Danny Glover discusses the problems in raising money for the forthcoming film on Haiti’s revolutionary hero, Toussaint-Louverture…

Producers said ‘It’s a nice project, a great project… where are the white heroes?’” he told AFP during a stay in Paris this month for a seminar on film.

“I couldn’t get the money here, I couldn’t get the money in Britain. I went to everybody. You wouldn’t believe the number of producers based in Europe, and in the States, that I went to,” he said.

“The first question you get, is ‘Is it a black film?’ All of them agree, it’s not going to do good in Europe, it’s not going to do good in Japan.

“Somebody has to prove that to be a lie!”, he said. “Maybe I’ll have the chance to prove it.”

Don Cheadle, Mos Def, Wesley Snipes and Angela Bassett are to star in the film which is being made in Venezuela - still would have been great to have some Haitians star in the film Danny? Maybe they are going to be flown over to Venezuela as extras?

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Haiti
Toussaint-Louverture
Danny Glover

Organising within my multiple communities……………..

Every Wednesday evening since September 2007 I, along with many other people have stood together in a weekly vigil outside the Brazilian Embassy and Consulates in London, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Port-au-Prince calling for the safe return of human rights activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine who disappeared on the 12th August 2007 in Port-au-Prince. The vigil is held outside the Brazilian Embassies because they lead the misnamed UN mission in Haiti “The UN Stabilization Mission” (MINUSTAH) and it is their responsibility to investigate what happened to Lovinsky and bring those responsible for his abduction to justice and return him to his family and community. In all of these the MINUSTAH has failed.

Black British poet and activist Benjamin Zephaniah NAMES the UN’s atrocious behaviour in Haiti which includes, rape of women and girls, killing and maiming of innocent civilians and destruction of the homes of some of the poorest people………

The UN is a great idea. In principle I am all for nations coming together to make the world a better place. But of late I have lost faith in this organisation we know as the United Nations. In some parts of the world where they have been sent to protect the vulnerable they have raped men, women and girls, and in Haiti they are not only covering up atrocities against some of the poorest people in the world but they are perpetrating them. It is also to be said that if we were really nations united we would have given the disappearance of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine the attention it deserves, I think the silence surrounding this great man’s disappearance is a disgrace and I urge all caring people to shout his name out loud at every opportunity. We dont need the United Nations to be united…

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Haiti
Lovinsky Pierre Antoine
MINUSTAH

TAKE ACTION!
Completely Abolish U.S. HIV Travel Ban: Please write your Representative now!

Dear Friend,

Recently we celebrated the passage into law of H.R. 5501, the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008 (PL 110-293), which reauthorized the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to a tune of $48 billion over the next five years. In passing this legislation Congress lifted the 1987 ban on non-U.S. citizens living with HIV/AIDS from entering the United States, whether as visitors or immigrants. Africa Action had long campaigned against this shameful ban that did nothing to fight HIV in the U.S. but only reflected deplorable ignorance at the highest level of U.S. policy makers on how HIV is transmitted. In fact with this ban on, HIV/AIDS in the U.S. ballooned from being a localized problem to being the national crisis it is today.

Not only was the ban a terrible public health policy, it also seriously violated the human rights and dignity of people living with HIV/AIDS globally. It is because of this ban that no major international HIV/AIDS conference has ever been held in the U.S. Congress’s decision to lift this ban constitutes a major victory on the part of advocates and activists campaigning against HIV/AIDS internationally.

However the struggle is still on as HIV still appears on the list of “communicable diseases of public health significance” that automatically restricts entry into the United States. Please join Africa Action Board member and Congresswoman Barbara Lee in urging Congressional representatives to co-sign a letter urging the White House to completely abolish the discriminatory travel ban.

Write your Representative now asking them to co-sign the Lee/Waxman/Berman letter to remove HIV from the list of diseases that automatically bar entry to the United States

TAKE ACTION NOW!

For more information about Africa Action campaign to end HIV/AIDS in Africa, visit www.africaaction.org

Sincerely,

Staff @ Africa Action

Immigration
HIV/AIDS
United States
Africa
Health
Discrimination
Travel

For those of you living in New York you may wish to catch this film….

Quilombo Country,” a documentary film shot in digital video, provides a portrait of rural communities in Brazil that were either founded by runaway slaves or begun from abandoned plantations. This type of community is known as a quilombo, from an Angolan word that means “encampment.” As many as 2,000 quilombos exist today.

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Afro Brazilian

My name is Mia Nikasimo. As a volunteer for Changing Attitudes at the Lambeth Conference I found myself in an opportune position to reflect from a translesbian (i.e. a transsexual woman who identifies as a lesbian not to be confused with above or beyond “lesbians,” or a transgender man) standpoint on the Anglican Communion and attempts to exclude the LGBTI.

I have purposely mentioned my trans status here because “transgender” as an umbrella term (for transsexual female, male, sister, brother, mothers, fathers any of the following might choose to cross dress, are intersexed, queer, kings, drag queens and more) can easily loose ones identity in the mix and because I can only share this reflection as a translesbian in the full awareness that some, like my LGBTI African brothers, sisters cannot. As the founder of an online support group call Transafro I aim to give voice to our various narratives Anglicans or otherwise, to promote, empower and raise consciousness in Africa, the Diaspora and allies.

Transgender, contrary to what is often believed to be the case, is not about sexual orientation. Rather it is about gender identity which, for instance, in the case of transsexuals (i.e. female or male), sexual orientation is something that gradually happens as birth sexuality goes through a sort of transformation and so on and so forth. Even some transsexual people do not fully understand this so I am not surprised that most members of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual community do not understand the “T” or transgender enough to change their attitudes towards us never mind the wider Anglican Communion of Bishops which is why education, dialogue and reflection is important.

The consensus will always be that: WE DO EXIST, WE ARE TRANSGENDER AND WE ARE PROUD!!!
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