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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released its proposal to strip wolves of crucial Endangered Species Act protections in Idaho and parts of Wyoming. Both states are now preparing massive wolf eradication plans, and hundreds of wolves could be killed. I was so outraged by this proposal that I sent a message to Dirk Kempthorne, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, who oversees the Fish and Wildlife Service. I hope you'll take some time to send a message, too. It's easy. Just go to the website below to take action: http://action.defenders.org/rockymountainoutrage2Both Idaho and Wyoming have begun actively planning efforts to kill hundreds of wolves. As many as two-thirds of the wolves in Wyoming could be killed. And as many as 60 of Idaho's 71 wolf packs could be eradicated! The government once nearly allowed our Northern Rocky Mountain wolves to be shot, harassed and poisoned into extinction. We can't let that happen again. Please send Interior Secretary Kempthorne a message about the importance of protecting our wolves right now: http://action.defenders.org/rockymountainoutrage2These wolves are in trouble. I hope you'll help... To take action on this issue, click on the link below: https://secure2.convio.net/dow/site/Advocacy?s_oo=lH2o41P5QcYAajEWfAkD0Q..&id=629If the text above does not appear as a link or it wraps across multiple lines, then copy and paste it into the address area of your browser. Labels: Endandered Species Act Protection, Idaho, Wildlife, Wolves, Wyoming
Special alert:
Speak out to protect Native American sacred springs from destructive coal mining Comments are due February 6th, so send yours today at http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/nrdcaction_013007====================================================== The Peabody Western Coal Company has been siphoning precious groundwater away from Hopi and Navajo lands in northeastern Arizona for nearly four decades. NRDC Earth Activists helped successfully shine a light on Peabody's mining violations before, but now the company has requested the Bush administration's permission to extend its massive Black Mesa mining operation even further. Since the 1960s, Peabody has pumped billions of gallons of groundwater out of the Navajo aquifer in order to propel pulverized coal through a pipeline to a power plant 270 miles away in Nevada. These enormous water withdrawals -- in one of the most arid regions of the United States -- have depleted and damaged the aquifer, drying up the sacred springs and other water sources that the Hopi and Navajo people rely on for drinking, irrigating crops, making medicines and carrying out spiritual traditions. Under the National Environmental Policy Act, the Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining is required to review the environmental impacts of Peabody's proposed mining permit as well as to consider less environmentally harmful alternatives. But the agency scheduled the comment period for this issue (which ends February 6th) to coincide with the Hopis' traditional ceremonial period that bars them from engaging in secular matters such as this, meaning they will not have the opportunity to participate in this decisionmaking process that directly affects their home and their way of life. == What to do == Send a message, before the February 6th comment deadline, urging the Office of Surface Mining to consider less destructive alternatives to Peabody Coal's proposed mining expansion, and to extend the official comment period so that the Hopis can weigh in on this decision that is critical to their future. == Contact information == You can send an official comment directly from NRDC's Earth Action Center at http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/nrdcaction_013007(we'll send a copy of your comment to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne). Or use the contact information and sample letter below to send your own message. Dennis Winterringer, Black Mesa Project EIS Office of Surface Mining Western Region P.O. Box 46667 Denver, CO 80201-6667 Email: BMKEIS@osmre.govcc: Secretary Dirk Kempthorne Department of the Interior 1849 C Street, NW Washington, DC 20240 Email: Exsec@ios.doi.gov== Sample letter == Subject: BMP draft EIS comments Dear Mr. Winterringer, I urge you to reject the Peabody Western Coal Company's latest attempt to expand and prolong its massive water withdrawals from the Navajo aquifer in northeastern Arizona. Instead, please help protect the scarce water resources of the Southwest and comply with federal law by analyzing less destructive alternatives to transporting Black Mesa coal. Under the National Environmental Policy Act, your agency is required to review the environmental impacts of the proposed mining permit as well as to consider no-water and electrical-generation alternatives. According to the most recent data, Peabody's water withdrawals have already caused irreparable physical damage to the Navajo aquifer, violating