From: "james m nordlund" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2008 1:43 PM
..
In Honor of Nelson Mandela's 90th Birthday...
Dear Friends,
Tomorrow, July 18, Nelson Mandela celebrates his 90th birthday. In his
honor, we are proud to announce that Artists for a New South Africa (ANSA)
will be producing an audiobook version of Nelson Mandela's Favorite African
Folktales, an award-winning storybook featuring timeless tales hand-picked
by the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
A diverse array of celebrated, award-winning performers are donating their
talents to this charitable endeavor; those already signed on to voice
stories include:
~ Gillian Anderson
~ America Ferrera
~ Whoopi Goldberg
~ Samuel L. Jackson
~ Alan Rickman
~ Jurnee Smollett
Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu will record a message to the world's
children for the audiobook. ANSA co-founder, Alfre Woodard, will serve as
Creative Director. Slated for a Summer 2009 release, proceeds for the
audiobook will benefit both ANSA and the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund
(NMCF), a South African organization founded in 1995 by Mr. Mandela to
improve dramatically the way society treats its children. Both organizations
are working to address the impact of the AIDS pandemic on children in South
Africa, which has more people living with HIV/AIDS and more children
orphaned by the disease than any other country.
Alfre Woodard said, "I was privileged to be with Nelson Mandela recently in
London, where he challenged us saying, '...Our work is far from complete.
Where there is poverty and sickness, including AIDS, where human beings are
oppressed, there is more work to be done... After nearly 90 years of life,
it is time for new hands to lift the burdens. It is in your hands now.' With
this audiobook, ANSA pays tribute to our friend and our hero, Nelson
Mandela, on his 90th birthday. It will take the hands of all mankind to lift
that burden and carry on the work. We hope you will join in and support this
effort."
Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales was first published in 2002 in
hardcover internationally by NB Publishers and in harcover and paperback in
the US by WW Norton & Company, Inc., which have granted worldwide rights for
the audiobook to ANSA and Hachette Audio, a division of Hachette Book Group
USA, one of the largest and most respected publishing groups in the world.
Individuals and companies involved in the effort have donated their services
and waived their fees in order to allow the maximum amount of the proceeds
to benefit the charities. In addition to waiving all sales and distribution
fees, Hachette Audio will donate 100% of proceeds to ANSA and the NMCF, and
NB Publishers has waived fees so additional royalties can benefit the NMCF.
The CDs and audiobook packaging will be manufactured by Ivy/Cinram, which is
donating a significant portion of their services. Time Warner intellectual
property attorney, Bradley Silver, is contributing his
legal services to ANSA, in line with Time Warner Inc.'s pro bono endeavors.
The actors and Creative Director are fully donating their talents, as are
two-time GRAMMY winner Gavin Lurssen, who will master the audiobook, and
Gregory Robinson, who will handle the mixing and sound effects.
In his original foreward for the selection of folktales Nelson Mandela
wrote, "It is my wish that the voice of the storyteller may never die in
Africa, that all the children of the world may experience the wonder of
books." With the forthcoming audiobook edition of Nelson Mandela's Favorite
African Folktales, Mr. Mandela's vision will come full circle, as the
legendary tales he selected return to the great oral tradition, which
allowed them to be passed down for centuries and will now enlighten and
entertain chldren of all ages the world over.
We at ANSA are committed to honoring Mr. Mandela's legacy by continuing this
work. Our goal is to create an audiobook that can be enjoyed by people
around the world, increasing awareness of Africa's rich cultural heritages
and creating a better future for South Africa's most vulnerable children.
