The Dallas County DA’s office welcomed Roberta Clark of the Anti-Defamation League to the office for a training on “Why Diversity Matters.” Nearly 300 prosecutors and investigators attended the training.

A C&C staff training session.

 

Cambodian Vision in Development is a local Cambodian NGO which has relied entirely on international funding agencies to continue their projects. CVD are now trialling a clothing factory that trains and employs disabled and disadvantaged young women. Most of the workers suffer from some degree of TB.

 

Individulas can donate to CVD and start your own Village Self Help project. More info at cambodianvision (dot) com.

  

********************************

 

Please ask for permission before using any of my images, they are copyright © Tim Grant.

 

I usually don't expect a fee for private viewing, projects, school work, charity work, etc. Also if you wanted to use any images as a base for a private artwork or poster, I would love to see the final product (as long as it is legal and doesn't defame anyone).

 

Although I do need to charge for other professional, corporate or commercial uses, as I also have to make money to live. I can then supply a high resolution finished image which is sized to your needs.

 

For more information please contact me through FlickrMail.

 

Thanks .............. tim

 

********************************

The GLAAD Media Awards at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City

 

The GLAAD Media Awards recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives.

 

GLAAD, the world's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) media advocacy organization, honored Robert De Niro, Mariah Carey, and the best in film, television, and journalism at the 27th Annual GLAAD Media Awards at the Waldorf Astoria New York on Saturday May 14th 2016. Jennifer Lawrence, Aziz Ansari, Connie Britton, Diane Sawyer, Caitlyn Jenner, Tamron Hall, Noah Galvin, Andrew Rannells, Andreja Pejić, and Jason Biggs were among the special guests. Recording artists Alex Newell and Bebe Rexha, as well as the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Fun Home performed at the event hosted by Emmy Award-winning actress Laverne Cox. The 27th Annual GLAAD Media Awards were presented by Delta Air Lines, Hilton, Ketel One Vodka, and Wells Fargo.

 

GLAAD Media Award recipients announced Saturday in New York. Additional awards were presented in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton on April 2.

 

Excellence in Media Award: Robert De Niro (presented by Jennifer Lawrence)

 

Ally Award: Mariah Carey (presented by Lee Daniels)

 

· Outstanding TV Journalism – Newsmagazine: “Bruce Jenner: The Interview" 20/20 (ABC) [accepted by: Diane Sawyer, Caitlyn Jenner, and David Sloan, senior executive producer]

 

· Outstanding TV Journalism Segment: "Interview with Jim Obergefell" Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN) [accepted by: U.S. Supreme Court plaintiff Jim Obergefell]

 

· Outstanding Magazine Overall Coverage: Cosmopolitan [accepted by: Laura Brounstein, special projects director]

 

· Outstanding Film – Limited Release: Tangerine (Magnolia Pictures)

 

· Outstanding Individual Episode: "The Prince of Nucleotides" Royal Pains (USA Network)

 

· Outstanding Digital Journalism – Multimedia: "Stopping HIV? The Truvada Revolution" Vice Reports (Vice.com)

 

· Outstanding Newspaper Article: "Cold Case: The Murders of Cosby and Jackson" by Dianna Wray (Houston Press)

 

· Outstanding Magazine Article: "Behind Brazil's Gay Pride Parades, a Struggle with Homophobic Violence" by Oscar Lopez (Newsweek)

 

· Outstanding Digital Journalism Article: "This Is What It’s Like To Be An LGBT Syrian Fleeing For Your Life" by J. Lester Feder (Buzzfeed.com)

 

SPANISH-LANGUAGE NOMINEES

· Outstanding Daytime Program Episode: "¿El marido de mi padre o yo?" Caso Cerrado (Telemundo)

 

· Outstanding TV Journalism – Newsmagazine: TIE: "Amor que rompe barreras" Un Nuevo Día (Telemundo) and "En cuerpo ajeno" Aquí y Ahora (Univision)

 

· Outstanding TV Journalism Segment: "Víctimas de abusos" Noticiero Univision (Univision)

 

· Outstanding Digital Journalism – Multimedia: "Campeones de la igualdad" (Univision.com)

   

GLAAD (formerly the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) is a U.S. non-governmental media monitoring organization founded by LGBT people in the media.

 

Motto - to promote understanding, increase acceptance, and advance equality.

 

Founded - 1985

 

Founder

Vito Russo

Jewelle Gomez

Lauren Hinds

 

GLAAD 2016 President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis

 

GLAAD

104 W 29th St #4,

New York, NY 10001

USA

(212) 629-3322

 

Waldorf Astoria Hotel

301 Park Ave,

New York, NY 10022

USA

(212) 355-3000

  

Hashtag metadata tag

#GMA @glaad ‪#‎glaadawards #GLAAD #GLAADMediaAwards #GLAADMedia #GLAADAwards #LGBT #GLBT #LGBTQ #GLBTQ #Lesbian #gay #gays #gaymen #gaywomen #bi #Bisexual #Trans #Transman #TransWoman #Transidentity #Transgender #Gender #GenderFluid #GenderIdentity #Queer #Media #TV #Television #Press #WaldorfAstoria #WaldorfAstoriaHotel #NY #NYC #NYS #NewYork #NewYorkCity #NewYorkState #USA #Equality #Pride #celebrity #fashion #famous #style #RedCarpet #RedCarpetEvent

  

Photo

New York City, Manhattan Island, New York State, USA The United States of America country, North America continent

May 14th 2016‬

A few years ago, a rather controversial statue of Richard III was erected in the bailey, close to the entrance. The sculptor, Linda Thompson, has tried to portray various descriptions of Richard, including the good king and the Shakespearean villain. A basilisk or cockatrice is partially visible behind Richard, its tail curling over his right shoulder to form part of the livery collar.

 

The monsters behind Richard seem to hint at the great burden he had to bear during his lifetime from physical deformity, (we now know he suffered from severe scoliosis of the spine), but also the subsequent defamation of his character that has been handed down through history.

 

The white boar at his feet (his personal badge) is dead and he is armless and powerless to defend himself.

August 5, 2009 - Temple Israel, Boston.

A vigil to mourn for the victims, pray for the injured, and express our outrage at the shooting at the GLBT Center in Tel Aviv. Nir Katz, 26, and Liz Trubeshi, 16, were murdered when a masked gunman opened fire in a basement room where teenagers were holding a weekly support group. At least 10 others were also wounded, mostly teenagers

 

Sponsored by Keshet, Am Tikva, JCRC, CJP, New Israel Fund and Temple Israel.

 

Co-Sponsored by: (in alphabetical order) American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League (ADL), B'nai Brith - New England Region, Congregation Dorshei Tzedek, Consulate General of Israel to New England, GesherCity, JALSA, Jewish Labor Committee, Massachusetts Board of Rabbis, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association - NE Region, Temple Hillel B'nai Torah, Temple Enunah, Workmen's Circle

 

Photo by Stephanie Lowitt, Keshet

A visitor to the South Perth Zoological Gardens reaches out for one of the captives. Fortunately the animal enclosures and living conditions have been improved since this photo was taken. Perth Zoo, Western Australia.

    

********************************

 

Please ask for permission before using any of my images, they are copyright © Tim Grant.

 

I usually don't expect a fee for private viewing, projects, school work, charity work, etc. Also if you wanted to use any images as a base for a private artwork or poster, I would love to see the final product (as long as it is legal and doesn't defame anyone).

 

Although I do need to charge for other professional, corporate or commercial uses, as I also have to make money to live. I can then supply a high resolution finished image which is sized to your needs.

 

For more information please contact me through FlickrMail.

 

Thanks .............. tim

 

********************************

The Dallas County DA’s office welcomed Roberta Clark of the Anti-Defamation League to the office for a training on “Why Diversity Matters.” Nearly 300 prosecutors and investigators attended the training.

The grand master of the Gidi Babas giving a blessing. There was drama and intrigue, but I had no idea of what was going on. The Gidi Babas put on a big feast for hundreds of other Babas, where they also handed out money. Taken during the Kumbh Mela festival in Varanasi. India.

  

********************************

 

Please ask for permission before using any of my images, they are copyright © Tim Grant.

 

I usually don't expect a fee for private viewing, projects, school work, charity work, etc. Also if you wanted to use any images as a base for a private artwork or poster, I would love to see the final product (as long as it is legal and doesn't defame anyone).

 

Although I do need to charge for other professional, corporate or commercial uses, as I also have to make money to live. I can then supply a high resolution finished image which is sized to your needs.

 

For more information please contact me through FlickrMail.

 

Thanks .............. tim

 

********************************

 

There was never any doubt I would go to Rob's funeral. Rob was born just two weeks before me, and in our many meetings, we found we had so much in common.

 

A drive to Ipswich should be something like only two and a half hours, but with the Dartford Crossing that could balloon to four or more.

 

My choice was to leave early, soon after Jools left for work, or wait to near nine once rush hour was over. If I was up early, I'd leave early, I said.

 

Which is what happened.

 

So, after coffee and Jools leaving, I loaded my camera stuff in the car, not bothering to program in a destination, as I knew the route to Suffolk so well.

 

Checking the internet I found the M2 was closed, so that meant taking the M20, which I like as it runs beside HS2, although over the years, vegetation growth now hides most of it, and with Eurostar cutting services due to Brexit, you're lucky to see a train on the line now.

 

I had a phone loaded with podcasts, so time flew by, even if travelling through the endless roadworks at 50mph seemed to take forever.

 

Dartford was jammed. But we inched forward, until as the bridge came in sight, traffic moved smoothly, and I followed the traffic down into the east bore of the tunnel.

 

Another glorious morning for travel, the sun shone from a clear blue sky, even if traffic was heavy, but I had time, so not pressing on like I usually do, making the drive a pleasant one.

 

Up through Essex, where most other traffic turned off at Stanstead, then up to the A11 junction, with it being not yet nine, I had several hours to fill before the ceremony.

 

I stopped at Cambridge services for breakfast, then programmed the first church in: Gazeley, which is just in Suffolk on the border with Cambridgeshire.

 

I took the next junction off, took two further turnings brought be to the village, which is divided by one of the widest village streets I have ever seen.

 

It was five past nine: would the church be open?

 

I parked on the opposite side of the road, grabbed my bag and camera, limped over, passing a warden putting new notices in the parish notice board. We exchange good mornings, and I walk to the porch.

 

The inner door was unlocked, and the heavy door swung after turning the metal ring handle.

 

I had made a list of four churches from Simon's list of the top 60 Suffolk churches, picking those on or near my route to Ipswich and which piqued my interest.

 

Here, it was the reset mediaeval glass.

 

Needless to say, I had the church to myself, the centuries hanging heavy inside as sunlight flooded in filling the Chancel with warm golden light.

 

Windows had several devotional dials carved in the surrounding stone, and a huge and "stunningly beautiful piscina, and beside it are sedilia that end in an arm rest carved in the shape of a beast" which caught my eye.

 

A display in the Chancel was of the decoration of the wooden roof above where panels contained carved beats, some actual and some mythical.

 

I photographed them all.

 

I programmed in the next church, a 45 minute drive away just on the outskirts of Ipswich, or so I thought.

 

The A14 was plagued by roadworks, then most trunk roads and motorways are this time of year, but it was a fine summer morning, I was eating a chocolate bar as I drove, and I wasn't in a hurry.

 

I turned off at Claydon, and soon lost in a maze of narrow lanes, which brought be to a dog leg in the road, with St Mary nestling in a clearing.

 

I pulled up, got out and found the air full of birdsong, and was greeted by a friendly spaniel being taken for a walk from the hamlet which the church serves.

 

There was never any doubt that this would be open, so I went through the fine brick porch, pushed another heavy wooden door and entered the coolness of the church.

 

I decided to come here for the font, which as you can read below has quite the story: wounded by enemy action no less!

 

There seems to be a hagioscope (squint) in a window of the south wall, makes one think or an anchorite, but of this there is little evidence.

 

Samuel and Thomasina Sayer now reside high on the north wall of the Chancel, a stone skull between them, moved here too because of bomb damage in the last war.

 

I drove a few miles to the next church: Flowton.

 

Not so much a village as a house on a crossroads. And the church.

 

Nothing so grand as a formal board outside, just a handwritten sign say "welcome to Flowton church". Again, I had little doubt it would be open.

 

And it was.

 

The lychgate still stands, but a fence around the churchyard is good, so serves little practical purpose, other than to be there and hold the signs for the church and forthcoming services.

 

Inside it is simple: octagonal font with the floor being of brick, so as rustic as can be.

