youngest performers, performed his hit, “How Do You Sleep?” Italian artist Zucchero, who has appeared at every Mandela foundation concert, chose to sing the soulful “You Are So Beautiful.”

While the South African freedom fighter could not make the festivities, his presence was felt inside and outside of the theater. African artists such as Suzanna Owiyo, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Sipho Mabuse, and the Soweto Gospel Choir played backup for the night and were part of the one of the strongest performances.
Queen Latifah performed a booming rendition of “There’s a Light” that ended with thunderous applause. She originally recorded the song for the 2007 movie, “Hairspray.”

Among the eclectic collaborators were the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, who joined Josh Groban for his “You Raise Me Up.” After the song, Groban told the crowd that performing with Franklin was “the thrill of a lifetime.”

Alicia Keys and African artist Angelique Kidjo performed the spiritual “Afrika.” Rapper Lil’ Kim’s duet with Cyndi Lauper offered a stripped-down rendition of Lauper’s “Time After Time.”

Before the show, the rapper spoke of how Mandela inspired her, saying: “He was very instrumental in my experience in prison.” Lil’ Kim spent a year in prison on conspiracy and perjury charges.

Mandela appeared last year for a concert in London’s Hyde Park to celebrate his 90th birthday but since then, Mandela’s doctors advised that he no longer travel internationally. The concert Saturday, therefore, culminates the first ever “Mandela Day” as a means of honoring his inspiration by observing the day annually.

————

Hi everyone,

On 18 July 2009 Nelson Mandela made a call for people all around the world to dedicate 67 min of their time to serving the community. It is my fervent belief that there is a great need for love, unity and hope in this world and that until we act on transforming the hearts and minds of all men, the goals of peace and fellowship will be unachievable.  In response to the call made by Madiba, I decided to take my energy, love and conviction to the streets of Pietermaritzburg – the results of which can be seen in this presentation.

This is but a small contribution to creating positivity in this world but I believe that with concerted and renewed effort, anything can be achieved. The goals of unity and peace throughout the planet are achievable. Freedom and justice for all is achievable. Happiness, tolerance and compassion have the strength to encompass the planet and reinvigorate the hearts of men to creating a new world order – a world where there is equality, unity and love for all. We just need to spread it.

Please feel free to send this presentation on.

May there be love and light upon you always,
kiara.

Kiara Worth (B. Agric (Hons)) | Sustainable Development Specialist | Golder Associates Africa (Pty) Ltd
PO Box 29391, Maytime, 3624, South Africa, Block C, Bellevue Campus, 5 Bellevue Road, Kloof, 3610, KwaZulu Natal
T: [+27] (31) 717  2790 | F: [+27] (31) 717  2791 | C: +27 72 283 7590 | E:  kworth at golder.co.za | www.golder.com

From: “Yavuz Hekim” <yavuzhekim@yavuzhekim.com>
Date: June 30, 2009
 
 
 

Dear Editor in Chief
 
As an actor who has played the role of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 6 Films in Turkey, I would like to make an interview with your newspaper by e-mail
 
Information about myself is given below.
 
Sincerely yours
 
Cell  00 90 532 482 24 28
 
Yavuz HEKÄ°M                      www.yavuzhekim.com 

Click here to download the PDF

The National Museum of the American Indian presents a public symposium on Saturday,

June 27, 2009 from 2:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Mother Earth: Confronting the Challenge of Climate Change

Please join us after the symposium for an Indian Summer Showcase Concert featuring Andes Manta performing traditional music from the Andean Highlands at 5:00 p.m. at the Museum’s Welcome Plaza.

These events are free and open to the public.

Symposium information:
Native peoples are responding to the urgent challenge of climate change in creative ways, calling on traditional knowledge and adapting new technologies to craft solutions to this planetary crisis. Join us at this important symposium for engaging presentations and lively discussion about innovative indigenous strategies, from the Arctic to Amazonia. Speakers include Patricia Cochran (Inupiat), chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council; Robert Gough of the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy (Intertribal COUP); Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez (Ribereño/Caboclo), director of international programs, Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC), Columbia University; and Deborah Tewa (Hopi), renewable energy specialist and educator. Moderated by José Barreiro (Taino), assistant director for research, National Museum of the American Indian.

Please help spread the word.
Mother Earth: Confronting the Challenge of Climate Change
Saturday, June 27, 2009, 2:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
National Museum of the American Indian
Elmer and Mary Louise Rasmuson Theater
4th Street and Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC

Metro: L’Enfant Plaza, Maryland Avenue/Smithsonian Museums exit
For further information, please contact  NMAI-SSP at si.edu

                        Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University.

Revisioning Human-Earth Relations
 http://fore.research.yale.edu/index.html

The Forum on Religion and Ecology is the largest international multireligious project of its kind. With its conferences, publications, and website it is engaged in exploring religious worldviews, texts, and ethics in order to broaden understanding of the complex nature of current environmental concerns.

The Forum recognizes that religions need to be in dialogue with other disciplines (e.g., science, ethics, economics, education, public policy, gender) in seeking comprehensive solutions to both global and local environmental problems.

Forum Coordinators:
Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, Yale University

Forum Administrative Assistant:
Tara C. Maguire Knopick, Yale University

Forum Web Content Managers and Newsletter Editors:
Sam Mickey and Elizabeth McAnally, California Institute of Integral Studies

With thanks to Anne Custer for the original development of the Forum Web site, and Ann Keeler Evans and Donna Rosenberg for their administrative work with the Forum.

————-

Summer Solstice Celebration with Paul Winter & Friends

Dear Forum community,

We want to inform you about the Summer Solstice Celebration with Paul Winter & Friends on Saturday, June 20, 2009. The two-hour concert will begin at 4:30 a.m. and will be held at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (1047 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY).

