Still uncertainty in Ivory Coast

BY THE WORLD ⋅ APRIL 12, 2011 ⋅ POST A COMMENT 

Download ivory_coast_report.mp3

With Laurent Gbagbo under arrest, the political standoff in Ivory Coast is over, but the stability of the West African nation is still uncertain. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with William Ahouma, a 28-year-old web designer in Abidjan, the main city of Ivory Coast, who was a Gbagbo supporter and is now worried about the future. Download MP3

>via: http://www.theworld.org/2011/04/still-uncertainty-in-ivory-coast/

 

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Laurent Gbagbo and his wife...

captured.....pics...

>> Monday, April 11, 2011

Ivory Coast's President Laurent Gbagbo stands with his wife Simone Ehivet Gbagbo during his inauguration ceremony at the presidential palace in Abidjan in this December 4, 2010 file photo. Gbagbo was arrested by opposition forces on April 11, 2011 after French troops closed in on the compound where the self-proclaimed president had been holed up in a bunker for the past week. Gbagbo refused to step down when Alassane Ouattara won November's presidential election, according to results certified by the United Nations, reigniting violence that has claimed more than a thousand lives and uprooted a million people. Picture taken December 4, 2010.

 

 

Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo and his wife Simone sit on a bed at the Hotel du Golf in Abidjan after their arrest on April 11, 2011. Ivory Coast leader Alassane Ouattara's forces, backed by French and UN troops, captured his besieged rival Laurent Gbagbo in Abidjan today at the climax of a deadly five-month crisis. Gbagbo, who has held power since 2000 and stubbornly refused to admit defeat in November's presidential election, was detained and taken to his rival's temporary hotel headquarters, with his wife Simone and son Michel.

 

 

Smoke billows from Laurent Ggago's besieged residential compound, moments before his arrest on April 11, 2011. Ivory Coast leader Alassane Ouattara's forces, backed by French and UN troops, captured his besieged rival Laurent Gbagbo in Abidjan on Monday at the climax of a deadly months-long crisis. Gbagbo, who has held power since 2000 and stubbornly refused to admit defeat in November's presidential election, was detained and taken to his rival's temporary hotel headquarters, with his wife Simone and son Michel.

 

Simone (C), wife of Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo arrives at the Hotel du Golf in Abidjan after their arrest on April 11, 2011. Ivory Coast leader Alassane Ouattara's forces, backed by French and UN troops, captured his besieged rival Laurent Gbagbo in Abidjan today at the climax of a deadly five-month crisis. Gbagbo, who has held power since 2000 and stubbornly refused to admit defeat in November's presidential election, was detained and taken to his rival's temporary hotel headquarters, with his wife Simone and son Michel.

 

Simone, the wife of Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo arrives at the Hotel du Golf in Abidjan after her arrest on April 11, 2011. Ivory Coast leader Alassane Ouattara's forces, backed by French and UN troops, captured his besieged rival Laurent Gbagbo in Abidjan today at the climax of a deadly five-month crisis. Gbagbo, who has held power since 2000 and stubbornly refused to admit defeat in November's presidential election, was detained and taken to his rival's temporary hotel headquarters, with his wife Simone and son Michel.

 

Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo (L) and his wife Simone sit in a room at Hotel Golf in Abidjan, after they were arrested, April 11, 2011. Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo was arrested by opposition forces on Monday after French troops closed in on the compound where the self-proclaimed president had been holed up in a bunker for the past week. Gbagbo refused to step down when Alassane Ouattara won November's presidential election, according to results certified by the United Nations, reigniting violence that has claimed more than a thousand lives and uprooted a million people. The hotel is where his rival Ouattara has his headquarters.

 

Simone, wife of Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo, is seen in Abidjan, after being arrested in this still image taken from video April 11, 2011. Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo and his wife Simone are in the custody of Alassane Ouattara at the Golf Hotel in Abidjan and have requested U.N. protection, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said on Monday. Gbagbo was arrested on Monday after French armoured vehicles closed in on the compound where the self-proclaimed president had been holed up in a bunker.