 

I did read Simon's account (below) when back outside, so went back in to record the tomb of Captain William Boggas and his family, even if part of the stone is hidden by pews now.

 

I had said to myself, that if I saw signs for another church, I might find time to visit. And so it was with Aldham, I saw the sign pointing down a narrow lane, so I turned and went to investigate.

 

First it looked like the road ended in a farmyard, but then I saw the flint round tower of the church behind, so followed the lane to the church gate.

 

There was a large welcoming sign stating, proudly, that the church is always open.

 

St Mary stands on a mound overlooking a shallow valley, water stand, or runs slowly, in the bottom, and it really is a fine, fine location for a church.

 

I pushed through the gate and went up the path to the south porch, where the door swung open once again.

 

The coolness within enveloped me.

 

An ancient font at the west end was framed by a brick-lined arch, even to my untrained eyes, I knew this was unusual.

 

There were some carved bench ends, some nice fairly modern glass, but the simplicity of the small church made for a very pleasant whole.

 

I no longer watch TV much, so was unaware of the view and indeed church being used in the TV show, The Detectorists.

 

One of Suffolk's hidden treasures, for sure.

 

I had selected the list of churches to visit from Simon's list of 60 best Suffolk churches, choosing the ones that seemed near to Ipswich.

 

I had one more on my list, one a little bit out of the way, but I thought I had time, so set off for deepest, darkest Suffolk: Kettlebaston.

 

The trip took me past my old stamping grounds of Bildeston and Kersey, where I used to take Mum and Dad each Easter once I could drive, but once past Kersey, I still had twenty minutes to go.

 

Up the hill from Brent Eleigh into Kettlebaston, where the village was more of a dogleg in the road than anything else. I drove through slowly hoping the church would be obvious.

 

It wasn't.

 

It was playing hide and seek.

 

I programmed the church into the sat nav, and followed it back to the village, where beyond a small grassed area was a wall of a mature yew hedge, with the only way through a way so overgrown I had to stoop low to get through.

 

On the buttress at the south eastern corner of the Chancel, a painted panel showed the Coronation of the Queen of Heaven.

 

Clearly, this wasn't your normal parish church.

 

I am an atheist, its just the way I am, so these different "flavours" of Christianity do confuse me somewhat.

 

Even I knew when I walked in that this was a high church, high in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, with two altars either side of the Chancel Arch, the first such I think I have seen in a parish church.

 

I post these shots here and on a Churchcrawling website on Facebook, I might skip this one as it will draw lots of comments I think, not all positive.

 

I guess what saddens me is that they worship the same God, no? Is being right about how to do it that important? When wardens ask me what I think of their church, or should they put a glass door in instead of the ancient wooden currently, I say, it is a living church, your church, changes can be reversed if needed too. But it is your church, you have to live with it, it has to be suitable for all.

 

Despite all the above, there was much evidence of the ancient church: the font, paintings around a window among other features.

 

--------------------------------------------------

 

I always look forward to coming back to Kettlebaston. It is likely that anyone who knows the churches of Suffolk well will have Kettlebaston among their favourites. The setting is delectable, in the remote Suffolk hills between Hadleigh and Stowmarket. The building is at once elegant and interesting, the interior memorable, but most fascinating of all perhaps is the story behind the way it is today.

 

In 1963, in the thirty-third year of his incumbency as Rector of the parish of Kettlebaston, Father Harold Clear Butler sent a letter to a friend. "You are right,"he wrote. "There is no congregation any more." In failing health, he relied on the family of a vicar who had retired nearby to carry out the ceremonies of Easter week that year. In 1964, Father Butler himself retired, and an extraordinary episode in the history of the Anglo-Catholic movement in Suffolk came to an end.

 

There may have been no congregation, but St Mary at Kettlebaston was a shrine, to which people made pilgrimages from all over England. Here was the liturgically highest of all Suffolk's Anglican churches, where Father Butler said the Roman Mass every day, celebrated High Mass and Benediction on Sunday, dispensed with churchwardens, flouted the authority of the Anglican diocese by tearing down state notices put up in the porch, refused to keep registers, and even, as an extreme, ignored the office of the local Archdeacon of Sudbury. An entry from the otherwise empty registers for October 2nd 1933 reads Visitation of Archdeacon of Sudbury. Abortive. Archdeacon, finding no churchwardens present, rode off on his High Horse!

 

Father Butler came to this parish when the Anglo-Catholic movement was at its height, and survived into a poorly old age as it retreated, leaving him high and dry. But not for one moment did he ever compromise.

 

Kettlebaston church is not just remote liturgically. You set off from the vicinity of Hadleigh, finding your way to the back of beyond at Brent Eleigh - and then beyond the back of beyond, up the winding roads that climb into the hills above Preston. Somewhere here, two narrow lanes head north. One will take you to Thorpe Morieux, and one to Kettlebaston, but I can never be sure which is which, or even if they are always in the same place. Finding your way to this, one of the most remote of all Suffolk villages, can be like finding your way into Narnia. Once in the village, you find the church surrounded by a high yew hedge, through which a passage conducts a path into the graveyard. On a buttress, a statue of the Coronation of the Queen of Heaven sits behind a grill. It is a copy of an alabaster found under the floorboards during the 1860s restoration. The original is now in the British Museum.

 

One Anglo-catholic tradition that has not been lost here is that the church should always be open, always be welcoming. You enter through the small porch, perhaps not fully prepared for the wonders that await. The nave you step into is light, clean and well-cared for. There is no coloured glass, no heavy benches, no tiles. The brick floor and simple wooden chairs seem as one with the air, a perfect foil for the rugged late Norman font, and the rich view to the east, for the fixtures and fittings of the 20th Century Anglo-Catholic tradition survive here in all their splendour.

 

The two major features are the rood screen and the high altar. The rood screen is the work of several people, having been added to over the years by a roll-call of prominent Anglo-Catholic artists. It was designed by Ernest Geldart in the 1880s. It was painted by Patrick Osborne in 1949, apart from the figures, which are the work of Enid Chadwick in 1954. They are: St Felix as a bishop holding a candle, St Thomas More in regalia, St Thomas of Canterbury with a sword through his mitre, St John Fisher as a bishop holding a book, St Alban in armour and St Fursey holding Burgh Castle.

 

To one side, the Sacred Heart altar bears the original stone mensa from the high altar. The table itself is the Stuart Communion table. To the other, a Lady altar. All of these are either gifts or rescued from redundant Anglo-Catholic churches elsewhere. The elegant grill in front of the rood loft stairs is by Ninian Comper. Stepping through into the chancel is a reminder of how the clearance of clutter can improve a liturgical space. Here, the emptiness provides a perfect foil for the massive altar piece. The altar itself was the gift of Miss Eleanor Featonby Smith, consecrated by the Bishop of Madagascar in 1956, in one of those ceremonies conducted in the labyrinthine underworld of the Anglo-catholic movement. The altar sports what is colloquially referred to as the Big Six - the trademark six candlesticks of an Anglo-catholic parish. Behind them, the rich reredos is also by Ernest Geldart, and was also painted by Patrick Osborne.

 

At the west end of the nave is a display case holding facsimiles of the Kettlebaston alabasters, an oddly prosaic moment. But Kettlebaston's medieval past is not entirely rebooted, for the chancel was sensitively restored by Ernest Geldart in 1902 with none of the razzmatazz of his church at Little Braxted in Essex. The east window was rebuilt to the same design as the original, as was the roof. The late 13th Century piscina and sedilia are preserved, and on the north side of the chancel survives an impressive tomb recess of about the same date. The sole monument is to Joan, Lady Jermyn, who died in 1649. Her memorial is understated, and its inscription, at the end of the English Civil War and the start of the ill-fated Commonwealth, is a fascinating example of the language of the time. Is it puritan in sympathy, or Anglican? Or simply a bizarre fruit of the ferment of ideas in that World Turned Upside Down? Within this dormitory lyes interred ye corpps of Johan Lady Jermy it begins, and continues whose arke after a passage of 87 yeares long through this deluge of teares... rested upon ye mount of joye. And then the verse:

 

Sleepe sweetly, Saint. Since thou wert gone

ther's not the least aspertion

to rake thine asshes: no defame

to veyle the lustre of thy name.

Like odorous tapers thy best sent

remains after extinguishment.

Stirr not these sacred asshes, let them rest

till union make both soule & body blest.

 

Not far off, and from half a century earlier, a rather more cheerful brass inscription remembers that:

 

The corpse of John Pricks wife lyes heere

The pastor of this place

Fower moneths and one and thirty yeerr

With him she ran her race

And when some eightye yeres were past

Her soule shee did resigne

To her good god in August last

Yeeres thrice five hundredth ninety nine.

 

And yet, you notice, we never learn her name. Above, the roofs drip with hanging paraffin lamps, the walls have their candle brackets, for this little church still has no electricity. You sense the attraction of Benediction on a late winter afternoon.

 

St Mary is loved and cared for by those who worship in it. There are rather more of them than in Father Butler's final days, but they are still a tiny, remote community. Since 1964, they have been part of a wider benefice, and must toe the Anglican mainstream line, as at Lound. But also, as at Lound, the relics of the Anglo-Catholic heyday here are preserved lovingly, and, judging by the visitors book, it is not just the regular worshippers who love it, for Anglo-Catholics from all over England still treat it as a goal of pilgrimage. I remember sitting in this church on a bright spring afternoon some twenty years ago. I'd been sitting for a while in near-silence, which was suddenly broken by the clunk of the door latch. Two elderly ladies came in. They smiled, genuflected towards the east, and greeted me. Together, they went to the Sacred Heart altar, put a bunch of violets in a vase on it, and knelt before it. The silence continued, now with a counterpoint of birdsong from the churchyard through the open door. Then they stood, made the sign of the cross, and went out again. Father Butler looked on and smiled, I'm sure.

 

Simon Knott, October 2018

 

www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/kettlebaston.htm

Another good chance to photograph a beautifully dressed Indian woman. Image taken behind the Taj Mahal, Agra, India.

  

********************************

 

Please ask for permission before using any of my images, they are copyright © Tim Grant.

 

I usually don't expect a fee for private viewing, projects, school work, charity work, etc. Also if you wanted to use any images as a base for a private artwork or poster, I would love to see the final product (as long as it is legal and doesn't defame anyone).

 

Although I do need to charge for other professional, corporate or commercial uses, as I also have to make money to live. I can then supply a high resolution finished image which is sized to your needs.

 

For more information please contact me through FlickrMail.

 

Thanks .............. tim

 

********************************

 

On Wednesday, December 6, 2017, the third session was held during the 3rd Archon International Conference on Religious Freedom on the topic "Freedoms of Religion and the Press” held at the Newseum. Government and private sector experts discussed the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in comparison with global issues of freedom of religion, speech, and the press. The panel explored how these fundamental rights are impacted by the persecution of Christians through threats and acts of violence and the failure to punish those responsible, defamation, economic suppression, and State sponsored blasphemy laws and other regulations which promote majority State religions in education and government institutions. The panel concluded with a discussion of the response by Christians and other Faiths to these acts of discrimination and offering potential solutions, including methods for survival, association and confrontation. The moderator was Lauren Green, Fox News Chief Religion Correspondent. Panelists included: Kristina Arriaga de Bucholz, US Commission on International Religious Freedom Vice Chair; Nathaniel Hurd, Helsinki Commission Policy Advisor; Gene Policinski, Newseum Institute Religious Freedom Center COO; and Timothy Samuel Shah

Religious Freedom Institute Senior Director, South & Southeast Asia.

The GLAAD Media Awards at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City

 

The GLAAD Media Awards recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives.

 

GLAAD, the world's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) media advocacy organization, honored Robert De Niro, Mariah Carey, and the best in film, television, and journalism at the 27th Annual GLAAD Media Awards at the Waldorf Astoria New York on Saturday May 14th 2016. Jennifer Lawrence, Aziz Ansari, Connie Britton, Diane Sawyer, Caitlyn Jenner, Tamron Hall, Noah Galvin, Andrew Rannells, Andreja Pejić, and Jason Biggs were among the special guests. Recording artists Alex Newell and Bebe Rexha, as well as the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Fun Home performed at the event hosted by Emmy Award-winning actress Laverne Cox. The 27th Annual GLAAD Media Awards were presented by Delta Air Lines, Hilton, Ketel One Vodka, and Wells Fargo.

 

GLAAD Media Award recipients announced Saturday in New York. Additional awards were presented in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton on April 2.

