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Eighteenth edition of the Fespaco African film festivalFrom February 18th to March 1st the eighteenth edition of the Fespaco African film festival will be held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The Fespaco is the leading festival devoted to African film. The festival, which is held once every other year, was first organised in 1969 by a number of film fans. In the interim the organisation has been turned over to an independent agency that is recognised and supported by the Ministry of Culture. This year the theme of the festival is the actor’s role in making and promoting films. According to the organisers in the African film world, most of the attention gets paid to the directors and too little to the actors. Prince Claus chair for development The University of Utrecht has been awarded the Prince Claus chair,
with development as its discipline. Young scientists from Africa,
Asia or Latin America will be eligible. The chair will be awarded
to a different scientist each year, appointed alternately by
the university and the Institute for Social Studies (ISS). A
board of directors, chaired by Princess Máxima, will decide
on the appointment. In establishing the Prince Claus chair the
university and the ISS want to show their respect and express
their appreciation for Prince Claus and his work in promoting
balanced development in the world. The Prince Claus Chair in
Development and Equity will be officially established on March
6th. English cricket team will go to Zimbabwe The English & Welsh Cricket Board (ECB) will participate in
the upcoming World Cup matches in Zimbabwe. The British government
had requested the Board not to participate because of the dictatorial
regime of President Robert Mugabe. However, the ECB says that it
is obligated to go due to sponsor contracts that have already been
signed. The governments of New Zealand and Australia also requested
their teams to stay home, but both these teams are still going,
as well. Opponents of Mugabe have urged the International Cricket
Council (ICC) to at least demand that the Zimbabwe government allow
the reporters who travel with the teams to report on the situation
in the country. Moreover, there have been rumours in Pakistan that
it will boycott the cricket matches in Great Britain if premier
Tony Blair declares war on Iraq. China wants purloined artefacts back Chinese art experts are demanding the return of stolen archaeological
artefacts from foreign museums. The experts have reacted indignantly
to the declarations by eighteen Western Art Institutes last
December in which they refuse to give back these art objects (see
Current, January 2003). An estimated one million Chinese artefacts
are held by more than two hundred museums in 47 countries. Thousands
of art objects from China are also in the hands of individual
collectors. BBC and al-Jazeera will collaborate The British state broadcaster, the BBC, is going to collaborate
with the Arabic news station al-Jazeera. The collaboration will
give the BBC more possibilities in its reporting from the Middle
East. Conversely this arrangement will provide the Katar broadcaster
recommendations and content for its English language web site
that is scheduled to go live in February. Catholic church may soon be without African incense The Catholic Church may have to make do with artificial incense
in the future. If no measures are being taken, the incense trees
in the Horn of Africa will die, according to Dutch Prof. Dr.
Frans Bongers, professor of tropical forrest ecology. The type
of incense
used during the church services comes from the resin of a tree
that only grows in Eritrea, Ethiopia and the Sudan. The incense
is a primary source of income, especially for Eritrea, which
is why the trees have been tapped so intensely that they were unable
to produce seeds. According to Bongers the tree can only be saved
if the production of incense is cut back dramatically. Berlin soccer club must speak German The trainer of the Berlin soccer team Hertha BSC wants its players
to speak German to one another. The Bundes League club contains
players from sixteen countries, including Brazil, Hungary, Angola,
Cameroon, Iceland, Poland, Bulgaria and Croatia. Many of the
players do not speak German and interpreters are assigned to
them so that they can understand one another. Trainer Huub Stevens,
who himself comes from the Netherlands, hopes that this measure
will improve mutual communication and thus improve the club’s
performance, as well. However, he has unwittingly sparked a lively
discussion in Germany, which has been faced with the problem
of integrating groups of ethnic minorities and with high unemployment
for years. The debate centres around whether employers in a country
with eight million foreigners should be allowed to require that
only one language is spoken at work. Exorcism leads to the fall of the government of Greenland The coalition parties in semi-autonomous Greenland have declared
a lack of confidence in one another after an incident involving
a spiritual healer. After the swearing in of the government,
which just took power, a high official in the Social-democratic
Siumut party hired an Inuit healer to rid government buildings
of negative energy. He is supposed to have encouraged the hundreds
of civil servants that fall under his responsibility to do
the same. Members of the coalition party Inuit Ataqatigitt accused
the magistrate and his boss, premier Hans Enoksen, of ruining
the modern image of their island. According to them the exorcism
is not a historical Inuit tradition, but simply evidence that
the magistrate is an idiot. Venetians sue Napoleon A group of Venetians has brought charges against Napoleon Bonaparte
(1769-1821) for crimes against their city. They are doing this
to protest the return of his statue. The French emperor took
Venice from the Austrians in 1805. For some years his statue
stood across from the Ducal Palace. The Comité Français
par la Sauvegarde culture fund bought the Venetian statue and
gave it to the Correr museum in Venice. According to the opponents,
including members of the Northern League political party, it
does not belong there. Someone who exploited the city for years
should not be honored with a statue. Proponents point out that
the emperor is now part of the city’s history. Moreover,
though he did destroy a lot of things, he also implemented a
great number of legal, political and cultural innovations. Angolese minister stimulates national culture The Angolese minister of Culture, Boaventura Cardoso, used the
occasion of the National Day of Culture to announce that laws
will be enacted to protect and develop Angolese culture. Cardoso
wants to use such legislation to stimulate art production and
to give artists better status. He plans to set up a theatre
school and wants to breathe new life into the currently defunct
FENACULT
national cultural festival. All the museums and monuments that
were damaged during the war must be repaired. The population
of a country must be conscious of its national art and culture,
according to Cardoso. Not only the government, but society
as well is responsible for preserving this legacy. Christmas to be a national holiday in Egypt The Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has declared Christmas a
national holiday. It is the first Christian holiday recognised
in a predominantly
Islamic Egypt. Ten percent of the almost 70 million Egyptians
are members of the Christian Coptic Church. This religious group
has always complained that they are neglected in every area of
Egyptian life, a complaint that is confirmed by organisations
such as Human Rights Watch. One reason for Mubarak’s declaration
it that he wants to emphasise national unity in Egypt. Critics
claim that he is only acquiescing to criticism by the United
States that the social climate in Egypt is not tolerant enough.
Egypt is second only to Israel in terms of the amount of American
financial support it receives. Musician is Minister in BrazilThe popular musician Gilberto Gil (1924) has been appointed the new Minister of Culture of Brazil. As a singer, guitarist and composer, Gil has been one of the driving forces behind the country’s musical world for decades. During the 60’s he revised the traditional bossa nova by adding stylistic elements from pop and rock. As a singer of protest songs Gil became a folk hero, but he fell into disfavour with the military regime. After three years of exile in England he returned to Brazil in 1972 to become an internationally respected musician. Gil’s career is not unique in international politics. Melina Mercouri was appointed Minister of Culture for Greece in the past and the Czech writer Vaclav Havel was even elected president of his country. Sources: Algemeen Dagblad, NRC Handelsblad, het Parool, Rotterdams Dagblad, Trouw, de Volkskrant, De Standaard, Der Spiegel, The Guardian,The Independent, The Age, Deutsche Welle, BBC News, BBC Online, News24.com, Reuters, AllAfrica.com, IAfrica.com, Time.com, Agenzia Giornalistica Italia, Palestine Chronicle, Austin American Statesman, Voice of America, Soccernet.com |
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