tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72269829852774236582024-03-14T11:49:14.329-07:00Waves of ChangeWE ARE MIGRATING THIS SITE TO OUR NEW HOME: WWW.DEEPDISHWAVESOFCHANGE.ORGDeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.comBlogger397125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-47555083082656168552011-08-03T18:35:00.000-07:002011-08-03T19:45:19.659-07:00New Site for Waves of Change!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #45818e;">We are now posting to our new site:</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://deepdishwavesofchange.org/">deepdishwavesofchange.org</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">please change your bookmarks to our new site!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.deepdishwavesofchange.org/">www.deepdishwavesofchange.org</a></span></div>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-54458675142870825742011-05-24T11:55:00.000-07:002012-02-17T14:15:49.932-08:00Madrid Book Brigate: Countering the police lines with education<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-uY1r3p311k7VNm3zGXuyr_qVeKxjso85oA-90OVbvkrcI7-o44G3-KJZE33LL2MzDreAXQtvYHlfym3_KXyC82fWd0FvRyvtQLYTGKs7BMScIPpIkI4rkdtX9amLt4VTiwrbIepOmpPy/s1600/msbooks_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-uY1r3p311k7VNm3zGXuyr_qVeKxjso85oA-90OVbvkrcI7-o44G3-KJZE33LL2MzDreAXQtvYHlfym3_KXyC82fWd0FvRyvtQLYTGKs7BMScIPpIkI4rkdtX9amLt4VTiwrbIepOmpPy/s400/msbooks_0.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-NeCUrAfnbtLd4vzUDXTgLyVeSjUuUvFS8eMbmaHDjwlWWfSETJuMtb3G4ZuLkPntroA4gCRPbip3-306tYoTIe7x928MR0j3I53rstmWCIWe89DcIhSIf8TmxyOUTV71YJ70XuYpOc8e/s1600/bookbrigade.preview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-NeCUrAfnbtLd4vzUDXTgLyVeSjUuUvFS8eMbmaHDjwlWWfSETJuMtb3G4ZuLkPntroA4gCRPbip3-306tYoTIe7x928MR0j3I53rstmWCIWe89DcIhSIf8TmxyOUTV71YJ70XuYpOc8e/s400/bookbrigade.preview.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><i> Photo by Julio Ulanga</i><br />
<i></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><div style="font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: monospace; white-space: pre;">#acampadabcn</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: monospace; white-space: pre;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: monospace; white-space: pre;">We have come here voluntarily and by free will. After the 15th of May demonstrations we have decided to remain united and grow in numbers on our fight for dignity. We do not represent any political party and they do not represent us.</span></div><pre>We are united on our rage, our discomfort, our precarious life which is derived by inequality but, above all, what keeps us together is our will for change. We are here because we want a new society that puts our life on top any political or economic interest. We feel crushed by the capitalist economy, we feel excluded from the present political system which does not represent us. We are striking for a radical change in society. And, above all, we aim at keeping society as the sole driver of this transformation.
They thought we were asleep. They thought they could carry on cutting our rights without finding any resistance. But they were wrong: we are fighting – peacefully, but with determination – for the life we deserve.
We have learned from Cairo, Iceland and Madrid.
Now it’s time to extend the fight and spread the word.
Information #acampadabcn
<a href="http://acampadabcn.org/" style="color: #b00000; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none;" target="_blank">http://acampadabcn.org/</a>
acampadabcn.wordpress.com
<a href="https://dssmail.ucsd.edu/webmail/src/compose.php?send_to=acampadabcn%40yahoo.es" style="color: #b00000; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none;">acampadabcn@yahoo.es</a>
<a href="http://desrealitat.blogspot.com/" style="color: #b00000; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none;" target="_blank">http://desrealitat.blogspot.com/</a>
Timetable (daily until we remain camped)
19:00h – Work committee
19:30h – Coordination and preparation of the general meeting
21:00h – Popular “frying-pan” protest
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From OVNI:
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px; color: black; font-size: small; line-height: normal;">hola amigoas!...</span></pre><div style="font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"></span></div><pre>en / at
<a href="http://desrealitat.blogspot.com/" style="color: #b00000; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none;" target="_blank">http://desrealitat.blogspot.com/</a>
</pre><div><br />
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</i></div>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-72853302241834828882011-04-05T09:40:00.000-07:002011-04-05T09:42:18.641-07:00Public Control of Cell Phones<p><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="470" height="310" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OzU-MvyXKuQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p><p>A discussion about the politics of cell phone use - from the exploitation involved in the mining of coltan (an essential mineral used in consumer electronics) to the domination of phone companies.</p><p> </p><div id="watch-description-text" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 1.09em; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; line-height: 1.4; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><p id="eow-description" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 13px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">This discussion took place at Bluestockings, during the event "Independent Media, Technology, and Self-Determination Struggles in Nigeria" on March 27, 2011. <br />
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Emem Okon of Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Center in the Niger Delta and Omoyele Sowore of Sahara Reporters will speak to the role of communications technology in struggles against political corruption and oil exploitation in Nigeria. Jamie McClelland of MayFirst/PeopleLink will address the changing role of communications technology in the internationalization of such struggles, and lead a discussion on what is to be done to seize this moment. This is the third of a series of reportbacks form the fourth IMC-Africa Convergence, held last month in Dakar, Senegal. Facilitated by Amy Dalton and Nicole Hummel.<br />
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More information about the panelists and the event can be found at<a target="_blank" title="http://nyc.indymedia.org/or/2011/03/114534.html" rel="nofollow" dir="ltr" class="yt-uix-redirect-link" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 13px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(66, 114, 219); text-decoration: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; " href="http://nyc.indymedia.org/or/2011/03/114534.html">http://nyc.indymedia.org/or/2011/03/114534.html</a></p></div><div id="watch-description-extras" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> </div><p> </p><p> </p>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-62784057274040796102011-03-24T16:55:00.000-07:002011-03-24T16:56:18.802-07:00Gigi Sohn on Internet Regulation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="310" src="http://blip.tv/play/haNHgoW4MgI" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420"></embed></div>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-13265855884966742492011-03-17T09:37:00.000-07:002011-03-17T09:37:38.331-07:00Benghazi Media Center to Report Battle<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><script src="http://www.democracynow.org/embed_show_v2/300/2011/3/17/story/libyan_rebels_maintain_benghazi_media_center" type="text/javascript">
</script></div>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-28192472772587688472011-03-11T16:43:00.000-08:002011-03-11T16:46:30.737-08:00WEST AFRICA SIMMERING: Interview with Sphinx and Niger Delta Women<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
<h1 class="posttitle" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial Black', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-shadow: rgb(0, 0, 0) 0px 0px 1em; text-transform: uppercase;"><a href="http://www.radiohive.org/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">http://www.radiohive.org</span></a></h1><div class="postmetadata" style="color: #333333; font-size: 0.85em; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0.08em; line-height: 10px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-transform: none;"><em style="font: italic normal normal 1em/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; letter-spacing: 0.1em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-transform: none;">hosted by</em> <a href="http://www.radiohive.org/author/nicole/" style="color: #225c59; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="Posts by Nicole Hummel">Nicole Hummel</a> <em style="font: italic normal normal 1em/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; letter-spacing: 0.1em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-transform: none;">on</em> Mar 08, 2011</div><div class="entry" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 18px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 15px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">From the Indymedia Africa Convergence, to a recent crackdown on hip-hop activists in Senegal, to women fighting back in the Niger Delta, to a new community radio in Mali… Tonight Best of Both Worlds explores the uprising that is simmering West Africa. Tune in for stories from women’s movements in the Niger Delta, music and updates from the musicians/activists of Keur Gui, and an interview with Indymedia’s Sphinx.</div><div style="line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 15px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb2U5sTEMZz6_8d0-PJvTVFb3pXexUjsKBIMdN_5L5hswQIiXFX2ATy8cS5T3ZvJ0iD7JYspKtkr9OYvk_b-vMrvih0_4iTU70gzZYUp_XbGnf1G4Hv9U21FjjwrIWdSzZ9XFKOzutc5yF/s1600/IMG_0202+-+dorothy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb2U5sTEMZz6_8d0-PJvTVFb3pXexUjsKBIMdN_5L5hswQIiXFX2ATy8cS5T3ZvJ0iD7JYspKtkr9OYvk_b-vMrvih0_4iTU70gzZYUp_XbGnf1G4Hv9U21FjjwrIWdSzZ9XFKOzutc5yF/s320/IMG_0202+-+dorothy.jpg" width="199" /></a></div><br />
Featuring music from the Lijadu Sisters (Nigeria) and Keur Gui (Kaolack, Senegal).</div><div class="podPress_content" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><div class="podpress_playerspace" id="podPressPlayerSpace_1" style="border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important; clear: both; display: block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 15px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;"><object class="podpress_player_object" classid="CLSID:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" data="http://www.radiohive.org/site/wp-content/plugins/podpress/players/podango_player.swf" height="24" id="audioplayer1" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="290"></object></div><div class="podPress_downloadlinks" style="border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important; clear: both; font-size: 10px; height: 15px; line-height: 15px !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;"><a href="http://www.radiohive.org/podpress_trac/web/829/0/BEST-3-8-11.mp3" style="color: #225c59; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" target="new" title="Download: Best of Both Worlds - West Africa Simmering"><img alt="" class="podPress_imgicon" src="http://www.radiohive.org/site/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/audio_mp3_button.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important; display: inline; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> Best of Both Worlds - West Africa Simmering: <a href="http://www.radiohive.org/shows/west-africa-simmering#podPressPlayerSpace_1" style="color: #225c59; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="podPress_playerspace_playlink" id="podPressPlayerSpace_1_PlayLink" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Hide Player</span></a> | <a href="http://www.radiohive.org/shows/west-africa-simmering#podPressPlayerSpace_1" style="color: #225c59; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Play in Popup</a> | <a href="http://www.radiohive.org/podpress_trac/web/829/0/BEST-3-8-11.mp3" style="color: #225c59; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" target="new">Download</a> (51)</div></div><b><br />
</b></div></div>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-71266445858571995182011-03-07T08:46:00.000-08:002011-03-07T08:46:50.575-08:00TV Serrana Comes to the US March/April 2011<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="420" height="310" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/n5t255iz1AA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-578548235560629662011-02-01T21:14:00.000-08:002011-02-01T21:22:57.095-08:00everyone has something to say<object width="380" height="205" id="msnbc89cc6" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0"><param name="movie" value="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" /><param name="FlashVars" value="launch=41378295&width=420&height=245" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><embed name="msnbc89cc6" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" width="380" height="205" FlashVars="launch=41378295&width=420&height=205" allowscriptaccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object><p style="font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 380px;">DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-79985851934169537482011-02-01T06:40:00.000-08:002011-02-01T20:48:58.749-08:00Blufields School of Music<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><iframe frameborder="0" height="310px" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1276466525/bluefields-school-of-music/widget/video.html" width="380px"></iframe></div>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-34677612037555551112011-01-28T21:44:00.001-08:002011-01-28T21:44:35.866-08:00French Data Network Access in Egypt<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"></span><br />
<h2 class="post-title" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(140, 172, 187); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; clear: left; color: black; font-size: 19px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><a href="http://blog.fdn.fr/post/2011/01/28/Censure-de-l-internet-en-%C3%89gypte-%3A-une-humble-action-de-FDN" style="background-color: transparent; color: black !important; text-decoration: none;">Censure de l'internet en Égypte : une humble action de FDN</a></h2><div class="post-info" style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify;">Par <a href="http://arnaud.luquin.info/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #436976; text-decoration: underline;">Arnaud Luquin</a> le vendredi 28 janvier 2011, 16:11 - <a href="http://blog.fdn.fr/category/NEUTRALITE-DU-NET" style="background-color: transparent; color: #436976; text-decoration: underline;">NEUTRALITE DU NET</a></div><div class="post-content"><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-right: 10px; text-align: justify;">Cette nuit les instances dirigeantes égyptiennes semblent d'après cet <a href="http://www.renesys.com/blog/2011/01/egypt-leaves-the-internet.shtml" hreflang="en" style="background-color: transparent; color: #436976; text-decoration: underline;">article</a> avoir ordonné aux fournisseurs d'accès internet égyptiens d'éteindre leurs interconnexions internationales, donc avec le reste d'internet.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-right: 10px; text-align: justify;">Cette action fut d'une effroyable efficacité, aujourd'hui, l'internet a «désappris» à joindre l'Égypte et il n'est plus possible de communiquer avec les égyptiens que ce soit par mail, forum, usenet ou quelque technologie basée sur IP.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-right: 10px; text-align: justify;">Dans la foulée, ce matin, les SMS semblent également êtres coupés privant le peuple égyptien de tout moyen de communication électronique.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-right: 10px; text-align: justify;">Pour cette raison, et parcequ'il s'agit bien d'une attaque flagrante d'un état contre internet, FDN a décidé d'ouvrir une petite fenêtre sur le réseau en mettant a disposition de qui le souhaite un compte d'accès RTC.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-right: 10px; text-align: justify;">Par ce biais, n'importe qui en égypte disposant d'une ligne téléphonique analogique capable de joindre la France a la possibilité de se connecter au réseau par le n° suivant : <strong>+33 1 72 89 01 50</strong>. (login: <strong>toto</strong>password: <strong>toto</strong>).</div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-right: 10px; text-align: justify;">Nous espérons contribuer par ce biais à la liberté d'expression des égyptiens et leur permettre de conserver un lien avec le monde. Rappelons enfin que FDN n'offre qu'une solution technique et uniquement technique.</div><div><br />
</div></div></div>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-73170054944391624342011-01-14T15:26:00.000-08:002011-01-14T15:28:26.148-08:00Changing location!We're working on a new web page and have the new blog set up.<br />
Go to:<br />
<a href="http://www.deepdishwavesofchange.org/">http://www.deepdishwavesofchange.org</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbLkkGvdfyIsZvXOLUzrj5Art0s91myklohPZPnzCT3GCDvMvMaKKu7bo_0g4QWxvr3K696Zw7Hcjy_9JnPijPK9aEe1tv0vLqz-W6yTbnkUW2OSvHJv1zqZ5VNf2QgjKFKGK2lRcNmnXv/s1600/automobile-mechanics.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbLkkGvdfyIsZvXOLUzrj5Art0s91myklohPZPnzCT3GCDvMvMaKKu7bo_0g4QWxvr3K696Zw7Hcjy_9JnPijPK9aEe1tv0vLqz-W6yTbnkUW2OSvHJv1zqZ5VNf2QgjKFKGK2lRcNmnXv/s400/automobile-mechanics.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Once on the new page, you can go to either the map, the blog, or to one of the selected videos at the bottom. You can also search for people, locations or issues on the bottom of the page. The search pulls up links to the blog, the map and articles. Check out the articles! Check out the photos! Both of those are at the "Library" column.<br />