your own "material damage" criteria. As a result, the sacred springs and other natural water sources that the Hopi tribe and the Navajo Nation depend on are drying up. Also, I ask you to extend the deadline for public comments on this proposal by a minimum of 60 days so that Hopis who are currently observing a traditional ceremonial period that bars them from engaging in secular matters can participate in the decisionmaking process. I am counting on you to protect the cultural and natural values of the Black Mesa plateau by acknowledging the severe impacts of groundwater mining and requiring a no-water alternative to transport coal. Sincerely, [Your name and address] Please also forward this message to your friends and co-workers, and urge them to contact the Office of Surface Mining as well. Thank you! ========== About NRDC ========== The Natural Resources Defense Council is a nonprofit environmental organization with 1.2 million members and online activists, and a staff of scientists, attorneys and environmental experts. Our mission is to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things. For more information about NRDC or how to become a member of NRDC, please contact us at: Natural Resources Defense Council 40 West 20th Street New York, NY 10011 212-727-4511 (voice) / 212-727-1773 (fax) Email: nrdcaction@nrdc.orghttp://www.nrdc.orgAlso visit: BioGems -- Saving Endangered Wild Places A project of the Natural Resources Defense Council http://www.savebiogems.orgLabels: American Indians, Arizona, Coal Mine, Environmental Alert, Native American, Peabody Western Coal Company
Federal Alert: Big News from D.C.--Horse Protection Bills Revived!
Congress is back in session, and so are two crucial equine protection bills! H.R. 503/S. 311 (The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act) will prohibit the slaughter of American horses for human consumption. Americans don’t eat horses, but last year alone more than 100,000 U.S. horses were killed for their meat, which was exported to Europe and Asia. H.R. 249 restores protections for wild horses and burros that were undone by the passage of the 2005 Burns Amendment to the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act. If you recognize these bills, it’s because both of them were introduced in the 109th Congress in 2006. Although both had strong support and advanced significantly through the committee process, Congress unfortunately recessed for the year before either bill could be passed. Both have been formally reintroduced, but the approval process now must begin anew. If you believe that horses are American icons who deserve a better end than ending up on dinner plates abroad, please contact your senators and representatives today and ask that they support these important bills. Ask your legislators to support the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act.Ask your decision makers to support H.R. 249, legislation that would protect wild horses and burros.Please visit ASPCA.org to take action on these initiatives today. Thank you so much for your patience and your compassion Labels: American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, Animal Alerts, Horses
23. 1. 2007 Portland - A federal judge has ruled that the Internal Revenue Service may have to give back .7 million it seized from the patriarch of a Portland metro-area clan of Gypsies, saying the government has failed to prove the money belongs to him. IRS agents seized the cash last summer from the home and safe-deposit boxes of Bobbie Ephrem, a 49-year-old used-car dealer who was under criminal investigation for suspected tax evasion, according to court records. Ephrem was not charged with any crimes. After seizing the money, the IRS issued Ephrem a rare "tax jeopardy assessment," which claimed he had not paid taxes for nine years and owed more than million in taxes, penalties and interest. Ephrem claimed he kept much of the money for family members. This was one of his duties as patriarch of a little-understood clan of American Gypsies, who often eschew checks and bank accounts in favor of cash and purses. He accused federal agents of stealing "sacred" cash that belonged to relatives, including more than million in cash from an inheritance. U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman, who heard two days of testimony in the case in November, ruled Friday that the IRS calculations were flawed, principally because the agency failed to take into account strong evidence that much of the money seized does not belong to Ephrem. The judge abated the jeopardy assessment and directed Ephrem's lawyer to draft a judgment in the case. Marc Blackman, who represents Ephrem in the IRS matter, said he believes that all of the money seized from his client should be returned. But he pointed out that the government's lawyers will have a chance to review the judgment. "I don't think the case is really over," Blackman said. The U.S. Department of Justice is reviewing Mosman's ruling and considering its options, said Cynthia Magnuson, a Justice spokeswoman in Washington, D.C. At this point, she said, "our options include a motion for reconsideration." (Bryan Denson, The Oregonian) Labels: Gypsy, IRS
