Month: February 2007

Al Gore Announces ‘Live Earth’ Concerts

Environmental activists led by former US Vice President Al Gore announced plans yesterday for a 24-hour pop concert across seven continents in July to mobilize action to stop global warming.

The “Live Earth” concerts will be taking place on July 7th and will bring together more than 100 of the world’s top musical acts. The names of the performers haven’t been announced yet though.

The idea of the concerts and a new campaign under the name Save Our Selves (SOS) is to try and reach a global audience of around 2 billion people, through concert attendance, radio, television and Internet broadcasts, in order to raise awareness and mobilize people all over the world to take action.

I think it’s really good to have these kinds of events to raise awareness on very important issues like this, I just hope people all over the world start to realize how much is at stake and try to take actions to solve the problem.

More respect for Al Gore who is throwing all his weight behind environmental issues and global warming.

Update: The official website for the campaign and event is http://www.liveearth.org.

[Source: CNN]
[Via: Jimbo]

Blood Diamond

I finally got to watch the movie “Blood Diamond” yesterday, featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou, directed and produced by Edward Zwick.

I’ve been wanting to watch this movie ever since it was released, mainly because I wanted to see how the issue was handled and presented, and secondly because Leonardo DiCaprio plays the role of a Zimbabwean diamond smuggler, with the accent and all, so yeah there was some nostalgia involved.

I really liked the movie, and I think it hits the right spot. As someone on imdb rightly puts it, this movie is a lot like Hotel Rwanda, another great movie which shows how terrible things are in Africa, and that the world is doing nothing to help; except that Blood Diamond shows that not only isn’t the world doing anything to help stop the bloodshed, but in fact is supporting and nurturing it.

The movie handles the issue of blood diamonds, otherwise known as conflict diamonds or war diamonds, which are diamonds that are mined in a war zone and sold, usually clandestinely, in order to finance an insurgent or invading army’s war efforts.
The story of the film is woven around the main characters to portray the sad reality created by the trade of blood diamonds.

The acting was very good, and I’m really appreciating Leonardo DiCaprio more and more as an actor with every new movie I see him in; Djimon Hounsou also gave a great performance as usual.
So it’s only normal that, among the five nominations this movie got for the Oscars, we find the nominations for Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Best Supporting Actor (Djimon Hounsou).
Movie-making wise, the film was really well done too.

I think movies like this one are really important to show people what others in some parts of the world are going through, and how their smallest actions could affect those people’s lives in a very big way.

Africa is an extremely rich continent which has been used, abused and thrown into suffering time and again by the leading powers of the world. It is unacceptable, it is important for the world to see and know this, and action has to be taken to stop it from going on.

Despite all the problems they’re living through, an old man in the movie tells Djimon Hounsou’s character: “just think what mess we would be in if we had oil!”
I can only agree with this old man; these days having oil is a curse for any country, it will only mean unwarranted attacks and wars launched upon its people.

In short, I recommend this movie, and while I’m at it, I also recommend watching Hotel Rwanda.

My score for this movie would be: 8.5/10.

Open Your Eyes…

“War prisoners apart, the average citizen of Oceania never sets eyes on a citizen of either Eurasia or Eastasia, and he is forbidden the knowledge of foreign languages. If he were allowed contact with foreigners he would discover that they are creatures similar to himself and that most of what he has been told about them is lies. The sealed world in which he lives would be broken, and the fear, hatred, and self-righteousness on which his morale depends might evaporate. It is therefore realized on all sides that however often Persia, or Egypt, or Java, or Ceylon may change hands, the main frontiers must never be crossed by anything except bombs.”

— George Orwell, 1984.

Don’t Do It, Mr. President, Don’t Bomb Iran!

Before the U.S. House of Representatives on February 6, 2007; Ron Paul, a Republican member of Congress from Texas, had these words for the President of the United States of America regarding the possibility of striking Iran:

It’s a bad idea.
There’s no need for it.
There’s great danger in doing it.
America is against it, and Congress should be.
The United Nations is against it.
The Russians, the Chinese, the Indians, and the Pakistanis are against it.
The whole world is against it.
Our allies are against it.
Our enemies are against it.
The Arabs are against it.
The Europeans are against it.
The Muslims are against it.
We don’t need to do this.
The threat is overblown.
The plan is an hysterical reaction to a problem that does not yet exist.
Hysteria is never a good basis for foreign policy.
Don’t we ever learn?
Have we already forgotten Iraq?
The plan defies common sense.
If it’s carried out, the Middle East, and possibly the world, will explode.
Oil will soar to over $100 a barrel, and gasoline will be over $5 a gallon.
Despite what some think, it won’t serve the interests of Israel.
Besides

Back In Tunis

Home Sweet Home…

I got back Sunday evening; my plane landed at 9PM but I only got out of the airport slightly before 11PM, that’s because the lazy guys at the airport chose to put the luggage from 3 planes onto one conveyor belt, even though all the rest of the belts were empty.

My flight back was on Tunisair too, and it was quite a pleasant one, the leg space was pretty comfortable, the food was quite good, the service was ok (they should learn to smile more); anyway, in the end, Tunisair beats Air France hands down on this route. I’ll be doing my best to only travel on Tunisair whenever I have to go to France.

I’m back with my dear wife and son, whom I missed so much. Adam’s doing better, he’s coughing less now; It’s amazing how much I feel he grew up after just one week away from him, and it sucks that I wasn’t there to see it happen.

I didn’t get to do much in Paris this time around, I had a lot of work to do, and in the evenings I was mostly too tired to really do much but take a few walks, eat and maybe catch a movie.
I did get to meet Mochekes who works in Paris now, and we had a nice dinner at Pizza Pino on the Champs

Apocalypto

On monday night, a friend of mine and I went to see Mel Gibson’s latest movie, as a director/producer, Apocalypto.

The story is set in the Mayan era; A small village in the jungle is attacked and brutally overrun, its residents slaughtered and abducted by a ruling tribe that needs a bunch of slaves and human sacrifices. We follow the steps of the warrior Jaguar Paw as he tries to get away to go back and save his pregnant wife and son.

Most of the film is set in the dense jungle, with the middle of the movie being in a grand Mayan city. The dialogue is in a Mayan dialect, with subtitles of course.

The movie is very well made and feels like it captured the era it’s set in perfectly; the design of the sets and costumes is dazzling, the acting is great, the character development very successful, the action really good; in short, this is one great movie overall.

Still this movie might not be for the faint of heart, it’s quite violent, there’s a lot of blood involved, a lot of dead bodies lying around, along with decapitation, impalement, disembowelment, snakebite, and what not. Personally, I thought it all played well into the story, and didn’t find anything to be just violence for the sake of violence.

Anyway, I truly recommend seeing this movie to everyone, even the faint of heart (just take a barf bag with you), it’s really worth every second of the 139 minutes. I applaud Mel Gibson for what is one of the best movies of the year.

ReBonjour Paris

As the title of this entry suggests, I’m back in Paris again. Just like last year, I’m here for work, so most of my time will be at the office or in meetings with clients.

I got here yesterday evening at the Orly airport; Orly not Charles de Gaulle because this time I chose to fly Tunisair instead of Air France, and I thank God that I did, the seating was a bit more comfortable, the food was so much better, I got here on time and I didn’t have that back-ache I always get when flying Air France.

I’ll be here for only one week this time, and even that feels like a really really long time for me be away from my wife and son, especially that Adam is sick, plus I just got back from my trip to Manchester a few days ago.
I can’t wait to get home again.

I’ll be trying to meet up with a number of friends who live and work here now; I’m quite sure I’ll end up going to a movie or two in the evenings; I don’t think I’ll have much time for shopping, just something quick maybe to pick up some gifts or souvenirs.

I’ll be taking it easy with the fast food this time around as I’m trying to eat healthier; last night’s dinner at McDonald’s should be enough unhealthiness for this trip.

I might be looking for a good and affordable DSLR camera, like a Nikon d50 or d70, so if anyone knows where I can look in Paris to find a good deal, please do let me know.

And finally, as usual, I’ll be taking some photos of Paris here and there to share later.

Stay tuned for more from the city of lights, where almost everything shuts down at 8pm. Still the lights stay on.

Al Gore Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Former US Vice President Al Gore, who should have become President in 2000 instead of the miserable failure that is Bush, was nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his wide-reaching efforts to draw the world’s attention to the dangers of global warming, a Norwegian lawmaker announced yesterday.

During his eight years as Bill Clinton’s vice president, Al Gore pushed for climate measures, including for the Kyoto Treaty, that Bush flushed down the drain. Since leaving office in 2001 has campaigned worldwide on climate issues, including with his documentary on climate change called “An Inconvenient Truth,” which is nominated for an Oscar this year.

We’ll know if he wins the Nobel Peace Prize in mid-October, when the results are traditionally announced. The prize is then presented on December 10th.

Personally, I wanted Al Gore to win the US presidency back in 2000, wished he would’ve run again and won it in 2004, and would’ve hoped for him to consider running in 2008, but everything points towards the fact that he won’t.
I honestly think the world would be a slightly better and safer place if he was president of the US.

The Lord Of The Rings Online – Shadows Of Angmar

The Lord Of The Rings Online - Shadows Of AngmarA new interesting game is out, aiming to eat away at World of Warcraft’s domination of the MMORPG market, and it goes by the name: The Lord Of The Rings Online – Shadows Of Angmar.
I guess the name says it all; it’s simply a multi-player game, read online middle-earth, based on the amazing trilogy of J.R.R. Tolkien.

You get to create a unique character that can be either a Man, Elf, Dwarf or Hobbit; you choose what class you want it to be from (Champion, Guardian, Burglar, Captain, Hunter, Minstrel, or Lore-master), and where it hails from, his/her skin, hair, eye color, and more; and you equip yourself with all the items you need like sturdy Dwarven armor, intricate Elven mail, or weapons created with the knowledge of past Ages.

Then you can join with the Fellowship to fight against the forces of Sauron, confront the forces of the Nazg