Aluta Continua: Cuban Updates (My new segment so IGNORANT people know of Cuban progress)

Cuba, a Model of Hurricane Preparation

Says UN Officialby Prensa Latina
Posted: Sep 15, 2004
20:16 UTCUnited Nations (Prensa Latina)

The head of the UN body that focuses on disaster reduction said Cuba is a model for other countries in the management of hurricane risks, according to UN News Center.Salvano Briceno, director of the International Secretariat for Disaster Reduction, said Cubans are taught in schools, universities and workplaces how to prepare for hurricanes and how to cope with them if they hit the country.Some 1.3 million Cuban people were evacuated from their homes in anticipation of the arrival of Hurricane Ivan. Television and radio stations are used to transmit information to the public and all institutions are mobilized 48 hours in advance of the expected arrival of a serious storm, the official praised.Mr. Briceno said there is also the strong Cuban political desire to minimize the impact of hurricanes on the local population - something that is missing in some other nations. "Leaders of countries around the world have at their disposal the knowledge needed to reduce risk and vulnerability to hazards. Even poor countries are not entirely without options to mitigate or prevent the consequences of hazards," he said. ile/ccs/ima/

Cuban drug to make debut in U.S.

By LEONARD ZEHR
Globe and Mail Update
Tuesday, September 07, 2004

You still can't buy a good Cuban cigar in the United States, but an apparent policy shift in Washington is paving the way for the arrival of experimental cancer treatments from the outcast island country.

In July, the U.S. Department of the Treasury gave CancerVax Corp. of San Diego the green light to license a package of three drugs that were developed at the Centre of Molecular Immunology (CIM) in Havana.

The package included two early stage cancer compounds from YM BioSciences Inc. of Mississauga, which has been CIM's licensing partner since 1995.

CancerVax also picked up a cancer vaccine that YM returned to CIM in 2002 as part of a corporate refocusing.

"This is the first time a Cuban-originated biological product has been licensed by a U.S. company," said YM president and chief executive officer David Allan, referring to CancerVax's two-year lobbying in Congress to drive a wedge in the Helms-Burton Act. The legislation prohibits Americans from any commercial venture that would funnel money to Cuba.

"The astonishing thing to me is that it happened at all."

The shadow of U.S.-Cuban political and trade frictions has hung over YM since it was founded in 1994 to commercialize medical discoveries in Cuba.

Specifically, investors in North America were reluctant to finance development of TheraCIM and several other Cuban cancer treatments because of potential hurdles in winning marketing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. As a result, the bulk of YM's financing has taken place in Europe, where investors have encouraged the company to diversify beyond Cuba.

While CIM and YM get up-front cash and future royalties if CancerVax's testing succeeds, YM retained ownership of the drug TheraCIM.
TheraCIM is an antibody that targets the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor to block tumour growth, a mechanism of action that makes it equivalent to ImClone Systems Inc.'s hot-selling Erbitux cancer drug.

A spokesman for the U.S. State Department said the CancerVax licence was a unique case that recognized the "potential to successfully treat a deadly disease using technology not otherwise available."

As a matter of policy, he said the government will continue to "consider licence requests where there is a potential benefit to U.S. public health."

Mr. Allan said CancerVax's breakthrough is expected to accelerate YM's negotiations to sign a sales and marketing deal for TheraCIM with a U.S. drug company.

"My guess is it will go quite quickly," he said, adding that TheraCIM is the only EGF receptor drug without a marketing partner in the United States. The reason: the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba that prevented companies from even negotiating with YM.

YM has already partnered TheraCIM in Europe with Oncoscience AG of Germany, which is planning several clinical trials this year, including a late-stage study in brain cancer.

The drug has won 10 years of marketing exclusivity if approved, which could help the drug approval process in the United States, analysts say.

"[Brain cancer] is a small market but in oncology, if you get something approved, oncologists tend to use it off-label for other cancers," said Dlouhy Merchant Group analyst Doug Loe.

Sprott Securities analyst David Dean, who initiated coverage of YM in June with a 12-month target price of $7, calls the stock price "dramatically undervalued." It closed Friday at $3.35 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, giving the company a market value of $94.4-million.
"People misunderstand YM because of the early Cuban connection and a so-called failed clinical trial for tesmilifene, and neither of those are applicable any more," he said.

"The YM story has really changed but people are slow to realize it."