http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/biogems_polar_0107The Bush Administration is beginning the review process to decide whether to protect the polar bear, threatened with extinction due to global warming, under the Endangered Species Act. But we must speak up before February 23, 2007, or they will not hold public hearings on this critical matter. Please help by sending a message directly to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, letting them know you want public hearings on polar bear protection. They are not required by law to hold such hearings, but they can be swayed if we all speak up. CLICK HERE to show your support for polar bear protection.GLOBAL WARMING DISRUPTING BEAR HIBERNATION IN EUROPE It's not just Arctic creatures suffering from the negative effects of global warming. Spanish scientists are blaming global warming for the fact that brown bears appear to have stopped hibernating in Spain's northern Cantabrian Mountains, the first bears known not to hibernate in Europe. According to Douglas Futuyma, professor of ecology and evolution at the State University of New York in Stony Brook, "There is a grave concern about the prospects of a great number of species. They are likely to be harmed by temperature changes, by mismatch between their life cycles and the altered seasonal life cycles of species on which they depend, and by invasion of competing species that are better adapted to warmer conditions." http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/biogems_polar_0107Labels: Environmental Alert, Global Warming, Polar Bears, Wildlife
Say NO to coal mining in grizzly habitat
The Cline Mining Corporation wants to gouge a heavily polluting coal mine out of the Flathead River Valley, a thriving RockyMountain habitat for grizzly bears that straddles the border ofMontana and British Columbia. We need your immediate action to block this dangerous open-pit mining scheme, which would poison the headwaters of the FlatheadRiver and jeopardize the survival of downstream populations of imperiled grizzly bears, wolves, cut throat trout and otherwildlife. Please go to http://www.savebiogems.org/bears/takeaction and urge the British Columbia government to protect the spectacular wildlands and wildlife of the Flathead basin by rejecting the Cline Mining Corporation's reckless plan. Cline's mining proposal calls for removing mountain tops and building waste dumps and settling ponds right on top of the headwaters of the Flathead River in British Columbia. Hazardous pollution from the mine would travel down river into Montana, putting the endangered grizzlies and other wildlife of Glacier National Park at even greater risk. Please go to http://www.savebiogems.org/bears/takeaction and join Governor Brian Schweitzer and Senator Max Bauchus of Montana in speaking out against this scheme. Thank you for helping to protect grizzly bears and other imperiled Rocky Mountain wildlife. Sincerely, Frances Beinecke President Natural Resources Defense Council Labels: Coal Mine, Glacier National Park, Grizzley Bears, Wilderness Alert
Jan 24 2007
icWales
Parts of a three-year-old action plan on the education of gypsy children have still not been implemented, Save the Children said today. The charity accused the Assembly Government of failing some of the most vulnerable children in Wales. It said the guidance on education for gypsy traveller children has not been updated since 1990 – nine years before devolution. Gypsy children are still experiencing unacceptable levels of bullying and victimisation at school. The money available for the education of gypsy children has not increased in the last three years despite increased demand, it said. The Assembly’s Equal Opportunities committee will discuss services for gypsies and travellers today. Save the Children said it spoke to gypsy children and professionals working with them about a review of services for gypsies and travellers carried out by the committee. It found few of the recommendations on education were fully implemented by July 2006, despite an Assembly Government action plan to get most of them in place by the end of 2004. Local education authorities, schools and teachers were often unaware when there had been progress in national policy. Anne Crowley, senior policy advisor for Save the Children in Wales, said: “This situation is completely unacceptable. “The review by the Assembly of services for gypsy travellers in Wales was a really excellent example of good practice. “But, once again, the Assembly Government’s plans are falling down on implementation. “Children can’t wait – these plans should have been in place long ago.” An Assembly Government spokesman said: “We welcome the publication of this report into the education of gypsy and traveller children and we are making progress on our action plan. “Assembly grants totalling nearly £1 million have been made available and local authorities have had the opportunity through the Equals Fund to increase this allocation by a further 85%. “That equates to nearly £1.92 million in funding allocated specifically to exactly the kind of issues raised in this report.” He said the Assembly Government issued guidance on racist bullying. A new gypsy traveller unit will co-ordinate policy to make sure gypsies have a say in issues affecting them. He added: “We are in the process of revising our guidance circular. “A consultant has been appointed and they will work with Government, gypsy travellers and partners to take this forwards over coming months.” Labels: Education, Gypsy Children, Save The Children, Wales
