and there are also things to celebrate!

[Whitebird Sings]

Two Koreas to resume talks
In wake of breakthrough meeting with Kim Jong II

Burt Herman
Canadian Press


June 20, 2005

SEOUL, South Korea -- The two Koreas hold talks this week in Seoul in an atmosphere of optimism after North Korean leader Kim Jong II pledged to seek reconciliation and hinted at a return soon to nuclear disarmament negotiations.

A high-level North Korean delegation was due to arrive in the South's capital on Tuesday for Cabinet-level talks starting the next day, aimed at normalizing ties and elaborating on agreements made during a surprise meeting last Friday between Kim and the South's top envoy to the North.

South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young was in the North's capital last week heading a government delegation to anniversary celebrations of the landmark 2000 summit between the North's Kim and then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.

Chung and Kim on Friday pledged to return as soon as July to the nuclear talks that he has boycotted for a year - if the North gets appropriate respect from Washington.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the main U.S. envoy on the North Korea nuclear issue, urged the North on Monday to set a firm date to return to the six-nation nuclear talks.

''We want to have a date and we hope that this will happen in July,'' Hill said in Seoul, according to a transcript of his comments provided by the U.S. Embassy.

Hill said resumed talks would be held ''in an attitude of mutual respect to all the parties and also with the sense of equality.''

The two Koreas also agreed verbally to work together on a variety of bilateral issues, which were expected to be discussed at the talks in Seoul running Wednesday through Friday.

They follow meetings last month in the North Korean town of Kaesong that marked a resumption in contacts severed by Pyongyang for 10 months in anger over mass defections of its citizens to the South.

Kim and Chung said family reunions between Koreans divided by the border would be resumed in August at the Diamond Mountain tourist resort, the only place South Koreans can freely visit in the North. Also, Pyongyang will send a high-level delegation to 60th anniversary celebrations in Seoul marking the Aug. 15 liberation of the Korean Peninsula from Japanese colonial rule.

Chung will head the South's delegation in the Seoul talks. Kwon Ho Ung, a senior Cabinet counsellor, will lead the North's five-member delegation that arrives Tuesday afternoon in Seoul.

On Monday, South Korean officials said the impoverished North had requested 150,000 tons of fertilizer aid to help keep up its food production.

North Korea has depended on outside help to feed its 24 million people since the 1990s, when more than one million are estimated to have died from famine in the reclusive communist country due to natural catastrophes and outdated technology that led to years of poor harvests.

In January, Pyongyang asked for 500,000 tons in fertilizer aid but Seoul refused, citing the previously stalled inter-Korean relations. After the contacts resumed in May, the South agreed to ship 200,000 tons of fertilizer to the North, and deliveries were completed Sunday.

[Dave The Dov]

How can they say there is a North and South when in fact it's just Korea!!!! Unite and come together in peace!!!! The ideaology of seperation does no good!!!!
_________________
og kush strain

[Whitebird Sings]

high five

[Whitebird Sings]

1ST KUWAITI WOMAN MP SWORN IN

WebPosted Mon Jun 20 10:33:20 2005
CBC News

Islamist and conservative politicians shouted in protest as Massouma al-Mubarak, Kuwait's first woman member of parliament, was sworn in on Monday.

The ceremony followed last month's legislation giving women the right to vote.

Mubarak, the new planning minister and minister of state for
administrative development affairs, is the only member of the minority Shia Muslim community in the 16-member cabinet.

"It's a great day for Kuwaiti women who have struggled and persevered persistently to gain their full political rights," Mubarak, 57, told parliament after being sworn in.

"In my name and in the name of Kuwait's women … we greatly appreciate the honest efforts exerted in support of the legitimate demands of Kuwaiti women," she said.

Islamist and conservative MPs opposed to the legislation shouted during her speech.

They claim Mubarak's appointment is unconstitutional, saying she failed to register on a voters' list, which is a requirement to become a cabinet minister.

But Mubarak couldn't register because the legislation giving women the right to vote hadn't been passed.

The prime minister, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, defended the
appointment of Mubarak.

"I would like to tell you that I am not registered, if there is a law
against this, then we [unregistered cabinet members] will all have to walk out of this parliament," he said.

[Dave The Dov]

This will be the start of something new and wonderful for that country!!!!
_________________
The Girls Next Door Forum

[Whitebird Sings]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Global Commercial Whaling Ban Upheld

ULSAN, South Korea, June 21, 2005 (ENS) - There will be no legal commercial whaling at least for another year, the International Whaling Commission has decided. Member governments voted today to uphold the 19 year old global whaling moratorium, handing a defeat to Japan and other pro-whaling nations.