 

Excellence in Media Award: Robert De Niro (presented by Jennifer Lawrence)

 

Ally Award: Mariah Carey (presented by Lee Daniels)

 

· Outstanding TV Journalism – Newsmagazine: “Bruce Jenner: The Interview" 20/20 (ABC) [accepted by: Diane Sawyer, Caitlyn Jenner, and David Sloan, senior executive producer]

 

· Outstanding TV Journalism Segment: "Interview with Jim Obergefell" Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN) [accepted by: U.S. Supreme Court plaintiff Jim Obergefell]

 

· Outstanding Magazine Overall Coverage: Cosmopolitan [accepted by: Laura Brounstein, special projects director]

 

· Outstanding Film – Limited Release: Tangerine (Magnolia Pictures)

 

· Outstanding Individual Episode: "The Prince of Nucleotides" Royal Pains (USA Network)

 

· Outstanding Digital Journalism – Multimedia: "Stopping HIV? The Truvada Revolution" Vice Reports (Vice.com)

 

· Outstanding Newspaper Article: "Cold Case: The Murders of Cosby and Jackson" by Dianna Wray (Houston Press)

 

· Outstanding Magazine Article: "Behind Brazil's Gay Pride Parades, a Struggle with Homophobic Violence" by Oscar Lopez (Newsweek)

 

· Outstanding Digital Journalism Article: "This Is What It’s Like To Be An LGBT Syrian Fleeing For Your Life" by J. Lester Feder (Buzzfeed.com)

 

SPANISH-LANGUAGE NOMINEES

· Outstanding Daytime Program Episode: "¿El marido de mi padre o yo?" Caso Cerrado (Telemundo)

 

· Outstanding TV Journalism – Newsmagazine: TIE: "Amor que rompe barreras" Un Nuevo Día (Telemundo) and "En cuerpo ajeno" Aquí y Ahora (Univision)

 

· Outstanding TV Journalism Segment: "Víctimas de abusos" Noticiero Univision (Univision)

 

· Outstanding Digital Journalism – Multimedia: "Campeones de la igualdad" (Univision.com)

   

GLAAD (formerly the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) is a U.S. non-governmental media monitoring organization founded by LGBT people in the media.

 

Motto - to promote understanding, increase acceptance, and advance equality.

 

Founded - 1985

 

Founder

Vito Russo

Jewelle Gomez

Lauren Hinds

 

GLAAD 2016 President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis

 

GLAAD

104 W 29th St #4,

New York, NY 10001

USA

(212) 629-3322

 

Waldorf Astoria Hotel

301 Park Ave,

New York, NY 10022

USA

(212) 355-3000

  

Hashtag metadata tag

#GMA @glaad ‪#‎glaadawards #GLAAD #GLAADMediaAwards #GLAADMedia #GLAADAwards #LGBT #GLBT #LGBTQ #GLBTQ #Lesbian #gay #gays #gaymen #gaywomen #bi #Bisexual #Trans #Transman #TransWoman #Transidentity #Transgender #Gender #GenderFluid #GenderIdentity #Queer #Media #TV #Television #Press #WaldorfAstoria #WaldorfAstoriaHotel #NY #NYC #NYS #NewYork #NewYorkCity #NewYorkState #USA #Equality #Pride #celebrity #fashion #famous #style #RedCarpet #RedCarpetEvent

  

Photo

New York City, Manhattan Island, New York State, USA The United States of America country, North America continent

May 14th 2016‬

Sports award for female swimmers.

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All rights reserved: Jeff Speigner

Please ask permission before using any of my photographs.

 

I am happy to lend my images to support most non-commercial purposes such as school projects, charity work, private viewings, etc. and will generally grant permission free of charge. But I really appreciate being asked first.

 

If you want to use any images as a base for a private non-commercial artwork, I will usually grant permission as long as it is legal and doesn't defame anyone. I’d appreciate seeing the final product.

 

For any commercial use involving either direct use or derivative works I will charge a fair competitive rate. I can then supply a high resolution finished image sized to fit your needs.

 

Contact me through FlickrMail or via my website www.jeffspeigner.com.

 

Thanks, Jeff

 

All the buildings in the town of Kuito looked like this. The town was held seige for weeks, with not one pane of glass remaining intact. It was such a shock to see this quaint pastel kitsch town destroyed. This building, as like most left standing, is still being occupied. Kuito, Angola.

 

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Please ask for permission before using any of my images, they are copyright © Tim Grant.

 

I usually don't expect a fee for private viewing, projects, school work, charity work, etc. Also if you wanted to use any images as a base for a private artwork or poster, I would love to see the final product (as long as it is legal and doesn't defame anyone).

 

Although I do need to charge for other professional, corporate or commercial uses, as I also have to make money to live. I can then supply a high resolution finished image which is sized to your needs.

 

For more information please contact me through FlickrMail.

 

Thanks .............. tim

 

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Naked 'Borat' wrestler Ken Davitian was in attendance, but politely declined After Dark's invitation to host a Suffocating People to Death With the Hairy Anus of a Fat Man" themed torture room.

August 5, 2009 - Temple Israel, Boston.

A vigil to mourn for the victims, pray for the injured, and express our outrage at the shooting at the GLBT Center in Tel Aviv. Nir Katz, 26, and Liz Trubeshi, 16, were murdered when a masked gunman opened fire in a basement room where teenagers were holding a weekly support group. At least 10 others were also wounded, mostly teenagers.

 

Sponsored by Keshet, Am Tikva, JCRC, CJP, New Israel Fund and Temple Israel

 

Co-Sponsored by: (in alphabetical order) American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League (ADL), B'nai Brith - New England Region, Congregation Dorshei Tzedek, Consulate General of Israel to New England, GesherCity, JALSA, Jewish Labor Committee, Massachusetts Board of Rabbis, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association - NE Region, Temple Hillel B'nai Torah, Temple Enunah, Workmen's Circle

 

Photo by Stephanie Lowitt, Keshet

Thought with the media coverage of Alan Jones at the moment it would be a good time to upload photos of the Acland school.

 

Acland State School opened on 21 February 1921. A declining population meant the primary school had just 12 students by 2004, leading to its closure on 31 December 2004. The school's most notable former student was controversial Australian radio broadcaster, Alan Jones, who started at the school in 1946.

 

Alan Jones has been known for many of roles over the years such as former coach of the Australian National Rugby Union Team, a school teacher, a speech writer in the office of the Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. But mostly known for being a controversial Australian radio broadcaster. This position leading to his latest appearance in the media headlines. Jones found himself in court for defamation after calming the Wagner brothers were responsible for the deaths of 12 Grantham residents in the 2011 floods.

Jones with 2GB and 4BC radios was found guilty and ordered to pay an astounding amount of $3.7m to the Wagner brothers

   

Dr. Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana is the first woman of African descent to be elected to European Parliament from Germany.

On June 17, she told the parliament in Brussels that she had been physically abused by Brussels police while attempting to stop the harassment of Black kids. As an MEP, she was in Brussels because the European parliament was due to vote on a non-binding resolution against racism! The Belgian police have brought a defamation complaint against the 71 year old professor!! That’s where the situation stands. It is horrifying, and so typical of Brussels.

 

I drew this using reference from a photo by Daina Le Lardic.

The Dallas County DA’s office welcomed Roberta Clark of the Anti-Defamation League to the office for a training on “Why Diversity Matters.” Nearly 300 prosecutors and investigators attended the training.

NOT!

 

It's called karma, baby. Magaly Medina is one of Peru's best known exponents of yellow journalism, hiring goons to dig into the private lives of Peru's miniscule film and TV industry, known as Chollywood. Today she was sentenced to five months in jail for defamation of character, after reporting that a leading soccer player had been out on the town prior to an important game. Whether or not she is in fact guilty, a good dose of humility will do Ms. Medina some good.

Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal today hit out at the ruling SAD-BJP combine, alleging they were feeling "jittery" as AAP would sweep the 2017 Punjab assembly polls and have stooped to hatch a "conspiracy" to defame the party.

 

Mr Kejriwal, who released a youth manifesto, also quoted a survey claiming it showed that AAP would win 100 out of 117 assembly seats in the state polls.

 

"Seven months are left for Punjab polls and the Badals have started playing a dirty game. It becomes necessary to tell people how low the SAD-BJP government can stoop," he said addressing a public meeting in Amritsar this evening during his three-day tour to the state.

 

Referring to one of the arrested accused in the sacrilege incident in Malerkotla on June 24, the Delhi Chief Minister claimed that Punjab government (police) had earlier said he belonged to Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).

 

"Punjab government had said Vijay Garg belonged to VHP. They continued to maintain that he belonged to VHP till July 1. But on July 2, they said he did it (act of sacrilege) at the behest of AAP. Why? Because Kejriwal was to visit Punjab on July 3," he said.

 

"All in Punjab know that AAP is going to win (polls) in the state and win with a good majority," he said, adding, "The Badal government is on its way out."

 

"Now they will indulge in such dirty tricks...a big conspiracy has been hatched and now they are trying to implicate AAP in this," he said.

 

Without naming any party, Mr Kejriwal said, "Everyone knows that there is only one party in entire India whose politics is based on religion. And to defame us, they have hatched this conspiracy."

 

"They threw ink on me, slapped me, but I remained silent. But I want to tell them that if you desecrate holy Guru Granth Sahib, holy Quran and other religious scriptures, then we will give them a befitting reply. People will not tolerate it. People will not tolerate this conspiracy," he said.

 

"I am pained that to defame us, they indulged in desecration of religious books. If they wanted to defame us, they could have done anything else," he said.

 

Punjab Police have booked AAP lawmaker Naresh Yadav in connection with the alleged sacrilege incident in Malerkotla.

 

"Who is Vijay? He is a puppet. When our AAP government is formed, we shall send those people to jail who were behind Vijay," he said.

 

thepunjabnews.in/article/akalis-bjp-jittery-as-aap-will-s...

via

 

Honoring Four Individuals Who Significantly Contribute to the LGBT Community

 

For the first time in its nine-year history, Miami Beach Gay Pride will honor four individuals who have made significant contributions to the LGBT community as Pride Marshals. Television personality and pop culture expert Ross Mathews will serve as Grand Marshal; celebrity bartender and cast member of iHeart Radio’s “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show,” “Uncle” Johnny Pool, will serve as the Advocate Marshal; and philanthropists and advocates Liebe and Seth Gadinsky will serve as Ally Marshals. Miami Beach Gay Pride is presented by Celebrity Cruises and runs April 7 to 9, 2017.“We are really proud to expand our Marshal program this year,” said Mark Fernandes, chair of the Pride board. “As an organization and an event, it is critical that we embody the diversity and inclusiveness of the entire community we serve. We can think of no better way to live up to that promise than by celebrating the accomplishments and efforts of these four outstanding leaders.”

 

Openly gay comedian, TV host and author Ross Mathews will serve as Miami Beach Gay Pride’s Grand Marshal leading the loud and colorful parade that’s expected to draw over 130,000 spectators this year. Mathews is a strong supporter of the Human Rights Campaign, speaking at many of their nationwide events and receiving their Visibility Award in 2011. He has hosted the GLAAD Media Awards, officiated a same-sex marriage from a float in the middle of Capital Pride in Washington D.C., and recently produced a widely hailed video response to a personally degrading comment made by Milo Yiannopoulos during his resignation press conference as senior editor at Breitbart.

 

Of his video response, The Advocate later reported: “Knowing he can be an example for kids across the world who don’t have positive role models is what drives him most, (Mathews) went on to say, ‘I’m afraid that the kids like me out there now will see his message and not my message. So I want every kid out there who is different, who feels different, who knows that they’re different to know that that’s good.’”

Mathews entered the public psyche as “Ross the Intern,” a correspondent on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” Currently, Mathews can be seen hosting the nationally syndicated daily entertainment talk show “Hollywood Today Live,” which was just renewed for its second season. He’s part of the E! Network’s red carpet commentary team and has guest judged on “Ru Paul’s Drag Race.”

   

In addition to his work on television, Mathews can be heard weekly on his top rated podcast “Straight Talk with Ross Mathews” [PodcastOne] where he gives his hilarious take on the latest entertainment news and gossip.

   

In 2013, Mathews released his first book, “Man Up: Tales of My Delusional Self-Confidence” [Grand Central Publishing], which quickly became a national bestseller. “Man Up” takes readers inside Mathews’ personal journey from coming out to his family, to becoming a super fan, while revealing the most embarrassing and hysterical moments of his small town life and big city adventures. It chronicles his journey of how he managed to turn an obsession with pop culture into one-on-one interactions with A-List celebrities.