 

A fighter loyal to Alassane Ouattara kisses the floor of the Golf Hotel moments after being informed ot the arrest of Laurent Ggago's in his besieged residential compound, on April 11, 2011. Ivory Coast leader Alassane Ouattara's forces, backed by French and UN troops, captured his besieged rival Laurent Gbagbo in Abidjan on Monday at the climax of a deadly months-long crisis. Gbagbo, who has held power since 2000 and stubbornly refused to admit defeat in November's presidential election, was detained and taken to his rival's temporary hotel headquarters, with his wife Simone and son Michel.

 

Soldiers loyal to internationally recognised Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara hold up their arms as they celebrate in Angre a district of Abidjan the arrest of strongman Laurent Gbagbo on April 11, 2011. Soldiers loyal to Ivory Coast's president elect Alassane Ouattara arrested former strongman Laurent Gbagbo and his wife Simone today and brought them to their base, Ouattara's spokeswoman said.

 

Simone, wife of Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo, is seen at Hotel Golf in Abidjan, after she was arrested with her husband, April 11, 2011. Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo was arrested by opposition forces on Monday after French troops closed in on the compound where the self-proclaimed president had been holed up in a bunker for the past week. Gbagbo refused to step down when Alassane Ouattara won November's presidential election, according to results certified by the United Nations, reigniting violence that has claimed more than a thousand lives and uprooted a million people. The hotel is where his rival Ouattara has his headquarters.

 

Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi (L) looks at Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo during a meeting with Ivorian youth at the Culture palace 27 June 2007 in Abidjan. Kadhafi arrived in Ivory Coast on the last leg of a West African tour before an African Union summit in Ghana next week. Kadhafi was welcomed on his first visit to the Ivory Coast by President Laurent Gbagbo, Prime Minister Guillaume Soro and a host of civilian and military officials at Abidjan International Airport.

BACKSTORY 

The Bad Boy Makes Good

What Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly, Haiti's pop star turned president, learned from a lifetime in music.

BY ELIZABETH MCALISTER | APRIL 8, 2011

EMILY TROUTMAN/AFP/Getty Images

 

When Michel Martelly hired the slick Spanish marketing firm Sola to manage his presidential campaign in Haiti last year, the candidate was running third out of three major candidates in the race, behind Mirlande Manigat -- the wife of an ex-president -- and Jude Celestin, the government favorite. The Spanish team, which previously worked on campaigns for Mexican President Felipe Calderón in 2006 and U.S. Sen. John McCain in 2008, advised him to embrace his position as a political outsider. They also helped him make use of his most powerful and singular asset: his voice.

The voice of Martelly, better known in the country that this week elected him president as "Sweet Micky," has been the soundtrack to the lives of Haiti's youthful population, most of whom are under 24 years old. Like Proust's character dipping his petit Madeleine into his tea and being at once flooded by a wave of involuntary memories, Sweet Micky's voice has the capacity to transport Haitians back to a time when for an evening, the body felt good and life was all right. Before he was president-elect of Haiti, Martelly was know as the "president of konpa," the genre of Haitian dance music known for its upbeat tempo, carefree and pleasure-oriented lyrics, and cheek-to-cheek dance. In the darkened dance halls or outdoor squares where Sweet Micky's records have played for more than 20 years, people dance in the arms of their chouboulouts (darlings) and let the music wash their cares away, a fleeting pleasure in a country that has yet to recover from the catastrophic earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince last year.

But Sola's consultants worried that Martelly needed to transcend his image as the "bad boy" of konpa; after all, this was a man known largely for lyrics such as "I don't care, I don't give a shit." It was a version of the problem that entertainers and artists moving into politics elsewhere in the world have faced as well, as Al Franken and Arnold Schwarzenegger could attest. But Martelly had a major advantage: He was running for office in Haiti, a country where political parties are weak and where musical celebrity goes a long way.

The Haitian audioscape is as vibrant and blaring as the country's brightly painted "tap-tap" buses. Music is entertainment, but it is also a form of work, a form of prayer, and a form of politics. In a country where the median age is 21 and most people are not literate, listening is a refined skill and sonic information is knowledge. In the countryside, women sing to the rhythm of the mortar and pestle as they pound corn meal in their homes, and men hoeing fields or building houses coordinate movements to music in work parties called konbit. In Port-au-Prince's earthquake tent encampments, children unable to afford school sing to clapping games, and church groups sing prayers into the night. Students in schools chant their multiplication tables in unison, and walking street vendors play the "teedle-tee-tee-tee" of custom-made melodies on glass soda bottles to hawk cold 7-Up. Everybody is selling something, often with a distinctive sound to catch the ear and the attention.

