Living in France 2009 - Annemasse

I will be living in a flat in Annemasse, France during my time working for UNHCR in Geneva beginning in January.



Here are a few maps a photo, a google street view car video and some tidbits of information about the town.



Annemasse is situated in the Rhône-Alpes region of France, in the heart of Haute-Savoie. Its central location lies between the Mont Blanc and Lake Léman.

At the doorstep of Switzerland, between Mont Salève (1,375 m) and Voirons (1,400 m), Annemasse and its suburbs have a privileged geographical situation with natural acces to the mountain valleys of northern Haute-Savoie.

6 dynamic communities:
Ambilly, Annemasse, Etrembières, Gaillard, Vétraz-Monthoux, Ville-la-Grand, more than 60, 000 inhabitants provide a modern and friendly character.

Thanks to well-known international firms, the Annemasse region generates considerable business due to a large hotel capacity (1,400 rooms). In immediate proximity to Geneva.

French railway SNCF, aviation, and general public transport network, an international airport (Genève-Cointrin) at no more than 30 minutes away and a new highway network, Annemasse and is highly accessible.

Google street view car: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_8KhvtZB9g

Practicum 2009 - UNHCR the UN Refugee Agency

From January - June of 2009 I will fulfill my M.A. practictum requirements for Eastern Mennonite University's Center for Justice and Peacebuilding by working with UNHCR - The UN Refugee Agency in Geneva Switzerland. The section I will be working under is called Community Development, Gender Equality and Children. The UNHCR employs a staff of approximately 6,300 people in more than 110 countries

-UNHCR home page: http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home
-Brochure from my section on determining the interests of a child:
http://www.unhcr.org/protect/PROTECTION/4566b16b2.pdf
-Here is the group's mission statement: http://www.unhcr.org/publ/PUBL/4565a5742.pdf
-And, of course, the Wikipedia run down of what the agency does: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_High_Commissioner_for_Refugees


Here are some basic facts:

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country.

In more than five decades, the agency has helped an estimated 50 million people restart their lives. Today, a staff of around 6,300 people in more than 110 countries continues to help 32.9 million persons.

Friday, Nov. 7, PM Speaks at College Communicators Association Meeting

Friday, Nov. 7 at 1:15 p.m. at Eastern Mennonite University Seminary, Harrisonburg, VA

Student Driven Television Programming: The Challenges and Rewards

Paulette Moore, director/producer of special projects at Shenandoah University and a documentary filmmaker, will present on "Fridays @ 11," SU's student roundtable about news and current events that is aired on local cable television and on YouTube. Moore will discuss the challenges of creating content, evolving technology, sustainability of programming and partnering for greater audience reach. Time will be provided for an audience workshop about how to involve a group of universities in a video round-robin on YouTube using similar programming.


About CCA: The College Communicators Association of Virginia and the District of Columbia seeks to advance the cause of higher education in the Commonwealth and the nation's capital through an exchange of ideas among its members and through its programs and to provide professional development opportunities for its members.

http://www.collegecommunicators.org/

PauletteFilms Intv with Jotman Featured on His/Deutsche Welle Page

Jotman is a Southeast Asian blogger whose baptism by fire was the September 2006 coup in Bangkok, Thailand. He's continued to blog about Thailand and Burma since then and the purpose of his blog is to spark "creativity and global citizenship". In 2007 he was awarded the Reporters Without Borders Award and the Best of Blogs award sponsored by Deutsche Welle.

The interview I conducted with Jotman this summer at the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum in Bonn is now posted on Jotman's main page as well as Deutsche Welle's.


Jotman:
http://page1.jotman.com-a.googlepages.com/aboutjotman

Deutsche Welle:
http://dw-gmf.de/conference_2008/811.php

"Jotman noted the storm devastated Myanmar's main rice-growing region" - CNN

"Jotman is one of the most interesting sources on the Burmese crisis." Reporters Without Borders".

Kino Microcinema

"The reason for this movement is to give you a good kick in the ass." Kino filmmaker.

"Kino" is the Greek word for "movement" and means "film" or "the cinema" in Russian, German and other languages. Born in Montréal in 1998, Kino began as a challenge, made by founding filmmaker Christian Laurence to his friends, to make one short film per month until the year 2000. However, at the end of this period no one wanted to stop and, in fact, Kino had formed into a movement that encouraged filmmakers in groups scattered across Montréal and Europe to "do well with nothing; do even better with a little," and—most importantly—to "do it right now!"

WHO ARE KINOÏTES
KINO welcomes, without discrimination, anyone who wishes to undertake a serious artistic challenge. We are concerned first and foremost with artists involved in cinema, television, and multimedia, but KINO offers itself up to all those who are called to cinematographic adventure, regardless of age or prior experience.

KINO MONTRÉAL: THE NERVE CENTRE
KINO is a decentralized movement, which means each cell is managed independently. However, in order to facilitate the exchange of information or to speak on behalf of the network, Kino Montréal humbly acts as the “Mother Cell” and presides de facto over the KINO organization.


Here is a video about Kino from a Wisconsin cell of Kino:

http://www.wis-kino.com/films/good_kick-williams.php


And the official Kino website:

http://www.kino00.com/index.php?s=kino

Global Voices Online

http://globalvoicesonline.org/about/

Global Voices is a non-profit global citizens’ media project founded at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, a research think-tank focused on the Internet’s impact on society.

How Global Voices Works
Our Primary Goals
The Global Voices Team
How Global Voices Works:

Global Voices seeks to aggregate, curate, and amplify the global conversation online - shining light on places and people other media often ignore. We work to develop tools, institutions and relationships that will help all voices, everywhere, to be heard.

With tens of millions of people blogging all over the planet, how do you avoid being overwhelmed by the information overload? How do you figure out who are the most influential or respected and credible bloggers or podcasters in any given country, especially those outside your own?

Our international team of volunteer authors, regional blogger-editors and translators are your guides to the global blogosphere.

Radio Intv. with Dr. Miles Davis Shenandoah University

Dr. Miles Davis, business professor at Shenandoah University and intrepid entreprenuer interviews S.U. film maker Paulette Moore. Moore discusses the sacrifices and rewards of following her passion for independent film filmmaking. To hear the interview go the following link:

http://www.theriver953online.com/page.php?page_id=12580

And scroll down to the September 17th show.

For My Mom - Patricia Moore

The Journey

by Mary Oliver


One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice--

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

"Mend my life!"

each voice cried.

But you didn't stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do--

determined to save

the only life you could save.