For AIDS orphans, lessons on life – and car repair
The News Review:
- For AIDS orphans, lessons on life – and car repair
- China Bans ‘Teletubbies,’ ‘Mary Poppins’–Not…
- Finding Your Dream Job
- Differences remain as India, US hold talks
- Search graces SBS film season
- N-scientists rubbish compromise formula
For AIDS orphans, lessons on life – and car repair
Christian Science Monitor – Feb 23, 2006
In South Africa, Oprah Winfrey has brought support and gifts to thousands of orphans. Across Africa the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, backs programs such as “junior farmers,” which teach kids the agricultural skills their parents didn’t have the time to pass along. But Mbuka’s new school is a home-grown effort that emerged out of one man’s desire to help the children of his departed friends. Many of those friends, in this country where 14 percent of adults are diagnosed HIV-positive, were felled by AIDS. “When it came to my mind that I should assist my friends by helping their children, I couldn’t ignore it,” says Mbuka, clad in a Pierre Cardin dress shirt, a relic of his prosperous past. His effort is among the most-effective kind, experts say. “Interventions that are home-based and community-based and have a life of their own” rather than being imported and supported from outside “are the ones that work best,” says Sarah Crowe of UNICEF’s regional office in South Africa.
China Bans ‘Teletubbies,’ ‘Mary Poppins’–Not…
Forbes – Feb 23, 2006
See, Teletubbies is a mixed media show, in that it blends cartoons with live action. And that melange is now officially banned by Beijing. The People’s Republic of China has declared verboten TV shows and movies that blend hand or computer drawings with breathing human actors, in a drive to nurture home-grown animators–and perhaps wean the nation off of foreign cartoons. The Associated Press quotes a statement by China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television as explaining that the ban is geared to “promote the development and prosperity of the cartoon industry in China. ” China already limits foreign cartoons on TV to 40% of all cartoons aired. It has hinted it might embargo all foreign cartoons from prime-time TV–once the quantity and quality of domestic productions is considered adequate. So what will get caught in the totalitarian net? The list might include The Walt Disney Co.
Finding Your Dream Job
Forbes – Feb 23, 2006
Most hold on to their current jobs until they’ve built the foundation for a new career. His clients include an accountant who became an advertising copywriter, a marketing pro who became a writer of children’s books, a personnel director who became an interior decorator, a management consultant who became an outdoor adventure leader, a bank vice president who became director of a zoo’s resource center, a software engineer who became a biologist and a personal athletic trainer who became a therapist. Geography is rarely a major issue in tracking down the dream job, but if you dream of dumping life in The Big City for Maine, Montana or the hills of Tennessee, your dream job has got to be portable unless it’s home grown. “Finding your dream job comes down to two things,” Garfinkle says. “First, it’s something you’re passionate about and, second, it matches your talents. “That sounds simple enough, but for some, it’s a long twisting path filled with doubts. Garfinkle says he doesn’t use any psychological or aptitude tests and simply talks at length with his clients.
Differences remain as India, US hold talks
Times of India – Feb 23, 2006
Saran and
Burns met for the third round of talks here to iron out differences on the deal
on which the US says “90 per cent” of negotiations have been
completed. Burns and Saran, who
will hold another session of talks on Friday, also met Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh to brief him about the
negotiations. The two sides had
encountered “difficulties” over the issue of separation, with the US insisting
that India put more reactors than it was ready to in the civilian side. These
included the home-grown fast breeder reactors (FBRs), a move opposed by New
Delhi.
Search graces SBS film season
The Age – Feb 23, 2006
Invited toscreen at Cannes last year, it also picked up three AFI awards in2005: Best Short Fiction Film, Best Screenplay in a Short Film andBest Cinematography in a Non-Feature Film. At a time when locally produced TV drama is at a lamentablenadir, writer-director Tony Krawitz’s 50-minute “featurette” shineslike a beacon and suggests a barely tapped reservoir of localtalent awaiting its opportunity to emerge. Jewboy is a resounding endorsement of SBS’s initiativeswith home-grown production. The Fresh Australian Drama seasonstarted last week with Jammin’ in the Middle E andcontinues tonight with Stranded. Jewboy is thethird in the current five-part series. A previous batch, whichscreened in 2003, included such gems as Roy HollsdotterLive (directed by Matthew Saville) and Martha’s NewCoat (Rachel Ward). Commercially viable these 50-minute shows might not be, butcreatively exciting they most certainly are.
N-scientists rubbish compromise formula
Times of India – Feb 23, 2006
“The chances are that the
entire NPT regime may collapse in due course,” he
said. M R Srinivasan, who was
the AEC chief from 1987 to 1990, said from Chennai that the FBRs are home-grown
products in which a lot of important research and development activity will take
place. They could be superior to the work in some other countries. “Considering this, it is the
general consensus in the Indian nuclear community and my opinion too that in no
way should they (FBRs) come under international safeguards,” he
said.