Reporting on Conflict | Media Watch Blog

• News source:
• 11 September 2011
• Guardian | Observer

Jimmy Carter, now aged 86, 39th president of the United States (1977-1981), is that increasingly rare phenomenon in international politics: a man of modesty and principle. Whatever his failures and successes while in office, an interview in the New Review reveals the values that have shaped his three decades of service. He is a citizen of the world, shunning the exploitation of his political career via the pursuit of celebrity, wealth, and the acquisition of all the often ridiculous paraphernalia of visible affluence.

The Carter Centre, the foundation that he and his wife, Rosalynn, set up in the 1980s, in their home town of Plains, Georgia, is the base from which the couple work to eradicate diseases such as Guinea worm and river blindness and from where they champion human rights.

This autumn, as he has done every year, Carter will be helping to build homes with volunteers, this time in Haiti. As one of Nelson Mandela’s Elders, a group of elder statesmen, he visits the most intractable trouble spots negotiating to avoid conflict and bloodshed, motivated not by commercial considerations but from a respect for human life.

Guided by a strong Baptist faith and steadied by a 65-year love affair with Rosalynn, that colleagues say is touching in its fire and constancy, the former engineer, peanut farmer and naval officer, has pioneered the model of post-presidential activism that Bill Clinton has tried to emulate.

• News source:
• 11 September 2011
• Guardian
• By Carole Cadwalladr

He may live a modest life in a one-horse town, but Jimmy Carter, now 86, retains his global vision. And 30 years after leaving the White House, the peanut farmer turned president is still a man on mission. In Plains, Georgia, we found the 39th US president full of energy… and determined to make a difference.

• News source:
• 11 September 2011
• VOA

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has begun a visit to France, striving to rebuild ties that were shattered by accusations related to Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

Mr. Kagame was scheduled to meet with Rwandan expatriates, French business leaders and French President Nicolas Sarkozy during his three-day visit.

• News source:
• 10 September 2011
• IMEMC & PNN

This week, non-violent weekly protests in four villages were in support of UN resolution 194 and in support of the statehood bid at the UN later this month.

• News source:
• The Singing Revolution

The Singing Revolution film shares how, between 1987 and 1991, hundreds of thousands of Estonians gathered publicly to sing forbidden patriotic songs and share protest speeches, risking their lives to proclaim their desire for independence.

Public Broadcasting Stations around the U.S. have begun to announce their schedules, and starting July 26th through September airdates have been scheduled. Check the list of stations for dates/times in your area on the TSR website, you can search by STATION or CITY: http://www.singingrevolution.com/cgi-local/screenings.cgi

First occupied by the Soviets in 1939, then by the Nazis, and then by the Soviets again, Estonia lived through decades of terror. By the end of World War II, more than one-quarter of the population had been deported to Siberia, been executed, or had fled the country. Music sustained the Estonian people during those years, helping to maintain the Estonian language and sense of culture. It was such a crucial part of their struggle for freedom that their successful bid to re-establish their independence is known as the Singing Revolution.
The Singing Revolution tells the moving and dramatic story of how the Estonian people strategically, willfully, sung their way to freedom–and helped topple an empire along the way.