YM's flagship tesmilifene drug was discovered at the University of Manitoba and is designed to make chemotherapy drugs work better.
In an earlier late-stage study, the drug failed its primary end point of tumour response in 305 women with metastatic breast cancer.
But after further analysis, scientists found that it had extended patient survival by more than 50 per cent, compared with a control arm, and 143 per cent in women with aggressive breast cancer.

Those results prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to accept the study as one of two needed for approval.

It also gave YM the green light for a second late-stage trial, which only needs to show a 33-per-cent improvement in survival over chemotherapy alone.

Moreover, the FDA gave YM permission to review the test data after 192 deaths, which Mr. Allan figures will occur in mid-2006.
If the drug can show a 50-per-cent improvement in survival, YM can file for approval at that time, setting the stage for a possible 2007 launch. If not, the trial will continue until all 700 patients are studied.

Mr. Dean likes tesmilifene's chances of success and estimates the drug's initial market potential at $300-million (U.S.) a year, climbing to more than $1-billion if it is used with several chemotherapy drugs and also to treat a certain type of prostate cancer.
Mr. Allan said YM is negotiating a co-development deal for the sales and marketing of tesmilifene, with the objective of getting a 50-per-cent share of revenues.

"Our preference is a U.S. biotech company that is ready to launch a cancer product with its own sales force and will need additional products like tesmilifene to sell."

Maradona leaves for drug treatment in Cuba


Mon Sep 20, 1:46 PM ET
BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - Argentinian football legend Diego Maradona left for Cuba to undergo treatment for his addiction to cocaine.


The 43-year-old - who was accompanied by one of his sisters and his doctor Alfredo Cahe - had won a court battle to be allowed to do so after his ex-wife and daughters challenged that believing he would not get the treatment he needed.

Maradona gave an emotional television interview on the eve of his departure saluting his fans.

"I love you very deeply," he said.

"I will do my best to stay alive. I am still with you, whatever happens in the future it will be me who decides and not others.

"I love you all with all my heart....with the heart that remains to me."

Only 10 days ago Maradona had to be rushed to hospital with high blood pressure and a high fever, having almost died earlier in the year because of heart and lung problems.

The Argentinian court though ruled that the 1986 World Cup winner could only be treated in The Mental Health Centre (CENSAM) in Havana and nowhere else on the island.

Director praises Fidel,blasts Bush in Spain
Oliver Stone says president 'will go downin history as one of the great baddies'

Posted: September 25, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

Director Oliver Stone ripped President Bush while praising Cuban dictator Fidel Castro

before the premiere of his movie "Looking for Fidel," at the 52nd San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain.

Stone charged that Bush stole the election with the help of anti-Castro Cuban-Americans in Florida, according to a report in Cuba's Granma newspaper.

"When (Vice President Al) Gore lost, or rather, when they stole the elections from him, I sensed that something dirty was going to happen, but the harm has already been done and its extent is very significant," said Stone. "Now, I am praying that something of that sort does not occur once again. George Bush will go down in history as one of the great baddies."

A reporter asked: "What kind of power does the anti-Castro lobby in the United States have?"

"To start with, anti-Castro groups were vital in implementing the dirty business of the butterfly ballots ensuring Bush's victory at the 2000 elections," said Stone. "The right wing is the same everywhere, in Cuba or Viet Nam. It is like an octopus, snatching everything with its tentacles. They control the Internet, radio and TV stations, and newspapers. But above all, they are perfectly organized. Right wingers master the art of negative publicity and are capable of destroying the image of anyone they consider to be their enemy. They annihilate anything opposed to their interests, utilizing mass emailing, articles, and reports. In the United States, censorship is the order of the day. It is really sad to think that Florida may end up deciding the November elections once again, and that the extreme-right wing, including anti-Castro groups, may manipulate the results for a second time. These people are blinded by patriotic fanaticism and are ready to invade any country, and shoot down planes if necessary. They thought that my first movie about Castro, 'Comandante,' was hideous, and they killed it almost before it was even born. They were merely afraid of it."


On the other hand, Stone had nothing but praise for Castro, who has clung to authoritarian power with no elections in Cuba for half a century.

"Street demonstrations in favor of Fidel Castro are not a fake," claimed Stone. "If they were, those demonstrators should win an Oscar for best acting. I can testify to this because I have seen the joy on their faces when people come up to the president."