 

“Uncle” Johnny Pool is a legendary bartender who bartended at the world-famous Stonewall Inn in the 1960s. He was an active participant in the Stonewall Riots, widely credited as the beginning of the equal rights movement, and has since fought for the equality of all human beings regardless of sexuality or skin tone. The Advocate Marshal, new for 2017, honors an individual who has fought tirelessly for LGBTQ equal rights.

 

Pool got his start bartending in Cherry Grove on Fire Island where he has worked for over 53 years. His career began at The Beach Hotel & Club in Cherry Grove in 1964, which would later become The Ice Palace. He currently works at Cherry’s on the Bay and is celebrating his 17th year this summer. With over 53 consecutive years bartending at the legendary LGBTQ summer destination, Pool has seen it all. Now he can be heard as the oldest living intern on “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show,” the #1 top 40 radio show in the country, where he bartends on a weekly basis. Johnny is best known on the show for his infectious greeting, “Hello Lady”, as well as his sometimes irreverent knock-knock jokes.

To celebrate “Uncle Johnny” and his decades of fighting for equal rights, Miami Beach Gay Pride will turn one the bars in Lummus Park into Cherry’s on the Bay and Pool will make special appearances at the bar to mix his favorite cocktail recipes. Bartenders throughout the Pride Festival will also wear “Hello Lady” buttons.

   

Also new for 2017, the Allied Marshal pays tribute to LGBTQ-allied individuals who have championed social justice and human rights. Liebe and Seth Gadinsky have devoted over two decades to advancing social justice. Seth serves on, and formerly chaired, the board of the Anti-Defamation League in Florida. Liebe is dedicated to building community through her volunteer efforts, having distinguished herself as a strong supporter and advocate for human rights. Through her volunteer work for SAVE (Safeguarding American Values for Everyone), she worked tirelessly to help pass and defend the Miami-Dade Human Rights Ordinance. She served on the Board of The Miami Foundation and its GLBT Community Projects Fund Advisory Board. Liebe currently serves on the board of the National LGBTQ Task Force and formerly served as the first straight ally to chair the board. Additionally, she has spent the last 10 years helping ensure the success of the Task Force Gala – Miami. Together, Seth and Liebe are passionate supporters of myriad LGBT organizations in Miami-Dade and beyond.

 

Since its inception in 2009, Miami Beach Gay Pride has grown from a neighborhood event to an event on the global stage with A-list celebrities such as Elvis Duran as Grand Marshal in 2016 and Jordin Sparks as headline entertainer. Mario Lopez was Grand Marshal in 2015, Gloria Estefan was Grand Marshal in 2014 and Adam Lambert performed in 2013. Attendance has grown as well. An estimated 15,000 spectators turned out for the first Pride parade in 2009; an estimated 130,000 attended the event in 2016, which attracted not only South Floridians, but also visitors from throughout the world. In addition to Parade spectators, last April’s event included more than 65 parade contingencies, 35 floats and 2,700 participants. The Pride Festival which followed featured more than 100 LGBTQ-friendly vendors and businesses, plus refreshments, two stages of entertainment, a family-friendly play area and fireworks. Recently, Miami Beach Gay Pride was named one of the “Top 100 Events of the Year” for the third year in a row by BizBash Magazine and earned the Pink Flamingo Award as favorite multi-day event for the fourth year in a row.

For 2017, Miami Beach Gay Pride will be a full, three-day weekend, April 7 – 9, and will include a Friday night VIP Reception, Saturday beach party and festival, and Sunday parade and festival.

   

Miami Beach Gay Pride is produced with the support of the Miami Beach Visitors and Convention Authority. In addition to Celebrity Cruises as the presenting sponsor, other sponsors include: 1015 Multimedia; AHF; Ambiente / Unity Coalition; Artfood Staffing & Hospitality; Atlantic Broadband; Bank of America; Barefoot Wine & Bubbly; Bayou Rum; BB&T; Brown-Forman; Blick Art Materials; Chase; City of Miami Beach; Coca-Cola; Crunch; Craig Zinn Automotive Group; CVSHealth; Delmay and Partners; Fertility & IVF Center of Miami; G.H. Cretors, Cornfields; Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau; Gulfstream Park; Hiro Sake; Herradura; HotSpots / Mark’s List / Genre Latino; iHeart Radio: 103.5 The Beat, 93.9 MIA, Enrique Santos, Tu 94.9, Y100; Jack Daniels; Jackson Health System; Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce; Miami Gay Blog; Monster Energy; NBC6 / Telemundo; Palette Magazine; Pollo Tropical; Pride.com; Source Events; Salvation; Score; South Beach Hotel Group; Spartacus; Stoli; T Mobile; TD Bank; The Gaythering; The Hub at the LGBT Visitor Center; The Palace; Twist; URGE; Walgreens; W South Beach Hotel; Washington Park Hotel; Wet; and Wire Magazine.

For more information visit www.miamibeachgaypride.com.

 

Source: hotspotsmagazine.com/2017/03/08/miami-beach-gay-pride-ann...

 

hotspotsmagazine.wordpress.com/2017/03/08/miami-beach-gay...

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is asking Americans to wear purple on Oct. 20 to show their efforts to support the end of anti-gay bullying. I wore my purple in support of Spirit Day, did you?

 

For more information on Spirit Day, visit the GLAAD website: www.glaad.org/spiritday

...at the Kiak Kai Intersection close to the Parliament Building.

  

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PROTESTERS, POLICE CLASH AS MPS MULL CHARTER CHANGE

By Associated Press -November 18, 2020 10:00 am

 

Pro-democracy protesters in Thailand battled police who sought to keep them from entering the grounds of Parliament on Tuesday to press for constitutional changes as lawmakers debated whether to back proposed amendments.

 

About 40 people were injured, including five who were shot, according to emergency services. It was unclear who fired the shots and whether they were live rounds or rubber bullets. Some of the injuries occurred during a brawl between the pro-democracy protesters and stone-throwing royalists who oppose constitutional change.

 

Police used tear gas and water cannons laced with irritating chemicals against the student-led demonstrators, who tried to push their way past barbed-wire barriers to enter the grounds of the legislature on the outskirts of Bangkok.

 

The chaotic street confrontations began in midafternoon and ended about six hours later, when protest leaders called a halt and sent followers home.

 

It was the worst violence during months of actions by the protesters, though police had previously employed water cannons at least twice. The protest movement has been staging increasingly determined mass rallies of thousands of people around the country.

 

Lawmakers are scheduled to vote on seven proposed constitutional amendments during a two-day joint session of the elected House and appointed Senate. Constitutional changes require a joint vote of both bodies. Any motions that are passed will have to go through second and third votes at least a month after this week’s balloting.

 

Lawmakers adjourned a previous session without voting on proposed amendments, leading the protesters to accuse the government of bad faith.

 

The parliamentary session is an effort by the government of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to take the initiative away from the pro-democracy movement, which in addition to seeking constitutional changes and reforms to the monarchy wants Prayuth and his government to step down.

 

The protesters say that Prayuth, who as army chief in 2014 led a coup that ousted an elected government, returned to power unfairly in last year’s election because laws had been changed to favor a pro-military party. The protesters also say the constitution, written and enacted under military rule, is undemocratic.

 

Reform of the monarchy is a key demand of the protest movement, which believes the royal institution is too powerful and lacks accountability. The unprecedented demand has touched a raw nerve in Thailand, where reverence for the royal institution is inculcated from birth and protected by a law that makes defaming the monarch and his immediate family punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

 

Tuesday’s violence grew as about 1,000 protesters were pushed back by police water cannons as they tried to breach barriers set up on several streets to keep them from entering the Parliament compound.

 

Police also fired fired tear gas canisters, some of which were tossed back by demonstrators, many of whom wore helmets and other protective gear.

  

The Erawan emergency medical services group said 41 people were injured, including five who were shot in the leg, stomach or wrist. No further details were available. Police later denied firing any guns and said they had complied with laws and international standards.

 

A protest leader, Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak, announced at about 8 p.m. that the demonstrators had captured enough ground to declare they had achieved their goal of surrounding Parliament. Some lawmakers had already left the scene by boat from a pier behind Parliament.

 

Parit announced another rally on Wednesday afternoon at the busy Rajprasong intersection in the heart of Bangkok’s main shopping district.

 

Parliament is not expected to agree on specific constitutional changes at this point. The protesters back a proposal that would roll back aspects of the current 2017 constitution — enacted during military rule — that granted extra powers to unelected branches of government, such as the Senate.

 

Instead, Parliament is likely to establish a drafting committee to write a new charter. This would allow the government to say it is willing to meet the protesters’ demands at least halfway, while buying time with a process that could extend over many months.

 

Any change to sections of the constitution concerning the monarchy is fiercely opposed by the government and its supporters, who consider the monarchy untouchable.

 

Thailand has had 20 constitutions since abolishing the absolute monarchy in 1932 in favor of a constitutional monarchy.

The GLAAD Media Awards at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City

 

The GLAAD Media Awards recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives.

 

GLAAD, the world's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) media advocacy organization, honored Robert De Niro, Mariah Carey, and the best in film, television, and journalism at the 27th Annual GLAAD Media Awards at the Waldorf Astoria New York on Saturday May 14th 2016. Jennifer Lawrence, Aziz Ansari, Connie Britton, Diane Sawyer, Caitlyn Jenner, Tamron Hall, Noah Galvin, Andrew Rannells, Andreja Pejić, and Jason Biggs were among the special guests. Recording artists Alex Newell and Bebe Rexha, as well as the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Fun Home performed at the event hosted by Emmy Award-winning actress Laverne Cox. The 27th Annual GLAAD Media Awards were presented by Delta Air Lines, Hilton, Ketel One Vodka, and Wells Fargo.

 

GLAAD Media Award recipients announced Saturday in New York. Additional awards were presented in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton on April 2.

 

Excellence in Media Award: Robert De Niro (presented by Jennifer Lawrence)

 

Ally Award: Mariah Carey (presented by Lee Daniels)

 

· Outstanding TV Journalism – Newsmagazine: “Bruce Jenner: The Interview" 20/20 (ABC) [accepted by: Diane Sawyer, Caitlyn Jenner, and David Sloan, senior executive producer]

 

· Outstanding TV Journalism Segment: "Interview with Jim Obergefell" Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN) [accepted by: U.S. Supreme Court plaintiff Jim Obergefell]

 

· Outstanding Magazine Overall Coverage: Cosmopolitan [accepted by: Laura Brounstein, special projects director]

 

· Outstanding Film – Limited Release: Tangerine (Magnolia Pictures)

 

· Outstanding Individual Episode: "The Prince of Nucleotides" Royal Pains (USA Network)

 

· Outstanding Digital Journalism – Multimedia: "Stopping HIV? The Truvada Revolution" Vice Reports (Vice.com)

 

· Outstanding Newspaper Article: "Cold Case: The Murders of Cosby and Jackson" by Dianna Wray (Houston Press)

 

· Outstanding Magazine Article: "Behind Brazil's Gay Pride Parades, a Struggle with Homophobic Violence" by Oscar Lopez (Newsweek)

 

· Outstanding Digital Journalism Article: "This Is What It’s Like To Be An LGBT Syrian Fleeing For Your Life" by J. Lester Feder (Buzzfeed.com)

 

SPANISH-LANGUAGE NOMINEES

· Outstanding Daytime Program Episode: "¿El marido de mi padre o yo?" Caso Cerrado (Telemundo)

 

· Outstanding TV Journalism – Newsmagazine: TIE: "Amor que rompe barreras" Un Nuevo Día (Telemundo) and "En cuerpo ajeno" Aquí y Ahora (Univision)

 

· Outstanding TV Journalism Segment: "Víctimas de abusos" Noticiero Univision (Univision)

 

· Outstanding Digital Journalism – Multimedia: "Campeones de la igualdad" (Univision.com)

   

GLAAD (formerly the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) is a U.S. non-governmental media monitoring organization founded by LGBT people in the media.

 

Motto - to promote understanding, increase acceptance, and advance equality.

