Traditional ‘Europeans’ are worried. It’s not only fear of strangers: it’s the  redefinition of ‘our’ space and  uncertainty about ‘our’ future. Future developments, largely unexpected, let us stress that once again, will force us to redefine choices and policies that previously had been (differently in different countries) seen as ‘ours’ by definition. But now it seems that ‘immigration policies’ will have to be designed and ‘immigrants’ dealt with in a very different context. 

Attention at present is primarily  focused on France and Italy and the policy responses and  ‘messages sent out’ by governments under the pressure of people flow, prompted by the violent confrontations with dramatic  human costs in North Africa and the Middle East. What we are facing now is a process of change that ought to bring us, traditional ‘Europeans’, to reconsider how the Mediterranean space is defined, and how we are related to and confront political contexts and peoples that we had seen as far apart, different, actually as others. 

How these events (ongoing conflict in Libya in particular) have been handled by the Italian Government is a widely discussed theme in our political sphere, public  discourse and in the media. It all began with growing numbers from the other side of the sea reaching the island of Lampedusa. Within a very few days, the anticipation of further arrivals, difficulties in facing that, graphic images in the media had come to be regarded as a highly visibile challenge. A core concern for those in power was how to handle this in terms of domestic politics (elections were close, the Lega Nord was extremely vocal in its opposition to all forms of asylum). The EU was regarded as a major source of support, and the Italian Government had recourse to the EU at the very beginning. It immediately announced that money would be made available. 

However, lack of adequate planning at the European level triggered a round of international debate.  Back in Italy, the main problem was how to tackle the immediate challenge while anticipating further developments. Various arrangements were put in place, trying to face the immediate needs of those, in extremely distressed circumstances, who continued to arrive. 

But accommodating these people raised a further issue - of increasing numbers of newcomers, not only from the Mediterranean area, but from other African regions. Immigrants from all over the world had reached Egypt in particular. A much more profound process of global mobility was thus for once made visible. This was immediately seen as having a ‘European relevance’,  and dangerous implications. 

Of course there were voices in some sectors of public opinion and in some political groupings, who made it clear that giving support to these people in their political struggle and solidarity in their present (and future) difficulties were crucial choices, reflecting fundamental values. 

But political leaders  and the media insisted that there were far too many of them and that they had to be sent back to their countries, or moved out of Italy (most of them towards France: Tunisians in particular were making it clear that this was their preferred destination). So the obvious next step involved granting  ‘temporary acceptance’ documents which would allow all to move freely within the Schengen area. Hence, out of Italy: this was the goal. 

The French Government immediately opposed this solution. 

Increasing numbers of ‘immigrants’ have tried to reach the Italian/French border nevertheless. The first reaction was to refuse all those travelling from Italy entry into France. International television channels showed how many people had to pass through days (and nights) without being given any adequate  assistance or any information. In the days that followed, controls were established at the border by French authorities. Those who did not have what was considered a sufficient amount of money were not allowed to move on into France. 

At the end of April, Sarkozy and Berlusconi met in Rome: their agreements and ‘solutions’ were announced. 

It is very clear that both feel the pressure from their ‘populist’ right-wing political rivals, Marine Le Pen in Front National  in France and the Lega Nord in Italy, together with large sectors of public opinion in both countries. But beyond that. Economic and social problems are to be expected in the  coming months (and years). Resistance to processes of change is to be expected. The sharpening of conflicting interests, and of course, forms of discrimination and growing xenophobia are one response. 

A scenario-in progress is what we have to face that had somehow not been anticipated in a ‘traditional’ European perspective, despite Europe’s intimate knowledge of how this dynamic can develop. 

So, we must work at redefining our near-term and longer-term future. 

Hopefully, also, we might finally learn how to live in diversity, while taking into account ongoing social and political pressures (and considering how unprepared Europe appears to be to face them). Two aspects in particular demand our urgent fresh attention, the rising populism in many EU countries, and the relevance for Europe of  present events  in North Africa and the Middle East. 

Just a brief comment looking at the past. In the post-war period, the project of adequate migration policies and institutions was seen as an important and feasible social and political objective in the Nordic countries, and in different ways and with different procedures in France, the UK, and Germany as well. ‘Newcomers’ were needed. Conditions of discrimination and inequality were present, but a variety of approaches and models to deal with this were developed in contexts which all had in common assumptions that a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, mutli-religious future settlement could be reached. 

Putting it briefly: those circumstances made living in diversity a possible European framework, a common goal which would, of course, require a shared project and continuous engagement. But suddenly, we find ourselves in very different circumstances. Now we face, all over Europe, growing ‘institutional xenophobia’ and a pervasive ‘politics of fear’. 

In many EU countries populist parties and a supportive public opinion have become a central political and social dimension (with somewhat different aspects and perspectives as to their future roles and positions). But common traits, which have been analyzed in a number of studies, are there for all to see: not only growing problems in the economy and in the labour market in particular; but increasing disaffection with the institutional machinery, national as well as European; and then there is the role of the media in stoking this fear. In all these different cases, the question of migration, and all the policies related to living in diversity have taken centre-ground, not lessening the fear and its attendant xenophobia, but adding to its thralldom.  

A highly visible new generation of political leaders, markedly different as to their backgrounds and their policy proposals, as well as their highly personal ways of presenting themselves (in Italy, Berlusconi and Bossi must both be seen as interesting examples) have built strong support from large sectors of the population who have felt that they have no voice.  

What is the alternative to their fear and xenophobia? Does ‘traditional’ Europe have an answer? 

I would like to wish you well next week for Europe Day and your investigation of the ‘Uses of Xenophobia’, and also congratulation on the tenth birthday of openDemocracy. This is indeed a timely discussion.

The flood of North African refugees continues to arrive in Lampedusa. Notice that the latest group does not consist of Tunisians:

216 Immigrants Land in Lampedusa With More Arriving

(AGI) Lampedusa — The first 216 immigrants rescued off the island have arrived in Lampedusa with 40 more arriving in the afternoon. They were all on board two vessels intercepted this morning. The boat escorted by the Financial Police also had six women and a minor on board. the migrants allegedly all come from sub-Saharan Africa and left from Libya.

Earlier this evening I posted a French news report about a battle between Tunisian “youths” and French police. That incident may have been part of a broader front, which included the arrest of 138 Tunisian culture-enrichers in France.

According to Reuters:

French Police Arrest Tunisia Migrants, Influx Grows

Paris May 4 (Reuters) — French police arrested 138 Tunisian migrants on Wednesday, clearing out an illegal squat in Paris as unease deepened in France over an influx sparked by the upheaval in North Africa.

About 250 riot police were deployed to evict the squatters, most of them Tunisians who entered Europe a couple of months ago via Lampedusa, a tiny Italian island that is one of the closest points for people fleeing North Africa.

“In all, 138 people were arrested, and their situation will be assessed on a case by case basis,” a police officer told Reuters television at the scene of Wednesday’s eviction in the northeast of the French capital.

According to charity groups, 400-500 Tunisians have arrived in France since a popular uprising in Tunisia led to the ouster of the former French colony’s long-time ruler in January, sending a wave of pro-democracy upheaval across the Arab world. [emphasis added]

It’s probably an underestimate, but, for the sake of analysis, we’ll assume that half of the 30,000 migrants who have arrived in Italy since the crisis began are Tunisians. If five hundred Tunisians have wound up in France, 500 ÷ 15,000 = 3.33%, so only one in thirty Tunisians has managed to make it into France. In other words, the Tunisian enrichment problem is still mainly Italian, and not French.

The flow of North African refugees has mainly washed up in Italy and Malta, but Greece has its own enrichment problems which predate the current crisis. The Greek islands have been favored landing places for illegal migrants for years, and many of the invaders now in Greece have crossed the border into Thrace from Turkey.

The Greek prime minister is complaining about the same problem that Italy has: once the culture-enrichers arrive, they cannot be gotten rid of:

Greece Powerless to Quickly Expel Illegal Migrants: Minister

Athens, Greece — Greece’s police minister on Thursday called for new detention centers to be built as the country is powerless to expel undocumented migrants seeking to cross into other European countries.

“Without detention centres in various parts of the country...we cannot solve the problem,” Citizen’s Protection Minister Christos Papoutsis told parliament.

“Nobody can arrest a migrant, whether they be illegal or legal, and throw them out. International rules do not allow it, the laws do not allow it, our country’s constitution does not allow it,” the minister said.

Greece has struggled for years to reach a coherent policy on hundreds of thousands of economic migrants and asylum-seekers from Africa, Asia and the Indian subcontinent who arrive seeking a better future in the West.

Many are kept in overwhelmed detention facilities under squalid conditions repeatedly criticised by rights groups, and eventually find their way to a life of poverty, labour exploitation or petty crime in the cities.

The majority are unable to even return home, and Greece is bound by EU rules to keep them from travelling on to other EU states.

Land and sea patrols by EU border agency Frontex has helped alleviate the pressure but there were still nearly 3,000 undocumented migrant arrests on the Greek-Turkish border in April, up from 2,000 in March, police data shows.

“The situation is dramatic, there’s no doubt about that,” said Papoutsis, who called on local authorities to drop opposition to the new detention camps.

“Local societies are against migrants. They want them out,” he said.

This week, residents of the western Greek port of Igoumenitsa blocked the harbour for hours, calling on the government to remove scores of migrants who have built makeshift camps outside the town.

Riot police moved in when some protesters began throwing stones at some of the migrants who had gathered on the scene.

Immigration concerns have also surfaced in Italy and France with the arrival of thousands of Tunisians after a revolution toppled Tunisia’s dictator in January.

EU authorities this week conceded that controls in the bloc’s border-free Schengen area could be tightened in exceptional circumstances as a bulwark against migration pressure.

So…

You can’t arrest them.

You can’t send them back.

You can’t send them on to Germany, where they really want to go.

In other words…

EU to Greece: DROP DEAD.

To add insult to injury, Pope Benedict XVI thinks that Europeans need to welcome the immigrants with open arms, in the spirit of Christian benevolence.

According to Deutsche Welle:

Pope Urges Europe to Welcome Migrants From North Africa

In his Easter sermon, Pope Bendict VI lamented the violence and conflicts in North Africa and the Middle East and called on Europe to accept more migrants from war-torn countries.

In his traditional Easter message to the world Pope Bendict XVI contrasted the joy of the Easter season with the violence and strife in North Africa and the Middle East and called on Europe to welcome more migrants from war-torn areas like Libya.

“Here, in this world of ours, the Easter hallelujah still contrasts with the cries and laments that arise from so many painful situations: deprivation, hunger, disease, war, violence,” he said in his “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world) address.

Ha! How many Tunisians and Somalis do you think the pope has living with him in his papal apartments?

There’s no end in sight to all this insanity. What new excesses of cultural enrichment will tomorrow bring?


Hat tips: C. Cantoni, AC, and Kitman.

National team officials deny racism after they are secretly recorded discussing an unofficial quota to limit the number of Arab and African kids in training programs so as to eventually boost the number of whites on the team. They were once hailed as a potent symbol of France's ethnic melting pot; the French soccer team, known as Les Bleus but nicknamed the "black-blanc-beur"...

Source : L.A. Times

Explore : World

National team officials deny racism after they are secretly recorded discussing an unofficial quota to limit the number of Arab and African kids in training programs so as to eventually boost the number of whites on the team. They were once hailed as a potent symbol of France's ethnic melting pot; the French soccer team, known as Les Bleus but nicknamed the "black-blanc-beur" (black-white-Arab ...

In science news around the world this week, scientists are urging greater protection for the Arctic as ice recedes, Africa's first cervical cancer prevention program has been launched, French researchers are balking at limits on African travel, a group of Pacific Ocean island states has scored a victory in their battle to preserve the world's last major stocks of tuna, and a radiation safety expert has resigned his governmental advisory post in protest over standards for schoolchildren exposed to radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

• World Cup winner angered by claims
• Calls for more officials to be suspended
• Join the discussion on the Sportblog

Patrick Vieira has said he is shocked at reports that the France coach Laurent Blanc and other officials discussed introducing quotas to limit the number of non-white players in the national team set-up.

The French website Mediapart alleged last week that plans to restrict the numbers of black players and those of north African origin entering national training centres at the age of 12 were discussed at a meeting in November between Blanc, the French Football Federation technical director François Blaquart, the Under-21 coach Erick Mombaerts and the Under-20 coach Francis Smerecki.

Blanc strongly denied the story on Friday, telling L'Equipe: "This project does not exist. All that, for me, is false."

Blaquart was suspended from his post on Saturday, pending the outcome of investigations by the FFF which began this week.

The Manchester City midfielder Vieira told Le Monde: "This story is scandalous. I'm shocked. I would never have imagined that the football chiefs in our country could have such conversations about the France team in the body of the federation. Never. I know Laurent Blanc, I've always had a good relationship with him. I don't believe he's racist, but I'm surprised as to the degree of his comments.

"When I read that he has said, 'The Spaniards, they don't have a problem because they don't have any blacks' or 'What is there that is big, strong, powerful? The blacks', it's scandalous. These are serious comments. People can tell me what they want, but no one was trapped during this meeting. No one was forced anyone to say these comments and still they said them. It's a fact, that's shocking."

Vieira, who was born in Senegal and moved to France as a child, questioned the decision to single out Blaquart, who denies any wrongdoing, for a suspension.

"It's difficult to suspend just one person when others had the same type of discussion," he said. "It would have been more logical to suspend everyone who, like him, said the same things. It's not up to me to say who should go, but I would not have been able to understand how these directors, who were at the meeting, could stay in their jobs.

"If these people stay, then that's the door open to all discriminations. If football really wants to fight against this scourge, if the FFF want to show that they have the values of the Republic, then there are strong decisions that must be made. They shouldn't forget that they are the elite of football. It's they who will design the French football of tomorrow. It's they who are supposed to defend community harmony."

Should youths with dual-nationalties go to the back of the queue for academy places? The race row has raised tricky questions for France's authorities

Laurent Blanc's continued employment as France manager is in jeopardy because he conflated two issues in a way that was, at best, clumsy and, at worst, racist. The issues that he and other members of French football's top brass discussed at a meeting last November, whose contents were leaked by Mohammed Belkacemi and published last week, were ones that he and others had addressed in public many times before: what should the country's football authorities teach young players? And which young players should they teach? Both questions are obviously legitimate. But debate rages over the legitimacy or otherwise of the answers that they reportedly proposed, and the assumptions that may have underpinned them. One year out from a presidential election, the debate has become heavily politicised.

Since taking over as manager of Les Bleus last August Blanc has advocated concentrating on cultivating technique and intelligence rather than power and speed. In the leaked meeting he reiterated this philosophy and regretted that French academies seem to be populated primarily by youngsters chosen for their athletic prowess more than their football flair. He claimed that these youngsters tended to be black. "You have the impression that they really train the same prototype of players: big, strong, powerful … What is there that is currently big, strong, powerful? The blacks. That's the way it is. It's a current fact. God knows that in the training centres and football schools there are loads of them."

Although Blanc had stressed earlier in the conversation that a person's race was of no concern to him and that it would "suit me fine" to field a France team consisting entirely of black players if the best players happened to be black, the 'prototype' statement has been the focus of much of the furore, with many complaining that it could be construed as an endorsement of the cobwebbed racist notion that, basically, black people are physically superior but mentally inferior. Big and strong but blunt and dumb. Blanc, who has since admitted that he spoke maladroitly (he would surely have chosen his words more carefully if he'd known his comments were going to be published), professes to be "outraged" at this interpretation. Surveys and interviews suggest most people give him the benefit of the doubt, which seems reasonable as he has never previously been associated with bigotry and all visible actions in his playing and managerial career suggest race has played no part in his decisions. Indeed, one of the few players who has spoken publicly on the controversy is Alou Diarra, a black man and midfielder whom Blanc signed for Bordeaux and appointed captain of France. Diarra acclaimed Blanc for his open-mindedness, pointing out that when he was manager of Bordeaux he amended training schedules to enable Muslim players to observe Ramadan.

The second issue that Blanc and the Fédération Française de Football officials discussed, which was jarringly muddled with the first issue, is more interesting and also more difficult to resolve – not just for France but for all countries competing in international sport. To pit one nation against others, one has to determine who should represent a given nation and in increasingly diverse societies that is increasingly complex.

Consider this: a boy called, say, Marmaduke, is born in London. His father is Japanese, his mother is German. By his mid-teens he's such a good footballer that England U-16s are considering picking him and the FA is contemplating giving him a place in its elite training academy (this is the future, see, and England has such a thing). However, there is only one place available and there is another equally talented candidate, who was also born in London but to exclusively English parents and grandparents, which means that, unlike with Marmaduke, there is no prospect of him choosing to play for Japan or Germany at a later date (unless, of course, he goes to live there and acquires a passport under naturalisation laws). Which player should the FA give the place to? How should the decision be made?

In the leaked meeting the French officials discussed similar scenarios because many of the players in their country's training academies are like Marmaduke and many alumni – first, second or third-generation immigrants – have already chosen to play for countries other than France despite, in some cases, having won titles with France at youth level. "When people wear the jersey of the [French] national team at Under-16, Under-17, Under-18, Under-19, Under-20 and A level and then they go to North African or African teams, that bothers me enormously," Blanc said. "We have to limit that."