<br />
Please give feedback as to how the site can work better for you!<br />
Feel free to comment on any of the posts.<br />
If you know of community projects or articles, please send to<br />
deepdishtelevision@gmail.comDeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-47575881553327338592011-01-12T20:42:00.000-08:002011-01-13T06:47:49.362-08:00Reconstruction of Community Media Slow in Haiti<embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="285" src="http://blip.tv/play/gdElgpu2DgI" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="350"></embed><br />
**<b>Remembering Haiti, One year On</b>**<br />
f<i>rom the World Association of Christian Communication</i><br />
<br />
One year after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti killing over 250,000 people and paralyzing its communications and information infrastructure, reconstruction of the country is slowly gaining momentum.<br />
<br />
Professor Ary Regis, President of WACC- Caribbean Region and based in Haiti, reports that communication in general has been re-established and local media have resumed operations. However, he cautioned that re-construction of community media has been slow and hampered by a myriad challenges. "Community radio stations are very fragile right now. In certain cases they have been wiped out by commercial media which have moreresources and better means of recovery", he said.<br />
<br />
According to Regis, the situation has been exacerbated by the country's fragile economy, political and social unrest. "There are fewer volunteers working in community radio stations because of the bad economy". <br />
<br />
These and other challenges are hindering local communities from voicing their needs, said Regis in a telephone interview from Port-au-Prince. Soon after the earthquake, WACC launched an appeal to raise funds to rebuild community media in the country. Nearly 60,000 Dollars were raised through donations from WACC members and friends. The donations have been used to re-construct and re-equip three community media networks run by WACC partners. They include Rezo Fanm Radyo Kominote Ayisyen (REFRAKA), Medialternatif Group/&Alterpresse and Social Animation and Communication Society (SAKS). <br />
<br />
Marie Guyrleine Justin, Coordinator of REFRAKA, was grateful to WACC for re-equipping and reconstructing the station. "Thanks to the financial and technical support by WACC, a lot of the work spaces have been re-equipped and re-vamped.╡ The radio station is now operating<br />
from a new studio, she said, adding that the network has also conducted radio production training workshops for young people. <br />
<br />
Justin, however laments that most of the community radio stations in the country are isolated and far from the cities and that there are hardly any women radio presenters. "˛The majority of women don't have access and are not trained", she noted.<br />
<br />
Gotson Pierre, Executive Director of Alterpresse said that operations at Medialternatif Group&Alterpresse had resumed since acquiring new equipment. "We have been temporarily renting space in Petionville but we will relocate to our own premises in April this year." The<br />
network has produced seven videos since May 2010. <br />
<br />
Pierre, however, observed that full recovery of the network's operations still has a long way to go. "Although we are carrying out training, the re-construction has been delayed by other social<br />
problems such as re-building the education system and unemployment."<br />
<br />
He emphasized that community media are equally crucial as they are independent spaces where people can freely express and experience their human and social rights. <br />
<br />
"Community media represent the link between the people and the state. It is a space to ask questions and to reflect. It is the sole reference point for local communities, a source of information and knowledge", he said.<br />
<br />
WACC General Secretary, the Rev. Karin Achtelstetter, affirmed WACC's ongoing commitment and concern for the members and partner organizations that have worked in Haiti for many years. She thanked members and friends who supported the Haiti re-construction fund. "This is an expression of the global solidarity of our network", said Achtelstetter.<br />
<br />
To donate and learn more about the Haiti Fund, please go to:<br />
http://www.waccglobal.org/en/activities/haiti-appeal.html<br />
For more information contact: Terry Mutuku: MT@waccglobal.org <br />
Communications Officer and Web Manager, WACCDeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-13947753972830570622011-01-08T10:35:00.001-08:002011-01-08T20:14:30.883-08:00Museo Del Barrio in New York City Celebrates the 3 Kings Day, January 6, 2011<object height="308" width="420"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7FeFvHzibEE?hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7FeFvHzibEE?hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="420" height="308"></embed></object><br />
<br />
The Museo del Barrio of New York City celebrates the Three Kings Day Parade on January 6, 2011.<br />
The honorary kings are Lynda Baquero, WNBC Correspondent, Jesus "Papoleto" Melendez, poet and playwright and Julian Zugazagoitia, former Director of the Museo. Talent participating include Harlem Drummers, Trio Romanze, Children's Aid Society Choir and the Soul Tigers Marching Band.<br />
Part Two<br />
<object height="308" width="420"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5POb6Z8eQHE?hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5POb6Z8eQHE?hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="420" height="308"></embed></object><br />
From the Museo's booklet on Three Kings' Day:<br />
Although we usually take today‘s Christmas celebration customs for granted, most of the so-called ̳traditional‘ Christmas practices we are familiar with only date back to the 19th century in the United States. It was in the 4th century that the Roman Catholic Church adopted December 25 as the Christmas holiday, choosing a date that coincided with pagan festivals of the Winter solstice. Prior to this date, January 6 was the Christian day of celebration in many parts of Europe, including Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Even today, throughout Europe, the holiday celebration does not end until this date, marking the end of the ̳twelve days of Christmas‘ between Christmas and January 6. This is also often referred to as the Twelfth Day. In the United States, the holiday season for most ends after New Year‘s Day, however, for some Latinos the festivities continue throughout the months of January and early February. In some Latin American and Caribbean countries, Three Kings Day, or El Día de Reyes, is celebrated annually as one of the most joyous days of the holiday season. The day is also sometimes referred to as El Día de los Tres Reyes Magos or Day of the Three Wise Kings. Observed on January 6, it is recognized by Christians as the Epiphany, a feast day in the Anglican, Eastern, and Roman Catholic churches that commemorates the biblical story of the Three Kings who followed the star of Bethlehem to bring gifts for the infant Jesús. Like Christmas or Navidad, in some Spanish-speaking countries including Spain, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Mexico among others, Three Kings Day is a religious holiday that has become a popular, cultural event. Celebrated with music, singing, family gatherings, and the sharing of food, Three Kings Day is a holiday that conveys the spirit of giving. The tradition promotes a sense of community, and emphasizes diversity, sharing, and reciprocity.<br />
<br />
The Story of the Three Kings During the 1st century, astrologers, or seers of the future, foretold the advent of a divine king who was believed to be born God incarnate. Many argued about who would be the divine king as well as when and where he would arrive. The most commonly agreed prediction was that a child would be born and that he would be named Emmanuel, meaning ̳God is with us.‘ Astrologers predicted this child would bring peace and ultimately change the course of history. It is said that the Three Kings may have practiced astrology, and thus may have each seen this prediction forecast in the stars. The Kings are also known as the Three Wise Men or the Magi. Magi is plural for magus, a word that may refer to shaman or ̳wise man‘ and is the origin of the words magic and magician. In ancient Persian cultures, the magi were responsible for funerary and religious rites.<br />
According to the Gospel of Matthew (2:1–13), the only biblical account of the event, the Magi came from ―the East‖ to first visit Herod (appointed governor of Judea by the Roman Empire) in Jerusalem, asking him where the new King could be found. Herod, troubled by the news of a new king, sent them to Bethlehem, and asked that they return when they had found him. According to legend, in order to greet the infant Jesús, the Magi traveled over a long distance guided night and day by a brilliant star that shined in the sky. The legend states that the Star of Bethlehem was located directly overhead of the location where the infant Jesús was born. When they arrived, they appeared before the baby, and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.<br />
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During the holiday season, many Latin Americans and Latinos erect nativities, small or sometimes life-sized figures representing the scene of the birth of Jesús, in their homes, in Churches, and in public spaces. As the legend describes, the nativity scene, known in Spanish as el nacimiento, is usually set in a humble stable, with the figures of Mary and Joseph, as well as shepherds and their animals. The figure of the baby Jesús is added on December 25, the day he was thought to be born.<br />
In parts of Los Angeles, it is common to see nacimientos in front yards. Some residents include hundreds of animals and shepherds. Special tours of these nacimientos are now offered. Near Downtown L.A., along historic Olvera Street, a colorful and music-filled reenactment of the journey of the Three Kings is performed every year.<br />
In Mexico, Mary and Joseph‘s search for shelter is re-enacted during Las Posadas, a nine- day celebration between December 16 and Christmas Eve. During these special celebrations, a family may host a party at their home to welcome the arrival of a nativity procession. The family and shepherds seeking shelter, played by children, are followed by musicians and adults who sing carols outside the home. The event concludes with the sharing of traditional foods and the breaking of a piñata. Also in Mexico, pastorelas, or shepherds plays, are staged throughout the holidays by professional and amateur groups. These traditional, often improvised, theatrical presentations date back to Mexico's Colonial period, and tell the story of the shepherds‘ and Three Kings‘ journey to find the infant Jesús in Bethlehem. In some countries, a special celebration of the nativity is held on January 5, the Eve of Three Kings Day. This day is also referred to as La Vispera de Reyes. Children dress up as characters of the nativity and perform in plays or pageants that recount the story. On this day families also add the figures of the Three Kings to the nativity scene in their home or in public spaces. In some cases, like the Three Kings, visitors to the nativity bring gifts of money or food to offer the infant Jesús.<br />
The Origin and Iconography of the Three Kings In the story described in the Bible‘s Book of Matthew, the Three Kings are said to have come from the East. If they were traveling to Bethlehem, then it can be surmised that they came from either Asia or Africa. However, again generations recount the story in a myriad of ways. Christian depictions as early as the 6th century represent the Three Kings in Persian garb. In the 13th century, Marco Polo‘s writings refer to the Kings as having hailed from Persia or present-day Iran. Parts of this story as told today are attributed to another book written in the 14th century, History of the Three Kings, by the cleric John of Hildesheim, who states that the Kings hail from "Ind, Chaldea, and Persia,‖ referring to India, Babylon (or present day Iraq), and Iran. Still other accounts tell of each King having traveled from a different part of the world, specifically Europe, Africa and Asia. It is believed that this version of the story dramatizes the arrival of various nations from different continents into the Christian faith. A similar personal twist has been added to the story in Puerto Rico and other parts of Latin America, where the origin of the Three Kings is believed to represent the three dominant ancestries of the region: indigenous, African and European.<br />
Although the Bible‘s Book of Matthew does not specify the total number of kings that came to visit Jesús, nor their names or their specific places of origin, in the West, the Three Kings are widely recognized as Melchior, Caspar, and Balthasar. As the scripture mentions three gifts were offered, perhaps it was assumed that there were three kings.<br />
Eduardo Vera Cortéz Programa de Navidad, 1978 Silkscreen, 30 3/8 x 18 7/8 in (77.2 x 47.9 cm) Published by: División de Educación de la Comunidad (DivEdCo) Collection El Museo del Barrio, NY, W91.920.2<br />
Melchor (or Melchior) was known to have brought the gift of gold to Jesús. As one of the most precious metals, gold is a symbol of charity, suitably fit to be a gift bestowed for a king. In many accounts Melchor was an Arabic sultan or ruler. In Puerto Rico and other parts of Latin America he represents a Moor or Northern African. In this way, Melchor references the Moorish heritage of Spain since most of Spain was under Moorish rule for eight hundred years. This is still a similar representation as the Moors in Spain spoke Arabic. However in Puerto Rico he is represented with a dark brown complexion, thus representing not just Northern Africans, but the people of the whole continent of Africa. Melchor‘s feast day in the Catholic Church is January 7.<br />
Gaspar (also known as Caspar, Casper or Jasper) is usually represented as an emperor of the Orient. He is depicted as a youth of light complexion. Because of his young age he is seldom depicted with a beard. In some cases he is believed to be of Asian origin. Caspar is associated with the gift of frankincense. In Puerto Rico and other parts of Latin America, he is often represented with a bronze complexion and is believed to represent the indigenous heritage of Latin Americans. His<br />
feast day in the Catholic Church is January 6.<br />
In European accounts and in some Latin American<br />
countries, Balthasar (also known as Baltasar or Baltazar) is depicted as a Nubian prince from Ethiopia. For this reason he is represented as a man with a dark brown complexion. He is believed to have brought the gift of myrrh, a resin from trees native to Africa. As Ethiopia is regarded by some as the birthplace of Christianity, it is significant that this region of Africa is represented in the legend. However, considering that in Puerto Rico and some other Latin American countries, Melchor becomes the King to represent the continent of Africa, the significance of Balthasar changed to represent a king from the West, or rather a European king of a pale complexion. In this way, Balthasar in some parts of Latin America represents the European presence that arrived in the late 15th century. His feast day in the Catholic Church is<br />
January 8.<br />
The Gifts of the Three Kings Even though the Three Kings did not know who Jesús was, they predicted that a child who would become king was born in Bethlehem. To honor the infant, the Three Kings carried gifts fit to bestow a king. Legend states that the gifts consisted of gold, myrrh, and frankincense, brought as symbols of charity, hope and faith. Each of the Kings transported their gifts in ciboria, ornate containers or vessels. The Kings did not expect anything in return, other than the opportunity to meet this new baby king. This tradition is slightly different than what we associate with the holidays today as it does not represent a gift exchange. Additionally, the gifts offered by the Three Kings had a much more spiritual or symbolic value rather than a material value.<br />
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Many Christians believe that it was Melchor who brought the gift of gold to Jesús, although in some cases this gift is associated with Caspar. Gold is a precious metal that is widely coveted around the earth by different people. It is a symbol of royalty and was offered to Jesús to mark him as an ―earthly king.‖ According to the legend surrounding the holiday, at the time Jesús was born, King Herod learned that three wise men or Magi were searching for a newborn king. Feeling threatened he demanded that the Magi inform him of the baby king‘s whereabouts. Instead the Magi secretly left Bethlehem, never informing Herod of the baby they had just met. In retaliation, Herod ordered that all baby boys born in Bethlehem be killed. Jesús‘ family was instructed to flee to Egypt where he would be safe. It is believed that the gift of gold from the Three Kings financed the family‘s long trip to Egypt from Bethlehem.<br />
