Marcus Bleasdale,
represented by VII,

Blue Fin Tuna - The Death of a Community

European officials are increasing pressure for an international ban on the commercial fishing of bluefin tuna, a threatened species whose fatty belly is prized for sushi. But they are facing a delicate balancing act as they try to weigh economic interests of a Mediterranean fishing industry, a sushi-loving Japan, and a species that some experts say is on the verge of extinction.
In the latest move toward protecting the fish, France said that it would back a ban starting late next year on international trade in bluefin, which are found in the Atlantic as well as the Mediterranean Sea. About 80 percent of the bluefin catch is exported to Japan.
Bluefin stocks have plummeted as demand for sushi has risen and powerful industrial fishing boats known as purse seiners have come into use. The stocks are now below 15 percent of their historical level.

Darfur - A Look Back in Anger

Love in the Time of TB

Love in the Time of TB

A third of the world's population are thought to be infected with M. tuberculosis, and new infections occur at a rate of about one per second. More people in the developed world are developing tuberculosis because their immune systems are compromised either by HIV/Aids, poor nutrition and poverty as well as age and other immune compromising conditions. The proportion of people who become sick with tuberculosis each year is stable or falling worldwide but, because of population growth, the absolute number of new cases is still increasing. In 2007 there were an estimated 13.7 million chronic active cases, 9.3 million new cases, and 1.8 million deaths, mostly in developing countries. In addition, more people in the developed world are developing tuberculosis because their immune systems are compromised by immunosupressive drugs, substance abuse, or AIDS. The distribution of tuberculosis is not uniform across the globe; about 80% of the population in many Asian and African countries test positive in tuberculin tests, while only 5-10% of the US population test positive.

We constantly associate Tuberculosis with sadness and hopelessness. But, increasingly new treatments correctly administered mean patients recover and can continue with a normal life. Patients in Nepal are treated with the DOTS system and the treatment is free for all patients. Patients with multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB receive some payment for loss of income, but this does not even 1/4 of the monthly expenses for one person. In Nepal the TB patients are not hospitalised, and patients stay in families during treatment. This situation is challenging when it comes to infection control, but gives the patient a possibility to live and love together in family almost normally.

The Other World

Spending a month at the international catwalk shows was a shock. I had never taken photographs of fashion before. It is not something that I know anything about. Before I started this assignment I had heard of Armani and Yves Saint Laurent – all the big names – but that was about the end to my fashion knowledge. I am a guy who wears jeans and a T-shirt for a living. I spent eight months last year covering conflict. I had been to Somalia, Sudan, Congo and Kashmir, and the images that arrest you from places such as those are powerful. In a way I suppose I wanted to clear my head by trying something new, a contrast to what I had done before. New York magazine wanted someone who had no preconceptions of the fashion world, someone who was completely lost. They found the right person.

Congolese Symphony Orchestra

In a country utterly destroyed by war, pillage and corruption the mere existence of an orchestra seems unimaginable. But, founded in 1994 a handful of church musicians began practicing with a few violins, taught themselves how to play cello, added a church choir and gave their first concert ten months later.

Today, the “Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste” (OSK) consists of about 80 instrumentalists and a choral of about 60 members. None of them receive any money. Most have paid for their instruments (second hand from China) out of their own pockets, others rely on Albert Matubanza, one of the founding members, who is not only a gifted musician, but has also taught himself how to build string instruments using wood from the local market and cable wire to replace broken strings. Scores of Handel’s “Messiah”, Verdi’s “Nabucco” or Mozart’s “Requiem” are often copied by hand.

Global Finance - One Year On

The term financial crisis is applied broadly to a variety of situations in which some financial institutions or assets suddenly lose a large part of their value. Until a few decades ago, many financial crises were banking panics, and many recessions coincided with these panics. Other situations that are often called financial crises include stock market crashes and the bursting of other financial bubbles, as well as international phenomena like currency crises and sovereign defaults.

