India: Queer Film Fest Triumphs.

By Sujoy Dhar

MUMBAI, May 27, 2011 (IPS) – More than a decade ago, when India’s first lesbian-themed film – ‘Fire’ by Deepa Mehta – was released, it was booed and met with protest and vandalism, forcing many fear-stricken theatre owners to take the film off their screens.

Thirteen years on and nearly two years after decriminalisation of homosexuality by a high court in India, a queer film festival in Mumbai is drawing audiences fearlessly from both within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community and outside it.

KASHISH 2011 is the second edition of India’s largest queer film festival that showcases LGBT films, and it is passing without a murmur of protest from any moral brigade.

Final go ahead for Belo Monte. Amazon Tragedy.

Brazil Green Lights Controversial Amazon Dam

June 1, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

IBAMA authorizes installation of Belo Monte Dam Complex despite escalating local, national and international opposition

Brasília, Brazil – The Brazilian government has issued the full installation license allowing the Belo Monte Dam Complex to break ground on the Amazon’s Xingu River despite egregious disregard for human rights and environmental legislation, the unwavering protests of civil society, condemnations by its Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) and the request for precautionary measures by the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The license was granted by Brazil’s environmental agency IBAMA despite overwhelming evidence that the dam-building consortium Norte Energia (NESA) has failed to comply with dozens of social and environmental conditions required for an installation license.

The risky $17 billion Belo Monte Dam Complex will divert nearly the entire flow of the Xingu River along a 62-mile stretch. Its reservoirs will flood more than 120,000 acres of rainforest and local settlements, displace more than 40,000 people and generate vast quantities of methane – a greenhouse gas at least 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

The installation license will allow for NESA to open access roads, initiate forest clearing at dam construction sites encompassing some 2,118 acres, and begin construction on the complex immediately. It also instigates publically subsidized funding from Brazil’s National Development Bank (BNDES) to finance 80 percent of the project’s spiraling costs. The bank has come under increasing scrutiny from the Public Prosecutor’s office and civil society due to alarming evidence that approval is based on political grounds, often downplaying problems of economic viability and compliance with social and environmental safeguards.

“This is a tragic day for the Amazon,” said Atossa Soltani, Executive Director at Amazon Watch. “By turning a blind eye toward the tragic consequences of this dam, President Dilma Rouseff is undermining the positive environmental and social advances Brazil has made in recent years and miring its image on the global stage just as it prepares to host the UN Rio+20 Earth Summit next year.”

Hybrid human animals..Chimeras tomorrow..

Animal-Human Hybrids Spark Controversy

Scientists have begun blurring the line between human and animal by producing chimeras—a hybrid creature that’s part human, part animal.

Chinese scientists at the Shanghai Second Medical University in 2003 successfully fused human cells with rabbit eggs. The embryos were reportedly the first human-animal chimeras successfully created. They were allowed to develop for several days in a laboratory dish before the scientists destroyed the embryos to harvest their stem cells.

In Minnesota last year researchers at the Mayo Clinic created pigs with human blood flowing through their bodies.

And at Stanford University in California an experiment might be done later this year to create mice with human brains.

Scientists feel that, the more humanlike the animal, the better research model it makes for testing drugs or possibly growing “spare parts,” such as livers, to transplant into humans.

Watching how human cells mature and interact in a living creature may also lead to the discoveries of new medical treatments.

But creating human-animal chimeras—named after a monster in Greek mythology that had a lion’s head, goat’s body, and serpent’s tail—has raised troubling questions, this is even worse than experimenting on normal animals: What new subhuman combination should be produced and for what purpose? At what point would it be considered human and have human rights?

There are currently no U.S. federal laws that address these issues.

http://first-news.blogspot.com/2011_01_28_archive.html

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50.000 rodean el parlamento griego #greekrevolution