In politics, the lowest-tech expression of Haiti's musicality is the rara, the term for a style of parade music and the bands that perform it. Rara is distinctive for its portable drums and its long bamboo horns, cut to produce different pitches. (The horns are now often made of PVC piping, which produces a wonderful vibrating bass tone.) The horn notes are designed to carry far off into the countryside and are thought to have originated as the corps de musique of the Maroon armies that fought and defeated the white colonists in the Haitian Revolution. Often affiliated with Vodou congregations and believed to be under the patronage of a spirit in the unseen realm, rara bands are embedded in deep and wide political networks throughout the country; Martelly spent many hours of his campaign leading raras through the neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince and numerous provincial towns.

Raras also have long served as a mouthpiece for popular opinion, a means by which the impoverished majority -- whom the elites try their best not to see -- can make themselves heard. They can boast about an aspiring candidate, "roast" a local community member by singing about a scandal, or launch criticism of the government. Haitians call this "voye pwen" -- "sending a point." Pwen can be silly, and even vulgar, in the bawdy tradition of Carnival. They can also be sharply political. When President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted by a military coup in 1991 after seven months in office, for example, one rara band sang about a woman who aborted a baby at seven months. If pressed, the musicians could always say they were just talking about Marie-Josephine down the block. But everybody knew that Marie-Jo was the military coup, and the baby was democracy.

Several of the most popular pwen songs railing against the 1991 ousting of Aristide were penned by one of Martelly's closest current advisors: Richard A. Morse, the bandleader of RAM, a rasin ("roots") band (named after its leader's initials) that mixes Afro-Creole Vodou music with rock. RAM's 1992 song "Fey" ("Leaf") was shot through with cryptic criticisms of the coup, including a verse from a traditional Vodou song lamenting, "My only son, they made him leave the country." Because the lyric was in the first person, it belonged to everybody who sang along with it. The military leaders at the time banned the song from the radio, which of course only made its popularity soar among the raras in the streets.

The political potency of Haitian music was such that all genres of it except for konpa were banned under the dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier -- if konpa was Jean-Claude's favorite, he reasoned, it should be everyone's favorite, too. After Duvalier fell in 1986, Haitians embraced a number of musical genres, developing the exciting forms of rasin music, kreyol hip hop, ragga and reggae, jazz, and numerous hybrids. Most musicians, however, have stayed out of direct involvement in state politics. (One recent exception was the balladeer Manno Charlemagne, who was elected mayor of Port-au-Prince in 1995 for Aristide's Lavalas party, though he left office less beloved than he was when he entered it.)

As for Martelly, he was less known for politics than for provocation: dressing in a pink skirt or wearing a diaper on stage, and cultivating an image of a macho "legal bandit" (as one song is titled) who boasted a bad-ass attitude but could never be caught breaking the law. Martelly had his own (right-leaning) politics, but they took place mostly behind the scenes. He was friends with, and played for, Haitian military members during the coup period, and was named by -- and for -- the original Sweet Micky, the feared Port-au-Prince mayor Michel Francois, who would later be convicted of human rights abuses.  Nevertheless, a small measure of blunt and crass political commentary did find its way into Sweet Micky's music. As a performer, his signature pwen was a guitar riff with the unsung but widely known lyrics, "Whoever doesn't know Micky, here's Micky." The riff was followed by a crowd response, "ko langet manman'w:" literally, "your mother's clitoris," roughly meaning, "go fuck your mother." During Aristide's presidency -- which Martelly opposed -- he would add three notes to the response, directed at Aristide: "Go fuck your mother, Aristide!" Despite Aristide's mass popularity, audiences all over Haiti would sing along.

Politics and music had never collided as forcefully in Haiti as they did in the 2011 election, which left the country's political elites shaking their heads at what one political cartoon in the national newspaper Le Nouvelliste dubbed the "Electionaval." By the end of its run, Martelly's campaign had gone all-star, featuring the support of Morse and the Haitian-American rapper and singer Wyclef Jean, a celebrity trinity representing the three most popular commercial musical forms in Haitian culture -- konpa, rasin, and hip-hop. (Jean and Micky had collaborated before in 1997, on the final track of Jean's solo debut The Carnival, and Jean recorded a pro-Martelly song last month.)

Though his consultants fretted about the baggage of his diapered, bad-boy past, Martelly's genius for leveraging his keen entertainer's understanding of music's place in Haiti's public sphere was one of the most effective tools he brought to the race. His campaign capitalized on his famous voice with robocalls -- including ones to cell phones, which may have been illegal -- and a ringtonefeaturing a frenetic Carnival song in Micky's style urging all within hearing distance to "vote for the baldhead."

But Martelly's greatest strategic play was making his campaign into the place where the party was. He staged his campaign stops as concert-rally hybrids long traditional in Haiti and known as koudyay(pronounced koo-JAYi, from the French coup de jaille, "bursting forth"). Coming out of a history of patronage politics, a koudyay is a public party sponsored by a local patron for a national leader to endorse a program or smooth over political tension. The patron pays for the music -- and sometimes food and liquor -- and the crowds play their part, drinking, dancing, and cheering for the cause. 

Martelly became both patron and featured guest in his koudyay. As he stepped onto the platform or balcony to greet the crowds, raras signaled to him and greeted him with a riff. Often the raras played for Martelly the same little melody that was once played for Aristide, and before him, for Jean-Claude Duvalier and his father Francois: "Oh Martelly, Oh Martelly, se ou-menm nou t'ap cheche/Jodi-a nou delivre" ("Oh Martelly, Oh Martelly, it's you we have been seeking/Today we are delivered"). For Sweet Micky to stand before throngs of hundreds of thousands was old hat; he was the master of the Carnival. He replied in kind to the delight of the crowd, punctuating his campaign speeches with songs.

Every candidate in Haiti releases a campaign song, and Martelly's song, used in radio, TV, and YouTube ads, was a Carnival song in his style (though not sung by him). Jaunty and upbeat, it proclaimed, "Don't fall into a trap, be careful when you make your X [on the ballot]/ … We want development, a good education/Michel Martelly, Number 8" (his number on the ballot). Catchy and pithy, it was a masterpiece of effective political messaging, associating fun times with the candidate while reminding people how to vote for him and rattling off his campaign promises. After he won the election, supporters sang in the streets, "Martelly, the country is for you. Do what you like with it.'' The raras sang the same song for Aristide and, in turn, for Duvalier and others before him.

Martelly and his supporters show signs of reenacting the messianic dance of the presidency in Haiti, where hopes and dreams are pinned on one person, who, in turn, ends up believing the messianic myth and consolidating power. The raras that sign on to political campaigns are made up of young men, unemployed but talented, frustrated by the system's utter failure and weak civil society. They are looking for possibility and hope -- and maybe a little rum and a few dollars for their work. Enlisting the support of the business classes who call the shots in Haiti and mobilizing disgruntled youth to channel their frustration into voting for Martelly was the easy part -- other Haitian presidents had done that, too. Now comes the hard work: Haiti's infrastructure, civil society, and basic law and order -- especially for women; rape is now a serious problem -- have yet to recover from last year's earthquake.

But Martelly is disciplined, puts in long hours, and is fast learning the arts of political speechmaking. He has even brushed up on his etiquette, in a deliciously musical form. On April 6, he released a thank-you note -- a song of appreciation to everybody who voted.

Elizabeth McAlister is associate professor of religion at Wesleyan University, and author of Rara! Vodou, Power and Politics in Haiti and its Diaspora.

 

 

Idi Amin Was Deposed

From Power In Uganda Today…

Watch “General Idi Amin Dada”

(Portrait of A Dictator)

By Tambay, on April 11th, 2011

Today in history… April 11, 1979, Idi Amin Dada, the military dictator and President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979, is deposed, as rebels in exile backed by Tanzanian forces seize control of the country. Several hundred thousand people are believed to have been killed during his brutal 8 year regime. Amin died August 16th, 2003, in Saudi Arabia, where he’d been living in exile since 1979.

Most are likely familiar with Forest Whitaker’s interpretation of Amin, in the 2006 film, The Last King of Scotland, for which he earned an Academy Award.

But if I may instead/also direct your attention to director Barbet Schroeder’s 1974 documentary on Amin, titled, General Idi Amin Dada, made while he was very much at the height of his power. Schroeder was given unprecedented access to the dictator, who was influential in the making of the film, but it’s far from propaganda material.

 

It’s worth reading up on how the project came together. The Criterion Collection blog has an essay on the film which you can read HERE, before or after you watch the full 90-minute documentary, which I embedded below:

$500 GRAND PRIZE!

 The rewards are publication in Children’s Writer,
cash prizes, winners’ certificates, and valuable
training in disciplined writing.

 If you like writing for children and contests, read on . . .

We constantly hear from editors that the vast majority of the manuscripts they receive are rejected because they were not written to the editor’s specifications. Few editors will consider a story or article that does not meet their specs—precisely.

Writing contests also have exact specifications. That’s why we encourage writers—all writers, new ones and old pros too—to enter contests. They’re excellent professional training experiences and, if you win, they can get you published and pay healthy prize money.

The winners in this contest will be published in Children’s Writer, the monthly newsletter that goes to almost 1,300 children’s book and magazine editors in North America. Along with the winning pieces, we’ll publish an article about the top-ranked entries and their authors. There are also cash prizes. The cash prizes alone are a lot of good reasons to write a piece and enter.

Current Contest: Poetry The contest is for a single poem, collection of poems, or verse story for children of any age, to 300 words. Entries may be serious or humorous, and take any poetic form. Winners will be selected based on quality of verse—including rhythm, meter, word choice, wordplay, imagery, and the use of other poetic devices (rhyme, alliteration, assonance, or others). Above all, the winning entries will have appeal for young readers.

Entries must be received by October 31, 2011. Current subscribers to Children’s Writer enter free. All others pay an entry fee of $15, which includes an 8-month subscription. Winners will be announced in the March 2012 issue. Prizes: $500 for first place plus publication in Children’s Writer, $250 for second place, and $100 for third, fourth, and fifth places.

Now warm up your computer and write a $500-winning kindergarten story!

The contest rules are important. Please read them carefully.

Obtain Official Entry Form or make online submission
You may submit your entry either online, using our safe and secure entry page, or by regular mail. If you choose to submit online, you'll need to complete your manuscript and save it to a file on your computer.

If you need to pay a reading fee you will be directed to the payment section first.

Children's Writer Subscribers (online submission):
To submit a free entry online, you will need your Children's Writer account number, which is located in our email to you or on your Children's Writer mailing label in the name/address block. For subscribers who are students, it is the same as your student number. Please Click Here to continue. 

You will be directed to the Free Entry section.

Non-subscribers (online submission):
If you do not subscribe to Children's Writer, your online entry is welcome. Please click here to continue.

You will be directed to the section requiring the payment of a $15 reading fee.

For Mail-in Entries:
To submit manuscript entries through the mail, please click here to obtain an entry form.

The Adirondack Review is pleased to announce the fifth annual Fulton Prize for Short Fiction.

 

The winner will receive $400 and publication in The Adirondack Review. Entrants whose stories receive honorable mention will also have their stories published in The Adirondack Review. In addition, they will be awarded an honorarium of $30.

 

Guidelines: Entrants may submit up to three original, unpublished stories. Stories must not have been previously published in either print or on-line publications, and there is a 10,000-word limit. Stories may be pasted into the body of an e-mail or attached as a Word document. Entry fee is $10.00 for one story, $15.00 for two stories, and $20.00 for three stories. Simultaneous submissions are accepted if we are notified immediately should they be accepted for publication elsewhere. Entrants may pay on-line with PayPal to the left.

 

Submissions will be judged by The Adirondack Review editors.

 

Submissions should be sent to angela@blacklawrencepress.com with name, address, phone number, and e-mail address included. Please also list word count. Be sure to include your last name and "Fulton Prize Submission" in the subject of your email. For example, if your last name was Balderdash, your subject line would read "Balderdash Fulton Prize Submission."

 

All submissions must be sent electronically. Absolutely no exceptions. Contest entries will not be read until the entry fee is received and stories have been received at angela@blacklawrencepress.com.

 

Contest deadline: July 31, 2011. Winners will be announced in the winter. Prizes will be awarded in conjunction with the publication of Winter 2011 issue of The Adirondack Review.

 

Any questions should be directed to: angela@blacklawrencepress.com.