Slovenia's ombudsman is charging police for unauthorized surveillance of reporters and a relocated Gypsy family, media said Wednesday. Ombudsman Matjaz Hanzek told a news conference in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana he filed charges against the police for secretly following movements of the 31-member Gypsy family and scores of reporters who covered the events for weeks, Serbia's B92 radio reported. Hanzek said he asked the state prosecutors' office to investigate police activities relating to the Gypsy family, whose members included 14 children. The Slovenian journalists' union also said the behavior of the police administration was unacceptable. At the moment, the Gypsy family is accommodated temporarily at Ljubljana's military base to spend the winter months, before authorities provide them with permanent housing. The family has made frequent moves across Slovenia since the government relocated them in October, after villagers at Ambrus, east of Ljubljana, threatened to kill them. © 2007 UPI http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_10534-Deputy-Charges-Slovenia-Police-Over-Gypsy.htmlLabels: Ambrus, Gypsy, Ljubljana, Slovenia Europe
Help Save Horses Right Out of the GateA ban on the slaughter of American horses for human consumption in foreign countries has been reintroduced—and support for the bill is stronger than ever. We need your help! Now, Representatives Janice Schakowsky (D-IL), Ed Whitfield (R-KY), John Spratt (D-SC) and Nick Rahall (D-WV) have teamed up to offer H.R. 503 in the House. They were able to secure the same bill number from last Congress, and along with Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and John Ensign (R-NV)—who have introduced a companion bill, S. 311, in the Senate—they are ready to move this legislation over the finish line. Legislation banning horse slaughter made tremendous progress in the 109th Congress, but the bill stalled in the Senate and was not brought up for a vote before the end of the session. TAKE ACTIONPlease make a short polite phone call to your U.S. Representative and your two U.S. Senators today. You can reach your legislators by calling the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121, or click here to find their Capitol office phone numbers. Making a call is easy. All you need to say is: "I am a constituent and I am calling to ask that you please protect our horses from slaughter by supporting the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 503/S. 311). The House voted overwhelmingly to pass this legislation last fall, and now it is time to act again and pass this bill through Congress. If you are one of the more than 60 original cosponsors, thank you! I hope you will do all that you can to pass this important bill this year. If you you have not yet cosponsored this bill, I respectfully request that you do. Thank you." After you make your phone call, fill in the form at the right to automatically send an email—including our video detailing the grisly slaughter of horses over the border—to your Representatives and Senators and urge them to support and pass the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. Congress receives a lot of email. It is very important to edit the subject line and the letter below with your own words so that your legislators know the email came from a constituent. (MORE)Labels: American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, Horses, S. 311
Wed Jan 17, 2007 10:38 AM GMTBy Lisa Jucca MILAN (Reuters) - Half an hour's drive away from Milan's sumptuous fashion shows, hundreds of Romanian Gypsies who came to Italy seeking a better life have found themselves in a rat-infested camp. Since New Year's Eve when their trailers burnt to ashes in a fire at Milan's largest Roma camp, 50 families in the suburban shanty town of 800 in Via Triboniano have subsisted in squalor. Drawn since about 1999 to a small illegal settlement in an abandoned parking lot next to Milan's main graveyard, these Roma did not wait for Romania to join the European Union to head west in search of a better life near this wealthy European city. In the town centre workmen polished fingerprints off the black glass facade to prepare Dolce & Gabbana's fashion show venue last week, but in the Gypsies' sprawling suburban favela there is no running water, electricity flows only intermittently and they share a dozen chemical toilets. "I am disillusioned. I want to go back home," said Marian Marin, 23, as he tried to warm up from a street bonfire after the blaze burned out his caravan. "Back in Romania I was earning only 100 euros a month as a construction worker. I came here to send something to my family. Now I don't care about anything," said Marin, who now sleeps in the open. Next to him, a woman wearing a colourful Gypsy headscarf cried out her resentment in Romani language as the winter drizzle turned the camp's soil to filth. (MORE)Labels: Camp, Gypsy, Milan, Roma
