A homeless man with an unusual gift
This is one of those underdog stories that supposedly only happen in movies… only sometimes they really do happen in real life ;) It’s a beautiful story.
Rare earth elements, how they’re used and why China has a monopoly on them
The world depends on China in a multitude of ways (which I, personally, find a bit unsettling), but this angle is not often mentioned and it’s rather major.
If you own any sort of electronic device, the substances in it were probably mined in China. This is especially true for Japanese brands, apparently, as 100% of [...]
Kim Jong-un
News stories about North Korea are very rare, but there’s one which has been making the rounds for about a month now. Ever since Kim Jong-il’s stroke in 2008 (or at least it is thought he had one, but we are unlikely to ever get official confirmation on that), speculation about who his successor would [...]
Desert Flower - a very moving film about Waris Dirie and her fight against female circumcision
{FILM DIARY}
Desert Flower (UK/Germany/Austria, 2009)
Seen: Wednesday, 31st March 2010 (cinema)
Runtime: 120′
Director: Sherry Horman
Cast: Liya Kebede, Sally Hawkins, Craig Parkinson, Meera Syal, Anthony Mackie, Juliet Stevenson, Timothy Spall
Production House: Desert Flower Filmproductions
Plot: (from imdb)
The autobiography of a Somalian nomad circumcised at 3, sold in marriage at 13, fled from Africa a while later to become finally [...]
The French in Algeria
Algeria is still a country I’d like to understand a whole lot better, but this is a very good (albeit long) video report to start with - it really explains a lot.
The Taliban targets voters after the polls
Sometimes, when I read about the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, I cannot help but think it is some weird Monty Python kind of reality, even if what I’m reading is very gruesome. Some of the rules and customs are just that absurd.
This is the first time I’ve had that feeling when watching a video, even [...]
The 20th anniversary of the Baltic Way
20 years ago, 20 million Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians joined hands to form an almost unbroken 650 kilometre long human chain. This was meant as a symbolic protest against their occupation by Soviet Russia.
The bias against Islam in Western media
Two Muslim women murdered. One killed when protesting against the regime in Iran, the other stabbed in a German courtroom for being Muslim. Which one receives a lot of coverage and which one receives hardly any at all?
Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem
This report made me think how odd it is that I know about women having to have their hair covered and all that in certain Muslim communities and yet I never realized the same was true for some Jewish communities…
Malaysian woman to be caned for drinking beer
The law forbidding alcohol has been around for some time in Malaysia, but this is the first time someone’s been prosecuted.