Although Blanc initially denied that he had ever heard any talk of imposing quotas, transcripts of the November meeting subsequently revealed that it was suggested no more than 30% of the places in French training academies should be filled by players who have dual nationality and could, therefore, one day declare for another country. Erick Mombaerts, the Under-21 manager, appeared to be in favour and the national technical director, François Blaquart, intimated that he had already given orders for it to be applied on the QT and has since been suspended pending the outcome of investigations by both the FFF and the Ministry of Sport. According to the transcripts, the one person at the meeting who objected to the introduction of such a plan – the Under-19 manager Francis Smerecki – complained that not only was it discriminatory but it might also mean investing in inferior players: if a Marmaduke could not take a place in an academy because the quota for people with foreign roots had already been filled, then the place may have to go to a less talented player: true, that player would not have the possibility of representing another country, but is he really the sort that France want to turn out for them?

A sinister undertone to the fallout of France's 2010 World Cup fiasco was the degree to which it became politicised. In particular, it fuelled the 'enemy within' strain of anti-immigration lobbying, with critics claiming that it was no surprise that many of the players behind the mutiny in South Africa were black or Muslim (or both) because such folk tend to be incompatible with France: their presence leads to discord. Football had already fanned that debate in France, most recently before a France-Tunisia friendly in Paris in 2008, when Tunisia supporters, many of whom had been born in France, booed the French national anthem and cheered for the opposition.

Blanc has never publicly subscribed to the notion that people of foreign origin are to be distrusted. After last year's World Cup fiasco he merely decried the lack of a team ethic and 'pride in the shirt', and since taking charge he has strived to address these perceived shortcomings. One method has been to insist that all players learn the national anthem.

At November's meeting he suggested that a way of ensuring that fewer France-raised players choose to play for other countries would be to reinforce their feeling of Frenchness. He intimated that respect for "our culture, our history" could be one of the criteria for admission to academies and that once in those academies players could be given "help" to "determine their identity". This was not elaborated on, at least not in the transcripts available so far.

Similar-sounding suggestions are common in the political arena, in France and elsewhere, but it would have been interesting to hear exactly how the FFF might have followed this up. When referring to "our culture, our history", was Blanc suggesting that 12-year-old aspiring footballers should only be admitted to academies if they can prove their knowledge of Napoleon, Voltaire and Johnny Halliday? Or did he mean football culture and history? Would this apply only to the children of immigrants? It is not certain but, with a presidential election one year away in France and political point scoring a priority for many, it has been noted that the former might not be radically different from the loyalty tests that the National Front has campaigned to have foisted on the children of immigrants (or similar, perhaps, to the tests that immigrants to Britain must pass before being granted citizenship). Race and nationality are different things but that was not always clear in the FFF debate, just as it often isn't in political debates.

Fifa rules stipulate which players countries can pick. Governments decide who can get passports. French football officials were debating whether to deliberately exclude people that both Fifa and the government allow them to pick. People in other countries often do the same. The debates about the mooted England call-up for Manuel Almunia showed that. Many fans were opposed on principle even though the government says he is entitled to citizenship, the England cricket and rugby teams would have had no qualms about selecting him if he were good enough and he has spent more time in the country than, say, Owen Hargreaves. Similarly, many Irish fans scoffed recently when Jermaine Pennant revealed that he was considering declaring for the Republic, the land of his grandfather. The reason many fans gave was that Pennant had not made his Irish roots known before and was presumably only doing so now because he had finally accepted that England were not going to give him a game. He is, therefore, an opportunist. But how could they know that? And even if they were right, so what? Is it wrong to go to the country that gives you the best opportunities? He would only be picked if he was the best man for the job. Isn't that how it should be?

Sky News

French football body official admits blowing whistle in 'racist quota' row DailyIndia.com Paris, May 5(ANI): The crisis over French Football Federation (FFF)'s alleged plan to introduce a limit on the number of players of African and Arabic descent in training centers nationwide has escalated after a senior official admitted blowing the ... French football rocked by quotas controversyFRANCE 24 Quotas Crisis Throws Laurent Blanc His First Challenge As France Boss And ...Goal.com India Vieira shocked by quota claimsTeam talk Fox Sports all 162 news articles »

Mohammed Belkacemi made secret tape of meeting in November 2010 where race quotas were discussed

The crisis over French football chiefs' alleged plan to keep non-white players out of the national squad has escalated after a senior official admitted blowing the whistle and secretly recording a meeting about race.

French sport has been shaken by claims that football bosses wanted to limit the number of young black players and those of north African origin emerging as candidates for the national team. The secret plan for ethnic quotas allegedly involved limiting non-white youngsters entering the selection process through training centres as early as age 12 or 13. The investigative website Mediapart ran extracts from a transcript of a meeting last year where football bosses wanted to set a cap of 30% on players of certain origins. The site concluded that officials felt there were "too many blacks and Arabs" in French football and not enough whites.

The scandal has revealed a deep malaise over race in football and the notion that "Les Bleus", despite the multiracial 1998 World Cup winning team, are not patriotic enough unless they have white skin.

Two investigations are under way by the French Football Federation and the government, which expects to announce its findings on Monday. Meanwhile, the national technical director of the federation, Francois Blaquart, has been suspended.

Mohammed Belkacemi, a respected official responsible for liaising with young players in suburbs and highrise estates, on Wednesday admitted he was the whistleblower who had recorded the controversial meeting in November 2010 where race quotas were discussed. It is believed he gave the tape to other officials rather than directly to the media.

The French national coach Laurent Blanc first flatly denied any discussion about quotas, then apologised for any offence about "certain terms" he used.

The recordings show officials were debating French players with dual-nationality who could train in France but leave to play for other teams. Several officials suggested limiting these players. Blanc reportedly talks about black players' morphology. He says of the training centres, which produced French champions such as Thierry Henry and Nicolas Anelka: "You have the impression that they really train the same prototype of players, big, strong, powerful … What is there that is currently big, strong, powerful? The blacks." He said other criteria should be used to bring in players "with our culture, our history".

The scandal comes after the French team's mutiny at the World Cup last summer was privately blamed by some on black or Muslim players, suggesting the team had fragmented because there was not enough "national identity".

The French sports minister, Chantal Jouanno, on Wednesday told French radio ethnic quotas would be illegal. She said training centres should teach national players how to "respect their team shirt".

Black French sportsmen expressed their disgust at alleged ethnic quotas. Yannick Noah, the French tennis player-turned pop star, said: "I've always thought these things existed, in clubs, leagues and in the federation. Now we need to tell the truth and have a real debate."

Lilian Thuram, the former World Cup defender, scorned the notion black players might not be patriotic enough. "I'm black, well dark brown to be precise, and I feel perfectly French. But I didn't know that skin pigmentation was what makes one feel French. Does that mean every white person, even Swedish, feels French?"

{liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature}

the earth is a living thing

is a black shambling bear
ruffling its wild back and tossing
mountains into the sea

is a black hawk circling
the burying ground circling the bones
picked clean and discarded

is a fish black blind in the belly of water
is a diamond blind in the black belly of coal

is a black and living thing
is a favorite child
of the universe
feel her rolling her hand
in its kinky hair
feel her brushing it clean
-Lucille Clifton

Rent a car, should you ever find yourself visiting Chicago. Maneuver north on Lake Shore Drive until you spot the Fullerton Avenue exit, then make a sharp left. This will bring you to the entrance of Lincoln Park Zoo. If this excursion occurs on a sunny Saturday or Sunday afternoon, then you will quickly be submerged in a crowd of multi-hued faces, swallowed whole by the eager eyes of nervous parents trailing behind cherubic children—tots with flushed faces, and cotton-candy filled mouths. Any travel guide worth its sticker price advertises the zoo as a city attraction. It’s as Chicagoan—as integral to the windy city’s tourism industry—as Giordano’s Famous Stuffed Pizza, Navy Pier, Buckingham Fountain, Willis Tower (formerly Sears), and Hancock Observatory. According to its website, Lincoln Park Zoo houses “1200 animals representing 230 species…on 35 acres of land.” Joy will abound as you delight in the jamboree-like ambiance. But what about the animals? What of the lions, and tigers, and bears?

I’m neither an avid PETA activist nor an animals’ rights zealot, so rest assured that that this is not evolving into a holier-than-thou-who-eat-game-meat rant. That notwithstanding, I’m someone who struggles to understand the rationale that justifies the captivity of breathing beings, be they two or four-legged. Zoos reduce animals to tragic things devoid of dignity. Enclosed behind annealed metal bars, animals become mere collectors’ items, like artifacts, artwork, or early model cars, polished and displayed for moments of fleeting amusement and entertainment. Zoos deprive these living creatures of their inalienable right to a purposeful existence and an honorable demise. Consequently, they rob us, as human beings, of ethologically-anchored opportunities to grasp grains of knowledge from our feral friends. Animals, both untamed and domesticated, are planetary philosophers—instructors educated of and by the earth. At our primal cores, we are their students, seeking wisdom that’s as ageless as an amaranth. And there is much to learn.

To watch a cat comfortably curl-up on a window sill, oblivious to the demanding noisiness around it, is to learn about solitude and contentment. To watch a dog climb over the rigid walls that divide species—and altruistically embrace other animals and people—is to learn about unconditional love and generosity of spirit. To watch a skein of ducks or a flock of geese in flight is to learn about community. To watch a starving polar bear attack a mighty walrus at the dénouement of an arctic winter—to see the bloody collision of paw and tusk in a battle for survival—is to learn about bravery and resilience. To watch an animal—any animal—is to observe the discrete parts embedded in the interiors of all living organisms function in unencumbered unison. It is to see God in sublimely synchronized melodious motion. The Liberator griot, achali, affirms this vision: “I learn from animals because they exhibit for me beings with direct, healthy connection with instinct—their sense of self and purpose is ingrained in them and they followed it and, equally important, they have an ability to adapt to new situations and move collectively (in harmony) without sacrificing those things... I was taught I could trust my instinct if (and only if) I cultivated it by keeping it connected to its natural habitat (land, animals, sky, water, fellow humans); and that in fact this is the source of all instruction on how to be a human with healthy instinct—to view Earth as my primary teacher on how to be human and to humbly learn from her.” And there is much to learn.

Kenyan writer Billy Kahora’s short story (link to text below) is a tale about animals and humans plodding along the planet’s periphery. It’s also a tale about animals in humans—the bumbling bestial beings lurking underneath the layers of skin that drape our bones; a tale that is timely as news of Osama bin Laden’s murder percolates into national and international airwaves, unleashing horrifying jubilation and haunting anguish. In an interview with Granta magazine’s Ollie Brock, (full text below) Kahora, who is also managing editor of the literary journal, Kwani?, uses that specific story as a launching point to discuss the stimuli for his—and other contemporary African writers’—works, foci, and impediments. In “The Gorilla’s Apprentice,” he explores what we know about animals and conversely, what they know about us. Kahora tells of the ways in which animals show us how to live and die on this earth—how to emerge from and return to the very dirt that also kisses mountains and teases waters—and how to become more fully human in the process.


Granta Magazine’s Interview with Billy Kahora
(SOURCE: Granta)

Ollie Brock (OB): When did you first become interested in writing?

Billy Kahora (BK): I was always interested but had too much reading to worry about writing my realities. I started writing in my early twenties, when everything around me started contorting in unprecedented ways. And there emerged a reality that was so unexpected across society that, for me, the only way to deal with it was through writing. And that has never really stopped.

OB: Your story “The Gorilla’s Apprentice” is ostensibly about animals – three humans and a gorilla. But politics boils away in the background. Is this central to the story’s thesis, or simply inevitable given the setting of Kenya in the aftermath of the 2007 elections?

BK: Yes, it is central to the story’s thesis but also to the background – it is both the context and the text of the story. I wrote this story in January 2008, when the full implications of the post-election riots were yet to be realised. And so I could get away with pushing the ‘boiling politics’ to the background because I did not have all the details of what was going on... Also, the full ‘emotional’ impact of it all was yet to seep in, though I felt a huge anger with what I saw as the great stupidity and futility of it all. It is not every day that you watch your world burn – or watch it almost coming to that. So the story was written at a time of great apprehension, and was also cathartic in many ways.

But before all this I had always been gripped with the common idea that some Kenyan political elites in the 90s had been accused of harbouring Rwandese war criminals who were ‘genocidaires’. Genocide was an idea that was being bandied around when the violence in Kenya broke out. And that the very notion that we could degenerate into a ‘Rwanda’ was the kernel of the story. So I wondered, what if what was being perpetrated had something to do with certain ‘expertises’ learnt from the genocidaires? That was the main thread in the genesis of the story.

Also, I have always liked stories – film seems to do this well – where a character’s life is disintegrating quietly as the world burns … and that was another thing I wanted to capture. Spike Lee’s Summer of Sam is an example, as is Dark Blue, set during the L.A riots of 1992.

OB: Towards the end of the story, there is an important revelation about Rwandan war crimes. Are you concerned about reinforcing a negative stereotype of Africa by bringing this, and the political violence, into the story? How do you feel it changes the character to give him a past of that kind, that sits outside the story?

BK: For me, a stereotype is basically an unwarranted idea, image or conclusion about a place, based on ignorance and generalisation. It would be flattering to think that this story will create or reinforce negative stereotypes of all the things that are discussed within it. The world is saturated with a generalized ethos, with generalized lenses; these are part of our unavoidable lot. This piece tries to tell a specific story about a young man, his mother, an older man and a gorilla within a specific time and space – I do not see the older man as really coming from outside or having a past that is outside the story. One only need know Nairobi [Kenya] to know that everyone belongs – and that means no one belongs. But hopefully, the characters and time are as individualized and as specific as possible, sitting outside any generalized settings such as the Africa of the generalized lens. That’s as much as I hope it does.

Also, tough as it is to accept that people take machetes against one another, I can’t as a storyteller worry too much about repainting that picture. I leave that to governments seeking aid, tour companies wooing Western visitors, African ‘entrepreneurs’ looking for investment, and all those who profess to ‘love’ Africa. I cannot afford to worry about that just because of a whole bunch of hand waggers flinching at Africa’s ‘realities’ – despite the sad fact of a whole slew of parties on the other side of the divide waiting to jump on those very facts of famines and genocides and make a meal of them and ignore similar things going on elsewhere…

OB: Illness is a prominent feature – the protagonist Jimmy’s friendship with Sebastian the gorilla seems an important part of a recovery. Are you interested in the idea of therapy and healing? Is there a message here about our distance from nature, our inhuman pursuit of violence and power?

BK: I am interested in how human beings react to a collective ‘wounding’. I wanted to play around with the possibility that in a time of human madness, a primate that might have experienced a similar kind of wounding before would make us understand and see something we couldn’t see for ourselves … that in a time of conflict and war, we lose everything that we are and maybe we need other kinds of ‘intelligences’, in this case, animal, to decipher the foolishness and futility of some of our acts. Or simply make us realize that our inhumanity makes us something worse than any other forces around us. So, for me, Sebastian is greater than all of the human characters in the story, and it is that greatness that might help them recover.

One of my other stories, “The Applications”, also tries to explore the idea that in times of great upheaval, madness can be another away out, a coping mechanism. And of course, this is also a story of our distance from nature and everything that really matters, and our inhuman preoccupation with a lot that doesn’t.

OB: Your online journal, Kwani?, is very impressive. Could you talk a little about how it came about? What do you hope to achieve with it, and with your writing more generally?

BK: Kwani? began when an informal group of writers, civil society activists, artists, journalists, filmmakers and newspaper editors started meeting regularly to find channels to showcase their work, discuss it, and fulminate on the social and mostly political goings-on in post-millennial Kenya.

At the time, there was quite a dearth of contemporary expression and narrative in text and publishing in Kenya. Literary offerings were limited, at least in bookshops, to older post-independence writers like Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Meja Mwangi. These individuals I mention felt that their day-to-day realities hung in a kind of limbo outside text and the page even as they read about contemporary realities similar to theirs from other countries, both on the continent and in the West. Kwani? came about as a solution to a perceived vacuum.

Kwani? hopes to continue putting into text all forms of contemporary expression and narratives in Kenya that cannot find a home anywhere else.

I want to do the same with my writing, but in a more specific way – from the spaces that I have more knowledge of. I leave the rest to other contemporary writers and artists who have more knowledge of what is foreign to me even if it ironically seems physically close. And because there are so many upcoming and established writers, Kwani? is a great place for a mix of all these things.

OB: What is the greatest challenge facing young writers today, in Africa and elsewhere?

BK: All young writers will thrive in a space that provides literary succour – a space with a history which respects and exalts writing; where good writing is easily available; a space that has produced successful older writers; and finally a writing community of one’s peers. Beyond this, the writer must not only access a space of non-literary ideas – a place of ‘knowledges’ that can help him/her make sense of his/her realities and translate this into content but also learn the basic tools of the language that writer works in, in most cases English or French.