Paul Winter will be joined by an array of outstanding musicians from different musical backgrounds for a festival of the Earth’s music as we greet the summer and one of the longest days of the year. The Summer Solstice Celebration is a sublime experience; the first rays of sunlight filter through the Cathedral’s stained glass above the High Altar as guest artists and members of the Paul Winter Consort perform in different parts of the Cathedral. The musicians meet at the stage in the Great Crossing as morning overtakes night and we welcome the day.

This celebration will be dedicated to Thomas Berry.

For more information, including free music downloads, visit: http://solsticeconcert.com/

Tickets are now on sale at: https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/729160…

Warmly,
The Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
 http://www.yale.edu/religionandecology

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the
violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about
45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that
thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to
work.

Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was a musician
playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried
up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw
the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but
the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late
for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged
him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the
mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the
time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents,
without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for
a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He
collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one
noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best
musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever
written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.
 
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater
in Boston and the seats averaged $100.
 
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was
organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about
perception, taste and priorities of people.                 The outlines were: in a
commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour:

Do we perceive beauty?

Do we stop to appreciate it?

Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?
 
One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not
have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world
playing the best music ever written on an almost priceless instrument, how
many other things are we missing?
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con…

—————–

 I got this by e-mail from a family friend that will be going with my wife to a listen to Joshua Bell playing at The Lincoln Center Philharmonic Hall. That Washington experiment of the article has something to teach everyone of us. Specially I was impressed by the implication of what we do to our children. It is not just that we settle them with the destroyed environment and with our debts – we cause them to be like us!

Paintings and Poems: Eco-warriors and Freedom Gardens
by Jane Evershed

In vibrant colors, forms and rhyme, one of Jane Evershed’s paintings and
poems calls out the perceptions, wisdom and mission of the Eco-warriors.

In Sustain, one is presented with the choice between slavery and living
off the grid by taking the first step of gardening.

To view the paintings with the poems,
visit: http://www.CultureChange.org/go.html?447

***

Poem of the Eco-warriors

Till all is concrete with nothing green anywhere.

No poem should ever have a web address in it
But really we are talking about health on this planet,
So here they are, they even rhyme
Visit http://www.src-mn.org
and http://www.worldwidewamm.org
No internet? Go to your library and connect.

A garden is only a tiny first step,
For until we have learned to live off the grid,
Slavery to empirical currency is what the “master” bids,
And hooked up to this synthetic “life support” system
We become, the living dead, hearts disconnected from heads.
Patriots of disparity and uniformed idiots of dread.

***

To view the paintings with the poems,
visit: http://www.CultureChange.org/go.html?447

* * * * *

Culture Change
P.O. Box 4347, Arcata, CA 95518 USA, tel/fax: 1-215-243-3144
 http://culturechange.org

 Daniel Levy, a Senior Fellow and Director of the Prospects for Peace Initiative at The Century Foundation and a Senior Fellow and Director of the Middle East Initiative at the New America Foundation writes to us:

I thought I’d share with you my thoughts on the speech which are pasted below.

The Obama team’s remarkable wordsmithery and the president’s unparalleled capacity for delivery were exquisitely on display again today in Cairo. But this speech should perhaps be remembered as much for what was not said. Gone was the arrogance and lecturing: there was no lavishing of praise on Egypt’s undemocratic leader – the word ‘Mubarak’ was not even mentioned once. Out too was the purple finger version of democratization and even the traditional American condescension toward the Palestinian narrative. But perhaps most remarkably of all, the words ‘terror’ or ‘terrorism’ did not pass the president’s lips. Here was a leader and a team around him smart enough to acknowledge that certain words have become too tainted, too laden with baggage, their use has become counter-productive, today the Global War on Terror framing was truly laid to rest.

Particularly striking was that President Obama almost certainly has emerged from the Cairo speech having accumulated additional capital rather than expending it, with greater popularity, traction, and respect among not only his ostensible target audience, the Muslim world, but also globally, including at home in America and even in Israel and with the world’s Jewish community. His future leverage across a range of issues has been enhanced.

It’s true that whenever the speech descended from the lofty heights of 30,000 feet to the 100-feet resolution of policy specifics and details, the magic dust seemed to dissipate as it emerged from the clouds, and those details were too often more autopilot than reset. But this was a big picture speech, and there is room later to make those course corrections on policy detail.

Here then are ten quick thoughts:

1. The Mother of All Resets

The president’s speech literally in one fell swoop will have much of the Muslim world and certainly elites, opinion leaders, and activists scratching their heads and recalibrating their stance toward America. Yes, for everyone the proof of the pudding will be in the eating, what comes next and whether policy changes on specific issues. The immediate effect though is to buy America space and time. It gives those who share an affinity with American values a new lease of life, causes the majority who are not hostile to the US but deeply skeptical of its intentions to reconsider and suspend judgment, and it will induce in America’s enemies a splitting headache.

At a most basic level, the president managed to connect. He spoke humbly and touched on buzz words for this audience, discussing dignity, justice, and the truths we hold in our hearts. He even uttered the word colonialism and mentioned denial of rights and cold-ward proxies. Obama evoked Islam’s contribution to the world and to America, and yes, he quoted the Quran.   Above all, he restored balance, confining the label of enemy only to those violent extremists who threaten America’s security, while opening up to the vast majority of practicing Muslims, including, I would argue, Islamist movements.

2. In Cairo the Conversation with Political Islam Began

By narrowly focusing on al-Qaeda as the enemy and apparently articulating an understanding of the non-al-Qaeda Islamist narrative, the president seemed to extend a tentative but visibly unclenched fist to mainstream political Islam. It is those Islamist movements that we should be most closely watching in the weeks and months ahead as they begin to work through their own responses to the new administration.

Obama seemed to implicitly accept the legitimacy of political Islam and its role in the democratic process while challenging it to unequivocally reject violence against civilians. There was a stark contrast, for instance, between the president’s message to al-Qaeda (we will defeat you if you threaten us) as compared to his message to Hamas (whom he addressed directly as having a role to fulfill Palestinian aspirations and unify the Palestinian people).

