musiclover

Chavez, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and other leaders issued a summit declaration calling on the United States and Europe to drop agricultural subsidies to level the free trade playing field. The group, which actually includes 19 countries, represents 2.2 billion people in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It called for an international fund similar to the International Monetary Fund that would be devoted exclusively to reducing poverty. And they demanded foreign debt relief. ``We've paid it twice, and this debt is still there,'' Chavez said. ``The debt will never be paid ... and in Venezuela we've made our debt payments religiously.'' He said billions of dollars Latin America spends servicing foreign debt could be better spent assisting the region's millions of poor. To strengthen the G-15, Venezuela, Iran and other energy-producing nations pledged to share technologies and use oil to help fellow states' development. Venezuela and India agreed to provide $120 million to launch a Bank of the South, which will help Third World nations finance growth, said Tarek William Saab, who heads Venezuela's congressional foreign affairs committee. India is providing $100 million, the bulk of the startup aid, the state news agency Venpres said. Leaders also pledged to create regional universities; share information and Internet technologies; and create alternatives to international news media ``that negatively affect developing countries.'' Most G-15 leaders didn't attend the two-day summit, and Khatami called on heads of state from all 19 member nations to make next year's summit in Algeria to fortify the organization. Formed in 1989, the group includes Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. The group's influence and work have waned in recent years, and a summit was canceled last year because of unrest in Caracas. The Organization of American States, the European Union and the U.S.-based Carter Center have urged Venezuela to ignore technical glitches in favor of voters' apparent intent to hold a vote on Chavez's presidency. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva left the summit early, but not before his ministers made clear that Brazil fully backed the OAS and Carter Center's efforts to ensure a transparent elections process. On Saturday, Argentina's Kirchner met with Venezuelan opposition leaders and urged both sides to pledge to respect democratic norms. ``The worst that can happen is the spilling of blood and repression. This is the worst that can happen, and we say it because Argentina has a master's degree in these matters,'' Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa said, referring to Argentina's past record of dictatorships. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Venezuela-Summit.html

here's some real news on the trade front...dunno how much the crowd in here is actually interested in such things!

oh that's cool! brazil is a big agri exporter...directly in competition with U.S.! hehehe i used to work in a coffee plant as engineer and we used to get tons and tons of brazilian 'arabica' and other coffee beans. and colombian too...

in such things, it's better to stay away from such company, or if they're really your good friends, then you should be able to tell them to not do drugs! and you should also be able to ask them for favors like ride home....what are friends for, otherwise?--just stupid peer pressure? :rolleyes: i never fell for peer pressure...at least not that i can recall.

yeah...that's true in many many cultures around the world. but girls should also work and do all the other things. and boys should also cook and do house work! :smug:

ah...i work with law also, actually. environmental law :)

you're one crazy lil kid! :D :P **hugs**

:stunned: chicken with jam? strawberry jam? :o but you're only what...13? are they making you work very hard? hmpf! :D :P

:embarrased: :P :P

oh...i haven't seen any new indian movies for a while. but if you're interested, just watch any and find out if you like it :-) 'Lagaan' was quite famous in the last few years...it got nominated for Oscars, even, as foreign language movie...but it didn't win it. 'Dil Chahta Hey' is also very good! just check out some bollywood web sites! :D

yep, very sweet, even if chocolate just on top (and i knew that! :P )

really? :stunned: wow! :o so indian movies are popular in chile? that's amazing! do you remember the movie name? and yep...lots and lots of dresses...the actress changes dresses in every scene, even in the same song! :stunned: :lol:

:D :D noooooooo none for jessy! :dozey: i'll happily have those pancakes, thank you very much! :smug: :cool: i just said no 'cuz they're fattening...and i'm already fat! :stunned: cowliflowersssss....sounds yummy! cowliflowers/potatoes/peas curry is my favorite!! :smug: ummm all this food talk is making me hungry now! :P carlaaa....stop talking 'bout food! :P

