Activists protest annual Japan Dolphin Hunt

More than 50 people stood in a row on the sidewalk outside the Toronto-Dominion Centre, holding up their banners and signs. Photo: John Bonnar

In the heart of Canada’s financial district at King and Bay, surrounded by multi-story office buildings that blocked out most of the sun, more than 50 people stood in a row on the sidewalk outside the Toronto-Dominion Centre, holding up their banners and signs.

But the men, women and children hadn't come to protest against any of the Big Five banks or blue chip corporations.

Instead, they marked the 2012 Japan Dolphins Day, an event to raise awareness about the plight of dolphins in Taiji, by handing out Japan Dolphins Day pamphlets and copies of the The Cove to pedestrians in front of the office of the Consulate-General of Japan at 77 King Street West in Toronto.

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To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org

Historic Civil Rights Center celebrates 80 years strong

Tracy Wells Miller, on the floor in the center, takes notes as Erin Haverland, Ernesto Rivera Saavedra, Dylan Eyre and Carina Saavedra, left to right, discuss ideas in a language justice session during the 80th anniversary celebration at the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market on Saturday. The center celebrated its 80th anniversary with two days of workshops, music, guest speakers and dancing. (ADAM BRIMER/NEWS SENTINEL)

NEW MARKET — The Highlander Research and Education Center, a place of cultural relationship-building, is celebrating 80 years of social justice this weekend with residential workshops, food, art and movies.

Fifty-five years ago, civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks were photographed in front of the center's library for the 25th anniversary of the Highlander Center, at which King served as the keynote speaker.

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To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org

Teen Stars come out to support Canadian Anti-Bullying Campaign

Canadians Leight Rachel Faith and Alexandra Penn of Champions Against Bullying

Canadian non-profit Champions Against Bullying will be the recipient of funds raised August 19 at Kids Help Children in Anaheim.

The third annual event will feature nearly 30 rising young stars, a concert, animals from Sea World and a host of interactive activities. Organizers are raising funds through ticket sales, a silent auction, raffle and online donations.

Larry Morgan from the radio station 100.3 The Sound will host and deejay the event. Kylie Morgan, a 17-year old singer from Newcastle, Okla., will headline the entertainment. Morgan was featured earlier this year on the television show “Opening Act.” She will be joined on stage by Austin Anderson of “Victorious” and “Real Teens of Hollywood” fame, as well as Ashley Keating and Dylan Hyde.

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To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org

PBS Documentary spotlights Community Gardens



Throughout Washington, D.C., people of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities are gardening side by side, growing vegetables, fruits and flowers in community gardens. Some are looking for basic sustenance, others for a way to remember their homelands, still others for a place to find a respite from their troubles.

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To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org

Social Justice Campaign Against Diabetes Launched by Youth Poets

 Youth Poets Launch Social Justice Campaign Against Diabetes

Amidst rising rates of diabetes in teenagers, youth are leading a new campaign to combat the social and environmental factors that created the epidemic.

“This campaign is more about the social determinants of the disease,” said Sarah Fine, project director for the Youth Speaks UCSF Public Health Literacy Project. “We want to change the conversation to what are the social forces exacerbating the epidemic and what can we do to affect change.”

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To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org

Interview with Aturinde Emmanuel of Hunger Fighters Uganda



Bio: Aturinde Emmanuel is the Executive Director of Hunger Fighters Uganda (HF-UG). Before he worked at HF-UG, he worked as a Monitoring and Evaluation Assistant for the United Nations World Food Programme in Uganda. Emmanuel graduated from Duisburg-Essen University in Germany with a master’s degree in development and governance and from Makerere University with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and political science. His research focuses on agriculture, development policy, and food and nutrition security with a special focus on development innovation.

In 2008, participants of a UN World Food Programme (WFP) and Continuing Agriculture Education Center (CAEC) course dubbed ‘Hunger in the 21st Century’ established Hunger Fighters Uganda.

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To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org

Mexican Students travel to U.S. to develop projects that combat violence and drugs at home

Mexican Students In Us

WASHINGTON -- With her senior year of high school starting in a week, Melissa Parra, of Chihuahua, Mexico, was focused on a problem that most of her American peers would never face: drug cartels.

"It just gets closer," Parra, 17, said of cartel violence in her hometown in northern Mexico. Just two days ago, her mother called to tell her about a boy in her community who had been killed.

"He had good grades. He was a good guy," Parra said. "He was working to help the family."

Parra does not expect to stop the violence, but she sees an opportunity to change the environment that makes her classmates vulnerable to cartel recruiters. That was one of the goals of the project she designed this summer. Parra worked alongside 76 other students from across Mexico who came to the U.S. to develop community service projects in hopes of fighting the drugs, violence, and truancy that plague their country.

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To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org

Interview with Dr. Shantha Sinha: "Every Child has the right to be educated."

Dr Shantha Sinha — Photo by Bunny Smith

Dr Shantha Sinha, chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, says children remain poor because they work. In this interview with Rashme Sehgal, Ms Sinha discusses various aspects of the proposed legislation that bans employment of children below 14 years from all commercial work.

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To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org

Kennet B uses spoken word for social justice

Kennedy Odongo, known as Kennet B, says he chose to be a poet rather than a musician because song lyrics are too short to relay important messages. [File]

Kennedy Odongo, popularly known as Kennet B, is a Kenyan spoken-word performer and poet known for his electrifying performances in Nairobi and across the country.

With the ability to play with words while delivering messages on pertinent issues such as HIV/AIDS, Odongo has become a well known figure in spoken-word circles. Odongo, who performs mostly in Sheng, a Swahili-based slang used among urban youth in Kenya, has participated in major art events in Kenya and East Africa.

Odongo spoke to Sabahi about his life as a performing poet, music studio manager and ambassador of Luo culture.

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To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org

UndocuBus Riders lead by example



If you look closely at Carlos Mendoza’s wrists, you can’t help but notice the scars that cover them, straight up through his arms. The 46-year-old father of three fell from a second-story roof in 2006, and when he arrived in the emergency room, he was told both his hands might have to be amputated.

After an initial emergency surgery saved his hands, the hospital learned he was uninsured. When administrators asked to call his boss to see about covering the costs of additional surgeries, the company Mendoza worked for told the hospital they had never heard of him. After several phone calls, the boss told administrators that Mendoza was a contractor, and that although they would donate $500 for the medical care, his company wasn’t legally bound to help him. In total, Mendoza’s bills added up to about $40,000—and his hands’ limited mobility meant that it was unlikely that he would ever return to work.

Mendoza, of course, was not a contractor, but a construction worker earning just $13 an hour to build and rebuild homes in Jackson County, North Carolina. But, because he’s undocumented, Mendoza feared he had little recourse—until he heard about the Worker’s Center in the town of Marion. Mendoza soon learned about his rights as a worker, and for the next three-and-a-half years, he fought his former employer to pay the medical costs associated with his fall on the job. Because he learned from the bottom up until he won his case, he became an asset to the Worker’s Center, and now works there, making sure that all workers in the local community know what their rights are—regardless of their immigration status.

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To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit: www.WeSurge.org