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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 5th, 2010 Summer Solstice Celebration – June 19, 2010.
SUMMER SOLSTICE CELEBRATION – JUNE 19th.
For its 15th annual Summer Solstice Celebration, the Paul Winter Consort will once again welcome the sunrise within the extraordinary acoustics of the world’s largest cathedral. Beginning in complete darkness, musicians play continuously for two hours as the Cathedral’s stained-glass windows gradually illuminate to usher in the first day of summer.
Joining 6-time Grammy-winning soprano saxophonist Paul Winter, will be special guest vocalist Theresa Thomason, Eugene Friesen on cello, Paul Sullivan on piano, Steve Gorn on bansuri flute, Jamey Haddad on percussion and Tim Brumfield on pipe organ.
When – Saturday, June 19, 4:30 a.m. (One performance only) Ya, there is only one sunrise
Where – Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Ave., New York City
Tickets – $35, Ovationtix, 866-811-4111 or online: www.solsticeconcert.com
Free Music Download – www.solsticeconcert.com Permalink |
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Festival Flamenco de Córdoba comes to New York City’s “The Town Hall” June 10, 11 and 12th, 8:00 PM. Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 5th, 2010 Direct from Spain! **Centerline Talent in association with Stratta Philips Productions ** Presents the New York City premier of FESTIVAL FLAMENCO DE CÓRDOBA WHEN: June 10, 11 and 12, 2010 PM; 8:00 PM This spectacular three-night series features an ensemble of eleven award-winning dancers and musicians hailing from the city Córdoba, Spain. They are set to allure the audience with breathtaking performances of key flamenco styles, which include fandangos, soleá, bulerías, alegrías, taranto, guajira and seguiriya. WHO: Critically acclaimed flamenco guitarist, Merengue de Córdoba, will lead the production. The show features dancers Antonio Alcazar (Premio Nacional “Vicente Escudero” Award), Victoria Palacios (Premio Nacional “La Malena” Award), Desirée Rodriguez Calero “La Merenguita” (Premio Nacional “Pilar López” Award), and Maria Angeles “Coco Calero” winner of the Primer Premio De Baile Flamenco “La Estepona Flamenca”. The ensemble also includes guitarist Alberto Lucena (Premio Nacional “Manolo de Huelva” Award) and singers Carmen Garcia, Mariano Romero, and Jose Manuel Prieto (also on percussion), with supporting dancers Ester Maria Garcia and Rocío Lucena. WHERE: The Town Hall www.the-townhall-nyc.org, located at 123 W. 43rd St New York Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 3rd, 2010 Richard Attias (born 1959 in Morocc) – he is a global events producer. As chairman of PublicisLive Attias was the producer of the World Economic Forum in Davos for over fifteen years. His personal history and the history of the organizations he was involved with are plainly fascinating and we write this longer posting because we feel that he is embarking now upon even a greater voyage with his new NEW YORK FORUM, then in his previous activities.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a Geneva-based non-profit foundation best known for its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, which brings together top business leaders, international political leaders, selected intellectuals and journalists to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world, including health and the environment. Beside meetings, the WEF produces a series of research reports, and engages its members in sector specific initiatives. WEF also organizes the “Annual Meeting of the New Champions” in China, and a series of regional meetings throughout the year. In 2008 those regional meetings included meetings on Europe and Central Asia, East Asia, the Russia CEO Roundtable, Africa, the Middle East, and the World Economic Forum on Latin America. In 2008 it launched the “Summit on the Global Agenda” in Dubai. The WEF was founded in 1971 by Klaus Martin Schwab, a German-born business professor at the University of Geneva. Originally named the European Management Forum, it changed its name to the World Economic Forum in 1987 and sought to broaden its vision further to include providing a platform for resolving international conflicts. In the summer of 1971 Schwab invited 444 executives from Western European firms to the first European Management Symposium held in the Davos Congress Centre, under the patronage of the European Commission and European industrial associations, where Schwab sought to introduce European firms to US management practices. He then founded the WEF as a non-profit organization based in Cologny, Geneva, and drew European business leaders to Davos for their annual meetings each January. Schwab developed the “stakeholder” management approach which based corporate success on managers taking account of all interests: not merely shareholders, clients and customers, but employees and the communities within which the firm is situated, and governments. Events in 1973 including the collapse of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate mechanism, and the Arab-Israeli War, saw the annual meeting expand its focus from management to economic and social issues, and political leaders were invited for the first time to Davos in January 1974. As the years went by, political leaders began to use Davos as a neutral platform to resolve their differences. The Davos Declaration was signed in 1988 by Greece and Turkey, helping them turn back from the brink of war. In 1992 South African President F. W. de Klerk met with Nelson Mandela and Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi at the Annual Meeting, their first joint appearance outside South Africa. At the 1994 Annual Meeting, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat reached a draft agreement on Gaza and Jericho. In 2008 Bill Gates gave a keynote speech on Creative Capitalism, a form of capitalism that works both to generate profits and solve the world’s inequities, using market forces to better address the needs of the poor. 
Frederik de Klerk and Nelson Mandela shake hands at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum held in Davos in January 1992. During the five-day Annual meeting in 2009, over 2,500 participants from 91 countries gathered in Davos. Around 75% (1,170) were business leaders, drawn principally from its members, 1,000 of world’s top companies. Besides these, participants included 219 public figures, including 40 heads of state or government, 64 cabinet ministers, 30 heads or senior officials of international organizations and 10 ambassadors. More than 432 participants were from civil society, including 32 heads or representatives of non-governmental organizations, 225 media leaders, 149 leaders from academic institutions and think tanks, 15 religious leaders of different faiths and 11 union leaders.
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During the 1990s, Attias founded an Event Management Company and produced various global events including the Zurich Insurances Convention and Boris Yeltsin‘s visit to France. Richard was awarded the contract for the signature of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) signature agreements in Marrakesh and for the Middle East and North Africa summit meeting in Casablanca.
A brief encounter with Klaus Schwab, President of the World Economic Forum, resulted in a long-standing partnership and the eventual creation of the Global Event Management Company. This joint venture agency went on to manage international conferences, including the International Telecoms Union Congress and the Middle East Peace Summit in Jordan and the World Economic Forum in Davos. – Richard joined Publicis Groupe in 1998 and established a global enterprise producing events for various clients including IBM, l’Oreal, Uniliver, BT, Avaya, Lenovo, EDF, Sanofi-Aventis, etc. Richard was named Chairman of the Board of Publicis Dialog which combined the operations of Publicis Events and a range of marketing services. In 2004, Richard moved to New York and became chairman of Publicis Events Worldwide, the first world wide events network with over 600 employees. At PublicisLive Richard combined the events company and team to form PublicisLive that specialized in the conception and production of international conferences and very high profile events such as the Clinton Global Initiative Forum, the Islamic Conference, The Petra Conference of Nobel Laureates, the Dalian Economic Summit in China, and the Monaco Media Forum. – On March 23, 2008, Richard Attias married in New York’s Rockefeller Centre the ex-wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy Former French First Lady Mme. Cécilia María Sara Isabel Ciganer-Albéniz (a descendent of the composer). Cécilia Sarkozy visited Libya twice in July 2007 to visit Muammar al-Gaddafi and helped in securing the release of five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor who had all spent years on Libya‘s death row after allegedly being tortured into confessing to infecting Libyan babies with the HIV virus. The French left asked for Cécilia Sarkozy to be heard by the Parliamentary Commission expected to be created in October 2007 concerning the terms of the release of the six, as she had played an “important role” in their liberation. A Newspaper interview with Cécilia Sarkozy on October 19, 2007, made it known that she is leaving the President.
Current workIn 2008 Richard Attias created the Experience Corporation – a U.S. based full service event management and strategic consulting company with offices in New York, Paris, Jeddah and Dubai, that supports government and non-governmental organizations worldwide. As Executive Chairman, Richard oversees the execution and management of global events. Two major recent productions have been the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the accession to the throne of the King of Jordan and the launching of the Bahrain Education Project in Manama on October 10, 2009. The Experience Corporation has also executed more than a dozen corporate and governmental events since its inception in March, 2008. Richard Attias is the Executive Chairman of the Experience Corporation and works there with his wife. Cecilia Attias Foundation for Women, In October 2008, Cecilia Attias announced the launch of her Foundation for women’s rights. The Cecilia Attias Foundation for Women actualizes concrete improvement in the lives of women worldwide by serving as a strategic, media, and financial platform for small and moderate sized, established non-governmental organizations, associations and foundations who champion the cause of women’s equality and well-being. Recently, Cecilia Attias delivered the keynote address at the ARISE Africa Fashion Awards entitled “The Promise of Africa.”2008, Richard Attias sold the Global Event Management Company and with it the contract with the World Economic Forum. Richard is named special advisor to the Emirate of Dubai to provide a comprehensive strategy to make the city a destination for major conferences, and cultural and sporting events and spends a year and a half in Dubai. Richard Attias is the Chairman the Advisory Board of the Center on Capitalism and Society, directed by Nobel Prize winner Edmund Phelps. Currently, The Experience is making preparations for its New York Forum, the first summit to unite business leaders, sovereign funds and all major players in the global economy for an open, action oriented debate to foster ideas for improvement and reinvent current business models. This brings us to what goes on right now – right here in New York, and we got wind of this from the New York Foreign Press Center where Richard Attias gave a Briefing on-The-Record, June 2, 2010.
We learned that this was the launching announcement for the FIRST ANNUAL NEW YORK FORUM, and we bet, in an age of contraction and increased interest in the real world, with demands that go beyond what a resort can provide, the location in New York City might make it possible that the meeting will become even more important then those Davos meetings.
The First Meeting will be held June 22-23, 2010, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on East 42nd Street in Manhattan.
If you check the dates – you find that this fits neatly before the G-20 meeting – June 26 – 27, 2010 in Toronto. And as such, we already learned, that a main attraction of this meeting will be Christine Lagarde, Finance Minister of France will be the featured speaker at the closing session June 23, 2010.
Lagarde is the first woman ever to become minister of Economic Affairs of a G8 economy. In 2008, Lagarde was ranked the 14th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes Magazine. A noted antitrust and labor lawyer, Lagarde made history as the first female chairman of the international law firm Baker & McKenzie. She has been awarded France’s highest honor, the Légion d’honneur. In 2009, the Financial Times ranked her the best Minister of Finance of the Eurozone.
Further we learned that to date, Vikram Pandit, CEO, Citigroup; Edmund Phelps, Nobel Prize in Economics, 2006; Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Chairman and Publisher of The New York Times; Robert Wolf, CEO, UBS Americas; Jonathan Miller, CEO, News Corp Digital; Cathie Black, President, Hearst Magazines; and S.D. Shibulal, Co-Founder of Infosys Technologies, are among the people who have confirmed their attendance.
