And finally the most fatal communal and fascist forces have joined hands together: CPM and BJP. During this whole drama, CPM and its allies have emerged as the most opportunistic and communal forces. Merging the alienation policy for minorities and protecting Alma mater China’s interest, they are trying hard to target two goals with one arrow. Their alliance with BJP is very much natural as they act in same line; best examples are Nandigram and Ahemdabad.
The present deal with US has become the apple of the eyes of foxy politicians. Though design of the deal is complicated and it has binding effects on atomic programme by allowing IAEA inspection. But the growing energy need of India can not be ignored. Though atomic energy contributes less than three percent of India’s energy requirement, still the deal can pave a way towards energy security. Lamenting communists are back on their anti-India assignment given by their boss from Peking. The China angle of these communists is another striking aspect of their opposition. Now they are talking of ‘National Interest’ and ‘Sovereignty’, with the dire shamming character, they also opposed Pokharan I and Pokharan II. Intention is very much clear; they don’t want India to be ahead to China in terms of strategic power and security. It is the matter of national shame when the Congress, yet another divisive giant, made government with support from communists who are indeed the greatest espionage in disguise.
The communal motive of present opposition by left forces was analyzed by political commentators, much before the truth sneaked through CITU general secretory Mr. Pandhe’s statement, political commentators had figured it out very clearly how CPM playing vote-bank politics over nuclear deal and trying to polarize Muslim voters around them. CPM’s communal agenda was to alienate Muslims from rest of the population. They are still trying their best to portrait that the interests of Muslims are different and contrasting from all other sections of population. This attempt has two cutting edge solutions: Making Muslims suspicious about Govt of India and second, creating clash of interests. This attempt is yet another hideous attempt of divisive policies of communists.
Spokesperson of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, India’s largest Muslim organization, Moulana Abdul Hameed Noomani has rightly said: “The Indo-US nuclear deal is an issue of national significance. Every community member is bound to have their own take on the issue. Why the Left is not talking about what other communities feel? What the Left is now doing is nothing but dirty politics? The issue is why has the CPM singled out Muslims? It’s high time the CPM realizes that national interest is more important than ideological interest. They can go on supporting China but don’t use the Muslim community to make their case.”
This controversial deal is no more a nuclear deal, with a long time legacy of betrayal against national interest, communists are back on work of communalizing the nation over an international agreement. This time they got their unconditional allied, alike fascist and communal counterpart 'BJP' with them. The most menacing red imperialists (CPI-ML and Naxalites) have been doing all possible activities to harm the India as nation, having deeply rooted with imperial objectives these mass murderers and casteist have danced along with CPM on the matter. Though the deal has been poorly design and it bent towards the American supremacy, it can't be opposed as it provide an edge to Indian Atomic Programme and recognize India as a nuclear power. However, more independent developments to be done on the energy requirement issue. It is high time for the youth of India to take responsibility for an inclusive vision and holistic thought process on burning issues like poverty, food security, energy security, internal security and national integration. We must have to think for tomorrow and it is our duty to eliminate foxy, opportunistic and greedy politicians.

Ever since the movie "Iron Man" opened, the popularity of this picture I took last summer in France has ballooned, thanks to people who are searching Google and Flickr for images with the keywords "iron" and "man" and "mask."

Apologies to the fans. I know it's not what you were looking for. But if it's any consolation, this was awesomely hilarious to see on the chateau tour.

After many months of thinking, learning, writing, talking, designing, testing, thinking more, rewriting, and learning new stuff again, the public beta of Youth Media Exchange is live!

YMEX.org is a new online social network, developed by TIG, Global Kids, and Asia Society, where young people can share, create, and learn about digital media for social change. It's full of resources to learn about both digital media production and global issues, and it's ready and waiting for YOU to come check it out, share your media, and get your voice heard.

There's much more to be said about the process, as well as what's still to come. But as we know, if I wait to write a well crafted post, it will never get done, so for now, just check it out: http://www.ymex.org and let us know what you think!

