Latest Videos Submitted by gwaan at VideoSift.com

The Dalai Lama - A Simple Tibetan Monk

gwaan (http://www.videosift.com/member/gwaan) — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:29:28 -0700

(17 votes - 4 comments - 5087 views)
He calls himself a simple Tibetan monk, but he is far more than that to his people and most of the Buddhist world.

He is a Nobel Peace laureate who has had to live in exile in northern India since he fled his homeland as a teenager.

Tenzin Gyatso, known around the world simply as The Dalai Lama was the first Tibetan spiritual leader to travel to the West.

It is a trend he has continued as he regularly meets with world leaders to publicise the cause for a free Tibet.

Tibet is governed by China and the Dalai Lama has led a government in exile in Dharamsala, in northern India since fleeing his homeland in 1959.

Tenzin Gyatso has had a colourful life from an early age. He was taken from his family around the age of two, for intensive training, after being identified as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama. He was enthroned as Tibet's head of state at the age of 15.

In 1989, this simple monk – to use his words – was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts for a peaceful resolution in the struggle for a free Tibet.

You can watch the second part here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwgCYKqEigQ

Is Sectarian Violence Spreading From Iraq To The Gulf?

gwaan (http://www.videosift.com/member/gwaan) — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 04:33:14 -0700

(15 votes - 3 comments - 276 views)
Bahrain, a tiny gulf island, normally keeps a low profile in the international news. Meanwhile, internal sectarian tensions are building.

Shias make up 70 per cent of the population, but they are ruled and discriminated against by the Sunni minority. There are fears that the sectarian violence engulfing Iraq, could spread to its neighbour.

This all makes for an explosive situation which could tear Bahrain apart. Its vocal and restless Shia community are rousing up feelings of anger and indignation within minority Shia communities in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Emirates.

They feel that they are not proportionally represented. But other Bahrainis feel that the Shias are cause for concern because of their loyalties to Iran, and their wish to "Islamize" the country.

People & Power provides an insight into the political turmoil that has preoccupied the country's people over the past few years. Journalist Abdurrahman Al-Shayyal asks whether Bahrain can overcome these pressures in order to heal its sectarian divisions.

Sierre Leone's Refugee All Stars Live At Fuji Rock

gwaan (http://www.videosift.com/member/gwaan) — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 12:19:40 -0700

(12 votes - 1 comment - 328 views)
The Refugee All Stars from Sierra Leone create a spirited and infectious fusion of traditional West African music, roots reggae and rhythmic traditional folk. Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars craft music that transforms and uplifts. The collection of songs on their debut album Living Like A Refugee, decry the insanity of war and call out for social justice while instantly compelling you to get on your feet and dance. They have lived through unimaginable tragedy and yet Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars have become an inspiration and a symbol of the healing power of music.

Crossroads Europe: Black, White and Red Marseille

gwaan (http://www.videosift.com/member/gwaan) — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 12:47:09 -0700

(13 votes - 4 comments - 316 views)
French filmmaker Francois Bringer reports on a story of successful integration in Marseilles, which is rapidly becoming France's first majority-Muslim city. While there have been minor clashes in the past, Marseille has largely seen comfortable collaboration between its faiths and cultures. Whether you are black, white, or red – Marseille is Marseille, one resident declares.

Residents account for their tolerance through their shared history, the large number of locals who originate from different countries, and the absence of the word "community" in the official language of the French republic – because of the French desire to make their citizens pledge allegiance first to the republic and not to their religious or ethnic community.

A remarkable story of the conflict that could have been.

You can watch the second part here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfIZOqXDugM

Amnesty International: 'Signature' - Award Winning Animation

gwaan (http://www.videosift.com/member/gwaan) — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 05:17:24 -0700

(28 votes - 8 comments - 460 views)
Your signature is more powerful than you think...

Abu Ghraib Interrogator Describes Torture Tactics He Used

gwaan (http://www.videosift.com/member/gwaan) — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 12:54:02 -0700

(22 votes - 6 comments - 1221 views)
Riz Khan speaks with an American army interrogator who participated in the abuse of hundreds of prisoners in Abu Ghraib and Fallujah.

In his just-released book, Fear Up Harsh: An Army Interrogator's Dark Journey Through Iraq, Tony Lagouranis speaks about his struggle with his conscience and how he decided to break the silence surrounding torture by American forces.

Lagouranis had learned Arabic and joined the army as an interrogator before the events of September 11, 2001. After the Iraq war, he was sent as part of a special intelligence-gathering task force that roamed around the country.

He speaks about the "culture of abuse" that he found in Iraq, and the confusion among American soldiers as to whether Iraqi prisoners were subject to any legal protections. He also describes his use of military dogs to terrorise prisoners.

The term "fear up harsh" is an official tactic designed to terrify prisoners into revealing information. Lagouranis was the first US army interrogator to denounce the tactics and question American actions abroad.