In Africa, these things are mostly found in isolated pockets. It is no coincidence that most contemporary successful ‘African’ writers are located in the diaspora or come from middle-class- or Western-influenced backgrounds with easy access to spaces that can provide those things that I’ve mentioned. (source)

Do the various Islamist groups in Pakistan and al-Qaida affiliates around the world pose a real threat to the west, and what strategic direction will they now take?

North of Osama bin Laden's last hiding place is the town of Muzaffarabad, prime recruiting and training territory for groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT, the army of the pure) who have waged jihad for almost two decades against the Indian state in disputed Kashmir.

South and west are the lowlands where groups such as Jaish-e-Muhammad (Militia of Muhammad) have training bases and the semi-autonomous tribal areas, described by one MI6 officer as the "Grand Central Station" of international militancy. This is where Pakistani Taliban, Uzbek and other central Asian outfits, the networks led by the warlord and cleric Jalaluddin Haqqani, several Arab groups including Algerians, Libyans and Egyptians, and others are all to be found. Here are European volunteers too.

The vital questions in the wake of Osama bin Laden's death are do these various outfits pose a genuine threat to the west; and what strategic direction will they now take?

Though most of the groups in the Pakistani tribal zones have no formal link to al-Qaida, several have already shown signs of interest in the kind of international attacks and the global agenda that Bin Laden pioneered. The Pakistani Taliban were responsible for the training and commissioning of Faisal Shahzad, a young Pakistani who tried to kill hundreds in Times Square, New York, in May 2010. There is also Ilyas Kashmiri, a Pakistani who broke away from local groups and was revealed by Indian interrogation documents obtained by the Guardian to be behind plots in Denmark and elsewhere in Europe.

Also in the tribal zones – though increasingly squeezed by Pakistani military operations and drone strikes – are central Asian groups that have shown their desire to strike in Europe largely through the use of German volunteers.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, one of the biggest militant groups in the world, is based mainly in the eastern Pakistani province of Punjab. It is torn by fierce disputes pitting hardliners who favour waging war against the Pakistani government and other "hypocrite, apostate" regimes against those who hope to remain close to the Pakistani security establishment. These tensions in part led to the 2008 attack in Mumbai, India's commercial capital, in which more than 160 people died.

But the various affiliates of al-Qaida around the globe – with one exception – have shown little interest in pursuing the global agenda that was the raison d'être of Bin Laden's group. The most recent addition to the "network of networks" that he and his associate Ayman al-Zawahiri had woven together over the years were Somali militants. Last July they attacked restaurants in Uganda in their first international strike. But the reasons for the bombing – to deter Uganda from sending more troops to peacekeeping forces in Somalia – were local.

Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) was formed in late 2006 and announced in 2007 by Zawahiri. The aim was to create a new alliance of existing militant groups along the north African shoreline and provide a springboard to Europe. In this it singularly failed. AQIM was dominated by Algerians who had little interest in reaching out to Libyan or Moroccan counterparts. Though some targets of attacks were international – such as the United Nations – most remained locked into a local dynamic. On 28 April a blast shook the southern city of Marrakech, killing 16 people including a Briton. The cafe that was attacked was a favourite among French visitors – representative of the former colonial power.

In Iraq too, the trend has been towards a more local agenda. Though proving itself more tenacious than had been thought, al-Qaida in Iraq is still limited to the north-western corner of the country and has shown no interest in launching attacks – even regionally, let alone further afield.

The exception is Yemen, from where al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has enthusiastically embraced a global agenda and launched several foiled strikes on American targets. A key figure in Yemen is Anwar al-Awlaki, a US-born cleric who has used the internet to build a large international following. He was in touch with an American army major who in November 2009 went on a shooting rampage on a US military base that killed 13, and his sermons influenced the British student Roshonara Choudhry who in May 2010 stabbed a member of parliament.

Bin Laden's death barely leaves these "affiliate groups" bereft. Most had parted company, organisationally and ideologically, with al-Qaida central leadership a long time ago.

One group that will have to rapidly adjust is the Afghan Taliban. Bin Laden spent 15 years trying to convince Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of the movement, and his followers to wholeheartedly embrace the global agenda. In this the al-Qaida leader had some success, particularly among the younger members who have risen to replace older men killed or captured.

However, on Tuesday, after the dramatic raid on Bin Laden's compound, a Taliban spokesman was noncommittal, merely saying that without hard proof either from the Americans or from the "closest [people] to Osama" that the Saudi-born militant was dead, the movement would refrain from making any comment.

Al-Qaida, founded by bin Laden in 1988, was only ever one of scores of militant groups, all with deep roots in the individual circumstances and histories of different parts of the Islamic world. Sometimes its leader succeeded in binding a few of these fractious and often parochial outfits together around a single agenda to fight a common enemy: the west. Now Bin Laden has gone the centrifugal forces that defined the chaotic world of Islamic militancy before al-Qaida's dominance are set to reassert themselves.

Liberian mercenaries in Abidjan still resisting three weeks after Alassane Ouattara deposed beaten president

Dozens of people have died in Ivory Coast's commercial capital as the remnants of a militia loyal to Laurent Gbagbo fight on – three weeks after he was deposed.

The stubborn resistance in Abidjan is said to come from mainly Liberian mercenaries hired by Gbagbo as a last throw of the dice after he suffered election defeat and his army crumbled.

Persistent clashes underline the fragility of post-war security after the power struggle between Gbagbo and his rival Alassane Ouattara, who succeeded him as president.

Franck Kodjo, a Red Cross official, told Reuters: "We have seen many dead. We recovered 40 bodies over two hours, but we were forced to stop because we had no room left in our van."

Gbagbo's refusal to cede power to the democratically-elected Ouattara triggered a renewed civil war which is believed to have killed more than 3,000 people and displaced more than a million. Gbagbo was arrested on 11 April by forces loyal to Ouattara, with assistance from the French military.

A commander for the Ivorian army, the FRCI, said the remaining pro-Gbagbo fighters in the Abidjan neighbourhood of Yopougon were mostly Liberians who had crossed the border as guns for hire in the aftermath of the election dispute. Efforts to disarm them have so far failed.

"We are in the process of securing the town but there are heavy weapons," the commander told Reuters. "We're not the ones firing them, it is those we oppose, the Liberians."

Other parts of Ivory Coast's main city are reviving after the conflict, with banks reopening and traffic slowly returning to normal. Ivory Coast's main industry, the cocoa sector, is poised to resume exports of nearly half a million tonnes of beans, exporters said.

Ouattara's government is investigating Gbagbo and his inner circle for alleged human rights abuses during the conflict. He has pledged to set up a South African-style truth and reconciliation commission and has already filled the key post of chairman.

Gbagbo is under house arrest in a presidential villa in the northern town of Korhogo, guarded by UN peacekeepers and former rebel forces who supported Ouattara.

The former president called for his supporters to allow the country to restart its economy in peace. Gbagbo met a team of mediators including former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and South African archbishop Desmond Tutu.

After the meeting, Tutu said: "We were very thrilled that the former president looked forward to the country returning to normalcy.

"This is what we are urging all parties – that the country should become the country it was – peaceful, with security for everyone."

Annan said he encouraged Gbagbo to address the Ivorian people "sooner rather than later" to call for reconciliation. Gbagbo had not given any sign that he disputed Ouattara's presidency, he added.

The demise of Laurent Gbagbo’s regime offers fresh opportunities to tackle Cote d’Ivoire’s intractable problems. Hundreds of people have lost their lives, about a million have been displaced from their homes, infrastructure and properties have been destroyed, and economic life remains precarious. Gbagbo’s continued hold on power would have emboldened leaders who lose elections to stay in office, dealing a blow to the region’s fragile democracies.

However, Gbagbo’s exit does not solve the problems of Cote d’Ivoire, which remains a divided country. Although Alassane Ouattara won the elections, almost half of the population voted for his opponent. The country’s 20 million people of 70 ethnicities form five regional clusters: the Akan in the eastern and central parts of the country; the Krou and allied groups in the southwest; the Southern Mandé in the west; and the Voltaic and Northern Mandé in the north. The southern groups tend to be Christian, and those in the north Muslim. The influx of migrants from predominantly Muslim Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea in search of work during the boom of the 1960s and 1970s changed the ethnic distribution in favour of Muslims.

As demands for competitive elections grew and the political elite that succeeded the founding president, Houphouet Boigny, sought to consolidate its rule, a xenophobic discourse of Ivoirité or indigeneity emerged that elevated the Muslim-Christian/North-South divide over other cleavages. Bold and creative efforts are required to drain the poison of Ivoirité from the body politic, manage the North-South schism, and develop a culture of shared citizenship.

Sierra Leone’s post-conflict experience offers lessons on national security, inclusive government and development.

Sierra Leone’s conflict was of course more destructive and less ethnic than Cote d’Ivoire’s. Still, Cote d’Ivoire will have to rebuild its divided army, disarm militias, and provide security to its traumatised citizens. In highly polarised settings, security sector reform should not be left to winners alone. In Sierra Leone, the government worked with the United Nations peacekeeping mission (UNAMSIL) and Britain in providing security for a number of years before full responsibility was transferred to national authorities. Fortunately, soldiers in UN peacekeeping missions in Africa today are largely drawn from the continent and other developing countries, avoiding the stigma of neocolonialism. In Sierra Leone, the bulk of the force was Nigerian. Britain’s military back-up to UNAMSIL mainly served as deterrence.

The UN may have to expand its mission in Cote d’Ivoire. Can France play a similar role in Cote d’Ivoire as Britain did in Sierra Leone? The French have been more forceful in carrying out regime change in Cote d’Ivoire than the British were in Sierra Leone. Surely, without French power, the stalemate would have continued and more lives would have been lost.

However, there are constraints on the use of the French military as deterrence because of distrust of French motives among sections of the Ivorian elite. Differences between British and French engagement with their ex-colonies may account for this. The British establishment has fewer social ties with African elites, whereas France has nurtured strong bonds with elites in its ex-colonies. Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, son of former French president François Mitterrand, and Martin Bouygues, head of the French industrial group, Bouygues, attended Ouatarra’s wedding in 1991. France retained military bases in most of Francophone West Africa and has often been accused of defending friendly authoritarian leaders. Today, partly because of weak post-colonial ties, most Sierra Leoneans consider Britain’s military presence in Sierra Leone as benign. The same cannot be said about elite attitudes towards France in Cote d’Ivoire.

The winner, Ouattara, also needs to form a government that is perceived as inclusive by those who did not vote for him. Again Sierra Leone provides useful lessons. The immediate post-war leader, Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, reached out to sections of the country (the North and West) that disliked his party. He even incurred the wrath of party stalwarts in the South for insisting on a balanced cabinet. In the 2002 elections held just after the war, he recorded 70% of the vote as president, and his party won 18 of the 40 parliamentary seats in the North. Today there are a large number of Northern elites in his party; and at least 8 of the 19 candidates for the party’s 2012 presidential ticket claim to have Northern roots. The current Northern-dominated government has recently borrowed a leaf from that experience of inclusive government after some faltering steps that alienated Southern elites.

Finally, governments should avoid an incremental approach to reconstruction that privileges reconciliation and humanitarian assistance over development. This is because by the time the development phase is reached, confidence in peace improving the wellbeing of most people may have waned, forcing voters to turn against incumbents. If Kabbah’s government did well on reconciliation, it scored poorly on development, preferring to focus on small projects, such as rehabilitating schools, clinics, traditional courts, markets, and police stations that are essential in resettling populations but inadequate in moving economies forward. Issues of infrastructure development, energy provision, agricultural transformation and employment are only now being seriously addressed. Voters rejected the party in the 2007 elections.

The lessons for Cote d’Ivoire are clear: security sector reform, reconciliation, resettlement and development must work in tandem; and governments must ensure that the people, especially the youth, see improvements in their lives.

 

 

 

The death of Osama bin Laden offers a perfect opportunity to revisit the list of the World's Most Wanted. So who still makes it?

He wasn't the World's Most Wanted Man. Officially, at least, there's no such thing. But when Osama bin Laden died from a shot to the head and another to the chest sometime between midnight and 1.30am local time on Monday, the man who, in the popular western imagination, held arguably the best – and certainly the best-publicised – claim to be regarded as such left behind him something of a conundrum for those who compile such lists: who could replace him?

It's not such a straightforward question. Leaving aside such niceties as one man's evil terrorist mastermind being another man's blessed freedom fighter, attempting to place in order of importance crimes on the kind of scale that might warrant inclusion in a Top 10 of global iniquity is a task fraught with difficulties. How do you measure a Serbian ethnic cleanser against an American serial killer, dismemberer and necrophile; a Mexican drugs baron against a Rwandan genocide-merchant?

Most lists, sensibly, do not try. The first and perhaps the most famous of all, the FBI's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives – from which Bin Laden was summarily ejected on Monday, his photograph stamped with a blood-red banner and the single word "Deceased" – doesn't rank its members, who are confined to criminals indicted by a US federal grand jury. Bin Laden, indicted in absentia in New York in 1999 for his alleged part in the US embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi the previous year, was a bit of a misfit on that list.

His fellow fugitives were, for the most part, fraudsters, rapists, murderers and drug traffickers, with bounties on their heads ranging from $100,000 to $2m; the reward offered for Bin Laden's capture totalled $27m (£16m). Robert William Fisher, for example, is wanted for allegedly killing his wife and two young children and then blowing up the house in which they all lived in Scottsdale, Arizona in April 2001; Alexis Flores for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping and murder of a five-year-old girl in Philadelphia.

Heinous crimes, but hardly the equivalent of masterminding 9/11. Or indeed, as assorted warrants put it, of "organising a global network committed to bringing down the United States". That explains why the FBI created a separate list in 2001, in the wake of the September 11 attacks: Most Wanted Terrorists. The death of the al-Qaida figurehead leaves 29 people on that list, including his reported deputy, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and also indicted for the US embassy bombings; Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso, wanted in connection with the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, which killed 17 US sailors; Adam Yahihe Gadahn, sought for providing "material support, comfort and aid" to al-Qaida; and Abdul Rahman Yasin, indicted in the 1993 bombing of the New York World Trade Centre.

The FBI's hope, it seems, was that the terrorist list would have the same mobilising effect on the US public as the original 10 Most Wanted, first launched on 14 March 1950 after the FBI director, J Edgar Hoover, spotted the potential of the publicity generated by a news agency story profiling the "toughest guys" the bureau would like to capture. The first person placed on the list was Thomas James Holden, wanted for the murder of his wife, her brother and her stepbrother. Down the years it has also featured the likes of James Earl Ray, the prime suspect in the assassination of Martin Luther King; the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy; and (briefly) civil rights activist Angela Davis.

According to the FBI, 494 fugitives have figured on its 10 Most Wanted list, and 464 have been captured or at least or located, 152 of them with the help of the public. Priorities have changed over time, the agency says. In the 50s, the list was "primarily comprised of bank robbers, burglars, and car thieves". In the radical 60s, "the list reflected the revolutionaries of the times, with destruction of government property, sabotage, and kidnapping dominating". The 70s were overwhelmingly about organised crime, and in the 80s and 90s the 10 Most Wanted began to include suspected international terrorists as well. In more recent years, common crimes have included rape and other sexual abuse, crimes against children, white-collar crime, gang violence and drug trafficking.

Maintaining such a list on a global scale has obvious pitfalls. Interpol, the international police organisation, makes no attempt to prioritise. The 321 criminals who currently feature on its website range from an Australian kidnapper to an Argentinian counterfeiter.

(In Britain, rather more prosaically, Crimestoppers UK's 10 Most Wanted includes one John Levy, wanted for "driving off from a petrol station without paying for £51 worth of diesel".)

Since 2008, the US business magazine Forbes has published a list of The World's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives, compiled in consultation with law enforcement agencies internationally (see below). Its criteria, the magazine says, are that fugitives have been criminally indicted or charged in national jurisdictions or by an international tribunal, stand accused of "a long history of committing serious crimes", and are "still considered dangerous". In addition, each is said to represent "a type of criminal problem with which legal institutions in diverse jurisdictions are grappling". It also ranks its candidates from one to 10.

Described as "armed, dangerous and very tough to catch – the world's worst thieves and thugs who have eluded local police, armies and international organisations for years", Forbes's most recent list was topped by Bin Laden. It also includes Semion Mogilevich, "the face of Russian organised crime"; Joaquin Guzman, "Mexico's most notorious drug trafficker"; Dawood Ibrahim, "India's most wanted man"; Italian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro; Rwandan businessman (and alleged genocide financier) Felicien Kabuga; Joseph Kony of the brutal Lord's Resistance Army; and James L Bulger, a Boston mobster wanted in connection with up to 19 murders.

But the list is disputable. Britain, for example, would probably quite like to see Andrei Lugovoi, the former KGB operative wanted for the murder by plutonium poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, somewhere on a list of this kind (although he hasn't been charged). Augustin Bizimana, likewise, is the most senior of the 12 or so people wanted for genocide by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda not to have been apprehended; the former defence minister faces charges over the massacre of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994. Some might like to see the name of Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the Sudanese dictator seen as responsible for ethnic cleansing that has left 300,000 dead and 2.5 million homeless in Darfur and the first sitting head of state ever indicted by the International Criminal Court. And what of Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb army chief indicted for genocide in The Hague in 1995? He's still out there, laughing.