The deluges of rain, snow, and American Airlines cancellations from April 9-12 were no deterrents to a great few days at the National Service Learning Conference in Minneapolis. I still haven’t broken my recent streak of traveling to bad weather (San Antonio, I have my eye on you…) but the NSLC was worth it nonetheless.

A couple months ago, a fellow frequent-conference-exhibitor had tried to warn me about the NSLC, a conference, in their opinion, with a totally dead exhibit hall. In MY opinion, an empty exhibit hall is a sign of a GOOD conference! Not only was I glad to see that the NSLC has such a compelling agenda that people actually went to the workshops, but the booth saw plenty of traffic during breakfast, lunch, and other breaks.

I met a professor from Argentina who coordinates a network of thousands of schools there involved in service learning (Damian, I’ll be putting you two in touch!), made new contacts at organizations looking for online tools to connect the young people in their programs, and shared resources with several hundred teachers and students who are highly active in service learning projects in their schools and communities.

And, when things were a little slow, I took the opportunity to check out all the other great groups who were there to share resources with the young people and educators involved in service learning. I’m still not all the way through the stack of materials I picked up, but here’s a sample:

At the Free Tibet booth, I signed a petition and had an inspiring conversation with a student activist (who is a Tibetan refugee born in India, now living and studying in Saint Paul – he told me Minnesota has the second largest Tibetan community in the US) about Tibet, China, and the Olympics.

At the Peace Corps booth, I learned more about how they connect volunteers in the field to classrooms in the US, and met a staffer who thinks very highly of the TIG Guide to Action, and recommended that their whole network use it in planning events for Global Youth Service Day. It means a lot to have the endorsement of a leading service organization.

The folks from the Shinnyo-En Foundation were handing out t-shirts and DVDs to promote their new Six Billion Paths to Peace initiative, and I talked to a program officer for a while to understand what the campaign is about, since I missed out on the gala that the rest of the GYAN crew attended in New York in March (while I was still recovering from the flu) :)

There was no one at the Project Learning Tree booth, but I was intrigued by this sign, in thinking about our own sustainability practices when it comes to outreach and marketing:



It was also great to meet leaders from Youth Service America and put faces to names I’ve heard around the GYAN office in planning for GYSD.

There were three sessions I managed to attend – both keynotes (awesome move on NSLC’s part to close the exhibit hall during the keynotes!), as well as a panel on youth media.

Pedro Noguera, as much respect as I have for his work, gave a surprisingly generic keynote compared to other times I’ve heard him speak. He made some great points about how unacceptable and sorry the state of our education system is, but with this crowd, he might have been preaching to the choir. Then again, almost every keynote I’ve ever heard pales in comparison to the inspiration and energy and awe that I gained from hearing Archbishop Desmond Tutu deliver the keynote on Friday. How can you beat a Nobel Peace Prize Winner and spiritual leader telling a knock-knock joke in reference to the Bible?



In all seriousness though, having spent a lot of time thinking about the distinctions between service and activism, Desmond Tutu’s keynote gave a refreshing bit of historical perspective. I’ve struggled with the way service and activism (both of which fall under the umbrella of civic engagement) are often separated from one another, particularly service as a “safe” or non-political term, one used to describe what students do unto other, less-fortunate people, while activism gets pigeon-holed as a more radical thing that happens separately from learning. In limiting what each term means, we also misunderstand and underestimate the importance they play in enabling young people as social changemakers, whether in school or out. Archbishop Tutu reminded us that young people have always been changemakers and activists – from the Bible (it was a young person, David, who stood up to Goliath) to the students who led the civil rights movement, protested against South African apartheid, and now speak out against the Chinese occupation of Tibet.

Finally, the youth media panel was perhaps a bit long, but I learned about some cool projects:

- thefoshow.com – Run out of the high school for performing arts in Minneapolis, it’s the only commercial radio station in US completely run and produced by high school students.

- Strive Media – print and video production (Gumbo Teen Magazine) out of Minneapolis

- Beyond Green – the latest project from Listen Up!