By Stephen Castle in Strasbourg 16 January 2007, © The Independent Europe's far-right, xenophobic and extremist parties crossed a new threshold yesterday, winning more speaking time, money, and political influence in the European Parliament than ever before. Claiming the backing of 23 million Europeans, ultra-nationalists secured enough MEPs to make a formal political grouping, underlining the growing challenge posed by the far right across the continent. For the first time since the Second World War a series of elections has swept nationalistic, far-right parties into office in municipal, regional, national and European parliament elections. The admission of Romania and Bulgaria in January of this year brought in enough far-right MEPs to form a bloc. Mainstream politicians have been struggling for years to contain the threat from hardline nationalists and extremists who have entered coalitions or supported ruling governments in countries such as Austria, Denmark, Poland and Slovakia. Amid formal protests and jeers in the Strasbourg Parliament, 20 MEPs yesterday signed up to the new formation called Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty (ITS). As a formal group, they are entitled to up to €1m in central funding. It is led by Bruno Gollnisch of France's National Front, who is awaiting a court verdict on charges of Holocaust denial. Made up of ultra-nationalists the group includes one Bulgarian parliamentarian, Dimitar Stoyanov, who yesterday attacked the "Jewish establishment" and accused Roma parents of selling 12-year-olds into prostitution. Even the ringtone of Mr Stoyanov's phone points to his hardline politics. It features a former Bulgarian national anthem which, he says, "tells of the atrocities of the Turkish army in the second Balkan war, how the rivers were flowing with blood and the widows weeping, and urges people to fight for Bulgaria". A previous far-right grouping in the European Parliament faltered in the 1980s and rival MEPs predict that ITS will have a limited impact on the Strasbourg assembly. Martin Schulz, leader of the socialist group which is the second-largest in the Parliament, appealed to other MEPs to unite to prevent ITS from securing senior positions in Strasbourg. He said: "We must not abandon this Parliament, which symbolises the integration of Europe, to those who deny all European values." The new political group was established despite efforts by socialist MEPs to block its formation. One British MEP, Ashley Mote, has joined the group. A former Ukip member, Mr Mote was suspended from that party in 2004 when he faced prosecution for housing benefit fraud and has since sat as an independent. (MORE)Labels: European Parliament, Gypsy, Holocaust
Villagers near Slovenia's capital asked for a government guarantee that a 31-member Gypsy family will remain in a military base nearby only temporarily. The Sentvid municipality Thursday evening urged the Slovenian government and Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Jankovic to keep them informed about plans for the relocated Gypsy family, Serbia's B92 radio said Friday. On Dec. 24, the Slovenian government moved the Gypsy family, including 14 children, to Ljubljana's Roje military base amid villagers' protests. The government intended to keep the Gypsies there during winter months until it provides a permanent accommodation, probably in March. A week before Christmas Day, local authorities razed five small shacks on land owned by the Strojan Gypsy family at the village of Ambrus, east of Ljubljana. The government moved the Strojans from Ambrus late in October when villagers threatened to kill them and every time the Gypsies tried to move, vigilantes have prevented them from settling down. © 2007 UPI Labels: Ljubljana, Slovenia Europe