So who will replace Bin Laden for the list-makers? It seems logical he could make way on Forbes's list to last year's runner-up, Guzman. The FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list will simply shrink; Bin Laden's name will not be substituted. But on the Top 10 Most Wanted, the jury's out. Some reckon Zawahiri is a shoo-in; other favour the Libyan, Anas al-Liby, or the Egyptian Saif al-Adel, both allegedly implicated in the east African embassy bombings. Adan el Shukrijumah, a Saudi citizen suspected of planning to attack the New York subway in 2009, and Yasin, wanted in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing, are also mentioned. But, some observers say, Bin Laden's replacement on America's 10 Most Wanted could be an altogether less rarefied species of lowlife: a white-collar criminal, say, or a bank robber. Ultimately, such lists are always going to be subjective.

The new 10 Most Wanted List

1 Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán Mexican drug lord

"El Chapo" or "Shorty" (he stands 5ft 6in tall) heads an international drug trafficking organisation, the Sinaloa Cartel, and became Mexico's top drug kingpin in 2003 after the arrest of his rival Osiel Cárdenas of the Gulf Cartel. Appears simultaneously on Forbes's lists of the world's most powerful, most wealthy and most wanted men. Ruthless and determined, Guzmán has succeeded in turning Ciudad Juárez, a strategic smuggling point that overlooks El Paso, Texas, into one of the murder capitals of the world through mind-numbingly brutal battles against both the Gulf and La Linea cartels, leaving thousands dead. A faction from La Linea has recently defected to Shorty's side; a local street gang, the Mexicles, has sub-contracted its services in killing, kidnapping, drug dealing and extorting; and even elements of the police and army seem to have thrown their lot in with him. Sinaloa smuggles many tonnes of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico into the United States, and is also heavily involved in Mexican methamphetamine, marijuana and heroin.

2 Dawood Ibrahim Head of Indian crime network

The most wanted man in India heads up a 5,000-strong organised crime network called the D-Company that is involved in everything from drugs trafficking to contract killing in Pakistan, India and the UAE. Currently on the Interpol wanted list for organised crime and counterfeiting, besides association with al-Qaida. According to Washington, Ibrahim uses the same smuggling routes as al-Qaida and has worked with both the mother organisation and its offshoot Lashkar-e-Taiba, responsible for the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. He is also suspected in the 1993 Mumbai bombings that killed 257 people and wounded 713. Like Bin Laden, Ibrahim may well be based in Pakistan.

3 Semion Mogilevich Russian 'boss of bosses'

Arrested in Russia for tax evasion in 2008, Ukrainian-born Mogilevich was released in 2009. Wanted in the US in connection with a $150m share fraud; believed by both European and US law enforcement agencies to be the "boss of bosses" of most Russian mafia syndicates in the world. Nicknames include "Don Semyon" and "The Brainy Don"; often described as "the most dangerous mobster in the world".

4 Matteo Messina Denaro Cosa Nostra kingpin

Sicilian mafioso who has effectively taken control of Italy's Cosa Nostra following the arrest of Bernardo Provenzano and other leading mobsters. Nicknamed "Diabolik", after an Italian comic-book character. Known for his fast lifestyle, Porsches and Rolex watches, he has been on the run since 1993.

5 Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov Uzbek mobster

Major Russian mobster originally from Uzbekistan and apparently known as "Taiwanchik" for his Asian appearance. Washington describes him as a "major figure in international Eurasian organised crime" engaged in "drug distribution, illegal arms sales and trafficking in stolen vehicles." He is even alleged to have bribed the figure skating judges in the 2002 Winter Olympics.

6 Felicien Kabuga Mastermind of genocide

Accused of bankrolling the Rwandan genocide, inciting bloodshed through his radio station and even supplying the machetes and hoes used in the massacres, Kabuga is wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for "serious offences under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, crimes against humanity and genocide" in connection with the massacre of more than 800,000 Rwandan men, women and children in 100 days of terror in 1994. Allegedly hiding in Kenya.

7 Joseph Kony Ugandan guerrilla leader

Head of the Lord's Resistance Army, a guerrilla group engaged in a violent campaign to establish theocratic government in Uganda. Has also operated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sudan, abducting an estimated 66,000 children and displacing more than two million people since 1986. The International Criminal Court has indicted him on 33 charges including crimes against humanity and war crimes.

8 James 'Whitey' Bulger Old-school US mobster

The ever-so-slightly embarrassing older brother of William Michael Bulger, a former president of the Massachusetts state senate and the University of Massachusetts, Bulger was part of the Winter Hill Gang, a Boston-based Irish-American crime network that for many years ran illicit drugs and extortion rackets. Pursued by the FBI for more than a decade for racketeering, murder (his name has been linked to 19 killings from the early 70s up to the mid-80s), conspiracy to commit murder, extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion, money laundering and narcotics distribution. Bulger's wealth is estimated at between $30m and $50m (£18m-£30m), cash he is said to be using to evade arrest with his longtime girlfriend. Last confirmed sighting was in London in 2002. There is a reward of $2m for information leading to his arrest.

9 Omid 'Nino' Tahvili Head of Canadian crime group

Head of a Persian organised crime network in Canada linked to assorted Triads and other global criminal groups. Arrested on charges of torturing a relative of a man he suspected had stolen a chunk of his organisation's illicit drugs money, he walked out of a Canadian maximum security prison in a janitor's uniform in November 2007 after promising to pay a guard to let him out (he never forked up). US law enforcement wants to talk to him about a fraudulent telemarketing business that targeted people in the US, stealing some $3m from hundreds of victims, most of them elderly.

10 ? Ayman al-Zawahiri Al-Qaida number two

Born in June 1951 into a prominent upper-middle class family in Cairo, Zawahiri was the final "emir" of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which he merged into al-Qaida in 1998. Reportedly a qualified surgeon, he speaks Arabic, English and French. According to former al-Qaida members, Zawahiri has worked with al-Qaida since the organisation's earliest beginnings. He is often described as Bin Laden's right-hand man, and by some as the "real brains" of al-Qaida. The friendship between the two men supposedly began in the 80s when Zawahiri is said to have given medical treatment to Bin Laden in Afghanistan in the teeth of a Soviet attack. According to terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman, Bin Laden considered Zawahiri his mentor. Most experts believe 9/11 could not have happened without Zawahiri's controlling influence.

By: Joel Dreyfuss

Alain Dolium is almost an oxymoron: He's a black French politician. A businessman and candidate for France's National Assembly in 2012, Dolium is indeed a rare breed. Despite the country's rich mix of whites, blacks from Africa and the Caribbean, and an Arab-Muslim population of more than 5 million, the French political establishment is almost exclusively white.

There is currently just one black elected official representing a mainland constituency in France's National Assembly, and no nonwhite mayors or other local elected officials in the nation of 63 million. Dolium, a businessman whose parents are from the French Caribbean, is an outspoken critic of France's virtual taboo against discussions of race and racism. "We have a giant hypocrisy," he said in an interview with The Root. "People who bring up race issues are seen as anti-republic.”

Yet, says Dolium, social, political and economic power is concentrated in one community (France's white majority). One reason, he says, is a mind-set that defines France firmly as it once was. "France has created an imaginary country. We still refer to 'our ancestors, the Gauls,' " he says. "The stream feeding France -- the Maghreb, Africa and Antilles -- is rejected by the French."

Dolium, 43, was born in Paris and raised in the industrial suburb of Malakoff. He attended the Ecole Supérieur de Commerce in Amiens, north of Paris, and graduate school in Montreal. He is an entrepreneur: CEO and co-founder of Obad, a mobile marketing company with offices in New York and Paris. He is a member of Mouvement Démocrate, France's centrist third party, popularly known as MoDem, and has been put forward as the head of the party's candidate list for the Paris region in next year's elections. If MoDem ends up winning -- or, more likely, forms a coalition with the winning party -- Dolium could be a candidate for a cabinet post.

Not surprisingly, some pundits and media have referred to Dolium as the "French Obama." He rejects the label as a trap, an attempt to reduce his candidacy to his color, rather than addressing his political positions. Dolium says that the French political elite are not ready for diversity -- although he believes that ordinary French citizens will vote for a black candidate.

He is trying to avoid the fate of other high-profile blacks in French politics. When Sarkozy became president in 2007, he named several minorities to his cabinet. One was Rama Yade, a woman of African origin who was appointed secretary of state for human rights. Yade's standing was soon undercut by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who declared that human rights were already an integral element of French foreign policy.

Yade earned Sarkozy's disapproval by publicly taking stances counter to his policies and, finally, for declining his request that she run for the European parliament. In 2009 she was demoted to the sports portfolio. In his last cabinet shuffle, Sarkozy named Yade France's ambassador to UNESCO -- further marginalizing her -- despite her high standing in public opinion polls.

"Most of the time, black men and women are sought out by the parties in power, who put them in very high positions," says Dolium. "But they have not had any opportunity to build a political base, so when they leave government, they also leave political life." Dolium has avoided party assignments traditionally doled out to blacks -- youth, sports, troubled neighborhoods -- to focus on economic development and innovation. "I am one of rare black politicians who are dealing with national issues," he says.

Dolium believes that France needs to broaden economic opportunity and make sure that its masses of young people are properly educated. "We graduate 150,000 kids every year who have not acquired fundamentals in language and math," he warns. "They will fail." He describes his country as "determinist" with little real social mobility. "You become who you are on the basis of where you were born," says Dolium. A student from a working-class background is 16 times less likely to attend an elite grande école (the country's top universities) than is one from a middle-class family, he says.

France has tried to compensate with a tentative embrace of affirmative action called "positive discrimination." Some grandes écoles have altered their admissions process to draw more applicants from poorer families. Dolium says that more-vigorous efforts are needed to broaden opportunities in France. He notes that the children of the most privileged French attend just 100 elementary schools out of 16,000 in France, assuring their rise through the ranks. "It's clear that if you tell me where you are born and what elementary school you attend, I can tell you if you will be successful," he says.

Efforts to measure minority progress and discrimination are hampered by a ban on collecting racial data. Some minority leaders have lobbied for gathering such statistics, but Sarkozy is said to be opposed. "If we want to reduce the inequality of opportunity, which is a fact, we have to know more precisely who the victims are, why and how," says Dolium.

France has tried to encourage innovation by offering tax incentives to large companies that invest in startups. But Dolium says that these laws fail because they are administered by people who understand only big business. The result: "The laws asphyxiate innovation." Obviously, he believes that his own entrepreneurial experience can help address these failings. The first step will be the 2012 elections. If he succeeds, he might begin to like the "French Obama" tag.

Joel Dreyfuss is the managing editor of The Root.

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Carol Daughters whose high list of investors include Steve Stoute, Mary J. Blige and Jay-Z has announced the faces to their multiracial campaign. The new spokeswomen will be Cassie (African American, Mexican and Filipina), Selita Ebanks (Native American, Irish and African-American), and Solange (African American and French Creole). Lisa Price, founder of the revolutionary hair [...]

French scientists are up in arms about the freeze their universities and research organizations...

With a punishing criteria and several entries stakes are high at a Parisian contest seeking to identify best stick of bread

They are hot, golden and crispy. Their makers hold them like saints' relics and the judges in charge of inspecting them wear white gloves. These are the prized entries competing to be named Paris's best baguette.

At the head office of the bakers and pâtissiers' union in the heart of Paris, young and old bakers queue up to enter the competition, first held in 1994. Pascal Guenard, a baker and pâtissier for more than 20 years is entering a baguette in the contest for the first time.

He wears his white uniform and has flour in his hair; his pair of baguettes smell divine. "It's the first time I've competed for best baguette but I came fourth once in the best croissant competition," he said. "This award is very important for us and for our clients. I want them to be proud and be able to say that their baker makes the best baguette in Paris. It's also a way for us artisans to fight the big supermarkets which sell crap baguettes for 50 cents. At €1.10, our baguette had better be good." On the second floor, white-gloved ladies give a number to each pair of baguettes, register every baker's name and address, and wish them "bonne chance". Each baguette is then measured and weighed. This is the guillotine moment. Baguettes must measure between 55 and 70cm and weigh between 240g and 310g, criteria that were established 20 years ago.

"We had to set up rules," said Jacques Mabille, president of the bakers union. "During the war, baguette's crumb was grey. The French grew to hate it.

"So after the war, the whiter the crumb, the happier the people were. However, to get a very white crumb, you must compromise on the overall quality of the bread and on its taste. So we chose to return to a more balanced baguette and set up a few rules. … Today, a good baguette has a creamy-looking crumb, a crispy crust, a distinctive flavour and a delicious smell of wheat. And it shouldn't have more than 18g of salt." Each year, a third of baguettes are disqualified, usually because they are too heavy and too long.

At the end of the queue stands Lahoussaine Damer, 26, a baker and pâtissier since the age of 18. "It's the third time I've competed but I've never got into the top 10. This time, I have tried to perfect the cooking. Also, I was careful with the measurement and weight. They are ruthless. My baguette was disqualified last year for one centimetre." Which French baker does he admire most? "Djibril Bodian." Bodian, a member of the jury this year, was the winner of last year's competition. He came to France from Senegal at the age of six, and fell in love with bread through his father, who set up a boulangerie in the Paris suburb of Pantin. After he won, Bodian became the French president's personal baker, delivering his baguettes every day to the Elysée Palace. "We were never complimented by the Elysée Palace but were told that if nothing was said then it was a good sign, that they liked it" he says.

"We have today a whole new generation of bakers in Paris, of African origin, from the Maghreb but also many Japanese and Cambodians," said Mabille. "Baguettes have universal appeal. Besides, bakers are usually trained in French schools with traditional recipes and savoir faire."

A total of 174 baguettes were entered for the prize, with 38 disqualified.

Among the 15 judges was a fromager, a teacher at the boulangerie school of Paris, and a food critic, as well as six Parisians chosen randomly after they entered a lottery.

They touched, stroked, chewed, smelled, and even listened to the baguettes, inspecting their backs and bellies. Their colour and holes were closely inspected and intensely debated. Some judges spat out their samples .

Three hours later, the verdict was given: after competing for the eighth time, Pascal Barillon, from Montmartre has won the best baguette accolade. As of Wednesday, he will be Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's official supplier.

The Guardian

French begin inquiry into racism quota row Stuff.co.nz OH LA LA: French football coach Laurent Blanc is embroiled in a row over limiting the number of players of African and North African descent in French training academies. The French Football Federation has begun an inquiry into claims that national ... Racism row in France may spark lawsuitReuters Africa France great Lilian Thuram 'hurt' by ongoing racism row and dismisses dual ...The Canadian Press French Football Federation Accused Of Institutionalized RacismSB Nation World Cup Blog (blog) -Goal.com America -Agenzia Giornalistica Italia all 1,000 news articles »

My 4-year-old has taught me a little rhyme they sing at her daycare whenever it rains. It goes something like this:

Rain, rain go away,

Come again another day

It seems to me that if you replace “rain” with any of the vaccine-preventable diseases names, that first line captures the science-based, pro-health position quite well. We want these killer diseases to go away. It also seems to me that the second line captures the anti-vaxer’s position quite well too: they seem to want these vaccine-preventable diseases to come back. According to them these diseases are “harmless”, “rites of passage”, and they “go away on their own”. Some of them even have little parties where they intentionally try to infect their children with a vaccine-preventable disease by exposing them to other sick children, in order to build “natural immunity” which they perceive to be a better thing than the “unnatural” vaccine-induced one.  

If we allow them to succeed that second line will come true; the diseases will start coming back.

In fact, we’re getting a preview of such a comeback today. As you read this, there are pockets of measles outbreaks in developed countries such as: the U.S., France, Belgium, Australia, Germany, Italy, as well as in developing countries such as Somalia and Congo. Measles is extremely contagious. About 90% of people with no immunity to it (i.e. did not get the disease and survived it, or did not get immunity from a vaccine) get infected if exposed. It is also not as harmless as some people might try to portray. According to the CDC:

As many as 1 out of every 20 children with measles gets pneumonia, and about 1 child in every 1,000 who get measles will develop encephalitis. (This is an inflammation of the brain that can lead to convulsions, and can leave the child deaf or mentally retarded.) For every 1,000 children who get measles, 1 or 2 will die from it. Measles also can make a pregnant woman have a miscarriage, give birth prematurely, or have a low-birth-weight baby.

In developing countries, where malnutrition and vitamin A deficiency are common, measles has been known to kill as many as one out of four people. It is the leading cause of blindness among African children. Measles kills almost 1 million children in the world each year.

On the other hand measles is highly preventable via the MMR vaccine, which is available to all in the developed world. So why are we seeing so many cases? The answer may not be straightforward, but at least in some cases the outbreaks are directly linked to unvaccinated people exporting the disease while traveling abroad. Here’s a summary, albeit incomplete, of worldwide measles activity so far in 2011.

U.S.  

