‘We’re expecting a big turn out tomorrow for the nationwide demonstrations,’ an Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) spokesman told News Line yesterday.
He added: ‘The purpose of the Get Up Stand Up Campaign launched by ourselves with the support of all affiliates on the island of Ireland is to oppose the government and the way it is handling the crisis in favour of the banks.
‘The government has done nothing for jobs. And cutting incomes, including social welfare in a recession is not only morally wrong, it’s madness.
‘It will turn a recession into a depression.
‘Demonstrators will be carrying banners and placards saying “Banks 54m euros – jobs zero”.
‘Tomorrow is just the start of our campaign leading to the Budget.
‘There will be stoppages and 24-hour strikes to follow.’
The Get Up Stand Up Campaign website says: ‘We believe there is a fairer way.
‘Where are the plans to protect peoples’ jobs, or create new employment?
‘Where are the plans to protect peoples’ homes from repossession? And where are the plans to protect vital services at a time when greater numbers will come to depend on them?
‘The course of action proposed by government is both unworkable and unfair.
‘To cut peoples’ incomes in a recession invites economic freefall and to impose the greatest burden on low and middle income earners is unjust.
‘They played no role in causing this crisis and should not be presented with the bill.
‘This crisis demands fresh thinking. So far all we’ve seen are reruns and reheats of the same failed policies that have brought us to this sorry pass.
‘This crisis demands that people get active and get involved. Get Up, Stand Up!
‘Show your solidarity. March with us on November 6th!’
Over 5,000 young Greek workers on so-called ‘training’ schemes in the public sector, demonstrated on Thursday in Athens and in other main cities against a government decision to immediately sack them: here.
Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes (no Photoshop edit). I knew it wasn’t the most original idea in the universe. I was just curious to hear what melody the birds were creating.
I sent the music to the photographer, Paulo Pinto, who I Googled on the internet. He told his editor, who told a reporter and the story ended up as an interview in the very same newspaper.
Here I’ve posted a short video made with the photo, the music and the score (composed by the birds).
SAN JUAN - Three human rights groups said yesterday that they will decline an invitation to tour the Guantanamo Bay prison next month because it doesn’t include an opportunity to speak with prisoners.
R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Nine Inch Nails Join Campaign To Close Guantanamo Bay: here.
A UN human rights investigator insisted on Monday that Guantanamo Bay detainees must be freed or transferred to US federal courts for trial by the January 22 deadline set by US President Barack Obama: here.
The ousted president and his supporters say army is blaring loud songs
Oct. 21, 2009
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Occupants of the Brazilian Embassy in Honduras, where ousted President Manuel Zelaya is holed up with his supporters, complained Wednesday about loud music blasted by soldiers posted around the diplomatic compound.
Army chief of staff Gen. Romeo Vazquez denied claims of harassment, saying the all-night broadcast was a “serenade” intended to celebrate the country’s Armed Forces day holiday.
The playlist of tunes that stretched from after midnight into Wednesday morning included the song “Two-legged Rat,” an ode to an ex-boyfriend made famous by Mexican songstress Paquita La del Barrio. Its lyrics begin, “Filthy rat, crawling animal, scum of all life …” and get worse from there.
A statement by the Organization of American States expressed concern about “increased harassment” of the embassy, especially at night.
Zelaya has been holed up in the diplomatic compound since he sneaked back into Honduras in late September, after being ousted in a June 28 coup. He has demanded he be reinstated to serve out his term, while the interim government has refused to do so.
Journalists from several media outlets including The Associated Press are inside the embassy.
Soldiers have cordoned off several blocks around the compound and allow only certain kinds of previously inspected food inside. They also have taken to shining bright lights into the building at night, and occupants say soldiers make loud animal noises as well. …
In 1989, when U.S. troops invaded Panama, then-president Manuel Noriega took refuge in the Vatican Embassy in Panama City. U.S. soldiers blasted the building with loud rock music until the Vatican complained, and Noriega finally surrendered.
Danny came from West Ham, & he’d been a dad 8 months
Joey came from Birmingham, & he was just 18
Billy came from Bromyard & his Captain told the press he was a “a key part of a closely-knit platoon”
The Corporal came from Kings Lynn he was “the perfect soldier”
The Rifleman from Yorkshire “saw the lighter side of life”
The private from the Welsh Guards had ” a tremendous sense of humour”
The Rifleman from Maidenhead, was “1st in everything”
And we’ll all be home by Christmas in a land that’s fit for heroes
We’ll all have beer & medals, we’ll all get jobs for life
Next time you see your colonel, you can sell him a Big Issue
& he’ll take you home for Christmas & he’ll let you shag his wife
Tommy came from West Ham, or maybe it was Glasgow
Or maybe it was Birmingham, but he was just 18
Tommy came from Bromyard, or maybe some where else
But it’s somewhere else he’ll never see again
Tommy come from West Ham…
Jimmy come from Birmingham…
What business did they have being here?