Many economists have offered theories about how financial crises develop and how they could be prevented. There is little consensus, however, and financial crises are still a regular occurrence around the world. Many banks, over the years, have suffered a sudden rush of withdrawals by depositors which economists call a bank run. Since banks lend out most of the cash they receive in deposits, it is difficult for them to quickly pay back all deposits if these are suddenly demanded, so a run may leave the bank in bankruptcy, causing many depositors to lose their savings unless they are covered by deposit insurance. A situation in which bank runs are widespread is often called a banking panic. A situation without widespread bank runs, but in which banks are reluctant to lend, because they worry that they have insufficient funds available, is often called a credit crunch.

Examples of bank runs include the run on the Bank of the United States in 1931 and the run on Northern Rock in 2007. The collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers in 2008 is also sometimes called a bank run, even though Bear Stearns was an investment bank rather than a commercial bank. The U.S. savings and loan crisis of the 1980s led to a credit crunch which is seen as a major factor in the U.S. recession of 1990-1991. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were bailed out by the US government in 2008.

But where there are losers, there are also winners.

Conversations with a Child Soldier

FDLR Child Soldier - I was in school in Kiwanja with my parents but they fled to Kanyabayonga and I joined the Mayi Mayi, I wanted to be a Soldier.
We were living in Kiwanja and the FARDC were there, then the Tutsi came and they killed the young boys of the village, so we decided to join the Mayi Mayi.
After we were recruited we were given some traditional medicine then we came back to Kiwanja as soldiers. From Kiwanja we were taken to fight in Rumangabo, but we had to flee as we had not enough ammunition.
The medicine made us fight like we were not scared. We did not need to think about anything. I don't know the name of the medicine, as we have our doctors who prepare it. They give it to you and they put it in your mouth.
Now I don't want to be a soldier, I want to be a civilian and go back to school, I like Geography, Math, Technology, History and French.
Mayi Mayi Child Soldier - Joining the militia was done in stages, they forced me to carry their luggage first then they forced me to fight later. I was trained. One day I escaped as I missed my family and I went home. When I got there I found my mother was sick but the militias had caught up with me and they forced me to go back to the bush.
When they recruited me, they registered me and then they trained me for one month.
I was fighting against the CNDP in the Kayna area and in the Kiriki area. I was not scared, when you are fighting and you are scared you will die before your time. We got some medicines. They cut your body and they put in the medicines in the blood on the right leg. It made us fight with no worry. At that time I can just kill and they die, I don't feel anything it can not disturb me.
I want to go home now, when I get there I will praise god that he protected me that he did not die in battle. I want to help my parents when I go there.

Somalia Exodus

Somalis have been fleeing fighting and insecurity for the past 20 years. The subsequent refugee camp in Dadaab is now the largest in the world with an official 215,000 or an unofficial 250,000. Recent arrivals recount rape, summary executions and indiscriminate bombing in Somalia. After fleeing and facing bandits where many are robbed, raped and killed. When arriving in Kenya many report being detained illegally by Kenyan police. They recount stories of beatings rape and extortion in Kenyan jails. Many of the new arrivals have to wait several months before they are registered and eligible for food and help with relocation and accommodation. In the 3 or 4 months they must wait they are forced to fend for themselves.

Georgia - What Future Now?

Violence escalated in South Ossetia, in August. A breakaway province of Georgia and one of the “frozen conflicts” of the former Soviet Union. The conflict heated up dramatically in the early morning of August 8, 2008. Georgia declared that it intended to restore constitutional order and launched a large-scale military offensive. Russia sent additional troops to South Ossetia, saying they were reinforcements to Russian peacekeepers who are in the area to monitor a 1992 ceasefire between Georgian and South Ossetian forces. Fighting continued and Russian forces moved to within just a few kilometers of the capital Tbilisi.

The Price of Oil - Our Love Affair with the Automobile.