Minnesota

As of April 15^th, 2011 the Minnesota Department of Health has confirmed 20 measles cases. The outbreak started when an unvaccinated child contracted the disease while traveling to Kenya. Sixteen other cases are directly related to this child (for a total of 17 related cases, confirming the incredibly high contagion rate for this disease). Another case contracted the disease while traveling to India; the 19^th while traveling to Florida, while the 20^th is of unknown origin. There have been 13 hospitalizations, and luckily no deaths. According to the Minnesota Department of Health:

• Six of the cases were too young to receive the vaccine

• Eight were of age but were not vaccinated

• One was vaccinated

• One was vaccinated prior to the recommended age

• Four have unknown vaccination status

You might be thinking: 20 cases, big deal! If you are, consider this: Minnesota has seen a total of 22 measles cases in the 14 year period from 1997-2010. That’s right, in a little over 3 months Minnesota has seen almost as many measles infections as in the previous 14 years combined. 

Utah

5 cases of measles have been confirmed in what is shaping up to be the worst measles outbreak in Utah in a decade (although still small and limited to Salt Lake County). Four schools have been affected by the outbreak, and a total of 42 students have been identified for possible exposure. The first confirmed case was an Olympus High student who tested positive after returning from a trip to Europe. At least two other confirmed cases are linked to this teen; one was hospitalized. None of the confirmed cases had received the measles vaccine. The last suspected case of measles in Utah was in 2005, and the last outbreak was in 2000 in Summit County, which totaled 3 cases. 

Elsewhere in the U.S.

A 9-month-old baby contracted the measles while traveling abroad and triggered a measles warning in a Long Island (NY) mall. The child was too young and most probably had not received the first dose of the MMR which is given at age 1.

A 24-year-old woman returning from a trip overseas sparked a mini outbreak in Boston at the French Consulate where she worked. 180 people were vaccinated in the hopes of containing the possible spread of the infection. I have been unable to verify the vaccination status of the 24-year-old woman.    

Outside of the U.S.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has been battling a deadly outbreak since late 2010. So far, the disease has sickened over 21,000 and killed at least 210. One hundred and six of the dead are being reported to have been children less than 5 years of age. A massive Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) aid campaign has been underway since September 2010. Over 1.5 million children have been vaccinated so far, but it appears the epidemic hasn’t been contained yet.

 

Unfounded fears that the measles vaccine causes HIV/AIDS have led to a measles outbreak in Somalia. The WHO has reported at least 200 cases and a minimum of 11 deaths. Interestingly, a high percentage of the Minnesota measles cases are from the Somali community and unvaccinated, a community with which Andrew Wakefield has had close contact with.

An outbreak of measles in Cote d'Ivoire has sickened 47 and resulted in at least one death. The majority of the cases were in children under 5 years of age (78.7%) and the majority of cases were in unvaccinated individuals (87.2%, although to be clear this last number doesn’t mean much unless we know overall measles vaccination rates in the country). The outbreak gave rise to a massive immunization drive in February which targeted 500,000 children under 5. The confirmed numbers of measles cases in Cote d'Ivoire has been rising over the past few years: 22 cases were confirmed in 2008, 183 in 2009 and 433 in 2010.  

A massive vaccination campaign in the Philippines started in the beginning of April in response to increases in measles and German measles (rubella) cases over the past few years. The number of infections has grown from 453 in 2007 to 1,418 in 2010. More than 70 percent of these cases were among children who had not been vaccinated against measles.

Measles outbreaks are being reported in Europe, especially in Denmark, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Netherlands and Germany among others. Thirty European countries are reporting elevated levels of measles infection, with over 6,500 total cases reported. France alone has reported almost 5,000 cases so far this year (almost equaling the total from 2010). Belgium has recorded 100 in 2011 (as compared with 40 total for the whole of 2010) and most of the cases are in unvaccinated children (either too young to have received the vaccine or who skipped it). Other significant outbreaks are also taking place in Serbia, Spain (Andalusia), the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey.  The UK’s Health Protection Agency has issued a warning to travelers and is advising them to ensure their children are up to date with their MMR vaccine prior to heading to these countries for Easter. A similar warning has been issued by Health Protection Scotland to its citizens planning to travel to France.  

Australia is also reporting elevated measles cases. New South Wales has reported 29 cases so far this year. Seven of these cases were directly linked with unvaccinated or partially vaccinated travelers returning from overseas. Queensland is reporting 12 cases (compared with a total of 14 for 2010), two of which required hospitalization. Victoria's Health Department has issued a measles alert after four people were infected on a flight from Malaysia to Melbourne. The department believes more people may have been infected; over 90% of attendees have been telephoned so far, and about half of those have been asked to return this weekend for vaccination. 

Conclusion  

It is easy to become complacent and to get tired of being told how dangerous vaccine-preventable diseases can be. Yet, we’d be playing in the hands of the anti-vaccine proponents if we let ourselves get too lazy with our skepticism, and allowed them to convince us that all what I described above is no big deal. If we allow them to continue spreading their misinformation unopposed measles will come back; whooping cough will come back; polio will come back; untold death and suffering will come back. With little pockets of outbreaks the world over, a reduction in vaccination rates below herd immunity requirements is a recipe for disaster. The next outbreak is literally one airplane flight away, and we simply cannot afford to slack off now.

Support those of us who are fighting the good fight; support us and others like us in the anti-anti-vax camp. You know you don’t want “too many, too soon” to apply to children’s lives.

 

Leart Shaka is a NYC based skeptic, who is focusing his skeptical efforts in countering anti-vaccine misinformation. He is the creator, and Editor-In-Chief, of The Vaccine Times, a quarterly pro-health publication, for parents, by parents, and runs the Vaccine Times website and blog. He can be found on Twitter as @Skepdude and @VaccineTimes.

 

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• FFF investigates claims senior figures agreed secret quotas
• France coach Laurent Blanc strongly denies allegations

The French Football Federation has begun its inquiry into claims that the national team coach, Laurent Blanc, and other coaches secretly agreed on a quota restricting the number of black and Arab players in national training programmes.

The investigative website Mediapart published claims last week that proposals were envisaged to limit to 30% the number of players of African and north African descent in training academies once they reach the age of 13.

The FFF technical director François Blaquart is suspended pending the inquiry, which included an alleged transcript of a conversation involving Blanc, Blaquart, and the Under-21 coaches Erick Mombaerts and Francis Smerecki, in November.

In the transcript, an outraged Smerecki is quoted as speaking out angrily against the proposal, calling it a "discriminatory" idea that should never see the light of day. He has not yet commented on Mediapart's article.

The focus of the conversation was to find a way to limit the number of players with dual nationalities coming through the French youth teams before then deciding to play for their country of origin as adults.

All four of them will be interviewed this week by a special commission headed by Patrick Braouezec, who had already led an inquiry examining the reasons for the France team's strike at last year's World Cup in South Africa. Laurent Davenas, the president of the FFF's ethics council, and a member of the French sports ministry will also be involved in the inquiry.

The quotas row comes just as Blanc was beginning to turn the team's fortunes around following the World Cup debacle, where – under the former coach Raymond Domenech – the squad went on strike in protest at Nicolas Anelka's exclusion and were eliminated in the group stage without winning a match.

The French sports minister, Chantal Jouanno, urgently requested that the FFF open an inquiry just hours after Mediapart's story broke last Thursday, and Jouanno wants it to be completed by the end of this week. The conclusions will then be discussed further at an FFF federal council meeting next week.

Lilian Thuram, Blanc's team-mate when France won the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Championship, said he was shocked when he heard that race quotas had apparently been discussed. The former France players Basile Boli, Luc Sonor and Bernard Lama have also expressed their outrage in recent days.

Others, such as the France midfielder Alou Diarra and the striker Karim Benzema have publicly backed Blanc, although both said they were upset at the thought of quotas being discussed. Diarra, who has been France's captain several times under Blanc, said that he hopes the coach does not resign over the affair.

Blanc strongly denied the allegations last week and said: "This project does not exist. All that, for me, is false. It is impossible to put quotas in place in football. If that was put in place, advocating one race above another, I would fall off my chair."

The French Football Federation has begun an inquiry into claims that national coach Laurent Blanc and other coaches secretly agreed to restrict the number of black and Arab players in national training programs. Investigative website Mediapart published explosive claims last week that the FFF proposed to limit to 30 percent the number of players of African and North African descent in training...

• Humanitarian aid cannot reach city's harbour
• Evacuees and casualties stranded in the assaults

Muammar Gaddafi's forces have bombarded Misrata with missiles and tank fire, preventing ships carrying humanitarian aid from entering the port for a fourth straight day.

The sustained attacks on the port are causing deep concern in the city, which has been surrounded by Gaddafi's troops on land for more than two months. Food, medical supplies and other aid can only be delivered through the harbour, while migrant workers and casualties can only be evacuated by boat.

The shelling came as crowds gathered in Tripoli for the funeral of Gaddafi's son Saif al-Arab and three of his grandchildren, who were killed in a Nato air strike on Saturday, according to the government. Gaddafi did not attend the funeral but his son Saif al-Islam did, watching as his brother's coffin, covered in a green flag and flowers, was carried to the cemetery.

The deaths triggered reprisal attacks on the French and British embassies in Tripoli, and the US diplomatic mission, for their role in the Nato mission. But in Misrata, where more than 1,000 people have killed since late February, there is increasing anger that Nato is not doing enough to destroy Gaddafi's missile launchers that continue to pummel the city.

A ferry chartered by the International Organisation for Migration has been forced to wait offshore since Saturday morning. It is due to collect at least 800 African workers who have been trying to escape the city for weeks, and who have been forced to endure the barrage of missiles in recent days. More than 30 hospital patients, four of them in intensive care, are also waiting to board the ship.

"We know the only way to keep Misrata alive is to keep the harbour open," said Hafed Makhlouf, the controller and ship pilot of the port. "Gaddafi realises this too, and knows that the only way to extinguish the revolution is by starving the people."

On Sunday, just hours after Makhlouf had pleaded for Nato to stop the attack on the port, it was pounded again by dozens of missiles that struck the land as well as the sea around the harbour mouth. A checkpoint on the road to the port was also destroyed, killing two guards.

"To be honest, I am not that satisfied with Nato's actions," said Makhlouf, a navy veteran who has worked at the port since 1996. "The harbour has been nearly completely closed for days now."

But a few hours spent with Makhlouf in the controller's office again highlighted the difficulties in communications between the rebels and Nato, which was illustrated last week when 12 rebel fighters were killed after straying into an area that had been cleared for bombing.

"Nato, we have special information for you," said Makhlouf, speaking quickly into the radio. "Do you have a warship close to the breakwater? It's very urgent. Our men are going to fire."

The Nato radio operator answered immediately, promising to check.

Makhlouf ran outside with his satellite phone and binoculars, scanning the harbour entrance. His phone rang: it was Nato confirming neither of its two frigates were that close to the port. Indeed, what the rebel lookouts had spotted was a group of doctors aboard a small boat that had been dispatched from a mother ship forced to remain far offshore.

After losing the battle for Misrata's city centre last week, loyalist forces have concentrated their efforts on shutting down the port, which Gaddafi says is used by rebels to bring in arms. They have been doing so, using small fishing boats from the eastern city of Benghazi but the vast majority of the incoming cargo has been food, drugs and other medical supplies.

In addition to the missile attacks, Gaddafi has also attempted to sink some of the incoming ships using sea mines.

According to Makhlouf, the rebels had received a tip on Thursday from Zleten, a town 30 miles west of Misrata, that three small microbuses had been spotted dropping off a crew of frogmen near the harbour. Makhlouf said he passed on the warning to the two Nato warships stationed off Misrata.

At 4.30am on Friday, while he was asleep on the chair in his office, his radio crackled to life.

It was Nato, saying it had spotted four small dinghies approaching Misrata at speed.

"I asked Nato to act as I was sure it was a plot to destroy the warships, or other ships coming into Misrata," said Makhlouf.

He was right. The loyalist naval team was carrying several floating sea mines aboard two of the dinghies, which they sank about 1.5 miles offshore, directly in the shipping lane to Misrata.

Nato said it had intercepted three mines, and disposed of them.

France’s Sports Ministry and the French Football Federation have launched separate inquiries into a controversial plan to limit the number of dual-nationality players from Arab or African origin in the country’s national team.

Move follows calls by France and Italy to reinstate border checks after influx of thousands of migrants from north Africa

The European Union executive is considering allowing member states to reinstate some border controls, its president has said, responding to demands for more national power to stem immigration.

The announcement on Sunday lent momentum to a campaign by France and Italy to reimpose some of the border checks, abolished in 1995 under the Schengen agreement, as they grapple with an influx of migrants fleeing political upheaval in north Africa.

In a letter to Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and French president Nicolas Sarkozy, José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, said it would be possible to permit countries reintroduce limited controls.

"The temporary restoration of borders is one of the possibilities, provided this is subject to specific and clearly defined criteria, that could be an element to strengthen the governance of the Schengen agreement," Barroso wrote.

EU countries may already introduce temporary border checks as Germany has done to stop foreign soccer hooligans visiting football games, but new EU rules could widen countries' freedom to do so, said a source familiar with the plans.

"To reinstate border controls now, you have to justify that based on the threat to public order," said the source.

"With the new system, you would no longer need to invoke a threat to public order. This would extend the possibilities to reinstate controls."

The EU executive, which writes the first draft of EU laws that are then sent to countries for approval, plans to present an outline of its legal proposals in the coming days.

If accepted, the new EU rules would alter one of the biggest achievements of the single European market, passport-free travel, but one which makes it harder to curb illegal migration.

The proposals could become law as soon as they are agreed by the EU's 27 member states and the bloc's parliament, a process that could be concluded in months but could also easily drag on for more than a year.

The arrival of thousands of immigrants from north Africa prompted France in April to shut its borders to trains carrying African migrants from Italy.

The two countries accused each other of flouting the spirit of the Schengen treaty, which eliminates many border controls within the EU.

So far this year, around 25,000 migrants, most from France's former colony Tunisia, have arrived in southern Italy on small, overloaded fishing boats, creating a humanitarian emergency on the tiny island of Lampedusa where most of the boats landed.

Italy says it has been left to deal with the problem on its own while Paris has accused Rome of trying to escape its responsibilities by allowing illegal immigrants free transit across the border. Last Tuesday, Sarkozy visited Rome to try to defuse tension.

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It has been reported that senior figures within the French federation, including Laurent Blanc, approved proposals to limit to 30% the number of players of African and North-African descent.

• French government acts over dispute
• Further claims about meeting are revealed

The national technical director of the French Football Federation, François Blaquart, has been suspended by the French government as the fallout over an alleged plan to enforce racial quotas in youth academies continues to spread.

Chantal Jouanno, France's sports minister, said Blaquart was suspended with immediate effect "pending the conclusions of an investigation led by the FFF and the IGJS [General Inspection of Youth and Sports]".

The story, which emerged on Thursday from the French investigative website Mediapart, cited sources within the FFF claiming Blaquart proposed limiting the number of non-white children entering the selection process through training centres and academies.

On Saturday Mediapart published further claims about a meeting at which Blaquart, the France coach, Laurent Blanc, the under-21 coach, Erick Mombaerts, and the under-20 coach, Francis Smerecki, among others, allegedly debated African players with dual nationality who were groomed in France but opted to play for their country of origin.

"We can mark out, in an unspoken way, a sort of quota. But it needs to remain unspoken," Blaquart was quoted as saying by Mediapart. Blaquart told RMC radio's website : "I cannot not acknowledge these remarks. But they have to be put in their context. We acknowledged the fact that there were many players with dual nationality ... we had to control the management of these players who might be leaving us. There is nothing more to it."

Blanc, who played in the 1998 World Cup-winning team that was dubbed "Black-Blanc-Beur" (Blacks, Whites and Arabs) by French media, has often raised the issue of dual nationality players, but rejected the claim he was in favour of quotas based on race. On Friday he said: "No such project has been revealed to me. It's a lie. You cannot have quotas in football. It does not exist. Football is made of diversity. It really bothers me because it's against my values. To me, this is totally false."

Last night Blanc said in a statement: "I do not withdraw what I said yesterday. I admit that some remarks made during a work meeting, taken out of their context, may be misinterpreted and, as far as I am concerned, I apologise if I have hurt some feelings. But I, who am against any form of discrimination, do not stand being accused of racism or xenophobia."

Blanc said there was nothing more to the meeting that took place last November. "One has to be insincere not to see that the debate I took part in had obviously nothing to do with 'reducing the number of blacks and Arabs in French football' as the article's headline said," he added.

The only question was to "discuss the future of French football and deal with the delicate problem of players with dual nationality..."

The FFF president, Fernand Duchaussoy, has also denied any such project existed. "What happened in a meeting, behind a door or in the corridors... I cannot vouch for everyone working at the federation. But I am confident [that there was no wrongdoing]," he said. The FFF's investigation into the claims is expected to be completed within eight days.

Anti-terrorist officers from several countries comb site for clues to who was behind remote control device

Anti-terrorist experts from several countries have been sifting through the wreckage of the Marrakech cafe where 15 people died on Thursday, as officials said a remote control bomb caused the blast.

A video released before the attack by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack, with terrorism experts saying the group was one of several likely candidates.