The gift of myrrh is usually associated with Balthasar. Although in the Puerto Rican community he is thought to be of European descent, elsewhere he is commonly viewed as a Nubian king from Ethiopia, a place where myrrh is of high importance and readily available. Myrrh is a type of resin that comes from the sap of a tree in Africa and is collected collected for the purpose of burning incense mostly. Myrrh is believed to have medicinal and spiritual properties. It is said that Jesús was offered the gift of myrrh because if he accepted it, then it would mark him as a healer. In biblical stories, the child did accept the myrrh and his short life was characterized by miraculous acts in which he was able to heal various people.<br />
In many places in Latin America, frankincense was thought to have been brought by King Caspar. In other places, frankincense is associated with King Balthasar. Similar to myrrh, frankincense is collected from the sap of a special tree. It is mostly found in Somalia, a country in North Africa that borders Ethiopia and Kenya, and from the Middle Eastern country of Arabia. In the time of Jesús and the Magi, kings were not necessarily crowned but were instead anointed with precious perfumed oils in a special ceremony. Frankincense has the same association to royalty as it was a precious scent used by important people such as kings and priests. As such, it was used by the Magi to anoint the new baby king. It is said that the gift of frankincense was brought with the intention that if the baby Jesús accepted it, it would mark him as a god. As incense, frankincense is still burned and associated with prayer in many churches throughout the world, including the Roman Catholic Church. Another use for frankincense was found among the Egyptians who burned the charred powder into kohl, a black substance they used to create the thick eyeliner seen in so many examples of Egyptian art.<br />
Today, many people in Latin America and the Caribbean and those of Latin American descent living in the United States, continue to follow the Three Kings‘ tradition. Most notably the traditions of gift giving, singing of aguinaldos (holiday carols), parrandas (door-to-door caroling), and the sharing of food and sweets embody the kind spirit of the Three Kings. Although some of these customs may vary slightly from place to place, the message of sharing with friends and family is a common theme that is celebrated in similar rich and festive ways.<br />
Mirroring the gifts offered by the Three Kings, many people in Puerto Rico, Mexico, and other Latin American and Caribbean countries exchange gifts or regalos on January 6. Although today many people have adopted the U.S. custom of exchanging gifts on Christmas Day, most still reserve a few gifts to open twelve days later on Three Kings‘ Day. Young children wait for this day with great anticipation, eagerly waiting to receive special gifts from ̳the kings‘ or their parents, families, and friends.<br />
In Puerto Rico, the spirit of benevolence is returned to the Kings as exemplified by the gifts offered by young children and their parents on the Eve of Three Kings Day. Given the island‘s tropical climate, the Puerto Rican tradition recognizes that the Kings rode horses instead of camels on their journey. In light of this, on the Eve of Three Kings Day, or La Vispera de Reyes, children gather grass, hay, and water and place it in shoeboxes under their beds to feed the Kings‘ horses. Some children also set out their shoes next to the boxes under the bed. Their parents often set out pastries or sweets for the Three Kings. On Three Kings Day morning, children discover the pastries and food left for the Kings and animals are gone. Instead, the food is replaced with gifts, candy, or nuts that the Kings have left for them. Similarly, in Mexico, children write letters to the Three Kings requesting special gifts analogous to the tradition of writing a letter to Santa Claus. On the Eve of Three Kings Day, children leave their shoes near their bed or window, often filling them with hay for the camels and horses. The next morning, when the children wake up, the hay is gone and the shoes are filled with gifts...<br />
For over 30 years, El Museo del Barrio has presented the Three Kings Day Parade on January 6, as well as other educational and public programming with the purpose of keeping the Three Kings traditions alive. Each year, El Museo‘s dynamic parade, led by the giant Three Kings puppets, winds through the streets of El Barrio and includes lively music, colorful costumes, animals, floats, and thousands of students and community members as participants. The parade route ends with a gift distribution for the children who have marched in the parade sponsored by generous donors. Leading up to the event, El Museo, along with a steering committee of community leaders nominates ―Three Kings‖ to preside over the Parade. Being chosen as a King is recognition for outstanding cultural or political achievements within the Latino communities of New York. These honorary Kings, along with selected madrinos and padrinos, (godmothers and godfathers) lead the parade through the streets of East Harlem, dressed in elaborate costumes that are cared for by the Museum. Over the years, El Museo has presented exhibitions in our galleries that feature artworks from the Museum‘s Permanent Collection associated with this holiday such santos de palo, hand-carved wooden statues created by master artisans as posters, posters from the División de Educación de la Comunidad (DIVEDCO) that celebrate the tradition of El Día de los Reyes, and the giant Three Kings puppets. During these three decades, El Museo has distinguished itself as the leading institution in New York City that celebrates and promotes the Three Kings Day tradition.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvflO8EA3mzxiN-nfd0dFp7DbCXOEqnn_CvziqOI0b006kj1IotA61XCNkG-7NmGuLOQlQFyqed_yy7d_yClaWlxAJiw_MhMsOnD7yqnrjfjpCmWUgdj6UY_uJJtzqJeke5gobZe19wm8W/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-01-08+at+3.44.32+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvflO8EA3mzxiN-nfd0dFp7DbCXOEqnn_CvziqOI0b006kj1IotA61XCNkG-7NmGuLOQlQFyqed_yy7d_yClaWlxAJiw_MhMsOnD7yqnrjfjpCmWUgdj6UY_uJJtzqJeke5gobZe19wm8W/s320/Screen+shot+2011-01-08+at+3.44.32+PM.png" width="320" /></a><br />
El Museo‘s Three Kings Day Puppets<br />
Our gigantic puppets are central to El Museo‘s annual Three Kings Parade. In 1978 when we created the parade, museum staff and artists contributed to producing its props and decorations. Our original puppets reflected the Three Kings Day legend and were used in over thirty performances in the cold winter weather. Popular Christian culture depicts the Three Kings arriving to Jerusalem to celebrate the birth of baby Jesus. According to legend, each king brought an offering that came from his respective homeland. King Gaspar brought incense from Asia; King Melchior brought gold from the Middle East; and King Balthazar brought myrrh from Africa.<br />
In our 33rd Annual Three Kings Day Parade, we welcomed our new generation of puppets created by El Museo‘s artist educator Polina Porras. This year, we are exhibiting these giant puppets, which will be part of our annual parade on January 6, 2011. These beautiful 12 feet tall creations are made of paper maché, color fabrics, and a carefully crafted structure that allows for graceful movement. To the traditional representation, the artist has added a new source and inspiration based on Taíno cosmological traditions. Melchior, who represents the night sky, has black and dark blue clothes and carries a present that symbolizes the celestial dome shaped in the form of a bat—which in Taíno tradition signifies the connection with the ancestors. Gaspar, who represents the connection between the celestial and the under worlds—which in Taíno tradition are connected by the Ceiba tree—wears green and brown clothes and carries as a present the base of a Ceiba tree trunk. Balthazar, who represents the underworld, wears light blue and turquoise clothes and carries as a present a seashell with a turtle coming out of it, which represents the birth of Taíno culture.<br />
The synergy of the Christian and Taíno traditions wonderfully embodied by our new puppets, perfectly synthesize the unique cultural mix that characterizes our community as well as El Museo del Barrio‘s mission.DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-11968510144852155312011-01-08T05:08:00.000-08:002011-01-08T09:47:44.805-08:00Victoria Sigue: English Version of Radio Victoria DocumentaryA small community radio station in El Salvador stands up to threats from death squads and rallies the community against violence and degradation of the environment.Part One: <embed src="http://blip.tv/play/AYKaqTYA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="380" height="280" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed><br />
Part Two:<br />
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-wrcH4CFR_c?hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-wrcH4CFR_c?hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="385" height="284"></embed></object>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-22260439344466467662011-01-02T19:26:00.000-08:002011-01-02T19:51:03.822-08:00Makeda of the World Beat Center Explains Kwanzaa to School Children<embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="263" src="http://blip.tv/play/gqxjgpesCQI%2Em4v" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420"></embed><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px;"><strong>MORE THAN 20 YEARS AGO,</strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px;">Makeda “Dread” Cheatom founded the <a href="http://www.worldbeatcenter.org/">WorldBeat Center (WBC</a>) in Balboa Park and began hosting the 91X Sunday-night</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px;"><em>Reggae Makossa</em></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px;">program. Her goal—fostering a broader appreciation of various cultures—resonates both locally and globally.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px;">Dedicated to presenting and preserving African and indigenous cultures, the WBC welcomes visitors of all ages with low-cost classes and presentations in dance, drumming and art, including classes for the developmentally disabled. Its Day of the Drum Global Music and Dance Festival is October 8. The center’s garden is a springboard for school projects in collaboration with local organic farmers and the Ocean Beach People’s Co-op....</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.worldbeatcenter.org/"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpDsQFiFOXdFF8fHWaJtclgasz_wzOPHDdTsfrz3PRbyUOY57tdo4tmGVMTpTd7oQa2V3-oJC8uQYYar9Dnq6LISz39zuYCNFyVfJWPlHSN1sOfRE9ebDXvCfSrDtrldIVcPrYj1K1_G2s/s320/Screen+shot+2011-01-02+at+10.34.37+PM.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px;"></span>Youth have a resounding place at the <a href="http://www.worldbeatcenter.org/">WBC</a>; they learn public relations skills, stage lighting and video, and they assist in producing shows. A teen group built its own sound studio at the center, which also has radio and TV stations, as well as a recording label.<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0px;">In 2005, Cheatom founded the Give a Hug Foundation after visiting an orphanage in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica. In addition to the orphanage, beneficiaries include Hurricane Katrina victims, a Burmese preschool in Thailand, refugees in Ghana, a library in Costa Chica, Mexico, and a cultural center in Peru.“Helping others makes me less greedy,” Cheatom says. “People should try it; it’s a good antidote. You’re supported by a sacred energy. We’re taught that happiness is outside, in acquiring. Be still and look at what’s inside.”................<i>from the San Diego Magazine</i></div>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-55275880290510213592011-01-02T10:08:00.000-08:002011-01-02T10:12:53.299-08:00Art of Resistance in Haiti<object height="305" width="420"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/iXSa9IF-X4Y?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iXSa9IF-X4Y?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="420" height="305"></embed></object><br />
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<tr><td style="color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding-bottom: 0pt; padding-left: 0pt; padding-right: 0pt; padding-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">AS IF Gallery is proud to present the art works of the children's group, Ti Moun Rezistans, whose studio is at the Atis Rezistans art school in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Complementing the children's work will be a small selection of Daniel Morel's iconic photographs of the children and their surroundings in the throws of the Haitian earthquake which took place in January, 2010. Also included is <i>Les Indiens</i>, a large-format photograph by Phyllis Galembo, depicting four children in contemporary ritual costumes from the Jacmel Carnival in Haiti in the decade before the island's devastation.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">On January 12th, 2010, Daniel Morel was busy photographing the artwork of the children of the Atis Rezistans in the courtyard of their school in Port-au-Prince when the historic 7.0 earthquake struck. His pictures of the moments just before and after the devastation became the most widely distributed and iconic images of that disaster. But the passage of these photographs to global prominence was far from smooth. As powerful aftershocks rocked the city, Morel made his way along the shattered Grande Rue to the still standing Oloffson Hotel, photographing the wreckage and pandemonium that he witnessed en route. At the hotel Morel connected to the internet, created a web account, and directly uploaded his pictures to facilitate their instant dissemination to news media and wire services worldwide. Morel hoped to show the unimaginable scope of the destruction even as it was occurring, so that the task of organizing aid could begin without delay. His staggering pictures of flattened structures and shocked, dust-covered survivors appeared throughout the world within hours, and came to define the Haitian disaster as it was unfolding.</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRzP0aiKsemyhdMV8PTR-CtiMrSD9UnUcN7yYWX0c-5MeiVPiVsFM-_u5sgocT38SASr6NWuGC66vdrMDF-k0h2hmG6A2K4Md_O6gj0NTOW74gKIr7DV4L-w82wCVmLXZW85bqCzvR48xe/s1600/jpeg.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRzP0aiKsemyhdMV8PTR-CtiMrSD9UnUcN7yYWX0c-5MeiVPiVsFM-_u5sgocT38SASr6NWuGC66vdrMDF-k0h2hmG6A2K4Md_O6gj0NTOW74gKIr7DV4L-w82wCVmLXZW85bqCzvR48xe/s320/jpeg.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Daniel Morel, <i>Ti Moun Rezistans at Atis Rezistans Art School, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, </i>January 12, 2010, C-print</span></div><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Ti Moun Rezistans</b> is the name of a Haitian children's group in Port-au-Prince who study art with the more established members of the <b>Atis Rezistans</b> collective, also known as the Grand Rue Sculptors. Atis Rezistans was founded in 2000 by the artists Jean Hérard Celeur and André Eugène, and set up at the south end the Grande Rue, in a close-knit neighborhood where traditional handicraft workshops are hemmed in by car repair outfits, scrap metal dealers, and junkyards. Over the last decade the Grand Rue Sculptors have exhibited their work throughout the world to considerable acclaim. "Their powerful sculptural assemblages made from engine manifolds, TV sets, wheel hubcaps and discarded lumber have transformed the detritus of a failing economy into bold and radical sculpture. They reference a shared African/Haitian cultural heritage, a dystopian sci-fi view of the future and the transformative act of assemblage." (Atis-rezistance website) </span></span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Ti Moun Rezistans was established to expand the horizons, powers of expression, and most importantly, the earning capacity of the impoverished children of Port-au-Prince. The children of </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Ti Moun have also exhibited their artworks widely and sell them directly through their own email addresses, websites and in person at the Atis Rezistans studio in Port-au-Prince. </span><br />
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</div>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-77288952694028542892011-01-01T07:01:00.000-08:002011-01-01T07:31:18.329-08:00Youth Group in Afghanistan Reaches Out for Peace<object height="305" width="420"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/FEmYMqADskA?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FEmYMqADskA?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="420" height="305"></embed></object><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19px;">For the last several years, a group of young Afghani’s in the Bamyan province of Afghanistan have been on “Our Journey To Smile” (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog/" style="color: #7da939; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog/</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19px;">). This journey to smile is their effort to bring about peaceful nonviolent solutions to conflicts in Afghanistan using the principles taught by Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and others.</span>object height="305" width="420"><br />
<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OSjKrYDmBmk?fs=1&hl=en_US" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="305" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OSjKrYDmBmk?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420"></embed>Afghanistan – The People’s<br />
<h1 style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 22px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 10px;"><a href="http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog/2010/12/afghanistan-the-people%e2%80%99s-december-review/" rel="bookmark" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 22px; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 10px; text-decoration: none;">Afghanistan – The People’s December Review</a></h1><div class="date" style="color: #333333; float: left; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px; width: 590px;"><div class="dateleft" style="float: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: 380px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="time" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: url(http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog/wp-content/themes/church_30/images/icon_time.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">December 27, 2010</span> by <a href="http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog/author/" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;" title="Posts by "></a> <br />
Filed under <a href="http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog/category/our-journey-to-smile/" rel="category tag" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;" title="View all posts in Journey Updates">Journey Updates</a></div></div><div class="dateright" style="float: right; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: right; width: 200px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="icomment" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: url(http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog/wp-content/themes/church_30/images/icon_comments.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 18px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog/2010/12/afghanistan-the-people%e2%80%99s-december-review/#comments" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">Leave a Comment</a></span></div></div></div><div style="clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px;"></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong>Afghanistan</strong><strong> – The People’s December Review</strong></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong>December 25, 2010</strong></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong><img alt="abdulais-love" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1572" height="225" src="http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/abdulais-love-300x225.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="abdulais-love" width="300" /></strong></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong><em>Abdulai</em></strong></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><strong><em></em></strong></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong><em></em></strong></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong><em></em></strong></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong><em></em></strong></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px;"><strong><em><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong>Afghanistan</strong><strong> – The People’s December Review</strong></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong>December 25, 2010</strong><strong></strong></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong><span lang="EN-US"></span></strong></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><em>In the first person voice of Abdulai, a fifteen year old Afghan boy whose father was killed by the Taliban:</em></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><em></em></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><em>“The place where I live is the worst place on earth in which to be born<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[1]</span></strong></span></span></span></a>. Good thing my mother survived her pregnancies<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[2]</span></strong></span></span></span></a>. But my father — he didn’t survive the war. Isn’t it strange that there is a graveyard marked out especially for children in my small remote mountain village? A quarter of all children do not live beyond five years of age<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[3]</span></strong></span></span></span></a> and they are buried there; we already have to find new space because the graveyard is filled. As 42 percent of Afghans live in poverty<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[4]</span></strong></span></span></span></a>, my family could not afford a proper grave for my father for five years. My father would have understood our predicament: in a land with the worst food risk in the world<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[5]</span></strong></span></span></span></a>, we make do with whatever food and clean water<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn6" name="_ednref6" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[6]</span></strong></span></span></span></a> we can get. Since we don’t have electricity<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn7" name="_ednref7" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[7]</span></strong></span></span></span></a>, we are grateful for diesel lamps. And most importantly, my father would have understood that we still struggle to stay away from the killings.</em></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><em></em></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><em>Since War World II, wars have killed mainly civilians<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn8" name="_ednref8" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[8]</span></strong></span></span></span></a> and this war in </em><em>Afghanistan</em><em> is no exception. In fact, we now have nowhere to turn<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn9" name="_ednref9" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[9]</span></strong></span></span></span></a> and nowhere to hide<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn10" name="_ednref10" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[10]</span></strong></span></span></span></a>. We face night raids<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn11" name="_ednref11" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[11]</span></strong></span></span></span></a>, computerized aerial bombings<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn12" name="_ednref12" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[12]</span></strong></span></span></span></a> and the armed players who neither recognize our language nor our faces.</em></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><em></em></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><em>Many of our families and friends have sought refuge in far-away places<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn13" name="_ednref13" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[13]</span></strong></span></span></span></a>. What can our people do? Wait to die of sickness or violence? Be pawns in the warlords’ games? I made hand-sewn leather cell-phone peace pouches for our ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ in Kandahar and I know that before the NATO commander had launched the current offensive there, 94% of Kandaharis said they wanted peace talks<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn14" name="_ednref14" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[14]</span></strong></span></span></span></a>, not war. But the US led coalition went ahead and launched its deadly military operation. They proved their utterly un-democratic, unimaginative addiction to an unchanging military solution.</em></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><em></em></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><em>Karzai said that more than 42 percent of children in Afghanistan still have no access to schooling<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn15" name="_ednref15" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[15]</span></strong></span></span></span></a>: at least, that’s not as fatal as the three children killed daily in the conflict last year<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn16" name="_ednref16" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[16]</span></strong></span></span></span></a>. If you don’t grasp how the Afghan state is the third most corrupt in the world<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn17" name="_ednref17" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[17]</span></strong></span></span></span></a>, come take our school exams to experience the rampant bribery and cheating this war encourages. Like other war-torn countries, the influx of weapons and un-accounted monetary aid fosters corruption, fuelling deceit at all levels of our society.</em></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><em></em></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><em>Drugs made from poppies grown in our country are everywhere, with more than a million drug addicts in country<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn18" name="_ednref18" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[18]</span></strong></span></span></span></a>. Perhaps, being doped is better than putting up with our sheer lack of work and recourse to government services or justice. Last year, estimates are that we Afghans had to pay $2.49 billion dollars in bribes to our own government officials<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn19" name="_ednref19" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[19]</span></strong></span></span></span></a>, which is equivalent to 23% of our country’s </em><em>GDP</em><em>.</em></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><em></em></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><em>But heck it….we don’t even want your money! Two billion of which you spend on the military weekly<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn20" name="_ednref20" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[20]</span></strong></span></span></span></a>and the remaining dirty trickle cannot even be accounted for by your Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (</em><em>SIGA</em><em>R)<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn21" name="_ednref21" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[21]</span></strong></span></span></span></a>.</em></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><em></em></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><em>My mother and sister say to you that you can forget about promoting ‘women’s rights’ with your uniformed pride. Last year, there were 2300 suicides related to depression among women and girls<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn22" name="_ednref22" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[22]</span></strong></span></span></span></a>. And don’t ever claim that a military strategy can stop them from taking their lives. Neither the US-NATO coalition nor our warlords can, with their violence, stop the desperation of our people. In fact, like the people caught in the </em><em>Helmand</em><em> operation that was declared a success, the women of </em><em>Afghanistan</em><em> want you, with full responsibility, to transition out as soon as possible<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn23" name="_ednref23" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[23]</span></strong></span></span></span></a>.</em></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><em></em></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><em>President Obama, please completely rethink the ‘progress’ you declared in the December review<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn24" name="_ednref24" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[24]</span></strong></span></span></span></a>. To Ms. Hillary Clinton and Mr Robert Gates, we’re sorry for your dismissal of world public opinion<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn25" name="_ednref25" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[25]</span></strong></span></span></span></a>. Now, get ready for its flood!<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_edn26" name="_ednref26" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><strong><span>[26]</span></strong></span></span></span></a></em></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><em></em></div><div><hr size="1" /><div id="edn1"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[1]</span></span></span></span></a> In 2010, Afghanistan had the <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">3rd highest infant mortality in the world</a> . In 2009, UNICEF declared Afghanistan the <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN19176443" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">worst place on earth to be born in</a>.<span lang="EN-US"></span></div></div><div id="edn2"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[2]</span></span></span></span></a> In 2010, Afghanistan had the <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">2nd highest maternal mortality in the world</a>.<span lang="EN-US"></span></div></div><div id="edn3"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[3]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span> In 2010, </span><span>Afghanistan</span><span>’s <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">under-five mortality was 275 per 1,000 live births</a></span></div></div><div id="edn4"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[4]</span></span></span></span></a> <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">42 percent of Afghans are living in poverty</a><span lang="EN-US"></span></div></div><div id="edn5"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[5]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span> </span><span>Afghanistan</span><span> tops the list of 163 countries which face the <a href="http://www.maplecroft.com/about/news/food-security.html" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">risk of food shortages</a> in the “food security risk index” compiled by global analysts Maplecroft.</span></div></div><div id="edn6"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref6" name="_edn6" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[6]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span> <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">Over half of Afghans do not have access to safe drinking water.</a><span></span></span></div></div><div id="edn7"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref7" name="_edn7" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[7]</span></span></span></span></a> <a href="http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia/countries/afghanistan/" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">15 percent of Afghans currently have access to electricity</a><span lang="EN-US"></span></div></div><div id="edn8"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref8" name="_edn8" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[8]</span></span></span></span></a> <a href="http://www.watac.net/docs/resources/Joan%20Chittister%20-%20Women%20Power%20and%20Peace.pdf" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">From 65% civilians in World War I to 90% civilians today</a><span lang="EN-US"></span></div></div><div id="edn9"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref9" name="_edn9" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[9]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span> <span lang="EN">Call by 29 NGOs to end night raids and the stop the Afghan Local Police program in </span><span lang="EN">“<a href="http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/policy/conflict_disasters/nowhere-to-turn-afghanistan.html%20" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Nowhere to Turn</a>”.<span></span></span></span></div></div><div id="edn10"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref10" name="_edn10" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[10]</span></span></span></span></a> <a href="http://www.nextgadgets.net/nowhere-to-run-nowhere-to-hide-xm-25-laser-guided-grenade-launcher-now-in-use/" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">The new XM25 weapon that’s touted as leaving ‘enemies’ with nowhere to turn and nowhere to hide</a><span lang="EN-US"></span></div></div><div id="edn11"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref11" name="_edn11" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[11]</span></span></span></span></a> <span lang="EN">Gen. David Petraeus released totals for the alleged </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.truth-out.org/doubling-special-operations-forces-night-raids-backfired-kandahar63294" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">results of nearly 3,000 “night raids”</a> </span><span lang="EN">by Special Operations Forces (SOF) units over the 90 days from May through July</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div></div><div id="edn12"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref12" name="_edn12" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[12]</span></span></span></span></a> Up till December, coalition aircraft have used <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-as-afghanistan-air-power,0,5407810.story" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">4,615 bombs and Hellfire missiles</a> in 2010. Every Hellfire missile fired in Afghanistan costs USD58,000.