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Bono steps in for the poorBono, the lead singer for the Irish rock band U2, has personally
persuaded George W. Bush to increase aid for the poor. The American
president announced this himself during the UN Financing for Development
Conference in Monterrey, Mexico. The United States will increase
its annual contribution to development help from ten to fifteen
billion dollars starting in 2006. The objective of the UN conference
was to find money to realise the Millennium goals, the agreements
the UN member states made in 2000 regarding the world´s poor. According
to these agreements, the number of people who must live on less
than a dollar a day (1.2 billion) must be cut in half by 2015. To
achieve this goal an additional fifty billion dollars is needed
annually. Anger over flippant concentration campThe Jewish Museum in New York
City has created quite a stir with the exposition Mirroring Evil.
In this exhibition young artists display their vision of Nazi symbols.
The figures from the catalogue created anger in the Jewish community
long before the show opened. The artists are accused of having used
images too flippantly. A concentration camp made of lego blocks
in particular evoked a great deal of resistance. Critics said this
made a mockery of the horrors that occurred during the Second World
War. Afghan legacy in ParisFans of Afghan art do not have to go to Kabul, but to Paris. Together
with the Barcelonian Fundació la Caixa, the French Musée
national des Arts asiatiques - Guimet has organised a retrospective
of some 4000 years of Afghan art. The art objects have been brought
out of the country during the past centuries by a colourful assortment
of plunderers, archaeologists, explorers and buyers. It is probably
largely due to this large-scale emigration that the objects have
been preserved. The members of the Taliban were not the best curators.
During the Taliban regime the museum in Kabul was plundered and
two centuries-old images of Buddha from Bamiyan were blown up. Visa for LadoniaIn 1996 the Swedish artist Lars Vilks 'Ladonia', created an Internet
state in which life revolves around art. The state has a Minister
of Jazz, a Minister of Photography, a Minister of Literature and
a Minister of Film. The creation of Ladonia was a protest against
the Swedish authorities, who wanted to remove two of Vilks' art
works. According to Vilks, since last February three thousand Pakistanis
have requested a visa via the Internet. Apparently they did not
know that this was a virtual state. This is not the only situation
in which people who want to immigrate have mistakenly applied for
citizenship to a country that only exists on the Internet. Making
up a country or a region as a hobby is called 'geofiction'. Barbie with a headscarfIran has developed its own Barbie and Ken. The Iranian Ministry
of Education found the dolls manufactured by the American company
Mattel, which are also quite popular in Iran, too frivolous. So
the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young
Adults has developed versions that more accurately reflect Islamic
society: Sara and Dara. The twins, a brother and sister who are
eight years old, are based on figures from a primary school book.
Obviously, Sara wears a headscarf. Believers commandeer TV stationFollowers of the banned religious movement Falun Gong briefly
took over a TV station in Northeast China. Transmissions of the
state television station in Changchun were briefly replaced by images
of Falun Gong-leader Li Hongzi. Hongzi, who lives in the United
States, protested against the policy of the Chinese authorities.
The commandeering took place during the annual meeting of the National
People's Congress in Peking. Because demonstrations of the Falun
Gong are still severely punished, the members of the group decided
to use a different tool this time to let their message of protest
be heard. Prison for winner of the Booker PrizeThe Indian writer Arundhati Roy must spend one day in jail for
being held in contempt by the Indian Supreme Court. Roy is accused
of depicting the court as undemocratic. The author, who won the
Booker Prize in 1997 for The God of Small Things, has for
years been associated with the fight against building a dam in the
Indian Narmada Valley. This project would mean the destruction of
dozens of villages. The opponents were overjoyed when the World
Bank withdrew its financing in the early nineties. In spite of this,
the Indian Supreme Court granted permission to build the dam in
2000. During the subsequent demonstration, Roy accused the Court
of not having any consideration for the opinion of those who oppose
the dam. Peace recital by Israeli musiciansDaniel Barenboim has not received approval from the Israeli army
to conduct a peace recital. The Israeli pianist planned to give
a piano recital in the Palestinian city of Ramallah on the west
banks of the Jordan river. His explanation for this: "I believe
that it is important that Israelis understand that the Palestinian
population does not consist solely of suicide bombers, but also
of intellectuals and people who love music and that Palestinians
understand that not all Israelis are soldiers." At the time,
Barenboim did not know that Israeli citizens are not allowed into
this area of Palestine due to the danger of war. Sources: Algemeen Dagblad, NRC Handelsblad, het Parool, Trouw, de Volkskrant, Het Laatste Nieuws, De Standaard, The Guardian, Libération, Le Monde, BBC News, BBC Online, Jewish Museum, Musée national des Arts asiatiques - Guimet |
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