The president’s historical analogies may not have been the best ones. In discussing the nonviolent resistance of black America to the “lash of the whip” in achieving equal rights he obviously made a powerful and reasonable point but one that may be more relevant to a Palestinian struggle for a one-state democracy rather than for national liberation and de-occupation. By claiming that the same story can be told in South Africa and elsewhere, he simply rewrote history – the ANC did of course use armed resistance in their struggle as did so many other successful liberation movements.

That said, Obama’s effort to carry the argument in somewhat sympathetic terms to the Palestinian resistance–”violence…rockets…is not how moral authority is claimed; that is how it is surrendered”–was a valiant one and should be encouraged, not least in Israel. I might be reading too much into this but the speech could be seen as an acknowledgement that a process that engages Hamas is more likely to produce results than one that does not.

Responding immediately on al-Jazeera, Ahmed Yusuf, advisor to Gaza Prime Minister Haniyeh, lavished praised on Obama’s “Martin Luther King-like speech” and his rejection of the clash of civilizations discourse while defensively questioning his call for Hamas to accept the international community’s three preconditions (end violence, accept past agreements, recognize Israel).The distinction though was clear and the years of wrong-headedly lumping together the Salafist jihadis of al-Qaeda with the Muslim Brothers of Hamas or the Hezbollah movement is over.

3. Regaining the Moral Clarity of 9/11

Almost eight years on, there it was, an American president explaining to the world what happened on that day and the war of necessity against al-Qaeda that was launched in its wake. It was an important moment in resetting and reconfiguring for international and Muslim public opinion what happened then and has happened since. It is also perhaps the most damning indictment of all for the Bush presidency that in 2009 such a reiteration by an American president is so necessary.

4. Finally a President Who Can Talk to Palestinians

Obama’s words on the Palestinian situation were not remarkable for his advocacy of a two-state solution, his mentioning of Palestine, or his opposition to the settlements. All of that we have heard before, and in fact, the speech gave precious little by way of actually articulating a plan for Palestinian de-occupation and statehood. But that was also its strength.

The idea of a Palestinian state, even before it exists, has lost much of its luster and appeal for Palestinians precisely because American and Israeli leaders talked about statehood as a technical fix for a Palestinian problem, in exclusively economic, governance, and security terms. In so doing, they ignored or demeaned and denied the Palestinian narrative and made the whole arrangement sound rather unappetizing.

Today, President Obama began to redress that. PA capacity and economic opportunities were something of a footnote. And thankfully, the building of Palestinian security forces was not even mentioned.

Instead Obama spoke a language that actual Palestinians could relate to, recalling the 60-year “pain of dislocation,” the “wait in refugee camps” (without in the same breath emasculating the refugees of any rights). He spoke of humiliation, occupation, and an intolerable situation – in other words, Palestinian daily reality. Only after recognizing the Palestinian experience did he chart the course for achieving “the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity,” namely, via a Palestinian state. This shift in discourse may be lost on most American ears, not so for Palestinians and in the Arab and Muslim world, and it begins to give Obama a moral authority that will allow him to address this issue in speaking directly to the Palestinian people above the heads of their divided leadership.

5. Shimon Peres Could Not Have Done a Better Job

In what is becoming classical Obama, he at the same time presented perhaps the most compelling justification and explanation of Israel’s rights and its existence ever spoken in an Arab and Muslim capital. No Israeli has ever done a better job, he is a true friend. In the most unequivocal of terms and in a speech that so captured Muslim world attention, Obama placed the notions of threatening Israel’s destruction, stereotypes of Jews, and Holocaust denial, as being irredeemably beyond the pale and unacceptable. And he reaffirmed America’s “unbreakable bond with Israel.”

Tellingly, if unsurprisingly, it is these messages that are leading the Israeli news coverage of the speech. While the government of Benjamin Netanyahu may be squirming in discomfort at Obama’s reasoned and repeated calls for a settlement freeze, for reopening Gaza, and for Palestinian statehood, the Israeli public will, I think, be both reassured and keen to believe in the hope for change and a better future for them also.

 One imagines too that the day is not so far off for an honest, empathetic, and home-truths Obama speech to Israel and the Jewish world. Expect that speech to be not only well-received but also to bring us dramatically closer to finally ending the Arab-Israeli conflict and achieving that two-state solution. Obama’s use of the phrase, “align American policies with those who pursue peace,” will also be noted in Jerusalem. Finally, by referring to “Jewish homeland” rather than a Jewish state, Obama, I think, studiously avoided giving succor to the slew of racist laws being presented in the new Israeli Knesset.

6. Policy Details – More Auto-Pilot Than Reset.

In a speech that I genuinely think carries game-changing potential for so many issues that America and the Muslim world are caught up in, there was virtually nothing new in detailed policy terms. That is very probably due to the nature of the speech, and the detailed policy changes might follow in the coming months. But if they don’t, Cairo will go down as a moment of unrequited promise and opportunity.

On Israel-Palestine, we dusted off the Road Map (yet again), a Bush relic that should have long ago been filed in the trash can, and the Afghanistan and Iraq plans still do not sound too convincing. It’s unclear how even Obama’s more sophisticated version of democratization will be advanced with America’s staunchest and most democracy-resistant allies, and the way forward with Iran remains opaque. Noteworthy, too, was that in a speech stating that America has no designs on maintaining military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, the continued American military footprint elsewhere in the Arab and Muslim world was not touched upon.

7. Hosni Mubarak and the Perils of Playing Host

 Egypt’s rulers would no doubt have been mortified had this speech taken place anywhere else in the Arab or Muslim world. There is an understandable Egyptian sense of pride in their history and sense of longing to still be considered the region’s leading power. Having landed those hosting rights, Mubarak’s regime today had to live with the consequences. Obama spoke to his audience and to the Egyptian people, and in an interesting break from past practice, his presidential host Mr. Mubarak was not even mentioned let alone lavished with praise. It will not go unnoticed.