 

Founded - 1985

 

Founder

Vito Russo

Jewelle Gomez

Lauren Hinds

 

GLAAD 2016 President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis

 

GLAAD

104 W 29th St #4,

New York, NY 10001

USA

(212) 629-3322

 

Waldorf Astoria Hotel

301 Park Ave,

New York, NY 10022

USA

(212) 355-3000

  

Hashtag metadata tag

#GMA @glaad ‪#‎glaadawards #GLAAD #GLAADMediaAwards #GLAADMedia #GLAADAwards #LGBT #GLBT #LGBTQ #GLBTQ #Lesbian #gay #gays #gaymen #gaywomen #bi #Bisexual #Trans #Transman #TransWoman #Transidentity #Transgender #Gender #GenderFluid #GenderIdentity #Queer #Media #TV #Television #Press #WaldorfAstoria #WaldorfAstoriaHotel #NY #NYC #NYS #NewYork #NewYorkCity #NewYorkState #USA #Equality #Pride #celebrity #fashion #famous #style #RedCarpet #RedCarpetEvent

  

Photo

New York City, Manhattan Island, New York State, USA The United States of America country, North America continent

May 14th 2016‬

Copyright © 2022

 

by Ustaz Wadi Annuar · Property of MediaUWA.

 

It is allowed to use this media material for the use of posters (digital & printing) on the condition that it is NOT INTENDED FOR CRITICISM / DEFAMATION.

 

.....................................................................

 

Hak Cipta Terpelihara © 2022

 

oleh Ustaz Wadi Annuar · Hak milik MediaUWA.

 

Dibenarkan menggunakan bahan media ini untuk penggunaan poster (digital & printing) dengan syarat BUKAN BERTUJUAN UNTUK KRITIKAN / FITNAH.

THE WINTER NOTEBOOKS, Pages 5 & 6

 

Diptych: 96" x 97"

Wood panels, gesso, modeling paste, acrylic, colored pencils

 

The hand written words on the panel behind the figure are transcribed below

 

Top right:

 

"The Dialogues of the True Cross, begun in 52 A.H., has been absorbed into Studio Section 97-02. This trilogy, with pages one through six of the Winter Notebooks, is the first actualization of the F.A.M. experiment. This five year segment will exist as a single work where-in the Process of Making replaces the making of product. Philosophically, an alternative to the decadent and currupt market metaphor for Art now exists. For me, whether this alternate metaphor is acculturated is of very little interest or concern. Our culture has been presented a choice: to continue the production of artifacts for the making of money or the making of Art."

 

Bottom right:

 

"In order to understand Procrustes, have I become him? A different head-dress, perhaps, but still procrustean in my approach to travelers en-route to destinations other than my Inn. Do I seek to seduce and destroy? Do I hate and respect my enemies while dismissing those who acknowledge me...those already my guests? Perhaps it has always been so. Perhaps I sought out the monster, Procrustes, to externalize and examine deficits within myself. The myth is so powerful, so usable, so revelatory, perhaps only self-recognition could paint him in the Now. Is this true of all myths and metaphors, I wonder? Are they created out of need for self-understanding and re-created over and over again depending on individuals and their circumstances as they are illuminated within the eternal Now? Do we assume the faces of heroes and demons as the light touches us and the drama proceeds in circuitry? Are we called upon to reveal our faces as the light touches us and recite the ancient lines to force the passage of time? Perhaps only the light moves creating a space between the birth and death of monsters. I will not mask my face nor shade it from the light. Be it monster or hero, I will play my part. If or when the light touches me, I will be there. Whether as traveler or as guest, Theseus or Procrustes, I cannot, I will not shun the light."

 

Left:

 

"What does it serve to escape the beds of Procustes? To live out ones life in his Inn within the comforting walls of majority, is this not happiness? To grow old surrounded by flatulence and bad jokes, is this not contentment? To not see oneself reflected in the eyes of children yet presume it must be so, is this not valid self-deception? To be father or mother in league with multitudes of fathers and mothers to produce legions of sons and daughters to occupy the procrustean beds, is this not destiny? The way it is is the way we are. If you choose to be other, to avoid the beds of Procrustes, you choose exile, alienation, and defamation. You will be hounded into the desert of contradiction—and beyond.... Fare-well, Procrustes. Your Inn is full. Your beds are never empty. You have no need of me. I know who you are and what you are. Not a giant, but a Janus of human Isness. Without you, there would be no us and without you there is no me. Those of us who escape your beds simply reshape them to a new conformity. In order to escape you, we become you. And so it has always been. And so it will always be. Does this offend you?"

 

Bottom center:

 

"As this Studio Section comes to completion, I am faced with the possibility of freedom. Has this studio, now windowless in aged walls, been my Inn of Procrustes? Have I placed my life upon its beds and sliced and stretched myself into oblivion? I sense I do not exist. Would it be possible, I wonder, to leave this place and wander these pages without the constraints of memory? Have I not flayed myself enough? I want not only to look at flowers but to see them...to have the sun touch my skin and remember youth without guilt or regret. Finally, have I not exhausted all that I was so that I can be without excuse or defense? There are so few years remaining. Finally can I leave this place and simply say, “I am”? My mind is scorched; my body publicly branded. Who would condemn me for ending this obsession...for simply closing the door of my studio and saying, “Enough!”...And what would it matter? I do not exist. At least I have escaped history."

 

Collection:

Crocker Art Museum

Sacramento, California

The Dallas County DA’s office welcomed Roberta Clark of the Anti-Defamation League to the office for a training on “Why Diversity Matters.” Nearly 300 prosecutors and investigators attended the training.

Unfortunately, the publicist for Reaper's Missy Peregrym forbade us from photographing her client, so we were forced to disguise ourselves as a fern in order to capture this rare image of the in-demand actress.

Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini (B.F.F. Edit.), Firenze, no. 42020. Photo: Voselli / E.N.I.C.

 

Italian heartthrob Amedeo Nazzari (1907-1979) was the athletic, fearless hero and impeccable gentleman of dozens of popular films during the late 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Because of his reckless, adventure-seeking film characters he was compared to Errol Flynn. After the war he made a come-back opposite Yvonne Sanson in a series of popular crime-melodramas, directed by Raffaello Matarazzo. And he showed an admirable sense of irony in his portrayal of a film star in decline in Fellini’s Le notti di Cabiria (1957).

 

Amedeo Nazzari was born as Salvatore Amedeo Buffa in Cagliari on Sardinia in 1907. His father Salvatore was a factory owner and his mother was the daughter of Argenide "true" Amedeo Nazzari, former President of the Court of Appeal of Vicenza. His father died when Amedeo was six and his mother moved with him and his sisters to Rome. There he appeared in school plays. Later he abandoned his engineering studies for a career in the theatre. He made his professional debut at the company of Dillo Lombardi in 1927. In later years he worked for major companies like those of Annibale Ninchi, Memo Benassi and Marta Abba. In 1935 he was noticed by Elsa Merlini, who offered him a part in her next film. The film, Ginevra degli Almieri (1936), was not a success, and Nazzari returned to the theater. Once again an actress noticed him: the young Anna Magnani, who insisted that her husband, director Goffredo Alessandrini, gave a part in his new film Cavalleria (1936) to Amedeo. His athletic figure and fascinating presence became the main attraction of the film, which was presented at the Venezia alla Mostra del Cinema (the Venice Film Festival) and then became one of the greatest box office hits in the Italian cinemas of that year. Another film role in uniform, in Luciano Serra, pilota/Luciano Serra pilot (1938, Goffredo Alessandrini), gave him his second popular success. Although the film was made under the Fascist regime, it is terse and not at all bogged down by rhetoric, according to F.T. at Rai Internazionale. Nazzari was now a familiar face and received many film offers. His continuing discussions with film makers about how to interpret dialogues and his suggestions to change scripts gave him the reputation of being difficult and rebellious.

 

In 1941, Amedeo Nazzari received the Volpi cup for Best Actor at at the ninth Venice Film Festival. He was awarded for his role in Caravaggio, il pittore maledetto/Caravaggio, the cursed painter (1941, Goffredo Alessandrini) opposite Clara Calamai. A huge success was the costume drama La cena delle beffe/The dinner of the practical jokes (1941, Allessandro Blasetti). This celebrated adaptation of the Sem Benelli play definitively confirmed Nazzari's status as a film star. In this historical drama he had a striking resemblance to Errol Flynn. The film created a sensation with the first topless nude scene in a mainstream Italian film. In a brief but startling scene luminous leading lady Clara Calamai's blouse is ripped off by the lusty Nazzari. On IMDb Mario Gauci writes: “the film is stylish and handsomely mounted - though its stage origins are betrayed by being mostly filmed in interiors. Still, the highly intriguing plot - with its many twists and turns (particularly towards the ironic, even Shakespearean, finale) - keeps one compelled to watch and the performances are all quite good”. After some smaller films and a difficult period after the war, Nazzari returned in grand style in the war drama Un giorno nella vita/A Day in the Life (1946, Alessandro Blasetti), the crime drama Il bandito/The Bandit (1946, Alberto Lattuada) opposite Anna Magnani, and the Alexander Pushkin adaptation La figlia del capitano/The Captain's Daughter (1946, Mario Camerini) with Vittorio Gassman. Internationally, he was also in high demand. He first went to Spain to appear in three films by Ricardo Gascón, and then moved to Argentina. When he refused to play a criminal and corrupt Italian and so to defame his country, even Evita Peron came to his defense. He returned to Italy in 1949, and appeared with Silvana Mangano in the compelling melodrama Il lupo della Sila/The Lure of the Sila (1949, Duilio Coletti), and with Greek actress Yvonne Sanson in Catene/Chains (1949, Raffaello Matarazzo). Catene was the start of a second period of film successes for Nazzari. With Sanson and director Raffaello Matarazzo he made a series of ‘strappalacrime’, crime-melodramas which were hated by the film critics but loved by the public. Among this series were also Tormento/Torment (1950), I figli di nessuno/Nobody’s Children (1951), and Torna!/Go! (1954). In Italy these films became a camp phenomenon among B-film fans in the 1970’s.

 

During the 1950’s, Amedeo Nazzari appeared also in more serious films. In Processo alla città/The City Stands Trial (1952, Luigi Zampa) he played a judge who opposes the Neapolitan Camorra, and in Proibito/Forbidden (1955, Mario Monicelli) starring Mel Ferrer, he had for the first time the opportunity to play a character in a Sardinian history of family feuds. In 1957 he gently chided his virile, romantic screen image as the self-absorbed film-star- in-decline opposite Giulietta Masina in the Oscar winning Le notti di Cabiria/Nights of Cabiria (1957, Federico Fellini). Here he cocked an eye at himself with an admirable sense of irony. Also in 1957 Nazzari married Greek-Italian actress Irene Genna, and a year later Maria Evelina Nazzari was born, who is now also a theater actress. The 1960’s began with two disappointments: the role of Prince Salina in Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (1960), which was offered to him by director Luchino Visconti went to Burt Lancaster to raise money from the American producers. Earlier his role in La tempesta/The Tempest (1958, Alberto Lattuada), a remake of his La figlia del capitano, was assigned to Van Heflin. From Hollywood came a proposal to make a film with Marilyn Monroe, but this time it was Nazzari himself who refused because of his difficulties with speaking and singing English (the film, Let's Make Love, would be made with Yves Montand). In 1968 he did obtain a part in the Romanian production Columna/The Column (1968, Mircea Dragan) with Antonella Lualdi and Franco Interlenghi. In Italy started the golden age of the Italian comedy, but except for some sporadic appearances, Nazzari refused the offers. According to Wikipedia, he explained that it was “a matter of taste and respect for himself and the public”. He only did cameo appearances in international productions like the crime dramas The Poppy Is Also a Flower (1966, Terence Young) with Senta Berger, Le clan des Siciliens/The Sicilian Clan (1969, Henri Verneuil) with Jean Gabin, and The Valachi Papers (1972, Terence Young) starring Charles Bronson. He worked more satisfyingly for television. He made a TV remake of La Figlia del capitano/The Captain's Daughter (1965, Leonardo Cortese), and appeared as a guest on such shows as Il Musichiere (The Musician), Studio Uno and Settevoci. During the 1970’s, kidney problems forced him to several hospital admissions. In 1976 he played a guest part in the German krimi series Derrick. His last film appearances were small roles in A Matter of Time/Nina (1976, Vincente Minnelli) with Ingrid Bergman, and Melodrammore (1977, Maurizio Costanzo). Amedeo Nazzari died in 1979 in a Roman hospital. During his career he won several awards. He won the Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival twice, in 1941 and 1947. He also was awarded the Special David di Donatello prize, for a life dedicated to cinema with passionate professionalism and extraordinary success. At the Italica website of Rai Internazionale author F.T. writes: “Ever faithful to his embodiments of fearless heroes and incorruptible gentleman, Nazzari was an icon of a naive, provincial Italy that was autarkic at all costs, even in its dreams: but he displayed an ability to shift from ‘Magyar’ comedy to mature roles with impeccable professionalism, the ultimate defining trait of his outstanding career.”