Stone also said: "President Bush has set the world on fire."

"In Cuba, I observed an openness and freedom that I had not found in any other country in the region, the Caribbean or Central America," Stone said. "I have met many world leaders in Panama, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, but have never seen the kind of spontaneous affection for a leader expressed on the streets as I have seen in Cuba towards Fidel."

A journalist asked Stone if the scenes of popular expressions for Castro in his movie were staged.

"They were totally spontaneous," said Stone. "We have visited several hospitals where they could have been expecting us, but having looked at people’s faces, I know that none of this was a fake. I have directed actors and I know when people are pretending and when they are not. Castro repeatedly asked me where I wanted to go next, and wherever we went, people would spontaneously come up to him. Where else in the world would this happen?"

Stone was effusive in his praise for Castro.

"I admire Fidel because he is a survivor," he said. "He has survived several U.S. presidents who have tried to eliminate him.”

He also said he admired Castro because of "his self confidence and honesty." The filmmaker confirmed that Castro "is one of the few world presidents who does not have one cent stashed abroad, and, at the same time, has brought his people to such a high educational level."
And what's the state of the USA in this presidential election year?

"My country is becoming more violent and negative every day," he said. "Bush has never been interested in consensus. In the year 2000, as we have unfortunately come to learn, a dangerous radical with a huge hidden agenda was hiding behind the mask of a compassionate conservative. This is a shame and a tragedy. The world would be completely different today had Bush not stolen the elections from Gore. Bush is only adding more fuel to the fire. He is a slave and the puppet of the large weapons and oil companies which put him into office."


On the trail of Che

BRUCE KIRKLAND, SUN MEDIA

TORONTO -- Revolutionary Che Guevara is one of the most controversial figures of the 20th century in Latin America. But the filmmakers behind The Motorcycle Diaries came to praise him for his early idealism, not bury him for his historical legacy. "I didn't want to judge those characters, you know," says Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles, "nor see them as who they became 20 years later. I wanted to try to look at them with innocence."

REVOLUTIONARY FIGURES

Salles is referring both to Ernesto Guevara - the Argentinian doctor who became Che, the iconic rebel - and Alberto Granada - Che's best friend, a scientist who also became a revolutionary. Granada still lives in Fidel Castro's Cuba, the troubled country he and Che helped to shape before Che died in action in a revolutionary war in Bolivia.

In the film, which plays in Spanish with English subtitles, emerging international movie star Gael Garcia Bernal plays Guevara; Rodrigo de la Serna is Granada.

"This is really what interests me in cinema," Salles says of the innocence in The Motorcycle Diaries, "the possibility to look at something in a way that one hasn't looked before."

The film is based on two books, Guevara's The Motorcycle Diaries and Granada's Traveling With Che Guevara, accounts of their epic 1952 road trip from Argentina to Venezuela. It started as a lark on a battered 1939 Norton bike that was badly leaking oil. It turned into a journey of discovery and socio-political transformation. En route, the two became radical idealists.

The film, which won the Ecumenical Prize at Cannes but was shut out of the main awards by Quentin Tarantino's jury, made its North American premiere at the Toronto film fest last month. It opens on Friday as one of the year's intriguing films.

But The Motorcycle Diaries is also stirring up passions and anger, especially in the U.S. where some Cuban exiles are furious that a sympathetic portrait of Che has been made.

"Somebody asked me what Guevara would think of Cuba today," says Salles, a motorcycle enthusiast and left-leaning filmmaker, who was born in Rio de Janeiro in April of 1956.

"I think that's completely out of the frame of this film. I think what's in frame here is his perception of Latin America at that time. It's really about his understanding that things could change - as I think things should change today because, if you look at the continent today, it's pretty similar to what it was. You know, the structural problems are pretty much the same."

The filmmakers, travelling light with a small crew, took the same journey as Guevara and Granada - three times - although not by motorcycle.

Twice was to scout locations, the third time to shoot the movie, mostly in sequence.

"You don't get any younger doing road movies, I can tell you!" Salles says with a wry smile.

"What we tried to do here was not only to adapt the two books but be faithful to the spirit of the journey. And that meant that we had to be accepting of whatever nature was going to bring us."

Nature brought blistering heat and frigid cold, including a freak snowstorm in Patagonia that meant Bernal and de la Serna pushed the heavy bike up a mountain road in snow.

