Name:

CORPUS BACCALAUREATSelected documents:

THE IDEA OF PROGRESS:- Slow Progress for Fast Food workers- Food companies targeting kids online- Germany to close all nuclear power plants- Oprah Winfrey most powerful woman- Obama praises Mandela as an inspiration- Tanzania sees malice in Darwin’s Nightmare- The Humming Bird Story, Wangari Maathai

PLACES AND EXCHANGES:- Food companies targeting kids online- Facebook ‘selfies’ can harm relationships- ‘Unless you’re Native American, you came from somewhere else’- Tanzania sees malice in Darwin’s Nightmare- The Humming Bird Story, Wangari Maathai- The Dark Continent

LOCATIONS AND FORMS OF POWER:- Money, City Psalms- India’s booming surrogacy business- Germany to close all nuclear power plants- Oprah Winfrey most powerful woman- ‘Thy husband is thy lord’- Photographer Zed Nelson’s best shot- Tanzania sees malice in Darwin’s Nightmare- The soldier who fought for the right to go to school in Kenya- The Humming Bird Story, Wangari Maathai- The Dark Continent

MYTHS AND HEROES:- Hero II, by Ben Turnbull- American Gothic, Grant Wood- Lewis Hine, Lunch Time and Smoke- Oprah Winfrey most powerful woman- Obama praises Mandela as an inspiration- World mourns Nelson Mandela- The soldier who fought for the right to go to school in Kenya- The Humming Bird Story, Wangari Maathai- The Dark Continent

Movie Trailers/clips (studied in class or suggested): SuperSize Me, Steve Jobs, Malcom X, American History X, Django Unchained, The First Grader, Darwin’s Nightmare, Invictus, Bowling For Columbine, Bread and Roses,…

Slow Progress for Fast Food workersU.S. fast-food workers stop working1st September, 2013

Fast-food workers in 58 cities in the USAdid not go to work on Thursday. They wenton strike because they want more money. The workers currently get paid the minimum wage. This was set at $7.25 in 2009 and has not changed since then. Many workers say they cannot afford to live on that. The price of everything has gone up but their wages have stayed the same for five years. The workerswant $15 an hour, which is double their current rate. Julio Wilson, a cashier at a pizza restaurant, told the BBC he earns $9 an hour. He said that wasn't enough to support himself and his fiveyear-old daughter. He said: "I know I'm risking my job, but it's my right to fight for what I deserve." McDonald's and Burger King both spoke about thestrike. They said they did not make decisions about how much to pay workers in most of their restaurants. They said each restaurant is an independent franchise and the manager decides how much to pay the staff. McDonald’s profits were over $5.5 billion in 2011. The burger giants did say that an increase in wages would mean more expensive burgers. America's National RestaurantAssociation said the wages were lowbecause the staff are young and have little work experience. It said: "Only five per cent of restaurant employees earn the minimum wage and those that do are [mainly] working part-time and half are teenagers."

Sources: BBC / Chicago Tribune / USA Today

Food companies targeting kids online, 2006

Ever-greedy corporate marketeers have found a new means ofensnaring children into the net of consumerism. Not content withbombarding kids on TV, in the streets and at schools, marketingexecutives are utilizing Internet games to tout their wares tounsuspecting children. The latest insidious and pernicious ploy of morethan eighty percent of the world’s chocolate and snack food companieshas been brought to light in a new report, entitled “It's Child's Play:Advergaming and the Online Marketing of Food to Children”. It is “thefirst comprehensive analysis of the nature and scope of online foodadvertising to children”. The research was commissioned by America’sKaiser Family Foundation and exposes the questionable tactics ofcompanies such as Mars, Hersheys and McDonalds in targeting childrento promote their products. The latter company, in particular, focuses itsads more on enticing kids with cheap, giveaway toys than food.The report sadly increases the likelihood of a new word entering theEnglish vocabulary – the “advergame” – an immoral and calloustechnique to get kids hooked while having online fun. In addition, avariety of other advertising and marketing tactics designed to lure kidsinto spending an unlimited amount of online time being blitzed withcorporate logos are employed on these sites. These include viralmarketing (encouraging children to contact their peers about a specificproduct or brand, found on 64% of sites); sweepstakes and promotions(65%); memberships (25%); on-demand access to TV ads (53%); andincentives for product purchase (38%). Kaiser’s William Dietz said thescale of this advertising was an “eye opener”. It raises ethical concernsabout the role food advertising plays in childhood obesity. Kaiser vicepresident Vicky Rideout warned the reach of online advertising is muchdeeper than that of television.

Marlene KellerJohnson & Wales University - Providence, 2012

‘The eating habits of society as a whole have drastically changed over the last few decades. The influx of technology, advertising, images in the media and changes within modern cultural and family values play a big role in the psychological evolution of consumers in the food service industry. My goal is to discover how the images in advertisements and media influence our desire to purchase food and alter our perception on what makes food appealing radio, etc. Advertisements in the past few decades have become much more clever in “luring” people into buying products, and are designed to target specific demographics that would be most likely to buy the product in question. The problem with many of the advertisements in recent years is that they are almost too clever, and it is almost as if they contain subliminal messages telling people that they “need” to buy these products. The food industry and their marketing counterparts are capitalizing on their ability to pinpoint exactly what people of certain ethnic groups, socioeconomic groups, genders, ages, religions, etc. look for in products to create advertisements accordingly. These marketing tactics become problematic when the product in question is unhealthy, and is being marketed and advertised to consumers with little to no education

in nutrition, and with incomes that restrict them from being able to purchase food items that are healthier and often more expensive.’

Facebook "selfies" can harm relationships

18th August, 2013

A study from the U.K. indicates that people who post too many "selfies" (photos of themselves) on Facebook and similar social networks risk damaging their real liferelationships. Wikipedia says a selfie is "a genre of self-portrait photograph…typically taken either with a camera held at arm's length or in a mirror." The report, from Birmingham University, analysed the impact of these photos on the relationships of 508 participants. The study found that excessive photo sharing and sharing certain types of photos makes almost everyone like you less. Head researcher Dr David Houghton said: "People, other than very close friends and relatives, don't seem to relatewell to those who constantly share photos ofthemselves."

Wikipedia explains the rise in popularity of selfies.It says: "In December 2012, Time magazine notedthat selfie was among its top 10 buzzwords of2012." Celebrities such as singers Rihanna andJustin Bieber are famous for uploading hundredsof pics of themselves. Many people who postselfies will be surprised, perhaps shocked, by theBirmingham research. Wikipedia explains: "Theappeal of selfies comes from…the control they giveself-photographers over how they presentthemselves. Many selfies are intended to presenta flattering image of the person, especially tofriends whom the photographer expects to besupportive. The research may suggest the exactopposite is true.

Sources: Daily Mail / Huffington Post / Wikipedia

MONEY, City Psalms, 1992Benjamin Zephaniah

Money make a rich man feel like a big manIt make a poor man feel like a hooliganA one parent family feels like a ruffianAn those who have it won’t give you anythingMoney makes your friend become your enemyYou start to see things very superficiallyYour life is lived very artificiallyUnlike those who live in povertyMoney affects your egoBut money brings you downMoney causes problems anywhere money is foundFood is what we needFood is necessaryLet me grow my foodAn dem can eat dem moneyMoney can save usBut yet we feel doomedPlenty money burns in a nuclear mushroomMoney can make you happyMoney can help you when you dieAn those who have it continually live a lieChildren are dyingSpies are spyingRefugees are fleeingPoliticians are lyingAn deals are doneAn webs are spunAn no one keeps the third world on the runAn the brother feels better than the brothers next doorCause his brothers got money an his brothers got moreThe brother thinks a brother’s not a brother cause he’s poorWhen a brother kills another that is economic warEconomic war we call it economic warIt may not be the east and west anymoreBut the north and south third world far lordCoffee an isleThat’s what it’s aboutEconomic warEconomic warShots fired from the stock market floorSo we work for a livin’An we try an we tryWith so little time for chillin’Like we’re livin a lieMoney makes a dream become realityMoney makes real life like a fantasy

[ Money has a habit of going to the headI have some for the rainy day underneath me bedMoney problems make it hard to relaxMoney makes it difficult to get down to the factsMoney makes you worship vanity and liesMoney is a drug with legal highsThe parents of poor kidsSome are not copingSome are just managingBooks that need balancin’Property is theftNo money means deathYou pay for your rentAn then nothing leftSome will pick your pocketSome will pay to stop itThose who will pay to stop itThey happy cause they got itSome go out an fight for itSome claim they got the right to itAn people like my grandparentsLive long but never side itMoney made me go out an robThen it made me go looking for a jobMoney made the nurseAnd the doctor emigrateMoney buys friends you love to hateMoney made slavery seem alrightMoney brought the BibleAn the Bible shone the lightVictory to the pennilessThe gospel shows usWe come to mash those market forcesThe paper giant called market

forces ]

India's booming surrogacy business, The Guardian Weekly, Wed 30 December 2009

India is fast emerging as the 'surrogacy capital of the world' with a $445 million business in 'fertility tourism'. A burgeoning number of poor Indian women are turning paid surrogates for childless foreign couples. Fuelling the surrogacy service from India are a slew of factors, including low medical costs, a highly qualified medical workforce and lax surrogacy laws. Here, an underprivileged Indian woman, Sarita, in India's western state of Gujarat, explains why she became a surrogate for an American couple

A doctor holds a new born surrogate baby at a city clinic in Kolkata. Photograph: Deshakalyan Chowdhury/AFP/Getty Images

I am a farmer's daughter and belong to a large family of ten siblings. I was conveniently married off by my parents 10 years ago at age 16 to our neighbour's son, despite the fact that he was 15 years my senior. I told my parents that I wasn't keen on marriage and that I would instead like to pursue higher studies and become a teacher. But they would have none of it: "You're ultimately going to become a housewife and not the country's prime minister, so why study so much?" they questioned. My name was struck off the school rolls. My husband Ramesh is employed in a garment factory and gets a paltry 3,000 Indian rupees ($60) per month. The money is barely enough for us. (…)

But what actually stoked my material ambitions a few months back was the sudden affluence of a couple of our neighbours. Despite their modest incomes, these families suddenly managed to buy goodies like a TV, refrigerator and expensive household furniture. According to local gossip, the ladies of these families had turned surrogates for rich foreign couples who paid them a fortune to have their babies. Of course, it was all done surreptitiously.

(…) Money is the prime motivator in surrogacy cases (…). Occasionally, due to India's conventional attitudes towards sex, the surrogates become ostracised. So the biggest issue, if I was chosen to be a surrogate and had to give the baby away, was how I would explain it all to my village folk? The only idea that came to my head was that I'd move in with my married sister who lives in a different city until the baby was delivered. And then I'd come back and say the child had died. Though everybody knows that women in our village opt to become surrogates in exchange of money, traditional attitudes mean that we often have to invent tales for our neighbors. It's a lie we have to tell to profit from this arrangement.

Me and Ramesh visited our local gynaecologist to discuss things with her. She guided us to a city clinic which was looking for commercial surrogates. I registered myself here and filled up a form mentioning details about my caste, marital status and medical history. The agency told me that if I matched up with any of their clients, they would get back to me. (…) A meeting was arranged for us and a foreign couple at the clinic two weeks later. (…) A contract was drawn up in front of the clinic doctors according to which I would be paid a fixed sum for carrying their baby. They would take care of all my pregnancy, medical and diet expenses and the baby would be theirs after delivery. (…) The American couple called me every week to find out about my progress.

Germany to close all nuclear power plants, 31st May, 2011

The German government has announced its plans to shut down all of its 17 nuclear power plants by 2022. Seven of these were already suspended in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster. Another six plants will close by 2021, while three more will keep operating until 2022 as a standby in the case of energy shortages. German Chancellor Angela Merkel took the decision to terminate the whole nuclear programme, because of what happened in Japan, after a 12-hour meeting with her ruling coalition. Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen told reporters there was no going back, saying: “This decision is consistent, decisive and clear. There will be no clause for revision.” This is a U-turn of the previous government’s policy to continue with nuclear power until 2035.Germany currently gets 23 per cent of its energy from its nuclear power plants. Chancellor Merkel put forward another plan for ending her country’s reliance on nuclear energy. She said Germany would move towards a “safe, reliable and economically viable” alternative by doubling renewable energy production over the next ten years. She also called for policies that would see energy consumption cut by ten per cent. She said: “This is a big challenge, but it brings with it a huge chance for future generations.” She believes abandoning nuclear power will make German companies world leaders in alternative energies, especially in the production of solar panels and wind turbines. “We will be a trailblazer as the first large industrial country to try this,” she said.

Oprah Winfrey most powerful woman, 8th dec 2008

Oprah Winfrey has been named the most powerful woman in entertainment. This is according to the entertainment trade publication The Hollywood Reporter. She jumped up from the number six spot, which she occupied in 2007. Her rise to the top may be due to the influence she had on the US Election in November 2008. Analysts reckon her support of Barack Obama brought him over one million votes. The Hollywood Reporter's chief editor Elizabeth Guider explained: "The decision to place Oprah at the top of the list was based on her dizzying array of Oprah-branded media and her immense cultural influence," she said. TIME magazine listed Winfrey as one of the 100 people of the twentieth century.

Oprah Winfrey is a household name in many parts of the world. Her rags-to-riches life is an incredible success story. She is a self-made woman who became the world’s first black billionaire in 2004. Winfrey owns her own production company Harpo (’Oprah’ spelt backwards), which made $345 million in profit in 2007. She is perhaps most famous for her chat shows. The "Oprah Winfrey Show" began in 1986 and has been one of the world’s most-watched programmes ever since. Winfrey's entertainment empire covers TV, magazines, book clubs and online shopping. She is also extremely well known for her charity work. She is set to launch her own TV channel, OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network),

which will reach 70 million homes.

Grant Wood - American Gothic, 1930

"Hero II" by Ben Turnbull, 2010

Lewis Hine, Lunch Time and Smoke, 1930-1931

‘Thy husband is thy lord’ William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act 5, scene 2, 1593

“Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,Thy head, thy sovereign, one that cares for thee,And for thy maintenance; commits his bodyTo painful labor, both by sea and land;To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,Whilst thou li’st warm at home, secure and safe;And craves no other tribute at thy handsBut love, fair looks, and true obedience-Too little payment for so great a debt.Such duty as the subject owes the prince,Even such a woman oweth to her husband;And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,And no obedient to his honest will,What is she but a foul contending rebel,And graceless traitor to her loving lord?I asham’d that women are so simple‘To offer war where they should kneel for peace,Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway,When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.

"Unless you're Native American, you came from somewhere else." 29-01-13 (Las Vegas)

President Obama Speaks on Comprehensive Immigration Reform

"Immigration's always been an issue that inflames passions. That's not surprising. There are a few things that are more important to us as a society than who gets to come here and call our country home. Who gets the privilege of becoming a citizen of the United States of America. That's a big deal. When we talk about that in the abstract, it is easy sometimes for the discussion to take on a feeling of us versus them. And when that happens, a lot of folks forget that most of us used to be them. We forget

that. And it's really important for us to remember history. Unless you're one of the first Americans, a Native American, you came from some place else, somebody brought you. The Irish who left behind a land of famine; the Germans who fled persecution; the Scandinavians who arrived eager to pioneer out west; the Polish, the Russians, the Italians, the Chinese, the Japanese, the West Indians -- the huddled masses who came through Ellis Island on one coast and Angel Island on the other. All those folks before they were us, they were them. And when each new wave of immigrants arrived, they faced resistance from those who were already here. They faced hardship. They faced racism. They faced ridicule. But over time, they went about their daily lives. They earned a living as they raised a family, as they built a community, as their kids went to school here. They did their part to build the nation. They were the Einsteins and the Carnegies, but they were also the millions of women and men whose names history may not remember, but whose actions helped make us who we are, who built this country hand by hand, brick by brick. They all came here knowing that what makes somebody an American is not just blood or birth, but allegiance to our founding principles and the faith in the idea that anyone from anywhere can write the next great chapter of our story, and that's still true today."

Obama praises Mandela as an "inspiration"

1st July, 2013

U.S. President Barack Obama has hailed Nelson Mandela as a personal inspiration while on a visit to South Africa. Mr Obama declined to visit Mr Mandela due to the former South African president's poor health. A White House statement explained: "Out of deference to Nelson Mandela's peace and comfort and the family's wishes, [the Obamas] will not be visiting the hospital." Obama made it clear to reporters on Air Force One that he had no intention of putting Mr Mandela's health any further at risk, saying: "I don't need a photo op….The last thing I

want to do is to be in any way obtrusive at a time when the family is concerned about Nelson Mandela's condition."

President Obama called Mandela a "personal hero" and that Mandela's sacrifices to achieve equal rights helped inspire his own political career. While flying to South Africa, Obama told reporters: "The main message we'll want to deliver…is simply a profound gratitude for his leadership all these years, and that the thoughts and prayers of the American peopleare with him and his family and his country." Obama later told university students in Pretoria to learn lessons from Mandela's strength while he was in prison for 27 years. He said: "Think about the hardships and the struggles and being away from family and friends. There were dark moments that tested his faith in humanity, but he refused to give up."

World mourns Nelson Mandela8th December, 2013

South Africans and people from all over the world are mourning the death of Nelson Mandela. In South Africa, thousands of people gathered in Johannesburg and Soweto to say goodbye to their country's first ever black president. They danced, sang, cried and prayed for the man they loved. Mr Mandela died aged 95 on Thursday after months of illness. South Africa's President Jacob Zuma broke the news of Mr Mandela's death in a late night speech on TV. Mr Zuma said: "Our nation has lost its greatest son." Mr Mandela spent most of his life campaigning for equal rights in South Africa. He spent 27 years in jail before becoming

South Africa's president in 1994. Leaders from all over the world heaped praise on Mr Mandela. His long-time friend Archbishop Desmond Tutu said: "God was so good to us in South Africa by giving us Nelson Mandela." US President Barack Obama said: "He achieved more than could be expected of any man. Today, he has gone home." UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called him "a giant for justice and a down-to-earth human inspiration". He added: "Nelson Mandela showed what is possible for our world and within each one of us if we believe, dream and work together for justice and humanity." British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: "Nelson Mandela was a hero of our time. A great light has gone outin the world."

Photographer Zed Nelson's best shot Interview by Andrew Pulver, The Guardian, Wednesday 1 September 2010

Zed nelson man with baby and gun

'I wanted to photograph the largely white, middle-class Americans who buy and sell weapons' … Nelson's portrait of a gun owner. Photograph: Zed Nelson/INSTITUTE

I started my book Gun Nation for many reasons. I'd covered a lot of conflict zones and was increasingly aware that the real story wasn't being told. Most of the weapons I saw in cold-war conflict zones originated in the US, China, or Russia – so I decided to go back to the source. When I looked into the statistics in the US, it was astonishing: about 30,000 people are killed each year by guns. It's like a civil war. My idea was to look behind the groups that are normally portrayed as the problem: gang members and criminals.

Instead, I wanted to photograph the largely white, middle-class Americans who buy and sell weapons in vast quantities. First I went to a three-day National Rifle Association event in Texas. It was astonishing: a convention centre filled with families, salesmen and thousands of weapons. I started taking pictures, discreetly, but people were suspicious and hostile. So the following day I set up a portrait booth, with a large backdrop and studio lights, and people started queuing up to be photographed.

Next I took the booth to a Dallas gun shop. This man Mike came in to buy ammunition, and I asked if I could take his portrait. It's the proximity of his gun to the baby that people find so shocking, but he didn't see it that way. For him, it summed up how he felt about protecting his family. If you look carefully, you can see his finger is under the trigger guard; that's his idea of safety.

Tanzania sees malice in Darwin's Nightmare, Xan Rice, East Africa correspondent , The Guardian, Thursday 17 August 2006

An Oscar-nominated documentary highlighting links between fish fillets flown from Lake Victoria to the European Union and the global arms trade has drawn a furious reaction from Tanzania's president and prompted harassment of local people involved in the film.

President Jakaya Kikwete said that Darwin's Nightmare, a film by the Austrian director Hubert Sauper, had hurt the country's image and caused a slump in exports of Nile Perch. His tirade, made during his monthly address, triggered angry protests against the film in the western town of Mwanza, where it was shot. Richard Mgamba, a local journalist interviewed in the film, was detained by police and threatened with deportation. Other people who talked on camera have also been intimidated, according to Mr Sauper.

Darwin's Nightmare, which was released in 2004 and nominated in the best-documentary category at this year's Oscars, examines the history of Nile Perch in Lake Victoria. Introduced by western scientists as an experiment in the 1950s, the fast-growing predator nearly wiped out several other fish species. The perch's fleshy white fillets proved popular on European dinner tables, however, and spawned an industry worth millions of pounds a month. Mini boomtowns emerged on the lakeshore.

But the bulk of the profits still end up in the hands of middlemen. Many locals drawn to the towns remain too poor to eat fish fillets, instead buying

A still from Darwin's Nightmare.

the skeletons discarded by the fish factories. And the film shows a still darker side to what Mr Sauper calls "the hidden half of globalisation": Russian pilots interviewed on camera admit that the same planes that flew fish to Europe returned to the Great Lakes region laden with weapons. "This booming multinational industry of fish and weapons has created an ungodly globalised alliance on the shores of the world's biggest tropical lake: an army of local fishermen, World Bank agents, homeless children, African ministers, EU commissioners, Tanzanian prostitutes and Russian pilots," Mr Sauper wrote on the film's website.

But Mr Kikwete, who has set up a special parliamentary committee to investigate the film's effect on the fishing industry, took offence. "The documentary is an insult to our country and the people of the lake zone as it does not depict the true nature of the business. Tanzania remains committed to peace and unity in the region and will never allow its land to be turned into a pro-war zone," he said. In its latest report on Nile Perch, Globefish, a division of the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation, said the film had only briefly affected fish sales in the EU. Far bigger factors in the decline in Nile Perch exports - worth �90m (£61m) to Tanzania last year, down from �100m in 2004 - were overfishing and low water levels.

Mr Sauper told the Guardian that he was worried for the safety of local people involved in the film. He denied the documentary was negative towards Tanzania. "I don't think that the president has even seen the film. This whole thing is insane and has turned into my nightmare. The very last thing you want as a film-maker is for the people left behind to be in danger."

The soldier who fought for the right to go to school in Kenya, Tracy McVeigh, The Observer, Sunday 19 June 2011

The First Grader, a remarkable new British film that has its UK premiere next week, is based on the true story of an unlikely African hero.

Kimani N'gan'ga Maruge was a Mau Mau fighter in the war of independence against the British. When the Kenyan government announced free primary education for all in 2002, he went to his local school in Eldoret and demanded to be taught to read. He was 84. Against fierce opposition from officials and parents, who did not want a precious educational place to be given to an old man, Maruge was accepted into the school to learn alongside the six-year-olds. The headteacher who admitted him to class, Jane Obinchu, is played in the film by the British actor Naomie Harris. "It's not going to be the most critical audience, but it's one I really care about," said Chadwick, as a child-friendly cut of the film began in front of the assembled children, village elders and a handful of parents and teachers.

(…) The importance of Maruge and this film goes beyond the children, who squeal and point as they spot each other on the screen, and beyond the electricity, running water and new classroom that the production company was able to bring into this dirtyard school. It taps into a key issue with which Kenya is battling: education. Last week it was revealed that some £31m intended for primary schools had disappeared from the ministry of education's coffers. There remain huge problems in establishing schools in rural areas and in persuading poor parents that they should put their children's education ahead of their employment. In his determination to learn, Maruge drew attention to this. A freedom

Oliver Litondo stars as Kimani N'gan'ga Maruge in The First Grader, which is released in the UK this week. Photograph: c.Everett Collection/ Rex Features

Former Mau Mau freedom fighter Kimani N'gan'ga Maruge was 84 when he first went to school. Now, a new film celebrates his campaign to raise the profile of primary education

fighter who had been imprisoned and tortured by the British, he believed that education for all was one of the things that he had fought for. Maruge's story became known through local and then international newspaper stories and he was invited to address the UN in 2005, where he spoke of the importance of education in Africa. He kept at his studies even as he was burned out of his home during the election violence in 2008 and then diagnosed with stomach cancer. Maruge died in a Nairobi nursing home in 2009.

"When people hear the story, they are inspired. Maruge has brought many, many people into schools in Kenya," said Oliver Litondo, the Kenyan TV journalist-turned-actor who plays Maruge. "Every day he is inspiring Kenyans who had given up to seek what they want, age notwithstanding. Maruge has rekindled ambition in people who did not think they still had it." (…)Pauline Sipilon, 14, who has been ostracised by her family after she abandoned her goat-herding duties and came to school, suffers a similar problem. "I cannot go back to that place where I lived, but now I hope I can be a teacher," she said.