Click here to send your own personal message to Neson Mandela!
http://www.happybirthdaymandela.com/frontHome.seam
Thank you for your continued interest and support,
Artists for a New South Africa
Artists for a New South Africa
2999 Overland Avenue, Suite 102
Los Angeles, California 90064
United States
phone 310.204.1748 fax 310.204.4277
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | www.ansafrica.org
YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/ArtistsNewSAfrica
***
http://www.truthout.org/article/rising-food-prices-pushing-east-africa-disaster-warns-oxfam
Rising Food Prices Pushing East Africa to
Disaster, Warns Oxfam
" Barbara Stocking, Oxfam's chief executive, said the UK public had the
right to question why the appeals "happen year after year". "The answer is
that the world consistently fails to address adequately the underlying
causes of these crises. Chronic poverty in a world of gross inequality of
wealth and opportunity lie at the heart of these cyclical crises," she
said."
by: Xan Rice
The Guardian UK: Thursday 24 July 2008
Nairobi - More than 14 million people in the east Africa region require
urgent food aid due to drought and spiralling cereal and fuel prices, aid
agencies say.
In an emergency appeal launched today, Oxfam warns that millions of
people in Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Djibouti and Kenya are fast being
pushed "towards severe hunger and destitution". Earlier this week the UN
said it needed £200m to avert a humanitarian disaster.
The hunger crisis is worse than the last regional emergency in 2006,
when drought caused 11 million people to need assistance, because of the
added impact of the global food price increases. Poor families are
struggling to buy staples such as maize and wheat, which have more than
doubled in price over the past 12 months.
"In previous droughts most people on the margins found ways to cope,"
said Peter Smerdon, of the World Food Programme. "But the simultaneous
increase in food prices this time around means they are cutting down on
meals and taking their kids out of school in order to try to get by. More
people are falling over the edge."
Ethiopia is worst affected, with more than 10 million people requiring
assistance following two poor rainy seasons. About 4.6 million need
emergency food aid until the next harvest in November - rain is now falling
in some areas - while a further 5.7 million on safety-net programmes require
additional food or cash grants. At least 75,000 children are suffering from
severe acute malnutrition.
The sharp increase in the fuel price has added to the cost of getting
food around the country. Oxfam says that in the remote Somali and Afar
regions, cereal prices have increased by up to 500%, while livestock are
dying due to lack of water.
In Somalia the rice price has more than tripled since May 2007. Drought
and mass displacement caused by civil war mean that 2.6 million people
require food aid - a number that could rise to 3.5 million. Delivering the
relief is difficult due to piracy and the targeting of aid workers by
militias. In Djibouti 115,000 people require assistance, while in Uganda's
eastern Karamoja district, the figure is 700,000. In Kenya, 900,000 people
need help.
Normally, the WFP buys relief food from regional governments, but is
having to import food from India and South Africa. The Ethiopian government
has used up its emergency cereal reserves to feed the urban poor, while
Uganda and Kenya are reluctant to sell the small stocks they have.
Earlier appeals by the UN for help in tackling the Somalian and
Ethiopian food crises have only been a third funded.
Barbara Stocking, Oxfam's chief executive, said the UK public had the
right to question why the appeals "happen year after year". "The answer is
that the world consistently fails to address adequately the underlying
causes of these crises. Chronic poverty in a world of gross inequality of
wealth and opportunity lie at the heart of these cyclical crises," she said.
***
http://www.counterpunch.com/nader07022008.html
Greed Without Accountability
by Ralph Nader
Counterpunch: July 02 2008
The worst top management of giant corporations in American history is
also by far the most hugely paid. That contradiction applies as well to
the Boards of Directors of these global companies.
Consider these illustrations:
The bosses of General Motors (GM) have presided over the worst decline
of GM shares in the last fifty years, the lowering of GM bonds to junk
status, the largest money losses and layoffs of tens of thousands of
workers. Yet these top executives are still in place and still receiving
much more pay than their successful counterparts at Toyota.
GM's stock valuation is under $7 billion dollars, while Toyota is valued
at over $160 billion. Toyota, having passed GM in worldwide sales, is
about to catch up with and pass GM in sales inside the United States itself!
GM's executives stayed with their gas guzzling SUVs way beyond the
warning signs. Their vehicles were uninspiring and technologically
stagnant in various ways. They were completely unprepared for Toyota's
hybrid cars and for the upward spiral in gasoline prices. They're
cashing their lucrative monthly checks with the regular votes of
confidence by their hand-picked Board of Directors.