The New York Forum is a call for action by the business community to reinvigorate the global economy and to find new confidence and credibility. Initial support came from the following Forum partners: The Boston Consulting Group, The New York Times, Partnership for New York City, and the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University.
The Forum’s distinguished Advisory Board includes Nobel Prize-winning economist and Director of The Center for Capitalism and Society, Edmund Phelps; Partnership for New York City CEO Kathy Wylde; Economist and Planet Finance Founder, Jacques Attali; and Scott-Heekin-Canedy, President and General Manager, The New York Times. —————
WHY NEW YORK?
From Mr. Attias we learned that his love affair with New York started at 9/11. He saw then how “UNITED WE STAND” was something real in this city. That is how he decided to make it his main home.
When the financial crisis struck he was in Dubai – he realized that the economic crisis will follow. He saw there the workers from India losing their jobs without understanding what it is all about. He came back to New York with the intent to create this new platform – the New York Forum with people who really run the show – the business people rather then the politicians. He talks as stakeholders – of NGOs, academics, besides the business people, and he wants them to come up with actual proposals. He will keep them in the discussion groups and wait for solutions. He talks of a call to action and is not shy to say that the problems were started right here in New York, and solutions should come from New York and applied directly in New York.
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Richard Attias thinks the Financial Crisis is behind us – but we have the Economic Crisis and we must have jobs for people.
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The 2010 New York Forum will have a total of only 320-360 participants – just 3 plenaries with CEOs and attendees. Also many smaller group meetings, Mr. Attias said that 60 people in a group is the maximum. Further, as he said, at the end there must be a road map on regulations and transparency as needed to create renewed trust in the system. For years we had the feeling of credibility, what happened recently made us lose that feeling and we must restore it.
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Several days after the meeting there will be a “white book” – 100% transparent, open to the media – at least to the web – and press releases.
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Three days after the meeting Rubinstein Communications Inc. will have the result of the dialogue in the form of a document – “REINVENTING THE BUSINESS MODEL.”
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We got enthused by the fact that Mr. Attias said that while now there are 600,000 cars on the global roads every day, when China matches us in the ratio of cars per people, there might be 2 billion cars on the roads of the planet – and this is not negotiable. Different transportation systems must be established.
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indeed, in his briefing Mr. Attias did not go into details of a green economy, or of the actual alternatives that must evolve. We realized that in ways he wants to keep his neutrality before the dialogue, but it is clear that no results are possible if all our favorite arguments will not be part of this dialogue. Therefore we are confident that the Forum can be the answer to just what the doctor found in his diagnosis: The crisis started in New York and the road map will be drawn in New York in order to effect the financial institutions, that will from now on, have to handle with complete transparency the requirements of sustainability.
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He picked New York also because its rich cultural life, in this respect it might be more to the point then going away to a retreat.
With a composition as diverse as including people from South Africa, India, Dubai, Korea, etc. a process of innovation may be started at this forum. He has extended invitations to Sovereign Funds- so governments like Saudi Arabia will be present.
Problems started as for years political leaders were out to reduce costs, but the problem that in the real world it led to the Greece crisis. Something has to change. Mme. Legarde is expected to address tis problem
———————- For The New York Forum Contact: Rubenstein Communications, Inc. Iva Benson (212) 843-8271, ibenson at rubenstein.com Thomas Chiodo (212) 843-8289, tchiodo at rubenstein.com ——————– Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 1st, 2010 Ligeti’s “Le Grand Macabre” of gluttonous Breughelland, explains the Louisiana suffering and Washington’s long standing lack of care. Amazing indeed! “Le Grand Macabre by Gyorgy Ligeti” landed in Breughelland right here at the New York Philharmonic Hall. Was it all about Fossil Fuel gluttony and Washington? Prescient Louisiana? We are flabbergasted because we realized we saw it all there and decided on presenting it to you – our readers – with the hope to reach out to even a larger circle of wise folks. We did not add an additional word to the libretto, we just shortened it by condensing it in order to bring out the flavor we were seeking. You will see clearly the obvious premonitions that there will be an environmental catastrophe and that “Ministers” will push a monarch in an administration that has good intentions but is weak on actions. “Le Grand Macabre” was heard and shown by the New York Philharmonic May 27 -29, 2010, thanks to a bravado by new Philharmonic Music Director, Mr. Alan Gilbert who coincidentally is the first native New Yorker to hold this post. Mr. Gilbert is a Harvard graduate and of the Curtis Institute and The Julliard Schools of Music. Before coming to the Philharmonic he was the chief conductor and artistic advisor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra that made him conductor laureate at the end of his stay there. “Le Grand Macabre” comes at the end of Mr. Gilbert’s Inaugural Season at the New York Philharmonic. We hope that the Members of the Board will not reprimand him for this daring performance. It must be noted further that this Opera had the World Premiere of its original version in Stockholm, April 12, 1978, at the Royal Swedish Opera with Elgar Horwarth conducting. The revised and shortened version was first performed July 28, 1997 in Salzburg in a Peter Sellars production with Esa-Pekka Salonen Conducting. It is based on on a Michel de Ghelderode play “La Balade du Grand Macabre” and the libretto resulted from a cooperation of Gyorgy Ligeti with Michael Menschke, as Ligeti decided he wanted to create an Opera from that original play. and what Ligeti was trying to answer was the question: “If you knew that the end of the world was imminent, that a comet was about to crash into our planet and obliterate it forever, how would you chose to spend your final hours?” His answer was, supposedly, “People will spend their final moments doing pretty much whatever they have done before. They’ll jockey for power, they’ll revel in stupidity, they”ll pursue love, they”ll engage in posturing, they’ll get drunk. It is essentially an absurdist treatment in which Ligeti manages to make the unthinkable approachable by rendering it comical.” The notes say that Ligeti told a broadcast interviewer “The threat of collective death is always present – but we try to eliminate it from our consciousness and enjoy to the maximum the days that are left to us.” The theatrical approach of the script as shaped by Ligeti belongs to the Absurdist school of Alfred Jarry and Eugene Ioneco – the latter also Romanian who lived in Paris like Ligeti. Characters from their plays could have just walked throug Ligeti’s work and cartoonist Saul Steinberg would have found himself at home there either. This is no coincidence and it is rooted in the survivalist background of someone who, born into a family in Transylvania and a history of suffering from Nazism and Stalinism, the self defense is absurdism. The US audience did not exactly know what to make out either from the music, nor the content, but having this absurd element in it we found it great and are ready to forgive the critics that had hard time of finding their footing, or the busloads of folks that left at intermission. We loved it and had no difficulty seeing in it what we wanted to see in it. How can we miss it when it starts indeed with CAR HORNS! I saw my way from the first Car Horn Prelude – and did not miss the sequence. After all, the TVs these days are all about Louisiana and the ineptitude of Washington stretching back for generations – the Washington dominated by Oil & Car interests that made devil-deals that felled land, water, and air. Then who can miss the concept of BREUGHELLAND? Just see Breughel’s Icarus http://faculty.smu.edu/tmayo/icarus.jpg for link to Ligheti, but there is more to it – Brueghel, Bruegel or Breughel (Dutch pronunciation: [?b?ø???l]) was the name of several Dutch/Flemish painters from the same family line. Pieter was born in Breda in the Duchy of Brabant, which is now part of The Netherlands but back then part of the Flanders. His paintings are full of images of eating and feasting and being merry – plain gluttony and success. this is the image of a world that sees no limits – the world that later was built on the promisse of oil. And this is my point – Breughelland is to me gluttony-land – and this is the give away of this opera – to me – in my interpretation – these days of the Gulf of Mexico blow-out. ——————————— WORK IN PROGRESS. ——————————- CAR HORN PRELUDE – SCENE ONE: PIET THE POT: O golden Breughelland, NEKROTZAR – from the burial chamber, distant as from the underworld PIET: Oh my! AMANDO: Miserable scoundrel! That for the worm! PIET: Mercy, lord! I spoke no word! NEKROTZAR: Shut up! PIET: You spoke of death, not punishment! NEKROTZAR: Piet the Pot, your time runs out; PIET: Any fool knows that! NEKROTZAR: But no one knows the hour. CHORUS OF SPIRITS – off-stage during Nekrotzar’s declamation: NEKROTZAR The will of the Almighty PIET: Oh, please, PIET: Oh, Breughelland! CHORUS OF SPIRITS: Destruction soon draws nigh, Nekrotzar – mounts Piet, who serves as a horse, with difficulty: —- —- —- SECOND CAR HORN PRELUDE – SCENE TWO – DANCE: ASTRADAMORS: Oh my dreary nights, dark with bitterness! brain her or drown her or knife her or hang her, PIET: Friend Astradamors! it’s you? ASTRADAMORS: Friend Piet the Pot! It’s you? NEKROTZAR: Fire and death I bring, NEKROTZAR, PIET & ASTRADAMORS: Thousands of men will die NEKROTZAR: Yes I am but a loyal PIET & ASTRADAMORS: Death is his employer! NEKROTZAR: My duty here is past When all have breathed their last! NEKROTZAR: Earthquakes will soon arrive, leave not a soul alive! NEKROTZAR: I am powerful! NEKROTZAR: I am the slayer, PIET & ASTRADAMORS: For we shall expire! NEKROTZAR, PIET & ASTRADAMOR: No living thing remains! PIET: Cock-a-doodle-doo! —– —– —– SCENE THREE – DOORBELL PRELUDE: WHITE MINISTER & BLACK MINISTER: Tweedledum! THE WHITE MINISTER UNROLLS A WHITE DOCUMENT WITH BLACK LETTERING AND GESTICULATES WILDLY WITH IT UNDER THE BLACK MINISTER’S NOSE: Here Black party skunk, my resignation! THE BLACK MINISTER UNROLLS A BLACK DOCUMENT WITH WHITE LETTERING AND GESTICULATES WITH IT UNDER THE WHITE MINISTER’S NOSE: Here white party polecat, my resignation! PRINCE GO-GO – appears in front of the curtain: Gentlemen, I beg you! WHITE MINISTER & BLACK MINISTER: … above mere selfish egoism? GO-GO: Yes! WHITE MINISTER & BLACK MINISTER: All right, then, Highness, the riding lesson! THE TWO MINISTERS LIFT PRINCE GO-GO BY FORCE ON TO THE ROCKING-HORSE: Gee-up! GO-GO: We’re feeling giddy! WHITE MINISTER: Gallop! BLACK MINISTER: Now keep the reins tight! WHITE MINISTER: Cavalry charge … WHITE MINISTER & BLACK MINISTER: … as in war! GO-GO: Never war! GO-GO: We make a protest! WHITE MINISTER & BLACK MINISTER: Constitution? GO-GO: Enough! Enough! Enough! BLACK MINISTER PRODUCES A BLACK SCROLL WITH WHITE LETTERING: Now memorize this speech! WHITE MINISTER PRODUCES WHITE SCROLL WITH BLACK LETTERING: My speech – here! Black on white! BLACK MINISTER: White on Black! GO-GO: Gentleman, I beg you! WHITE MINISTER & BLACK MINISTER: Forgive me! GO-GO: What’s that? BLACK MINISTER: Well, a … hm … GO-GO: Not one cent! WHITE MINISTER & BLACK MINISTER: Highness! I shall resign! MYSTERIOUS ENTRANCE OF THE GEPOPO