Madonna launches Malawi Aids film

Madonna's documentary highlighting the plight of Malawi's estimated one million Aids orphans has been given its world premiere in New York.

The film, which the singer produced and narrated, tells the story of several children, many of them born to mothers who have died of Aids, most of whom lead desperate lives.

On the red carpet at the Tribeca Film Festival, Madonna told reporters how I Am Because We Are contains a message of obligation.

"We are responsible for each other and that if we can help in any way, shape or form, we should," she said.

The documentary includes some excruciating scenes showing the agonising grief of a mother who has just lost her child to Aids.

There is also a harrowing moment when a young boy - a victim of genital mutilation - is being treated by medical staff.

But director Nathan Rissman said the idea was not just to shock audiences.

"We decided, if we were going to wake people up, we were going to try to point them in the direction of how we can solve these problems.

"There are so many solutions out there and I think that the more that we discuss this, the more that we have a dialogue about what to do, the better," he said.

Inner circle

The film is being launched just as Madonna waits for her adoption of a young Malawi boy to be finally approved by a court in the country.

The documentary shows the pop icon in a very positive light, but Madonna says she was ambivalent about appearing on camera.

"In the beginning I wasn't in the movie at all, but then I realised because I was narrating that it was important that I let people know that it was my personal journey and my experience.


Madonna and director Nathan Rissman

"So I think and I hope and pray that I found the balance of myself in the film as well as the stories of the children," she said.

The film's director has been referred to as "Madonna's gardener" or "Madonna's nanny's husband", while Rissman acknowledges that he is very much part of Madonna's inner circle.

"Both my wife and myself have worked for Madonna and her family for the past four years, and my wife has a relationship with the family that pre-dates mine, but I wouldn't necessarily say that's how I got the gig," he says.

One aspect of Rissman's talents that impressed Madonna was the home movies he shot of her children, which may have played a role in him landing the job as her documentary director.

"I think I proved myself to Madonna and her family as a trustworthy colleague, co-worker, somebody that would share Madonna's creative vision, and I think that she just believed in me, and she saw something that she realised that we can get something done together."

Optimism

He may be a first-timer, but there is an intensity to the way Rissman has made this film, with much of it shot in cinema-verite style.

His camera does more than just convey the tragedy of the Aids orphans, but also shows optimism in the midst of the crisis.

In addition to extensive filming with the orphaned children in Malawi, the documentary includes interviews with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former President Bill Clinton.

It also propagates the view that Malawians cannot just rely on outsiders for help - they have to take some responsibility for their own problems.

For many of the participants in the documentary, Madonna's efforts are being seen as a laudable attempt to bring attention to a humanitarian crisis that much of the world ignores.

Concert for Driffield School Malawi project

A concert will be held on Friday May 16 in Nafferton Village Hall at 7:30pm.
Lund Singers will lead with guest soloist Alistair Barron, of Hutton Cranswick, who has gained a scholarship at the Guidford School of Acting from September.

There will be a raffle and refreshments and all money raised will be used for the Malawi people when a group of Driffield school teachers visit again in summer this year.

Tickets are £3 and are available from Sarah Sellar on (01377) 272658 or pay on the door.

Former Malawi President Condemns Violence And Pledges to Assist Zimbabweans

Doctor Bakili Muluzi, the former president of Malawi and currently the National Chairman of the United Democratic Front (UDF), has added his voice to the long list of foreign and African leaders who have condemned the situation in Zimbabwe.

Speaking to more than 2000 delegates at the party's convention in Chichiri, Blantyre, Dr. Muluzi criticized the delay in releasing presidential results. He pledged to join hands with the international community and help to fight for democracy in Zimbabwe.

According to our correspondent Simon Muchemwa, who attended the UDF Convention, Muluzi told the delegates that he had the people of Zimbabwe at heart and would lobby for sanity in the country. Muchemwa said the UDF members generally do not support the policies of the Mugabe regime, and have always sympathised with the people of Zimbabwe. The UDF are not the ruling party but they can influence other African leaders and political parties because they have the majority grassroots support in Malawi.

Muchemwa said Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika is a supporter of the Mugabe regime. With his late wife Ethel, who was a Zimbabwean, Mutharika forged close alliances with the government of Zimbabwe and cooperated on economic and security issues. He was elected into office as a UDF candidate but he broke off and formed his own Democratic People's Party. Mutharika has imposed himself as the party's candidate in elections due next year. But Muluzi on the other hand has invited foreign observers to monitor the UDF primary elections. He told delegates he mourns the death of democracy in Zimbabwe.

Our correspondent said Malawian newspapers carry reports on Zimbabwe daily as many people have relatives working or living in Zimbabwe. They understand the crisis that has been created by the government of Robert Mugabe and do not support the violence against ordinary citizens.

Meanwhile Jacob Zuma, leader of the African National Congress party in South Africa, has been on a visit to London where he met with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, Zuma insisted that now is not the time to consider negotiating a unity government in Zimbabwe. The idea was proposed in the state-controlled newspaper The Herald on Wednesday, but Zuma said the international community should remain focused on publication of results from the presidential poll and the ongoing recounts in 23 constituencies.

