Thursday, October 19, 2017

On Monday, the Israel Judo Association responded after organisers of the judo grand slam in Abu Dhabi told chairman of the Israel Judo Association Moshe Ponte Israeli athletes would not be permitted to wear the Israeli flag or symbols, or bear the country’s name on their judo uniform.

Ponte communicated with Miri Regev, Israeli minister of Culture and Sports, and considered withdrawing the team from the grand slam, which is scheduled to be held from October 26 to 28. Regev wrote a letter addressing Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, which read, “The demand to appear without national symbols is contrary to the mandate of international sports associations, the main aim of which is to separate politics from sport, and strengthen sport as a bridge and connection between peoples, cultures and countries.” She also wrote, “It is the obligation of any country which has the privilege of hosting an international competition to allow the competing athletes to represent the country honorably while ensuring their security.”

Officials of the Abu Dhabi judo grand slam said the players would not be allowed to bear Israel’s code “ISR” on their back, nor would it appear on the scoreboard, and the Israeli national anthem would not be played if any Israeli judoka wins a gold medal. However, the Israel Judo Association said, “We won’t be dragged into the political arena and won’t award prizes to those who want to deter us from appearing all over the world.” Twelve Israeli judokas are expected to compete in the grand slam in the capital of the UAE. They would represent the International Judo Federation, and their jersey would show an “IJF” tag.

About two years ago, Israeli athletes faced the same situation in the grand slam in the UAE’s capital, and Regev asked for an emergency meeting then.

In last year’s Olympics in Rio de Janiro, after losing to Israeli judoka Or Sasson, Islam El Shehaby of Egypt refused to shake hands. The International Olympic Committee said this gesture “was contrary to the rules of fair play and against the spirit of friendship embodied in the Olympic values.”

During the opening ceremony of the same tournament, the Israeli team were denied by Lebanese athletes to share a bus, even physically blocking the entrance to prevent Israelis from boarding the bus. Israeli’s sailing coach Udi Gal, in a Facebook post, wrote, “How could they let this happen on the eve of the Olympic Games? Isn’t this the opposite of what the Olympics represents?”.

Monday, March 17, 2008

There were 7 games played in the National Hockey League on March 16, 2008.

Friday, August 11, 2006

The New Zealand Government has asked the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand to start refining its taxpayer funded ‘Buy Kiwi Made‘ scheme to also include products designed in New Zealand but manufactured elsewhere.

The Buy Kiwi Made scheme was a NZ$11 million post-election deal between the Labour Party and the Green Party.

Political experts say the reason for Labour to ask the Green party to refine the scheme was because it was afraid that companies, like clothes maker Icebreaker which manufactures its clothes outside of New Zealand would not be included.

Robert Linterman, Norsewear New Zealand CEO, said “The decision to include companies which manufacture overseas undermines the credibility of the entire campaign. We were assured that the purpose of Buy Kiwi Made was to encourage the production in New Zealand, help build up our manufacturing capability and create employment. It’s hard to see how classing Icebreaker – a company which does much of its processing and manufacturing in China – as Kiwi Made will help those achieve those aims. The Buy Kiwi Made campaign should support products which are actually Kiwi made – not just Kiwi designed.”

Sue Bradford, Green MP (Member of Parliament) who is responsible for Buy Kiwi Made scheme, said she is making her proposal clearer so such companies can be associated with it and that she is confident all sides will be pleased with the final proposal. “It is good to clarify the details because there is a lot of taxpayer’s money at stake,” Bradford said.

The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions does not want the scheme to be extended to the changes. Ross Wilson, President of the Council of Trade Unions, said “It would not be in the interests of many ordinary companies and their staff. I plan to raise union concerns with government ministers.”

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Wednesday, May 3, 2006

New filmmaker Solomon Rothman has released a trailer for his upcoming full length open source film called ‘Boy Who Never Slept.’ Both the movie and the trailer are offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license. The movie is set to be released at the end of May.

The film centers on the life of an insomniac writer who meets a teenage girl online, and a friendship that grows into an unlikely love story wrapped in harsh reality. The movie deals with various issues, including the romanticization of love, age-related issues in relationships, like statuatory rape (he’s 23, and she’s 16), and the idea of love in the online realm.

Rothman, a writer, amateur filmmaker and web designer, lives in the Los Angeles Area. He wrote, directed and produced the movie with Aurora Mae, his girlfriend and partner. Producing the movie for $200 while they were in college, they used friends as actors and later sold the camera on eBay to recoup the expense.

Rothman has spoken about the power of the internet as a distribution source for movies and has said “I believe it’s possible that this movie I shot with no budget and released online for free could potentially reach as many viewers as a major theatrical release.”

Rothman and Mae started out with the idea of creating a full-length movie that could be shared totally for free online. The film includes a custom soundtrack and script, both of which will be released open source as well.

The trailer is available on the official movie website[1] and can also be found on Google video, YouTube.com, Ifilm.com, AddictedClips.com, and the Internet Movie Archives.