“Shooting Dogs” is a film dealing with the Rwandan genocide of 1994. It was shot in Rwanda, directed by Michael Caton-Jones and starring British actors John Hurt and Hugh Dancy, playing a Catholic priest and a teacher respectively, caught up in the genocide. The film portrays the incidents which took place during six days in April 1994 at Kigali‘s Ecole Technique Officielle, run by priests and where Belgian U.N. troops were located. The film is based on real events and was filmed at the actual location where the story took place, involving a number of genocide survivors as its cast & crew members.When tension between Tutsis and Hutu escalated into genocide, the school became a safe haven for Europeans and Tutsis, under the protectorate of the UN. At least 2,500 Tutsis took refuge there during the initial days of the genocide. But when belgian UN soldiers pulled out, abandoning the Rwandans to their fate, Hutu militias quickly overran the school and within hours massacred nearly all the men, women and children.The second film dealing with the Rwandan genocide after “Hotel Rwanda”, "Shooting Dogs" is arguably more powerful and harder to watch than the Oscar-nominated “Hotel Rwanda”. John Hurt in particular has a great performance, as well as Hugh Dancy.This committed film plays an important role in remembering Rwanda’s tragedy and in questioning the West's role in Africa, which is as vital for the future as understanding the past. The film provides a good example of the reluctance of western governments to be involved in conflicts that have no material impact on them as well as of the hypocrisy behind the action of western powers. It also shows the incompetence, weakness and inefficacity of the UN to deal with world conflicts. The question is: how can those people who oversaw this tragedy and took the wrong decisions sleep nowadays?Notes on the Rwandan Genocide from wikipedia:The Rwandan Genocide was the slaughter of an estimated 937,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, mostly carried out by two extremist Hutu militia groups, the Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi, during a period of 100 days from April 6th through mid-July 1994.
For many, the Rwandan Genocide stands out as historically significant, not only because of the sheer number of people that were murdered in such a short period of time, but also because of the way many Western countries responded to the atrocities. Despite intelligence provided before the killing began, and international news media coverage reflecting the true scale of violence as the genocide unfolded, virtually all first-world countries declined to intervene.
The United Nations refused to authorize its peacekeeping operation in Rwanda at the time to take action to bring the killing to a halt. Despite numerous pre- and present-conflict warnings by Canadian Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire the UN peacekeepers on the ground were forbidden from engaging the militias or even discharging their weapons, unless fired upon. In the weeks prior to the attacks the UN ignored reports of Hutu militias amassing weapons and rejected plans for a pre-emptive interdiction.The UN and member states appeared largely detached from the realities on the ground. In the midst of the crisis, Dallaire was instructed to have UNAMIR focus only on evacuating foreign nationals from Rwanda, and the change in orders even led Belgian peacekeepers to abandon a technical school filled with 2,000 refugees, while Hutu militants waited outside, drinking beer and chanting "Hutu Power." After the Belgians left, the militants entered the school and massacred those inside, including hundreds of children. Four days later the Security Council voted to reduce UNAMIR down to 260 men. But finally, on April 29, 1994, the UN conceded that "acts of genocide may have been committed." By that time, the Red Cross estimated that 500,000 Rwandans had been killed.This failure to act became the focus of bitter recriminations towards individual policymakers specifically, such as Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh, (who was the administrative head of UNAMIR and former Cameroonian foreign minister), as well as the United Nations and countries such as France and the United States more generally and President Clinton specifically. Clinton was kept informed on a daily basis by his closest advisors and by the U.S. Embassy of Rwanda. President Clinton has said "It’s the biggest regret of my administration". He has visited Rwanda several times since leaving office. The genocide was brought to an end only when the Tutsi-dominated expatriate rebel movement known as the Rwandese Patriotic Front, led by Paul Kagame, overthrew the Hutu government and seized power. Trying to escape accountability, hundreds of thousands Hutu "genocidaires" and their accomplices fled into eastern Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The violence and its memory continue to affect the country and the region. Both the First and Second Congo Wars trace their origins to the genocide, and it continues to be a reference point for the Burundian Civil War.
