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| Expect More Fukushimas |
 The
gung-ho nuclear industry is in deep shock. Just as it and its
cheerleader, the International Atomic Energy Agency, were preparing
to mark next month´s 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl
accident with a series of self-congratulatory statements about
the dawning of a safe age of clean atomic power, a series of
catastrophic but entirely avoidable accidents take place in
not one but three reactors in one of the richest countries of
the world. Fukushima is not a rotting old power plant in a failed
state manned by half-trained kids, but supposedly one of the
safest stations in one of the most safety-conscious countries
with the best engineers and technologists in the world. Chernobyl
blew up not because the reactor... |
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| THE IKE PHASE |
| ON January 20, 1961, John Kennedy delivered
his rousing Inaugural Address. But this speech was preceded,
as William Galston of the Brookings Institution has reminded
us, by an equally important speech: Dwight Eisenhower´s
farewell address. Kennedy´s speech was an idealistic call
to action. Eisenhower´s speech was a calm warning against
hubris. Kennedy celebrated courage; Eisenhower celebrated prudence.
Kennedy asked the country to venture forth. Eisenhower asked
the country to maintain its basic sense of balance. While Kennedy
gloried in the current moment, Eisenhower warned the country
to "avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering,
for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of
tomorrow... |
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NUQ student makes film on Egyptian revolution
TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK
DOHA NORTHWESTERN University in Qatar (NUQ) student Ethar Hassaan has produce a documentary on the Egyptian revolution.
She travelled to Egypt in February to witness the revolution sweeping through her country.
Once on the ground in Cairo, the city in which she was born and raised, her training in media and a desire to document the historymaking events took over.
“I went because I’m Egyptian and I really wanted to be there,” said Hassaan, a sophomore in the communication programme at Northwestern University in Qatar.
“But the communication student in me popped out and I had to get photos and videos,” she said.
Hassaan spent two of the next four days in Tahrir Square taking photos and video of protests that would eventually oust former President Hosni Mubarak.
The result: an original short film called ‘What I Saw’.
Though the film serves in part as a visual document of the events and people of Tahrir Square, its real strength is its ability to convey the mood of the square, which saw humour, rage, piety, sympathy and more.
In one scene Hassaan captures a woman holding a banner and screaming; in the next a group of men on their knees praying.
Though Hassaan had worked on film projects as part of her studies, creating a film around a live, sometimes chaotic event presented particular challenges – working without a script, creating compelling images without the help of lighting kits, and capturing events and people in the moment.
She managed to overcome the challenges though, and in the end the experience might impact the way she approaches filmmaking.
“I thought I liked the scripted work,” Hassaan said, “but I really liked this project.” Though she ended up creating a film out of her experience, witnessing the generosity and good-will of the Egyptian people was one of the best parts of the experience.
“It was really interesting,” Hassaan said.
“Once you got in the square you didn’t feel like there was any difference between anyone – no class, religious or gender differences – because we were all there for the same reason.” “It was like the Egypt I always wished for was there in Tahrir,” she said.
Hassaan has submitted her film to the Al Jazeera Documentary Film Festival for consideration.
The documentary can be viewed at http://vimeo.com/- 20290771.
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