How to End the Global Food Shortage

The world economy has run into a brick wall. Despite countless warnings in recent years about the need to address a looming hunger crisis in poor countries and a looming energy crisis worldwide, world leaders failed to think ahead. The result is a global food crisis. Wheat, corn and rice prices have more than doubled in the past two years, and oil prices have more than tripled since the start of 2004. These food-price increases combined with soaring energy costs will slow if not stop economic growth in many parts of the world and will even undermine political stability, as evidenced by the protest riots that have erupted in places like Haiti, Bangladesh and Burkina Faso. Practical solutions to these growing woes do exist, but we'll have to start thinking ahead and acting globally.

The crisis has its roots in four interlinked trends. The first is the chronically low productivity of farmers in the poorest countries, caused by their inability to pay for seeds, fertilizers and irrigation. The second is the misguided policy in the U.S. and Europe of subsidizing the diversion of food crops to produce biofuels like corn-based ethanol. The third is climate change; take the recent droughts in Australia and Europe, which cut the global production of grain in 2005 and '06. The fourth is the growing global demand for food and feed grains brought on by swelling populations and incomes. In short, rising demand has hit a limited supply, with the poor taking the hardest blow.

So, what should be done? Here are three steps to ease the current crisis and avert the potential for a global disaster. The first is to scale-up the dramatic success of Malawi, a famine-prone country in southern Africa, which three years ago established a special fund to help its farmers get fertilizer and high-yield seeds. Malawi's harvest doubled after just one year. An international fund based on the Malawi model would cost a mere $10 per person annually in the rich world, or $10 billion in all. Such a fund could fight hunger as effectively as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria is controlling those diseases.

Second, the U.S. and Europe should abandon their policies of subsidizing the conversion of food into biofuels. The U.S. government gives farmers a taxpayer-financed subsidy of 51¢ per gal. of ethanol to divert corn from the food and feed-grain supply. There may be a case for biofuels produced on lands that do not produce foods--tree crops (like palm oil), grasses and wood products--but there's no case for doling out subsidies to put the world's dinner into the gas tank.

Third, we urgently need to weatherproof the world's crops as soon and as effectively as possible. For a poor farmer, sometimes something as simple as a farm pond--which collects rainwater to be used for emergency irrigation in a dry spell--can make the difference between a bountiful crop and a famine. The world has already committed to establishing a Climate Adaptation Fund to help poor regions climate-proof vital economic activities such as food production and health care but has not yet acted upon the promise.

What is true for food will be true for energy, water and other increasingly scarce resources. We can combat these problems--as long as we act rapidly. New energy sources like solar thermal power and new energy-saving technologies like plug-in hybrid automobiles can be developed and mobilized within a few years. Environmentally sound fish-farming can relieve pressures on the oceans. The food crisis provides not only a warning but also an opportunity. We need to invest vastly more in sustainable development in order to achieve true global security and economic growth.

Malawi inflation rises to 8.2 percent yr/yr in March

High food prices and transport costs pushed Malawi inflation up to 8.2 percent year-on-year in March from 8 percent in February, the National Statistical Office (NSO) said on Thursday.

"The current rise in inflation is due mainly to the recent upward adjustments in the price of gasoline which has pushed transport costs up and increased the price of cereal products," NSO said in a statement.

It said the shortage of maize had also contributed to a rise in inflation, in a country where the food index makes up 58.1 percent of the consumer price index.

Malawi's second consecutive surplus harvest of staple grain maize helped reduce inflation from 15 percent in June 2006 to single digits last year. But higher fuel prices are putting upward pressure on food prices and pushing inflation up again.

Last month the International Monetary Fund said that while the upward movement of inflation is a concern, Malawi can manage to keep it under control.

Opposition party nominates ex-president as candidate for next year's polls

Malawi's opposition party nominated ex-president Bakili Muluzi on Thursday as its candidate for next year's elections.
Muluzi trounced his opponent by 1,950 votes to 38 and will run as the candidate of the United Democratic Front against incumbent Bingu wa Mutharika.
Mutharika is credited with pushing through reforms to modernize the rural
economy, alleviate crushing poverty and clamp down on corruption.
Muluzi was Malawi's first democratically elected president and served from 1994 to 2004.
The two men used to be allies and Mutharika stood on a United Democratic Front platform when he was elected in 2004. But he then broke away to form his own party, saying his colleagues were blocking his anti-graft campaigns. Ever since, Malawian politics have been mired in power struggles.
Muluzi, 64, said he had planned to retire but changed his mind.
«How can I retire leaving my party out of government?» he said. «I will work hard to remove Mutharika and then retire.

But Muluzi has to grapple with the laws before making good his comeback bid. Malawi's Constitution says no one is allowed to contest the presidency again after serving two consecutive five-year terms. His legal advisers argue that that by using the word 'consecutive,' the framers of the Constitution meant that, if one takes a break after the two consecutive five-year terms, one is eligible again.
His opponents say the law is clear: no one can come back after serving two consecutive five-year terms.
Muluzi easily defeated his sole challenger, party vice president Cassim Chilumpha, who said he wanted to ensure a vibrant democracy in Malawi. But Chilumpha has his own legal problems: he is currently answering treason charges for allegedly plotting to assassinate President Mutharika. He denies the charges and the case has yet to begin in court.