Pedro Anibal Paradiso Sottile et Cesar Cigliutti, membres de l’ILGA et de la CHA (Comunidad Homosexual Argentina) ont donné un discours sur l’orientation sexuelle et l’identité de genre aux Nations Unies. Pour eux, aucune religion fondamentaliste, aucune doctrine, aucune politique ne peut justifier la honte de l’inégalité et des injustices dont souffrent les personnes à cause de leur orientation sexuelle et de leur identité de genre.[En]
For Pedro Anibal Paradiso Sottile and Cesar Cigliutti, members of ILGA and of the CHA (Comunidad Homosexual Argentina), who talked to the United Nations on sexual orientation, no fundamentalist religion, no doctrines, no policy can justify the shame of inequality and of injustice, which persons suffer due to their sexual orientation and their sexual identity.
[Pt]Para Pedro Anibal Paradiso Sottile e Cesar Cigliutti, membros da ILGA e da CHA (Comunidad Homosexual Argentina), que falaram às Nações Unidas sobre orientação sexual e identidade sexual, nenhuma religião fundamentalista, nenhuma doutrina, nenhuma política podem justificar a vergonha da desigualdade e as injustiças que sofrem as pessoas devido à sua orientação e/ou identidade sexual.
Read more / lisez encore / leia mais: ILGA website
L'assemblée plénière du Sénat a approuvé par 34 voix pour, 33 contre et 2 abstentions le projet de loi venant de la Chambre permettant l'adoption par des personnes de même sexe. Le texte n'a pas été amendé. Lire encore dans Le Soir.(D'après Belga)[Pt]A adpopção por homossexuais definitivamente aprovada na Bélgica.O Senado belga aprovou ontem, pour 34 votos a favor e 33 contra, o projecto de lei do Parlamento que permite a adopção de crianças por casais do mesmo sexo. O texto não foi modificado pelo Senado. Ler mais no jornal Le Soir.[En]Belgium has finally approved adoption by homossexuals. The belgian senate has approved yesterday, with 34 votes in favour against 33, the project of law made by the Parliament, which allows adoption by homossexual couples. It was adopted without any amendments. Read more in the paper Le Soir.
Inicia-se hoje a 3ª edição do IndieLisboa – Festival Internacional de Cinema Independente de Lisboa, que, durante dez dias, permitirá ver 300 filmes entre curtas e longas metragens, nas salas do Fórum Lisboa e dos cinemas King e Londres. O filme “Me And You And Everyone We Know” (Eu e Tu e Toda a Gente Que Nós Conhecemos), de Miranda July é o filme da abertura oficial, filme excelente que aconselho vivamente. O festival conta ainda com filmes de François Ozon, Abel Ferrara, Werner Herzog e Dave McKean. E também com a presença do actor francês Melvil Poupaud (a não perder…) para apresentar “Le Temps qui reste”, o mais recente filme do realizador François Ozon, em antestreia no festival no dia 21 de Abril. Pela primeira vez, um cineasta português, Edgar Pêra, será objecto de uma retrospectiva. Mas, infelizmente, não vou poder ver nada disto...
Urging China to respect Human rightsThe human rights association "Human Rights In China" - HRIC - has launched the internet site "Where's Hu now", for the occasion of the first visit to the US of China's president Hu Jintao. The site is available in english and chinese. It indicates the tour of Mr Hu as well as his meetings. It also proposes to send Emails and letters to important people such as Bill Gates or President George W. Bush, asking them not to forget the poor situation of Human rights in China.