Thank you for your interest in The Adirondack Review and

The Fulton Prize

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NWSA Gloria E. Anzaldua Book Prize

(for transnational / women of color scholarship)

 

Deadline: 1 May 2011

NWSA GLORIA E. ANZALDÚA BOOK PRIZE

Thanks to a generous bequest from Sara A. Whaley, NWSA will offer two $2,000 Sara A. Whaley book awards on the topic of women and labor. This prize honors Sara Whaley, who owned Rush Publishing and was the editor of Women's Studies Abstracts. Each year NWSA will award up to 2 book awards ($2,000 each) on the topic of women and labor.

Basic Guidelines:

Women of color of the U.S. and/or International origin are encouraged to apply.

Suggested topics on women and labor include but are not limited to:

1. Migration and women’s paid jobs
2. Illegal immigration and women’s work
3. Impact of Aids on women’s employment
4. Trafficking of women and women’s employment
5. Women and domestic works
6. Impact of race on women’s work

Senior Scholar Guidelines

* Must be a current NWSA member
* Books considered must have a first date of US publication between May 1, 2010 and April 30, 2011.
* A senior scholar with a record of publication of at least two books.

Junior Scholar Guidelines

* Must be a current NWSA member.
* Manuscript must have signed at least a contract with a publisher or the book is already in production.

Next deadline to apply: May 1, 2011

1) Complete the application form

You will be asked for title, ISBN, year published, year, 50-100 word abstract, and a single page CV.

2) Send 5 copies of your book or manuscript to:

National Women’s Studies Association
7100 Baltimore Ave, Suite 203
College Park, MD 20740
ATTN: NWSA Whaley Book Prize

Please note: Unfortunately, we cannot return books sent to NWSA.

Download the brochure (pdf)

Download the guidelines(pdf)

Previous Recipients

Apply here.

 

 

• 11 January 2010

Interview with

Ngugi Wa Thiong'o

• comments (1)

Granta’s Deputy Editor Ellah Allfrey interviewed author Ngugi Wa Thiong’o at New Beacon Books about his childhood in rural Kenya and his piece in the new Granta - an extract of upcoming memoir Dreams in a Time of War.

Granta’s new issue, on the theme of ‘Work’, is launched this week. See here for details of the launch party, at the Free Word Centre in Farringdon this Wednesday.

BLACK AND BLUE IN EUROPE FILM SERIES A LOOK AT THE OTHER EUROPE APRIL 29- MAY 1, 2011   FRIDAY, APRIL 29 @ 6PM BOMA TERVUREN, THE JOURNEY by Francis Dujardin (Belgium/Congo, 54mins) The extraordinary and tragic saga of 267 Congolese, brought to Brussels to be exposed at the 1897 World's Fair. Fri, April 29 @ 6:00pm - FREE SCREENING   FRIDAY, APRIL 29 @ 8PM PLAYING AWAY by Horace Ove (UK, 100mins) To mark the conclusion of their "Third World Week" celebration, a cricket team in a small English village invites a West Indian cricket team from South London to a charity game. Featuring Norman Beaton Fri, April 29 @ 8pm   SATURDAY, APRIL 30 @ 3:30PM THE GLASS CEILING by Yamina Benguigui (France/Algeria, 90mins) Europe's racial make-up is quickly changing. French-Algerian filmmaker Yamina Benguigui is hoping to start a conversation about affirmative action - a policy that does not exist in France today. Sat, April 30 @ 3:30pm   SATURDAY, APRIL 30 @ 5:30PM BLACK DJU by Pol Cruchten (Luxembourg, 80mins) From the sea and sun of the Cape Verde Island, it's a very big step to rainy, gloomy, land-locked Luxembourg, but that's the journey 20-year-old Dju Dele Dibonga must take to track down his dad, whose yearly visits and monthly guest worker checks have stopped. Featuring veteran actor Philippe Léotard and introducing singer Cesaria Evora as Dju’s mother. Sat, April 30 @ 5:30pm   SATURDAY, APRIL 30 @ 7:30PM OTOMO by Frieder Schlaisch (Germany, 84mins) A powerful film portraying institutionalized racism and police brutality, Otomo provides a convincing look at the everyday world of refugees, who are continuously surrounded by tension and insecurity. Based on the true story of Frederic Otomo. Stars Isaach de Bankole (The Limits of Control) Sat, April 30 @ 7:30pm   SUNDAY, MAY 1 @ 1PM WAALO FENDO by Mohammed Soudani (Switzerland/Senegal, 65mins) Milan, like Paris or Stuttgart, and like many other European cities, is the theater of the drama of immigration. Demba reconstructs his story and that of his brother Yaro, both Senegalese immigrants in Italy, in a long and fragmentary flashback that begins with Yaro’s murder. An immigration story like others but that most people are unaware of. Sun, May 1 @ 1pm   SUNDAY, MAY 1 @ 2:30PM BURNING AN ILLUSION by Menelik Shabbaz (UK, 107mins) Burning an Illusion powerfully evokes young Black lifestyles in the London eighties and raises issues of lifestyle choices and personal growth in a racist society. Sun, May 1 @ 2:30pm   SUNDAY, MAY 1 @ 4:30PM DANCING FOREVER by Christian Faure (France, 90mins) Based on Marie Do's autobiographical novel, this absorbing movie balances the two dominant factors in its heroine's destiny: her mixed-race heritage and her passion for dance in a consistently upbeat tone that matches its heroine's indomitable spirit. Sun, May 1 @ 4:30pm.   SUNDAY, MAY 1 @ 6:30PM JOSEPHINE BAKER: BLACK DIVA IN A WHITE MAN’S WORLD by Annette von Wangenheim (Germany/USA, 45mins) A tender, revealing documentary about one of the most famous and popular performing artists of the 20th century. Sun, May 1 @ 6:30pm, followed by a reception with Sugar Hill Beer courtesy of HarlemBrew.   RECEPTION WILL FOLLOW LAST SCREENING Join us to share your thoughts and light refreshments Sugar Hill Beer will be served courtesy of HarlemBrew     TICKETS:  FREE FRIDAY, APRIL 29 @ 6PM FRIDAY @ 8PM, SATURDAY & SUNDAY: Weekend pass $20; Day pass $15; $6 per show. SECURE YOUR SEAT TODAY! ONLINE WHERE: Teachers College, Columbia University 525 West 120th Street - Room 263 Macy Take train 1 to 116th street and walk uptown four blocks. Entrance between Broadway and Amsterdam. Picture ID requested to enter building. DVDs and VHS of films from Africa and the African Diaspora will be on sale at the venue. $15 per DVD; $25 for 2 DVD; $35 for three DVD and $10 for each additional DVD.