CAN'T FIGHT MOTHER NATURE

"When you live in Latin America, you soon realize as a filmmaker that you have to work in synchronicity with nature and not try to control it," says Salles.

"So what we were aiming to do here is a film with a sense of urgency. We soon understood that what we were framing today was not very different from what existed in 1952.

"And that made us understand that we were doing a film in the present tense and not doing what you would call 'the historical film.' So we tried to move as organically and as rapidly as we could.

"Also, in this film, the human geography was more important to us than the physical geography."

Idle Musing

These are some pictures that I designed... hmmm if anyone ever wondered that is my girlfriend in the pictures yes...





Well here is a song that I like, or more acurately the translation of a song I like:

Title: Devil Mood - by Smoke City( A Disbanded European Band)

I am totally obsessed.
Please tell me, gently:
why are you so bad-
my terribly beautiful baby?
You're naughty whenever I see you
I want you more than yesterday
Yes true I want you
You're a bad one through and through

Nobody ever tried me thus
So beautiful and so wicked
from one thing- beautiful angel-
to the other- a devil
Delinquent and angelic, melting me
Your kiss is my wish
Take me to your hell

I feel in a devil mood
Being instilled by the devil
We get hot brings me so much pain
And pleasure I cant keep away

I am totally obsessed.
Please tell me, gently
why are you so bad-
my terribly beautiful baby?
You're naughty when I see you
I want you more than yesterday.
Yes it's true I want you
You're a bad one through an through
You're the devil but you're also an angel

I feel in a devil mood
Being instilled by the devil
We get hot
My devil, I love you
I love you, I love you,I love you

Caribbean Poetry That I Like

'Hello Ungod'

Ungod my lungs blacken
the cities have fallen
the easy prescriptions
have drilled final holes in my cells
Ungod my head sieves in the wind
Ungod I am sterile
Ungod it appears
I am dying
Ungod I am scared
Ungod can you hear me
Ungod I am testing 1 2 3
Ungod are you evil
Ungod I can't hear you
Ungod I am trying
Ungod I can't reach you
Ungod my lungs blacken
the cities have fallen
head sieves in the wind

Ungod disconnecting.

Lunch Hour

Frederick Street
suffocating,
strangled by people.

Stiletto heels
stab at the pavement.

In the formica atmosphere
waiters scuttle by
serving diners their noon portion
of air-conditioned aloofness.

Waiting
bites hugely
into the time.

At last at the elbow
a waiter
with his 'Instant Coffee' smile.

They've tried to make
that awkward dark cell
below the staircase
into a romantic alcove
but
eating there alone
as she always does
the young girl barricades
herself behind a stare
hard as old toast.

Going back
the balding city square
smells of dust, detachment
and passions discarded
like cheap coats.

Judy Miles
b. TRINIDAD 1944

This Is The Dark Time, My Love

This is the dark time, my love.
All around the land brown beetles crawl about.
The shining sun is hidden in the sky.
Red flowers bend their heads in sorrow.

This is the dark time, my love.
It is the season of oppression, dark metal, and tears.
It is the festival of guns, the carnival of misery.
Everywhere the faces of men are strained and anxious.

Who comes walking in the dark night time?
Whose boot of steel tramps down the slender grass?
It is the man of death, my love, the stranger invader
watching yousleep and aiming at your dream.

by Martin Carter
b. GUYANA 1927

Poetry by the late Jullia Rypinski... (Well Just 2 that I liked)

Philosophy

I tried to keep my love at home
by binding him to me,
but all he did was love me less
and struggle to be free.

So then I tried to keep him home
by letting him be free,
but all he did was find his love
with everyone bu me.

So now I've sent my love away;
it's proved the best safekeeping;
for now, in all his other loves,
it's always me he's seeking.

1953
Jullia Rypinski




Love, I Wonder

Have I ever loved, I wonder?
I was better at infatuation,
that blinding flare of brain
and visceral flow, non-bloody,

almost pain- and pleasure-free,
like the 'envelope de marbre'
in teh sigh of that oft-loved lover,
tale-spinner she, inspirer of geniuses.

How I hoped for love and tried to give
love back! Had I no hear? I wonder.
I courted Duty a long, long time,
a time beyond my time, but at last

The time was up: my daemon took
my hand and wandered me away
to new infatuation, new ennui.
Those shades I will not count a cost.

by Jullia Rypinski

A letter to the observer editor by a friend of mine

This is a letter to the editor from a parree of mine so mi just a forward it still...

