New Anime Film Tackles Human Trafficking

A Chinese movie star is using his fame for a good cause by starring in an “adrenaline-fueled’ animated-short film about “human trafficking and sexual exploitation that have plagued the country, and for Asia, for decades.” (Ben Blanchard, Reuters) Zhang Hanyu, China’s newest critically acclaimed film star, who just won a Chinese Academy Award, lent his voice to the serious film “Intersection,” which will be shown on MTV China this weekend.



Thai and English versions will be broadcast on MTV’s Southeast Asia channels as well, and other versions are being planned. The film is from the perspective of 5 characters including a brothel owner, a trafficker and a victim. Designed in Anime style, filmmakers hope the format will be something young people can relate to.



“I hope the animation will stir meaningful conversations among youth about how we can fight against the tragic form of modern-day slavery,” Zhang told the press. “Intersection” is produced by MTV EXIT’s (End Exploitation and Trafficking) campaign, which is connected to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to raise awareness on the subject. “We’re using a different medium, animation, to alert young people about the risks of human trafficking,” Olivier Carduner, USAID’s Mission Director for Asia, said.



Drug and human trafficking is a massive problem in the region. The United Nations estimates that out of 2 million women and children who are trafficked every year, a whopping 30 percent are in Asia. The Chinese government has turned to harsh punishments for these crimes, including the death penalty. A recent high profile news case of the two American journalists, Euna Lee and Lisa Ling, were arrested after crossing the North Korean border into China to report on human trafficking.

Guns in Church?

Despite the recent shooting in church of high-profile abortion doctor George Tiller, a Kentucky pastor is still inviting his flock to bring their firearms into church.

In dubious celebration of the Second Amendment and the Fourth of July, New Bethel Church in Kentucky has invited its congregants to wear their firearms inside the church on Saturday, June 27.

“We’re just going to celebrate the upcoming theme of the birth of our nation,” said pastor Ken Pagano. “And we’re not ashamed to say that there was a strong belief in God and firearms — without that this country wouldn’t be here.”

According to an ad, the arms-bearing event will also include a handgun raffle, patriotic music and information on gun safety. Pastor Pagono says that private security will check visitors at the door to ensure that the guns are unloaded.

In Kentucky, gun owners are permitted to openly carry guns in public with some restrictions. Concealed weapons must have permits and firearms can’t be taken into places like schools, jails or bars and some other exceptions.

The event at New Bethel Church was planned months before the recent shooting of Dr. Tiller, a tragic event Pagano condemns and says highlights the need to educate the public about gun safety.

For the event, Pagano has encouraged his 150-member congregation to bring a canned good and a friend. As a former marine and handgun instructor, Pagano has said that the event is to promote gun safety, not mix violence and worship.

“Firearms can be evil and they can be useful,” he said. “We’re just trying to promote responsible gun ownership and gun safety.”

Marian McClure Taylor, executive director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, an umbrella organization for 11 Christian denominations in Kentucky, including Pagano’s Protestant church said that while Christian churches promote peace, “most allow for arms to be taken up under certain conditions.”

She added that Pagano assured her that the event would promote responsible gun ownership and that proceeds would go to charity.

While Pagano’s sect tends to be proud gun owners, fearful of the Obama administration restricting gun ownerships, other pastors are less than thrilled to see churches embrace guns.

John Phillips is an Arkansas pastor who was shot twice by a church member for unknown reasons while leading a service in 1986. He still has a bullet lodged in his spine.

He spoke out against a bill in Arkansas that would have allowed guns to be carried in churches in the state.

“A church is designated as a safe haven, it’s a place of worship,” said Phillips, “It is unconscionable to me to think that a church would be a place that you would even want to bring a weapon.”

For more information on the guns in church event, read the original AP article on Yahoo!

International Trade: Answer to Food Crisis?