Japan’s proposal to resume commercial whaling needed a three-fourths majority to succeed, but it failed to achieve even a simple majority. Commission members voted 29 to 23 against the proposal, with five abstentions.

“This is a win for whales,” said Australian Environment Minister Senator Ian Campbell, a delegate at the meeting. "It’s also a win for the people of Australia and other like-minded nations, who were determined that the world would not take a step back towards the re-opening of commercial whaling."

"This morning, the world stood at the edge of an abyss," Campbell said. "If pro-whaling nations had succeeded, we would have moved back toward the dark ages of commercial whaling. Instead, the world moved forward into an era where conservation and the environment are the winners."

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE AT:
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2005 ... -21-07.asp

[Whitebird Sings]

Save Humpback Whales: Next Steps


Please Spread the Word About Japan’s Hunt for Humpbacks

Dear Whitebird [aka Janette Watt ]

Several weeks ago, you sent more than 10,000 letters to several key countries asking them to vote against Japan’s proposal to reopen the hunt for humpbacks in international waters.

Your heartfelt activism has already made an impact: In South Korea, the city of Ulsan (where this year’s International Whaling Commission meeting is being held) has declared they will abandon plans to build a proposed whale and dolphin meat processing factory.

We are also encouraged by the early voting of the Government of China, which is asserting its leadership for whale conservation instead of just following Japan as it has done in past years.

The fate of humpback whales hangs in the balance

But the most important whaling votes are yet to come, including a resolution criticizing Japan’s humpback whaling proposal. We need to keep the pressure on to make sure the songsters of the sea never have to face the cruelty and suffering of explosive harpoons ever again.

So far, Japan’s efforts to push forward their pro-whaling agenda have been thwarted at this year’s whale meeting, but Japan is working furiously to fly in other registered pro-whaling countries to shift the balance before the end of the week.

We can’t come close to matching the millions of yen Japan’s government is spending to push through their whaling agenda, but with your help, we may be able to ensure conservation-minded countries carry the day at this year’s meeting, protecting whales and the commission set up to protect them.

Please Tell As Many As You Can

In response to Japan’s horrific proposal to slaughter humpback whales in international waters, we’ve created a Stop Whaling Action Center to collect as many signatures as we can from around the world. But we need your help to let others know about it.

Can you help us reach 50,000 signatures?

Once you’ve signed the petition, please pass it along to friends, family and neighbors who care about making sure we don’t lose the songs of the sea forever. Simply click here to tell your friends.

It’s not too late to stop the killing of humpbacks in the open ocean. But we must act now. The crucial vote could come at any day during this week’s IWC meeting.

It’s also very expensive to send our team to Korea to fight to make sure the result of the IWC is whale conservation, not killing more whales. If you can make a contribution to support IFAW right now, it would be greatly appreciated.


If we tell as many others as we can about the unfolding tragedy about to occur in our oceans, we can win this fight.

Sincerely,

Fred O’Regan
President and CEO

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION -->
http://www.kintera.org/site/c.kvI4IjNZJ ... EC8B97CA77


WHALE ACTION CENTRE -->

http://www.kintera.org/site/c.kvI4IjNZJ ... EC8B97CA77

[Dave The Dov]

Some countries adhere to old ways!!!! When are they going realize that it's no good to do that any more!!!!
_________________
full melt

[Whitebird Sings]

It seems to me that people only stop if they can see what's in it for them...

either what they will gain... or what they will lose!

They really don't care about others or tomorrows...


But we will keep on keepin' on to make up for what they lack!!
Know what I mean?

[Whitebird Sings]

July 2, 2005

Film About Despair in South Africa, and School That Offers Hope

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

Charlie Ebersol's need to tell the story of the Ithuteng Trust school in Soweto - where traumatized and violent teenagers learn to overcome their young lives' horrors - began with a visit to the South African township two years ago and has produced a new documentary, "Ithuteng (Never Stop Learning)."

"I have a great life, and I felt I had a responsibility to tell this story," said Mr. Ebersol, 22, who was a film major at the University of Notre Dame and graduated in May.

The documentary, which was honored in May as best humanitarian film at the MountainFilm festival in Telluride, Colo., is a raw but inspiring journey into the lives of teenagers ravaged by abuse, crime and AIDS. All were recruited by Jacqueline Maarohanye, a fiercely devoted teacher known as "Mama Jackey" who set up the school in 1999. Although some students board there, most come from their own schools around Johannesburg for after-hours and Saturday programs that combine academics, culture, sports, peer counseling, therapeutic dramatizations of the teenagers' own lives and outings to a maximum-security prison.