Longtime oil industry champion

now calls BP liars,

almost a year after oil spill

Published: Sunday, April 10, 2011, 7:00 AM

By Bob Marshall, The Times-Picayune 

TED JACKSON / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

Ryan Lambert, owner of Cajun Fishing Adventures Lodge, one of the state's largest is furious with BP for not paying out claims. For his peak spring-summer season, business was down 94 percent from his average, a drop he says eventually cost him $1.1million. To help hedge his bets, he has gone into partnership in Willowdale Country Club in Luling, trying to bring it back from the brink, and looks over the fairways and ponds Thursday, April 7, 2011.

After the BP Oil Spill gallery (13 photos)

  

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A year after the Deepwater Horizon exploded 60 miles south of his Buras hunting and fishing lodge, Ryan Lambert can distill his opinion of BP and the oil industry down to one word: Liars.

It's an opinion he never thought he'd have.

"The fishing industry has always lived side-by-side with the oil industry down here in Plaquemines Parish, and they've always told us that if anything happened, they would take care of the problem -- they would repair the damages and they would make us whole -- and I believed them," said Lambert, whose Cajun Fishing Adventures Lodge is one of the state's largest.

"Well, they lied. About everything. They didn't take care of the problem, and they're not taking care of us. Guys in my business weren't made whole. A lot of them are starving. And now that the national media is gone, BP couldn't care less.

"I'm sick of it, and I'm telling the whole country about it -- on national TV, in magazines and in front of Congress."

As soon as BP's flood of crude oil began flowing toward the coast last year, Lambert, 52, knew change would rock the business he had spent nearly half his life building into a regional powerhouse.

He expected his income to plummet, and it did; the peak spring-summer season was down 94 percent from his average, a drop he says cost him $1.1 million.

He expected the 22 families that depend on his business for their livelihoods -- a lodge staff of eight, plus 14 guides -- to take a financial wallop, and they did. Only five of the guides were hired in the cleanup effort. The rest were "calling me daily hoping for work -- which I still don't have for them," he said.

He expected the economic hangover to carry into 2011, and it has; his bookings for May and June are down 55 percent from a normal year, and he has nothing beyond that.