by v	31 May 2011
http://www.esperantia.com/2011/05/50000-personas-toman-el-parlamento.html
A última hora de la tarde de este martes 50.000 personas han rodeado el parlamento griego en la plaza Sintagma de Atenas y retienen en su interior a los parlamentarios. Los hechos se pueden ver en directo, aunque si quieres conocer la noticia en sí, te dejo este enlace que está en griego y su traducción al español. Parece que los diputados han conseguido romper el cerco. Es una acción más de la #greekrevolution. Llevan acampados más de una semana en la plaza a imitación de la #spanishrevolution y nuestras acampadas. Piden lo mismo que nosotros: Que los chorizos vayan al trullo, que los políticos no secuestren la democracia, que el Gobierno no venda a los ciudadanos como esclavos a las multinacionales, a los bancos y a las grandes corporaciones y, en definitiva, poder vivir en libertad y en una verdadera democracia. Curiosamente el hecho de que 50.000 personas en Atenas hayan tomado el parlamento y mantengan encerrados en su interior a los parlamentarios, no es noticia para los medios españoles. Tampoco hay que cargar las tintas contra ellos. Ni Belén Esteban ni José Mourinho están en la plaza. Aquí te dejo el enlace para que puedas seguir en directo los acontecimientos: Live Streaming – Sintagma Square, Aganaktismenoi por Dailymotion_gr_live Actualización: Los diputados consiguen romper el cerco y consiguen salir del parlamento griego. Noticia traducida del griego al español.
See also: http://www.esperantia.com/2011/05/50000-personas-toman-el-parlamento.html

Granada.Resistimos desalojo CSO La Indiskreta

miércoles 1 de junio de 2011

RUEDA DE PRENSA CSO LA INDISKRETA

Con motivo del desalojo del Centro Social Okupado La Indiskreta se realizó una concentración el dia 1 de Junio en la puerta del mismo a las 17:30.
Si nos tocan a unx nos tocan a todxs!

ESTE JUEVES 2 DE JUNIO A LAS 10 DE LA MAÑANA EN EL AULA 25 DE TRABAJO SOCIAL RUEDA DE PRENSA DEL CSO LA INDISKRETA. ACUDE Y APOYA, ANTE EL PRÓXIMO JUICIO DEL VIERNES 3 DE JUNIO EN EL QUE ACUSAN A COMPAÑERXS DE USURPACIÓN.

http://csoa15gatxs.blogspot.com/2011/06/concentracion-en-el-cso-la-indisketa.html

Publicado por CSOA15Gatxs en

take the streets/Amsterdam./Grupos de Acción/Action Groups

(IN ENGLISH BELOW)

Hola a tod@s!!! Ayer lunes 30 de mayo, parte del grupo de acción nos reunimos y, junto
con otra gente presente en la plaza, proponemos hacer la acción
llamada “EXPRESIÓN” el próximo miércoles 1 de junio. La idea es que
todo el que quiera participe (no sólo el grupo de acción). Nos
reuniremos el miércoles 1 de junio a las 20:00 h en la plaza Dam y con
la gente que participe en la acción decidiremos cómo vamos a
desarrollar especificamente la acción.

Descripción de la acción:
– Expresión: se trata de un grupo de personas en fila (una al lado de
la otra aunque también se puede hacer de manera diferente siempre que
todas las personas participando sean visibles por el público) con la
boca tapada con esparadrapo (en línea recta o en forma de cruz)
simbolizando la opresión del sistema. Después de unos minutos y cuando
el grupo haya llamado la atención del público (simplemente por estar
quietos con el esparadrapo en la boca) uno a uno cada persona del
grupo se quita el esparadrapo y grita una palabra o reivindicación
(por ejemplo: solidaridad, libertad, etc) simbolizando que estamos
preparados para alzar nuestra voz.

El material necesario (esparadrapo ancho) será proporcionado por el
grupo de acción.

VEN A LA PLAZA Y PARTICIPA!!!!!

Grupo de trabajo de ACCIÓN

Yesterday 30th May, part of the ACTION workgroup met, and together
with other people in the square, we propose to do the action called “EXPRESSION” next
Wednesday 1st June. The idea is that everyone (who
wishes to) participates, not only the action group. We will meet next
Wednesday 1st June at 20:00 h in the Dam and with the people who wants
to participate we will decide the exact form of the action.

– Expression: it consists on a group of people in line (one next to
each other although other configurations are also possible if all the
people of the group is visible by the public) with the mouth covered
by tape or plaster (in a horizontal line or as a cross) symbolizing
the system oppression. After a few minutes and when the group has
reached the public attention (just by standing still with the tape
covering their mouths), one by one, each person in the group removes
his/her tape and shouts loud a word or demand (for example:
solidarity, freedom) symbolizing that we are ready to rise our voice.

The material needed (tape or plaster) will be provided by the action
workgroup.

COME TO THE SQUARE AND PARTICIPATE!!!