Mr. Ebersol, who now lives in Los Angeles and recently completed a stint as a production assistant on the film "Yours, Mine and Ours," produced the documentary with a friend, Kip Kroeger, also 22, with whom he had made music videos. They hired Mr. Ebersol's brother, Willie, 18 and a student at the University of Southern California, to direct a 17-day shooting schedule in the summer of 2003 because they admired a short student film he had made on a classmate's dating problems.

"I should have been intimidated, but I wasn't," Willie Ebersol said. "He came back from South Africa, gave me a blanket as a gift and asked me to direct."

The students provided brutally candid narratives of their lives to the young American filmmakers, none more than Lebo, a girl who described being raped twice and contracting H.I.V.

"They poured out their lives and didn't hold back," Mr. Kroeger, a North Carolina State University graduate, said in a telephone interview. "It sears right into you. Here's a girl you met two hours and ago she's telling us about being raped? How can she sit there and tell us that?"

In another scene from the film, an orphan named Dineo, who is described as having been sexually abused by her foster father, the head of an anti-abuse charity, confronts an older girl whose behavior toward her had made her want to give up the program.

"I thought you were a bad person," Dineo says to the older girl. "I hated you so much, but now I'm going to be your mother and you're going to be my mother."

While they embraced, Mama Jackey tried to hold back her tears.

"Here are these kids, who are not taught about love, teaching each other to love," Charlie Ebersol said in an interview. "They will learn to love and share it because Mama said you have a chance now, you have a way to dream."

Although the film does not yet have a distributor, it is winning notice beyond the award. Oprah Winfrey had already known about Ithuteng (pronounced IT-uh-teng) and Mama Jackey, but it was watching a DVD of the documentary during a flight to Johannesburg in June that prompted her to donate a total of $1.14 million to the school, said Gayle King, editor at large of O, the Oprah Magazine.

When Ms. King told Charlie Ebersol of the donation, she said: "He was incoherent with joy. He said, 'Oh, my God, Gayle, I was just trying to raise $10,000 to keep Mama's electricity on.' "Ms. Winfrey's gift was the largest to the school so far, but it has received support from numerous groups, including the National Basketball Association, which built a reading center there, and from Dikembe Mutombo, the Congolese player for the Houston Rockets, who donated $150,000 to build two dormitories.

Kathy Behrens, a senior vice president of the N.B.A., said: "I was with Charlie when he first showed the film to Mama. It was very emotional for her. It was very hard for her to watch Lebo, who had died of AIDS."

The lessons of Ithuteng resonated with unexpected power for the Ebersol brothers. Until last year, theirs had been a charmed life, as the older sons of Dick Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Universal Sports and the retired actress Susan Saint James.

Dick Ebersol bankrolled the film for about $90,000, after Charlie Ebersol and Mr. Kroeger began raising money on their own. Their father gave them guidance on the documentary and helped find film veterans to help his sons in Soweto. Their mother helped edit the film.

But last Nov. 28, a private jet carrying Dick, Charlie and the youngest Ebersol son, Teddy, crashed after takeoff in Montrose, Colo., near the family's winter home in Telluride. Teddy, 14, was killed; Charlie suffered a broken wrist, and eye and back injuries; Dick broke several ribs, his sternum, his pelvis, his coccyx and several vertebrae.

"I walked off the plane with my father in my arms, and my brother behind me," Charlie Ebersol recalled. "I said, 'Oh, God, how can I get through this without my father, and then I had to find Ted. In talking to God, I said: 'How can you empower me, and take away my father's power? I need him.' "

He said the openness of the students at Ithuteng helped him deal with his grief. "Mama believes you must cry yourself dry," he said of Ms. Maarohanye, "and that people shouldn't prevent you from crying. Willie and I employed what Mama taught us in the context of real tragedy."

Willie Ebersol said: "South Africa taught me that I can talk about what's eating me up inside. We learned from the kids that it's O.K. to be sad. If you've been raped, it's O.K. to say you've been raped. You don't bury your grief if you speak about it. You open up."

The film also underwent a transformation after the crash, becoming more overtly emotional with additional music to underscore the painful pasts and altered lives of the students.

"We had a fear of exploiting the emotion," Mr. Kroeger said of their initial framing of the material. "But after the crash, we realized we weren't tapping into our emotions. We had to make changes."

Now, Charlie Ebersol said, the film "represents our trying to find hope in the face of loss."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/02/movie ... nted=print