- Teen International Media Exchange (TIME) – program using media to explore seven global issues, based at Media Academy at Cleveland HS in Los Angeles

I was really honored to meet Sidibay, a young person I’ve heard a lot about through our mutual friends at iEARN Canada, who presented his award-winning documentary about his life as a child soldier in Sierra Leone.

The importance of global perspectives and connections in service learning really seems to be on the rise within the NSLC community, so it was great to participate in that conversation as it expands, and hope we’ll be back next year!

Knowing that having a site as multilingual as TIG is unusual, it was cool to happen upon a panel at SXSW about website internationalization and localization. While the moderator had a few annoying moments (mostly making a big deal about how many in the audience raised their hands to the question "do you live in a country where English is the primary language?" - this should not be surprising at a conference with mostly American attendees), overall there were quite a few tips that I think we can learn a lot from.


-being bilingual does not make you a translator

-translators are often not technology people, so they don’t know the right technical language to translate interface words (“apply”, “enter”, “submit”)

-context is everything – if the translator can’t see the language in context, they will get it wrong

-have a translator on board at the wireframing stage, so that person can point out contextual and cultural issues

-localization isn’t just replacing the words in one language into another, it’s also about giving appropriate cultural and social context

-translation needs to deal not just with literal words, but also with concepts that don’t translate from one culture/language to another

-Social networking sites don’t choose their users, users choose the site – snses grow because users tell their friends, and want to find people like themselves. If a site has a high concentration of users in a particular culture, it sometimes turns users from other countries off because they don’t understand why the site seems so saturated with members and content from another country (this happened with Orkut – Americans complained that it was too Brazilian! So Orkut responded by giving users the option of only connecting with other people who speak the same language as them)

-most sites view internationalization efforts as moving to a language other than English

-Community driven translation is NOT the norm - one of panelists asked if anyone was allowing their online community to do the translation for them – only two of us raised our hands (probably 75-100 in the room)

-use icon based representation with mouse-over where possible, to reduce multilingual formatting issues (words being longer in diff languages) – but beware the problem with an icon/image having different cultural meanings

-sometimes you try to localize so much that you end up with something that is “just ok” in a lot of languages, and “not so great” in a few – instead of trying to rebrand and make the site almost its own stand alone in different locations

Cool sites to check out:
-One of the speakers was from Worldwide Lexicon project – really cool open source translation and localization tools, ability to develop multilingual web apps, Simple Localization System (SLS - php library), and multilingual blogging/publishing tools – with a wiki approach to translating web content.

-dotsub – community subtitling and translation tool

-publishing industry becoming unbundled from old fashioned vertical integration and will be replaced by companies that just do one element of the business

-Budapest Open Access Declaration – scholarly articles (in medicine, science, and engineering) should be open licensed and available for everyone – NIH now mandates that publications resulting from projects it funds must be open access

-now there is a call for a similar movement - Capetown Open Education Declaration (Shuttleworth Foundation, OSI) – main premise is that all publicly funded education materials should have open access

-changing role of people in producing knowledge – mixed roles of “teacher” and “student” and “expert” etc.
-changing role of content and how we classify information
-changing role of context – textbooks lack context and personalization, digital content allows customized learning experience

Friends,

It is a good example, how fanatic a communist can be. After a quick research in news sources, I found the total number of deaths caused by communist regime. They have killed more people than all regime together. Here is the data, how communists have killed the most people in the human history.
- People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong's regime (1949-1975): 40 000 000
Guinness Book of World Records: Although nowadays they don't come right out and declare Mao to be the Top Dog in the Mass Killings category, earlier editions (such as 1978) did, and they cited sources which are similar, but not identical, to the Glaser & Possony sources:
- On 7 Apr. 1969 the Soviet government radio reported that 26,300,000 people were killed in China, 1949-65.
- In April 1971 the cabinet of the government of Taiwan reported 39,940,000 deaths for the years 1949-69.
- The Walker Report (see below): between 32,2500,000 and 61,700,000.