About the same appraisal can be made of Ford Motor Company, which at
least brought in new management to try to do something about that once
famous company's sinking status.
Then there are the financial companies. Top management on Wall Street
has been beyond incompetent. Wild risk taking camouflaged for years by
multi-tiered, complex, abstract financial instruments (generally called
collateralized debt obligations) kept the joy ride going and going until
the massive financial hot air balloon started plummeting. Finally told
to leave their high posts, the CEOs of Merrill-Lynch and Citigroup took
away tens of millions of severance pay while Wall Street turned into
Layoff Street.
The banks, investment banks and brokerage firms have tanked to levels
not seen since the 1929-30 collapse of the stock market. Citigroup, once
valued at over $50 per share is now under $17 a share.
Washington Mutual - the nation's largest savings bank chain was over $40
a share in 2007. Its reckless speculative binge has driven it down under
$5 a share. Yet its CEO Kerry Killinger remains in charge, with the
continuing support of his rubberstamp Board of Directors. A recent $8
billion infusion of private capital gave a sweetheart deal to these new
investors at the excessive expense of the shareholders.
Countrywide, the infamous giant mortgage lender (subprime mortgages) is
about to be taken over by Bank of America. Its CEO is taking away a
reduced but still very generous compensation deal.
Meanwhile, all these banks and brokerage houses' investment analysts are
busy downgrading each others' stock prospects.
Over at the multi-trillion dollar companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,
the shareholders have lost about 75 percent of their stock value in one
year. Farcically regulated by the Department of Housing and Urban
Affairs, Fannie and Freddie were run into the ground by taking on very
shaky mortgages under the command of CEOs and their top executives who
paid themselves enormous sums.
These two institutions were set up many years ago to provide liquidity
in the housing and loan markets and thereby expand home ownership
especially among lower income families. Instead, they turned themselves
into casinos, taking advantage of an implied US government guarantee.
The Fannie and Freddie bosses created another guarantee. They hired top
appointees from both Republican and Democratic Administrations (such as
Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick) and lathered them with tens of
millions of dollars in executive compensation. In this way, they kept
federal supervision at a minimum and held off efforts in Congress to
toughen regulation. These executives are all gone now, enjoying their
maharajan riches with impunity while pensions and mutual funds lose and
lose and lose with no end in sight, short of a government-taxpayer bailout.
Over a year ago, leading financial analyst Henry Kaufman and very few
others warned about "undisciplined" (read unregulated) and "mis-pricing"
of lower quality assets. Mr Kaufman wrote in the Wall Street Journal of
August 15 2007 that "If some institutions are really 'too big to fail',
then other means of discipline will have to be found".
There are ways to prevent such crashes. In the nineteen thirties,
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt chose stronger regulation, creating
the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and several bank regulatory
agencies. He saved the badly listing capitalist ship.
Today, there is no real momentum in a frozen Washington, DC to bring
regulation up to date. To the contrary, in 1999, Congress led by Senator
McCain's Advisor, former Senator Phil Gramm and the Clinton
Administration led by Robert Rubin, Secretary of the Treasury, and soon
to join Citibank, de-regulated and ended the wall between investment
banks and commercial banking known as the Glass-Steagall Act.
Clinton and Congress opened the floodgates to rampant speculation
without even requiring necessary and timely disclosures for the benefit
of institutional and individual investors.
Now the entire US economy is at risk. The domino theory is getting less
theoretical daily. Without investors obtaining more legal authority as
owners over their out of control company officers and Boards of
Directors, and without strong regulation, corporate capitalism cannot be
saved from its toxic combination of endless greed and maximum power -
without responsibility.
Uncle Sam, the deeply deficit ridden bailout man, may have another
taxpayers-to-the-rescue operation for Wall Street. But don't count on
stretching the American dollar much more without devastating
consequences to and from global financial markets in full panic.
Consider the US dollar like an elastic band. You can keep stretching
this rubber band but suddenly it BREAKS. Our country needs action NOW
from Washington, DC.
_____
Ralph Nader is running for president as an independent.
------------------------------------
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