<span lang="EN-US"></span></div></div><div id="edn13"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref13" name="_edn13" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[13]</span></span></span></span></a> See UNHCR figures on <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/page?page=49e486eb6" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">Afghan refugees</a><span lang="EN-US"></span></div></div><div id="edn14"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref14" name="_edn14" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[14]</span></span></span></span></a> Read <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/04/19" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">Ninety-Four Percent of Kandaharis Want Peace Talks, Not War</a><span lang="EN-US"></span></div></div><div id="edn15"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref15" name="_edn15" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[15]</span></span></span></span></a> Read <span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_498869.html" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">42 per cent still do not attend or have access to schools, Karzai said</a></span></div></div><div id="edn16"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref16" name="_edn16" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[16]</span></span></span></span></a> Read <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/01/07" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">Afghan War kills 3 children per day</a><span lang="EN-US"></span></div></div><div id="edn17"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref17" name="_edn17" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[17]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span> Transparency International, a Berlin-based corruption watchdog, ranks <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11625623" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">Afghanistan the third most corrupt state </a><span></span>in the world in 2010.</span></div></div><div id="edn18"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref18" name="_edn18" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[18]</span></span></span></span></a> <span lang="EN-US">United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report found that around <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j7PYiYzBFkt0XCtImz5Yaz2BU0yQ" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">one million people in the country aged 15 to 64 had drug addictions</a></span></div></div><div id="edn19"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref19" name="_edn19" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[19]</span></span></span></span></a> <span lang="EN">A UN report said that </span>in 2009, Afghan citizens had to pay approximately <a href="http://www.aolnews.com/2010/08/26/corruption-tie-in-afghanistan-has-echoes-of-cias-past/" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">$2.49 billion in bribes</a>,<span lang="EN-US"></span></div></div><div id="edn20"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref20" name="_edn20" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[20]</span></span></span></span></a> <span>The annual cost of the war is <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BC2DQ20101213" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">$113 billion</a></span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div></div><div id="edn21"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref21" name="_edn21" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[21]</span></span></span></span></a> <span lang="EN">Special Inspector for Afghanistan Reconstruction (</span><span lang="EN">SIGA</span><span lang="EN">R) Arnold Fields had to say:”It is outrageous that </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/18/arnold-fields-afghanistan-watchdog-_n_785345.html" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">the US government can’t even determine the amount we pay</a> <span lang="EN">to support Afghan government employees or how many people are paid</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div></div><div id="edn22"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref22" name="_edn22" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[22]</span></span></span></span></a> <span lang="EN-US">The advisor of the president of </span><span lang="EN-US">Afghanistan</span><span lang="EN-US"> in health matters estimates that each year <a href="http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2010/07/31/2300-women-and-girls-commit-suicide-in-afghanistan-each-year.html" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">2300 Afghan women and girls commit suicide</a></span></div></div><div id="edn23"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref23" name="_edn23" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[23]</span></span></span></span></a> <span lang="EN-US">See <a href="http://www.nd.edu/~jfallon2/WomenAfghanistanReport.pdf" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">Afghan Women Speak</a> by David Cortright of </span>Kroc Institute<span lang="EN-US"></span></div></div><div id="edn24"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref24" name="_edn24" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[24]</span></span></span></span></a> Read <span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/12/16/statement-president-afghanistan-pakistan-annual-review" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">President Obama’s Afghanistan December Review</a></span></div></div><div id="edn25"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref25" name="_edn25" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[25]</span></span></span></span></a> <span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_public_opinion_on_the_war_in_Afghanistan" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">International public opinion is largely opposed to the war in Afghanistan</a></span></div></div><div id="edn26"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wee%20Teck%20Young/Documents/Hakim's%20documents/Our%20Journey%20to%20Smile%20web-site/OJTS%20world%20struggle/Dear%20Afghanistan/Afghanistan%20-%20Abdulai's%20December%20Review.doc#_ednref26" name="_edn26" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span>[26]</span></span></span></span></a> <span><span></span></span><span><span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=170192483018286&num_event_invites=0" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span><span>See “Dear Afghanistan” Campaign for a 2011<span> </span>New Year’s Day call to Peace</span></span></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span><span><img alt="the-people-raise-their-voices" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1573" height="225" src="http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/the-people-raise-their-voices-300x225.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="the-people-raise-their-voices" width="300" /></span></span></div><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span><span>The People raise their Voices</span></span></div><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">This People’s December Review sought to speak from the ‘hearts and minds’ of ordinary Afghan people, commoners who share the same pain experienced by the impoverished and unheard masses everywhere.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">It is a reflection of life as it really is for the people of Afghanistan.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The world should listen.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The people of the world should be listening to one another, because governments are not.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/12/16/statement-president-afghanistan-pakistan-annual-review" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">President Obama declared in his administration’s December Review</a> that there was ‘significant progress’ for </span><span lang="EN-US">America</span><span lang="EN-US">’s goals in </span><span lang="EN-US">Afghanistan</span><span lang="EN-US">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US">He claimed to be ‘on track.’</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US">But, Abdulai’s </span>People’s December Review <span lang="EN-US">shows how far off-track Obama is from the people’s concerns and how </span><span lang="EN-US">U.S.</span><span lang="EN-US"> foreign policy gives no alternative options for any citizen.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US">There ARE alternative options and views, a small number of which we’ve listed below, starting off with Prof. Noam Chomsky’s views expressed in the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers’ recent conversation with him.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US">In the bigger scheme of history, for too long now, the strategies for resolving global conflicts have been built predominantly around military force.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US">Soul-force must be given a chance.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US"><img alt="what-do-the-people-want1" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1575" height="225" src="http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/what-do-the-people-want1-300x225.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="what-do-the-people-want1" width="300" />What do the people want?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span lang="EN-US">A Sample of Alternative December Reviews</span></span></strong></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US"></span><strong><em></em></strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong><em></em></strong></div><strong><em><div><div id="edn26"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span lang="EN-US">Excerpts of interview with Prof Noam Chomsky</span></span></strong></div></div></div></em></strong><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong><em><span lang="EN-US">In a conversation with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers on </span></em></strong><strong><em><span lang="EN-US">the 17<sup>th</sup> of December 2010</span></em></strong><strong><em><span lang="EN-US"> for The People’s December Review.</span></em></strong></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span lang="EN-US"><span></span></span></span></strong></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong>On Obama’s claims of ‘significant progress’</strong></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">…it’s worth noting that a few days ago the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/world/asia/16redcross.html" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">International Commission of the Red Cross </a><span></span>released a report which is extremely unusual for them, -they rarely do it,- in which they said that the situation on the ground has deteriorated radically. They gave particulars and said it’s now far worse than it’s been in the past. They’re actually working there and have experience. Plainly that’s not consistent with the picture of progress.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong>On self-determination by the people</strong></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">I know for me at least and the people I work with in the antiwar movement the goal for Afghanistan would be for Afghans themselves to take over the planning, the determination of what will happen ,so that there won’t be a review conference in Washington where they have their own goals, –the welfare of the people of Afghanistan is not high among them,– but rather the decisions will be made by people like you and others in Afghanistan who have the fate of your country and your lives at heart and people of the US here should support your efforts in whatever way we can.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">….But there is extensive study that demonstrates that there is a very wide gap between the decisions of the government and the will of the population. That’s true on domestic issues.<span> </span>It’s true on international issues, and it reflects the fact that though the U.S. is an unusually free country by comparative standards, it’s only in a very limited way a functioning democracy.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Power does not lie in the hands of the population except in a very limited way and popular opinion does not determine policy.<span> </span>And that’s in fact one of the reasons why there’s such hysteria over the leaks of government documents.<span> </span>Anyone who has studied secret<span> </span>documents for many years, as I have, knows<span></span>one of their main purposes is to protect the government from the population, not security, but just keeping the public controlled and obedient.<span> </span>That’s a battle that has to be constantly fought in the more free societies as well to try to overcome this dysfunctional element of formal democracy which keeps it from functioning properly. Popular movements have in the past and should in this case too integrate themselves with those of other countries and form a common force, often against their own governments.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong>On reparations</strong></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Afghanistan has a very dramatic, important history of independence, but for the last thirty years it has simply been a plaything of the great powers which have virtually destroyed it. All of them. All of the ones who were involved owe Afghanistan not aid but reparations. Apology and reparations. That includes Russia, of course, and certainly the United States and it also includes Pakistan. Aid sounds like something we give out of our good nature or good will. Reparation means what we are responsible for providing because of the extreme damage we have caused.<span> </span>And yes, that‘s a very important demand.<span> </span>It should be made here and should be made in Afghanistan.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong>On the question of </strong><strong>U.S.</strong><strong> intentions in </strong><strong>Afghanistan</strong><strong>: eventual withdrawal or permanent presence?</strong></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">At this point, I think it’s not unlikely that even just for domestic, political reasons, the U.S. will try to find a way to withdraw most of its forces and try to portray it as some kind a victory.<span> </span>That’s for domestic reasons.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">But, I don’t think that’s what should concern us.<span> </span>We’re not concerned with making officials in Washington look good to their associates.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">We should be concerned with what matters for the people of Afghanistan. And that’s of course for you and others like you to decide. <span></span>Success, I would understand as meaning success in achieving your aims, not Washington’s aims.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong>On what Afghan and international peace activists should focus on</strong></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">What Afghans should focus on is finding ways to join together to formulate their own ideas and plans as to the course of policy, internal to Afghanistan, and their demands on other countries that are engaged in Afghanistan.<span> </span>That means primarily the US but also others that are involved.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Afghans should formulate those goals and policies<span> </span>jointly with people in the rest of the world, in particular in the United States that work to support those plans, so the activists in the United States should be and to an extent are waiting to hear from people of Afghanistan. What do you want us to do?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="the-people-look-for-alternative-solutions-to-their-floods" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1576" height="225" src="http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/the-people-look-for-alternative-solutions-to-their-floods-300x225.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="the-people-look-for-alternative-solutions-to-their-floods" width="300" /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center;">The People look for alternative solutions</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center;">to their ‘floods’</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span lang="EN-US">A Sample of Alternative December Reviews</span></span></strong></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span><strong><em>“So what’s my option?” the president asked his war cabinet, seeking alternatives…</em></strong></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span><strong><em>You have essentially given me one option. …It’s unacceptable.”</em></strong></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span><strong><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span>Obama’s Wars</span></span><span>, Bob Woodward</span></em></strong></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span><span></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US">“Why not talks?”</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US">“Why not reconciliation?”</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US">“Why not non-violence?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong><span lang="EN-US">1. World Public Opinion Polls</span></strong></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_public_opinion_on_the_war_in_Afghanistan" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">International public opinion is largely opposed to the war in Afghanistan</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US">The latest ABC polls show that <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/abc-news-washington-post-poll-exclusive-afghanistan-war/story?id=12404367" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">60 % of Americans think that the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting</a>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US">An earlier ABC/Washington Post Poll showed that <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Afghanistan/afghanistan-poll-things-stand-2010/story?id=12277743" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">Afghans have turned more negative in their assessment of the presence and performance of U.S. and NATO forces</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates tried to belittle this significant public opinion. Read <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/16/secretaries-clinton-gates-low-public-support-afghanistan-respond_n_797708.html" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">how they dismissed public opinion and democracy.</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong><span lang="EN-US">2. Letter from Afghan Experts to Barack Obama</span></strong></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/8199676/The-letter-from-Afghan-experts-to-Barack-Obama.html" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">Read how these Afghan Experts call Obama’s strategy unsustainable</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong>3. <span lang="EN-US">National Intelligence Estimates NIE</span></strong></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/15/world/la-fg-afghan-review-20101215" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">Read how 2 new NIE reports cast doubts on the Afghan war progress</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong><span lang="EN-US">4. Other Studies/Reports</span></strong></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.afghanistanstudygroup.org/NewWayForward_report.pdf" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">A New Way Forward: Rethinking US Strategy in Afghanistan</a> published by Washington-based Afghan Study Group</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.iiss.org/publications/strategic-survey/strategic-survey-2010/" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;">“Strategic Survey 2010″ </a><span></span>released by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Both studies above conclude that “a Taliban takeover is unlikely even if Washington reduces its military commitment” in Afghanistan, in good measure because the conditions that allowed the first Taliban takeover in the 1990s no longer exist and can’t easily be repeated. As important, “there [are] no significant Al Qaeda presence in Afghanistan today, and the risk of a new ‘safe haven’ there under more ‘friendly’ Taliban rule is overstated.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span><a href="http://www.nd.edu/~jfallon2/WomenAfghanistanReport.pdf" style="color: #a91b33; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Afghan Women Speak</a> </span><span lang="EN-US">by David Cortright of </span>Kroc Institute which expresses Afghan women’s recommendations to the US and NATO governments for a responsible withdrawal.</div><div><br />
</div></div></div></em></strong></span>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-59030626841008678112010-12-29T20:50:00.000-08:002010-12-29T20:56:57.631-08:00Oregon reservation radio shows power of tiny station<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaNsCP_eDiZFUojmwat66yZgA3KPmE1LJ1ormvS7SQwQXKj1W5USWDA7Z9DVxwLag_19DB2R7kj7wKDAL6AAARPYS-PfIL5kCkPzd5j6lwdUaW0c7wXGrAnCbAzcAxM8TwA1kVMtt9_0Uz/s1600/basketball+broadcast+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaNsCP_eDiZFUojmwat66yZgA3KPmE1LJ1ormvS7SQwQXKj1W5USWDA7Z9DVxwLag_19DB2R7kj7wKDAL6AAARPYS-PfIL5kCkPzd5j6lwdUaW0c7wXGrAnCbAzcAxM8TwA1kVMtt9_0Uz/s320/basketball+broadcast+2.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #293546; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444e5c; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.kcuwradio.org/">http://www.kcuwradio.org/</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #293546; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444e5c; font-weight: normal;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #293546; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444e5c; font-weight: normal;">Dec. 29, 2010, 3:19 p.m. PST </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #293546; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444e5c; font-weight: normal;">Associated Press </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444e5c; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">PENDLETON, Ore. (AP) — One of Bill Young's earliest memories is listening to Elsie Conner tell him stories about Coyote as he fell asleep. As an adult, he held that memory dear, even though he couldn't remember the stories themselves.</span><br />
<div class="story" style="clear: both; color: #444e5c; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 20px;"><div id="Main"><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 9px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Now he is revitalizing those stories by reading them on the airwaves. Sunday through Thursday, between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., Young's voice goes out on 104.5 FM to the Umatilla Indian Reservation. He reads stories by well-known authors, with their permission. "I feel like I'm saying goodnight to all my neighbors," Young said.</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 9px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Though Young has just started his show it's been on air for about eight weeks he hopes to build a library of stories that can be broadcast over and over, repeating the oral tradition via the radio waves. The show, called "Good Night Rez," is one of many broadcast on KCUW, the low-power FM radio station of the reservation. Its signal stretches from near Wildhorse Resort & Casino almost to Highway 11. Sometimes it can be heard as far west as the Pendleton city limits and, on a good day, as far east as Cabbage Hill.</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 9px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The signal is powered with 100 watts, about the same as a bright light bulb. It is centered in a back office of the tribal public safety building on Ti'mine Way, near the large Nixyaawii Governance Center. Along with Young's show, the station broadcasts national shows and shows produced by local volunteers with a love for music, storytelling and community. Now, more places across the nation will have the opportunity to serve their communities as KCUW does.</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 9px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh27DbbdKwk97hZ5sXQyKdOc2HBw27qFpqSsi6tgUrD8uvsdNuInJcuI7JLN4igYWd6Vzx2d2-mYp1-sfSfgt33gm4TGFH0O9RKtLPmBIA-hITYgc-psE7QZlYtFao4KxVoUp5b7Dx6ioW/s1600/MJ+at+KCUW.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh27DbbdKwk97hZ5sXQyKdOc2HBw27qFpqSsi6tgUrD8uvsdNuInJcuI7JLN4igYWd6Vzx2d2-mYp1-sfSfgt33gm4TGFH0O9RKtLPmBIA-hITYgc-psE7QZlYtFao4KxVoUp5b7Dx6ioW/s320/MJ+at+KCUW.jpg" width="320" /></a>The U.S. House and Senate recently passed the Local Community Radio Act. It now awaits the president's signature. The bill will allow for more stations like KCUW to get licensed and serve their local communities The Prometheus Radio Project, which helped start KCUW in 2004, was a big proponent of the bill.</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 9px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"A town without a community radio station is like a town without a library," Pete Tridish with Prometheus said in an announcement on the group's website. "Many a small town dreamer has successfully launched a low-power station, and built these tiny channels into vibrant town institutions that spotlight school board elections, breathe life into the local music scene, allow people to communicate in their native languages, and give youth an outlet to speak."</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 9px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">KCUW DJs Daisy Minthorn and Cindy Halfmoon both said they wouldn't be able to be involved with radio if it wasn't for KCUW. Young admitted he would likely be involved in radio in some way, but KCUW offers him the freedom to do what he loves. And it's that freedom that makes KCUW unique.</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 9px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Minthorn hosts The Quiet Storm, an R&B show allowing her to indulge in her favorite music. "I love it," Minthorn said. "I just like music new stuff that's just come out, comparing it to older stuff. Mix it up, basically." Minthorn grew up making mix tapes and giving them to friends. Developing a radio show was a "natural step" forward.</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 9px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Minthorn comes off as a quiet person, speaking softly. She said it took a few months before she felt confident enough to add commentary to her music show. She's gotten more and more bold and now takes requests via Facebook. She usually makes up her playlist a few days before the show. It is also a nice break from her day job in the tribal housing department and serving on the Nixyaawii school board. It gives her time to relax and do something different.</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 9px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy9ZuZekYPdN3ApcTMv83Btk-tGoWtzsDomQa28Z_Y1-tVAVzrXC6VVyyZIxnK1SgNzt5PIBbwVdMfMd5inb0igvfIRlEUAn1hirUEG_9isf9kd5OIqaRI8QD19rLeJaWUwD0k_zR7CY8U/s1600/CH+at+KCUW.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy9ZuZekYPdN3ApcTMv83Btk-tGoWtzsDomQa28Z_Y1-tVAVzrXC6VVyyZIxnK1SgNzt5PIBbwVdMfMd5inb0igvfIRlEUAn1hirUEG_9isf9kd5OIqaRI8QD19rLeJaWUwD0k_zR7CY8U/s320/CH+at+KCUW.jpg" width="320" /></a>Cindy Halfmoon said she looks forward to working on her show, "C-Bear Revivals," every week. "It's a lot like exercise" Halfmoon said. "You put it off, but when you get in here it feels good." Unlike Minthorn's show, Halfmoon mixes music and talk to tackle serious topics such as suicide prevention, gang awareness, depression and breast cancer. She also looks into timely subjects such as elections or honoring veterans.</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 9px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"I see topics on the news and bring them up if they're relevant to the community in how it affects the reservation," Halfmoon said. "I don't think I'll ever run out of ideas." She pairs these discussions with music that runs with the theme.</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 9px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"There's a song for every occasion," Halfmoon said =. Aside from the fun of hosting a show, Halfmoon revels in the opportunity to help her community. "I've been a taker all my life," she said. "It feels good to be a giver."</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 9px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Young enjoys that same sense of community when he reads stories about Coyote. They are old lessons. Lessons that don't have to do with modern life, like work and business. It teaches the importance of a secure family, of having a good hunt, of being prepared for winter.</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 9px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"It allows us to live in another view of the world," he said.</div></div></div>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-13743149300062547552010-12-22T20:42:00.000-08:002010-12-22T20:52:37.680-08:00Louis Tabing excerpt from Interview Article in Communication Initiative<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: navy; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><b style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: navy; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal;">Louie Tabing is the founder of the Tambuli Radio Project, and the subsequent Tambuli Foundation, created to sustain the growth of community radio in the Philippines. <a href="http://www.comminit.com/en/node/149478/306">Louie spoke with Deborah Heimann</a> in Managua, Nicaragua during the VIII International Communication for Development Roundtable.</span></b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigi86SEvwry4uljvK51I_09EpqxP1vQ5rKyTEkNxvR3aeB1NGlu2GXuh5M1HZ4pAxWIdS8MQb-2ipDdviU1KnRgfnC8ZvDpXh8pYWjfIwjKxoTo0__XoTFYbC7ZYtRuRxmzHACmcf9fHug/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigi86SEvwry4uljvK51I_09EpqxP1vQ5rKyTEkNxvR3aeB1NGlu2GXuh5M1HZ4pAxWIdS8MQb-2ipDdviU1KnRgfnC8ZvDpXh8pYWjfIwjKxoTo0__XoTFYbC7ZYtRuRxmzHACmcf9fHug/s400/images.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><b style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: navy; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal;"></span>CI: Can you asses the value of new technologies, given the fact that in many of the areas in which you work, there is no electricity, so there is no internet. Is there a value to the new technologies in your work?</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><b style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">LT:</b> For community radio – my priority is for the participants to be able to look around within the community and see the opportunities within the community. We provided at least 3 stations with computers. I say to them – "Community radio is your mirror to yourselves. Internet is your window to the world." We are indeed hoping that there will be a marriage of community radio to internet. We are proposing to these 3 stations that they would need only a telephone in order for them to access the world wide web and world-wide information. With this, they could hold programmes where people could ask questions and they could search for the information on the internet, and then say within seconds – "Aha...this is what there is to know about, say – 'mad cow disease'"... and things like that. Meanwhile, these computers that we sent to the 3 stations are being used to educate the staff and people around the station about the computer and how to use the computer. They use it to prepare their scripts. In this way it is opening the eyes of very rural people on the value of new technology.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">But mind you, the internet does not seem to be their priority. They are fascinated by it, but it is not a priority. Instead of a computer, they would like to have portable tape recorders that they could move around with to interview people thoughout the community. Or they would like to have a spare CD player. So from their point of view, they see the value of the computer, but if you asked if they wanted a computer that cost say $100 or a receiver for a UHF (handheld) radio – they would choose the UHF radio, because it would give them the means to talk with one another. They would be able to have reports from other sources in the community.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><b style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">CI: If you could double your communication strategy and activity budget, what would you do with those funds?</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><b style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">LT:</b> I would experiment on putting up a special radio. For example, we have one children's radio – the problem is that the children only use it during the weekend, when there is no school. So during the rest of the week it is not being used. And the adults who oversee this radio have said – since it is not being used, can we take over and use it for the rest of the week? So they are using something like 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon on the weekdays, whereas the children are only using it for 3 hours on Saturday and 3 hours on Sunday. It has turned into just another adult radio station. I would like to have a purely children's radio to experiment with. I would also like a community radio station for street children in the city and one for disadvantaged women in the city. I would have problems with licensing because the city is already so full of frequencies - frequency would be very difficult to secure. I would like to work with ethnic communities/tribes in the mountains. In at least 2 stations there is involvement of tribal peoples, but it would be very exciting to see people who are still wearing g-strings, for them to be working with a microphone, to be preparing programmes of interest to them and their communities. These are things that excite me, but I am not sure if they will materialise soon.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">We have proposed and are working on a semi-commercial one kilowatt radio station - semi-commercial, but community in character – with participation from different sectors, but operated on a commercial basis. So we are able to make arrangements with a Catholic organisation that has the franchise, and we will be using this franchise for that station. Slowly we are telling the commercial stations – here is a model – here is one thing that might threaten you once again! We are having the transmitter built and a school has agreed to host the radio station once we are ready to launch.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><b style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">CI: You've mentioned a few voices, a few communities that you would like to reach. I am wondering if there is a voice or a community that you feel is not being heard by the communication for development field, by the development fields, that should be listened to?</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><b style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">LT:</b> Many of them that do not even have access to communication. Many of these groups of people would be very happy to have a community station set up for them - Children, Street Children, Women, Fishermen. I am also thinking of a community radio station for prisoners. There are about 7,000 people in one prison camp – you would need only a 5 watt station for them. In an area of 4 square kilometers you don't need a very powerful station. These are people I would like to relate with if I have a chance.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Outside of that – schools would like to use it as a means for extension. Firstly, they would like to use it as a means for promoting the technology that they generate and that they have in their libraries. Secondly, they would like to make use of the radio station as a training ground for students. Particularly those schools, and there are quite a few of them, that have communication courses and development communication courses. NGOs and churches would like to have radio stations. However, in some of the radio stations that we have put up, the churches have tried to dominate them.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">In some cases, when we tried involving the local governments, the politicians tried to dominate them. In the composition of the management group, the community broadcast council – we said that if there are politicians, opposition parties should always be there as well. In spite of this, they managed to put in only their own people and were able to dominate the group. We have been happier working with educators. We have no guarantee that the community radio stations will not be used by politicians or churches for their own agendas. The reality is that in some cases they are being used for political and religious interests. This is one of the problems.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Another problem is that some of the equipment is breaking down. When something like the transmitter breaks down, there is no one within the community who is able to repair it. It needs to be sent to Manila and this is quite expensive. The Tambuli Foundation does not have money for this. At the moment, the Foundation is just a group of volunteers who are willing to continue to work for the cause of community radio and who have been and are excited by the cause. So when pieces of equipment break down, this is a problem that often affects sustainability. In one case, we think the station was robbed because the station campaigned so hard against illegal gambling. The suspicion is that the gambling lords stole the equipment from the station. The community is very agitated about this because they were able to stop the "Jeuteng" – the illegal gaming that was sapping the hard-earned money of farmers and fishermen. The local cooperators are now saying that they plan to put up the station again. But I have to say to them, please, do not look to Tambuli Foundation for equipment – you will have to raise money for your own. The Foundation can provide training at this point, but not equipment, not funding.</div><div><br />
