“African cardinals denounce 'cultural imperialism' of wealthy countries - Belfast Telegraph” plus 4 more |
- African cardinals denounce 'cultural imperialism' of wealthy countries - Belfast Telegraph
- 'I Cannot Go Back To Iran' - Daughter Of Ahmadinejad Adviser Seeks ... - Free Internet Press
- African Immigrant Found Guilty of Human Trafficking - FOX News
- China's guest of honour status at fair debated by Chinese writers - Monsters and Critics
- Quotes of the day - Hotair.com
| African cardinals denounce 'cultural imperialism' of wealthy countries - Belfast Telegraph Posted: 14 Oct 2009 05:18 PM PDT
African cardinals yesterday denounced the "cultural imperialism" of wealthy countries in their aid, trade and health care policies for Africa, saying that the West's promotion of abortion rights and condoms is destroying the continent's moral fabric. African prelates attending the three-week meeting on the role of the Catholic Church in Africa said their countries needed economic development partnerships that are based on trust and fairness, not ones that exploit Africa's natural resources and put conditions on aid. "We want to be helped, but helped in the name of truth, with respect of what we are and what we want for ourselves," Cardinal Theodore-Adrien Sarr of Dakar, Senegal, told a news conference. He and Cardinal Wilfred Fox Napier of Durban, South Africa, denounced "hidden" agendas of international aid groups and countries that promote abortion rights and condoms to fight HIV, saying the West was trying to impose its views on Africa. Their arguments have been echoed during the synod, with repeated criticisms of institutions that promote "reproductive health care" for women. The Vatican has warned that such programmes - often supported by the United Nations - are really just a cover for promoting access to abortions and birth control. The Vatican opposes abortion and artificial contraception. It has come under heavy criticism for its opposition to condoms as a way of fighting HIV, particularly in hard-hit Africa. "There are certain cultural norms that are inherent in Africa," Cardinal Napier said. "One of them is that sexual activity is for bringing babies into the world. It's not so much for enjoyment." But he said the "cultural imperialism" imported from the West "is saying 'no, it's for enjoyment, and pregnancy is almost a disease."' Cardinal Napier also cited the practice by some aid groups of conditioning their aid with terms that are unacceptable to the Catholic Church, such as requiring a part of funding for anti-HIV programs to be set aside for condom purchases. "Western populations think that their life is the model for everybody, but it's not the case," Sarr said. "If they have some ideas, they can put forward these ideas, but these shouldn't be imposed on all the populations in the world." This content has passed through fivefilters.org. | |
| 'I Cannot Go Back To Iran' - Daughter Of Ahmadinejad Adviser Seeks ... - Free Internet Press Posted: 14 Oct 2009 01:36 PM PDT
| She told Spiegel Online in a telephone interview Wednesday that she had received several phone calls from Iran two days after the festival. "I was told that people in Iran knew about the film and that reports about it had appeared on the Internet in Farsi," says Kalhor, who admitted she had not expected news of her appearance at the film festival to travel so far and so quickly. "I was told that it would be better not to come home and that if I went back now I would be met at the airport by the secret police," she said. "There were a lot of people at the festival who are against the Iranian regime. I did not have permission to make my film in Iran either." Daughter Made Anti-Torture Film In Turkish Bathhouse The film, which is critical of torture and was partially inspired by the protesters who were arrested after Iranian national elections in June, was filmed in a Turkish bathhouse that was made to look like a torture chamber. Kalhor, who also took to the streets in June to protest with friends, some of whom were arrested, has said she hopes that viewers see parallels between the film and the situation in Iran. "If I went back it would be very dangerous for me. At least here I have security," says Kalhor, who is currently sharing a room with a Kurdish woman in a refugee center near Nuremberg. Kalhor told Spiegel Online that she had left Iran without declaring her intention to attend the film festival. Even her mother, with whom she lived, had not known. As for her father, Kalhor says she has not been in touch with him for years. Mahdi Kalhor divorced Narges' mother a year ago due to differences of opinion, some of which were political. Father Did Not Know Of Daughter's Plans During her time in Germany, Kalhor was also interviewed by fellow Iranian film maker, Hana Makhmalbaf. The interview was conducted in Farsi and then posted on the Web site YouTube on Monday (see video above). According to a translation by writers at the Associated Press, Kalhor, wearing a green scarf - green being the color of the Iranian protest movement - says in the interview that she supports the opposition. She also says that she was certain her father had not seen her film nor knew where she was. "I came from my own desire, for cinema, and I have to continue," she added. Kalhor senior, who has been a close ally of Ahmadinejad for almost a decade, told the official Iranian news agency IRNA that he had been completely unaware of his daughter's plans. "This issue is one of the symbols of a media and soft war that the opposition has launched," Mahdi Kalhor told IRNA. His daughter was being used by enemies of the regime for propaganda purposes, he said. Mahdi Kalhor, himself a former filmmaker, has in the past criticized films such as the Oscar-nominated animated feature "Persepolis," which won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes in 2007, for being anti-Iranian. A Political Cause Celebre? Asked whether she is worried about becoming a political cause celebre because of her father's influential position in Iran, Narges Kalhor said: "I can't do anything about that. Maybe I will have particular problems because of my father and his work for the regime. But I myself work privately." For the next three weeks, Kalhor will be staying in the refugee center. During that time, she will have three interviews with the German authorities to ascertain her status as an asylum seeker, the first of which is next week. Should everything go well and she get permission to stay in Germany, Kalhor, who