 

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), F.T. (Rai Internazionale), Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.

Image:Self-portrait

 

The views and opinions expressed herein for Entertainment only, and are proprietary of mavenimagery. No intent of defamation, discrimination racial, or religion of any group or certain individual (s)mentioned here.

 

Click. Click. Click

“Whaddya doin,” shouts the CHP Officer, holding a Ladar in one hand, raises his both hands in the air dramatically: his gleaming ruddy face contorts, his mouth takes a shape of a big O, looking like a Chipmunk with a banana in his hand. “Pull over!”

I do. Then, I voice at Tom. “Image process”

Done.

“Profile.”

“Average Eight among the Five Personality Types,” Tom’s mechanic voice blares. The message is clear “This is my area. Stat out.”

That territorial shit again?

“Not exactly,” Tom answers. “Pussy-Whipped at home but a man’s man outside. Worse in uniform. Becomes boastful and arrogant.”

Omitted for the upcoming full story THE 0.0 MILES

 

Why’re you taking pictures for?

I look at his name tag. Levine. “For editorial use.” I say in an extreme composure.

Which is?

Who, I say, referring to the magazine Who

“You’ll get a ticket,” Levine says in a hurried manner. “Hold on,” And goes back to the accident scene.

I look at the giant billboard on the side of the freeway which has an advertisement for “JUDGEMENT DAY MAY 21ST 2011”. Under it in italic,Humbly Plead Mercy For Your Sins For Forgiveness”How is this for distraction? Those Pious-Heads are rushing the End of Days before the previous proclamation of 2012. I wondered if driver who is now in a body bag and on his way to the first resting place St. Morgue, was busy reading and pleading mercy when drove off the road.

 

Rollback to the time when I was in school. The discussion that day was about miracles and faith, about Christ raising the dead and transforming water into wine, feeding thousands with a small amount of food.

 

Why do we moan complain that the universe is a mystery, that we found no answers?said Mr Paley scanning the room with his totally fiery eyes, his voice low and cultured, easy on the ear.

…How are we to see straight in the darkness when we reject our tool of perception—our mind—and the darkness, on a deep unconscious level, we carry with us into all our deeds? God is the creator and His creative spirit is the driving force in nature and a creative man is walking on God’s footsteps… Jesus is the Son of God, he asserted, looking at each one of us in turn, as we were all leaning forward motionless, eyes focused, then shifted on me.

Rats! Not that ‘birth of a son of God’s’ tale again.

Mr Maven, said Mr Paley, raising his head from the book in front of him, then he looked down again and then up. Perhaps you can relate. Mr Maven is new to us from Carrietwitchet. He grew up in a devout Catholic family. I am sorry about your father. He must’ve been a great man who had vision of God. What do you have to share with us?

Yeah, he is a high-ranking angel in heaven now.

Suddenly the door opened.

Barely student-looking boy walked in, wearing a cap and a leather jacket with chains hanging down his pocket.

Davy Jones! said Mr Paley in a high mocking tone, Join us. Please! Tell us why you are late. Trouble with the carburetor?

You don’t know what one is, he said in a sardonic tone.

Everyone except me uttered a derisive ‘oohs.’

Mr Paley ignored that.

So, where have you been Mr Jones?

I stopped at the bookstore. They’ve got plenty of books on sale.

So, did you buy any?

No, but…I reserved one.

What’s it about?

Murders and executions.

The same ‘oohs’ but higher.

It suits you, he said. Shouldn’t have had any trouble to reserve one, I hope, said Mr Paley sarcastically. I’m certain, it’s the only reservation made ever since it’s published.

The ‘oohs’ got higher and excited, I wanted to join in but I didn’t.

Some books ain’t for everyone, Davy said as he sat next to me.

What are you doing here? I whispered.

He turned to me and said, I like finding gaps in their knowledge.

Whose?

Pious ratfuckers, of course, he retorted. In their humorous and entertaining stories which actually had never occurred in the past, but they tell it the way they saw fit.

I just stared at him.

Sorry about the interruption, Mr Maven. Please, go on—

He don’t have to tell you his opinions and don’ have to hear your Biblical bullshit, interrupted Davy.

Excuse me, Mr Jones, Mr Paley said baffled. What was that you said?

Forget it, Davy said.

I sensed Davy’s anger.

Mr Paley’s claims about the past were coming out to an annoying degree. And what was more annoying was he thought he was offering something valuable, knowledge that no one heard before. It was all that historical scholarship’s habit that gave him confidence to master half of the art of conversation—conversation about Biblical literature. You might be thinking I was being presumptuous here, but really, let alone Davy, who could you take anyone seriously who was attempting to paraphrase old stories and legends from the Dead Past.

No, I’d like to know why wave me off and laugh it away? insisted Mr Paley.

I said forget it, you deaf or something! Davy snapped

No, tell me! He wouldn’t let it. Tell me so I can answer you—

I think I can answer Mr Paley, I put in, making an appreciable nod on Davy’s part. Since he insisted, hoping to embarrass me, hoping that I wouldn’t have something constructive to say.

But my intention wasn’t to put Mr Paley down or challenge him. I was merely unconvinced and puzzled like many others, like the three denied man Freud, Darwin and Copernicus. And I wanted to show Davy I was on his side. Besides, it was one of these impossible to ignore debates.

I mean, which Jesus are we talking about here, for rat-fuck’s sake, huh? I intoned, leaning backward, like a lyric castrati who was about to perform a highly ornamented virtuoso passages in an opera.

Everyone turned to me, wide-eyed, all ears. I looked at Davy as if pleasing to him.

A dark-skinned African Jesus, I continued. A blond-haired Finnish Jesus, an Asiatic Jesus or an American Jesus with a beard and mustache. Which Jesus? Because every society portrays and understands Him in some quite different sense. If Jesus…. did exist then he must have looked Semitic.

To Muslims Jesus is not considered the Son of God. Jesus is the Spirit of God. He was a great prophet who was beloved by God. And God is neither male nor female so I’m thinking he could not have a son. Mormons see God and Jesus as two separate beings. God the Father and His Son.

Brent scoffed in back seat. Yeah, like personal Jesus, man? It’s, like, my Jesus is better than your Jesus, nah, and nuh nah. Where have you been, man? he said loudly, amused by his own joke. Brent was sardonic, and had a certain propensity to seize upon incongruous details, always breaking in with mock innocence. He would leap to outspoken conclusions where others would wait to hear the opinions before revealing their own thoughts. Shortly, he was the Jim Carrey of the class. A real jawsmith. And I liked him for that.

Cut it off, Brent, Mr Paley snapped at him. I’m tired of your waggish wise cracks, and the next time you start in, I’m going to report you to Mr Deacon.

I was pacing, I said.

You, too, Davy

Brent ignored Mr Paley. Shit, once he set the table in a roar he’d have even ignored Mr Deacon.

Musta been in the wrong place. Man, and what’s Finnish, anyway?

I gazed around the class. All eyes were on me now, wanting to know more.

It is a country in Scandinavia, bonehead, I said. Where the sun never goes down in the summer and always dark in the winter. It’s called Finland.

Bullshit, said Brent.

They all looked from me to Brent.

There ain’t such a country where the sun never goes down. You just made it up. Hey! He cried glancing at others. Anyone heard of a such country? Anyone at all?

All shook heads in sprightly howdahs, the ignorant ratfucker yo-yo’s.

So, Mr Fin-land, said the jawsmith, a glint in his eyes, knowing he got the audience in stitches. Tell us where’d come up with a place that don’t exist, huh?

I went on ignoring chalk talker Brent.

And many see Jesus like Buddha, like Confucius as a very great teacher, a Brahma. And why the antinomy between Eastern and Western Christianity, Catholics and Orthodox, or Christianity and Islam?

Janelle’s voice was soft and voluble. She began to recite some lines from Peter Blauner.

 

‘Why God tempt us with a vision of heaven in the perfection of a child’s face and then condemn us to a lonely wretched existence?’

 

Douglas Emhoff, Second Gentleman of the United States of America, Jonathan Greenblatt, Chief Executive Officer and National Director, Anti-Defamation League, USA, Michal Herzog, First Lady of Israel,

David Rosen, Special Interfaith Adviser, Abrahamic Family House, United Arab Emirates, Moderated by Timothy Snyder, Richard C. Levin Professor of History, Yale University, USA speaking in Addressing Antisemitism at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2024 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, 18. January. Congress Centre - Ignite.

 

Copyright: World Economic Forum/Michael Calabrò

The Dallas County DA’s office welcomed Roberta Clark of the Anti-Defamation League to the office for a training on “Why Diversity Matters.” Nearly 300 prosecutors and investigators attended the training.

Sandra Lee at the GLAAD Media Awards

Proud, protective papa Terry Pilsner (actor Jonathan Schmock) wants you to know he carries the keys to his daughters' chastity belts on a chain around his neck.

Taiwan civil servants march against government 2016 九三大遊行

Taiwan civil servants and supporters clogged Taipei streets Saturday, protesting what they say is the government's defamation of public sector workers during ongoing pension reform efforts. More than 110,000 demonstrators gather on Taipei's Ketagalan Boulevard to protest pension reform.

 

由全國軍公教勞退休團體 組成的監督年金改革行動聯盟，舉行「反污名、要尊嚴」九三大遊行。下午1點分成四路從台北街頭走向總統府前凱道廣場，向執政者訴求，反對在所謂的「年金改革」過程中，放任軍公教被污名化。超過10萬人參與，下午5點多結束。5點全解散「真的是公務員」。

總統府、行政院和民進黨 定調冷處理，蔡英文總統在上午赴忠烈詞致敬後，便到台中東勢區石圍牆酒莊參訪，但被問及有關下午軍公教大遊行的部分，蔡回答「我們走我們自己的」。

 

National Civil Servant Association Director Lee Lai-hsi (李來希) said more than 120,000 people took part in the protest, while the police put the number slightly lower at 117,000.

 

Taipei, Taiwan

2016/9/3

f86616L

Is there a move to make Venezuela part of the Tamil separatist network in Latin America? A Interview with Ms. Tamara Kunanayakam, Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Cuba

 

1. You are Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Cuba. What brought you to Caracas?

 

Our attention was drawn to the active presence in Caracas of a delegation representing Canadian HART meeting Government authorities making false, fabricated and defamatory accusations against the Government of Sri Lanka, alleging that there was a ‘genocide’ against the Tamil community in Sri Lanka and ‘concentration camps.'

    

They were trying to persuade the Venezuelan Government to give refuge to members of the Tamil community who they claimed were held incommunicado in Indonesia after their ship was allegedly intercepted on its way to Australia.

 

It baffles me why an organisation in Canada, an immigration country with some 250,000 Tamil residents, should ask Venezuela – a Spanish speaking country – to give refuge to persons who are in the other end of the world - Indonesia and who want to go to Australia!

 

I can only surmise that this was only a pretext, the real objective being to lure Venezuela into providing symbolic recognition to the pseudo Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) that had just held its inaugural Congress in Philadelphia, its goal being to establish a separate State in Sri Lanka. They were also hoping to obtain Venezuela’s help to organise a network in Latin America to promote their separatist cause.

 

2. Who is behind Canadian HART?

 

Canadian HART was launched in 2008 by LTTE front organisations, the Tamil Youth Organisation of Canada (TYO – Canada), the Canadian Tamil Congress and Tamil Women’s Organisation. The LTTE’s Tiger flag boldly flutters on the home page of the TYO-Canada website, despite the LTTE being banned as a terrorist organisation. The TYO and the Canadian Tamil Congress are also listed as supporters of the Canadian HART operated website www.tamilidpcrisis.org

 

The Canadian Tamil Congress is one of the most influential founders of the recently formed Global Tamil Forum (GTF), which was created by ex- LTTE International Chief Selvarasa Pathmanathan alias KP by bringing together 15 existing LTTE front organizations from different Western countries with the goal of establishing a separate State in Sri Lanka. KP is one of the two architects of TGTE.

 

In January this year, Canadian HART Media Team Coordinator Jessica Chandrashekar accompanied Saradha Nathan, a member of another LTTE front organisation, the Australian Tamil Congress, to Indonesia to visit the so-called asylum-seekers detained in Indonesia. The Australian Tamil Congress is also founder of the pro-LTTE pro-separatist Global Tamil Forum.

 

Canadian HART Jessica Chandrashekar was apprehended trying to smuggle laptops and other documents to those on board. Both she and Saradha Nathan were taken into questioning in Indonesia on suspicion of human trafficking. It is reported that a high-profile LTTE leader who had been deported from Toronto and several other identified LTTE members were on board the vessel.