Obama did mention Egypt’s Christian Coptic minority and of course spoke to human rights and people choosing their own governments to loud applause. So much for all the neocon bleating before the speech about Obama being a valueless realist ready to sell freedom-spirited Egyptians down the river. I was not there, but a sense of being empowered almost seemed to echo around the room at Cairo University and well beyond, and it might have major implications for Egypt and the region that will be played out in the coming years.

And finally, we have an American president who avoided the Pavlovian repetition of how American support for the Egyptian regime is so linked to Egypt’s historic peace with Israel. The way that linkage has played out – that America goes soft of non-democratic tendencies in the Arab world as long as they are pro-Israel – has done a great disservice to the public perception of not only peace but also of America and even Israel.

8. More Hand Less Fist on Iran

There was even some encouragement for Obama’s Iran policy in today’s speech. It was beginning to look disturbingly like the Obama administration would be brandishing the stick of sanctions in one hand and the stopwatch of deadlines in the other, thereby leaving no hand free to shake any prospective Iranian unclenched fist.   Obama moved beyond that. Many will point to his acknowledgement of history: “The United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government,” as being the money line.   It’s true that is a big deal and goes further than what was said in his Norouz message. However, I think this was more important, if not entirely new: “any nation- including Iran – should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the NPT.”

The president also had this intriguing chestnut to share on nuclear nonproliferation: “I understand those who protest that some countries have weapons that others do not.” Now I may be a bit Israelocentric in how I look at the world but this sounds like a not too subtle hint to me. Might this be a kind of “yes – we acknowledge there is a double standard here regarding the Israeli nuclear issue, and eventually we will get to that too.” It won’t be a headline, Israel will officially ignore it, and when asked Obama’s spokespeople will obfuscate but in more than a few capitals, including Jerusalem, a parsing industry will grow up around those few words.

9. Giving a Finger to the Purple Finger Theory of Democratization

Obama did it. He reclaimed the democratization agenda by placing it in a broader context as a set of rights and freedoms, and by going on to address religious pluralism, women’s rights, and the challenge of adapting economic development and modernity to traditional values. To be honest, it’s not a particularly difficult one to pull off, but to give him his fair dues, Barack Obama does do it better than anyone else. And there’s something of a new policy here, timely with the Lebanese election elections next week: “…we will welcome all elected, peaceful governments – provided they govern with respect for all their people.“

The genius was in the pivot. Obama respected Islamic tradition and religious piety, and for instance, a woman’s right to wear the hijab, and he then pivoted that into a broader discussion of the values of female education and women’s rights, placing those things in seamless harmony rather than in contradiction. After an American president who was perceived as doing so much to sow division in the Muslim world, one of Obama’s most powerful lines was undoubtedly, “fault-lines must be closed among Muslims… the divisions between Sunni and Shia have led to tragic violence,” and all this couched in a constant appeal to young people.

10. And He Was Also Speaking to the American Public

After years of fear-mongering, Islamofascist awareness weeks on campuses, and tens of millions of copies of the vile “Obsession” DVD appearing in newspapers and mailboxes, yet another, no less important, reset button was pressed today. The president will no doubt be accused of apologetics and moral relativism, but he decided to face this head-on, to go to Cairo, speak with respect and honesty to the Muslim world, and to do what was best for America’s national security interests.

In so doing, he was also broadcasting a message back home. Most American Muslims will no doubt be feeling a great sense of pride and inspiration from this speech. The rest of America was given a timely and even touching reminder of the contributions that American Muslims have made to this country and that Muslims have given the world in general. Oh, and there might have even been a little message in there upping the ante, for Congress and even for his own party–”I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by early next year.“

———————

Daniel Levy is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Prospects for Peace Initiative at The Century Foundation and a Senior Fellow and Director of the Middle East Initiative at the New America Foundation.

During the Barak Government, he worked in the Prime Minister’s Office as special adviser and head of the Jerusalem Affairs unit under Minister Haim Ramon. He also worked as senior policy adviser to former Israeli Minister of Justice, Yossi Beilin. He was a member of the official Israeli delegation to the Taba negotiations with the Palestinians in January 2001, and previously served on the negotiating team to the “Oslo B” Agreement from May to September 1995, under Prime Minister Rabin. In 2003, he worked as an analyst for the International Crisis Group Middle East Program. Daniel was the lead Israeli drafter of the Geneva Initiative and prior to joining The Century Foundation and New America Foundation was directing policy planning and international relations at the Geneva Campaign Headquarters in Tel Aviv.

Brought to our attention by Franny Armstrong     two plays about climate change on at the Bush theatre in London
 http://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/production/…

 http://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/index.php

Performance Times – Mon-Sat 7.30. Sat Mat 2.30. Please note that you will only be able to see one play a night, except on Saturdays when the plays run consecutively at 2.30pm and 7.30pm.

On the Beach performances – 11, 12, 18, 19, 25, 26 May & 1, 2, 3 June 7:30pm

On the Beach matinees – 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 May & 6 June 2.30pm & 5, 6 May 4.30pm

Resilience performances – 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 29, 30 May & 4, 5, 6 June 7.30pm

Reviews: By Steve Waters ***** Evening Standard **** Guardian **** Sunday Times **** Telegraph **** Independent **** Financial Times **** Time Out

THE CONTINGENCY PLAN is a double bill of plays from the frontline of climate change. They both stand alone and are complementary. Together, they present an epic portrait of an England of the near future, in which huge flooding has destroyed Bristol and threatens to sink the east coast.

