Sunday, June 14, 2009

Official Website of Sydney Guillaume - Composer | SydneyGuillaume.com Homepage

Official Website of Sydney Guillaume - Composer SydneyGuillaume.com Homepage

Choral music in Kreyol! CLICK ON CONCERT WORKS to hear various pieces all sung in Kreyol!
And, if you click on LINKS on his page you can view performances on youtube.com

From website:
"Sydney takes great pride in his Haitian roots. He hopes that his music will serve as an ambassador for his country and create an awareness of the beautiful culture that exists amidst the economic and political turmoil. Sydney is an active member of the choral community both as a composer and singer. He has been commissioned by renowned choirs such as The University of Miami Frost Chorale, Seraphic Fire, The Young New Yorkers Chorus, The Miami Children's Chorus and Kokopelli Choir. He is in high demand for commissioned works and his music has been performed at ACDA, All-State conventions and abroad. Sydney resides in Los Angeles, California, where he is also pursuing a career in film music."

Homeland Guantanamo

Homeland Guantanamo

The Untold Story of Immigrant Detention in the US. Facts and stats on all aspects of Immigration detention!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Living With Music: Madison Smartt Bell (NYT)








Madison Smartt Bell (Jerome De Perlinghi)





New York Times
January 7, 2009, 7:00 am — Updated: 11:31 am -->

Living With Music: Madison Smartt Bell
By Gregory Cowles
Madison Smartt Bell is the author of numerous books, including a recent biography of Toussaint Louverture.

Rebel Music Old and New
I started listening to most of this music in the early 1990s, as I was finishing the first of what would be three long novels about revolutionary events a long time ago in a small obscure place that few people in the United States had heard of and fewer cared about. What’s different now? At least a few more people are aware that Haiti, and the conditions of living in Haiti, are closer to us here than we used to like to think. …

1) President, Wyclef Jean. One of the few English-language tracks on Wyclef’s astounding “Welcome to Haiti: Creole 101″ — an album I’ve used for a language and cultural primer (exactly as advertised) since it came out in 2004. When I first heard this song I associated it with Haitian elections, and with a comment by a Haitian academic friend of mine who’d been invited to serve in the government and declined, with some regret, but firmly. It’s difficult, he explained to me, to find enough people who are capable and competent, whose probity is beyond question and who don’t object to the strong possibility of assassination. …

2) Revolution, Bob Marley. I first heard this one when “Natty Dread” broke on college campuses in the late 1970s. While writing “All Souls’ Rising,” I wore out the first two Wailers records. Marley’s is more tenacious than most other rebel music because the political message is so deeply rooted in religion — because the singer locates revolution in revelation with the first breath of this song.

10 News photos that took retouching too far


10 News photos that took retouching too farThursday, May 21, 2009
Many news photographs are Photoshopped here and there to increase clarity or to optimize for print or online display. But there have been several instances where retouching has been pushed too far, changing the original intent or accuracy of the photo.

Retouching may seem innocent, but can have a profound effect on the way we remember an event, according to a 2007 study published in Applied Cognitive Psychology.

Revolutionary Haitian priest Gerard Jean-Juste, presente! (BayView)

Jesus-like revolutionary priest Father Gerard Jean-Juste “suffered the little children to come unto him,” tending to their needs, body and soul, and fighting for their future and for justice in Haiti.


May 30, 2009

Revolutionary Haitian priest Gerard Jean-Juste, presente!
by Bill Quigley
BayView National Black Newspaper

Though Haitian priest Father Gerard Jean-Juste died May 27, 2009, at age 62 in Miami from a stroke and breathing problems, he remains present to millions. Justice-loving people worldwide mourn his death and celebrate his life. Pere Jean-Juste worked uncompromisingly for justice for Haitians and the poor, both in Haiti and in the U.S.

Pere Jean-Juste was a Jesus-like revolutionary. In jail and out, he preached liberation of the poor, release of prisoners, human rights for all and a fair distribution of wealth. A big, muscular man with a booming voice and a frequent deep laugh, he wore a brightly colored plastic rosary around his neck and carried another in his pocket. When he was jailed for nearly a year in Haiti by the U.S.-supported coup government which was trying to silence him, Amnesty International called him a Prisoner of Conscience.

Jean-Juste was a scourge to the unelected coup governments of Haiti, who served at the pleasure - and usually the direction - of the U.S. government. He constantly challenged both the powers of Haiti and the U.S. to stop killing and starving and imprisoning the poor. In the U.S., he fought against government actions which deported Black Haitians while welcoming Cubans and Nicaraguans and others. In Haiti, he called for democracy and respect and human rights for the poor.

Pere Jean-Juste was sometimes called the most dangerous man in Haiti. That was because he was not afraid to die. His computer screen saver was a big blue picture of Mary, the mother of Jesus. “Every day I am ready to meet her,” he once told me, when death threats came again. “I will not stop working for justice because of their threats. I am looking forward to heaven.”

For rest of article: http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/revolutionary-haitian-priest-gerard-jean-juste-presente/

Trance, Sodo Waterfall, Haiti by Christian Cravo (Verve Photo)




Trance, Sodo Waterfall, Haiti by Christian Cravo


FROM VERVE PHOTO WEBSITE: http://vervephoto.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/christian-cravo/ for bio of photographer and description of photo.

Activists Seek TPS for Haiti

Narrated slideshow of demo in front of White House

Shell settles Nigeria killings (Al Jazeera English)


News Americas

Shell settles Nigeria killings suit


Shell was accused of colluding with Nigeria's government to silence rights activists [GALLO/GETTY]

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to settle a lawsuit accusing the firm of complicity in the executions of human rights activists in Nigeria for $15.5m, the families of those killed have said.

The settlement agreement came on Monday as the more than decade-long dispute was due to go to trial in a district court in New York.

The lawsuit accused Shell of human rights abuses, including violations in relation to the hangings in 1995 of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a well-known rights activist, and eight other protesters by Nigeria's then-military government.

Shell, which still operates in Nigeria, said it had agreed to settle the lawsuit in the hope of aiding the "process of reconciliation", but acknowledged no wrongdoing in the case.

"This gesture also acknowledges that, even though Shell had no part in the violence that took place, the plaintiffs and others have suffered,'' Malcolm Brinded, Shell's executive director for exploration and production, said in a statement on Monday.

See rest of story http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=117758085408&h=khKfY&u=qpIx6&ref=nf

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies