Here is a music video directed by K P Sasi that talks about the present day exploitation of tribal land and forests in the name of development. This video is inspired by a song by Bhagwan Maaji, leader of the adivasi struggle against bauxite mining in Kashipur.
Playing For Change: Peace Through Music is a project where a song travels around the world and people from different countries add their part to it – vocalists and instrumentalists. The whole process is captured in video as well. Check out this beautiful video of a cover of the Ben E. King classic, Stand By Me, by musicians around the world. This and other songs such as “One Love” will be released as digital downloads soon; followed by the film soundtrack and DVD early next year.
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Plan India is a Child-Centred Development organisation that works towards promoting Child Rights and improve the quality of life of vulnerable children. They have launched a campaign “Learn without Fear” against violence faced by children in schools and homes. This campaign is currently being launched in seven states (Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Bihar, Rajasthan, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh & New Delhi) in which Plan works, and will aim to directly improve the lives of millions of children in India.
This campaign is about preventing all forms of violence against children in schools. It includes corporal punishment, sexual abuse, neglect, verbal abuse, emotional abuse, bullying, peer-to-peer violence, youth gangs, use of weapons, and harassment in school and on the journey to and from school.
Plan India, has also set up a Children Advisory Board (CAB) wherein children from different stratas of society meet every month and discuss problems faced by them in schools, share their experiences and views and suggest solutions. They are also planning to work within communities, parents, teachers and children to end violence in schools.
Key findings of the study by Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India 2007*
1) 69 % children reported physical abuse, including corporal punishment, i.e. two out of three children were victims of corporal punishment
2) 62 % of the corporal punishment was in government and municipal schools
3) Most children did not report the matter to anyone
4) 53.22% children reported having faced one or more forms of sexual abuse
5) 21.90% child respondents reported facing severe forms of sexual abuse and 50.76 % other forms of sexual abuse
6) The states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Delhi have almost consistently reported higher rates of abuse in all forms as compared to other states
* Study based on experiences of 12, 447 children, aged 5-18 years across13 states.
(Image courtesy: PlanIndia.org)
(Thanks to Kanika Kohli for the info)
A group of people from Chennai have started a forum and a community blog to discuss/preach/rave/write about Energy, Ecology and Environment related things. The team also includes Mr. T Jayaraman, who is a renowned expert on Energy saving Concepts and Controls. In one of their posts, Don points out to the hypocrisy of Citibank who says this on their website: Save Trees ! Say No to Paper ! Get your statement on e-mail.
Wouldn’t you love, respect and worship a kind of woman like Veronica Guerin? If you haven’t seen the movie based on her life (which has the lovely Cate Blanchet as Ms. Guiren), you should. I’ve been watching it today for the nth time. Now check out this beautiful song which I heard first in this movie. This song, is called The Fields of Athenry, is an Irish folk ballad set during the Great Irish Famine (1845-1850) about a fictional man from near Athenry in County Galway who has been sentenced to transportation to Botany Bay, Australia, for stealing food for his starving family. The song is sung in the movie Veronica Guerin, by Brian O’Donnell, then aged 11, a street singer in Dublin.
(Image credit: www.independent.ie)
Freedom Walk is an effort to mobilize social activism to claim, ensure and preserve freedom in our society. A team of campaigners is walking from Kasargode to Trivandrum. I am always skeptical of the “walking” campaign concept, but the excerpts from their website about the walk makes me feel that this sounds good.
Excerpts from their website:
During the journey we will also be actively promoting the free software movement in each district in Kerala. We are looking forward to cooperating with different Free Software User Groups throughout the state and replicate our successful efforts in the building of the GNU/Linux Users Group, Trivandrum.
The second objective that we are trying to achieve is to promote social activism. We expect to meet and collaborate with interested individuals and organizations at various points during the march to express our solidarity and extend our offer to work together in areas where they can utilize our core competency – Information Technology – to enhance their effectiveness and competency. We will also try to push this message through seminars hoping that we will be able to inspire the next generation to grow into responsible citizens.
We also would like to reach out to individuals and organizations who share our vision in preserving the environment. We will be offering to extend our help and technical competency to organized groups like nature clubs, social forestry clubs etc., to help them grow and make use of the power of technology in effectively growing and spreading the message of conservation. These groups can also utilize our efforts to actively network among similar groups across the state.
As part of this effort we will be offering free technical consultancy, web hosting and related services for all these groups. If you are a member of any of these above mentioned groups and you are interested in availing this opportunity please get in touch with us by phone at 9446069446 or using the contact form.