- Stalin's regime (1924-53): 20 000 000

- Chinese Civil war: (1945-49): 2 500 000

- Tibet (1950 et seq.): Chinese occupation. (For the most part, it's already been included in the numbers above.) Free Tibet Campaign [http://www.freetibet.org/info/facts/fact1.html]
* Tibetans killed by the Chinese since 1950: 1,200,000
* Died in prisons and labour camps between 1950 and 1984: up to 260,000

- Naxalites in India from 1990 to till date: 50,000

- Pol-Pot in Vietnam have have killed 10,00000

- CPI-M in West Bengal and Kerala- 20,000 Till date
(and accommodate millions of illegal Bangladeshi migrants)

Friends, knowing all this, if someone still support such pan-communist killers. After committing all these killing they are qualified to be termed and mass-butchers. One can imagine such people can be more ruthless than even Satan. Ironically, the Indian version of communists are not opening their mouth on present Tibet issue. If they are so much concern about global communist brotherhood, they should take stand on it- either in favour of China or Tibet.

Jason Fried is the founder of 37signals.com – an innovative technology company that has made some simple and awesome web-based productivity apps, like basecamp and campfire. He gave an amazing talk about productivity and collaboration ("Stuff we've learned") – this is a list of advice I’d kind of like to memorize.

-red flag words: need, can’t, easy, only, fast

-“be successful and make money by helping other people be successful and make money” – people are more willing to pay for things that help them – spot chain reactions and be the catalyst for making them happen

-minimize the chance for competition from entrenched players – e.g., build tools that provide just the simple solutions of what people need (vs. the products that are overkill for most people “nonconsumers”)

-question your work regularly – remember that you don’t know everything:
Why are we doing this?
What problem are we solving?
Is this actually useful?
Are we adding value?
Will this change behavior?
Is there an easier way?
What’s the opportunity cost?
Is it really worth it?

-it’s really important to ask what you can’t do because you’re taking on something else?

-many sites don’t just suffer from bad design, they suffer from bad copy that don’t make sense to anyone – PAY ATTENTION TO THE WORDS YOU USE TO CONVEY MESSAGES TO USERS. Words that need fixing are a much cheaper problem to solve than technical ones.

-err on the side of simple – start with the easy way of doing things and see if it satisfies what you wanted to do

-get three things done in one week, instead of one thing done in 3 weeks – “the longer it takes to develop something, the less likely you are to launch it”

-resist the urge to try to do more the next time around

-invest in what doesn’t change – what are the core things about the business that are important now and will still be important ten years from now?

-“what’s your cookbook?” – Celebrity chefs as a metaphor (they don’t try to keep their recipes a secret out of fear that people will open copy-cat restaurants). Figure out what expertise you can share, and share it – don’t be afraid that people will overtake and steal your business – your business is sharing what you build.

-interruption kills productivity – having people around you who interrupt you makes you not get stuff done. Try to combat this with passive communication (wikis, IM, email, etc) – these tools let the other person hear from you when you’re ready, not when they think you’re ready

-be open, honest, public, and responsive – people would much rather hear the truth, even in crisis.

-break problems down to the atomic level – “when you make tiny decisions you can’t make big mistakes”

-everything you do should matter – don’t do stuff that doesn’t matter!

-hire by looking for people who are honest/have good character, curious (most important), and do interesting things outside of work

-use what you build, and then you will know when it works

I'm finally getting my notes from SXSW posted. I took a lot of them, and came home and promptly got really sick. But they will all appear here in good time.



The opening keynote on Saturday was a conversation between Steven Johnson (author of Everything Bad is Good for You) and Henry Jenkins (professor at MIT, Comparative Media Studies Program). As a chronic conference-goer, I find myself hearing the same people keynoting over and over again, saying the same things over and over, and often saying essentially the same things as one another. It was refreshing that, despite having read the work of both speakers, and having heard each speak at other events, I actually learned some new things and had a chance to rethink some previous ideas.