The World Trade Organization believes the answer to the global food crisis is international trade, as stated on Sunday. WTO director General Pascal Lamy believes that “global integration representation by trade enabled food to be transported from where it could be produced efficiently to where there was demand.” (Jonathan Lynn, Reuters)

Due to geography, certain countries, like Egypt, could never be self-sufficient in the food marker, according to the International Food and Agriculture Trade Policy Council conference in Salzburg, Austria. “International trade was not the source of last year’s food crisis,” Lamy claims. “If anything, international trade has reduced the price of food over the years through greater competition, and enhanced consumer purchasing power.”

Many people suspected trade as the reason for rising food costs in 2007 and 2008. Prices have slowly come down since then but many experts argue that agricultural trade made the problem worse and wasn’t interested in the needs of poor farmers or consumers in third world countries.

Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food, has condemned an ‘excessive’ reliance on trade in the pursuit of food security, while some farmers’ groups had also called for greater self-sufficiency.” (Reuters) Agriculture currently accounts for less than 10 percent of world trade, and only 25 percent of world farm output is traded globally, compared with 50 percent industrial goods, compared with 50 percent of industrial goods, according to Lamy.

“To suggest that less trade, and greater self-sufficiency, are the solutions to food security, would be to argue that trade was itself to blame for the crisis,” he told the press.

Farm trade is becoming more competitive amongst developing countries, with agricultural exports from developing to developed countries rising 11 percent a year between 2000 and 2007, “faster than the 9 percent growth in trade in the other direction.”

Global Warming Damages Tourist Destinations

According to a travel article found on Yahoo!, some of the most popular travel destinations are disappearing, thanks to climate change and tourism.


The Maldives, a chain of islands in the Indian Ocean is about three feet above sea level. Despite an attempt to bolster the islands, scientists fear they could sink as soon as 2050. The failure of the $63 million repair has left the government of the Maldive Islands in talks to relocate its population of several hundred thousand to other countries: Sri Lanka, Australia, or India. The loss of the island would also be an end to the nation’s tourism, which brings in 30 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.


The Great Barrier Reef is not only a natural treasure, it is also one of the premier tourist destinations in Australia. But thanks to heavy tourist traffic, ocean acidification, and rising water temperatures, the 135,000 square miles of live coral is growing smaller. Despite measures taken by the government to slow the reef’s loss, scientists still estimate that by 2050, the reef will have lost an estimated 95 percent of its living coral, thanks to an increase in water temperature.


Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is one of the world’s most popular climbs. But since 1912 the glacier-covered mountains have lost 84% of their ice and scientists estimate that the remaining glaciers could be entirely gone by the year 2020, making Tanzania’s tourist attraction more popular than ever.


The Swiss Alps are the most popular mountains to ski. But wi html_removed th rising temperatures from global warming, more and more resorts are looking to other attractions to cover up the lack of snow on the slopes. The official outlook is that 40 percent of the Alps’ skiing areas will disappear by 2100.


Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands may have inspired Darwin, but they’ve also inspired an influx of travel to visit the birthplace of evolutionary theory. With Darwin’s 200th birthday looming this year, more plant, marine and animal species are at risk than ever before.


To learn more about the effects of global warming on the world’s natural wonders, read the original article here.

Pic Source:TCNJ

Airlines to Cut Emissions by 8 Percent

Tuesday's press announcement claims that airline executives worldwide are expected to cut their emissions by 8 percent this year in order to meet new economical demands for both passengers and cargo.

Not only will this cut costs for the airline companies but it's likely to make many an environmentalist happy, as planes have been blamed for contributing greatly to global warming. Planes burn fossil fuels such as oil, which is a much needed natural resource.

In recent years, airlines have attempted to stay afloat by charging heavily for cargo, and have been using this method, along with business class passengers and cargo to stay in business. Carriers in Asia and Europe, for example are making cuts due to the recent plummet in supply and demand for both travel and freight, and this could likely be hard to stomach for those used to reasonable and frequent flights.