CHIEF: Pssst! GO-GO: Ha! Head of my secret service! What a leisure! GEPOPO: Cococoding Zero, Zero: GEPOPO: Birds on the wing! GEPOPO: Double-you see! GO-GO: What did you say? GEPOPO: Password – Go-Go-lash! THE PEOPLE OF BREUGHELLAND: Our great leader! Go-Go: Come, now let me do it! GO-GO, ON THE BALCONY, RECEIVES THE ACCLAIM OF THE PEOPLE. THEN HE TALKS TO THE PEOPLE. HIS VOICE REMAINS INAUDIBLE; ONLY HIS GESTURES CAN BE SEEN. WHITE MINISTER & BLACK MINISTER: I shall resign! GO-GO: To hell with your resignations! GEPOPO: Stern measures! GO-GO! Stern measures! GEPOPO & GO-GO: Stern measures! WHITE MINISTER & BLACK MINISTER: Stern measures? THE HANGMEN AND DETECTIVES PRESENT THE GEPOPO CHIEF WITH ANOTHER DISPATCH. HE READS IT. THE PEOPLE OF BREUGHELLAND – mixed chorus, off stage: Hear us, Prince, oh, hear us! GEPOPO: Kukuriku! Kikeriki! GO-GO: Who’s coming? GEPOPO: Coming! GO-GO: What is this Macabre? GEPOPO: Coming! Coming! THE GEPOPO CHIEF AND HIS ATTENDANTS FLEE IN PANIC. INSTEAD OF THE EXPECTED DISASTER, ASTRADAMORS SUDDENLY STORMS ON TO THE STAGE. ASTRADAMORS: Hurray, hurray! GO-GO: Hurray, hurray! ASTRADAMORS: My Prince! GO-GO: My worthy sage! GO-GO & ASTRADAMORS: Huzza, huzza! THE PEOPLE OF BREUGHELLAND – mixed chorus in the stalls: Oh! Prince Hear us! GO-GO: But tell me, my good friend, I pray: what is this cloak you wear today? ASTRADAMORS: A funeral kind of mantilla, THE PEOPLE OF BREUGHELLAND: Prince! Hear what we say! GO-GO: Quiet down there! THE PEOPLE OF BREUGHELLAND: Prince! Help us! GO-GO: Yes, yes, I’m coming … Wailing siren: Prince Go-Go is completely intimidated; clings to Astradamors. ASTRADAMORS: Under the table, quick, and not a sound! Grandiose entrance of Nekrotzar with scythe and trumpet, riding on Piet’s back, together with his fiendish entourage. THE PEOPLE OF BREUGHELLAND: Hear us! NEKROTZAR: For the day of wrath and retribution has come! THE PEOPLE OF BREUGHELLAND: O mighty Macabre! NEKROTZAR: Now will searing, scorching heat! THE PEOPLE OF BREUGHELLAND: But me, me, me, let me go on living: ASTRADAMORS: There is no need to fear: PIET & ASTRADAMORS; To our great and singular macabre colleague NEKROTZAR: To arms now! Rise! PIET & ASTRADAMORS – fill Nekrotzar’s glass again: He drinks! Hurrah! NEKROTZAR: Blood tastes good! NEROTZAR: More there! Prince Go-Go, Piet & Astradamors, fully drunk, carry Nekrotzar with great difficulty to the rocking-horse and seat him on it. NEKROTZAR: The command comes from on high that sun, Suddenly semi-darkness: pale, celestial light. Yes, it’s done! It’s done! All is done! … – — – — – – SCENE FOUR (EPILOGUE) In the lovely country of Breugelland, Piet and Astradamors are floating freely above the ground, they are dreaming that they are in heaven. PIET: Ghost Astradamors, are you dead? ASTRADAMORS: We’re floating higher. GO-GO: Is no one there? All of them, every single one dead? RUFFIACK, SCHOBIACK & SCHABERNACK: Ha, we are three soldiers, RUFFIACK: Halt! A civilian! GO-GO: Oh, but no, gentleman all, SCHABERNACK: You’re dead too, baby! Understand? GO-GO: You can call me baby” if you want to NEKROTZAR: Your highnes still alive? GO-GO: Later, my friend … suddenly addressing the three ruffians – And you! Attention! Stomach in, chest out! NEKROTZAR: Which … where is my grave? MESCALINA: Ashtaroth! Behemoth! NEKROTZAR: Damnation! MESCALINA: Beelzebub! NEKROTZAR: Oh, save me! Mescalina has caught Nekrotzar; she holds him firmly and about to plunge the spit into his chest. GO-GO: You there! Seize hold of that fury! The three ruffians suddenly fling themselves on Mescalina. Schabernack reappears. He is dragging behind him the two Ministers, tied up with a long rope. BLACK MINISTER & WHITE MINISTER: Innocent! Innocuous! Virtuous! Decorous! MESCALINA: Highness! These I know too! WHITE MINISTER: Highness, it was she who thought up those infamous taxes! MESCALINA: Oh ho, sweetheart, and who was it BLACK MINISTER: Highness, the Inquisition was her idea! MESCALINA: Oh, ho, dearie, and who wanted to be a tyrant and - WHITE MINISTER: Who invented mass graves? MESCALINA, BLACK MINISTER & WHITE MINISTER: Who? MESCALINA: He! You! They! WHITE MINISTER: She! You! They! BLACK MINISTER: You! She! They! GO-GO: Soldiers! Do your Stuff! —————————— If no hint was clear, just think of President Obama, The Democrats, The Republicans, BP but not just BP – it is all oil and car and other power brokers. It is about fire and water and earthquakes and tremors, the military, the farmers, the engineers, the scientists – it is about you and me. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on May 26th, 2010 http://ipsterraviva.net/UN/currentNew.aspx?new=7644
PENANG, Malaysia, May 23 (IPS) – An increasing number of natives in In Long Berawan, a village in the north of the state, a community of a Similar large forest plantation projects are slated for the Kakus and The loss of biodiversity when land is cleared for plantations is “After that, they will do the excavating work in order for them to In addition, foreign workers hired by the plantation firms are often The immediate impact on surrounding communities is water pollution and In Sarawak, forest plantations are mainly of fast maturing tree Whatever the condition of the existing forest, planting fast-growing The ‘Global Biodiversity Outlook 3′ report released by the Secretariat “The loss of biodiversity is an issue of profound concern for its own According to the website of the Malaysian Timber Industry Board, the This is part of an aggressive programme that includes providing soft The loss of biodiversity in tree plantations in Sarawak is significant The federal government, with the collaboration of the Sarawak Meanwhile, the villagers in Long Berawan are still engaged in farming “When the plantations come – and they are starting work now…” Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on May 8th, 2010 Arab-Americans as part of the community at large – self-deprecating friendly wit – the path to normalcy in days of horror. Muslims and Jews should start talking today as long as they are alive. You are welcome in America but do not go on the basket-ball court to play soccer in jeans. “ARABS IN WONDERLAND” a comedy show. Young Arab-Americans feel that through comedy there is a chance to self-improve and also project an image that they are part of an American community at large.The project was started after the 2001 9/11 event. The NYAACF is the vehicle and this year the 7th Annual New York Arab-American Comedy Festival, May 5-9, 2010, is the product. The title is “ARABS IN WONDERLAND.” The symbol of the festival is a camel head, with a bib that says I LOVE NEW YORK, perched on a quarter-moon. Dean Obeidallah and Maysoon Zayid are co-producers of this series of events. Both are comedians themselves and know the therapy and the bang that is hidden in the power of a laugh – specially when it is a self-deprecating laugh that creates a silver lining to the facts of life. The venue is the Three-Legged Dog Theatre – the Bellow-Village – 80 Greenwich Street – across from Battery Park at the 3LD Arts & Technology Center. Last year, Melik Kaylan wrote in The Wall Street Journal (May 20, 2009) – “ARAB HUMOR … NO JOKE” – Breathing between laughs seemed impossible, especially during the stand-up acts.” This year with Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad in the news, as the “idiot Times Square bomber,” disowned even by the Taliban, the Arab-Americans effort is even more important then in previous years. For whatever reason the group thinks of itself as brown people – this might be a miss-concept – but it nevertheless comes in response of being seen as different by the other Americans. Even if the self view brings them into a position, they think, of being neither white nor black in the American concept, that brown coloring is really not the point even if they asked the audience if any “whites” are present, and a family of three declared themselves. The truth is that the parents generation, like mostly all immigrants to this country, thought at first that they will continue to coalesce in their separate community and it back-fired when some of their members join in the old warfare of back home. This interfered with full integration here, and slowed the acculturating process. The laughs are the therapy and the solution. Jews had this in the Sholem Aleichem writings – yes – old culture – old country based – but opening the window to new life. The Arab-American Festival has performances in Arabic which I do not understand – so I picked two consecutive events, Saturday May 8th – the 9:15 PM Headliner Show and the 11:15 PM Haram Show. As I came a little early, I got to see also the last third of the 7:30 PM Stand Up in Arabic. The acting was excellent – in the intonations, movement and hand waving they were exactly like much of Israeli performances and there is no puzzlement here. This is because Jews that came from the Arab lands brought with them part of the Arabic culture as well, and the Arabs of Israel obviously supplied further enhancement to this sort of theater even before the introduction of stand-up. In one of the two numbers (acted by Amer Zahr) I saw, I heard “Bibi” and “Habibi” relating to Netanyahu – the Israeli Prime Minister. I assume that even the content that I did not understand because of the language barrier, was probably alike to Israeli stand-up. The last performer was Maysoon Zayid. The two stand-up events in English: the first, MCd by Eman (Canada’s top Arab comedian), featured Mike Batayeh (” You don’t Mess with the Zohan” – Born in Detroit and living now in Los Angeles), Aron Kader (Comedy Central’s “Axis of Evil” – has a Palestinian father and a Mormon mother), Joe Derosa (“Comedy central Presents”), Nigel (Noel) Elgrably (“Sultans of Satire” is the son of a French-Moroccan Father and a Moroccan-Israeli mother and grew up in Washington DC where he was an insurance salesman before turning to comedy), Nemr Abou Nassar (Lebanon’s top comedian), Dean Obeidalah himself (ABC’s “The View”), Jimmy Goson (from Akron, Ohio, of Lebanese heritage appeared at the Kennedy Center with Danny Thomas as MC and the following year was asked to be the MC), Maysoon Zayid (You Don’t Mess the Zohan), and Maria Shehata. the second, hosted by Mike Batayeh, featured among others - Joe Derosa, Aaron Kader, and Nigel (Noel) Elgrably. This performance it said had an R-rated as “Dirty Arab” comedy with mature themes – sex and profanity – for 18 and older. As a midnight show it clearly was not for the kids though about half a dozen young women with headdress were in attendance. I took notes from the first English show. It started with you say Shalom we say Salam it means the same thing but what we see is 9/11 being commemorated and Hezbollah sends greetings. But after Eman’s introduction, Mike Batayeh took off on how his father insisted on introducing him to girls. This theme of set marriages is much on te mind of the Arab Americans – the younger ones laugh at their parents and do not go along. The women not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, flight arrivals “Insh-Allah,” the bombed out Beirut where you get driving directions by the craters in the ground and the places where you get fired at - The “Holly Smoke” of the Middle East. Jimmy Goson declared that Arabs never admit that they do not know something. They are always specialists – be it on the Middle East or food. Jimmy has 30 years of comedy and performed at Bar Mitzvahs and Hafli – the difference between the two is one present – the Bar or Bat Mitzvah gets one present at the Hafli – two. He mentioned the colloquial language in the US – The Jews gave America from their language, and the Arabs should do the same, he concluded. And clearly – his comedy had positive elements to it. Further – the Arab good-bye takes two and a half hours – so he suggests to start saying it at time of arrival. Aaron Kader sayd that you are welcome in America but do not go on the basket-ball court to play soccer in jeans. Muslims and Jews should start talking today as long as they are alive. The best presentation was by Joe Derosa who projected a poster-picture advertisement of pre-packaged Oscar Mayer sandwiches that had on the bottom saying “it does not get better then this” – it was terrific – the essence of American commercialism and the lack of a future if this stale sandwich is all you can hope for. Oh yes, these young people are bitter. Most spoke a good English and are real Americans, but even though they laugh of the foibles of their parents, they are nevertheless proud of their heritage. The bitterness is not blinding, and they would like to see change for the better in the world. Maysoon Zayid was a delegate from New Jersey to the 2008 Democratic National Convention and she also spends 3 months a year in Palestine where she runs Maysoon’s Kids – a scholarship and wellness program for disabled children and orphans. The general tenor in the audience and at the podium was pro-Democrat and clearly anti-Bush. ================= http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=72350 TALEBAN DISOWNS TIMES SQUARE ‘IDIOT BOMBER’8 May 2010