That said, there were some points I was glad to hear repeated, since the audience at SXSW is not dominated by educators. We need people in other sectors to rally behind the need for empirical evidence and educational assessment models that support new media literacies, and to challenge the current reality that schools measure autonomous, not collective, learning. Also:
-high school students are one of the most highly underestimated groups online, but the challenge is – can we free young people up to write about what’s happening in their community? (not punish them, censor them, restrict their first amendment rights)
How do we give students the tools to use the time, creativity, and idealism they have, so they can be active community participants?

-if 50-60% of young people are creating content online, what is causing the other 40% not to create? Social, cultural, and economic disempowerment? Lack of ethical guidance from adult mentors?

-if America is failing in the world, it’s because workplaces and schools are failing to empower workers and students to realize their full potential – they start with the premise that we’re all idiots, not that we are all knowledgeable with expertise and creativity to share.

On politics, Jenkins made some interesting points about Obama’s “yes we can” as a metaphor for new kinds of social/civic engagement, by using language that describes a process of participation, collecting knowledge and distributing it to make change. He also argues that the criticism of Obama borrowing pieces of a speech from Deval Patrick holds less water if you look at it through the new lens of collective learning, knowledge, and participation. And, we should be asking what a culture of democracy truly looks like.

Other thought provoking ideas:
-the deep level of fan/consumer engagement with tv shows like Lost and The Wire, and the pop culture communities that have grown up around them, often come out of people not having enough intellectual and creative stimulation in the workplace.

-thinking about collective intelligence as Surowiecki’s “wisdom of crowds” (pooling knowledge and averaging out an answer) vs. the deliberative sharing of knowledge from different points of view and reaching a consensus (dependent on individual expertise, diversity of the community, and respect for all perspectives brought to the table). Jenkins aligned these approaches with YouTube (what moves up is the dominant/majority/popular perspective) vs. Wikipedia (a space with mechanisms for inclusion of diverse perspectives).

-it’s important to question the usage of the language of addiction related to online activity and gaming (many “addicts” are actually depressed and the addiction is manifesting itself through gaming; also Chinese gov’t using “addiction” as reason to restrict young people’s access to the internet)

-progressives need to have a context for where progress is coming from in order to encourage the movement to continue growing (this sounds like what Chris Lehman often says about the current technology in education movement)

Cool sites they mentioned:
- Harry Potter Alliance– global network of young people trying to change the world, inspired by Harry Potter as a young person who transformed his world:

- Outside.In – Johnson’s project, building out geographic infrastructure of the web and fostering people using the internet for very local community participation. Their about-to-launch tool is On My Radar (“like a geo-twitter,” commented Kate). Speaks to a need for civic media tools for local experts to participate and share knowledge without having to go through traditional media structures to communicate

Finally, some dissertation-ey thoughts about new media literacies. Because of YMEX I’ve had Jenkins’ framework on the brain for quite a while, but one component I would like to spend more time unpacking – is where these new media literacies intersect with the sociolinguistic concept of codeswitching. If young people are developing the ability to learn and access information across a range of modalities (what Jenkins calls transmedia navigation), can it also be argued that they are learning to communicate in a range of linguistic codes that these new media require? How well do they codeswitch between the linguistic norms of each – from text messaging to online social networking sites to the f2f classroom, etc.? How might educators interact better with their students if they understood their ways of communicating through the lens of codeswitching? I’ve been thinking particularly about how Ben Rampton’s work on codeswitching and youth could be applied…

And, apparently not everyone at SXSW was hearing repeat speakers. As I walked out, I heard a guy behind me say to his friend, “It was cool, but I didn’t know who he was exactly…I thought it was Henry James.”

Right.

There is a famous saying which says, “I prefer liberty with danger to peace with slavery.”

I must congratulate our Tibetan friends for their brave struggle against China’s annexation of their beloved land. The recent brave protest is fundamental right of human being and Chinese government must be condemned with strong words for killing hundreds of Tibetan protestors.