The human rights situation in China is generally deteriorating and remains serious for human rights defenders, including journalists, workers, lawyers, petitioners, religious practitioners and health activists, and others who raise issues that the PRC government considers sensitive.The Chinese government continues to maintain tight restrictions on freedom of speech and press, as evidenced by the surge in detentions in late 2004. A recent campaign to target "public intellectuals" resulted in the censorship of individuals, publications and broadcasts, as well as Internet and other wireless technology. On April 12, 2006, HRIC submitted an open letter and a list of urgent detention cases in China to U.S. President Bush in advance of his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao. HRIC urges President Bush to raise issues of particular human rights concerns, especially the increasing economic disparities undermining social stability and peaceful and sustainable development, and censorship and crackdowns on freedom of expression and access to information. Alone in 2005, out of the total reported 2148 executions carried out in the world, 1770 were in China (94%), as informs Amnesty International.The british newspaper Guardian also reported a serious breach of Human Rights involving the trade of executed prisoners' organs for transplants from China to the UK. According to the paper, the British Transplantation Society said that "an accumulating body of evidence suggests that the organs of executed prisoners are being removed for transplantation without the prior consent of either the prisoner or their family". Thousands of organs are thought to be involved in the lucrative trade, it said. Transplant centres, patients, and the Chinese authorities and judiciary could all be implicated in a breach of human rights.About HRICFounded by Chinese scientists and scholars in March 1989, Human Rights in China (HRIC) is an international, Chinese, non-governmental organization with a mission to promote universally recognized human rights and advance the institutional protection of these rights in the People's Republic of China (China). HRIC's approach is a long-term process of engaging multiple international actors, including the media, governments, corporations, various United Nations bodies, and other multilateral organizations.[French summary - résumé en français]Inciter la Chine à respecter les droits de l'homme
L'association Human Rights In China, qui milite pour les droits de l'homme en Chine, a lancé le site Internet Où est Hu ?, à l'occasion de la première visite du président chinois Hu Jintao aux Etats-Unis. Accessible en anglais et chinois, le site présente une carte qui retrace le parcours et les rencontres diplomatiques de M. Hu. Il propose également aux visiteurs d'envoyer des e-mails à diverses personnalités telles que Bill Gates ou le président George W. Bush, pour les inciter à ne pas ignorer la question de la répression en Chine au profit de contrats financiers lucratifs.
[english version]Today the slaughter (pogrom) of Jews that took place in Lisbon in 1506 is remembered, slaughter which killed some four thousand Jews in the city of Lisbon. In homage to the victims, journalist Nuno Guerreiro Josué, in his site ruadajudiaria, proposed to symbolically remember the victims of the 19, 20 and 21 of April of 1506, today April,19, 2006, at 19:00, at S. Domingos sq. off Rossio, by burning 4,000 candles. The Jewish Community of Lisbon adhered to the initiative proposed by the blog. In this occasion the prayers of kadish and izkor will be said. The community does not appeal, however, that the Jews light candles, since the celebration of the Jewish Easter is finishing, during which people should prevent anything that may imply energy and work.
These events were related at the time by some historians such as Damião de Góis and Samuel Usque that left detailed stories of the bloody riots. Everything will have started in the Baixa of Lisboa (downtown), on 19 of April of 1506, a sunday, in the Church of S. Domingos, when somebody cried out to have seen the face of Christ to illuminate itself in the altar (although other versions exist). People in prayer claimed that to be a miracle. Apparently however a new Christian, (Jew converted by force) tried to explain that the light that came from the cross was only being illuminated by a sun ray. Those must have been his last words. Dragging the “heretic” to the street, the infuriated people will have beaten him up and his brother to death and dragged the bodies to Rossio, where they’d be burnt - where three decades later the Inquisition would be installed. These would only be the first ones of some 2 to 4 thousand Jews brutally murdered - Portuguese Jewish men, women and children. Initiated by the Dominican monks, the people who gathered marched to the Judiaria (Jewish neighbourhood), crying out "death to the Jews" and "heretics die". The majority of the killed would be dragged through the streets and burnt (some still living) in the S. Domingos sq. These events took place at a time of crisis in Portugal and in Lisbon, with the plague killing hundreds every day, with the famine and the drought. The royal court hat therefore been moved to Abrantes and King D. Manuel was not in Lisbon at the time. It will have taken him three days to control the riots and finish the slaughters, sending the troops to Lisbon to control the city. D. Manuel thought he would be able to keep the Jews in Portugal, by compelling them to become Christians by force - the so-called “new Christian". But this attempt to keep the Jews did not work and later they would be allowed to leave the country and the inquisition would come to Portugal.