 

These organisations and their campaign of defamation have the support of certain major powers, their institutions and NGOs such as the International Crisis Group, Human Rights Watch, Reporters without Borders, Amnesty International, The Real News Network of Sharmini Peries, and individuals such as Ron Ridenour and Patrick O’Donoghue.

 

3. You are part of the Tamil community yourself. What do you have to say about the allegations of genocide by Canadian HART?

 

Such allegations are ridiculous, a caricature and dangerous. Yes, I belong to the Tamil community and I’m proud to be Sri Lankan!

 

Cries of genocide were heard only during the last phase of the war and only when the military defeat of the LTTE became possible and to justify external intervention to rescue its leaders.

 

If one takes a closer look at the definition of ‘genocide’ in the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, you will have a hard time finding evidence that there was intent on the part of the Government of Sri Lanka “to destroy, in whole or in part” the Tamil community.

The Tamil community represents about 18% of a total Sri Lankan population of about 21 million. Although there is a large concentration of the community in the North, the majority live outside alongside other Sri Lankan communities, Sinhala, Muslim, Moor, Malay and Burghers. If there was genocide, would the communities be living peacefully alongside each other? Since time immemorial, mixed marriages have been common. This is true in my own family.

 

You will find political parties emanating from the Tamil community in Government. Others emanating from the same community have elected representatives in parliament. Even the pro-LTTE political Party TNA has entered the democratic process and participated in recent elections. Members of the community are at senior levels of Government, in the judiciary and law enforcement agencies, in the various professions, in Universities, in the press, in business – in every walk of life! Sri Lanka’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lakshman Kadirgamar was from the community. He was assassinated by the LTTE. After the Eastern Province was liberated by Government forces with the aid of a breakaway LTTE faction, provincial elections were held and a former LTTE child-soldier was appointed by the President as Chief Minister of that province. An ex-LTTE Commander was appointed as Minister of National Integration.

 

Government forces were engaged not against the Tamil community, but against a terrorist organisation that fought a relentless and ruthless war for separation. They were engaging LTTE suicide squads, the Black Tigers, trained in suicide operations, unprecedented in history. The Black Tigers were involved in the assassination of former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa.

 

Let’s recall that right from the beginning of his mandate and practically until the end of the war in May 2009, President Mahinda Rajapaksa continued to call for discussions, even face to face, with the LTTE leader Prabakharan, who didn’t even respond.

 

Throughout the war, the Sri Lankan Government continued to transport – physically – salaries of pubic servants to LTTE-controlled areas so that Tamil community was not deprived of essential services.

 

The Eastern Province was liberated in 2007 by the Sri Lankan armed forces fighting alongside other groups emanating from the Tamil community, including an important faction that split from the LTTE, Within 6 months the Government had resettled 220,000 IDPs from that Province. In fact, some NGOs and governments protested that it was too fast!

 

The more recent IDPs numbering some 300,000 members are those who fled for safety from LTTE-controlled areas to Government cleared areas in May 2009. They had been forced to follow the trail of a retreating LTTE across jungles for use as human shields. Many had been corralled out of the Jaffna peninsula at gunpoint by the LTTE, as early as 1995, during the first big enforced exodus.

 

In the last stages of the war when the LTTE was cornered, it is well known that civilians were prevented from moving out of the line of fire or escaping to government-controlled areas. In an attempt to prevent them escaping, the LTTE fired at the fleeing civilians, launched grenade and mortar attacks, and sent suicide bombers to explode in their midst.

 

4. But, what about allegations of concentration camps?

 

There are NO concentration camps in Sri Lanka!

 

To accommodate this unprecedented surge of fleeing hostages, the Government rapidly set up welfare villages with UN assistance. In the welfare villages, not a single person starved even for a day! Not a single outbreak of disease! Not a single death by unnatural causes reported! Efforts were made to provide education facilities for children. In November 2009, 19,364 boys and 19,644 girls were attending classes within the Welfare Village. An important programme of rehabilitation of former child soldiers and ex-combatants was conducted. From May 2009, mortality rates had dropped to an average of 2 to 3 per day giving an annual crude mortality rate of 4,4 per 1000 persons in Vavuniya, which had the largest number of IDP villages. This is compatible with mortality rates in any other part of the country.

 

The resettlement process conducted in cooperation with UNHCR according to International standards has been rapid, despite the over 1.5 million landmines and UXOs that have had to be cleared to guarantee the safety of returnees. Today, more than 80% of the IDPs have returned to their homes or are with host families. The 20% remaining in welfare villages have been cleared to leave at any time.

 

More than 68 UN agencies, INGOs and NGOs have access to the villages and assist in the resettlement process. More than 173 media personnel have visited the area since 2009 and can testify.

 

So far, out of 11,000 IDPs identified as LTTE combatants, over 2000 have been released after completing a rehabilitation programme. These include 847 females, 253 children and 55 university students. At present, there are 148 University students, including 51 females, under rehabilitation.

 

Canadian HART and foreign supporters of separatism such as Ron Ridenour conveniently forget the collective forcible eviction of the Muslim population by the LTTE from the North and North-West of the country in October 1990. They were given only 24 hours to take a few personal items. It is only now, 20 years after their expulsion that my Government has been able to even begin resettling the over 60,000 Muslims still displaced.

 

At that time and ever since, nobody called this barbarous act ‘genocide’ or ‘ethnic cleansing’!

 

5. Does the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) and the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) represent the Tamil Diaspora and the entire Tamil community?

 

No, they don’t!

 

The GTF and the TGTE claim that they represent the ‘Tamil Diaspora,’ which is then rehashed by individuals like Ron Ridenour, to justify claims of genocide and hence the need for a separate State.

 

Both organisations were formed by international leaders of the earlier LTTE and are composed of LTTE front organisations and their supporters in various Western countries. What they have in common is their LTTE origins and the demand for a separate State. Having lost territory and control over the Tamil community in Sri Lanka, claims of genocide has become a facile argument to justify foreign intervention to help create a separate State.

 

The TGTE is a re-branded manifestation of the LTTE overseas structure. Its co-architects are Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, former international legal advisor of the LTTE and New York based Lawyer, and Selvarasa Pathmanathan alias KP, previously International Chief in charge of international LTTE branch administration, global fund raising and arms acquisition. The TGTE is unambiguously clear about its ultimate goal being creation of a separate State. At its inaugural Congress in Philadelphia, the LTTE flag was openly flaunted alongside the US flag, despite it being a banned terrorist organization, and Rudrakumaran was elected as Interim Chief Executive of TGTE. As I mentioned earlier, the GTF too is an entity formed by bringing together several LTTE front organisations in the West.

 

These organisations are unrepresentative, but project themselves as the ‘sole representatives of the Tamil people.’ Their leaders belong to a financially powerful and influential class of educated professionals and businesspeople residing in the West and benefiting from external political and financial backing.

 

Let us recall the brutal war the LTTE waged against other groups issuing from the Tamil community, assassinating intellectuals, politicians and activists to establish itself as the ‘sole representative.’ At the same time, its representatives moved into gain a stranglehold over the Tamil community in the west – including through intimidation, assault, and threats to families in Sri Lanka. Paris and Toronto were prime examples of the phenomenon, where unquestioning compliance was demanded and wrought.

 

The TGTE too has made clear that it will not take into account decisions of the so-called “Tamil leadership” inside Sri Lanka unless they accept its separatist agenda.

 

No, the Tamil community is not a homogenous group!

 

Our perceptions of who we are and the choices we make depend essentially on our historical origins, our economic and social status, geographic location, and cultural background. For instance, the demand of almost 1 million workers belonging to the Tamil community brought as indentured labour by the British from India was to obtain Sri Lankan nationality. The LTTE showed no concern whatsoever for the fate of this working class.

 

Within Sri Lanka, even in regions such as the East and the northern Jaffna peninsula, which separatists claim as their territory, there is no popular support for the separatist cause.

 

As for INGOs and their backers and individuals who tow the LTTE/TGTE line, genocide is only a pretext for achieving a hidden agenda. Perhaps we are seeing a new model for external intervention in the making, creation of a dangerous precedent. First, encourage groups without territory or control over the population to establish ‘Transnational Governments.’ Then, facilitate a campaign of defamation to justify intervention by a nebulous ‘international community’ to exercise the so-called ‘Responsibility to Protect’.’ Of course, all this has nothing to do with the principles of the UN Charter or human rights!

 

My question to you is, would you like to see this happening in Latin America where regional integration, the dream of Bolivar, is on the agenda?

 

6. In Latin America we have little information about Sri Lanka. Was there a popular insurrection in your country?

 

Insurrection implies an organised rebellion aimed at overthrowing the Government in place. The goal of the LTTE was not to overthrow the Government but to establish a separate State of Tamil Eelam under its totalitarian control. That is why they projected the Sinhalese people as the enemy.

 

The LTTE was NOT a liberation movement. It never had an economic or social programme nor did it concern itself with development of the areas it controlled or in improving the well-being of the Tamil community. The only institutions they set up were institutions of coercion – police stations, tribunals, prisons. They had airplanes, a fleet of tankers, and even submarines.

 

It was a terror organisation terrorising even members of the community they claimed to represent. Theirs was an anti-civilian approach! Child soldiers were forcibly recruited for their notorious baby-brigades and forewarned that their families would be wiped out if they surrender. They invented the suicide belt and pioneered the use of women in suicide attacks. Their soldiers wore cyanide vials for consumption upon capture.They practiced extortion. They were known within the Tamil community as the “Eelam Enterprise” for their involvement in human, arms and drug trafficking and sea piracy.

 

Tens of thousands of civilians from the community who did not subscribe to their separatist goal were physically eliminated, including leaders of progressive political groups and their cadres, politicians and intellectuals. In one day alone, they killed 175 leaders of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation. Then they machine-gunned the entire Central Committee of the left-wing EPRLF – the Eelam Peoples´ Revolutionary Liberation Front.

 

It shocks me to hear comparisons being made between the LTTE and genuine liberation movements in Latin America and the Middle East.

 

Is it ethical to brand an entire community – the Sinhalese in this case – as enemy? Is it moral to target innocent civilians and workers in pubic places, transit hubs, buses, trains, marketplaces, temples, banks, office buildings, etc.

 

Ron Ridenour’s presentation of Rudrakumaran, top LTTE and TGTE leader and associate of the mafiosi KP, as a moral reference is an insult to the intelligence of people, particularly of the Tamil community itself!

 

7. How do you see your country going forward?

 

A new historical period is opening up for our country with a strong potential for development. Sri Lanka is the 2nd fastest growing economy in Asia, second only to China, and the 8th fastest growing economy in the world. According to the UNDP, Sri Lanka is one of the countries of the world on the threshold of achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

 

With the elimination of an autocratic group, democratic space has been opened. A large number of important emergency laws and regulations have been relaxed and a Commission on Lessons Learned and Reconciliation established. Soon, Northern Provincial Council elections will be held and members of the Tamil community in the North will be able to choose their own Chief Minister and administration. We are also engaging in a comprehensive dialogue with all political parties to stabilise the democratic administration.

 

We are building a strong national industry and agriculture to reduce import dependence and to achieve greater self-reliance, food and energy security. Every effort is being made to harness and further develop the country’s natural wealth and resources.

 

A massive development programme is underway in the recently liberated Northern and Eastern provinces with a total budget of US$ 4,3 billion for the period 2007 to 2012. In addition, from 2010 onwards, the Government will allocate some US$ 1 billion each year – for 3 years – for the North and East for reconstruction and rehabilitation.

 

With an average GDP growth of 6% or above between 2005 to 2008, our target is to achieve an average economic GDP growth of 8% after 2010 and to double GDP per capita to US$4,000 by 2016. Our priority is to ensure that growth is spread more evenly.

 

The almost 30-year old conflict ended and Sri Lanka has the potential to develop into a naval, aviation, commercial, energy and knowledge hub, serving as a key link between the East and West. As one of the fastest growing economies and a feeder to rapidly growing China and India, Sri Lanka can become a regional centre and major gateway to India.

 

8. How do you see the relations between Sri Lanka and Venezuela?

 

Our Governments have excellent relations based on the principles of mutual respect, solidarity and reciprocity, and the relations between President Hugo Chavez and President Mahinda Rajapaksa have always been warm and friendly.

 

Sri Lanka and Venezuela are both firmly committed to the defence of State sovereignty, national independence, territorial integrity and non-interference, and to the pursuance of an independent, free and non-aligned foreign policy. Strengthening the national economy for the benefit of people, improving social well-being, achieving food and energy security, protection and preservation of the environment are common concerns. We are also firmly committed to a strong multilateral system and vibrant South-South cooperation.

