Estrella

A promise of a job can come in many different forms, but for young women in former Eastern bloc countries, there could be danger. Human trafficking has pillaged eastern European countries and preyed on the innocent for the expense of free labor and sexual exploitation. Larysa Kondracki’s The Whistleblower shows a view into that realm where those who you thought you could trust to protect actually are those who try to persecute you. The Whistleblower focused on the real-life account of the Natacha’s 1 who came from Eastern Europe with the promise of better jobs but who were trafficked into the sex trade. Kathryn Bolkovac (portrayed by actress Rachel Weisz) was the former Nebraskan cop who took the opportunity to become a U.N. peacekeeper in formerly war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina. Once in Bosnia Bolkovac uncovered a major trafficking operation of Eastern European women into Bosnia, which was being operated and controlled by U.N. peacekeepers, multinational companies’ contractors...

The Reed Flute's Work I say to the reed flute, You do the work, but you know sweet secrets too. You share the friend's breathing. What could you need from me? The reed replies, Knowledge is for total destruction. I say, Burn me completely then and leave no knowing. How could I, when it is knowledge that leads us? But that knowledge has lost compassion and grown disgusted with itself. It has forgotten about silence and emptiness. A reed flute has nine holes and it is a model of human consciousness, beheaded, though still in love with lips. This is your disgrace, this moaning. Weep for the sounds you make. ** Provided from The Collected Translations of Coleman Barks -  Rumi: The Big Red Book - The Great Masterpiece Celebrating Mystical Love & Friendship - Odes and Quatrains from The Shams

            In 1944, thousands of African-American pilots flew out of American bases in Europe to fight the German Nazi regime in World War II. As much as they wanted to find equality in the right to fight, they were prohibited in their own home country from mixing with whites. Their story? It is the story of the Tuskegee Airmen. Image from Google Images             I kicked off my war film series with Anthony Hemingway’s Red Tails , which starred Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr. among many other talented actors. Red Tails portrayed a historically fictional depiction of the Tuskegee Airmen’s plight during WWII and the dawn of the incorporation of black pilots in combat missions, which eventually led to desegregation of the military. With its fast-paced action as well as its realistic scenes of racism and camaraderie built between African-Americans and some of the wh...

Fasting There is a hidden sweetness in the stomach's emptiness. We are lutes, no more, no less. If the soundbox is stuffed full of anything, no music. If the brain and belly are burning clean with fasting, every moment a new song comes out of the fire. The fog clears, and new energy makes you run up the steps in front of you. Be emptier, and cry like the reed instruments cry. Emptier, write secret with the reed pen. When you are full of food and drink, Satan sits where your spirit should, an ugly metal statue in place of the Kaaba. When you fast, good habits gather like friends who want to help. Fasting is Solomon's ring. Do not give it to some illusion and lose your power,  but even if you have, if you have lost all will and control, they come back when you fast, like soldiers appearing out of the ground, pennants flying above them. A table descends to your tents, Jesus' table. Expect to see it when you fast, this table spread ...

I have started watching films based on the war motif. I kicked off the war series with Red Tails , a heroic portrait of the Tuskegee Airmen who flew in combat for the U.S. against the Nazis during WWII. Real characters of men came to life as well as the hurt of segregation and racism and the pain of losing men in war. But war is hell, and my second film showed a much more visual and guttural graphic of that saying. In the Land of Blood and Honey was Angelina Jolie’s first directed film, but I know that it won’t be her last. As much as Jolie is embraced and embedded into American Hollywood, her underlying skin breathes for international conflicts, hoping to bring peace to them. In another life, I see her being a diplomat, an activist and a reporter. In this life, her efforts to meet with other distressed people in the developing world in international conflicts has made her all three.   The Bosnian War was noted as “the worst war in European histo...