</div>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-79370443034472034172010-12-22T10:06:00.000-08:002011-01-01T09:22:26.900-08:00Radio Rootz Tells the FCC to Keep the Internet Open<h2 class="contentheading"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"></span></h2><div class="articleinfo"><a href="http://peoplesproductionhouse.org/component/content/article/39-pphfeature/621-radio-rootz-tells-the-fcc-to-keep-the-internet-open?tmpl=component&print=1&page=#" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Print" src="http://peoplesproductionhouse.org/templates/rt_mixxmag_j15/images/printButton.png" /></a><span class="createdby">Written by <a href="http://peoplesproductionhouse.org/component/comprofiler/userprofile/Radio%20Rootz"><span class="small">Radio Rootz</span></a> </span><span class="createdate">Tuesday, 21 December 2010 12:12</span></div><b>Radio Rootz Wants their Information on the Web Open and Free</b><br />
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<img alt="" class="feature-thumb" height="157" mce_src="/images/stories/dei/fcc_letter_image.jpg" src="http://peoplesproductionhouse.org/images/stories/dei/fcc_letter_image.jpg" width="210" />Radio Rootz students from Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day High School recently learned about Network Neutrality, which are the rules that keep information exchange on the Internet free and open.<br />
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When the students learned that on Dec. 21st the Federal Communications Commission will vote on Network Neutrality regulation, our students decided to send these audio postcards to the FCC to tell them why a free and open Internet is important to them.<br />
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Listen to <a href="http://peoplesproductionhouse.org/component/content/article/39-pphfeature/621-radio-rootz-tells-the-fcc-to-keep-the-internet-open?utm_source=People%27s+Production+House+List&utm_campaign=e7f54fc97a-12_21_2010&utm_medium=email">Luna and Dominique's letters</a> urging the FCC to make sure the Internet stays free and open.<br />
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<ins></ins>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-42354074101196603792010-12-20T08:16:00.001-08:002010-12-20T08:18:20.813-08:00US Senate Joins House in Passing the Local Community Radio Act<h2 align="center" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqRTVrXKj8jcnpZLg3JywGxjHhXdM2FgJ2jPch3LaS_LwBt_dQxPvLFAQX9eRc0XPlSsZ1FV6LNtqAox9WjjoRg5kV9CxKKQu1cNUeffe_Qt1PlVUmwactb2yfhmjKs3owoMqqnfF-e7zo/s1600/hannah.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqRTVrXKj8jcnpZLg3JywGxjHhXdM2FgJ2jPch3LaS_LwBt_dQxPvLFAQX9eRc0XPlSsZ1FV6LNtqAox9WjjoRg5kV9CxKKQu1cNUeffe_Qt1PlVUmwactb2yfhmjKs3owoMqqnfF-e7zo/s400/hannah.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="400" /></a></span></h2><div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><strong>WASHINGTON, DC</strong> – Today a bill to expand community radio nationwide – the Local Community Radio Act – passed the U.S. Senate, thanks to the bipartisan leadership of Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and John McCain (R-AZ). This follows Friday afternoon’s passage of the bill in the House of Representatives, led by Representatives Mike Doyle (D-PA) and Lee Terry (R-NE). The bill now awaits the President's signature.</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">These Congressional champions for community radio joined with the thousands of grassroots advocates and dozens of public interest groups who have fought for ten years to secure this victory for local media. <strong>In response to overwhelming grassroots pressure, Congress has given the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) a mandate to license thousands, of new community stations nationwide. </strong>This bill marks the first major legislative success for the growing movement for a more democratic media system in the U.S.</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><strong>“A town without a community radio station is like a town without a library,” said Pete Tridish of the Prometheus Radio Project, the group which has led the fight to expand community radio for ten years. </strong>“Many a small town dreamer – starting with a few friends and bake sale cash – has successfully launched a low power station, and built these tiny channels into vibrant town institutions that spotlight school board elections, breathe life into the local music scene, allow people to communicate in their native languages, and give youth an outlet to speak.”</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The Local Community Radio Act will expand the low power FM (LPFM) service created by the FCC in 2000 – a service the FCC created to address the shrinking diversity of voices on the radio dial. Over 800 LPFM stations, all locally owned and non-commercial, are already on the air. The stations are run by non-profit organizations, local governments, churches, schools, and emergency responders.</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The bill repeals earlier legislation which had been backed by big broadcasters, including the National Association of Broadcasters. This legislation, the Radio Broadcast Preservation Act of 2000, limited LPFM radio to primarily rural areas. The broadcast lobby groups claimed that the new 100 watt stations could somehow create interference with their own stations, a claim disproven by a Congressionally-mandated study in 2003.</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Congressional leaders worked for years to pass this legislation. As the clock wound down on the 111th Congress, they worked with the NAB to amend the bill to enshrine even stronger protections against interference and to ensure the prioritization of full power FM radio stations over low power stations.</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Though the amendments to the bill will require some further work at the FCC, low power advocates celebrated the first chance in a decade for groups in cities, towns, and other communities to take their voices to the FM dial.</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">“After ten years of effort, a $2.2 million taxpayer-funded study, and new provisions to address this hypothetical interference, we are finally on our way to seeing new community radio stations across the U.S. This marks a beginning, not an end, to our work,” said<strong> Brandy Doyle, Policy Director for the Prometheus Radio Project.</strong> “For the first time, LPFM community radio has a chance to grow, and we’re ready to seize that opportunity.”</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">“All of us at UCC OC Inc. and at Prometheus express our incredible gratitude to Congressmen Mike Doyle and Lee Terry and Senators Maria Cantwell and John McCain for the leadership and counsel during this process,” said <strong>Cheryl Leanza, a board member of the Prometheus Radio Project and a Policy Advisor to the United Church of Christ, Office of Communication, Inc.</strong> “Without their work and the work of their committed staff we would not have come this far. At long last the 160 million Americans who have been deprived of the opportunity to apply for a local low power radio station will get a chance to be a part of the American media.”</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">"I am a leadership organizer from the ranks of the poor working with other low-wage workers – fighting for human rights in Maryland,” said <strong>Veronica Dorsey of the United Workers</strong>, a human rights organization in Baltimore. “Low power FM radio would allow the United Workers to expand the message of our End Poverty Radio show, which is currently only available on the internet. End Poverty Radio develops leaders and gives workers a way to tell their stories and be heard – and a low power FM station would reach a lot of people who do not have access to the internet. <strong>LPFM is a way for those in the community who are struggling to survive to hear stories that they can relate to, and to know that they are not alone in this struggle for human dignity.</strong> We can’t wait to work to build low power FM in communities like ours, so we can accomplish these goals."</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">“Civil rights groups and community organizations have wanted low power FM radio for years, and now the chance is here,” said <strong>Betty Yu, coordinator of the Media Action Grassroots Networ</strong>k, a national media justice network with members in many cities and communities that lost their chance to get low power FM radio stations. “From Seattle, Oakland, and Albuquerque to Minneapolis, San Antonio, Kentucky and Philadelphia, thousands of communities know that having access to our own slice of the dial means a tool to build our movements for justice. We have won something huge in Congress, but the fight is not over. Now we need to work at the FCC to make sure as many licenses as possible can be available in rural communities, towns and suburbs, and America's cities.”</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">LPFMs have saved lives in powerful storms when big broadcasts lose power or can’t serve local communities in the eye of the storm. <strong>WQRZ-LP in Bay St. Louis, MS received awards from President Bush and other organizations post Katrina in 2005, when one of the station operators swam across flood waters with fuel strapped to his back to keep his station on the air.</strong> The station proved so important that the Emergency Operations Center of Hancock County set up shop with the LPFM to serve the community after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Bipartisan Senators and House members have expressed support for the Local Community Radio Act as a vital way to expand emergency service media across our nation.</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">“I’m Frank Bluestein from Germantown, Tennessee, one of the several large suburban cities located just outside of Memphis. We have been fighting for the past 10 years to persuade Congress to give communities like ours the opportunity to establish a low power FM radio station. Our city wants to provide community and civic groups, students of all ages, local artists and others the power to communicate over their own LPFM channel,” said <strong>Frank Bluestein, a media teacher and Executive Producer of Germantown Community Television</strong>.</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">"Equally important for Germantown, we need a dedicated communication outlet that will serve the needs of our citizens in the event another tornado rips through town or if any kind of natural disaster hits,” continued Bluestein. “In this day and age, emergency management is a must for a city of our size and LPFM perfectly fits our needs. A low power FM radio station can stay on the air even if the power goes out. Low power FM saved lives during Katrina but strangely, the federal government is banning it from this part of Tennessee. That is not fair or wise. We have the right to be as safe as any other community in the US.<strong> After 10 years, now is the time! Congress has passed the Local Community Radio Act, and chances are so much greater that groups in towns like mine can apply for LPFM licenses. Germantown is ready to work here and at the FCC to make licenses for communities like ours possible.</strong>”</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Grassroots leaders were key in helping Senators understand that expanding low power FM was important and urgent. “Our station provides some of the only local service to Gillette when big storms come through, and it puts great content on the air. That's why so many in our town think it is such a vital resource,” said <strong>Pastor Joel Wright of the First Presbyterian Church of Gillette, WY, licensee of KCOV-LP 95.7 FM</strong> . “Senators Barrasso and Enzi had concerns about expanding low power FM, but they heard from many Wyoming folks who want these stations, and dropped those concerns. Communities of faith and so many others can celebrate that we've jumped this big hurdle to more license being available in cities, smaller towns, and rural communities nationwide. I look forward to working with many other pastors and groups to launch their own wonderful new community voices.”</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">"The Media Mobilizing Project works with a huge diversity of leaders across Philadelphia -- from taxi drivers and immigrant communities to students and low wage workers," said <strong>Desi Burnette of Philadelphia's Media Mobilizing Project. </strong>"Our leaders have been lucky enough to produce multiple programs with WPEB-FM, 88.1 – bringing all of these communities together. But WPEB is a 1-watt station, only covering a few city blocks. Now with the passage of the Local Community Radio Act, Philadelphia has a much greater chance of getting at least one 100-watt station of its own.<strong>With low power FM in our community, poor and working people across this region would have an incredible tool to learn together, to understand their shared struggles and conditions, and to work to change them.</strong>"</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">"Our low power FM radio station has allowed Guatemalan, Haitian, and many other hard-working immigrant farmworkers to communicate in their native languages, and to build the power for dignity and respect in the fields of Southwest Florida," said <strong>the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' Gerardo Reyes Chavez</strong>. "Our radio station, WCIW – Radio Consciencia – has developed womens' leadership, has allowed us to mobilize rapidly in crises, and has helped us transform not just our community but the hundreds of communities inspired by our struggle. <strong>We look forward to helping many other farmworkers learn how to build their own stations and how to expand justice on the FM dial.</strong>"</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">"In the rural areas we serve and all across the country, low power FMs are poised to celebrate and preserve unique local culture," said <strong>Nick Szuberla of Appalshop</strong>, a group that uses media to preserve Appalachian culture and tradition while working to improve quality of life. "More low power FMs mean that the vibrant, beautiful, and vital voices of America's rural areas and small towns will shine – and it will mean sustainable local resources in times of crisis. Low power FM stations can stay on the air in storms and save thousands of lives. Congress and community radio advocates should be proud of the resources they've won for American communities."</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">“Our group of 150 volunteers here at the Chicago Independent Radio Project (CHIRP) is extremely pleased that the Local Community Radio Act has been passed by Congress, and will be signed into law by our fellow Chicagoan, President Obama,” said <strong>Shawn Campbell, a founder of CHIRP</strong>. “For three years, CHIRP volunteers and supporters have worked diligently toward the goal of being able to apply for a low power FM broadcast license, and we look forward to working with our national allies and the FCC to make sure new stations are licensed in large markets around the country, including Chicago.”