Antony Gormley's 'Blind Light' - Amazing Exhibition!!!

gwaan (http://www.videosift.com/member/gwaan) — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 19:47:05 -0700

(19 votes - 3 comments - 218 views)
Saw this exhibition today and it is AMAZING - anyone in London should make an effort to go and see it!

http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/gormley/

The Murder of Peace Activist Tom Hurndall by the IDF

gwaan (http://www.videosift.com/member/gwaan) — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 00:07:22 -0700

(21 votes - 2 comments - 214 views)
Tom Hurndall - a peace activist and one of my sister's best friends - was murdered by an Israeli sniper while trying to help children to safety in the Gaza Strip.

http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/category/tom-hurndall/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Hurndall
http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,1128176,00.html

U.S. Foreign Policy - 'The War Against The Third World'

gwaan (http://www.videosift.com/member/gwaan) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 03:30:35 -0700

(19 votes - 4 comments - 234 views)
'The War Against The Third World: What I've Learnt About US Foreign Policy' - CIA Covert Operations and U.S. Military Interventions Since WWII - What You Didn't Learn in School and Don't Hear on the Mainstream Media.

http://www.addictedtowar.com/docs/The.War.Against.the.Third.World.pdf

'Life + Debt' - The Story of Jamaica's Economic Decline

gwaan (http://www.videosift.com/member/gwaan) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 20:06:12 -0700

(21 votes - 7 comments - 2635 views)
Set to a beguiling reggae beat, Life and Debt takes as its subject Jamaica's economic decline in the 20th century. The story has reverberations in the plight of other third-world nations blindsided by globalization, like Ghana and Haiti. After England granted Jamaica independence in 1962, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) stepped in with a series of loans. These loans came with strings attached--the kind that would eventually plunge the country $7 billion into debt, stranded without the resources to dig themselves out.

Utilizing excerpts from the award-winning non-fiction text "A Small Place" by Jamaica Kincaid, Life & Debt is a woven tapestry of sequences focusing on the stories of individual Jamaicans whose strategies for survival and parameters of day-to-day existence are determined by the U.S. and other foreign economic agendas. By combining traditional documentary telling with a stylized narrative framework, the complexity of international lending, structural adjustment policies and free trade will be understood in the context of the day-to-day realities of the people whose lives they impact.

The film opens with the arrival of vacationers to the island-- utilizing Ms. Kincaids text as voice-over, we begin to understand the profound contrasts behind the breathtaking natural beauty of the island. The poetic urgency of Ms. Kincaids text lends a first-person understanding of the legacy of the country's colonial past, and to it's present day economic challenges. For example, as we see a montage of the vacationer in her hotel, voice-over: "When you sit down to eat your delicious meal, it's better that you don't know that most of what you are eating came off a ship from Miami. There is a world of something in this, but I can't go into it right now." (adapted excerpt "A Small Place")

As we begin to understand the post-colonial landscape outlined in Ms. Kincaids text, we cut to archival footage of Former Prime Minister Michael Manley in a post-independence speech condemning the IMF stating that "the Jamaican government will not accept anybody, anywhere in the world telling us what to do in our own country. Above all, we're not for sale."

Former Prime Minister Michael Manley was elected on a non-IMF platform in 1976. He was forced to sign Jamaica's first loan agreement with the IMF in 1977 due to lack of viable alternatives-- a global pattern common throughout the Third World. At present Jamaica owes over $4.5 billion to the IMF, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) among other international lending agencies yet the meaningful development that these loans have "promised" has yet to manifest. In actuality the amount of foreign exchange that must be generated to meet interest payments and the structural adjustment policies which have been imposed with the loans have had a negative impact on the lives of the vast majority. The country is paying out increasingly more than it receives in total financial resources, and if benchmark conditionalities are not met, the structural adjustment program is made more stringent with each re negotiation. To improve balance of payments, devaluation (which raises the cost of foreign exchange), high interest rates (which raise the cost of credit), and wage guidelines (which effectively reduce the price of local labor) are prescribed. The IMF assumes that the combination of increased interest rates and cutbacks in government spending will shift resources from domestic consumption to private investment. It is further assumed that keeping the price of labor down will be an incentive for increasing employment and production. Increased unemployment, sweeping corruption, higher illiteracy, increased violence, prohibitive food costs, dilapidated hospitals, increased disparity between rich and poor characterize only part of the present day economic crisis.