While police from both Morocco and Spain could be seen working at the wrecked cafe in Jamaa el-Fnaa Square, friends and family of the victims gathered at the city's Ibn Tofail hospital.

Mouhou Rachid, a cafe worker, said at least one of his co-workers died and another was in hospital with serious injuries.

"The explosion was terrible. When I recovered consciousness I saw people picking up victims. My friend has injuries in the stomach, face and head."

Morocco's interior ministry said seven of the 15 dead had been identified, including two French citizens, two Canadians, a Dutch national and two Moroccans.

Israel's foreign ministry said two of the victims, a man and a woman, were Jews living in Shanghai.

The attack, in which 23 people were also injured, is the deadliest in Morocco since 12 suicide bombers killed 33 people in co-ordinated strikes in Casablanca eight years ago.

The latest attack was a blow to Morocco's most important tourist city. Tourism is Morocco's biggest source of foreign currency and the second biggest employer after agriculture.

"We are going to work very hard so that this does not have an impact on tourism in Marrakesh," said Salaheddine Mezouar, the finance minister."To go to a country as a tourist and return dead is a terrible thing."

Fernando Reinares, a terrorism expert at Spain's Royal Elcano Institute, told RNE radio there were few doubts that jihadists were behind the attack.

"Morocco and its monarchy are a target for al-Qaida and for the north African groups that have been associated with al-Qaida."

The attack adds to the challenges facing Morocco's ruler, King Mohammed VI, at a time when he is trying to prevent uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world from reaching his normally stable kingdom.

He recently pardoned a raft of political prisoners, including some alleged militant Islamists.

The monarch has promised to reform the constitution to placate pro-democracy protesters. But more protests are planned for Sunday.

Peter Moss, a British travel writer, was among 16 victims of a remote-controlled nail bomb explosion at a busy tourist cafe

A British travel writer and novelist has been named among the 16 victims of a terrorist bomb explosion at a busy tourist cafe in Marrakech.

Peter Moss, 59, was at the Argana cafe in the popular Jamaa el-Fnaa square when a remote-controlled nail bomb was detonated at lunchtime.

A video released before the attack by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb reportedly claimed responsibility, with terrorism experts saying the group was one of several likely candidates.

Moss, a father-of-two, was a writer, broadcaster and comedian, who had earned praise for several screenplays and novels including The Singing Tree and The Age of Elephants.

At the British Press Awards in 2004, while working for the Jewish Chronicle, he was celebrated as "one of the country's finest travel writers, with an unmatched eye for detail".

Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said: "While we do not yet know the exact cause of the blast, reports from the Moroccan authorities are that this may have been a result of terrorism. An act of this kind, causing the death of 16 innocent people, is cruel and wrong, and I condemn it in the strongest terms."

As investigations continued into the blast, the country's deadliest for eight years, Moroccan authorities said the bomb had been packed with nails and set off remotely and not by a suicide bomber.

Jamaa el-Fnaa square, next to the city's historic market area, draws crowds of tourists with its snake charmers, fire-eaters and tooth pullers.

Most of the dead were foreign nationals – including French, Dutch and Canadian tourists – and at least 23 others were injured by the explosion.

British ambassador Tim Morris has travelled to Marrakech to bolster the UK team dealing with the aftermath and Interpol has described the attack as "senseless and deplorable".

While police from both Morocco and Spain could be seen working in the wreckage, friends and family of the victims gathered at the city's Ibn Tofail hospital.

Mouhou Rachid, a cafe worker, said at least one of his co-workers had died and another was in hospital with serious injuries.

"The explosion was terrible. When I recovered consciousness I saw people picking up victims. My friend has injuries in the stomach, face and head."

Israel's foreign ministry said two of the victims, a man and a woman, were Jews living in Shanghai and that the woman apparently had Israeli citizenship.

The attack is the deadliest in Morocco since 12 suicide bombers killed 33 people in co-ordinated strikes in Casablanca in 2003.

The latest attack was a blow to Morocco's most important tourist city. Tourism is Morocco's biggest source of foreign currency and the second biggest employer after agriculture.

"We are going to work very hard so that this does not have an impact on tourism in Marrakesh," said Salaheddine Mezouar, the finance minister."To go to a country as a tourist and return dead is a terrible thing."

Fernando Reinares, a terrorism expert at Spain's Royal Elcano Institute, told RNE radio there were few doubts that jihadists were behind the attack.

"Morocco and its monarchy are a target for al-Qaida and for the north African groups that have been associated with al-Qaida."

The attack adds to the challenges facing Morocco's ruler, King Mohammed VI, as he tries to prevent the uprisings in the Arab world from reaching his normally stable kingdom.

He recently pardoned a raft of political prisoners, including some alleged militant Islamists.

The monarch has promised to reform the constitution to placate pro-democracy protesters. But more protests are planned for Sunday.

The annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, or simply Jazz Fest, is a massive springtime music and cultural festival that takes place over two consecutive weekends in late April and early May. Many music lovers of all ilk consider it the country's premier music festival and return year after year. Others have called it the best party in America.

The name Jazz Fest is somewhat misleading, as jazz is only one component of the festival's musical offerings. Performers represent a wide range of genres including jazz, rock, blues, gospel, R & B, Cajun, zydeco, folk, bluegrass, African, Caribbean and Latin. Non-stop performances take place on a dozen stages scattered around the festival site. In addition to music, there's a huge selection of regional cuisine, arts and crafts booths, second line parades and numerous other attractions.

Over its seven-day run, the festival typically attracts around 400,000 visitors. Jazz Fest is really big and big-time fun.

When and Where
Most people attend Jazz Fest for only one of two weekends, though some stay for the duration. The first weekend begins on the last Friday of April and runs through Sunday. After a three-day hiatus, festivities begin again on Thursday and conclude on Sunday. The dates for Jazz Fest 2011 are April 29-May 1 and May 5-8. The festival takes place at the Fair Grounds Race Course in the Mid-City section of New Orleans, about three miles from Downtown and the French Quarter. Daily hours are from 11am to 7pm which leaves fest-goers time in the evening to explore the city's famous restaurants, bars and clubs.

Read more at Gadling

 

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Filed under: Arts and Culture, Learning, Festivals and Events, North America, United States

The annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, or simply Jazz Fest, is a massive springtime music and cultural festival that takes place over two consecutive weekends in late April and early May. Many music lovers of all ilk consider it the country's premier music festival and return year after year. Others have called it the best party in America.

The name Jazz Fest is somewhat misleading, as jazz is only one component of the festival's musical offerings. Performers represent a wide range of genres including jazz, rock, blues, gospel, R & B, Cajun, zydeco, folk, bluegrass, African, Caribbean and Latin. Non-stop performances take place on a dozen stages scattered around the festival site. In addition to music, there's a huge selection of regional cuisine, arts and crafts booths, second line parades and numerous other attractions.

Over its seven-day run, the festival typically attracts around 400,000 visitors. Jazz Fest is really big and big-time fun.

When and Where
Most people attend Jazz Fest for only one of two weekends, though some stay for the duration. The first weekend begins on the last Friday of April and runs through Sunday. After a three-day hiatus, festivities begin again on Thursday and conclude on Sunday. The dates for Jazz Fest 2011 are April 29-May 1 and May 5-8. The festival takes place at the Fair Grounds Race Course in the Mid-City section of New Orleans, about three miles from Downtown and the French Quarter. Daily hours are from 11am to 7pm which leaves fest-goers time in the evening to explore the city's famous restaurants, bars and clubs.

Continue reading A first-timer's guide to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival

A first-timer's guide to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival originally appeared on Gadling on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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THURS/21

Beginners (Mike Mills, U.S., 2010) There is nothing conventional about Beginners, a film that starts off with the funeral arrangements for one of its central characters. That man is Hal (Christopher Plummer), who came out to his son Oliver (Ewan McGregor) at the ripe age of 75. Through flashbacks, we see the relationship play out — Oliver's inability to commit tempered by his father's tremendous late-stage passion for life. Hal himself is a rare character: an elderly gay man, secure in his sexuality and, by his own admission, horny. He even has a much younger boyfriend, played by the handsome Goran Visnjic. While the father-son bond is the heart of Beginners, we also see the charming development of a relationship between Oliver and French actor Anna (Melanie Laurent). It all comes together beautifully in a film that is bittersweet but ultimately satisfying. Beginners deserves praise not only for telling a story too often left untold, but for doing so with grace and a refreshing sense of whimsy. Thurs/21, 7 p.m., Castro. (Louis Peitzman)

 

FRI/22

The Good Life (Eva Mulvad, Denmark, 2010) Portraits of the formerly wealthy are often guilty of peddling secondhand nostalgia for some ancien regime while simultaneously stoking schadenfreude toward the now-deposed (just ask Vanity Fair). Eva Mulvad's melancholy character study of 50-something Annemette Beckmann and her aged mother, Mette, avoids both traps even as her subjects — formerly wealthy Danish expats living on the dole in a cramped apartment in a coastal Portuguese town — offer few inroads for sympathy. Narcissistic and petulant, Annemette blames the loss of her family's wealth on the 1974 nationalization of Portugal's then-Communist government, and claims that her cosseted upbringing has made it hard to find a job ("Work doesn't become me," she gratingly protests at one point). Mette, who is more likeable, is a resigned realist whose sole comfort, aside from the pet dog, seems to be her knowledge that she is not long for this world. Comparisons to Grey Gardens (1975) are inevitable here, but the Beckmanns simply aren't as interesting or possessed by as idiosyncratic a joie de vivre as the Beales, making The Good Life a tough slog. Fri/22, 3:45 p.m.; April 28, 6:45 p.m.; and May 1, 9:30 p.m., Kabuki. (Matt Sussman)

Hahaha (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea, 2010) Do you remember a time you behaved badly (not horribly, but bad enough that you felt ashamed) but you didn't really think about it until long after the fact, say, when getting drinks with an old friend? If you can't, than the latest from South Korean director Hong Sang-soo will probably jog your memory. As with many of Hong's films, Hahaha's premise is similar to the above scenario: two 30-something buds get together and reminisce about their recent trips to the same seaside town. Shown in episodic flashbacks, we start to realize that the incidents and players in their separate accounts overlap into one story filled with terrible poetry, domineering mothers, stalker-ish behavior, and poorly made choices. Hong's films are primers in how not to treat your fellow human beings (straight dudes are usually the culprits), so take notes. Fri/22, 9:15 p.m.; Mon/25, 9 p.m.; and Tues/26, 3:30 p.m., Kabuki. (Sussman)

I'm Glad My Mother is Alive (Claude Miller and Nathan Miller, France, 2009) Codirected with his son Nathan, this latest by veteran French director Claude Miller is an about-face from his acclaimed 2007 period epic A Secret. Viscerally up-to-the-moment in content and handheld-camera style, it's a small story that builds toward an enormous punch. Thomas (played by Maxime Renard as a child, then Vincent Rottiers) is a lifelong malcontent whose troubles are rooted in his abandonment at age five by an irresponsible mother (Sophie Cattani). Neither the attentions of well-meaning adoptive parents or the influence of his better-adjusted younger brother can quell Thomas' mix of furious resentment and curiosity toward his mere, whom he finally develops a relationship with as a young adult. As usual, Miller doesn't "explain" his characters or let them explain themselves, yet everything feels emotionally true — right up to a narrative destination both that feels both shocking and inevitable. Fri/22, 6:45 p.m., and Mon/25, 9:30 p.m., Kabuki. (Dennis Harvey)

Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, U.S., 2010) After three broke down road movies (1994's River of Grass, 2006's Old Joy, 2008's Wendy and Lucy), Kelly Reichardt's new frontier story tilts decisively toward socially-minded existentialism. It's 1845 on the choked plains of Oregon, miles from the fertile valley where a wagon train of three families is headed. They've hired the rogue guide Meek to show them the way, but he's got them lost and low on water. When the group captures a Cayeuse Indian, Solomon proposes they keep him on as a compass; Meek thinks it better to hang him and be done with it. The periodic shots of the men deliberating are filmed from a distance — the earshot range of the three women (Michelle Williams, Zoe Kazan, and Shirley Henderson) who set up camp each night. It's through subtle moves like these that Meek's Cutoff gives a vivid taste of being subject to fate and, worse still, the likes of Meek. Reichardt winnows away the close-ups, small talk, and music that provided the simple gifts of her earlier work, and the overall effect is suitably austere. Fri/22, 9 p.m., and Mon/25, 4:30 p.m., Kabuki. (Max Goldberg)

Stake Land (Jim Mickle, U.S., 2010) Not gonna lie — the reason I wanted to review this one was because of the film still in the SFIFF catalog. Rotten-faced vampire with a stake through its neck? Yes, please! But while Jim Mickle's apocalyptic road movie does offer plenty of gore, it's more introspective than one might expect, following an orphaned teenage boy, Martin (Connor Paolo, Serena's little bro on Gossip Girl), and his gruff mentor, Mister (Snake Plissken-ish Nick Damici), on their travels through a ravaged America. As books, films, and comics have taught us, whenever a big chunk of the human race is wiped out (thanks to zombies, vampires, an unknown cataclysm, etc.), the remaining population will either be good (heroic, like Mister and Martin, or helpless, like the stragglers they rescue, including a nun played by Kelly McGillis), or evil — cannibals, rapists, religious nuts, militant survivalists, etc. Stake Land doesn't throw many curveballs into its end-times narrative, but it's beautifully shot and doesn't hold back on the brutality. Larry Fessenden (director of 2006's The Last Winter) produced and has a brief cameo as a helpful bartender. Fri/22, 11:30 p.m., and Mon/25, 9:45 p.m., Kabuki. (Cheryl Eddy)

 

SAT/23

The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu (Andrei Ujica, Romania, 2010) Andrei Ujica's three-hour documentary uses decades of propagandic footage to let the late Romanian dictator — who was overthrown by popular revolt and executed in 1989 — hang himself with his own grandiose image-making. While the populace suffered (off-screen, you might want to bone up on the facts before seeing this ironical, commentary-free portrait), the "great leader" and his wife Elena were constantly seen holding state dances, playing volleyball, hunting bear, and vacationing hither and yon. (We even see them on the Universal Studios tour.) There's no surprise in seeing them greeted with enormous pageantry in China; but it's a little shocking to see this tyrant welcome Nixon (in the first-ever U.S. presidential visit to a Communist nation), lauded by Jimmy Cartner, and hobnobbing with Queen Elizabeth. This grotesque parade of self-glorifying public moments has a happy ending, however. Sat/23, 12:45 p.m., Kabuki; Sun/24, 5:15 p.m., New People; May 1, 1:30 p.m., PFA. (Harvey)

Life, Above All (Oliver Schmitz, South Africa/Germany, 2010) It's tough enough to simply grow up, let alone care for a parent with AIDS and deal with the suspicions and fears of the no-nothing adults all around you. Rising above easy preaching and hand-wringing didacticism, Life, Above All takes as its blueprint the 2004 best-seller by Allan Stratton, Chandra's Secrets, and makes compelling work of the story of 12-year-old Chandra (Khomotso Manyaka) and her unfortunate family, unable to get effective help amid the thicket of ignorance regarding AIDS in Africa. After her newborn sister dies, Chandra finds her loyalty torn between her bright-eyed best friend Esther (Keaobaka Makanyane), who's rumored to hooking among the truck drivers in their dusty, sun-scorched rural South African hometown, and her mother (Lerato Mvelase), who listens far too closely to her bourgie friend Mrs. Tafa (an OTT Harriet Manamela), for her own good. Cape Town native director Oliver Schmitz sticks close to the action playing across his actors' faces, and he's rewarded, particularly by the graceful Manyaka, in this life-affirmer about little girls forced to shoulder heart-breaking responsibility far too soon. Sat/23, 4 p.m., and April 28, 6 p.m., Kabuki. (Kimberly Chun)

The Mill and the Cross (Lech Majewski, Poland/Sweden, 2010) One of the clichés often told about art is that it is supposed to speak to us. Polish director Lech Majewski's gorgeous experiment in bringing Flemish Renaissance painter Peter Bruegel's sprawling 1564 canvas The Procession to Calvary to life attempts to do just that. Majeswki both re-stages Bruegel's painting — which draws parallels between its depiction of Christ en route to his crucifixion and the persecution of Flemish citizens by the Spanish inquisition's militia — in stunning tableaux vivant that combine bluescreen technology and stage backdrops, and gives back stories to a dozen or so of its 500 figures. Periodically, Bruegel himself (Rutger Hauer) addresses the camera mid-sketch to dolefully explain the allegorical nature of his work, but these pedantic asides speak less forcefully than Majeswki's beautifully lighted vignettes of the small joys and many hardships that comprised everyday life in the 16th century. Beguiling yet wholly absorbing, this portrait of a portrait is like nothing else at the festival. Sat/23, 12:30 p.m., SFMOMA, and April 27, 9 p.m., Kabuki. (Sussman) Mind the Gap Experimental film fans: come for the big names, but don't miss out on the newcomers. Locals Jay Rosenblatt (melancholy found-footage bio The D Train), Kerry Laitala (psychedelic 3-D brain-dazzler Chromatastic), and Skye Thorstenson (mannequin-horror music video freak out Tourist Trap, featuring the acting and singing stylings of the Guardian's Johnny Ray Huston) offer strong entries in an overall excellent program. International bigwigs Peter Tscherkassky (the 25-minute Coming Attractions, a layered study of airplanes, Hollywood, and Hollywood airplanes — not for the crash-phobic) and Jonathan Caouette ("Lynchian" has been used to describe the Chloë Sevigny-starring All Flowers In Time, though it contains a scary-faces contest that'd spook even Frank Booth) are also notable. New names for me were Zachary Drucker, whose Lost Lake introduces a transsexual, pervert-huntin' vigilante for the ages, and my top pick: Kelly Sears' Once it started it could not end otherwise, a deliciously sinister hidden-history lesson imagined via 1970s high-school yearbooks. Sat/23, 4:45 p.m., and May 1, 9:45 p.m., Kabuki. (Eddy)