- ON THE BEACH
Thirty years ago, Robin Paxton silenced his radical thinking on climate change and with his wife Jenny withdrew from public life to their home on the Norfolk coast. Now, Robin’s son Will, a glaciologist, has taken on his father’s work. He returns from months in the Antarctic to tell his parents he will take up a role within government. Yet behind the happy reunion with his father, lies thirty years of secrecy and bitterness. As the truth surfaces, the family is torn apart, and Robin and Jenny must face the rising tide alone.

- RESILIENCE
A Tory government has just come to power and wants radical answers to the imminent floods. Two new ministers, a true-blue Tory and a member of the Notting Hill set, try to outmenoeuvre and undermine each other. When the chief Civil Servant brings maverick glaciologist Will Paxton into the meeting, he puts an extreme scenario on the table: England, from the coastline to its capital, faces catastrophe.

Read all reviews

‘A triumph…some of the very finest dramatic components London has seen this year: sophisticated writing, slick direction and superlative acting.’
FIVE STARS
Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard
‘A stunning theatrical knock-out.’
FOUR STARS
Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph

Can The US Be Reborn Only When President Obama Finally Decides To Drop The Dollar In The Favor Of The Sollar? Really – is there any other way out from the excesses he inherited and does not seem to figure out how to stop?

The following are some ideas that came to my mind during the intermission at a Saturday morning duo-piano concert at the Tsavta Club in Tel Aviv. And it happened as we describe now:

First, the City of Tel Aviv starts its 100 years’ birthday April 4th. Seemingly part of the present year’s retrospective, Adi Etzion-Zak acts in a monodrama on Juli Herzl, the wife of visionary Theodore Herzl who saw in his mind the creation of Tel Aviv.

I went to see Adi Etzion’s performance on Tuesday, met her husband – Tel Aviv University Music-Professor and pianist Jonathan Zak, and Saturday went to hear his performance in a duo-piano concert where he played together with a Russian-Israeli virtuoso Irene Friedland in a repertoire that included Bach, Chopin, List, Mozart, and a Grainger fantasy on Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.”

At intermission I looked at a gentleman viewing seriously two paintings that were part of an exhibit in the foyer. I saw those paintings already on Tuesday – they were done in a very similar style – one showing the profile of a goat and the other in a very similar setting some bottles. I decided to ask the gentleman what he saw there. He saw the similarity in style, but his wife said immediately – the goat and the milk – she even saw in some squares underneath – the cheese.

Very nice, we started to talk and I said I live in New York, and he said that he lived in New York for a year when he sold a company and had to be in New York for the transfer of the know-how. I understood that this was probably one of the famous Israeli high-tech masters, and we continued on the economy.

He clearly was perplexed at why President Obama picked Mr. Geithner for the treasury. Clearly change is needed here and Geithner is more of the same. The Gentleman thought that a Joe Stiglitz, a George Soros, or someone in one of the ways of one these two very different, but clearly very deep insight examples, is what is needed in order to change things that should not be allowed to continue in ways of the past. We agreed that throwing another trillion dollars on the heap of waste as represented by the economists that brought the US to its knees, does not make sense at all – and will not lead to positive results. His point was that indexed bonds should be considered safe but did not improve either lately – so there is something really very basic that is wrong.

The gentleman was not a theorist – he plainly confessed that he is an interested party because he is invested in this economy.

As anyone reading our website knows – his words were very much in line with what we kept writing for years. I ventured to tell him that the trillion dollars are really not relevant because they are not real money anyway – they are the equivalent of the old running-presses – or plain paper. His answer was that this brings down the dollar to nothing – and my answer was that this is just the point – the dollar is already at nothing because of our excesses – and our point is that we must start using other things then oil – this because we already transferred all real dollars to the oil exporting countries. He looked obviously worried – and now I get to the real point of my writing this column.

It just occurred to me there – that throwing around dollars to the point of making its value irrelevant – leads us to what happened in Brazil, we can rather restart by renaming the currency and starting out with a totally new currency, leaving some of the old currency rot and thus making some of the old profeteers into the new losers. Not so bad if the oil exporters and other currency holders just lose what we stupidly transferred to them in our insistence in hurting ourselves. Further, true to ourselves, I just thought up that the SOLLAR would be a good replacement for the DOLLAR. When the gentleman reacted that this is total destruction – I protested that this is actually the way to rebirth. WE START FROM SCRATCH.

Obviously, at this point the gentleman had enough of me and said he is returning to the music, and I on the other hand was so full with myself that I could not wait to get back to the computer and write this up.

I hope that someone of our readers brings these exchanges to the attention to real White-House insiders and let us flesh these raw ideas out so that they can be looked at for what they are worth.

We think clearly that radical change will come one way or another – when it is obvious to Congress that a Geithner way, or any other Goldman-Sachs way, is not the way in the post-carbon economy. We did not take the situation seriously when we could have acted logically – we advanced in the direction of turning ourselves into “The Age of Stupid” and for reasons that have nothing to do with needs of real efforts to dig us out from under the mountain of missteps, we still did not advance an inch towards the goal of radical change. SO, HERE WE SUGGEST THE RADICAL CHANGE – IT IS THE START FROM SCRATCH IDEA, AND THE INTRODUCTION OF THE SOLLAR CURRENCY to replace the depleted Dollar currency.

Our mind continues to work and begs for your inputs also. Once gold and silver were the backing of a a hard currency – we suggest that the amount of available solar energy used – be the natural resource that logically backs this new country currency.

THE AGE OF STUPID – the March 15, 2009 Premiere held simultaneously in a special solar tent on the grass of Leicester Square, London, and in many movie houses all over the UK. The producers asked people to go to the theaters in their areas and not to fly to London. The facts are that air-transport is the largest CO2  emitter and thus a very serious contributer to global warming. The movie is about global warming as seen backwards from a point in time – 2050 – from an observatory that was built so people later can have a way to see what life was before the global warming  catastrophe struck and ask themselves – did we have to be that stupid? Did we really not see what we were doing to the planet and thus to ourselves? But we did know! So we were that Stupid! Unbelievably Stupid!!