speaks German better than English, told Spiegel Online that she would like to be able to tell her own story somehow, whether in film or words. "I would love to make more films and to be able to work in my chosen career. If I go back to Iran, I know I will never get to make any more films." "Anyway," she concludes, "I have no options. I cannot go back to Iran." Intellpuke: You can read this article by Spiegel Online staff writer Cathrin Shaer in context here: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,655158,00.htmlThis content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| African Immigrant Found Guilty of Human Trafficking - FOX News Posted: 14 Oct 2009 06:37 PM PDT NEWARK, New Jersey — A Togolese woman accused of forcing girls from Africa to work in New Jersey hair braiding salons for no pay has been convicted of human trafficking and visa fraud in a case her lawyer says highlighted African cultural norms that failed to translate in America. Prosecutors argued that Akouavi Kpade Afolabi, called "Sister" by the women she oversaw, helped bring at least 20 girls between the ages of 10 and 19 from the West African nations of Togo and Ghana on fraudulent visas to New Jersey starting in 2002. They said she manipulated the impoverished young women, who aspired to live better lives in America, and kept them in slavery-like conditions while stealing all their pay — even tips as meager as fifty cents. Afolabi's lawyer, Bukie Adetula, countered that his client was considered a benevolent mother figure and revered community leader — both in her native Togo and New Jersey. He said she was known for lending people money and aiding young women to escape their poverty-stricken homeland to learn a marketable skill in America. "I don't think the jury quite got it, the whole essence of the defense that this was cultural; the argument that they (Afolabi) brought Togo to America," Adetula said. He spoke outside the Newark federal courtroom following a unanimous guilty verdict on all 22 counts, which was returned just hours after the jury began deliberations. During the monthlong trial, prosecutors outlined a scheme they say Afolabi and her ex-husband and son — who have pleaded guilty — used to keep the young women tightly controlled. They said the women were beaten, psychologically abused and, in some cases, sexually abused, while being kept from phoning home, contacting friends or family, or accessing their passports and other documents. Adetula said what the U.S. government called slave-like supervision was merely a West African custom of protecting young girls by making sure they were tightly supervised, especially in a foreign country where they didn't know the customs or the language. Afolabi, who alternated throughout the trial between western wear and traditional African dress, sat shackled at the ankles with her head bowed much of the time, listening through headphones to a simultaneous interpreter in Ewe, her native tongue. She wept often throughout the proceedings, especially during descriptions of her former husband's alleged sexual relations with several of the women, some of them underage. Afolabi, who her lawyer said has been jailed since her 2007 arrest, faces up to 20 years in prison when she's sentenced in January. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. | |
| China's guest of honour status at fair debated by Chinese writers - Monsters and Critics Posted: 14 Oct 2009 09:47 AM PDT
This year\'s fair has been unusually controversial after China tried to prevent critical authors attending, breaking an unwritten rule that free speech reigns at the annual book-publishing show. \'At the opening of the fair, the Chinese officials spoke of literature flourishing, but did not say a word about writers in jail, about censorship or prohibitions,\' said Dai Qing, an environmental campaigner. She was one of two authors told by Chinese authorities to stay away from a pre-fair symposium on Chinese literature last month in Frankfurt. She attended anyway, leading to a walkout by Chinese officials. Dai spoke again Wednesday in a forum, Literature and Power, which has been organized by the German section of the writers\' club PEN. While critics were not welcomed to official Chinese displays, such as Beijing\'s elaborate exhibition on the history of calligraphy and books in China, they found plenty of other venues where they could speak at the fair. \'The platforms that have been offered to us are quite good ones,\' said Dai. \'We were able to attend. The media is paying attention to us. We can speak freely.\' She said international events such as the Book Fair or the Beijing Olympic Games were opportunities for dialogue \'but were repeatedly misused by the Chinese government as platforms to advance its own interests.\' Ma Jian, a writer whose expose-style portraits of China\'s downtrodden are banned at home and who lives in London, hailed the Book Fair\'s invitation to China as special guest as \'a good thing per se.\' But he said no one should expect to hear the authentic voice of China from the officials and authors in the Beijing delegation. \'While they cavort here in their beautifully tailored suits, lots of authors are locked up in jail back home,\' he said. It had not been wrong of the Germans to invite China, but many non-Chinese underestimated the will of the Beijing government to present an immaculate image. Zhou Qing, a journalist and member of the independent PEN club of China, disagreed: \'The invitation was a mistake. It makes no sense.\' Zhou has been censored after writing critical news reports about safety scandals in the Chinese food industry. The fair had been offered to Beijing as a \'fine stage to show itself in glory,\' to Chinese publishers as a \'fine opportunity for commercial dealings\' and to powerful officials as a \'fine chance for some more foreign travel.\' The five-day book fair opened for business on Wednesday. It had been inaugurated Tuesday evening at a ceremony where German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping spoke. Publishers from more than 100 nations are attending the fair. The guest of honour gains special attention from the German arts media and is able to stage cultural events on the fairgrounds. '; PrintArticle();//--> This content has passed through fivefilters.org. | |
| Quotes of the day - Hotair.com Posted: 14 Oct 2009 07:41 PM PDT Quotes of the dayposted at 10:35 pm on October 14, 2009 by Allahpundit |
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