The Dalai Lama accused China of unleashing a 'cultural genocide' in Tibet and demanded an impartial international probe into the situation in violence-hit Lhasa. Friends from Tibetan Freedom Movement has informed and appealed:

“Following a police crackdown on a protest staged by monks from Ramoche Monastery in central Lhasa, dozens of monks and lay people clashed with armed police in the streets, overturning police vehicles and lighting them on fire. Police have fired live ammunition into crowds of unarmed Tibetans and there are unconfirmed reports of a massacre of 26 Tibetans outside Drapchi prison and many reports that the number of Tibetans killed could top 100. While the international public and media have been appropriately horrified by China's clampdown, it is imperative that our national governments speak out in support for Tibet and condemn China's actions. Please call and write to your elected representatives and urge them to push their governments to strongly condemn China's crackdown in Tibet.”

For a sample letter, visit: http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/supporttibet

This incident is against humanity and basic human right. However, in India, the counterpart of Chinese government ‘the communists’ have been doing the same with fierce daring within democratic setup of nation. They have claimed the highest number of their protesters and opponents. Not even this, when China attacked India and captured a larger part of Laddakh, these communists started singing songs in praise of China and even claimed that “China’s head is our head.”

Since last one year, hundreds of villagers have been killed by communist government of West Bengal. When a probe was setup, they never hesitate to criticize even CBI as it found communist leader guilty for the massacre. Similarly, these communist political lumpens criticized judiciary when it questioned the murder of opponent party in Kerala. The Economic times reports “Stalin’s boys united in criticizing High Court.” It further reports, they angry over the high court’s observations that police in state have become instrument of political masters. Recently, they workers of communist party have killed several non-communist political workers.

The universal communist brotherhood has been nurtured in India very carefully. The communist in India feel jubilant when a communist government forces opponents or kills them. Due to participation and support in present government they have jeopardizes internal security of India several times by allowing Chinese companies, professionals an easy entry in India.

Blame to Nehruvian policy, India has not been able to take responsibility of peace and security in Asia. Rather it’s own territories are under control of militant state like Pakistan and dictator state like China. People from these territories are living a inhuman and tortured life. Policy makers of India during time of Nehru forget the teaching of Mahatama Gandhi - “Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong”. They rather make nonviolence is weapon of weak and weakest India and result is still India bleed in Kashmir and everywhere. Not only India, but the neighboring nation like Tibet was captured and enslaved. A weakest and unwise contemporary Indian government must be held responsible for this.

India and whole world must condemn the genocide in Tibet and put a sever pressure on Chinese demons until they stop suppressing Tibetan and make it free. It is very much possible in integrated global economy.

I was never one of those kids who knew what they wanted to be when they grew up (in fact, I'm still not entirely sure...). But it's a privilege to me that I had friends who knew exactly what they wanted to be, and blazed paths in pursuit of those goals, so I knew what it can look like to get from point A to point B, and onwards to C, D, and F. To be sure, I was also graced with examples from adult role models, but it was especially meaningful to see my peers make their way and to learn from them, and now, have the chance to be proud of them.

One of my best friends from high school is now an actor in one of Chicago's most successful and fresh young theatre companies, and she refused to settle for anything less than her dreams, no matter who told her that she would have to wait tables, or that she better major in something practical, just in case. The pictures of my sister sitting at a typewriter at age two seem now to be the perfect symbol of her life path to becoming a newspaper reporter, covering the politics beat. Neither are easy goals to attain, but I'm lucky to know firsthand what it takes to get there.

The person who is perhaps my oldest friend in life - we started school together at age seven and graduated from high school together ten years later - is now a scientist, completing her PhD and contributing to research that is deepening our understanding of ocean sustainability and climate change. My memories of her as far back as middle school include her dreams of being a marine biologist, and I've had the opportunity to see that dream grow into a reality, through many years of formal education, fieldwork, muddy boots, and the most admirable tenacity, even in circumstances under which most of us might give up. Knowing her all these years did little to improve my own scientific abilities, but it taught me what it looks like to do hard work, to be a researcher, and now, to care more about the application of scientific knowledge to the social issues about which I already care very deeply.