By Giles Whittell The alleged would-be Times Square terrorist was disowned by the Pakistani Taleban yesterday as American politicians called for him to be stripped of his US citizenship so he can be tried by a military tribunal. Faisal Shahzad — nicknamed the “Idiot Bomber” for a series of blunders leading to his arrest — was praised by a spokesman for the Pakistani Taleban but disowned in the same breath. “We don’t even know him,” a spokesman said. In New York, an Emirates jet was held on the runway at Kennedy airport for the second time in four days yesterday, amid reports that another “no fly” passenger had escaped detection and boarded the aircraft. As the White House increased pressure on Islamabad to investigate possible links between Mr Shahzad and a range of militant groups based in Pakistan, new details emerged of his movements before the attempted bombing and of the lonely life in a cheap suburban flat that he was apparently attempting to escape. Hours after Mr Shahzad allegedly left a Nissan on Times Square last Saturday night, the Pakistani Taleban appeared to claim responsibility for the failed attack in a video posted on YouTube. Yesterday a spokesman for the group, Azam Tariq, told reporters in North Waziristan that “the job [Mr Shahzad] has done was a tremendous one and we praised him for this job but the fact is that we even do not know Faisal” (sic). The spokesman claimed that his organisation had been framed for the attack. At the same time the Pakistani Ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani, insisted that it was premature to link Mr Shahzad to Qari Hussain Mehsud, known as the Pakistani Taleban’s chief bomb-maker. Having travelled to Pakistan with his wife and children and left them there, it is now alleged that Mr Shahzad surveyed the scene of his intended attack with care, but still made errors. He allegedly visited Times Square on April 28 in the Nissan Pathfinder that he would later pack with propane and petrol, according to sources involved in his interrogation. Two days later he left a getaway car nearby. Investigators say that he was caught by a surveillance camera changing shirts as he left the Nissan on May 1. At about this time he realised he had left his keys inside the Pathfinder, including those to the getaway car, forcing him to take public transport back to his flat in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He asked his landlord to let him in and drove back to pick up the Isuzu with a spare set of keys the next day. The car was found at JFK airport on Monday. Pakistan’s co-operation in questioning Mr Shahzad’s associates and reconstructing his activities is seen in Washington as a vital test of its willingness to crack down on the of militant groups operating from Waziristan. —————————— not bad at all – UK department store Harrods sold by Mohammed Al Fayed to Qatar Holding for $2.3 Billion. A spokesman for Lazard, which advised the Al Fayed family trust, declined to confirm the value of the deal which was reported by Sky News, citing unnamed sources. “After 25 years as chairman of Harrods, Mohamed Al Fayed has decided to retire and to spend more time with his children and grand-children,” Lazard Chairman Ken Costa said on Saturday Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on May 8th, 2010 We write this after having witnessed the following: Subtantialis Corporis Mixti THE SYNERGIES EXHIBITION OF THE BASEL, ROTTERDAM AND STOCKHOLM CONVENTIONS. on Friday, 7 May, 6:00 – 8:30 pm The event is open to the public and will feature an informal talk by the It was sponsored by The Czech Republic and organized by SAFE PLANET – the UN campaign for Responsibility on Hazardous Chemicals and Wastes on the occasion of the Eighteenth Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD 18). For more information, please see the attached flyer. Michael Stanley-Jones === === === The three conventions mentioned are: - The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous wastes and Their Disposal. www.basel.int - The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International trade. www.pic.int - The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. www.pops.int These are just three out of a dozen conventions – most of them dealing with specific chemicals – many with just single transition metals that are poisonous and harmful to humans and aspects of nature. The UN cannot regulate what is done in a particular country even when it impacts the whole world – but it can come up with conventions that try to regulate international trade – and sometimes plain dumping of hazardous materials somewhere outside the guilty country – we call this plain criminal activity that dumps these materials in the poorest region of a poor country. UNEP Executive Director and UN-USG Ahim Steiner’s opening sentence for the exhibition’s catalog says: “The challenge of hazardous chemicals can appear invisible and remote to many of us. While science offers us the rationale and objective evidence of the risks, art connects the heart: In doing so it can move and mobilize each and all of us to act in new and transformative ways.” Industrial interests tend to sweep these miseries under the rug – so to say – and people are left suffering terrible harm as a consequence. The UN may discuss this in its chambers, but unless people get the understanding why things happen to them, to their environment, or to something they care about – they will not act. Chris Jordan, September 2009, photographed bodies of Albatross chicks that had dropped to their deaths on Midway Atoll, a remote marine sanctuary in the middle North Pacific. They had swallowed colorful bottle caps and cigarette lighters that their parents fed them because we threw them into the open sea. Barbara Benish, from California but living now on in the Czech Republic close to the German border, takes to the plastic toy form of “Bruno” the dolphin of Bohemia discolored by chemicals like the real Dolphins of the polluted Mediterranean and compares them with the playing dolphins of the walls of 3,000 year old palaces of Knossos. Barbara is teaching environment to Czech children and to the children of the world. She was a university classmate of the organizer of this exhibition Michael Stanley-Jones whith whom she was in contact but did not see him for 25 years until last nights event. But Michael was not the curator of the show, that fell to a professional from Texas Floyd Newsum shows a set of three panels that in the upper two halves are covered with an orange red to show the effect of global warming upon a young female figure, that happens to be African, that is depicted in the lower one third of the middle panel. Below these panels there are three objects, – a plastic football covered stuff that looks like pollution under the right side panel, while under the left panel there is a model bath tub – the ocean – and in it a small plastic cut out in the shape of Texas – that is the size of Texas of a plastic-covered real life region in the middle of the Pacific. The above collage shocked me as I just saw in the Saturday New York Times – right there on front page – the spectacular red, orange and yellow colors of oil-in water – that is the play of light in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. How many poor girls in the US South will go hungry as their fisherman father will be out of work because we wanted that oil? I got my exhibit-update right there – the same day. Lyn Randolph explores the Texas Gulf Coast in two large excellent paintings – “Endangered Species” in what seems an unexpected meeting of a female nude and Wooping Cranes – the woman seems to spy us and seems to be of the same endangered content as the birds. Here also we have very warm colored backgrounds but much more sharp colored center images. Barbara Sprung and another Barbara Benish large paintings deal with vulnerable women that we have attacked by what we do to the environment – those are the turning-away wounded Venuses in our life. Their bodies might still look nice but were altered by chemicals. Santiago Cardenas of Colombia does away with the body completely – he just shows a large coat on a hangar and an umbrella attached to a belt-loop. Then a most surprising exhibit was by a delightful Pakistani lady that resides now in Indiana, Anila Quayyum Agha. She showed a construct with letters that she named “My Forked Tongue.” and tried to convey the need for an international dialogue. She suspended letters in Urdu, Hindi and English and she told me it took 6 hours to mount the work here. She has dealt with political and gender issues in the land of her birth. Now she is Assistant Professor – Drawing- at the Herron School of Art and Design at the Indiana University in Indianapolis. I picked up a 40 page booklet of hers “Drawing the Invisible: Naratives of Gender, Community, and Home.” There is not a single depiction of the human body there – clearly something that has to do with her cultural background. She manages nevertheless, through color, painting, stitching, sewing, graphics… to convey the good side of humanity – what a refreshing experience after reading and hearing all the stuff about other Pakistanis in America! I spoke with her at somewhat at length and found easily that people that have a feel for humanity bind easily. This exhibit was a case in point. The about 50 people present, many from the Czech community, but also with a sprinkling from the UN – like Matthias Kern, Programme Officer at the Basel Convention Geneva Based, Secretariat, had a good time listening to the curator, enjoying the good Czech Urquel Pilsener bier, and plainly chatting about the issues displayed. Barbara Benish was addressing everyone first in Czech language as that was a first good guess nevertheless. Luckily the Czech President Vaclav Klaus has not completely turned into his disciples the great majority of his nation. The spirit of Franz Kafka, Jaroslav Hašek, Karel Capek, Vaclav Havel is still alive. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on April 24th, 2010 http://www.balanceofculture.com/2010/04/… 40th Anniversary of Earth Day Statement from Ambassador Susan E. RiceThe official statement from Ambassador Susan E. Rice on the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Today, as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, we are mindful of the profound responsibility we bear to future generations to leave them a healthy planet, and of the need for effective international cooperation to confront the urgent challenge of climate change. As President Obama said in Copenhagen, “There is no time to waste.” The world’s climate is warming by the day. In Silent Spring, the historic book credited with spurring environmental activism, Rachel Carson wrote, “Seldom if ever does Nature operate in closed and separate compartments.” Indeed, climate change is one of the many security challenges we face in the 21st century that pays no heed to borders. Both its causes and its consequences are transnational in nature. The Obama Administration is leading by example. We have taken action at home to invest in renewable energy and to promote a clean energy economy. We are committed to helping the most vulnerable countries adapt to climate change. And we are engaging vigorously in international climate negotiations sponsored by the United Nations, as well as in other multilateral settings. In Copenhagen, President Obama challenged world leaders to “act boldly and decisively in the face of a common threat.” As we mark this historic Earth Day, we move forward to meet his challenge – and to do the critical work of protecting our planet. ————————– 04/22/2010Analyzing Avatar Diplomacy at the United NationsOn Saturday, April 24, the ninth session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues will hold a special screening of James Cameron’s Avatar.