But two changes occurred he never saw coming.

First, the help BP said was on the way to repair damages inflicted on businesses and the environment never came, he said.

A trust turned upside-down

That event led to a second unanticipated change: His long trust in the oil industry and skepticism of environmental groups was turned upside-down. He has become a willing volunteer for national green groups, among them the National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Ducks Unlimited, The Green Group and the Izaak Walton league.

In fact, on Sunday he leaves on his second trip to Washington as a guest of the Natural Resources Defense Council to tell his personal story of loss and disappointment.

"Originally, I was using (the spill) as an opportunity to tell them about the real problem we have here: coastal erosion," said Lambert, who has been involved in that cause for years.

"But the bad experiences we've had with all the lies and broken promises in this disaster have really opened my eyes. And I want everyone in the country to know about it ... know you can't trust what (the oil industry) promises you."

Lambert said the bad experiences didn't start immediately. Like many charter and marina operators, he received a quick $5,000 check from BP in the first weeks of the disaster. That was hardly enough to make up for the losses at his idled 14,000-square-foot operation, but Lambert was encouraged when President Barack Obama got BP to put up $20 billion to establish the Gulf Coast Claims Facility.

Tired of jumping through hoops

Since then, he said, things have gone all downhill.

He paid his accountant $7,000 to supply financial records proving his losses would total $1.1 million, but received checks for only $211,000.

"In order to apply for payment, you had to keep your business open so you could help mitigate the final cost, so that meant I had to keep staff and pay operating expenses through the end of the year," Lambert said. "But after all that, I'm still out $904,000 in lost income."

He said he was told he should apply again to be made whole.

"Well, I'm tired of re-applying, because it never does any good," he said. "I'm tired of paying my CPA. Now I'm paying a lawyer."

He plans to file suit.

Lambert, vice president of the Louisiana Charter Boat Association, said his anger deepens when he thinks about the estimated 600 other charter captains in the state. He said the only members who have settled up with BP are those who took a flat $25,000 "quick payment" from claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg.

"The only ones who took that were guys who had no other choice because of their situation," he said. "They had house notes or boat notes or medical expenses and no business coming in. Well, now that money is gone, and they still don't have any business -- and they're just screwed.

"I don't know of any of the guys who have been made whole like they promised."

Long-term concerns

Lambert said his suffering pales next to his colleagues, because he owns his property and has other business interests to help pay bills. That's not the case for most charter fishers, he said.

"They're independent contractors who work by themselves," he said. "Everyone talks about the ones who made a killing in the cleanup, but not all of them got those jobs. Only five of my 14 guides were hired."

Lambert is also worried about the long-term effects on the ecosystem that provides his livelihood. He suffered through the leanest speckled trout winter ever, seeing only three of the fish brought to his cleaning tables from spots that traditionally produce daily limits of 25 fish in the cold-weather months. And while speck fishing has improved this spring, he said he has seen none of the small trout representing last year's spawning class, which entered the estuaries when oil was coming ashore.

State fisheries biologists said tests to determine the effects on last year's spawning class were not complete, and ongoing tissue samples of fish from the affected areas have shown no signs of hydrocarbon contamination or other ill effects from the spill.

Lambert wishes the rest of the country was convinced of that.

"The attitude outside this area is that everything here is contaminated," he said. "I've done something like 15 TV shows since the spill, and the guys doing the shows tell me people ask them, 'Why are you going fishing down there -- you can't eat the fish.'

"The only out-of-state bookings I'm getting are old customers who just want to show their support."

That new business has dried up, even after Lambert's Cajun Fishing Adventures was named one of the top five fishing lodges in the nation by Sportsfishing magazine.

Even the thrill of that honor was tarnished by BP, he said.

"BP had the audacity to put that on their website, like it was a positive thing showing the Gulf Coast was coming back -- thanks to all their efforts," Lambert said. "That just made me crazy.

"What we people should know is that all the millions they spent on those TV and newspaper ads about making things right is a lie.

"And what people in this state should ask themselves is: If a giant like BP isn't making us whole, what do they think is going to happen when the smaller fish in that business have an accident?"

That was a question Lambert said he never asked himself before last April. Now, he said, he thinks he knows the answer.

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Bob Marshall can be reached at rmarshall@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3539.