For all the talk about preparing students for the world of work, as important as it is to define skill sets and ready them for the global economy, it often seems that we leave out from the conversation what those pathways really look like. There is outstanding work being done to define specific pathways to global citizenship and to digital citizenship, but are we also showing students what it looks like to identify their passions and pursue their own goals? It seems like we're afraid to let students see, "this is what it looks like to be a scientist" and how you can get there, because we're caught up in a belief (or fear?) that jobs will change too fast, as if the economy of the future does not allow for goals or dreams. Knowing that those pathways exist is important, even for the ones who haven't figured out what their dreams might be, and regardless of what they ultimately pursue. Young people should have a realistic (and media literate) understanding of the pathway to the least attainable goals - like being an NBA superstar or the next American Idol, and they should have the same awareness of more common professional journeys, and of those pathways that change at every turn. We should be situating the necessary skills, knowledge, and capacities in these real world pathways - we'll never engage students in those frameworks in the abstract. And, they should know that each of these involves failure, and most of them involve failing multiple times. We're definitely too scared to let students in on that secret, even though learning from failure is likely the most important piece we can model for them.

1st ever DV film released in theatre by a Marathi woman director


I feel it necessary to elaborate on a few points, as to why this film was specifically made on the lowest digital format, i.e. a mini DV standard definition format & still it was released in the theatre.

It’s an experiment done because of valid reasons.

WHY?

Youth of today have mind blowing concepts, but no investor/financer invests in them, as the stakes in the film print format are very high & recovery is not possible/assured. So they reach only upto brainstorming sessions, & get into the industry main stream as 4th – 5th – 8th assistants. Till the time they prove their metal & convince someone to invest in them…they have crossed the youth… accepted the fact that main stream cinema works on so called adjustments in the script… in the bargain the volatile thoughts which actually deal with their problems cool off…die /aborted …
& we elders take pride in watching worldwide path breaking cinema in International festivals...

To this cycle applying break is a must…

HOW?

I had a 3CCD mini DV handy cam, on which I had made a 2 min.s social awareness film on AIDS, using natural lights & using audio captured on the camera mike. The results were too good. It was shot on the dark night & on the road with traffic.
You can see the film ‘it’s just unjust’ on www.youtube.com

I felt if I can make a 2 min. film, why not a 2 hr.s feature?
Everyone including my young friends thought I had lost my mind.
I debated, a film is nothing but telling a story.
Have a script which speaks thru the camera & the performer artists, i.e. actors.

On the one liner which I had, I decided to work.

Because the film was to be shot with naturally available lights & camera mike, as no lights hired…no sound system … no operators… no attendants… in the bargain, my crew members were just myself & my asst. & a continuity girl.
So time needed in between the shots for shifting the camera angle was just a few seconds, this not only minimized no. of days of shooting, but also helped maintain the emotional continuity of the actors. We shot the entire film in just 10 days.
As the sound quality was very good, no dubbing was done in the post production. This also helped maintaining the natural flow of the dialogue delivery of the performers.




I made a few tests with the help of UFO, & both myself & UFO technical team were convinced that this film can be theatre released. & that’s the moment I felt my experiment has come a full circle.

Why does a person make a creative effort…?
To reach the masses ofcourse.
He/she wants to say something to the mankind. & if the release in the theatres is assured with technical finesse, what else the producer – director & their team slogs for…
It’s for this golden day only…

Through UFO, I released the film in Ahmednagar, Asha Corner theatre. This too was done intentionally, that the film can reach to the remotest viewer with same technical quality.

When the people in the theatre watching my film said it was a great experience, I explained to them my experiment, & their reaction was, they never felt the difference…

Now you will know, why am I so keen to take this film to masses thru
http://www.ufomoviez.com/statewiseTheater.aspx
they are extending their network to Dubai & other Asian countries.
access to this link, u will get the list of theatres , where UFO system is installed.
I can show 'chivitrach saare' in these theatres directly.