The scenes of violence of those days, 500 years ago, are part of the Portuguese history, of that History that the Portuguese have decided to “forget”. This episode, as other unfortunate ones, is not part of the school books with which History is taught. Some other tragedies and unhappy moments are usually painted in a “light" version, such as the Inquisition, colonialism and slavery, which allows keeping the myth of the Portuguese as tolerant people. But History and memory do not forget (fortunately) and unlike some, I think that we and the future generations can and must learn with our History. We have also the duty, towards our ancestors, to remember History and to ensure that it does not fall in oblivion. So that certain episodes do not repeat ever again.
As Elie Wiesel wrote, quoted in http://ruadajudiaria.com, "I have as much fear of oblivion as of hatred or death (...). It is by remembering our common beginning that I come close to my fellow creatures, to all the human beings. It is for refusing to forget that their future is as important as mine. What would happen to the future of Humanity without memory?" – [Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize, in the preface to the book "From the Kingdom of Memory", Summit Books, New York, 1990].
The Publico newspaper is here also to be mentioned, having published in the last days some articles on this subject, thus contributing to remembering this tragedy. In the recent days the Christian world has celebrated Easter, religious celebrations were made, televisions and newspapers reported, published articles and transmitted films on a man who died two thousand years ago. To be correct, it would only be fair to remember those 4,000 people who were brutally and stupidly murdered five hundred years ago, in the name of that other man.
[ór (אור) - significa simultaneamente luz e chama e, de forma metafórica, também conhecimento e memória]
É hoje recordado em Lisboa o massacre (pogrom) dos judeus que teve lugar em Lisboa em 1506. Em homenagem às vítimas, o jornalista Nuno Guerreiro Josué, no seu site ruadajudiaria, propôs lembrar simbolicamente as vítimas do massacre que, faz hoje 500 anos - de 19, 20 e 21 de Abril de 1506 - vitimou entre dois mil a quatro mil judeus na cidade de Lisboa, acendendo velas no Largo de São Domingos na Baixa de Lisboa hoje, 19 de Abril, às 19 horas. A Comunidade Judaica de Lisboa aderiu à iniciativa proposta no blog. Nessa ocasião serão rezadas as orações de kadish e izkor. A comunidade não apela, no entanto, a que os judeus presentes acendam velas, já que está a terminar a celebração da Páscoa, durante a qual os crentes devem evitar tudo o que implique energia e trabalho.
Estes acontecimentos foram relatados na época por vários cronistas como Damião de Góis e Samuel Usque, que deixaram relatos detalhados dos motins sangrentos. Tudo terá começado na Baixa, no dia 19 de Abril de 1506, um domingo, na Igreja de São Domingos, quando alguém gritou ter visto o rosto do Cristo crucificado iluminar-se inexplicavelmente no altar (existem outras versões). Em redor, gente que rezava pelo fim da seca prolongada que grassava pelo país clamou que era milagre. Entre eles, um judeu convertido à força (marrano) terá tentado explicar que a luz que emanava do crucifixo era apenas um reflexo de um raio de sol que entrava por uma fresta. Terão sido as suas últimas palavras. Acusado de herege e arrastado para a rua, o marrano e um irmão terão sido espancados até à morte e os seus corpos arrastados para o Rossio e queimados – onde três décadas depois foi instalada a Inquisição. Eles seriam apenas os primeiros de entre mais de 2 a 4 mil mortos - judeus portugueses, homens, mulheres e crianças, assassinados de forma brutal em três dias sangrentos. Incitada por frades dominicanos, a multidão que entretanto se aglomerara terá partido em direcção da Judiaria, gritando “morte aos judeus” e “morram os hereges”. A maioria dos mortos seriam arrastados pelas ruas e queimados (alguns vivos) no largo de S. Domingos. Estes acontecimentos deram-se numa época de crise em Portugal e em Lisboa, quando havia a peste (morriam cerca de 300 pessoas por dia de peste), a fome e uma grande seca. A corte tinha-se por isso mudado para Abrantes e o Rei D. Manuel não estava em Lisboa na altura, tendo levado três dias para controlar os motins e massacres, enviando as tropas para isso. D. Manuel pensava poder manter os judeus em Portugal, obrigando-os a converter-se ao cristianismo – os chamados “cristãos novos”. Mas essa tentativa de manter os judeus não deu resultado e mais tarde foi-lhes permitido deixar o país e a inquisição chegaria.