Excerpt from the UN’s press release:
Regardless of one’s opinion on Avatar and its role within dialogues concerning race, religion, hard power, technology, or imperialism, the film has certainly struck a chord among vastly different communities worldwide. I’m especially intrigued by this particular screening since it actually involves key individuals from disparate, indigenous societies–coupled with the participation of James Cameron himself. Mainstream movie screenings like this one are not exactly everyday occurrences at the UN, so this crossover represents precisely what I love to witness in the arts, technology, policy, entertainment, and disparate cultures: a convergence. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on April 24th, 2010
From the UN Spokesman for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, April 22, Question: Maurizio Guerrero from the Mexican News Agency, Notimex. Spokesperson: I don’t quite follow you, on where and how the UN is Question: They are going to screen on Saturday the movie Avatar, and Spokesperson: I would need to look into precisely who it is who is [The correspondent was later informed that the idea for the screening http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/2010/db100422.doc.htm —————————– http://www.undispatch.com/james-cameron-and-navi-come-un James Cameron and the Na’vi Come to the UN Mark Leon Goldberg – April 22, 2010 – 12:51 pm In the midst of researching this post, I came across news that AVATAR Well, you know who apparently disagrees with SEK and I? ’Many The AVATAR movie has been embraced by many indigenous peoples With messages of conservation at its heart, AVATAR dramatically The event includes a Q and A with Cameron after the screening. If any Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on April 23rd, 2010
PLEASE NOTE: A press conference with Mr. Carlos Mamani, incoming Chairperson of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, together with, Permanent Forum Member (North America) Ms. Tonya Gonnella Frichner and a representative from a Member State (TBC) will take place on Monday, 19 April, at 1:15 p.m. at UN Headquarters in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium.
The press conference and the morning session of the Forum meeting on Monday 19 April will be webcast live at www.un.org/webcast UNITED NATIONS PRESS RELEASE (New York, 16 April 2010) The impacts of development policies on indigenous peoples’ culture and identity will be the focus of a two-week meeting beginning Monday, 19 April at UN Headquarters in New York. Effective participation and consultation of indigenous peoples is central to such policies. Almost 2,000 indigenous participants from all regions of the world will take part in the ninth session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, to engage with Members of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Member States, UN agencies and civil society. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will address the opening session of the Forum in the UN General Assembly Hall on Monday, 19 April. The Forum meeting, taking place from 19 to 30 April, will specifically address Articles 3 and 32 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which guarantee indigenous peoples full and effective participation in development processes, including thorough consultation in the establishment of development programs and policies. Indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge and practices are increasingly being recognized as vital for conservation work and efforts to combat and adapt to climate change. Yet despite this recognition, indigenous cultures have been damaged more often than not by development policies that ignore their traditional sources of knowledge and cultural priorities and fail to respect their land rights. Development policies that take into account indigenous peoples’ culture and identity can be beneficial not only to indigenous peoples, but also for Member States and developing countries in particular. Indigenous peoples of North America Issues related to indigenous peoples in North America (i.e. Canada and the United States of America) will be the focus of a half-day discussion during the Forum meeting on Thursday, 22 April. The discussion will aim to identify both the challenges faced by indigenous peoples in the region, as well as positive measures of cooperation that can contribute to improvements in their situation.
Indigenous peoples and forests For many indigenous peoples, their way of life and traditional knowledge have developed in tune with the forests on their lands and territories. Unfortunately, forest policies that treat forests as empty lands available for development often force indigenous peoples out of their homes. In addition, some conservation schemes establish wilderness reserves that deny forest-dwellers their rights. A half-day discussion on these issues will take place on Wednesday, 28 April. It is expected that a statement will be adopted for transmittal to the UN Forum on Forests at its next session.
Side Events A special screening of the movie AVATAR will take place on Saturday, 24 April at 5:45 p.m., including a question-and-answer discussion with AVATAR Director James Cameron (attendance by invitation only). The opening of the exhibit, “Indigenous Peoples and Self-Determination,” and a cultural event will take place on Tuesday evening, 20 April, in the Visitors’ Lobby of the United Nations. The outcome of the Forum’s ninth session is expected to be a report to UN’s Economic and Social Council, which will include draft decisions recommended for adoption by the Council. Background The Permanent Forum is comprised of 16 independent experts, functioning in their personal capacity. The Economic and Social Council appoints the members, eight of whom are nominated by governments and eight by indigenous organizations in their regions. NOTE TO EDITORS: The press conference and the morning session on the opening day of the Forum session will be webcast live at www.un.org/webcast For journalists without UN press accreditation, please refer to the website of the Media and Accreditation Liaison Unit for details: http://www.un.org/media/accreditation/ or contact: +1 212 963 6934. For media queries including interviews with UN officials and indigenous representatives, please contact: Renata Sivacolundhu, UN Department of Public Information, Tel: +1 212 963 2932 E-mail: sivacolundhu@un.org For Secretariat of the UN Permanent Forum of Indigenous Issues, please contact: Sonia Smallacombe, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Tel: +1 917 367 5066 E-mail: smallacombe@un.org For more information on the Ninth Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, please see: www.un.org/indigenous ————————
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UNITED NATIONS PRESS RELEASE
Indigenous peoples respond to AVATAR at special screening to coincide with UN meeting on indigenous issues (Monday, 19 April, New York) A special screening of AVATAR will take place in New York on Saturday 24 April, to coincide with the annual meeting of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Indigenous representatives from around the world will express their views on the film, what it means to them and how they are using it to advocate for the protection of their lands and respect for their rights. AVATAR Director James Cameron will attend the screening, where he will participate in a post-screening question-and-answer session with indigenous representatives. He will also be honored by indigenous leaders. The AVATAR movie has been embraced by many indigenous peoples worldwide, who see it as echoing their own story. Throughout Latin America for example, indigenous peoples have highlighted the parallels between the movie and their own experiences dealing with private sector extractive industries and the development of mega projects on their lands. With messages of conservation at its heart, AVATAR dramatically demonstrates how human invasion almost destroys the indigenous population’s way of life on the planet of Pandora. The indigenous population of Pandora – the Na’vi – fights to save their forest and their traditional way of life. The AVATAR screening is a special event on the occasion of the ninth session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, from 19 to 30 April at UN Headquarters in New York. This year’s Forum session will focus on “development with culture and identity,” highlighting how development policies that address the culture and identity of indigenous people can be beneficial for all – both indigenous and non-indigenous communities. Too often, development policies have damaged indigenous cultures when their traditional sources of knowledge and cultural priorities have been ignored and their land rights not respected. The screening is co-sponsored by the Secretariat of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Development Programme/Global Environment Facility-Small Grants Programme, Conservation International and Tribal Link Foundation. Attendance is by invitation only. AVATAR’S Home Tree Initiative The United Nations declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity in an effort to promote the protection of biodiversity and encourage organizations, institutions, companies and individuals to take direct action to reduce the constant loss of biological diversity worldwide. The message of protection of Pachamama – Mother Earth – is central to AVATAR and this special screening is one of many initiatives taking place throughout the year. Celebrations for the International Year of Biodiversity are being led by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). ———————— The special screening of AVATAR – Saturday, 24 April 224, 2010 – coincides with the ninth session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, that takes place at the UN Headquarters. The screening will take place at the Directors Guild of America theater at 110 W. 57th St New York. The event begins at 5:45 p.m. and tickets for those on the advance list will be available at the theater from 5:15 p.m. Please present a press pass/photo id to obtain your ticket. For media needing to set up cameras, please come early to ensure time to setup before the event begins at 5:45 p.m. The event will begin with a welcome from indigenous leaders to AVATAR Director James Cameron and an introduction by the Director to the film before the film starts. Mr. Cameron will also participate in a post-screening question-and-answer session with indigenous representatives from around the world (from approx. 9:00 – 9:45 p.m.). For more information on the screening, please contact: John Scott For media queries, please contact:
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on March 24th, 2010  |
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Two months ago, the pundits declared health care dead. Climate legislation? Even more dead. With health care passed, will climate care follow? Leaked news of the Kerry/Graham/Lieberman bill drew an initial statement of support from the DC green groups, and at least one green opponent. The critical question: Will the new Senate Bill, weakened by compromises, provide an adequate foundation for serious climate policy, or are we better off with the status quo: EPA regulatory authority under the Clean Air Act? Over the coming month, each of us needs to decide, and if it’s Senate action we choose, then fight like hell for that option. Watch for a round-table on this question Wednesday, April 1st, on The National Climate Seminar, our twice-monthly call-in conversation with top climate scientists, policy-makers and analysts. Details to follow next week. On April 7th, mark your calendars for the Seminar appearance of The Yes Men. Two guys who take on major corporations and global institutions by impersonating insiders, the Yes Men are masters of irony. Can the Survivaball™ (video here) break through media indifference and help shape public understanding of climate change? Also, please help us spread the word about campus2congress statewide conference calls with US Senate offices. Coming up: IN, MO, TN, ME, FL and IA. Live in a state not listed? Send us an e-mail at climate@bard.edu and help us organize a call-in your state. These are not lobbying calls, but rather educational dialogues. Students need to understand the positions held by their representatives. And senators need to know that thousands of young people in their states are looking to them to act with moral responsibility to all life on earth. Thanks for the work you are doing. Eban Goodstein Director, Bard Center for Environmental Policy and National Teach-In on Global Warming Solutions **************
Do you live in a climate swing-state? Find out here. Please register your own views with your US Senators, every week. The National Climate Seminar, a twice-monthly discussion featuring top scientists, political leaders and policy analysts, is sponsored by The Bard Center for Environmental Policy, and made possible by a grant from The Clif Bar Family Foundation.