EVERYONE IS AWARE THAT DIGITAL CINEMA IS THE NEAR FUTURE.
But this experiment is not only about the digital cinema, it’s about every yuva group, with a few thousand Rs. in hands, & a mind blowing story, thru which they can reach & express to the masses, thru a technically fit theatre release. They need not wait till their career’s end for an investor. & investors too can invest as the recovery is not a menace, it’s assured.

Now I feel that this experiment should to one & all, to class & the mass, to viewers who respect the new, innovative ideas, to makers who have ideas but restricted budget…..

Thru you I can reach all those…

Access to this link http://audience.withoutabox.com/films/malhar
to get more info about my film 'chivitrach saare'.

My next film ‘RISHTAA AISA…’ also is done on the same format & will be released all over india (in more than 1200 theatres)thru UFO, in May 1st wk. without a single print,& without piracy.








PROPOSAL

Cost of the show : Royalty of US$ 300 per show +US$ 75 for postage for sending the DVD master (one time).

Part of this money will be used to realize further projects giving preference to young talent.

Money can be sent thru a paypal a/c or a DD in favour of ‘NEELKANTEE PATEKAR’



With warm regards,
Neelkantee patekar

Dearest Fellow Educators,

I would like to invite you to join APEC Cyber Academy International Online Learning Contest for both elementary and high school students. This project is hosted by University of Tainan, Taiwan and its site is http://linc.hinet.net/apec Please use internet explorer as your browser when you visit the site. In case you receive this letter and you're not a classroom teacher, i would like to ask if you could share this opportunity to teachers under your program.

Apec Cyber Academy has different contest category which would fit the learning competencies/curriculum in different subject areas like English, Math, Health and Science, History and TLE/Computer classes. The contest starts this February 17 and ends on April 19, 2008. Each winning team (which is composed of student/s and a teacher) will receive certificate from Taiwan and a chance to attend the international convention in Taiwan this year.

Please register now so you and your students could prepare in advance since all modules for each learning activity are now ready for browsing. Aside from uploading outputs, there will be live virtual conference for students with volunteer facilitators from Philippines, Taiwan and USA which could enhance student's English language proficiency.

In case you have queries please don't hesitate to contact me as one of APEC volunteer facilitators.My skype account is ceciliaestoque and my YM is the same as my email address.

I hope to see your teams on APEC Cyber Academy list of participants soon!

It takes only a mustard seed of faith to move a mountain...but it takes commitment to make a difference.

Very sincerely yours,
Cecilia M. Estoque
Teacher/International IT Online Learning Volunteer Coordinator/Facilitator
Philippines

Just when I think irony has finally been pushed off a cliff to its death (often while people watching in certain areas of my neighborhood in Brooklyn), my faith is renewed.

This morning I set out to read a New York Times article about the convergence of casual games and social networks, as seen in the success of games like Scrabulous, and the enormous potential that has for generating advertising revenue. No sooner had I clicked on the title, which included the phrase "a net to snare social networkers" in it, than was I assaulted by an OpinionMart popup survey asking me to give it all up right then and there.

It's not a bad article, by the way, but since I still can't figure out if this is intentional irony or not, I'm resisting the urge to help the Times with their potential link baiting strategy on this one.

Here you are
Here I am
Here they are
We are here

In this world
Full of sorrow
Full of war
Full of injustices
Full of half truths
Lacking reconciliations

But we have to move on
So we here
The voices of reasoning reckoning

But do we hear
As the wind full of cries pass
The cries of young children
The cries of our mothers
The cries of our neighbours
The cries of our sisters
The cries of our brothers
Oh! The list is quite long

But wait a minute
How did it all start
It is true we have to put off the fire
Then enquire
How it all started

Now the fire has stopped burning
How did it all start
Well it was some injustices
It was some lack of truth
It was the robbing of the hope
Of many young people

But does it justify
The blood bath we are seeing
The loss of property we are seeing
The loss of livelihood we are experiencing

We need to come together
To save the world
But also note that
PEACE without JUSTICE and TRUTH
Will never be sustained for long
But PEACE with JUSTICE and TRUTH
Is as long lasting as eternal life
A message of peace for the bleeding Kenya