The point is that this movie should turn its viewers into activists – so we do change our ways because we do understand that we cannot have an uncontrolled growth and live as if we hadten planets to our disposal when we indeed have only one. There is still time to change our ways and the target time that Franny Armstrong (writer and Director) Lizzie G (excuse me, I do not have the full name in front of me)(sound), and Pete Poslethwaite (main performer and activist) see –  is December 6, 2009 – the start of the Copenhagen meeting on climate change which they love to note as CO2penhagen. Pete Poslethwaite feels so strong about all this that he threatened on camera that he will return his OBE if the UK Government insists on going ahead with the  controversial Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent – his original area.

The movie team has already spun off a “vote with your feet to stop climate chaosmovement” www.stopclimatechaos.org that is working on a December 5, 2009 “March in December” –  London – mass rally – with “Protect the Poorest” Quit Dirty Coal” “Act Fair & Fast” banners.

I came to London from New York, in a stop-over while timing myself to do so as part of a larger trip to Tel Aviv. This gave me the excuse to fly-in even though I understood the request that creating CO2 while being against it – is indeed a misrepresentation of policy.

I saw the action while at a VUE movie house in Acton, London, where all activity from the  solar tent in  Leicester Square was being  beamed in.

I write this from my hotel, after having returned there by way of the “tube” – the famed London Subway. In the tube I had the chance to rview what we saw with 5 young Britishers. My method was “rapid fire” – I wanted to know why Minister Miliband had on a purple tie. I understood he stands for dirty technologies. He seems to love nuclear power without going into actual details if it saves, and how much, of CO2 emissions, and what do you do with  radioactive byproducts? OK – that is  interests policy – but why in the UK a purple tie? He seems also to love coal – albeight  - he thinks in terms of clean coal or the hiding away somehow of the CO2. Franny Armstrong was not too kind to him and what she called his”cohorts” – read the UK government. Pete Posllethwaite said that “we told Tony Blair” not to go to Iraq – but he did” seemingly we tell now the government to do something about climate change but they do not. But why the purple tie? One of the Britisher ladies said it is the fashion now but perhaps Miliband wants to say he is independent. Aha! now we got a clue. It was the Red Republicans of Bush / Cheney that led Tony Blair into Iraq, but now it is the Blue Democrats that lead Obama to undo what the others did and do something where the others did nothing. So is  Britisher Miliband signaling that British  Labor is now only half-way in cahoots, because the cohorts still wink to the rear – that is to the American Republicans – and insist on not lining up with progressive forces that intend to march on CO2penhagen?

I asked my British co-travelers; what about Cameron? He is a  ”Greenwash” they said. Aha, so Miliband is purple  - the color that desribes one as in-between the Republicans and the Democrats in the US, while, he – a Britisher of Labor – has really only Greenwash on his right and on his  left. So the purple is that he really wants to say something but has little to line up with on the Islands – so he looks outside but does not want to look Eastwards to Europe – so he looks  westwards to the US.

This position is somehow strangely clear to us at www.SustainabiliTank.info  where we believe that led by the Bush lack of interest in Climate Change, and the Arab Oil States strong opposition to the subject, the UN undid the Poznan 2008 meeting with the purpose of turning Copenhagen 2009 into Poznan II rather then what some thought will be a Kyoto II formula, but many of us thought more realistically into a potential new Copenhagen I solution. Even so, I completely agreee with Franny and Pete that “THE AGE OF STUPID” must turn our heads around so we undoo that evolution and force the issue so that we will become the GENERATION THAT WAS NOT STUPID. That future does not belong to the  PURPLE but  to the GREEN. Purple in fashion is a  catastrophe of global proportions – Green should be our color – by law and by good business practices. The US needs a Stiglitz in Treasury and not a Goldman-Sachs Man. The UK needs something similar and the Germans and French may indeed help illuminate the way by saying that blind  stimuli are poison to the interests of turning away from being stupid. What is rather needed are regulations that smooth the way to being not stupid – and the timing of “The Age of STUPID” happens to be so that it is right before the UK meeting of the G-20 under Gordon Brown’s leadership. Did not President Obama just say so to Gordon Brown – that there is a special US-UK relationship? OK – will now Mr. Brown steer things so that he brings to a realignment of policy between the Merkel-Sarkozy line approach to capitalism and the old  coservative way of doing business as seen by the UK-US camp?

The movie was great. The points well presented – the melting glaciers, the destried beaches, the burning cities, the spoils of oil that are not money for the needy – but destruction and poverty – that is all there and more. The Indian entrepreneur who wants to turn a billion people into air travelers is just a good student of Harvard a Wharton – but he is also the “angel of death” not just for India but for all of us. Ah, Yes, I took pictures and a book of notes – these will be used in the future – now I just want to say – GO SEE THE MOVIE WHENEVER IT TURNS UP IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. Don’t travel to see it – but make your leaders see to it that it is shown to your people.

The Maldive Islands announced – for The Age of Stupid Premiere – that they will be the first UN State to be Carbon Neutral – they understand because they are allready going under water – right now!

Best regards to Franny, Lizzie, and Pete, from Pincas Jawetz at www.SustainabiliTank.info

TODAY’S PRESS

The Scotsman: “ingenuity, quick-thinking and sheer nous”
 http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/features…

Radio 5 Live: I’ll be blabbing on at about 9.15pm tonight

Most viewed item on Microsoft Network (!!): http://environment.uk.msn.com/climate-ch…

Front cover of the local Camden rag: http://www.thecnj.com/review/2009/031209…

See you all tomorrow,
Franny

The Solar Tent at Leicester Square as per “The Age of Stupid” e-mail.