“Oil dependence is a threat to US national security, its economy and its environment. With a 21-million-barrel-per-day oil habit, the United States consumes a quarter of the world’s annual oil production. Oil imports now account for 40 percent of the national trade deficit, families and businesses alike feel the pinch from rising and uncertain oil prices. U.S. transportation, which is 97 percent reliant on oil, is the driving force behind the rapidly growing oil demand. This is partly because the fuel economy of cars and trucks has been stagnant since the 1988, and partly due to a lack of transportation choices in many communities.
Transportation also spews one-third of the annual emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide pollution. If the USA continues with business as usual, the transportation sector will be responsible for 80 percent of oil demand growth over the next 20 years and more than one-third of our global warming pollution emissions through 2030.”


National Resource Defense Council

The Price of Oil - Chad/Cameroon

The Price of Oil - Azerbaijan

On the outskirts of the Baku in Azerbaijan, is the beginning of the $4 billion Baku-Tbilisi- Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, that has just begun to pump oil on a 1,093-mile journey from the Caspian Sea to the Turkish mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

With oil revenues set to reach $160 billion over the next 20 years, what happens to the money and how it will be spent is what seems to be on everyone's mind in Azerbaijan these days. But many are warning that based on the problems Azerbaijan has had with combating large-scale corruption, the oil revenue could end up being as much of a curse as a blessing.

Some 40 per cent of the population live below the poverty line. Nurses and those in education earn only about $50 per month. And while the impact of the oil money can be seen in Baku - where high-class fashion rubs shoulders with begging Roma people - the areas outside the capital suffer from neglect and their decaying infrastructure.

The way to make oil improve the country's situation is through reform and the establishment of democratic and transparent government. But the outlook for Azerbaijan doing that could be bleak.

Somalia - A Broken State

Somalia has been without an effective central government since President Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. Years of fighting between rival warlords and an inability to deal with famine and disease have led to the deaths of up to one million people.
Comprised of a former British protectorate and an Italian colony, Somalia was created in 1960 when the two territories merged. Since then, its development has been hindered by territorial claims on Somali-inhabited areas of Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. In 1991 President Barre was overthrown by opposing clans. But they failed to agree on a replacement and plunged the country into lawlessness and clan warfare. In 2000 clan elders and other senior figures appointed Abdulkassim Salat Hassan president at a conference in Djibouti. A transitional government was set up, with the aim of reconciling warring militias. But as its mandate drew to a close, the administration had made little progress in uniting the country. In 2004, after protracted talks in Kenya, the main warlords and politicians signed a deal to set up a new parliament, which later appointed a president.

The fledgling administration, the 14th attempt to establish a government since 1991, has no civil service or government buildings. It faced a formidable task in bringing reconciliation to a country divided into clan fiefdoms. Its authority was further compromised in 2006 by the rise of Islamists who gained control of much of the south, including the capital, after their militias kicked out the warlords who had ruled the roost for 15 years.

With the backing of Ethiopian troops, forces loyal to the interim administration defeated the Islamists at the end of 2006. Ongoing insurgencies are affecting the stability of much of the country with the Islamic Courts and it followers using suicide bombers and roadside bombs to affect security.

Kenya Ethnic Violence

The post election violence in Kenya has killed nearly 1000 and displaced 270,000. It is the most devastating violence to hit Kenya since its independence. Whilst politicians try to find solutions in Nairobi, the ethnic tensions in the Rift Valley reach new highs. Ethnic cleansing has led to killings and houses being burnt in a movement to shift different tribes out of their non-ancestral homes.

Huge parts of different cities across the valleys have been razed to the ground and the inhabitants forced to flee. In the villages, warriors from opposing tribes battle with bows and arrows, rocks and occasionally guns to gain or regain control of their land.

While the Politician’s talk, the future of Kenya will depend, not on the final results of the discussions in Nairobi, but on the ability of Kenyans to forgive and live together again. That will take much longer.

Today's Children. Tomorrow's Leaders?