Despite their historical distrust of the written word, Europe's Gypsies have a growing -- and captivating -- literary tradition.By Colum McCannSalon.comThe boy sat near the bridge, at the edge of the Gypsy camp, rolling a cigarette. The bridge was an elegant garbage heap. It was put together with planks, aluminum siding, rope, tree trunks, sodden cardboard, tires. The boy himself looked part of the bridge as he sat, cross-legged, carefully sprinkling the tobacco onto the paper. He had torn a page from a book in order to roll the cigarette. When he lit it, the paper flared a moment, and he smoked the tobacco in quick sharp bursts. When he was finished, he tore the remaining pages from the book and stuffed them in the pocket of his jeans. He threw down the cover and it landed at the foot of the bridge. The cover was too stiff for rolling tobacco. When he walked off toward a ramshackle shed, leaving the book on the ground, I strolled across to see what he had just smoked -- a Slovak translation of the Romanian writer Emile Cioran. Nothing goes without saying. The boy had taken the page down into his lungs. - - - - - - - - - - - - If the Roma -- or the Gypsies -- are known for anything beyond the traditional clichés of lying, cheating, stealing, it is a historical distrust of the written word. As Europe's most consistently persecuted minority -- having suffered through centuries of slavery, the Holocaust, and an ongoing dose of government-sanctioned racism -- they are recognized primarily as an oral culture. There is no great Gypsy poet who has been acknowledged across boundaries. There are few writers who have given voice to the 12 million people of Romani heritage around the world (almost the same number as there are Jewish people). There is no overarching book, or myth, or written structure around which the Gypsies have gathered. In fact, apart from a few notable exceptions, there is very little literature about the Roma at all. A good place to begin, though, is with Isabel Fonseca's "Bury Me Standing," a wonderfully complete nonfiction examination of the situation of Europe's Gypsies. Fonseca's book caused some scuffling among Romani scholars -- as any book written by an outsider probably will -- but at its core it is a very dignified and honest attempt to pull back a curtain and gaze through the window. Written with great style and verve, it is as if Fonseca puts a hot coin to the frosted glass and allows us to peep through. "Bury Me Standing" is possibly the most thorough popular account of the situation of the Roma in Europe. For me, Fonseca's book reached into my rib cage and turned my heart a notch backward. I was hooked. The book was a launching pad into a world I had never expected to enter, but I ended up corralled by Fonseca's image of Papusza, the Polish-born Romani poet, and for the following four years I traveled, literally and figuratively, through the Gypsy world, most prominently in Slovakia. For all my travels, though, I seldom saw a book in a Gypsy household. Some of these houses were among the poorest I have seen anywhere in the world -- mud and wattle huts in the eastern part of the country, tiny flats in the wasteland of Bratislava's Petržalka, cardboard shacks in a settlement known as the dog-eater's camp. On the other hand, there was music everywhere -- record players, violins, satellite dishes tuned to MTV, radios, and even one electronic piano in a makeshift brick hut. But no books. "You can't eat books," a social worker said to me one afternoon. "When you're hungry you don't have time to write about it." Fair enough, but the function of literature is to find dignity in the most common human trait of all -- storytelling. Stories are the vast human democracy. And if anyone has a story, it is the Roma, who are, of course, as internally diverse as any other culture. Where are the stories of the Gypsy doctors? Where are the tales of the Gypsy psychologists? Given a rich language, and narrative abilities so easily apparent in song, it would seem that a literature by the Gypsies, or even one of the Gypsies, should be more prominent and varied than it is. But the Romani culture is not exactly an easy one to penetrate. Scholarly works are still thin on the ground. Great novels are few and far between. Poems are sporadic and untranslated. And there is another kind of silence too -- the Gypsy as cliché, clicking her fingers, throwing back her hair, jangling her bracelets, fingering your wallet, breaking the hearts of fearless men. One of the most prominent scholars to break the mould is Ian Hancock, a British-born Roma who now heads up the Romani Archives in the University of Texas. Hancock is the sort of man who has to live with the sniggers when he is introduced as a "Gypsy intellectual" -- as if that sort of thing is an aberration. But he rides the current quite brilliantly. Hancock put together "The Roads of the Roma," a PEN anthology of Gypsy writers. In this volume, he has collected an impressive array of 43 poems and prose pieces, some of which are translated into English for the very first time. The book also chronicles an 800-year history of oppression that, in itself, reads like a poem. (MORE)Labels: Books, Colum McCann, Gypsy, Roma
Have a go at the traditional Romany art of stencilling at Charnwood Museum on Saturday 27 January. (Media-Newswire.com) - Local Gypsy expert David Smith will be teaching youngsters how use stencils to make colourful artwork based on Romany designs. These stencils were traditionally used to decorate Gypsy horse-drawn wagons. The Romany art workshops are being run in conjunction with the popular Thousand Year Story exhibition currently on display at Charnwood Museum. The Thousand Year Story tells the fascinating history of the Gypsy and travelling communities as they migrated across Europe from India. The Gypsies earned a living selling small items to the local communities and mending broken pots, pans and ceramics. Some of their wares can be seen in the exhibition. The workshops will be suitable for accompanied children aged 8-14 years. All materials will be provided. Workshop places cost $2.00 per child and must be booked and paid for in advance. Contact Charnwood Museum on 01509 233754 for further details and to reserve your place. The Thousand Year Story exhibition will be on display at Charnwood Museum until Sunday 4 February. Charnwood Museum is in Queens Park in the centre of Loughborough and is open from 10.00am -4.30pm Monday to Saturday and 1.00pm - 4.00pm on Sundays. Charnwood Museum is run as a partnership between Leicestershire County Council and Charnwood Borough Council.Notes:For further details and photo opportunities please contact Susan Cooke, Keeper of Charnwood Museum on 01509 233737 ENDS Labels: Art Work, Classes, Gypsy, Roma, Romany
Zoli
By Colum McCannRANDOM HOUSE; 333 Pages; $24.95 They call her Zoli, although her birth name is Marienka. She is a Gypsy, a poet and a singer. Colum McCann's tale begins in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s, when 6-year-old Zoli Novotna and her grandfather, members of a roving Gypsy (or Romany) family, escape from the violence of the pro-Nazi Hlinka guards in the days before World War II. Forced onto a frozen lake at gunpoint, her mother, siblings and cousins drown when the ice breaks. When we first meet Zoli, she is writing to her as-yet unborn daughter, Francesca. She recalls how she and her grandfather ate whatever they could find in the woods: boiled leaves, pinecones, wild garlic grass as well as rabbit and hare and hedgehog -- anything to survive. But always the image of her now-lost family was seared into her mind. "My days were spent still staring backwards," she remembers, "for my dead family to catch up, though of course I knew then that they never would." It was her grandfather who gave her the name of Zoli, a boy's name, after his first son. It was also her grandfather who taught her to read and write (he carries a dog-eared and tobacco-stained copy of Marx's "Das Kapital"). She learned at an early age that she had the touch of the poet within her, or, as she puts it, "the feel of a pencil between my fingers." (MORE)Labels: Books, Colum McCann, Gypsy, Zoli
SARAH BREALEY06 January 2007 07:45It is a book which began with a schoolboy's index cards and has been more than 50 years in the making. An East Anglian man's labour of love has become the most definitive guide to the language of gypsies and has even been listed as one of the world's top 10 reference books. Now James Hayward is about to reprint his book, Gypsy Jib, amid successful sales all over the world. Mr Hayward, 68, from Wissett, near Halesworth, first started recording gypsy language at the age of 12 or 13. Inspired at first by his grandmother, a Romany gypsy who was born in a travelling wagon, his quest to record a dying language has been spurred on by the fact that he has no children of his own to pass it to. He said: "I started out on a card index that I started putting together when I was at grammar school. It was schoolboy stuff, I only had about 100 words, but nevertheless. I wanted to make sure that someone after me could read this and find out what I knew. I used to walk around with stuff in my head that no-one else knew. "He said it was "a great surprise" to find the book rated among the top 10 reference books in the world. Gypsy Jib was praised by the journal Reference Reviews, which is devoted to reviewing new reference books. His book was rated alongside the Oxford Encyclopaedia of American Literature, Macmillan's Encyclopaedia of Religion, and the Design Encyclopaedia, from Lawrence King and the Museum of Modern Art. (MORE)Labels: Culture, Gypsy, Language
By Jeff LongTribune staff reporterPublished January 5, 2007A year after mistreatment allegations prompted a great elephant exodus from McHenry County, two of the pachyderms, Nicholas and Gypsy, remain at a controversial circus training farm without good prospects for a new home. They were left behind when eight other Asian elephants were moved last January and February from a farm near Richmond to an elephant sanctuary in the rolling hills of Tennessee. It was a 650-mile journey that began after federal investigators accused Hawthorn Corp., the farm's owner, of mistreating the animals. The eight female elephants have since been nicknamed "The Divas" by their new caretakers, who say they are soaking up sunshine and frolicking in ponds. "They're grand, they're worldly," said Carol Buckley, co-founder and executive director of the Elephant Sanctuary near Hohenwald, Tenn. "They're just divas. The name fit and it stuck. They're really taking advantage of their freedom in every way." But Nicholas and Gypsy are waiting for their golden parachute. Hawthorn is still under agreement with the government to find new homes for them, and the company says that keeping them is prohibitively expensive. (MORE)Labels: Animal Alerts, Elephants
