Culture and Media

To mark the occasion of the World Day against Female Genital Mutilation [FGM], the documentary from Equality Now “Africa Rising” was presented at the Fine Arts Society of Madrid. The film was directed and produced by the Salvadorian film-maker Paula Heredia. Winner of an Emmy, the film depicts several African social movements and their struggle against this practice.

We need to promote inter-cultural thought of diversities, open our minds to change, diversity and unconventionality. School and society need a pedagogic conception of ‘world understanding’ to oppose racism, intolerance and incomprehension in all their forms where the identity of others is trapped in negative stereotypes.

The recent statements of singer Morgan, who openly admits having used cocaine as an “anti-depressant”, are a clear example of how today’s society no longer accepts any sort of problem or concern: everything has to be “subdued”; a pill will make all troubles magically disappear. Young people especially, are the main target of campaigns that endorse these people as role models.

Confronted by the tragic earthquake that shook the ancestral destitution of the suffering Haitian people, a lot of debris has come to light. We, the Dominican people, did and will do everything that we should do in this painful and torturous time for the Haitian people and we appeal for them, for ourselves and for all the people of the world.

An appeal to the European Court of Human Rights is planned. A simultaneous legal challenge to the ban on same-sex marriage and opposite-sex civil partnerships is being prepared by LGBT human rights group OutRage!. The group has the support of legal expert, Professor Robert Wintemute, Professor of Human Rights Law at Kings College in London, who has agreed to take on the case.

Montecillo Park for Study and Reflection, which will be located in the surroundings of Cochabamba, will be an addition to other such parks that are located in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the United States, Brazil, and countries in Europe and Asia. It will be a new place to help ‘unveil that which is Sacred’ in human beings and to promote non-violence and non-discrimination.

A week has already passed since I left Punta de Vacas. I have arrived in Geneva and am going to leave my bags at home, in the Valais Mountains.
I’d love to sum up this wonderful adventure. The World March already seems like a far-away memory and a chapter has just ended. The experience and facts now belong to the past.

Moroccan human rights activist and peace advocate Zakaria El Hamel was appointed Ambassador for Peace by the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) and the Inter religious and International Federation for World Peace (IIFWP).
The Ambassadors for Peace is a global network of leaders from religion, politics and civil society working cooperatively for the sake of world peace.

The town hall of Fuenlabrada, south of Madrid, is exhibiting thirteen paintings made by students from several local schools. They are inspired by Pablo Picasso’s famous painting that portrays the horrors of war. This initiative is one of the activities developed by ‘World Without Wars and Without Violence’ during the World March for Peace and Nonviolence.

Premieres on CBC’s The Nature of Things – Thursday, January 21, at 8p.m. (8:30 NT) –
Filmmakers Donna Zuckerbrot and Daniel Zuckerbrot, Reel Time Images, produced, directed and wrote this exciting and intriguing documentary called “Bugs, Bones & Botany: The Science of Crime”, that will surprise even faithful viewers of TV’s many forensic programs.