(…)The First Grader has already been well received, coming second in the People's Choice category at last year's Toronto International Film Festival. It is the inaugural feature-length production of Origin Pictures, set up by David Thompson, a former head of BBC Films. With its themes of triumph over adversity, of the force and importance of education, and of how the value of people doesn't diminish in old age, The First Grader also touches on an airbrushed part of history – the cruelty of the British detention camps of the 1950s, where Maruge was held."When I read the script I didn't stop," said Litondo. "I read all I could read about the Mau Mau and started to get a feel about what it meant to be people who didn't have anything fighting to get a piece of land. For me, as a Kenyan, Maruge captured the scenario, the quest for ownership of land by the landless. Maruge yearned for an education. He thought: 'I have suffered to bring freedom', and the education was the gold he wanted to get for his family. So he wanted to go [to school] for them, for all those who had died fighting for freedom. "The British didn't recognise that these people genuinely wanted freedom. There has been a whitewashing of history. Now a British film helps to change that picture for both peoples, for generations who don't understand.

in Kenya

‘Like the hummingbird, we each must do what we can. Imagine if Poverty Alleviation Through Education and other like-minded projects, put 6 billion drops of water on the fire every minute of every day. Imagine what we could do to build that better world we all dream about.’ (R.Mottatt educator)

Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Dies at 71 The New York Times By Jeffrey Gettleman Dr. Maathai was as comfortable in the gritty streets of Nairobi’s slums or the muddy hillsides of central Kenya as she was hobnobbing with heads of state. She won the Peace Prize in 2004 for what the Nobel committee called “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.” It was a moment of immense pride in Kenya and across Africa. Her Green Belt Movement has planted more than 30 million trees in Africa and has helped nearly 900,000 women, according to the United Nations, while inspiring similar efforts in other African countries. (…)Dr. Maathai toured the world, speaking out against environmental degradation and poverty, which she said early on were intimately connected. But she never lost focus on her native Kenya. She was a thorn in the side of Kenya’s previous president, Daniel arap Moi, whose government labeled the Green Belt Movement “subversive” during the 1980s. (…)In 2008, after being pushed out of government, she was hit with tear gas by the police during a protest against the excesses of Kenya’s entrenched political class. Home life was not easy, either. Her husband, Mwangi, divorced her, saying she was too strong-minded for a woman, by her account. When she lost her divorce case and criticized the judge, she was thrown in jail. “Wangari Maathai was known to speak truth to power,” said John Githongo, an anticorruption campaigner in Kenya who was forced into exile for years for his own outspoken views. “She blazed a trail in whatever she did, whether it was in the environment, politics, whatever.”

‘Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan activist and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner who passed away on September 25, 2011. She founded the Green Belt Movement, which has trained women throughout Africa to combat deforestation, in part through the planting of more than 40 million trees. The movement’s other task is to expand what Maathai called “democratic space,” in which ordinary citizens could make decisions on their own behalf to benefit themselves, their community, their country, and the environment that sustains them. For people, she is a hero, someone who is not daunted by even the largest of problems. “I have always believed that, no matter how dark the cloud, there is always a thin, silver lining, and that is what we must look for.” – ( Prof. Wangari Maathai).

When we speak of human rights, civil society, freedom, liberty, justice and other similar words, the images that come to mind are those of men. We always think of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. (…) Her work didn’t stop at planting trees in Kenya. She and her movement focused their attention on women’s rights, civic empowerment, environmental sensibility, education, sustainability, equality, justice, and good governance. And that focus reached beyond her native country. In 2005 ten Central African governments appointed her the goodwill ambassador for the Congo Basin rainforest and that same year she accepted the position of presiding officer of the African Union’s Economic, Social, and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC). In 2006 Professor Maathai co-founded the Nobel Women’s Initiative with five of her fellow women peace laureates to advocate for justice, equality, and peace worldwide. In 2006 Professor Maathai joined with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to launch a campaign to plant a billion trees around the world. That goal was met in less than a year; the target now stands at 14 billion. In 2007 Professor Maathai became co-chair (with former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin) of the Congo Basin Forest Fund, an initiative of the British and Norwegian governments, and in 2009 she was designated a United Nations messenger of peace by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. In 2010, Professor Maathai became a trustee of the Karura Forest Environmental Education Trust. That same year, in partnership with the University of Nairobi, she established the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies (WMI). The WMI will bring together academic research—e.g. in land use, forestry, agriculture, resource-based conflicts, and peace studies—with the Green Belt Movement approach and members of the organization.Add to that the fact that she did all of what she did as a woman – a woman from a poverty stricken country where the clutches of patriarchy might have stopped any other woman from standing up for what is right and for helping her fellow countrymen and the rest of the world. This is why she stands in a league of her own when it comes to people who inspire civic and human rights activists. (website for the Green Belt Movement)