</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">"For decades, the Esperanza Center has worked in San Antonio and beyond to bring people together across cultures, and to ensure the civil rights and economic justice of everyone," said <strong>Graciela Sanchez of the Esperanza Center for Peace and Justice in San Antonio</strong>. "Whether we are fighting for the right to publically protest or to save the water systems of our region, we need to communicate and coordinate to effectively organize. Low power FM in San Antonio can unite people across cultures and issues to work together to make this city better for everyone. We celebrate this victory for everyone and pledge to work with allies to win as many stations as possible for communities nationwide."</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Over 10 years, hundreds of groups of all walks of life struggled to bring community radio stations to every community possible, and they cannot all be listed here. We would like to thank the coalition who worked weekly to move this mountain including: Free Press, United Church of Christ Office of Communication, Inc, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Media Access Project, the Future of Music Coalition, the Media and Democracy Coalition, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, the Benton Foundation, the Prometheus National Advisory Committee and Board of Directors.</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">We thank those who were instrumental in this final push including: Reclaim the Media, The Media Action Grassroots Network, New America Foundation, Chicago Independent Radio Project, MoveOn.org, Color of Change, the Christian Coalition, and the National Association of Evangelicals, and Spitfire Consulting. Our partners in supporting community media including the National Federation of Community Broadcasters and the Grassroots Radio Coalition, and Media Alliance, Pacifica, REC Networks, the Alliance for Community Media.</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">We thank those who have helped at key moments throughout these ten years including: United States Public Interest Research Group, Consumers Union, the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, the United Methodist Church Office of Communication, the Indigo Girls, OK Go, Nicole Atkins, the Microradio List, Amherst Alliance, MIcroradio Implementation Project, Pacifica Radio, Common Frequency, Christian Community Broadcasters, KYES -TV, National Lawyers Guild Committee on Democratic Communications, Virginia Center for the Public Press, every FCC Commissioner since 1999 (except for Harold Furchgott Roth).</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">We thank our radio barnraising partners who have time and again shown up to represent the best of what LPFM can be: WGXC-FM in Hudson, New York with Free103point9; WMXP-LP in Greenville, South Carolina with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement; KPCN-LP in Woodburn, Oregon with Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste; WRFU-LP in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois with Radio Free Urbana; WXOJ-LP in Northampton, Massachusetts with Valley Free Radio; WRFN-LP in Pasquo, Tennessee with Radio Free Nashville; WSCA-LP in Portsmouth, New Hampshire with Portsmouth Community Radio; WCIW-LP in Immokalee, Florida with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers; KYRS-LP in Spokane, Washington with Thin Air Community Radio; KOCZ-LP in Opelousas, Louisiana with the Southern Development Foundation; KRBS-LP in Oroville, California with the Bird Street Media Project; and our very first radio barnraising with WRYR-LP in Deale, Maryland with South Arundel Citizens for Responsible Development.</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">“We've built community radio stations from coast to coast and around the country,” said <strong>Hannah Sassaman, a longtime organizer with the Prometheus Radio Project</strong>. ‘The faith and perseverance of low power FM's legislative champions and the thousands who pushed the Local Community Radio Act has paid off in incredible ways. After ten years of struggle, it's stunning to know that in the next years, the FCC will work to and begin licensing LPFMs in city neighborhoods, in suburbs and towns, and in rural areas. <strong>It's humbling to understand that new young people will gain a love of telling stories at the working end of a microphone or at home listening to their neighbors. And it's powerful to know that these stations will launch leaders in every walk of life to change their communities, and this country. We look forward to launching the next generation of community stations with you.</strong>”</div><div style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><strong>To learn more about low power FM community radio, visit <a href="http://prometheusradio.cmail4.com/t/y/l/aeddk/nujjdllm/r" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">http://www.prometheusradio.org</a>.</strong></div></div><div><br />
</div>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-66554068290415131732010-12-19T19:46:00.000-08:002010-12-19T19:55:11.240-08:00From Mobilactive.org ---- How to Take Good Mobile Video<h3 style="color: #232323; font-family: helvetica, arial, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.3em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKP7CZPLbzZgiPU3MX6gptLDNy6LmheTiXwHJn4MzGZROClmKMyoeNfa86f64MNfbunSOT7cORGA5aJnWNIiYVdI1j6uCagZEENINkvhwajnDv7EI38GD0M2m_ZAUL4yy4FaKIh84rde30/s1600/2184108489_b6aaf108af_254x169.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKP7CZPLbzZgiPU3MX6gptLDNy6LmheTiXwHJn4MzGZROClmKMyoeNfa86f64MNfbunSOT7cORGA5aJnWNIiYVdI1j6uCagZEENINkvhwajnDv7EI38GD0M2m_ZAUL4yy4FaKIh84rde30/s200/2184108489_b6aaf108af_254x169.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="color: #4e4e4e; line-height: 1.3em; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Many mobile phones can capture video footage. This has enabled both trained journalists and citizen reporters to more easily capture footage including images that were rarely seen before. The Polk Journalism Award in 2009, for example, was awarded to a <a href="http://mobileactive.org/anonymous-cell-phone-video-wins-journalism-award" style="color: rgb(214, 13, 31) !important; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">video from Iran</a> captured on a mobile phone. Today, more and more journalists are using mobile phones to record video and quickly transfer content to their newsrooms via mobile data connections.<br />
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Using mobiles to capture video isn't <em>new</em> news. But there is <em>good</em> news: You don't need a high-quality video camera to do high-quality reporting, be you in the U.S. or elsewhere. Many journalists and citizen reporters today use smartphones to capture video footage. Examples abound. <a href="http://www.ldn2bc.ca/" style="color: rgb(214, 13, 31) !important; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Vancouver journalism students</a> use an iPhone with some additional hardware and software to do all their video editing on the phone. <a href="http://mobileactive.org/voices-africa-citizen-journalists-africa-use-mobile-phones-report-their-communities" style="color: rgb(214, 13, 31) !important; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Voices of Africa</a> uses a Nokia N-series smartphone. In his book<a href="http://www.kas.de/medien-asien/en/publications/18599/" style="color: rgb(214, 13, 31) !important; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Mobile Journalism in the Asian Region</a>, Stephen Quinn uses both iPhones and Nokia smartphones. This post will provide some tips and tools on how you can record quality video and audio from your mobile phone.Phone hardware is constantly improving and getting cheaper. With an older phone, you may consider <a href="http://www.vreveal.com/home" style="color: rgb(214, 13, 31) !important; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">video enhancement software</a>, which can offer a cheaper way to get better quality video content. For high quality video recording on a mobile, the best phones available today feature 640 x 480 pixels at 30 <span class="aptureLink " id="apture_prvw1" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 4px 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px 4px; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-left-radius: 4px 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px 4px; border-top-width: 0px !important; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;"><span class="aptureLinkIcon" style="background-image: url(http://cdn.apture.com/media/imgs/link_icons.gif?v12) !important; background-position: 100% -1349px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat !important; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 11px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;"> </span><a class="aptureLink snap_noshots" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame%20rate" style="border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important; color: rgb(214, 13, 31) !important; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; float: none !important; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none;">frames per second</a></span>. 320 x 240 pixels at 15 frames per second produces acceptable web-quality video.</div><div style="color: #4e4e4e; line-height: 1.3em; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Lower resolutions will look grainy and pixelated without software enhancement, and video below 15 frames per second will look choppy. On the high quality end, these are some good mobile phones with excellent video cameras:</div><ul style="list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-left: 2em;"><li style="color: #4e4e4e; line-height: 1.3em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">PC Magazine <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2345163,00.asp" style="color: rgb(214, 13, 31) !important; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">featured these five</a> video-phone models with varying price ranges. The article includes lengthy reviews and a <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/compare_products/0,1943,,00.asp?a=229369,223967,237463,234525,224250&pt=0&sid=1566" style="color: rgb(214, 13, 31) !important; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">matrix comparison</a> of the phones.</li>
<li style="color: #4e4e4e; line-height: 1.3em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">For high end phones, take a look at these articles: <a href="http://reviews.cnet.com/best-video-phones/?tag=rb_content;contentNav" style="color: rgb(214, 13, 31) !important; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">CNet's top 5</a> video phones of 2009,<a href="http://www.wirefly.com/learn/company_news/wireflys-top-ten-video-phones/" style="color: rgb(214, 13, 31) !important; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Wirefly's top 10</a> 2009 video phones, <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31054150/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/" style="color: rgb(214, 13, 31) !important; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">MSNBC's video phone review</a> with 5 recommendations, the <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone/iphone-3gs/video-recording.html" style="color: rgb(214, 13, 31) !important; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">iPhone 3GS</a>, and the <a href="http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/11/10/qik-bumps-up-the-recording-resolution-for-the-droid/" style="color: rgb(214, 13, 31) !important; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Motorola Droid</a>.</li>
<li style="color: #4e4e4e; line-height: 1.3em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The GSMArena.com database features 1800 phones with video capabilities, <a href="http://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?sName=&idMaker=0&idAvailability=0&nPriceLow=0&nPriceHigh=0&idCurrency=0&idFormFactor=0&idDualSIM=0&idQwerty=0&HeightMax=0&WidthMax=0&ThicknessMax=0&WeightMax=0&idOS=0&idDisplay=0&idDisplayRes=0&fDisplaySize=0&idDisplayTech=0&idTouchscreen=0&idAccelerometer=0&id35mm=0&idCamera=0&idCameraFlash=0&idVideoRecorder=1&idExpansionCard=0&idGPS=0&bWLAN=0&bEDGE=0&bGPRS=0&idBluetooth=0&bIR=0&bEmail=0&bWAP=0&bJava=0&idRadio=0&bMMS=0&idRingtones=0&sColor=&StandBy=0&TalkTime=0&sFreeText=" style="color: rgb(214, 13, 31) !important; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">70 of which</a> are listed on this page. The site allows you to search for cameras based on various criteria and links directly to carriers around the world who are selling these phones.</li>
<li style="color: #4e4e4e; line-height: 1.3em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The Nokia N series phones are generally highly recommended for video recording. The <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2256605,00.asp" style="color: rgb(214, 13, 31) !important; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">N82</a>,<a href="http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/reviews/item/Nokia_N93.php" style="color: rgb(214, 13, 31) !important; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">N93</a>, and <a href="http://gizmodo.com/250902/gizmodos-long+ass-nokia-n95-review-why-it-rocks-why-it-sucks" style="color: rgb(214, 13, 31) !important; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">N95</a> are mentioned often by independent reviewers.When it comes to shooting video, the major difference between mobiles and mainstream camcorders is that mobile phones have simpler (and smaller) cameras. It is important to understand what makes for good quality video given these limitations. Some suggested tools and tips are listed here.</li>
</ul><div style="color: #4e4e4e; line-height: 1.3em; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><div class="clearBoth" style="clear: both; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 1px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1px; width: 576px;"></div><div class="readmore" style="color: #4e4e4e; line-height: 1.3em; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.mobileactive.org/how-record-quality-video-your-mobile" style="color: rgb(214, 13, 31) !important; cursor: pointer; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Read More</a></div></span></span></span></h3><div class="readmore" style="color: #4e4e4e; font-family: helvetica, arial, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.3em; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-80599803816622712952010-12-16T09:02:00.000-08:002010-12-16T10:02:20.427-08:00The Challenge: New Technology in an Indigenous Community in Panama<object height="305" width="420"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oBZFoV0oTac?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oBZFoV0oTac?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="420" height="305"></embed></object><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Promo video for an wireless internet hub for an Indigenous community in Panama. This features a "facilitator" from Microsoft. For information about a group in Namibia that works to provide alternatives to Microsoft by encouraging and assisting in setting up free and opensource networks, see: <a href="http://www.schoolnet.na/">http://www.schoolnet.na/</a></span><br />
and <a href="http://deepdishwavesofchange.blogspot.com/2008/02/schoolnets-computer-comics.html">http://deepdishwavesofchange.blogspot.com/2008/02/schoolnets-computer-comics.html</a><br />
In the Schoolnet comics the microsoft sales man is the evil villain.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvyWdFTLJJ-XSxON_Y1_5WZXokObm3DONGjs4aMN4_MSbswzqtZrrORofe5VFs8elDEDtJM4q-FG8UuU8gxr2tIIPex2eZl9yTXvwOMWdcQvDnoPnz25ndMTAQk_mWChT1RkU0uyUjTbjq/s1600/nothingworks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvyWdFTLJJ-XSxON_Y1_5WZXokObm3DONGjs4aMN4_MSbswzqtZrrORofe5VFs8elDEDtJM4q-FG8UuU8gxr2tIIPex2eZl9yTXvwOMWdcQvDnoPnz25ndMTAQk_mWChT1RkU0uyUjTbjq/s320/nothingworks.jpg" width="205" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Uy-OxHcI3TfbGw_uTfW7w289kzFErswxgSkmqW7Qdp80DQ2qDXvtgC75wHfCt7_2PIzjW4WHsxPYbJqV5crYxW-AbtM-zeoxDihuycZCpqs-lViGVmfsU5eE5KVYoYJkafSQE9RKuUwv/s1600/policeinwindhoek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Uy-OxHcI3TfbGw_uTfW7w289kzFErswxgSkmqW7Qdp80DQ2qDXvtgC75wHfCt7_2PIzjW4WHsxPYbJqV5crYxW-AbtM-zeoxDihuycZCpqs-lViGVmfsU5eE5KVYoYJkafSQE9RKuUwv/s320/policeinwindhoek.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Drawings from comic books distributed to Namibian school students and teachers by Schoolnet.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-79796862919455908582010-12-15T19:21:00.000-08:002010-12-20T15:11:11.748-08:00How Environmental Disasters Destroy Culture<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><object height="305" width="420"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nFtnp9yOmI4?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nFtnp9yOmI4?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="420" height="305"></embed></object>Con la solidaria intención de que prevalezca la verdad y la justicia, se ha publicado este Documental, que revela un derrame o siniestro equivalente a 30 veces el producido por el Exxon Valdez. CHEVRON TEXACO debe pagar por el genocidio provocado; además de la afectación de flora y fauna irrecuperables.</span>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226982985277423658.post-25058161864771694582010-12-14T14:35:00.000-08:002010-12-14T14:36:33.598-08:00Flash Mob at Best Buy for Palestine<object width="420" height="305"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OGAdfvGQ-xg?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OGAdfvGQ-xg?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="420" height="305"></embed></object>DeeDee Halleckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082147300122950343noreply@blogger.com0