In one segment addressing the Free Trade Zones, we meet workers who sew five-six days a week for American corporations to earn the legal minimum wage of $30 U.S./week ($1200 - $1500Jamaican dollars/week). The port of Kingston is lined with high-security factories, made available to foreign garment companies at low rent. These factories are offered with the additional incentive of the foreign companies' being allowed to bring in shiploads of material there tax-free, to have them sewn and assembled and then immediately transported out to foreign markets. Over 10,000 women currently work for foreign companies under sub-standard work conditions. The Jamaican government, in order to ensure the employment offered, has agreed to the stipulation that no unionization is permitted in the Free Trade Zones. Previously, when the women have spoken out and attempted to organize to improve their wages and working conditions, they have been fired and their names included on a blacklist ensuring that they never work again. Free Trade Zones are encouraged by the U.S. government, for example projects financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (U.S. AID) have used over $34,960,000 in U.S. tax dollars to target, persuade and provide incentives to American companies to relocate offshore in Jamaica. Yet now due to NAFTA, these dismal yet precious jobs are being lost to Mexico, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.

Another segment tells the story of a chicken plant which had a flourishing business selling high-quality chicken to the domestic Jamaican market. Business has recently been undercut by U.S. "dumping" of low-grade chicken parts in Jamaica . While there are many restrictions on foods and goods imported into the U.S., there are often no restrictions on food and goods exported to foreign developing countries. Agreements such as NAFTA and the Caribbean Basin Initiative function to enforce this inequity under the guise of "free trade."

Life & Debt includes a segment on the banana industry wherein Jamaica has been granted preferential treatment from the British through the Lome Convention, providing a tax-free import quota for 105,000 tons/fruit per year to England. Through a case the U.S. brought to the WTO, the U.S. government is demanding the Lome Convention quota removed, (although the U.S. does not grow bananas on its own soil) forcing Jamaica to compete with exporters from Central America and South America. Specifically Chiquita and Dole, which are U.S. companies who produce bananas on a large scale. Central America is characterized by cheaper labor, a different soil type, high rainfall and a climate suited to large-scale banana production and thus more efficient. In 1993, a strike at Chiquita Farms in Colombia wherein 25,000 workers protesting for better wages was settled by firing shots at the striking workers and killing 40 people and the banana ships rolled insuring Chiquita's high rate of "efficiency." Jamaica's entire banana production could be produced by one farm in Central America. Banana's bring in 23 million US to Jamaica, comprising 8% of all exports. Yet, in the Windward Islands, bananas account for 50% of total exports. In St. Lucia, St.Vincent, bananas also comprise significant % of total exports, so quota loss will impact the entire Caribbean. At present the European Union has granted $600 million to help Jamaica become more efficient in their banana production so that they may attempt to compete on the "free market" in year 2000. The quota that is being so forcefully contested by US multinationals is under 5% of all global banana production. It is unlikely that the banana industry here could match the price of bananas from Central America. Already the number of small banana growers on the island have shrunk from 45,000 to 3,000.

Every country aims to be self-sufficient in milk production. The milk farmers in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and the European Union all receive huge subsidies to keep their milk prices low. Thus when the milk solids from the U.S. or Europe are exported they are at an artificially low price due to support. Jamaica's local production of milk was on a strong upward climb. In a 5 year period (1987-1992) the industry grew to 30 million liters, producing over 25% of the nations consumption, and was poised to rapidly increase production. In 1992, liberalization policies demanded that the import taxes placed on imported milk solids from Western countries be eliminated and subsidies to the local industry removed. In 1993, one year after liberalization, millions of dollars of unpasteurized local milk had to be dumped, 700 cows were slaughtered pre-maturely and several dairy farmers closed down operations. At present, the industry has sized down nearly 60% and continues to decline. It is unlikely the dairy industry will ever revitalise its growth.

Life & Debt aims to clarify the impact that these economic policies have on the day-to-day lives of the people they are said to benefit. The voting rights within the IMF are roughly proportionate to the contributions paid in by member nations. The breakdown of the democratic process becomes clear as the Jamaican people are removed from participation in the decisions that truly affect their lives. The IMF promotes an agenda of monetary austerity, currency devaluation, and lowering wages. The goal is to reduce inflation by balancing a nation's loan repayments and imports with its export earnings. The result is usually a recession. The World Bank takes a longer run perspective. It aims for structural adjustment, which means trying to transform a borrower nation's economy into a free- market economy. It typically proposes market deregulation, sometimes accompanied by new lending from the World Bank and private lenders. These policies are supposed to benefit Third World economies by integrating them into the global market. What actually happens is that Third World people suffer, while commercial banks in the North collect a great deal of interest. In Jamaica, only 5 percent of total money borrowed since 1977 has been able to stay inside the country.

The lessons of Jamaica--where these policies have been in effect for nearly twenty-five years--extend far beyond its shores. In nearby Haiti, former President Aristide was pressured to accept loans from the IMF; in Russia, billions in IMF loans have been accepted for the first time and the country is already suffering from the stringent conditions prescribed by the Fund; throughout Africa, countries struggle to meet scheduled adjustments. Life & Debt is a tribute to the ingenuity and strength of the people who defy the odds of survival, yet its primary aim is to inform young adult audiences in the U.S. of the impact these policies have on our neighbors abroad.

http://www.lifeanddebt.org