Our Land of Contrast

Saturday, August 28, 2004

Dear Editor,

Please allow me the space in your paper to point out the ugly and unfortunate contrast which Jamaica has become. It revealed itself Wednesday while the nation's giddiness over the history-making success of golden girl Veronica Campbell was still very fresh.
I was watching CVM-TV's coverage of the Olympics where, minutes after Veronica and team-mate Aleen Bailey had completed their victory lap hoisting the Jamaican flag, host Rohan Daley spoke with Veronica's mother, Pamela Bailey. An understandably elated Ms Bailey expressed her pride and jubilation at her daughter's achievement and gave us some insight into the kind of person that Veronica is. Then the host asked her about the mood in her community and how they were receiving the triumphant news concerning one of their own. It was then that Ms Bailey's tone hinted, if even for a few brief seconds, some disgust.
She informed Rohan that she lived in Spanish Town but she was actually at the home of Olympian Neville Myton in Clarendon to watch her daughter run, as an Observer article also revealed. Ms Bailey's next few sentences could be summed up as saying something to the effect that she really didn't have much to do with Spanish Town and its people these days so she couldn't really act as a spokesperson for them.
The manner in which she had separated herself from her troubled town and townspeople brought wry smiles from the CVM panellists and myself. We cannot be faulted for inferring that Ms Bailey's wish to distance herself from Spanish Town has something to do with the violence, mayhem and tension that has brought it so much negative attention recently.
Rohan Daley had said repeatedly after the golden moment, "It feels good to be Jamaican right now".No one could have said it any better. It is only a shame that, given the current state of affairs in the country, Jamaicans couldn't even get completely lost in the euphoria of such a glorious moment.

Thura Soe-Htwe
Rose Hall,
Montego Bay
thura@cornell.edu

The original can be found at this link: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/letters/html/20040828T020000-0500_65302_OBS_OUR_LAND_OF_CONTRAST.asp

Just Feel Like Listing My Favourite "Flims"

Snatch: Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers, and supposedly Jewish jewelers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond.



Seven Years In Tibet: In the autumn of 1939, Heinrich Harrer, the famous Austrian mountaineer, and his countryman Peter Aufschnaiter, set out to climb Nanga Parbat, one of the highest peaks in the Himalayas. The self-centered Harrer, whose sole preoccupation was the achievement of fame and glory, would experience an emotional awakening on his fantastic journey that would take him form the heights of conquest to the depths of internment in a British prisoner-of-war camp, then from escape and a harrowing two-year trek through the Himalayas to the mysterious Tibetan city of Lhasa.
As a stranger in a strange land which few westerners have ever visited, Harrer was befriended by the young Dalai Lama, and was asked to tutor the religious leader in English, geography and the ways of the Western world. He would eventually spend seven years in Tibet, during a period of tremendous political upheaval in that country, graced with the friendship and the spiritual enlightenment of the young Dalai Lama. As the deep and abiding bond between these two isolated, lonely people evolved, the selfish and egotistical Harrer experienced selflessness for the first time, allowing him to complete the emotional transformation which began on his way to Lhasa.



Legends of the Fall: Epic tale of three brothers and their father living in the remote wilderness of 1900s USA and how their lives are affected by nature, history, war, and love.

Gladiator: When a Roman general is betrayed and his family murdered by a corrupt prince, he comes to Rome as a gladiator to seek revenge.

Lord Of The Rings(Trilogy): No info needed eh!!!

Fight Club: A man disillusioned by what his life has become encounters an exciting stranger who introduces him to a new way of life.

City Of God: See Review below

Rabbit Proof Fences: Based on a true story, Rabbit-Proof Fence moves with dignified grace from its joyful opening scenes to a conclusion that's moving beyond words. The title refers to a 1,500-mile fence separating outback desert from the farmlands of Western Australia. It is here, in 1931, that three aboriginal girls are separated from their mothers and transported to a distant training school, where they are prepared for assimilation into white society by a racist government policy. Gracie, Daisy, and Molly belong to Australia's "stolen generations," and this riveting film (based on the book by Molly's daughter, Doris Pilkington Garimara) follows their escape and tenacious journey homeward, while a stubborn policy enforcer (Kenneth Branagh) demands their recapture. Director Phillip Noyce chronicles their ordeal with gentle compassion, guiding his untrained, aboriginal child actors with a keen eye for meaningful expressions. Their performances evoke powerful emotions (subtly enhanced by Peter Gabriel's excellent score), illuminating a shameful chapter of Australian history while conveying our universal need for a true and proper home.