As incompreensíveis cenas de violência desses dias de há 500 anos fazem parte da história de Portugal que a História e os portugueses resolveram esquecer. Este, como outros episódios menos felizes e, não constam dos manuais escolares e mesmo outras tragédias e momentos menos positivos são pintados de forma “light”, como a inquisição, o colonialismo ou a escravatura, o que permite manter vivo o mito do tal “povo de brandos costumes”. Mas a História e a memória não esquecem ( e ainda bem) e ao contrário de alguns, eu penso que nós e as gerações futuras podemos e devemos aprender com a História. Temos aliás o dever, para com os nossos antepassados, de lembrar a História e de velar para que não caia no esquecimento. Para que certos episódios não voltem a repetir-se nunca.
Como escrevia Elie Wiesel, citado em http://ruadajudiaria.com, “tenho tanto medo do esquecimento quando do ódio ou da morte. (…). É por me lembrar do nosso princípio comum que me aproximo dos meus semelhantes, de todos os seres humanos. É por me recusar esquecer que o seu futuro é tão importante quanto o meu. Que seria o futuro da humanidade se fosse desprovido de memória?” [Elie Wiesel, prémio Nobel da Paz, retirado do prefácio do livro “From the Kingdom of Memory”, Summit Books, New York, 1990].
Menção especial ao jornal Publico que nos últimos dias escreveu bastante sobre o assunto, e em particular no sábado no artigo "A matança", contribuindo assim para não deixar cair no esquecimento esta tragédia. Nestes dias celebrou-se a Páscoa cristã, rezaram-se missas, as televisões e os media publicaram artigos e transmitiram filmes sobre um homem morto há dois mil anos. Para sermos correctos, seria justo também não esquecer outros quatro mil, assassinados cruel e estupidamente há quinhentos anos em nome desse outro homem. (english short summary will follow)
Senhores telespectadores, pedimos desculpa por esta interrupção. O programa segue dentro de momentos.
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Actors: Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Chus Lampreave
Almodóvar returns. The best thing about the movie is its title "Volver" (return). Almodóvar returns to his homeland, returns to his usual subjects, returns to his favourite actresses (Carmen Maura)… once more he talks about women and men remain mere “cabrones” who only serve to torment women. But he also talks about rapes, a recurrent subject… and once more he will return to satisfy his fans.
The film is better than his most recent films, yet, for me it is far from his first movies like "Que he hecho yo para merecer esto", "Matador" and especially "Women at the edge of a nervous breakdown”. The photography is remarkable, the plans are technically excellent. It is Almodóvar at his best. Some magnificent plans seem studied to the millimetre, like real live paintings. As for example the initial scenes, with all the women of the town in the cemetery, cleaning the tombs of their husbands, the burial of the aunt or Penélope Cruz washing the dishes (and her breasts…). The film is unclassifiable, neither a comedy nor a drama, more like a comedy of life.
Almodóvar returns to his native Castilla-La Mancha, but that is also, one of the weakest points of the film. It is not very genuine, the actresses do not convince as "women of La Mancha", in particular the glamorous Penélope Cruz (as an Hollywood diva), always so full of makeup… too artificial (and always having the easy teardrops). Her acting is not very convincing, in my view, not as in the Italian film in which she played an easy girl. But the other actresses are very good, in particular the superb Carmen Maura (who comes back to film with Almodovar after a long absence), but also Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo y Chus Lampreave. One of the promises of the film was "the fantastic", but in reality nothing is really fantastic… However, in spite of its irregularities (in its rhythm, the stories that lead nowhere, certain technical mistakes like when Cruz gets dressed for a party and there appears in a totally different way…) the film is interesting and is to be recommended.
Maybe that’s exactly what Almodovar’s cinema is about: unreal, lies, excess, not contained, a comedy of life with all its contradictions, but always a show. Although I must say the film didn’t make me cry… "Volver" will not cease to please Almodovar’s admirers as an interesting exercise of cinema.