Stupid on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ageofstupid & http://twitter.com/notstupid

Stupid on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Age-of…

Donate to the Not Stupid campaign: http://www.ageofstupid.net/donate _______________________________________________
Age-of-Stupid mailing list    Age-of-Stupid at talk.torchbox.com

From:          kimo at iisd.org
Subject:       Climate Change Mitigation: Tapping the Potential of Agriculture
Date:                 March 12, 2009

IISD Reporting Services has published a guest article, “Climate Change Mitigation: Tapping the Potential of Agriculture” by Alexander Mueller, Wendy Mann and Leslie Lipper of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in the most recent issue of “MEA Bulletin.”

The article can be found at http://www.iisd.ca/mea-l/guestarticle65…. and the entire issue of MEA Bulletin can be downloaded at http://www.iisd.ca/mea-l/meabulletin65.p…

———————————————————————-
Langston James “Kimo” Goree VI
Director, IISD Reporting Services
International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) — United Nations Office
300 E 56th St. Apt. 11A – New York, NY 10022
IISDRS Office phone: +1 646 536 7556 Direct Line: +1 973 273 5860
Fax: +1 646 219-0955 Mobile phone/SMS: +19172934781
Blog: http://www.kimogoree.com Skype, Twitter and Brightkite: kimogoree
Email:  kimo at iisd.org MS Messenger:  kimo at iisd.org
Where: The Hague 13-14 March, Istanbul 15-18, Seoul 19-20

Love in a warming climate. In a Glasgow Theatre Opens a Play Called Kyoto.
By Steve Cramer, The Financial Times,   March 12 2009.
This second of a planned trilogy of two-handed love stories from David Greig is an altogether darker piece than last autumn’s engaging trifle with music, Midsummer . Here, a timely reminder about the ecological catastrophe that has been knocked off the front pages by the economic one is proposed through the metaphor of a too often forestalled love affair.

In it, we meet Dan (Matthew Pidgeon), who might be a civil servant or a representative of a mighty corporation. Whatever his role, it’s clearly opposed to Lucy’s (Vicki Liddelle), a researcher in climate change who has spent much of her time on the ever-diminishing polar ice caps. For all their ostensible ideological differences, an ancient, lurking passion first discovered at the summit of the title a decade before, but as yet unconsummated, lies between them. As they enter his hotel room, in some undesignated former Eastern Bloc country, darkened and chilled by a power cut that might foreshadow a future reality for the west, will they finally explore long-deferred emotions?

Dominic Hill’s lunchtime production for Oran Mor and the Traverse makes the most of its metaphor, but leaves one wondering whether clothing the issues it raises in allegory is strictly necessary. Just as each of the two lovers has long since recognised their crush, so too have all but a handful of Free Market Taliban clustered round the former US president acknowledged the issue of climate change without acting. As the lovers wonder whether it’s too late, so must we.

“The world is in the bar, drinking to forget,” comments Liddelle’s scientist of the rest of the international delegation at the conference. It’s an extension of the metaphor, but to the point where one wishes to see the delegates, however plastered, actually make their case. At times, indeed, one feels that this tryst, whatever its erotic potential, is missing the party outside.

That said, Greig’s script has some witty moments, backed with sharp performances. Pidgeon replaces his feckless but endearing leading man from Midsummer with a character full of niggling, fastidious propriety, whose desire for consumerist perfection is such that he imperils the simple primal joy at hand with an obsessive search for the champagne and smoked salmon that will make it perfect. Liddelle, in the more difficult part of the commonsensical rationalist, is perhaps even stronger.

LEICESTER SQUARE PREMIERE – SEE OUR SPONSORS HERE

Roll out the green carpet… welcome to THE PEOPLE’S PREMIERE
Your average run-of-the-mill movie premiere is a glitzy, exclusive, affair – only the stars are allowed in.

But The Age of Stupid is not your average run-of-the-mill film. It was financed by hundreds of different groups and individuals using our cunning crowd-funding model, and in many ways, we all star in it: we’re the self-destructive anti-heroes who are emitting all the greenhouse gases.

So we’re hosting the world’s first INclusive launch – the People’s Premiere.

Put this date in your diary, because this is the night we’ll be making film history: the 15th March 2009.

This eye-wateringly cutting-edge film extravaganza will feature a simultaneous launch at 64 different cinemas across the U.K.. We’re now expecting so many people – circa 16,000 (!) – that the Guinness Book of Records will hopefully soon confirm The Age of Stupid as the largest ever film premiere in history. Screening venues from Plymouth to Inverness, via The Eden Project, and a solar-powered cinema tent pitched in Leicester Square as the jewel in the crown will all be taking part in this unique event.

The People’s Premiere will also be the world’s first truly, 100% eco-friendly film premiere, with a mind-boggling array of genuinely green measures – not greenwash – to make sure we emit sod-all in the process:
FULL ECO AUDIT OF EMISSIONS FROM THE EVENT

SOLAR POWERED PROJECTOR

PEDAL POWERED POPCORN MAKING MACHINE

USED COFFEE BEAN SACKS RECYCLED AS TRENDY FENCE COVERS

RE-USED AND REUSABLE GREEN CARPET

BICYCLES AND ELECTRIC VEHICLES FOR OTHER CELEBS, CHARGED FROM RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

BIODIESEL FOR OTHER VEHICLES, MADE FROM RECYCLED COOKING OIL COLLECTED BY VOLUNTEERS FROM FRIENDLY LOCAL CHIP SHOPS

ORGANIC CHOCOLATE, BEER AND SOFT DRINKS

NO BOTTLED WATER, DISPOSABLE CUPS OR OTHER CRAP LIKE THAT

NO FLYING! AND NO OFFSETTING. OFFSETTING IS PALPABLE NONSENSE

CHECK OUT OUR FULL ECO CREDENTIALS HERE

Click on a cinema below to book tickets,read about the local speakers or send email alerts to friends who live nearby

From:      thenewyorksynagogue at thenewyorksynagog…
Subject: Join Us Tomorrow for Sholem Aleichem’s 150th Birthday Celebration
Date: March 6, 2009

The Year Of Sholom Aleichem – His 150th Birthday.
March 4, 2009, The Jewish Week,
by Jonathan Mark, Associate Editor

In a Bronx winter, Sholom Aleichem turned 57 on March 2, 1916, eroded by tuberculosis, his prostate, diabetes and a broken heart – his son Misha had recently died in Europe after being denied entry at Ellis Island. His daughter was in Odessa. His “republic,” as he once laughingly called his large family, was scattered around this world and the Other World, let alone divided by the Great War’s trenches.