Last Temptation of Christ: It isn't difficult to imagine why this 1988 retelling of the Crucifixion story was picketed vociferously upon release--this Jesus bears little resemblance to the classical Christ, who was not, upon careful review of the Gospels, ever reported to have had sex with Barbara Hershey. Heavily informed by Gnostic reinterpretations of the Passion, The Last Temptation of Christ (based rather strictly on Nikos Kazantzakis's novel of the same name) is surely worth seeing for the controversy and blasphemous content alone, but it's difficult to find in skittish chain video stores. But the "last temptation" of the title is nothing overtly naughty--rather, it's the seduction of the commonplace; the desire to forgo following a "calling" in exchange for domestic security. Willem Dafoe interprets Jesus as spacy, indecisive, and none too charismatic (though maybe that's just Dafoe himself), but his Sermon on the Mount is radiant with visionary fire; a bit less successful is method actor Harvey Keitel, who gives the internally conflicted Judas a noticeable Brooklyn accent, and doesn't bring much imagination to a role that demands a revisionist's approach. Despite director Martin Scorsese's penchant for stupid camera tricks, much of the desert footage is simply breathtaking, even on small screen.

Wyatt Earp: This massive, in-depth study of the dark Western icon comes off with mixed results. Trying to capture the whole life, (warts and all) of the lawman-criminal-brother-fortune hunter, director Lawrence Kasdan gains points for sheer scale, giving us a rich epic painted in dark colors with gritty settings. But the visual poetry and extensive foreshadowing ruin the dramatic drive. Some scenes have as much impact as stalker movies; you're just waiting for someone to get knocked off. As Earp, Kevin Costner is not afraid to look rumpled and play colorlessly (as in The Bodyguard), but it saps the energy of this 3-hour-plus film. The only relief is Dennis Quaid as a droll Doc Holiday, a much more engaging character. New faces Linden Ashby and Joanna Going (as an Earp brother and a lover, respectively) are solid finds, though the remainder of the female cast is barely given anything to do. Best is the first half, with Costner, as hip as he was in his Silverado days, going through a series of ups and downs until he accidentally finds his profession. Great set design (Ida Random) utilizes dozens of similar settings that always look distinctive. Recommended to fans of the star and the genre, but the story never justifies its length.

Light Year: An evil force from a 1000 years in the future begins to destroy an idyllic paradise, where the citizens are in perfect harmony with nature. Based on a vision by the great Sci-Fi author Isaac Asimov, Light Years takes the viewer on a journey to the world of Gandahar. Gandahar is a world totally at peace with itself until the day an experiment from the past threatens the very existence of life and freedom. All that guides the hero is a mysterious double prophecy. Light Years, while not as flashy as the animated movies of today is a marvelous story that bridges the gap between fantasy and sci-fi. As a child the story and its amazing visuals captivated me. The movie is full of symbolism. For example the incredible irony that the villian of the film is a creation of the peaceful kingdom that genetically engineered him and that said villian (a giant brain) employs an army of mechanical men to wage his wars in the pursuit of more power. Then, seeing that his waring ways are leading to an ugly apocalypse of sorts, the villian is his own downfall as he sets in motion the events that will ultimately be his undoing. It speaks to the ever present conflict between nature and industrialization and perhaps how humankind may be its own worst enemy. My only gripe is that I wish they would re-release it on dvd. Oh well. A fantastic movie experience if you can get your hands on it.

Info and synopses for the movies were taken from imdb.com and amazon.com

Reel Life- Flim Review: City of God (Cidade de Deus)

Well this movie ought to appeal to most Jamaicans. It is an insightful look into the life an motivation of a host of characters in the Brazilian ghetto, paradoxically dubbed "THE CITY OF GOD". An enthralling and exhilarating panorama of similar crime and violence in a neighbouring culture. "City of God" kicks off with a desperate chicken trying to escape slaughter by a gang of gun toting kiddies.