Environment: Easy to Be GreenBy Joan Raymond
NewsweekJan. 8, 2007 issue - You don't have to ditch leather or sell your car to help the environment. We've gathered 10 simple tips for living greener in 2007. Hey, it's a lot easier than losing those 15 pounds. 1. Feed the Bees Pesticides, pollution and habitat destruction are taking a toll on the birds and insects that pollinate about 80 percent of the world's food supply (or about one out of every three bites of food we eat), says Rose Getch of the National Gardening Association. To lend a helping hand, plant a pollinator garden. Yellow, blue and purple flowers will attract bees, while red and orange will attract hummingbirds. For more information, go to kidsgardening.com. 2. Clean Up, Naturally Household chemicals contribute to both in-door and outdoor pollution. This year, use more natural cleaners like the Greening the Cleaning line at imusranchfoods.com. Or make your own using vinegar, baking soda and lemon juice. For some great tips on green cleaning, go to eartheasy.com. 3. Ditch Your Junk Not only is junk mail annoying, it kills trees. Do yourself—and the forests—a favor by getting off the mailing lists of companies you don't support. You can contact the firms yourself, or check out subscription services like greendimes.com or 41pounds.org that promise to lighten your junk-mail load. For more information: thegreenguide.com. 4. Air Your Laundry Make like Grandma and line-dry your clothes once in a while. It not only saves money, but also decreases your yearly carbon- dioxide emissions. Likewise, run your washer on cold whenever possible—and use it only when it's full. (MORE)
Labels: Energy, Environmental Alert, Green Living
Orders to Cater to Creationists Makes National Park Agnostic on GeologyDecember 28, 2006, © PEERWashington, DC - Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah's flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). "In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our National Park Service is under orders to suspend its belief in geology," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. "It is disconcerting that the official position of a national park as to the geologic age of the Grand Canyon is 'no comment." In a letter released today, PEER urged the new Director of the National Park Service (NPS), Mary Bomar, to end the stalling tactics, remove the book from sale at the park and allow park interpretive rangers to honestly answer questions from the public about the geologic age of the Grand Canyon. PEER is also asking Director Bomar to approve a pamphlet, suppressed since 2002 by Bush appointees, providing guidance for rangers and other interpretive staff in making distinctions between science and religion when speaking to park visitors about geologic issues. (MORE)Labels: Environmental Alert, Geology, Grand Canyon, NPS
By Indian Express
Tuesday January 2, 11:52 PM The gypsies are back. A girl is admiring herself in the mirror. An impish boy is peeking up a skirt. Without flamenco music and swinging skirts, the Roma just peer at you - from within the frames of Zsuzsanna Ardo's photographs. Sometimes, they have their faces turned away. Black-and-white photographs may seem like an odd choice to capture the life of the colourful Roma but Ardo, Hungarian writer and photographer, is not keen on the exotic. She zooms in on the ordinariness of Europe's largest ethnic community. But the focus is soft, Ardo's eye sensitive. "These are the moments that touched me," she says. The idea was not to depict the economic misery of the Roma but the way they live, the light as well as the serious moments they encounter." But the intent of the exhibition is serious. Called "The Roma Decade", it refers to the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-15, a commitment by some European governments to combat the Roma's poverty and exclusion. Seeing the Roma up-close was not easy, though. Over the last two summers, as Ardo wandered in Budapest and by the Danube, they often kept away. "Some were suspicious, but eventually most of them allowed me to picture a slice of their lives," she says. The Roma, who were hounded in Europe, are a disillusioned lot. Amid all their inherited bohemianism, they see the greyness that Ardo has captured. But things are changing. "They are adapting themselves to global developments," says Ardo. The free-spirited gypsies may still scoff at something called home but for those known to have descended from India, who have a chakra as their symbol and who would call out rani and gav in their musical Romany language, this is homecoming. Even if it is in black and white. The exhibition will travel to the UK and Turkey. The exhibition at the India International Centre ends on January 3. http://in.news.yahoo.com/070102/48/6armg.htmlLabels: Gypsy, Photos, Roma
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