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on March 23rd, 2010 Jack Kleinsinger talking and presenting exquisite Highlights of Jazz, shows us also things beyond the music in the hall. In this case it was international harmony. The event was: Highlights In Jazz Salute To Lew Tabackin Thurs., Mar. 11th 8PM At TRIBECA Performing Arts Center, Manhattan. It was one of those 2010 winter days. I worked at home on a UN text and the expected success of the evening did not disappoint. This time Jack Kleinsinger himself did only the verbal introductions and the public relations. He did not perform himself, that is unless you do not count his broad brush with which he depicts his performers as performance also. Lew Tabachkin, lanky, bearded, Trotsky-alike, Brooklynite, flutist and tenor saxophonist, has very wide vision of music. His flute sounds like the music of that primordial Hebrew Shepard amusing his flock of sheep and his tenor sax like the quintessential Jazz musician who has no intention whatsoever to sound like any other jazz musician – so he creates his own style and if needed dances to it while playing whatever instrument it happens to be – call it studied impromptu. This comes after many years of improvisation. In 1968 he met pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi when the two played together in a quartet. They eventually married and moved to LOs Angeles where they formed the famous Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra. www.jewtabachkin.com The other performers were Russian best Jazz bass player Boris Kozlov, additional skilled wing musicians Joe Magniately who stepped in for Randy Becker who joined a foreign tour, and Gary Sloan. Lewis Nash on the drums. In the second half the star was guitarist Jack Wilkins. This second half was in part dominated by guitar-drumer and bass trio. Slowly the others joined the party as the audience got more and more enthused. Tabachkin was the last to step in – after all it was his party. The Grand Finale had all seven musicians on stage. Kleinsinger said that at first he worried that with this group of individualists the show might be too modern for his years-long audience, but he was happy to see how well they were received. Kleinsinger also mentioned the last two concerts of the series – Thursday, April 15, 2019 that will hold The Ben Webster & Lester Young Centenial, and Thursday May 13, 2010 – the Final Concert of the Highlights Final Season = nearly completely sold out – at the time there were only 40 seats left. Further, as these concerts are not just performance but rather heritage, Jack Kleinsinger has cleared with the US Department of States a listening tour to Havana – May 27 – June 3rd 2010. You can bet on him that he will dig up the best Jazz emporia and joints of Cuba – and, don’t wonder if you sense after that an inflow to New York of great Cuban new music, and good old music as well. To who does not know – Cuba is linked to the evolution of Jazz in the US. If only the UN could learn something from Jack Kleinsinger – at least why not make it an obligatory evening for the UN Security Council? Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on March 17th, 2010 A Film production company’s court case brought out as true what were always our worst fears about the MEDIA – the fact that when you buy an advertisement you also take for granted that you bought their soul. We looked for years at those quarter pages advertisements that oil companies bought on major newspapers’ prime pages, then we learned that some topics – such as alternate fuels – were taboo to those papers even on their news pages. oh well! How do you prove a non-existence? Now we have it. The film got advertised on Variety magazine and it seems from the court papers that the company expected a “buzz” – so it gets noted and becomes a candidate for the Oscars – all this so it eventually obtains also a distributor, and beefs up its high hopes to make money. So, the managers of that movie’s publicity campaign took for granted that Variety will do all of that in exchange for what was probably a nice charge for those advertisement fees. It probably would have evolved this way except that the Variety movie critic, who went to see the movie, had not such a hot opinion about the movie. To cut the story short – the movie people were not enthused seeing the review and asked Variety to remove the review which they did – saying that there were inaccuracies there. It probably would have ended with this if not for the movie producer mentioning that he intends to take Variety to court which finally stiffened Variety’s back. They put back a second version of the negative review. Now comes the court case, and it becomes obvious that Variety was hungry for advertisement revenue and might have given wrong impression to the movie producer who on his part seems to have been unusually naive to step into the deal. Does that negate our opening statement? NO! The practice is general, and the naive behavior of the particular Hollywood folks is unusual. We learned the story on this Sunday’s TV programs. ————– Now further information from the www.insidemoviefone,com - ‘Iron Cross’ Director’s Lawsuit Over Negative Variety Review Highlights Changing Status of Movie Critics. Variety’s unflattering review of ‘Iron Cross,’ a film starring the late Roy Scheider as a retired cop plotting revenge against the man he holds responsible for the slaughter of his family during the Holocaust, predicted that the 2009 indie drama “will be remembered as Roy Scheider’s swan song and little else.” But ‘Iron Cross’ may yet be remembered as the movie that destroyed Variety’s film review section — and perhaps the venerable trade paper itself, since its singular and comprehensive reviews have been the paper’s cornerstone for 100 years. As if to prove those contentions, last week, Variety laid off three of its staff critics, including chief film critic Todd McCarthy, who’d been reviewing films for the paper for 31 years. McCarthy’s ouster is going to make that asset much harder to maintain. When the paper dismissed him and his colleagues last week, Gray insisted that the volume of reviews would remain the same, only they would now all be written by freelancers. (Before, the workload had been divided among staffers and freelancers; Gray defended the layoffs as a cost-cutting move.) It seems unlikely, however, that Variety will still be able to publish that many reviews without being able to depend on full-time staffers to write a large chunk of them. In fact, in an interview Sunday in The Wrap, Newton said he met with Variety publisher Neil Stiles after Koehler’s review ran, and that Stiles said “he had a problem with his critics. And he said he planned to cease all reviews this year, in 2010.” Yet Gray’s yanking of the review suggested he didn’t trust his freelancer either. When he pulled the review, he at first offered no explanation to Gawker or anyone else (including Koehler); eventually, Gray told the Los Angeles Times, he did so not because Newton had spent money with the paper but because Newton had complained about the review’s accuracy. Gray himself had touted the film (along with about 60 others) as a potential Oscar contender in a column last summer, prompting Variety’s ad department to pursue ‘Iron Cross’ as a client, even though Gray hadn’t yet seen the then-unfinished film. After he pulled the review, however, Gray watched ‘Iron Cross,’ decided Koehler’s review was valid, and republished the article. Still, the damage had already been done, both to the movie’s awards and distribution prospects, and to Variety’s reputation for editorial independence. Still, this sort of thinking seems penny-wise and pound-foolish. At a time when newspapers are struggling to stay afloat, stay relevant and provide unique services to their readers that they can’t get from all over the Internet, Variety’s comprehensive array of reviews should be considered a selling point, not a liability. Without them, what differentiates Variety from online rivals like The Wrap and Deadline Hollywood? (Not much, except for a print edition that creates a high overhead that makes Variety much more beholden to advertisers.) And without providing a unique reason for readers to subscribe, how will Variety survive? Variety’s campaign against its own critics does a disservice even to readers who don’t peruse Variety. General interest newspapers and magazines have been discarding staff critics by the dozens in recent years. If the show business bible, a publication that once made a point of publishing more reviews than anyone else, now thinks critics are irrelevant and expendable, other publications will feel justified in following Variety’s lead. And it’s moviegoers who will suffer. As the Koehler incident proves, sometimes an independent-minded critic is all that’s standing between a moviegoer’s wallet and the hype generated by a movie’s publicity campaign — including hype that may come from the business office at a critic’s own paper. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 17th, 2010 Wednesday February 10, 2010 activities at the UN headquarters were closed down – some got postponed by a day – other into the unknown, but environmentalists did not throw in the towel – they know more then the current UN!