What business did they have dying here?
What business do we have being here On the Northwest Frontier?
HILARY CLINTON ADMITS USA CREATED ISLAMIC EXTREMISM IN AFGHANISTAN: here.
An introduction in the beginning said that most people know Sudan only because of war in Darfur. While it is a country with a long history and rich culture.
The Cultural Nubian Club in the Netherlands is an organisation in The Hague of migrants from Sudan. They did songs and dancing from traditional weddings in Nubian villages in Sudan.
Nubia, the border region in southern Egypt and northern Sudan, has a long history. Sometimes, it was conquered by ancient Egyptian pharaohs. Somertimes, it conquered Egypt, and its kings became pharaohs of Egypt as well.
Its culture had some similarities with ancient Egypt: pyramids were built; gods worshiped in Egypt were worshiped in Nubia as well. However, we still cannot read ancient Nubian inscriptions.
In late antiquity, Christianity came to Nubia. A few centuries later, Islam. However, some more ancient traditions still survive today in wedding ceremonies. The river Nile and its water play a big role in those ceremonies. Also, according to an article by Shawgie Elhay, distributed in the museum, newlyweds have to pass burning incense seven times from the east to the west. As, according to Nubian tradition, eternal life, the hereafter, is in the west. As was the case in ancient Egypt, where the pyramids and royal tombs were built in the desert to the west of the Nile.
That the performance today was in the entrance hall of the museum, before the Taffeh temple, was interesting, as the Taffeh temple is originally from Egyptian Nubia.
Today, the male Nubian dancers, singers, and musicians (on two tambourines) were in white. Their female counterparts wore black, with bright pink headscarves; except for the woman playing the bridegroom’s mother, who wore a black headscarf and golden jewelry.
After the Nubian group there came two sets by Faiza ‘Issa’s wedding singers from Khartoum. Faiza ‘Issa herself did lead vocals and daluka drum. She wore a long dress and long hair, with no headscarf. Her two backup singers both wore headscarves, one of them with a long dress, the other one with jeans. While a young woman danced to the music, sometimes reaching for a cowboy hat, sometimes for castanets from the dance floor.
In Sudan it is tradition to honour young brides with a special ceremony only for women. The new bride is required to dance a couple of wedding dances in various, often rather provocative, outfits. A professional wedding singer is usually hired for the occasion. Faiza ‘Issa is one of the most popular wedding singers in Khartoum today. She teaches young brides the special marriage dances and accompanies them during their performance with songs and percussion (daluka). Faiza and her colleagues are also widely known for their tantalising aghani al-banat: ‘girl songs’ sung from a female perspective about such subjects as sexuality and male-female relationships. Utilising various musical styles and influences, the wedding singers’ performances are both traditional, ceremonial and popular in character.
Two Sudanese women arrested in July were sentenced to 20 lashes and a $100 fine by a court Oct. 22 for wearing ‘indecent’ clothing, AFP reported: here.
Birds’ rhythmic abilities offer clues to the origins of dance
By Nicole Branan
Researchers have long assumed that humans were the only animals that could dance—even our close primate relatives cannot keep a steady beat or be taught to move to a rhythm. But new evidence shows that birds can dance, revealing that the mysterious ability could be a by-product of vocal learning.
Aniruddh Patel of the Neurosciences Institute, Adena Schachner of Harvard University and their colleagues studied several birds, among them a cockatoo that dances to the Backstreet Boys’ “Everybody.” When Patel sped up or slowed down the song, the bird adjusted its moves to match the tempo, eliminating the possibility that it was in sync with the music by chance. Intrigued, Schachner and her colleagues started searching YouTube for videos of other dancing animals. They found 15 bopping species (14 parrot and one elephant) that also share an additional trait: the capability to imitate sounds. That correlation suggests our musical ability grew out of the vocal learning system instead of being “a special-purpose ability,” Patel says.
The findings could help advance research on movement disorders, he adds. Hearing music helps Parkinson’s patients to walk, for example. So far scientists do not understand the underlying mechanisms, but if bird brains share certain key circuits with humans, then scientists may find answers by studying them.
The English translation of this song, written by Violeta Parra, sung by Mercedes Sosa, is:
Mercedes Sosa - Thanks to life (Violeta Parra)
Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me two beams of light, that when opened,
Can perfectly distinguish black from white
And in the sky above, her starry backdrop,
And from within the multitude
The one that I love.
Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me an ear that, in all of its width
Records— night and day—crickets and canaries,
Hammers and turbines and bricks and storms,
And the tender voice of my beloved.
Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me sound and the alphabet.
With them the words that I think and declare:
“Mother,” “Friend,” “Brother” and the light shining.
The route of the soul from which comes love.
Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me the ability to walk with my tired feet.
With them I have traversed cities and puddles
Valleys and deserts, mountains and plains.
And your house, your street and your patio.
Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me a heart, that causes my frame to shudder,
When I see the fruit of the human brain,
When I see good so far from bad,
When I see within the clarity of your eyes…
Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me laughter and it gave me longing.
With them I distinguish happiness and pain—
The two materials from which my songs are formed,
And your song, as well, which is the same song.
And everyone’s song, which is my very song.
Thanks to life
Thanks to life
Thanks to life
Thanks to life
Mercedes Sosa, an Argentine singer who emerged as a electrifying voice of conscience throughout Latin America for songs that championed social justice in the face of government repression, died today at a medical clinic in Buenos Aires. She was 74 and had liver, kidney and heart ailments.
With a rich contralto voice, Ms. Sosa was foremost a compelling singer whose career spanned five decades. She performed with entertainers as varied as rock star Sting, the Cuban singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés and folk singer Joan Baez, who said she was so moved by Ms. Sosa’s “tremendous charisma” and emotive firepower that she once dropped to her knees and kissed Ms. Sosa’s feet.
Ms. Sosa’s towering artistry, which led to several Latin Grammy Awards, belied her physical dimensions. Short, round, dark-skinned and often dressed in peasant clothing, Ms. Sosa was affectionately nicknamed “La Negra” (the Black One) as an homage to her indigenous ancestry.
It was a term of endearment that followed her throughout the Spanish-speaking world, said ethnomusicologist Jonathan Ritter, who has written about Ms. Sosa. “It’s hard to overestimate her popularity and importance as a standard-bearer of folk music and political engagement through folk music,” he said.
Ms. Sosa once declared that “artists are not political leaders. The only power they have is to draw people into the theater.” While not defining herself as a political activist, Ms. Sosa asserted herself in the “nueva canción” musical movement of the 1960s and 1970s that blended traditional folk rhythms with politically charged lyrics about the poor and disenfranchised.
This “new song” movement, formed by singers, poets and songwriters with Marxist leanings, cast light on the struggle against government brutality and the plight of the downtrodden throughout the hemisphere. Ritter said, much of the nueva canción songs favored by Ms. Sosa “drew upon the rich heritage of Latin American poetry and literature to score their political messages.” This, he said, gave it a far-more enduring fascination than protest songs in the United States during that period, whose “blunt, direct lyrics were part of their political efficacy, but also limited their long term poetic appeal.”
Here are the lyrics of “We’re Still Singing,” which she sang accompanied by the large Andean drum called the bombo: “I was killed a thousand times. I disappeared a thousand times, and here I am, risen from the dead. . . . Here I am, out of the ruins the dictatorship left behind. We’re still singing.” Ms. Sosa came under official harassment and intimidation by the right-wing, nationalist junta that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. The government was responsible for the deaths and disappearances of an estimated 30,000 real and perceived leftists, and Ms. Sosa transformed her sold-out concerts into rallies against the abuses of power.
Her songs were banned from Argentine radio and television, and she courted arrest by singing anthems of agrarian reform such as “When They Have the Land” at one performance in the university city of La Plata. Many in attendance were arrested by security forces, and Ms. Sosa was publicly humiliated by an officer who walked onstage and conducted a body search.
This is a video of Mercedes Sosa, singing Cuando tenga la tierra, “When They Have the Land”, in Managua, Nicaragua, 1983.
Repressors Bernardo Jorge Olivera Rovere and Jose Menendez were sentenced to life imprisonment by the Oral Federal Tribunal 5 of Buenos Aires for the crimes committed during the Argentine dictatorship. Olivera Rovere was a deputy commander of I Corpsunder the command of Guillermo Suarez Mason. Three other officers were acquitted: here.
Uruguay’s Supreme Court overturned a law on Monday that amnestied military personnel accused of murders, disappearances and other human rights violations during the country’s US-backed dictatorship from 1973 to 1985: here.
Uruguay’s last dictator Gregorio Alvarez has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for 37 murders committed during the nation’s 1973-85 military regime: here.
Workers Party of Brazil: The different strategies of the Latin American left: here.