[español]
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Intérpretes: Penélope Cruz, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Carmen Maura, Yohana Cobo, Chus Lampreave
Almodóvar vuelve. Lo mejor de Volver es probablemente su título: Almodóvar vuelve a su tierra, vuelve a sus temas de siempre, vuelve a sus actrices fetiche (Carmen, Maura)… vuelve a hablar de las mujeres y el hombre queda un "cabrón" que sólo sirve para atormentar. Vuelve también a hablar de violaciones, tema de siempre… pero seguramente volverá a encantar a sus fans.
La pelicula es mejor que su srecientes peliculas pero todavia no se puede comparar a filmes como “Que he hecho yo…”, “Matador” y en particular “Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios”. La fotografía es notable, los planes muy bien hechos, técnicamente perfectos. Es Almodóvar en su mejor. Algunos planos son magníficos, estudiados al milímetro, auténticos cuadros vivos. Como por ejemplo los iniciales, con todas las mujeres del pueblo en el cementerio, limpiando las tumbas de sus maridos, o el entierro de la tía o Penélope Cruz lavando la vajilla (y sus tetas…). La película es inclasificable, ni comedia ni drama, una comedia de la vida.
Almodóvar vuelve a su Castilla la Mancha natal, pero eso es quizas uno de los puntos más flojos de la película, no resulta muy verosímil, las actrices no convencen como “manchegas”, en particular la glamurosa Penélope Cruz (como buena diva de Hollywood), siempre tan bien maquillada y puesta… resulta demasiado artificial (y siempre con la lagrima tan facil). Su actuación tampoco resulta muy convincente, no como en la película italiana en la que hizo de prostituta (ahí si estuvo muy bien). Pero las otras actrices están muy bien, en particular la magnifica Carmen Maura, pero también Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo y Chus Lampreave.El aspecto que más prometía del film era el “fantástico”, pero en realidad no hay nada de fantástico... A pesar de sus irregularidades (en su ritmo, de historias que no llevan a ningún lado y no se sabe bien para que sirven, pero también de fallos técnicos como Penélope que se viste para una fiesta y en la fiesta está vestida de forma totalmente distinta) el film es interesante y se ve bien, al final no deja de ser un Almodovar.
El cine de Almodóvar es quizas eso mismo, irreal, mentira, exageración, falta de contención, ni comédia ni drama y todo a la vez, con todas las contradiciones. Aunque para decir la verdad no me he emocionado mucho... Con “Volver”, sin embargo, Almodovar no defraudará a sus admiradores con este ejercicio de cine.
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people"
The film "V For Vendetta" is a United Kingdom-Germany co-production, set in London, is directed by James Mcteigue. It is starring Natalie Portman - as "Evey" - (Closer, Garden State) and Hugo Weaving as "V", featuring other excellent actors like Stephen Rea, Stephen Fry and John Hurt. But V for Vendetta was originally a comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated mostly by David Lloyd, published between 1982 and 1985, in black and white, in Warrior, a British anthology comic.
The film is set against a futuristic landscape in a totalitarian Britain, some years from now. V for Vendetta tells the story of a nice young woman named Evey (Natalie Portman) who is rescued from a life-and-death situation by a masked man (Hugo Weaving) known only as “V.” “V” uses terrorist tactics to fight against totalitarianism and oppression, urging Britain’s citizens to rise up and stand up for freedom and justice and start a revolution, while pursuing at the same time his own personal revenge. When Evey uncovers the truth about V’s mysterious background, she also discovers a new herself and becomes his ally in the execution of his masterplan. The film is a mix somewhere between Zorro (of which it shows an excerpt) and Matrix, it is a modern post-9/11 Orwell, criticising the never-ending war on terrorism (and its scapegoating, its use of fear, the use of racism and xenophobia). The idea of an antifascist terrorist-as-hero is certainly controversial and will provoque debate, since, as someone wrote “one man’s terrorist is another's freedom fighter."
The film is graphically very well designed, visually beautiful and superbly acted. It actually makes you think while watching explosions and street fights. The film is highly enjoyable despite its over-ambition (aiming to be a political allegory, a love story and a thriller all in one) and although the story feels somehow flat and the characters remain a bit shallow. Natalie Portman also contributes highly to recommend this movie, confirming her special talent. And let’s admit it, the fall of the US and watching the Houses of Parliament blowing up are also very enticing.
And I say, governments should not control thir people, people should control their governments.