It is a metaphor or symbol that alludes to the frenetic struggle for any semblance of existence for the characters in this bullet blazing gangster epic.

Alexandre Rodrigues stars as Busca-Pé or 'Rocket', a boy who lives in the Cidade de Deus or City of God, and narrates our expedition into the slums of a 60's favela (housing project) in Rio de Janeiro. The favela is quarters to the poorest and most hopeless of Rio's citizens and becomes a den of violence and crime. As a child, Busca-Pé is a spectator to two decades of barbarity, gluttony, rape and vengeance which perpetuate a tragic and cataclysmic gang war. At the start he watches the notorious Tender Trio - a group of older boys - robbing motels and gas trucks. As he grows up, he sees his peers graduate from being petty thieves through drug dealers into cold-blooded killers. In time, vicious gang leader Li'l Ze (Leandro da Hora) and his companions prosper and come to rule much of the favela.

Anxiety, fear, sensitivity and an instinct for self-preservation keep him on the straight and narrow and prevent him frombecoming a real violent criminal, Busca-Pé finds himself at the centre of the favela's action, but separate from it. As he matures, he comes to realize that he views things differently. Preoccupied by cameras and photography, he eventually acquires a camera of his own, and his photographs come to the attention of a local newspaper. As the two remaining favela gangs duel in the 80's, Busca-Pé takes some of the only photographs that the press will see of the events that take place and the people involved. Through his camera and his unique comprehension of favela life, he documents and explains what life is, as the poorest people in Rio. His childhood associate Li'l Zé (Leandro Firmino da Hora) morphs into the ghetto's godfather - a ruthless, demented killer.

In "City of God", desperation and desolation drives children to acts of outrageous violence, crime appears to be the only option in the moral and economic wilderness of the Brazilian favelas. Even the grotesque Li'l Zé is not without humanity, while the fate of other so-called gangsters is poignant.

Based on a true story(Paulo Lins' fact-based novel), "City of God" is a tale that has impact not just because of the level of violence it portrays but due to the fact that the violence is a reflection of real events. The director employs the use of real favela children to fill much of his cast. The main cast does a truly flawless job, and fit seamlessly into their environment. The film is picturesque, and carries with it a grime and originality that unearths the real texture of life in Rio. Terror follows cruel bellylaughs, and the unrelenting action is brought into full focus by unending and inescapable poverty. The story is plastered with gore, blood , bullets and savagery, but and in the tradition of good storytelling offers a message at its conclusion, which is more than what canbe said for most Hollywood blockbusters these days.

Changing of The Guard: On Edward Seaga's Resignation

EDWARD SEAGA (Eddie, the Breeda, the one don, Mister "sing a sankey"), yesterday afternoon via a press release , announced he would be relinquishing his hold on the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leadership at its annual conference in November this year.

After speaking to the many people I know who circle the political arena, I can safely say this comes as a shocker to most people. This ladies and gentlemen is the signalling of the end of an era(more like epoch), the ushering of a newing political fair, ladies and gentlemen hear ye hear ye... this day is the first manifestations of the changing of the guard. The Jamaican political landscape will no doubt see some sort of shifts.

The battle against the Peoples National Party and within his own party has seems to have taken its toll, the one army has been gunned down. The sudden revelation, after one too many publicized internal debates, internal squabbles and the creation of JLP member factions(the reformists, the G2K etc), seems to point to the real possibility that the man that has shown real fortitude and sticktoitiveness(to put it mildly) was forced by circumstances to put his guns to the ground and relinquish his badge.

The young pups have been nipping at his heels for too long now and no matter when he opted out of his role as party leader it was going to happen. There are bound to be endless post mortems in the coming days, this being one of them. The constant washing of dirty laudry in the public arena and media has been the JLP's undoing.

The questions that loom in my mind now are how will Mr. Seaga bow out... will there be fanfare, will he still be in the public spotlight, will he continue to make contributions to his party, and the questions go on. Personally I can't wait untill Sunday to see John Maxwell's take on the matter in the Observer. Beyond all said however Mr. Seaga's departure has granted the party the chance to patch up and come again and try to come good. They have been afforded the opportunity to alter how they are perceived and to alter Jamaica's political sensibilities.

And so when the final sankey has been sung, the candle has been out, the last market ooman wid ar scandal bag has sold her very last... the seeming end of an era.