 

During my cordial meeting with the Minister of External Relations, Mr.Nicolas Maduro, we reaffirmed the continuing solidity of the friendly relations between our two countries and the need to strengthen our cooperation in areas of mutual interest. My Government will exert every effort to do so at the bilateral as well as multilateral levels – at the United Nations, within the Non-Aligned Movement and the G.-15, which is chaired by Sri Lanka.

 

(This is an English translation of Ambassador Gunanayagam’s Interview to the Venezeula newspaper “Correo del Orinoco”)

Ο Αντιπρόεδρος της Κυβέρνησης και Υπουργός Εξωτερικών, Ευάγγελος Βενιζέλος, συναντήθηκε την Τετάρτη 19 Νοεμβρίου, στο Υπουργείο Εξωτερικών, με το προεδρείο της Αμερικανοεβραϊκής οργάνωσης, Anti Defamation League.

The Chabad House in Towson at 14 Aigburth Road (File photo). Chabad filed a federal lawsuit Dec. 20, 2018, after a Baltimore County court ordered the recently-completed Chabad House expansion razed, citing defamation and religious discrimination by the county.

 

Credit: Mendel Katz

 

This photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations for use in reporting on the events captured in the photo. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used out of context or in commercial, political materials, advertisements, emails, products, or promotions.

This group of boys are orphaned Akha Hill Tribes children living in the House of Joy Orphanage in Chang Rai, Thailand

View On Black

 

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All rights reserved: Jeff Speigner

Please ask permission before using any of my photographs.

 

I am happy to lend my images to support most non-commercial purposes such as school projects, charity work, private viewings, etc. and will generally grant permission free of charge. But I really appreciate being asked first.

 

If you want to use any images as a base for a private non-commercial artwork, I will usually grant permission as long as it is legal and doesn't defame anyone. I’d appreciate seeing the final product.

 

For any commercial use involving either direct use or derivative works I will charge a fair competitive rate. I can then supply a high resolution finished image sized to fit your needs.

 

Contact me through FlickrMail or via my website www.jeffspeigner.com.

 

Thanks, Jeff

2019 Dr. Marcia Robbins Wilf Lecture on November 3, 2019 addresses "Can Interreligious Dialogue Save the Planet" with guest speaker Rabbi David Fox Sandmel, Ph.D., Director of Interreligious Engagement, Anti-Defamation League.

Mark Updegrove

 

As part of Stephen Mills’ Light / The Holocaust & Humanity Project, Ballet Austin hosted a panel discussion on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, at the LBJ Presidential Library.

 

National leaders including Oren Segal, vice president of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, Oni Blair, executive director of ACLU Texas, and award-winning choreographer Stephen Mills, Ballet Austin’s Sarah & Ernest Butler Family Fund Artistic Director and creator of Light / The Holocaust & Humanity Project, discussed antisemitism and the role of disinformation and propaganda in dividing communities. Mark Updegrove, president and CEO of the LBJ Foundation, moderated the discussion.

 

LBJ Library photo by Jay Godwin

03/08/23

====The Moth-Cave====

 

Drury- You guys made it here alright?

 

Len- Well, we had a small run-in with a couple of tanks. A few scrapes and bruises but we're fine otherwise. What's the plan?

 

Drury- Well, first off, we need a distraction. Even if we take down all the supervillains, The Arkham Moth has his own army. So, if we can draw his tanks away from the Belfry, where the Cloudburst is being held, it will be so much easier for a second team to infiltrate the Belfry. Robin, don't "*TT*," that's what I need you for, you've dealt with those tanks before and you know how to stop 'em. Batman tells me that there's an entrance underground, which runs through the old sewer system, because of course it does. There's an elevator down there that can take us to directly to the Cloudburst, and presumably Scarecrow. Krill, Jules, I left Genius in Metropolis, knowing how much the Society hates loose ends, they'll want to finish the job. Better bring him back here. Len, see if you can get in touch with ARGUS, we could do with a plane or two

 

Simon- But what about the rest of the Society? Won't they fight back?

 

Batman- My research suggests that the Society is splintered. Most of its forces have turned against Luthor for some reason or another and Scarecrow is one of them.

 

Drury- He'll have promised his men Gotham, so long as they protect the Cloudburst. That means they'll be all the more dangerous. ... They also have hostages, including the Outsiders and... and my kids. They're in Joker's clutches. How long he's been working with the Society is unclear. I'm guessing that he simply woke up one morning and decided to join them.

So, to summarise-

1. One group has to move the Arkham Moth's forces away from the Belfry

2. A second group, the Misfits, ought to retrieve Getaway Genius from Metropolis, protecting him from the Society's spies and taking him here.

3. The third and final group, the rest of us, have to infiltrate the Belfry through the underground entrance

4. This group has a series of sub objectives that includes; rescuing the hostages, regaining control of the Belfry, reactivating the Cloudburst to distribute an antidote to the fear toxin and kicking Scarecrow, Cobb, Joker and the Arkham Moth's respective asses! *Ahem* Any questions?

 

Len- Yeah, how long will it be until we move out?

Drury- As soon as the antidote is ready.

 

Krill- You mean you haven't even-?

 

Drury- It's close. Klaus still needs a few ingredients.

 

Floyd- It's a warzone, we can't just walk into a pharmacy...

 

Klaus- It's only a few things, a sample of the virus bonded to a human body.

 

Floyd- Well, that's easy then. We can just drag someone in from out the streets...

 

Klaus- You're welcome to try that but I doubt they'd come quietly.

 

...

 

Batman- I'll do it.

Floyd- Drag someone out from off the streets? Huh, TIL Batman's into that stuff.

 

Batman- No. I can give you a blood sample. My blood.

 

Blaze- Anyone else want to admit they're seeing things? How about you young man? In the front row?

 

Drury- Then, we're good. We've got everything to make the antidote, we've got some real heavy hitters and a map of the Belfry. We might actually have a chance

 

Klaus- Not quite. You didn't let me finish. We also need- a Miagani leaf.

 

Miranda- A what-?

 

Klaus- A leaf. The only problem is it's not native to Gotham. Or this continent.

 

Batman- Then there's only one person who can help us now.

 

Miranda- Oh great...

Floyd- Lemme guess, Poison Ivy?

 

Miranda- Oh *great*!

 

*The group throw puzzled glances at each other*

 

Drury- Yeah... She's not a fan

.

Batman- Grudges or not, we need her help. And she *will* help us.

------------------

Ivy- No. I won't.

 

*Arkham Asylum- The current residence of one Pamela Lillian Isley*

 

Miranda- Ok, we tried. Bye!

 

Drury- Sweetie! She doesn't mean that.

 

Ivy- I believe she does. The girl always knew how to blow things out of proportion.

 

Miranda- I didn't blow anything out of proportion, I want that known!

 

Ivy- See?

 

Miranda- She defamed me! She defamed me!

 

Drury- You *could* apologise.

 

Ivy- No, no, I don't think so. I've hardly the time to apologise to... humans.

 

Lester- *ahem*, hate to state the obvious, but you are human.

 

...

 

Ivy- Well, I'm certainly not helping you now.

Batman- We don't have time for this.

 

Ivy- Exactly. You know the door.

 

Drury- Just one leaf! One leaf is all I'm asking!

Ivy- You want me to mutilate one of my plants, my babies to save you fleshy sacks?

 

Batman- And what about Harley?

 

...

 

Ivy- She's in Gotham?

 

Batman- The Suicide Squad has been disbanded by the Society, I thought you'd-

 

Ivy- My connection to the Green has been diminished. I didn't know...

 

*Batman opens the cell door*

 

Batman- We're running out of time Ivy. Please.

 

*Surprised, Drury turns to Batman. He never took him for someone with manners, admittedly most of their interactions ended with him dangling from a lamppost. Ivy steps out of her cell, taking a breath of decidedly not-fresh air*

 

Ivy- Once again you humans prove your capacity for evil.

 

*She approaches an empty flowerpot and through simply blowing it a kiss, a little plant starts to grow. Ivy takes a leaf, twitching as she plucks it off*

 

Ivy- Happy?

Batman- Thank you. We're done here.

 

===The Belfry, some time later===

 

AM- So. What do you make of it?

 

Hush- Well. It appears to be a face

 

AM- Yes, I know it's a face! But who's?!

 

Hush- Hmm. Not a clue. I look at this discarded, rotted face and I see one thing- failure.

 

AM- How dare you!

 

Hush- It's not a difficult assumption to make. Someone successful wouldn't have allowed their face to be cut off. Trust me, I know these things.

 

AM- Then, it's real?

 

Hush- Of course it's real, it's a real face. Honestly, I'm insulted you even brought me down here.

 

AM- It's real...

Sportsmaster- Elliot. *To Arkham Moth* Cobb wants you.

 

AM- Tell him not now.

 

Sportsmaster- Will do.

 

*he wanders off then comes back in*

 

Sportsmaster- He says it's urgent.

 

AM- Tell him what I'm doing is urgent!

 

*Exits then re-enters*

 

Sportsmaster- He says go fuck yourself. Just look, we got a transmission, from one of our agents. Spotted Getaway Genius in Metropolis, had a bit of a brawl with Walker.

 

AM- So?

 

Sportsmaster- So, Cobb wants you, and yes, you specifically, to sort him out. Says you need to prove your worth.

 

AM- I gave him tanks!

 

Sportsmaster- Yeah yeah, don't shoot the messenger. Just remember who pays the bills.

 

AM- ... I'm leaving. When I get back, I want you to have found Alchemy for me.

 

Sportsmaster- What am I? Some fucking errand boy?

In those days when our hearts were true

Nothing could change that strange debut

Our dreams were steadfast, it’s what we knew

The future was clear it would see us through

In those days when our hearts were true

 

Time and tide played a changing game

We were unable to take the blame

In those long days when we lost our aim

The spinning reel of time that overcame

Then there was that day of defame

 

It was all untrue, that much we knew

But some took a long and different view

Much was said and taken to accrue

Against our way, our loss then grew

In those days when our hearts were blue

 

The break then came, the fracture made

The split that placed us in the shade

Our fright was such and truth mislaid

Nothing could reach such a tirade

As strangers then, we were unmade

 

No longer then with hearts of truth

Abandoned there without our youth

The day was dark and I moved south

And I was marked then as a sleuth

Those days when our hearts were loose

 

Poem/Lyric Richard Walker 09/10/ 2012

 

Image "Still Waters" by Chris Walker

Firing A Pilot For Raising Safety Concerns? Ryanair Should Know Better.

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Very little makes me cringe more, as a long-time accident investigator and safety advocate, than hearing that a senior airline pilot was fired by his company for raising safety concerns. Not only fired, but media reports indicate that Ryanair is planning to sue him for defaming the company by raising these concerns on TV. Nothing could have a more chilling effect on employees raising safety concerns than seeing one of their own both get fired and sued.

 

Let me say right off the bat, that I don’t know if the pilot’s safety claims are true or not. But in my experience – and I have been in the aviation safety business for more than forty years, with the NTSB, as an independent safety auditor and as a union safety official – it is the very rare airline employee that raises intentionally false claims of safety problems to get back at his employer. My experience is that if an aviation employee raises a concern, there’s usually something to it. Occasionally, their concerns prove to be unfounded or the problem is not as significant as the employee might believe, but almost never do they spring from pure malice or an intent to harm the company.

 

I was shocked to read the vehemence with which Ryanair apparently reacted to this pilot’s concerns. Particularly surprising because Europeans have been in the forefront of establishing non-punitive systems for addressing safety concerns. We have known for many years now that one of the most critical ways to assure safety in the aviation system is to tap into the information held by frontline aviation workers. And you can’t get much more frontline than pilots – who are likely to have information that no one else in the company has. In order to get that information, they have to be able to bring it forward and have it addressed without fear of punitive actions. Firing employees for raising safety issues raises concerns about a company’s commitment to a proactive safety culture.

 

While no one wants to hear their company disparaged on national TV, the better reaction from a safety perspective might be for Ryanair to simply respond with the technical data to disprove the pilot’s claims, if it has that data, rather than sending such a chilling message to its employees.

Artist Sam Wooley Jr. in front of his Phoebe Cates' rendition. He poses with his family.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is asking Americans to wear purple on Oct. 20 to show their efforts to support the end of anti-gay bullying. I wore my purple in support of Spirit Day, did you?

 

For more information on Spirit Day, visit the GLAAD website: www.glaad.org/spiritday