The Troll Hunter (André Ovredal, Norway, 2010) Yes, The Troll Hunter riffs off The Blair Witch Project (1999) with both whimsy and, um, rabidity. Yes, you may gawk at its humongoid, anatomically correct, three-headed trolls, never to be mistaken for grotesquely cute rubber dolls, Orcs, or garden gnomes again. Yes, you may not believe, but you will find this lampoon of reality TV-style journalism, and an affectionate jab at Norway's favorite mythical creature, very entertaining. Told that a series of strange attacks could be chalked up to marauding bears, three college students (Glenn Erland Tosterud, Tomas Alf Larsen, and Johanna Morck) strap on their gumshoes and choose instead to pursue a mysterious poacher Hans (Otto Jespersen) who repeatedly rebuffs their interview attempts. Little did the young folk realize that their late-night excursions following the hunter into the woods would lead at least one of them to rue his or her christening day. Ornamenting his yarn with beauty shots of majestic mountains, fjords, and waterfalls, Norwegian director-writer André Ovredal takes the viewer beyond horror-fantasy — handheld camera at the ready — and into a semi-goofy wilderness of dark comedy, populated by rock-eating, fart-blowing trolls and overshadowed by a Scandinavian government cover-up sorta-worthy of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009). Sat/23, 11:30 p.m., Kabuki; Mon/25, 6:15 p.m., New People. (Chun)

World on a Wire (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Germany, 1973) The words "Rainer Werner Fassbinder" and "science fiction film" are enough to get certain film buffs salivating, but the Euro-trashy interior décor is almost reason enough to see this restored print of the New German Cinema master's cyber thriller. Originally a two-part TV miniseries, World on a Wire is set in an alternate present (then 1973) in which everything seems to be made of concrete, mirror, Lucite, or orange plastic. When the inventor of a supercomputer responsible for generating an artificial world mysteriously disappears, his handsome predecessor must fight against his corporate bosses to find out what really happened, and in the process, stumbles upon a far more shattering secret about the nature of reality itself. Riffing off the understated cool of Godard's Alphaville (1965) while beating 1999's The Matrix to the punch by some 25 years, World on a Wire is a stylistically singular entry in Fassbinder's prolific filmography. Sat/23, 8:45 p.m., Kabuki, and April 30, 2 p.m., PFA. (Sussman) SUN/24

A Cat in Paris (Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli, France/Belgium/Netherlands/Switzerland, 2010) Save your pocket poodles, please: Paris, as cities go, is most decidedly feline. From 1917's silent serial Les Vampires to its uber-cool 1990s update Irma Vep, cat burglars and the Parisian skyline have gone together like café and au lait. Add actual cats and jazz to the mix for good measure (even Disney saw fit to set its jazzy 1970 Aristocats in the City of Light). At just over an hour long, the animated A Cat in Paris is an enjoyable little amuse-bouche that employs all the standards of the cats-in-Paris meme: Billie Holiday warbling on the soundtrack, a dashingly heroic antihero who scales the rooftops as if he studied parkour under Spider-Man, and the titular untamable black cat who serves as his partner in crime. Complete with a climatic Hitchcockian set piece on the rooftops of Notre Dame Cathedral, A Cat in Paris has a refreshingly angular and graphic, almost cubist, feel. Directors Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli's work certainly doesn't rank among that of countryman Sylvain Chomet (2010's The Illusionist), but this family film is worth checking out if kitties up to no good in Purr-ree simply make you want to le squee. Sun/24, 12:30 p.m., Kabuki, and May 1, 12:30 p.m., New People. (Michelle Devereaux)

 

MON/25

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Werner Herzog, U.S., 2010) The latest documentary from Werner Herzog once again goes where no filmmaker — or many human beings, for that matter — has gone before: the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave, a heavily-guarded cavern in Southern France containing the oldest prehistoric artwork on record. Access is highly restricted, but Herzog's 3D study is surely the next best thing to an in-person visit. The eerie beauty of the works leads to a typically Herzog-ian quest to learn more about the primitive culture that produced the paintings; as usual, Herzog's experts have their own quirks (like a circus performer-turned-scientist), and the director's own wry narration is peppered with random pop culture references and existential ponderings. It's all interwoven with footage of crude yet beautiful renderings of horses and rhinos, calcified cave-bear skulls, and other time-capsule peeks at life tens of thousands of years ago. The end result is awe-inspiring. Mon/25, 7 p.m., and Tues/26, 9:30 p.m., Kabuki. (Eddy)

 

TUES/26

Nostalgia for the Light (Patricio Guzmán, France/Chile/Germany, 2010) Chile's Atacama Desert, the setting for Patricio Guzmán's lyrically haunting and meditative documentary, is supposedly the driest place on earth. As a result, it's also the most ideal place to study the stars. Here, in this most Mars-like of earthly landscapes, astronomers look to the heavens in an attempt to decode the origins of the universe. Guzmán superimposes images from the world's most powerful telescopes — effluent, gaseous nebulas, clusters of constellations rendered in 3-D brilliance — over the night sky of Atacama for an even more otherworldly effect, but it's the film's terrestrial preoccupations that resonate most. For decades, a small, ever dwindling group of women have scoured the cracked clay of Atacama searching for loved ones who disappeared early in Augusto Pinochet's regime. They take their tiny, toy-like spades and sift through the dirt, finding a partial jawbone here, an entire mummified corpse there. Guzmán's attempt through voice-over to make these "architects of memory," both astronomers and excavators alike, a metaphor for Chile's reluctance to deal with its past atrocities is only marginally successful. Here, it's the images that do all the talking — if "memory has a gravitational force," their emotional weight is as inescapable as a black hole. Tues/26, 6:30 p.m., Kabuki, and April 28, 6:15 p.m., PFA. (Devereaux)

The Sleeping Beauty (Catherine Breillat, France, 2010) Fairytales are endemically Freudian; perhaps it has something to with their use of subconscious fantasy to mourn — and breathlessly anticipate — the looming loss of childhood. French provocateuse Catherine Breillat's feminist re-imagining of The Sleeping Beauty carries her hyper-sexualized signature, but now she also has free reign to throw in bizarre and beastly metaphors for feminine and masculine desire in the form of boil-covered, dungeon-dwelling ogres, albino teenage princes, and icy-beautiful snow queens. The story follows Anastasia, a poor little aristocrat, who longs to be a boy (she calls herself "Sir Vladimir"). When her hand is pricked with a yew spindle (more of a phallic impalement, really), Anastasia falls into a 100-year adventurous slumber, eventually awakening as a sexually ripe 16-year-old. It all plays like an anchorless, Brothers Grimm version of Sally Potter's 1992 Orlando. And while it's definitely not for the kiddies, it's hard to believe that many adults would find its overt symbolism and plodding narrative any more than a sporadically entertaining exercise in preciousness. Your own dreams will undoubtedly be more interesting — perhaps you can catch a few zzz's in a theater screening this movie. Tues/26, 6:15 p.m., and April 27, 6:30 p.m., Kabuki. (Devereaux)

THE 54TH ANNUAL SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL runs April 21–May 5. Venues are the Sundance Kabuki, 1881 Post, SF; Castro, 429 Castro, SF; New People, 1746 Post, SF; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third, SF; and Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft, SF. For tickets (most shows $13) and complete schedule visit www.sffs.org>.

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Finalists in the prestigious CNN MultiChoice African Journalist 2011 Competition were announced today by Joel Kibazo, Chair of the independent judging panel. The competition is now in its 16th year. This year the competition received entries from 42 countries across the continent, including French and Portuguese speaking Africa. There are 27 finalists from 13 countries: Kofi [...]

Once the property of nobility, then a consecrated sanctuary with questionable links to a common dice game, then a cloister for nuns and a family base for a member of the judiciary, my home of fifteen years now owns me.

I was well asleep early last night, having hauled 840 pounds (around 313.5 kilos) of potting soil into my yard to fill three newly-bricked (by me) strips of garden.  I spent the day dragging the stuff in by wheelbarrow, bag and hand.  This morning, realizing I had underestimated my needs, I drove to a large hardware/plant store to procure an additional 480 pounds of dirt, and 120 more pounds of brick mortar, all somehow transported home in the rear of my tiny vehicle.

I have now built, and filled with dirt, five new plant enclosures on top of the existing poured-stone patio.  I find that I need the company of more pliant green plants, less unyielding grey cement, and am now motivated to fulfill this need. 

There is a physical hunger as well.

We haven’t been eating as well, or as easily, here in non-tourist New Orleans neighborhoods since Katrina.  Yes, the K word again surfaces.  After almost six years we still have to drive 30-45 minutes each way to get rudimentary foodstuffs.  Food markets have not returned post-storm, the store nearest my home still mired in contentious and greed-driven insurance litigation.

So, isolated in this urban environment, my neighbors and I have, without initial plan, found ourselves united.  Into back yards have come chicken coops, new vegetable and herb gardens, and fruit trees plantings.  In 2011 my patio has come to hold dozens of pots and brick enclosures, producing avocadoes and bananas, four varieties of citrus, guavas and mangoes, Japanese plums and Louisiana figs.  Once we found we were all on the same page, neighbors began donating money and time to forming a food cooperative, already counting fifteen hundred people as members.   

An old furniture store is being renovated to act as the coop’s center.  Within the month people will be trading food and importing what they cannot grow into that communal market.  A healing center, café and other amenities will accompany the larger operation.  One of the leaders of the project is a practicing voodoo priestess, which somehow seems a positive asset to anyone working on it.  Nutrition comes in all forms here in the Faubourg Marigny.  This anticipates a day when we no longer need or want an outside ‘supermarket’ in the neighborhood.  We wish to be whole without it. 

So I lay bricks to nurture more soil, and thus more food.

Since the storm, chickens separated from their coops in the Lower Ninth flood have somehow crossed the Industrial Canal and now wander in feral flocks here.  Wealthier areas have consistently called the animal control organization to have the chickens “relocated”.  From all reports people in our neighborhood “seem fond of the chickens” , though a rooster living nearby does wake me daily at 05:30.

A vast, protective chicken round-up, and communal coops, might seem in order.  But first there is the manual labor.  Hands in the dirt and mortar.

My brick constructions roughly mimic the two that were already here, one a well, and the other a partial cistern, both of which took considerable personal masonic labor to repair.  Besides mortar the main material for all of the new planters are stacks of broken bricks, exhumed detritus from the original Saints Peter & Paul French Catholic church that once occupied this space.  The smallish original edifice sat on my lot through the mid-nineteenth century, and then, as the congregation grew, was demolished and moved around the corner into a much larger and more ecclesiastical structure on Burgundy street in the 1860s. 

Marigny

The property now mine was ostensibly donated to the church by Bernard Xavier Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville, a demented Creole of many names and supposed dispositions born in 1785 here in the City.  As a young man, he was known in New Orleans society as an absolute terror, but this may have been preceded by the sheer decadence of the previous generations of his family. 

His parents lavishly hosted the soon-to-be King Louis Philippe of France at the plantation manor in 1798.   According to notable historians, the embossed gold dinnerware they had fabricated especially for the occasion was thrown afterwards into the Mississippi River, deemed useless because the Marignys proclaimed that they would have never have any other guest worthy of such a service.   Knowing this legend I have myself looked deeply into the muddy waters at the foot of this eponymous street, only to find nothing gilded whatsoever, though numerous aluminum cylinders, presumably of less value, float there in clusters.

Bernard himself made the golden extravagances of his family seem almost frugal.   In the face of his debauchery, his parents sent him to England in hopes that the dissipation would slow, but instead he became an even more intense bon vivant.  He returned to New Orleans, some say hastening his mother and father’s deaths, with little classical education, but with a firm knowledge of the dice game “Hazard”, which became locally known as “crapaud”, as in “toad” or “frog”, a derogatory name for the French Creoles like Bernard who liked playing the game.  Crapaud was then in turn anglicized into “craps”.  Shooting craps became hugely popular with gamblers across America, another legacy of Marigny’s dubious aesthetics.  But in spite of his knowledge of its workings, he was not lucky at this game, and began to lose his inheritance even before he obtained complete control of it with his majority. 

His finances deteriorated, but he held onto considerable power, somewhat reluctantly siding with the Americans in the War of 1812, and allowing American General Andrew Jackson to use his family home as army headquarters.  Marigny tried, at first unsuccessfully, to convince Jackson to join with the forces of the French pirate Jean Lafitte.  In the end Jackson agreed, but Bernard was left with a bitter taste towards the Americans, even when the combined forces defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans, which proved to be the last encounter of the war. 

Marigny’s bitterness did not wane.  While trying to regain capital, he manipulated, and then reneged on, multiple business deals because he simply refused to work with Americans.  I can well empathize with this, but his intransigence on the matter led to his fall from favor with the political arm of the Creole community, so much so that when he followed his elected terms on the City Council and his Presidency of the Louisiana State Senate with runs for Governor in 1828 and again in 1830, he was soundly defeated.

Denied politics, he continued to gamble, also unsuccessfully.  By giving small parcels of property to the church, Bernard was probably hoping to gain favor from the gods of luck by appeasing the more economically-minded holy-water-sprinkling church hierarchy.  Craps weren’t working.  So, after abandoning the dice, his habit became North American baccarat (punto blanco), which still involved only chance and the fall of the cards, as opposed to baccarat chemin de fer or baccarat banque, which actually allow the player some choice.  M Marigny knew he had no control over the cards, or his own life for that matter, and was hoping that those with an ear in heaven might sweeten his luck.  Thus donations to the Church.

His quasi-philanthropic maneuver did not work.  By 1868, he had completely ransomed off his plantation - my neighborhood - for gambling debts.  He died in abject poverty, but is buried in the legendary St. Louis Cemetery #1, less than a mile from the street that bears his name, and my own house at 725 Marigny street.

Stone connections

A convent replaced the original church at 725 for 30 more years, and was itself razed and moved next to the new house of worship at the corner of Burgundy and Marigny streets in early 1891.  My “modern” arts & crafts house was built later that year for a local judge and his family.  A few years ago I met an elderly woman on the 150th anniversary tour of the church who said that as a child she used to play with the judge’s children in my living room around 1910. 

By the time I acquired the property, the judge’s residence had degenerated into a crack flophouse, and was quickly deteriorating into worse.  It took eight years to really bring it round, and for me to stop having to work on it on a weekly, if not daily, basis.  The bricks I am now using were buried under the structure and in the few patches of open soil in the yard, some atop what had once been the white marble floor of the baptistery. 

There are other historical stone connections at hand.  The curbstones in front of my house, between the sidewalk and the street, are century-and-a-half old long blocks of silver-grey rock, brought to town by the thousands in the deep holds of English ships.  New Orleans and Britain were indeed once again reconciled by the time of the Civil War.  Britain’s mills needed Louisiana cotton, Louisiana needed British sterling.  Otherwise empty ships were ballasted in the UK with the stone slabs to sail quickly to the port of New Orleans, unload the  weights, then re-fill with bales of cotton and head home, hopefully outrunning Union gunboats.

So Marigny’s work in 1812 to kill as many redcoats as possible led, a half century later, to his own street being augmented with British handiwork.  I view them each morning as I fetch in the newspaper, the curbs remaining as testament to the ever-changing allegiances of governments.

In 2011 the house is considerably more habitable, and secular, than in its previous lives, though I remain its slave.  And thus my current labors, as I attempt to wrangle nourishment from its confines.

Morton

Besides the neighborhood’s religious and political history, I would fail in my mission if I did not note that Bernard’s Faubourg Marigny – and indeed Marigny street - was in the mid to late 1800’s the prime area for staging plaçage, the custom in which rich white gentlemen housed their Creole mistresses and second families well away from their palatial primary residences.  The kept women, and their children, were in turn immersed in a Faubourg filled with French-speaking gens de coulers, “people of color” who were for the most part educated and cultured professionals of many diverse occupations, from tailors and shop owners to teachers and trained musicians. 

Jelly Roll Morton, one of the early founders of jazz, lived here. Morton was not as tolerant as Bernard’s generation, and like many of his upper-class contemporaries in the Faubourg shunned former slaves as uncouth.  At the same time the snobbish Morton worked as a “piano professor” in the notorious Storyville red-light district, incorporating the African passion he heard all about him, especially in Congo Square, into a new and elemental form of music.  A music that would make his name live through time.