Reel Life: Flim Review- Spider-Man 2:: Just tooo wicked

Great motivations, characters and essentially great villain make a vast difference in any story or movie. The first “Spider-Man,” was good in my opinion but a bit lacking eh.

His costume was too off, and the character lacked sufficient motivation, Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin got boring long before the finale. The special effects are taken to newer heights and so the villain’s history is much richer, creating more believable motivation, in the second installment, which affords Alfred Molina the chance to play and develope an interesting villain.

In “Spider-Man 2,” Molina plays Dr. Otto Octavius(who later become Dr. Octopus or Doc Ock- as J.Jonah Jameson said in the flick what a coincidence "a guy named Octavius ends up with 8 arms" hmmmmmm), an egotistical scientific genius backed by Oscorp. Neither he nor his ego poses no threat to anyone until later in the movie, when his theory is put to the test, thats when everything goes horribly wrong in a lab accident. When the mechanical tentacles get grafted to his spine becomes, and he loses his wife as well, she is what seems to ground him as a character, after this he submits to the dark side of the machine he created.The doctor’s good intentions become a tad bit warped, by the logic presented to him by the grasping tentacles.

Molina, is apt for the part in his look and he tackles the character well, he never over acts or seems to goof up the part, he keeps the movie rolling, especially whenever its hero Spider-Man or Peter Parker, threatens to bog us down in his sorrows. As Peter Parker, Maguire spends much of his screen time in constant indecision, trying to lead some semblance of a normal life and woo Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) but succumbs to his sense of responsibility.

The villain’s predicament is inextricably linked to the hero’s dilemma. They’re both at odds with themselves, they both have a twisted 8 legged commonality and they both relish the opportunity to escape their normal selves and demonstrate power. Doc Ock has a more colorful role. The first film showed us what Spidey can do and hence gave Octavius the advantage of novelty as well as improved CGI.

Sam Raimi, who directed the first “Spider-Man,” deserves a drink, I would personally buy him one if I met him, he manages to integrate the spectacular and the romantic once more. Especially effective is the emotional finale to a runaway subway sequence; Spidey’s fans get a chance to show their appreciation for him, as they bravely stand up to Octavius. As for Mary Jane, she’s acquired another boyfriend while making the big leap to becoming a New York stage actress, and Dunst revels in the chance to make her more conflicted and vulnerable.

Unfortunately, the ending suggests that the Green Goblin will be back for the next installment, oh noooooo, please we want VENOM...

Reel Life- Flim Review: Harry Potter-Prisoner of Azkaban

ZZZZZZ, Hmmm, yawn oh the movie is over, gee I didn't even know. What an excercise in boredom.

Like most other film series, “Harry Potter” just doesn't get better. The now internationally renown Warner Bros. movies of J.K. Rowling’s best-selling fantasies have become darker, gloomier and lessy funny over a period of three and a half years. This show diverges from the fun that Dobby brought to the last.

The third installment, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” is the least satisfying to date. At 145 minutes, it is also the shortest and somehow manages to seem like the longest ever. This one is also a bit divergent from the book... which I'm not clear is a good or a bad thing... making the movie longer may have continued my boredom or it may have included better aspects of the book. The picture has a grimier feel with duller, and realistic(gloomy london) colors. This plummets the audience and the film in a reality, as opposed to the flights of magical fancy that the first two took viewers on. Personally I have beef with that corny rasta dead dread head crap on the bus... hmmm once again using my Jamaican culture to make wholesale commercial garbage. During its final and ever so predictable third, the script script toys with the paradoxes of time travel and the mystery of déjà vu.

“Azkaban” opens with Harry the 13-year-old boy wizard (Daniel Radcliffe) being tormented by the vile Aunt Marge (Pam Ferris), who insults his dead parents (“bad blood will out”) and announces that she’d like to send him to an orphanage. Although he’s forbidden to use magic at home, Harry can’t abide the verbal abuse. He punishes Marge by transforming her into a helium-like balloon that escapes into the sky. All the exposition is dealt with briskly. The two major scenes – the pub talk and the Syrius Black revealled – move quickly(thank the lord). But yet it all seems to lack a certain zest and appeal, one is not brought into or enthralled in Harry's world at all, hmmm no escapism here.

Anyway the kids are getting big, the girlies are getting busty and before we know it Harry Potter may well be Harry Pothead or some magical British version of "Dawson's Creek"(shudder).