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR Hurray for Bollywood By PANKAJ MISHRA Published: February 28, 2004 OMBAY — Last week this city's film industry, called Bollywood, held its own version of the Oscars. There were well-rehearsed jokes and solemn speeches, and somewhat more spontaneous hugs and tears. Soon after it ended, most of the prize winners left for Dubai to attend yet another awards ceremony, their fourth in less than a month. Bollywood tends to congratulate itself even more frequently and fulsomely than Hollywood. And, perhaps, it has good reasons for doing so: India makes around 800 films each year, more than any country in the world. Bollywood produces up to 200 films in Hindi and Urdu alone. Little of what comes out of this $1.3 billion-a-year industry is of much quality, and few films make a profit. Yet India, where approximately 12 million people go to the movies every day, remains culturally a world unto itself, immune to the films emerging from Hollywood, which have captured only 6 percent of the largest domestic movie market in the world. Moreover, Bollywood's films reach up to 3.6 billion people around the world — a billion more than the audience for Hollywood. Egyptians, South Africans and Fijians joined Indians in electing Amitabh Bachchan — a name unknown to most people in Europe and America — as the "actor of the millennium" in a BBC online poll. Mr. Bachchan gained his reputation by repeatedly playing the role of the poor, resentful young man who makes it in the big city — often through crime and violence. But Bollywood films do more than sell garish dreams of a better life to the poor. To people struggling for emotional and material security within their increasingly modern and fragmented societies, they offer the consolations of tradition, especially of family values. Mr. Bachchan's angry young man usually dies in the arms of his mother or father, having realized the folly of his ways. In this sense, an absurdly melodramatic extravaganza from Bollywood may speak more directly to a third-world audience than even the most politically sensitive Hollywood film. Bollywood films are popular even in countries like Egypt and Indonesia that have strong cultures that resist the American barrage. It is not uncommon for Iraqis and Afghans to greet the Indian aid workers and technical consultants helping rebuild their nations with snatches of half-remembered Hindi songs and names of Bollywood stars from the 1970's. And now, after decades of recycling the same melodramatic plots and extravagant dance numbers, Bollywood is having a youth movement. A new generation of filmmakers is appealing not just to the traditional lower-middle class and poor audience. It is also reaching members of the educated urban elite who had looked down on Bollywood films, and also to the millions of Indians living in Britain and America. The highest-profile effort is "Kal Ho Na Ho" ("Tomorrow May Never Come") by Karan Johar. The movie is set entirely in New York, yet it doesn't stray far from Bollywood's usual version of the romantic triangle. It does bring a new slickness to Bollywood dreams of affluence and style — while singing, the characters combine Hindi lyrics with the rhythms of disco, rap and gospel — but it simultaneously reaffirms family through a gregarious cast of brothers, sisters, parents, grandmothers and grandfathers. Mr. Johar's films, along with more realistic and sober movies by young directors like Ram Gopal Varma, are becoming the echo chamber of middle-class India as it tries to bend — without breaking — its old, austere culture of underdevelopment. Some Bollywood directors see a great opportunity to score over Hollywood. Certainly, the global village seems to need a more complex moral code than that offered by Rambo and the Terminator, and Bollywood, even with all its apparently absurd sentimentality, may be better placed to provide it than the cynically, if slickly, retailed violence of Hollywood. Pankaj Mishra is the author of "The Romantics," a novel. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/28/opinion/28MISH.html

ohhh...but still..it's 'legal'...just scares me....i don't want to be entangled in legal things! :lol: :embarrased:

:lol: :lol: most people in here wouldn't have....i mean, it's not so big in the West. I just read an interesting piece on Bollywood, so i thot of this thread! :idea2: actually a friend of mine is married to a Mexican woman and she watches Bollywood movies almost exclusively! :D

:lol: :lol: :lol: no, not hungry...that's someone userid! :) you're an all-stary chef? what do you make that i can have...i am vegetarian, remember?! :D :P and no chocolate pancakes! :D :lol:

do you like it? have you seen any Indian movies? what do you think? :D

continued from above.... I was sitting in on an "accent neutralization" class at the Indian call center 24/7 Customer. The instructor was teaching the would-be Indian call center operators to suppress their native Indian accents and speak with a Canadian one — she teaches British and U.S. accents as well, but these youths will be serving the Canadian market. Since I'm originally from Minnesota, near Canada, and still speak like someone out of the movie "Fargo," I gave these young Indians an authentic rendition of "30 Little Turtles," which is designed to teach them the proper Canadian pronunciations. Hence the rousing applause.

what? gaby will go see eurotrip? musiclover doesn't recommend it, just to be clear! :rolleyes: :D :P in america definitely better!

yeah, musiclover will do that....has gone to movies by himself in the past too :dozey: but usually goes with friends...in group or just one other guy/gal...it's more fun that way! :cool: last weekend went to see Eurotrip with younger cousin...me thinks he liked it waayyy more than i did! :/

oh...lots of such people in indian political system, at least at state/province level! hahaha you must've studied a lot to be in law...! it's mind-blowing...i could never be a lawyer or doctor...! lol

hehehe i'd definitely go for french kiss (no experience in it though...yet! :/ ) french fries or onion rings! :D

30 turtles...a canadian thing to do :-) "A bottle of bottled water held 30 little turtles. It didn't matter that each turtle had to rattle a metal ladle in order to get a little bit of noodles, a total turtle delicacy. The problem was that there were many turtle battles for less than oodles of noodles."

oh! good combo...! definitely train....wish we had a better train system here! :dozey: ummm...let's see.... desktop or laptop? (i'm in the market for a pc...thinking of laptop/notebook! lol_)