These were not the tame études of a French conservatory. Jelly Roll was experimenting in parlors filled with, and fueled by, rather easily propositioned “working girls”, all the while just blocks away from his grandmother’s strict Catholic home in the Marigny, a free nest from which he would shortly be expelled for that very transgression. 

Morton went on to win and lose fortunes. To live a full though tortured life. To die penniless in Los Angeles.

Intact ovoids

Jelly Roll was also haunted through his entire existence by the image, if not the person, of a “hoodoo man” whom he had slighted as a teenager.  Superstition has deep roots in this soil.  At times, literally. 

In a conversation with a neighbor yesterday, my ruminations about digging in, and using the remains of, a church site struck a note with him. It seems that a few years ago, while excavating to put a small pool in his yard, the digging tractor unearthed one shovelful that contained five hand-blown glass eggs made from opaque milk glass. Each had a small hole at one end.  They were quite delicate, but also completely well-preserved and undamaged, as if placed carefully in the ground.

He said he was immediately curious, went to his computer, and began generally googling “glass+eggs”.  His inquiries were without useful result until he stumbled on a site that mentioned the use of such items in a voodoo ritual.  He contacted the woman who owned the site and received a quick, excited email that asked that he call her.

He did so.  The woman then asked that he describe the eggs in detail, especially noting if there was a small hole in one end, where the egg had been attached to the glassblowing rod.  When he reported that indeed all four had identical holes, he said she gave a long gasp on the other end of the line.  “It is a rare spell,” she told him. 

It seems that when a house was hoodooed, or had attached evil spirits, the residents would acquire the glass eggs from a traiteur to be hung from the ceiling, hole down.  The traiteur would then cast a “binding” spell on the eggs so spirits would be attracted to the eggs, enter, and then, held by the spell like flypaper, not be able to get out.  After a certain period of time the eggs would be considered full and the spell waning, so the eggs were to be taken into the yard and carefully buried, bad spirits trapped inside as long as the eggs remained unbroken.  My neighbor has made sure the disinterred ovoids remained intact, and not taken the eggs into his house.

I thought about his story as I continued to find pieces of the old church buried in my yard and under the floor of the main house. Stained glass and bits of ritual vessels, and more bricks. I thought about Bernard Marigny and the King of France and Jean Lafitte the pirate.  And Jelly Roll.  And the 2011 voodoo priestess. 

I once again mulled the efficacy and rewards of working in one’s own back yard.

I live in a small world.  And I don’t mind a bit.

[JURIST] UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression Frank LaRue on Tuesday called on Algeria [press release] to "guarantee the right to freedom of opinion and expression" including decriminalizing defamation. LaRue noted that, despite significant progress since the 1990s, which saw more than100 journalists killed, a number of challenges remain. LaRue highlighted that the television and radio sectors remain under government control and do not provide unbiased coverage. He also cautioned that the restrictive legal framework continues to impair important rights including peaceful assembly. LaRue urged continued political reform:The logic of the past can no longer be used to ignore the expectations of the youth and to limit their freedoms. People from all walks of life, in particular the youth, are now demanding their rights, including the right to freedom of expression, right to freedom of assembly, and basic economic, social and cultural rights, such as job opportunities. The Government should listen to such voices.LaRue did praise government efforts to provide Internet access to eight million through libraries and public centers. Last week, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika [official profile, in French] declared an initiative for sweeping constitutional and political reforms [JURIST report] in order to increase the role of democracy in the African nation. In February, the Algerian Council of Ministers approved a draft ordinance repealing the country's 19-year state of emergency, delivering on a promise made the week before [JURIST reports] by Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci. The state of emergency gave the government power to limit political freedoms and even peaceful protests. Opponents also claimed that the state of emergency gave rise to arbitrary detentions. Algeria had been under a state of emergency since 1992 when the military canceled elections fearing a win by religious fundamentalists. The state of emergency was declared [DOS backgrounder] after it became apparent that the militant Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) would win control of the government. Bouteflika came to power, winning the presidency in 1999 with 70 percent of the official vote and appearing to have the backing of the military.

Thousands of North African migrants in Italian refugee centres remain in legal limbo as a diplomatic row escalates between the French and Italian governments over the key principle of free movement within the European Union.

There was relief about an end to the conflict, but also wariness about interference by the former colonial power

The dominant mood in the African press about Ivory Coast was relief in nearby landlocked countries, fearful of a trade blockade due to closure of the port in Abidjan and more widespread violence.

"It is unfortunate that an African head of state, through his obstinacy, should prompt westerners to interfere in the affairs of a sovereign state," wrote the Burkina Faso daily Le Pays. But "the impartial – UN operation in Ivory Coast and French – forces did African democracy a great service … by ousting a man who ... would only listen to his own obstinacy," Le Pays continued.

UN resolution 1975, which authorised the use of force, "will remain forever engraved in the marble of African history", it added. "It has just sprung the trap in which Gbagbo locked African hopes of democracy."

In Mali, "Gbagbo's fall was greeted by popular celebration", said the Bamako daily, Le RépublicainThe country had to open a refugee camp for its nationals displaced by the violence across the border and there is much concern for Malians living in Ivory Coast who are among the targets of Gbagbo's Young Patriots. "It is easy to take offence at a foreign army entering an African palace ... but could we just stand by and allow people to die ... in the name of principles that disregard the cost in human life?" Le Républicain asked.

But Ghana, which also borders on Ivory Coast, prides itself on two peaceful, democratically sound elections in a row. This no doubt explains its radically different reaction. "11 April 2011 is a date to be remembered (Africa's 4/11). Remember it, all of you ... On that day we saw a sovereign African country's military barracks being attacked by a colonial power that has been meddling in the affairs of its former colony," John Amponsah wrote on the Ghanaweb site. He went on to heap criticism on "the French-UN supported candidate Ouattara", who was thus able "to ride his forces into Abidjan, after they had committed war crimes along the way".

In a similar vein, recent events in Abidjan are testimony to "the imperial dream of Nicolas Sarkozy ... a new Napoleon", according to Charly Gabriel Mbock, a Cameroonian anthropologist writing in the weekly Germinal.

Gbagbo's fate was, however, a source of encouragement for Africans struggling to dislodge ageing heads of state. France's commitment "should serve as a warning to all African dictatorships", according to opposition forces in Djibouti.

In Dakar, where President Wade is still determined to run for a third term in 2012, the Senegalese daily Le Quotidien remonstrated: "African presidents hooked on power should watch out!"

This article originally appeared in Le Monde

ALERTS

 

By Jackie Andrews

alert@sfbg.com

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20

 

Naked bike ride and BP protest

Honor Earth Day and help revitalize the public's interest in the BP oil spill — San Francisco style — by participating in this naked Critical Mass on the one-year anniversary of the environmental tragedy. Wear as little or as much as want on your fixie, roller skates, or unicycle. Whatever your attire or your ride, you'll surely enjoy this leisurely tour of the city. Facebook the event for route information.

4–7 p.m., free

Meet at Justin Herman Plaza

Market and Embarcadero, SF

Facebook: World Naked Bike Ride — San Francisco

THURSDAY, APRIL 21

 

Walls that divide

Learn about the "Apartheid Wall" being built to annex land in Palestine and its relation to the U.S. border wall with Mexico. Hear testimonies and information on human rights violations kindled by the construction of these two walls, followed by a Q&A session with SFSU and UC Berkeley resident experts Ramon Grosfoguel, Mira Nabulsi, Niha Masri, and John Davalos.

7:30–10 p.m., free

UC Berkeley

Eshleman Hall, seventh floor, Berk.

FRIDAY, APRIL 22

 

On hobos and homelessness

Attend this community forum on homelessness with author and scholar Teresa Gowan, who presents her recently published work, Hobos, Hustlers, and Backsliders. The Homeless Youth Alliance will then share its recent art-project-turned-photo-book, Through Our Eyes: The Cameras Were Disposable But Our Lives Aren't, an evocative and sometimes shocking chronicle of the lives of Haight-Ashbury homeless youth.

7–9 p.m., free

The Booksmith

1644 Haight, SF

(415) 863-8688

www.booksmith.com

SATURDAY, APRIL 23

 

Earth Day creek challenge

Step up and help clean our neighborhood creeks, and witness first-hand the alarming amount of trash that end up in our waterways while enjoying a day of community partnership. Sites include an elementary school and Wildcat Creek, both in Richmond, as well as other locations throughout the Bay Area. Contact the Watershed Project for more information and to register.

9 a.m.–12 p.m., free

The Watershed Project

Creek sites in various Bay Area locations

(510) 224-4085

www.thewatershedprojest.org

SUNDAY, APRIL 24

 

Mark Steel, funny man

Enjoy an evening of comedy and politics with Mark Steel, a London-based comedian and author of the book Vive la Revolution:A Stand-up History of the French Revolution. Duo Pizzicato, jazz musician David Alt, and local DJs will kick out the jams while you mingle, dance and talk politics with like-minded radicals.

7–10 p.m., $5–$25, sliding scale

Sub-Mission

2183 Mission, SF

www.sf-submission.com

TUESDAY, APRIL 26

 

Liking it WellDone

Support WellDone, the Half Moon Bay organization working to raise awareness of the global water crisis and provide clean water to communities in need, at this celebration of African villages. The bash features an African-inspired dinner from Radio Africa Kitchen, plus drinks, DJs, special performances, and more.

6–9 p.m., $20

Public Works

161 Erie, SF

www.welldone.org/events *

Mail items for Alerts to the Guardian Building, 135 Mississippi St., SF, CA 94107; fax to (415) 437-3658; or e-mail alert@sfbg.com. Please include a contact telephone number. Items must be received at least one week prior to the publication date.

Known for his photography in the 50s, the now 80-year-old photographer speaks about Malian society and his formal portraits

Although he has been working since the early 1950s in and around Timbuktu, it is only in the last year that Hamidou Maiga's personal and insightful portraits have come to light in the Western world. 80-year-old Maiga's images were discovered by curator and gallery owner Jack Bell, and have since been acquired by the Victoria & Albert museum.

Stylish and beautifully composed, the photographs show villagers, musicians, artists and sportsmen and are a document of the the changes in Malian society, from the 1950s to the present day. They stretch across a time when the country was evolving from a French colony to an independent African nation. The formal but intimate portraits depi... article continues »
        
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An officer here uses a special skill to communicate with local Djiboutians as well as international partners throughout Eastern Africa.

Capt. Sylvia Kim speaks fluent French, one of the official languages of Djibouti and a dominant language throughout the African continent. Realizing her skill could benefit Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, Captain Kim volunteered for her current position as medical planner for the Joint Operations Directorate with CJTF-HOA.

"The knowledge of the language has been essential (while deployed to CJTF-HOA)," Captain Kim said. "French and Arabic are the official languages in Djibouti, French being the operational language. It's been essential in communicating and networking with the local Djiboutians and the camp staff and also imperative with correspondence with the Djiboutian government."
more...

US National Film Registry's latest additions to their vault run the gamut from a controversial war documentary by John Huston to the screwball antics of Airplane!

A diminutive but wise teacher of the Jedi arts, a bumbling French detective and a charismatic but controversial African American leader can now rest easy — the movies they appeared in have been inducted into a prestigious list of "culturally significant" US films.

In its annual announcement, the US National Film Registry of the Library of Congress has named 25 movies which it considers ready to be added to its vault. This year's additions bring the list's total figure to 550 movies. The selection spans almost the entire history of Hollywood film-making, from 1891 to 1996.

Among the new films are two George Lucas movies from very different stages of his career. 1980's Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, which Lucas wrote but did not direct, joins his 15-minute student film Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB, made in 1967 at the University of Southern California, in the vaults. Blake Edwards, who died earlier this month, is honoured with the addition to the list of 1964's The Pink Panther, the first of his Inspector Clouseau films. Spike Lee finds his way into the library via Malcolm X, his 1992 biopic of the militant black leader.

Other films to make the registry include Robert Altman's 1971 naturalist "anti-western" McCabe and Mrs Miller, starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, and John Huston's Let There Be Light, a 58-minute 1946 documentary about the trauma sustained by American soldiers in the second world war. The film was commissioned by the US Army, but subsequently banned for more than 30 years for fear it would damage recruitment drives for the armed forces.

The 1980 comedy Airplane!, starring the late Leslie Nielson, also made the list, as did Elia Kazan's first feature, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, from 1945.

"The National Film Registry is a reminder to the nation that the preservation of our cinematic creativity must be a priority, because about half of the films produced before 1950 and as much as 90% of those made before 1920 have been lost to future generations," said the Librarian of Congress, James H Billington.

The most recent film to make the registry is Peter Hutton's Study of a River, from 1996. Far from being a blockbuster, it's a beguiling examination of the life of the Hudson river as seen through Hutton's camera lens.

For all the new additions, click here. And for the full list, click here.

Firstly over at CIPE:

Betty Maina and others on developing "a link between fighting corruption and strengthening democracies."

In addition Global Voices on The Scandal of the “Ill-gotten Gains”:

On November 9, 2010, the French Supreme Court of Appeals overturned a decision rendered a year ago by the Paris Court of Appeals, agreeing to hear the case brought by the French section of the NGO Transparency International [fr] called “the ill-gotten gains” of the heads of state of Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinee and members of their entourage...[continue reading]

US National Film Registry's latest additions to their vault run the gamut from a controversial war documentary from John Huston to the screwball antics of Airplane!, writes Ben Child A diminutive but wise teacher of the Jedi arts, a bumbling French detective and a charismatic but controversial African American leader can now rest easy a ' the ...

By: John McWhorter

"Jambo" may mean hello in Swahili, but a slave brought to the United States would not have recognized that greeting. There may not have been a single Swahili-speaking African brought to these shores amid the slave trade. If there were any, it was very few.

I get to thinking about this during the holidays as we start hearing about Kwanzaa, which starts the day after Christmas and runs until New Year's Day. Kwanzaa is fine, but it was rooted in a '60s fashion for treating Swahili as black America's "ancestral" language. The choice of Swahili out of the thousands of languages spoken in Africa was innocent, and made a certain sense in that it is a lingua franca across several African nations where hundreds of other languages are spoken.

But the nations where it's spoken are in East Africa. Black Americans' ancestors came mostly from West Africa. And as we all know, Africa is enormous.

The thing is this: To treat Swahili as meaningfully ancestral to black Americans because it's "African" is to lump diverse peoples together in a way that might seem less appropriate if done by whites. Or, imagine someone with roots in Wales cooking borscht and toasting with vodka in salute to their "Europeanness."

If black Americans are to seek an ancestral language, shouldn't it be one that our ancestors actually spoke?

Picking just one is tough, though. No one African language is used as common coin from Senegal all the way down to Angola, and slaves brought to the United States came from places throughout this stretch. In the past, I have suggested Mende of Sierra Leone, the language of the songs that some Gullah speakers in South Carolina still remember in fossilized form. But there aren't that many Mende speakers in the U.S., and there are virtually no books in print for learning it (and not many even out of print in libraries). Nigeria's Yoruba is a tempting alternative, presenting neither of those problems. But its speakers were never a significant proportion of slaves brought to the United States.

If there is one West African language that a great many slaves in America spoke and is also realistically available to us, it is Twi. It's spoken in Ghana and is the lingua franca there for speakers of dozens of smaller local languages. Many slaves brought to the New World by the English, or sold to them, were from Ghana, then known famously as the Gold Coast, where Twi was a dominant local language. Just as important, a great many Ghanaians have relocated to the United States in the past 40 years, and therefore, someone trying to pick up some Twi could have native speakers to practice with.

Twi, unlike Swahili, will not throw you with piles of prefixes and nouns divided into seven different classes (which means that Swahili has seven "genders" instead of the two that are hard enough to deal with in French and Spanish). Twi is a language in which, while words are on the short side, the same one means different things, depending on what tone you say it with. This trait is why many African groups can communicate with drums set to different tones.

Say "fa" with a high tone and it means "festival." Say it in a low tone and it means "take." It gets interesting: Say the word for "my" when it's referring to part of your body, and you say it with a low tone. But if you are saying "my (something else)," like an umbrella or a table, then you say it with a high tone.

Yet the fact is that Rosetta Stone, Living Language, Berlitz and the other grand language-teaching outfits haven't gotten to Twi the way they have to Swahili. One way we could get their attention is to start buying up what education sources there are. If you just want to get your feet wet, Pimsleur has a neat little intro kit. If you really want to get into it, then get this offering and remember to get the audio materials, too, since they're the only way to get the knack of the tones.

Imagine black America reuniting with a language that its ancestors actually used.

For the record, the name "Kwame" and the Anancy spider of folklore are Twi. Let's fill things in from there -- especially because of one other fact: Twi is actually quite similar grammatically to none other than Chinese. Anyone who has even played with Twi a bit will be in a good position to pick up Mandarin, which will be a handier business decision by the year for all Americans.

So, "jambo" means "hello"? Well, in Twi, biakong, abieng, abiesang is "one, two, three." Try that on a Ghanaian you know, and watch someone delighted to see you making the acquaintance of a language that at least one of your ancestors probably spoke.

John McWhorter is a regular contributor to The Root. He is the author of Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English.

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