OK, so Wednesday night the North America Launch of The 2010 International Year of Biodiversity (“Biodiversity is life – Biodiversity is our life”) went on anyway at the American Museum of Natural History that traces back to that great US Hunter-President Theodore Roosevelt. The event was further backed by the 1992 Rio Conference written, UN Convention on Biological Diversity, that only now President Obama said he would like to see ratified, Conservation International, The Discovery Channel, Fordham University School of Law, The Equator Initiative of UNDP, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. Mr. Olav Kjorvan, Assistant Secretary-General and Director, Bureau for Development Policy, UNDP, read UNSG Ban Ki-moon’s introductory remarks whose opening statement for the Blue Whale Hall lined with stuffed animals starts: “I am pleased to be here in this spectacular monument to some of Earth’s magnificent species.” This event obviously deserves a posting of its own. ——– The following day, Thursday February 11, 2010, with the UN open again, I had a further extremely interesting day that started only at 3pm but stretched to midnight. As we shall see the activity with the UN University – that has been granted by a UN General Assembly declaration of December 31. 2010, the right to turn into a degrees-granting institution in a “Twinning” construct with other Universities. Up to now, the UNU was the UN’s Think-Tank. Now it will aim to be also the Academic training UN institution that will try to go interdisciplinary and Cross-Development divide at the UN with as stated goal that at least one member from a UN Member State Permanent Delegation to the UN should be a graduate of a UNU Program. We see in this a further potential of turning the UN into an institution where at least one person per delegation will understand why the UN was created in the first place – and know thus the positive side of what the UN can do for their country. The UN really does not have to be a collection of elbow-sharp fighters for narrow causes as the real goal of the UN is that general cooperation spirit that the first visionaries had in mind. As I was going to the UNU meeting only at 3:30, I decided to pass by first by the UN Department of Public Information in my effort to pick up the the Secretary-General’s speech that was read the night before at the American Museum of Natural History. First I passed by the office of the Spokesperson for the UNSG, Mr. Martin Nesirsky, a very nice man who was brought in this year by Mr. Ban Ki-moon from another position in Vienna. This was just a getting to know you visit, but then I tried to get from the office the Ban Ki-moon statement of the night before, but it seemed that nobody actually knew that something was actually happening in town the night before – that is when the UN declared itself closed. The Deputy Spokesman, Ms. Marie Okabe was very nice and promissed to find out – indeed the following morning when I e-mailed her the details of what I was asking – within minutes I got back a reference – but coincidentally I also got the document by e-mail directly from Mr. Kjorvan. But I do mention all of this because in the process I also found out that the UNSG did not have the Bioresources year event on his schedule. In effect it was not the weather that kept him from going cross-town – it was rather that he never intended to attend that meeting. Nice to find out what is of less then genuine interest to the UN Secretary General. Perhapse had the meeting been planned for the Antarctica rather then the West Side of Manhattan, it would have been more interesting. Nevertheless, my attempt to get the document about an activity of February 10th was further gratified by the realization that the paper that was not to be found at the DPI by the afternoon of February 11th did indeed show up a day later – so – reminders do work. The UNU had first a 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. presentation by former Rector (for 12 years) of the famous Swiss ETH, where he also was President pro-tempore until his appointment to UNU, where he is now UN Under-Secretary General as UNU Rector, with his headquarters in Tokyo. Professor Konrad Osterwalder is by training a Mathematical Physicist who did research on the mathematical structure of relativistic quantum field theory and elementary particle physics – statistical mechanics which we see as a strong bonus if one is to try to bridge the relativistic North-South lingo used by the majority of the UN that has tried to create that divide that does not allow for finding of solutions to problems that defy compartmentation – like quantum mechanics has clearly shown to those who study the real facts in matter – that do matter to everything else. So welcome on board of the UN Think-Tank – Mr. Professor. The Chairman of the afternoon event was New York’s Director of the UNU at the UN Headquarters, Dr. Jean-Marc Coicaud who knows the UN also from the inside having worked as speech writer for UNSG Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali. He is a Political Scientist and Dr. in Law, and thanks to his efforts at the UN Headquarters the decision by the UNGA came about. The Thursday event was a transplant from the UN closed y of Wednesday, and in the process the participation of Dr. Allan E. Goodman, President of the IIE the leading International Institute for Educational Exchange was lost at some airport. The Presentation by Professor. Osterwalder surely deserves a further posting, here we will mention only the evening 5:30 pm reception that followed the presentation, and after that, for this posting, I will deal with a very special Jazz concert I followed up with and use the concert to throw some light back on the possibility that UNU might have on changing for the better the interaction between those active on its campus. The Concert was of the ” Jack Kleinsinger – Highlights in Jazz Series” This year there will be four concerts in the series – it will be the 37th consecutive year of those series – and it will be the final year – May 13, 2010 – will be the Final concert – it will be an even 300th concert in the series – and Mr. Kleinsinger, born in Brooklyn in 1937 decides to retire from organizing concerts. Kleinsinger opened to the full hall at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center at the Borough of Manhattan Community College on Chambers Street by saying – “You Braved The Snow – You Must Love This Music – This is the Way I Have Done It For 37 Years (starting 1973) – And This Is How It Is Supposed To Sound.” Most of he audience was in their 70s and above. The musicians were of the same vintage – except Danny Gottlieb, the kid, who was only 30 years old when Kleinsinger started the series. All the musicians are stars – Jay Leonhart, Wycliffe Gordon, Houston Person, Howard Alden, Ted Rosenthal. The biggest star of the evening was George Wein, born in 1925. He is the musician and impresario the who ran the Newport Jazz festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. It was established in 1954 by George Wein, prompted by socialite Elaine Lorillard, whose wealthy husband helped finance the festival’s startup. Most of the early festivals were broadcast on Voice Of America radio, and many performances were recorded and have been issued by various record labels. They are Jazz history. The first half was Kleinsinger and the band. They had it down to a system. Nobody was just sitting on stage. They would just walk on when needed and walk of when they finished their participation in the piece being played. The wind instruments were really good at that. The second half that was the band and George Wein. He plays the piano and other instruments. He started with a guitarist Howard Alden, original Bossa Nova music. Then he told us that when he grew up in the 30′s in Brooklyn he used to sing – moved into flipper music, and by God – started to sing. It was amazing – he was really good and got a standing ovation – “I was so lonely – you were so charming” he sang. “I lived in you – you lived in me… You made it happen.” When he signaled to the bass that next piece will be without him, the musician before moving of the stage kissed Wein, sitting at the piano, on his bold head – no problem. Now why do I stress this story while writing an article about the UN? This because of what good work means and how people – the audience – appreciate good work and the realization that people like to work together toward a goal that is not less then the attempt to excel. I think that performance could perhaps open UN eyes and show what those working at the UN miss by being without spirit of cooperation. In that bad weather, I got home by midnight. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 9th, 2010 Friends kept telling me that I have to see it, but what convinced me to go and support the public avalanche of money to the movie’s coffers was the interview of Larry King with the writer – director – producer – James Cameron. I realized that this very talented and versatile Hollywood man was able to sell any kind of snake oil if he would put his mind at it. He knows the market and knows how to perfect the technique of listening – you say what you think and he says -YES. Larry King was saying he saw this and that in the movie and the answer was yes and yes. I am saying that this is a mixed up review because I have very mixed feelings about the movie and I cannot easily make up my mind – but to my credit I must say that I refused to read any of those professionals that review movies and help spread the word – it is a must. At the way the movie brings in $1 Billion per weekend so it seems to become a must – and everyone finds there what he is looking for. My strongest feelings were that it was too long for the time span I have to go – you guess what – but as I was sitting in the middle of the row in the IMAX movie house I could not go – so I suffered pains. About 35 years ago, I belonged in the Village (that is Greenwich Village in New York City) to a club that was meeting monthly to analyze an honest commercial movie after we saw it together – even those first science fiction movies – reasonable budget movies. To analyze meant that several doctors or professors of the Psychoanalytical profession would put the movie on a couch and talk what they saw. Would they have done so to this movie – I doubt it. Why – simply said – there was nothing hidden in the movie – it all hang out for all to hear so why debate motives? The movie is made at a level of 95 IQ in great technicolor and as 3D it outs your nose right in the middle of the action. One moment you root for the Blackwater fighters as they move over virgin land, the other moment for those giant ape like (pointed ears and long tails) blue smurfs. The pictures are terrific – the fights terrifying. Yes – you have a problem with the fact that you do not know where you are. Are you on an outer planet or on some island, or continent, but you are there because some company wants some mineral that is extremely important for some new technology that is being devised on mother earth – whatever it is that they come from. If you do not agree with what you are doing then you are a traitor to your race. Yes – it said race not country nor global humanity. Are those indigenous peoples really monkeys? Do we have to denigrate them by this allegation – that is – do we still believe that man is superior to animals. Are they? The location seems more like a Tahiti Island in the midst of the Amazons and this reminded me of a small stockbroker Paul Gauguin who betrayed his race by going to live in Tahiti and admire the local nature and culture. Our male protagonist in the movie goes there and finds his female partner right there – a la Gauguin. She is instructed by her mother to teach him “our ways.” No wonder here except that all those tailed gorgeous giant blue smurfs speak English. Is this a bow to previous colonialism that is now returning because the need for that particular mineral was developed only now? Now, how do you get to Smurfland? That you do through an inner voyage – you get there in your brain. And you know what – that voyage reminds us of similar things to what we wrote last week about Dr. Eric Kandel’s work on memory – you bind dendritic ends of your nerves to some machine nerves that is pre-programmed? Later we see you doing the same to your brain and the brain of birds that the Smurfs use as flying horses. This must be very deep suggestive practices in the theory of dominance. In Dr. Kandel’s work it is your experience that changes you and that are the dendrites – here you are changed from the outside and that is Stalinist. Did this occur to the producer? Did he just bank on it that Sarah Palin fans will say – how beautiful! It is our huge military machine in action! We go and solve our problems through conquest! Bravo! On the other hand, those indigenous peoples belonging to various tribes on that new terrain – whatever it is – are extremely well adapted to their environment and love it. The animals there cooperate with them for the common good of their environment and will resist to what we are intended to believe are the human intruders that look very much like a US army invading some oil country – because WE NEED IT! OK – somehow our protagonist understands this in his dream and fights for real his master. Now – that part reminded me of the story of the Golem of Prague that in the Middle Ages the Jewish Rabbi invented to save the Jews, but got out of hand and destroyed everything. Can Obama act like Rabbi Loew and destroy the Global industry construct? This protagonist – the traitor – destroyed his maker but though hurt – the tailed indigenous, so well adapted to their environment, stayed on and their marvelous environment – though partially destroyed – will survive. Here at SustainabiliTank.info we wish reality could be as simple as that. The truth is that this corporate military machine decimates everything and ends up devouring itself. The reality is in what we are doing – the dream is that we can stop it. The truth is that those that will see the movie will believe in what Cameron is dishing out to them – beautiful color, shapes, gore of war – AH THAT IS THE FUTURE OF ENTERTAINMENT FOR YOU BLOCKHEADS! Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 31st, 2010 At the first event of this years UN Commemoration of the Holocaust aftermath, I was approached by Sandra “Akiwa Gizzel” Nelson-Zongo who is with an NGO at the UN. She gave me a flyer about an event the following day, at the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s New York Tolerance Center that was established years ago in the proximity to the UN, with the intent of having an influence on the UN. Simon Wiesenthal was obviously the Nazi fighter of Vienna, and the US institution that bears his name is based in Los Angeles – its reach out to the UN was just because it was realized that the UN has the potential to become a Jew hating and general racist international institution, where pure haters lead a sea of ignorant member states with funds provided by our use of their oil. The New York Tolerance Center asks – “HOW MANY RACISTS DOES IT TAKE TO CHANGE A LIGHT BULB? It says that tolerance is about – Experience, Explore, Encounter, Engage and Responsibility, Respect, Social Justice. By providing space for New York NGOs active at the UN the Institute hopes to affect the spirit of the UN. ———— The flyer said that January 26, 2010 1-3pm, there will be an event of an Ad Hoc Unit – “Human Rights Learning Through Art and Athletics.” Sandra was going to host the event and it turned out that she was the choreographer of various scenes that dealt with domestic violence against women. The Simon Wiesenthal Institute was represented by Curran Geist – its New York Program Manager and a Special Guest was Osoroko Nana-Yabani, a Ghanaian poet and UN Peace Messenger whose latest activity seems to have been recently in Abu Dhabi. He spoke of Empowering of women in every culture with education, safety, business opportunities such as micro-lending, family and social support, health services, promotion of respect will alleviate Violence Against Women he said. He told how he saved a battered woman in Abu Dhabi, and as there is no institution there where you can lead her too – he actually engaged one of the police to harbor her with his family in his own home. He said that his UN card helped getting the attention of the locals for whom beating one’s own wife is no offense. No one should be subjected to torture or cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment as per article 5 of the Human Rights Charter. Then Michelle Chang picked up on Policy in Action – touch offense. It was about love and the ideal of reaching out to one another. Sandra’s “Family Feathers” eventually turned into “Johnny Traffic” with a pimp taking over the place of family head. The intent was to show how to learn, extract information (data) and to help find a solution to problems of ordinary real life. It felt germane to the efforts of reinventing one’s future when faced with calamity – as those survivors showed capable of doing in the “Generations” event – the opening of HOPE of this year’s Holocaust UN series. When helping individuals in the global community, the Simon Wiesenthal Institute also hopes to decrease intolerance in the larger global sense. Whatever the reality – their opening to the UN is clearly a positive window for those in need. Letha Francis, Leroy Mobley, Sharla Kornegay, Von Wright were the performers. Interesting – “Human Affect” distributed articles 1 and 27 of The Universal Declarationof Human Rights as part of their program. ALL HUMAN BEINGS ARE BORN FREE AND EQUAL IN DIGNITY AND RIGHTS. THEY ARE ENDOWED WITH REASON AND CONSCIENCE AND SHOULD ACT TOWARDS ONE ANOTHER IN A SPIRIT OF BROTHERHOOD. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 30th, 2010 DEMONIZING THE BIELSKI HEROES OP-ED in The Jewish Press. Posted Jan 14 2009 on http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/… And yet the slurs continue. On December 31, Paramount Vantage released “Defiance,” which tells the The film, which is based on a book of the same title by Nechama Tec, The project has also drawn a more negative response. Although smears against the brothers have long enjoyed currency among Polish In June, Gazeta Wyborcza, an important Polish daily edited by As a source, the paper cited an investigation being conducted by the Since the Gazeta Wyborcza article appeared, other periodicals have None of the articles noted that the IPN’s accusation is utterly The IPN, which has been investigating the Naliboki incident since In the roughly 300-word description of the investigation e-mailed to Then in June 2008 the IPN issued another statement, one that Their statements were “not supported by any other proof, for instance Yet even the Polish journalist who co-authored the original Gazeta Nowicki claimed he was relying on testimony from “Lova from The Bielski brothers, strapping sons of a miller, hailed from It is true that since February 1943 the brothers’ unit (then a few According to the IPN, the attack on Naliboki village was not The IPN didn’t respond when I asked if wandering members of the Jewish The Bielski partisans eventually did reach the Naliboki forest, which It had a large kitchen, a central square for gatherings, a mill It is an outrage that wartime achievements of this magnitude can be so Peter Duffy is the author of “The Bielski Brothers” Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 30th, 2010 From: Shehnaz <peaceingardens@comcast.net> Exhibition Opening Jan. 30 Sat through June 6 2010! The Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers will be showcasing its first Arab artist on January 30, 2010. We are proud to be Lalla Essaydi is a talented photographer, who deconstructs the Oriental European paintings from the 19th century and ***************************************************************************************************************************** ZIMMERLI ART MUSEUM AT RUTGERS PRESENTS LARGE-SCALE COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE MOROCCAN-BORN ARTIST LALLA ESSAYDI New Brunswick, NJ — The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers features the latest body of work by the New York-based, Moroccan-born artist Lalla Essaydi in Les Femmes du Maroc from January 30 to June 6, 2010. Seventeen large-format color photographs will portray Moroccan women in tableaux based on famous examples of 19th-century European and American Orientalist paintings and covered in Arabic calligraphic script. A selection of Orientalist works from the museum’s extensive collections of European graphic art will also be on display to provide a cultural context for Essaydi’s work. ABOUT THE ARTIST: The photographer, painter, and installation artist Lalla Essaydi was raised in Morocco and lived in Saudi Arabia before studying at the L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and completing her MFA at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/TUFTS University, in Boston, MA (2003). Her work is represented in private and public collections around the world, including the Louvre Museum, Paris; the British National Museum, London; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Art Institute of Chicago. Lalla Essaydi is represented by Edwynn Houk Gallery in New York City, and Howard Yezerski Gallery in Boston. Each photograph is the culmination of careful staging. Essaydi arranged the models, all female friends and acquaintances, in poses based on Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres’s The Grand Odalisque (1814), Jean-Léon Gérôme’s The Slave Market (1867), Eugene Delacroix’s Women of Algiers (1834) and other well-known paintings. She removed the male figures and all color and decorative details, draping the women in white. She then painstakingly inscribed every surface (animate and inanimate) with text lifted straight from her diary, rendered in formal Arabic calligraphy and applied with henna. The combination of calligraphy and henna is provocative. (Until very recently in the Middle East, calligraphy was an art form practiced exclusively by men for the transcription of sacred texts, while henna is traditionally a woman’s art that marks ritual moments in female life.) The resulting chromogenic prints are nearly life-sized, in dimensions as large as 6 by 7.8 feet. Zimmerli Art Museum: The Zimmerli is midway between New York City and Philadelphia and a short walk from the New Jersey Transit station in New Brunswick. For directions, please follow this link: http://search.rutgers.edu/buildings.html… Link to the Zimmerli exhibition page: http://www.zimmerlimuseum.rutgers.edu//e… Shehnaz Abdeljaber _______________________________________________ Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 13th, 2010 When you go to www.SustainabiliTank.info and type in to the search function the word “Hydrogen” you get many postings – starting from December 2003 – about the time we started this website. There was always talk about this perfect fuel – the kind of fuel that when it burns emits only water vapors, turning into a good answer to our energy needs. From time to time we had also some practical ideas to report. There really was nobody better then poet and philosopher Allen Ginsberg to see this with clarity, even if he had to get high in order to have the courage to face this vision. We always had high esteem for him, even though we are rather square and conventional, but open enough to have recognized his value. I reread now AMERICA (Berkeley, 1956) and it has something terrific – prophetic: “Asia is rising against me. But you will think I am crazy – Allen Ginsberg in 1956 did not talk In one of his most famous writings – in “Howl” (San Francisco “Moloch whose love is endless oil and stone! The way I understand the sexless hydrogen – is sort of a mere and We also see that banks rule over the the conventional electricity - ————— Further, there is the Philip Glass opera with Allen Ginsberg libretto Does that mean that later hydrogen and electricity fused to the same the last songs are: Song #11 from THE GREEN AUTOMOBILE Of the project, Glass said: The piece was intended to form a portrait of America covering the Ginsberg said: “The title Hydrogen Jukebox comes from a verse in the poem Howl: The work premiered May 26, 1990 at the Spoleto Music Festival in The Hydrogen Battery to be presented January 8, 2010, breakfast, at http://www.sustainabilitank.info/2010/01/05/the-hydrogen-battery-to-be-presented-january-8-2010-breakfast-at-dickstein-shapiro-llp-on-broadway-avenue-new-york-city/ and Hydrogen must be in fashion and coming up – see also – HYDROGEN http://www.sustainabilitank.info/2010/01/05/hydrogen-must-be-in-fashion-and-coming-up-see-also-hydrogen-jukebox-comes-to-cornelia-st-cafe-tonight-for-2010/ Instinctively I made the connection between the two and HYDROGEN BECAME MY HERO. ——— As I was told by by poet-composer Brant Lyon the curator of the series Its inspiration (and moniker) are taken from the late great Beat poet This year HYDROGEN JUKEBOX moved to The Cornelia Street Cafe, 29 ————– Tuesday, January 05, 2010 6:00PM - HYDROGEN JUKEBOX. HYDROGEN JUKEBOX comes to Cornelia Street !!! January 5, 2010, kicking off the first season at the new location, As advertised: “David Avendano, from Mexico City, started writing poetry at 11 years Moira T. Smith is a poet/singer-songwriter/artist who grew up BRANT LYON seems to be into – “Beauty Keeps Laying its Sharp KnifeAgainst Me” as POEMusic – producing a a highly eclectic collection of contemporary I told him that what brings me there is the effort to make bigger ————– The NY Funders Breakfast Hydrogen event announcement arrived before the New Year, and seemed a very good idea to start the year with. The actual breakfast was only Friday January 8th, and by the time you will get through reading this – if you are still at it – the surprise I will bring upon you, will be that the technology as presented is an excellent idea and if repackaged, so that hydrogen becomes subservient to the real issue, which is electricity, it could indeed be turned into a slum-dunk by the right people. Thanks Allen for the enlightenment that comes from you! From: Gelvin Stevenson, Ph.D. Welcome to 2010, We will kick off the new year with a hydrogen company. The Hydrogen Battery, which we will hear about on January 8, produces Happy New Year to one and all – Gelvin. ————- The Hosting Sponsor was the Dickstein Shapiro LLP legal company - The actual presenter was John P. Mayo, the founder of the company. Further, we have the problem of how to get the hydrogen to a motor vehicle engine; We have already the vehicles that can be fueled with hydrogen, but then we have this problem of how to supply them with Hydrogen. What the company is proposing is to prepare an Aluminum gel that when extruded into a chamber where it is mixed with water it produces Hydrogen, a Na Aluminate and high temperature. We can thus use on demand the Hydrogen and the heat. The Na Aluminate can be seen as a byproduct, and in stage I can be sold to an existing $600 million existing market in the paper & pulp production and for water treatment. It sells for $700/ton. The NaOH sells for $277/ton. The presenter suggested that after the stage I market for this byproduct has been exhausted, the stage II of the implementation of this technology will involve recycling via Aluminum smelters operated with electricity. The electricity to come from solar towers or wind mills. Asked how do you collect the Na Aluminate residue in case you use the Aluminum gel to fuel automotive engines, really no satisfactory answer was provided. But that should not doom this technology – in effect we believe that the idea is excellent – but it calls out for repackaging. To be most efficient, and in order to avoid environmental hazards, like poisoning of underground water resources, with Aluminum compounds, we can apply the technology first to captive fleets with central exchange locations – new gel in – old residue out. Further, in my excitement at the end of the presentation, I suggested to the presenter to buy himself a one way ticket to China and make sure that next high speed train in China will run efficiently on hydrogen released via Aluminum gel. I could even contemplate having this prototype paid from CDM carbon credits by the EU. With wind or solar electricity, and recycled Aluminum, water vapors being the only emissions in the process, this becomes a worthwhile memorial to Allen Ginsberg who foresaw the electricity in this sexless hydrogen. I reached here the end of my own cycle – will only say that this was the brightest technology I heard described for many moons – the electric energy stored and transported in recyclable Aluminum gel! Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 5th, 2010 CORNELIA STREET CAFÉ between West 4th and Bleecker Sts, Greenwich Village HYDROGEN JUKEBOX COMES TO CORNELIA ST. CAFE TONIGHT FOR 2010! 1/5 Tues, 6 PM (January 5, 2010) HJ kicks off a new season and POEMusic explodes on the tongue w/ poets David Avendaño and Moira T. Smith rockin’ w/ the ever-popular house improv band, The Ne’ever-do-wells + Open Mic (arrive early to make list). Brant Lyon, curator / host $7 includes one house drink David Avendaño, from Mexico City, started writing poetry at 11 years of age, when a tsunami of feelings brought devastating change to his life, words giving light to his nascent soul made easier to feel, su aliento, la voz gritan al mundo mil palabras y demas, utilizando letras con sentido, dejenos en paz… Year, All! Permalink |
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