But airports are determined to improve the system, not make it worse. Companies are looking to revamp "runway and taxiway designs, improving flight scheduling and reducing airfield congestion that causes wasteful fuel burning" according to Angela Gittens, who runs Airports Council International. (Laura MacInnis, Reuters) Over 100 European airports are also planning to change certain protocol such as "continuous descent approach" in order to cut carbon emissions.

6 percent of the forecast carbon cut will come from fewer planes being in the air, and a further 1.8 percent will reflect improvements in energy efficiency, according to the International Air Transport Association. (IATA)

Director-General Giovanni Bisignani reported that successful tests have been conducted using biofuels made from plants, increasing the possibility of powering flights by plants like algae and camelina, a "type of flax."(Reuters) Those who have tested such methods and succeeded include Virgin, Continental, Japan Airlines and Air New Zealand.

"Certification by 2010 or 2011 is a real possibility, and the potential benefits are enormous," Bisignani said at the aviation conference in Geneva. "A biofuel industry could be a big generator of employment and wealth for the developing world." These cutbacks are part of the new administration's larger plan to enforce carbon cuts in automobiles.

Vegetarian Pet Food

If you’re living life as an eco-friendly vegetarian, get your pet in on the green lifestyle.


While many people either don’t eat meat or eat only organic meat products to avoid risk of disease, they may not consider that the meat that doesn’t pass inspection for human consumption goes into pet food.


The same problems that affect humans, including allergies, cancer, and kidney, heart, and bone problems also affect pets. The diseased animals in the food supply that cause mad cow disease can also cause the same illness in pets as they do in humans.


To avoid health problems and risks for your furry friends, change their diet to vegetarian. There are cookbooks, supplements, websites and other resources that ensure critters get all their nutritional needs without any meat.


Wild animals subsist a great deal on plant matter, so it is not unnatural to exclude animals from their diet. In fact, it may even help them live longer, as the 2002 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records cites Bramble, a 27-year-old border collie as the oldest dog in the world.


While rice, lentils, and organic vegetables can make up much of a pet’s vegan diet, it is also important that they get more nutrition in the form of supplements. L-carnitine and taurine are important to help dogs from developing heart disease and may not be sufficient in either a vegetarian or store-bought diet, but supplements can be found at a health food store.


While dogs are natural omnivores, making them perfect vegetarians, it can be a little more difficult to convert cats to a meatless diet. For recipes and ideas about getting your pets to eat green, visit this link, which also contains valuable information about the benefits of a vegetarian diet for furry friends.

Organic Products Safety Called into Question

According to an article found at the NYTimes.com, organic products may not be safer than their conventional counterparts.

Organic products are generally purchased who think they are healthier and taste better than their conventional counterparts. But with the recent outbreak of salmonella in organic peanut butter, many organic buyers are beginning to have their doubts.

“Because there are some increased health benefits with organics, people extrapolate that it’s safer in terms of pathogens,” said Urvashi Rangan, a senior scientist and policy analyst with Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. “I wouldn’t necessarily assume it is safer.”

However, organic certification processes do not include testing for safety, just health inspections and pest-management plans.

The Department of Agriculture has given permission to use the green and white “certified organic” seal to certain parties, but they aren’t directly testing for food safety standards.

Now, in light of the recent salmonella outbreak, Barbara C. Robinson, acting director of the agriculture department’s National Organic Program is sending directions to ensure that investigators look beyond pesticide levels and crop management techniques and report things like finding rodents and droppings to the proper agency.

“For example, while we do not expect organic inspectors to be able to detect salmonella or other pathogens,” Ms. Robinson wrote, “their potential sources should be obvious from such evidence as bird, rodent and other animal feces or other pest infestations.”

Organic foods and suppliers have long been in need of stricter regulations and it seems as though the recent outbreak of salmonella might prove a catalyst, as conventional brands are declared safe and organic brands remain ambiguous.

To learn more about the recent salmonella outbreak in peanut butter, as well as the possible changes in organic food regulation, read the original article here.