He could hear the elevated subway screech and rumble on Westchester Avenue as it entered and left the Intervale Avenue station, down the block from his Kelly Street walkup. Not long before, while on a speaking tour in Russia, he collapsed in Baranovich, was bedridden for weeks and his “beloved readers” spread straw on the street beneath his window so his sleep wouldn’t be disturbed by the clip-clop of horses over the cobblestones. There wasn’t enough straw in the Bronx to soften his landing. Life was grim and closing in. He was nearly broke, losing his wife’s inheritance in the Kiev stock market, losing money from publishers and theatrical producers who got the better of him, losing touch with so many of his readers behind the war’s eastern front.

He had two months to live. He wrote his own epitaph: “Here lies a plain man who wrote in plain Yiddish … And while the whole world was merry, and saw in him but gladness, poor man, he suffered on the quiet. God knows, but no one else did.”

The New York Times reported that more than 100,000 of his readers lined the streets for his funeral with “a crush that threatened to develop into a stampede,” to say goodbye. They loved him, and they knew he loved them back.

If his last days were sad, his afterlife has been splendid. His name is associated with a twinkle; “Fiddler On The Roof” cemented his fame, bringing new readers to new translations. This month, his 150th birthday, there were celebrations in Tel Aviv. Limmud FSU launched “The Year of Sholom Aleichem,” with young Kiev activists visiting his Pereyaslav birthplace. Ukraine opened a Sholom Aleichem museum and issued a stamp, a coin and a cultural prize in his name.

A Ukrainian television crew flew to New York to cover events here: A Sholom Aleichem Shabbat (March 7) at the New York Synagogue on East 58th Street, featuring Sholom Aleichem’s granddaughter Bel Kaufman(a writer herself, most famously for “Up The Down Staircase,”) and a celebration at the Players Club, later that evening, with Kaufman, Theodore Bikel, “Fiddler” composer Sheldon Harnick and author Pete Hamill. Penguin Classics released a new translation of the Tevye and Motl stories, and Viking released a new edition of “Wandering Stars,” his novel about a Yiddish theater troupe, with a foreword by Tony Kushner, author of “Angels in America.”

But let’s return to an Odessa long ago, when little Bel Kaufman would get letters with a Bronx postmark: “Dear Belichka, I am writing you to ask you to hurry and grow up so you can learn to write, and write me letters. In order to grow up it is necessary to drink milk, have your soup and vegetables, and fewer candies. Regards to your dolls. Your papa, Sholom Aleichem, who loves you very much.”

Then came a three-word cable in English. Chaim Nachman Bialik, Kaufman’s neighbor in Odessa, came over to translate: “Papa very sick.”

“I’m almost 98,” says Kaufman today, “the only descendant of Sholom Aleichem who knew him, because I’m so old.”

She was separated from him, in his final years, and didn’t see her grandmother Hodel (Olga), for several years more because of war and revolution. She last saw her Papa when she was 3, vacationing with her cousin Tamar in Bavaria.

“He had a little goatee,” Bel recalls, “and velvet vests. He had blonde hair, longish in the style of the time. And he had pince-nez glasses at the end of a black ribbon. He was very happy, so youthful and full of fun.

“He adored us.” As they walked he’d say, “The harder you hold my hand, the better I write!” Bel squeezed tighter. “Do you see that mountain? I just gave it to Tamarichka. Do you see this lake? I’m making a present of it to Belichka.”

They walked through a zoo, stopping in front of a monkey on a branch. “Papa takes a piece of paper, folds it into a cone, fills it with water from a nearby fountain, and lifts it up so the monkey can drink. The monkey refuses. Papa bends down to me, and I can still hear his voice: ‘Belichka, it’s a spoiled monkey.’ Papa refills the paper cone and drank and drank, very thirstily. Only later did I realize he was suffering from diabetes. But even about that he’d joke, ‘At least I know I won’t die of hunger. I’ll die of thirst.”

“The German landlady made us lovely dinners,” remembers Bel. Then war was declared. “No more lovely dinners. We had to escape,” she to Odessa, he to New York.

When “Fiddler” opened in 1964, The New York Times asked Isaac Bashevis Singer to explain Sholom Aleichem to a burgeoning audience. Singer, who could be acidic about other writers, responded with reverence: “Can a folk writer be a genius, and can a genius think and feel just like an average man? If such a phenomenon is possible, Sholom Aleichem is its closest approximation.”

He loved everyone and everything Jewish. Even when he became less religiously observant as he grew older, he never stopped writing stories about the exhilaration of the holidays and their seasons.

He was fiercely against intermarriage, saying that his children could have “whatever religious convictions they will, but I beg of them to guard their Jewish descent.” If they didn’t, he would disown. He had Tevye say of his intermarried child, Chava, “She is no longer my daughter. She died long ago.”

And yet, in a story written less than two years before he died, Sholom Aleichem had Tevya and Chava reconcile. He had Tevye address Sholom Aleichem himself: “Please don’t think badly of me that tears come to my eyes when I remember this … After all, she was still my child … How can a person be so harsh when God says of Himself that is an all-forgiving God? … What do you say, Sholom Aleichem? You’re a Jew who writes books and gives advice to everybody. Tell me, what should Tevye have done?

“Goodbye,” says Tevye to Sholom Aleichem, “be well, and forgive me for filling your head with so many words. It will give you something to write about.”