Two contrasting reports from Afghanistan on attempts to create local police and military forces capable of controlling the troubled country when the US and NATO leaves.

Afghan Special Ops Units May Be Key to US Exit

(Associated Press: 0851 PT, May 10, 2011) US personnel have been training and fighting alongside Afghan special operations forces. The development of such commandos may be key if Americans are to reduce their presence in the country.

Politics Dominate Afghan Police Force

(Al Jazeera English: 0238 PT, May 10, 2011) The Afghan Local Police (ALP) has been expanding fast across the country over the past year. Community-based units, they are seen as a pet project of NATO commander General David Petraeus, who has described the ALP as having a significant impact. But the police force has also faced allegations of theft, abduction and intimidation. Al Jazeera's James Bays reports from Maidan Wardak province.

Residents of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas (slums) are suffocated daily under the triple weight of poverty, drug cartel violence, and police oppression. In a culture and society as vibrant as Brazil’s, this pressure pushes against the surface with little outlet, especially for the youth. Schools are underfunded, home life is rocky for most, and getting food on the table is never a sure thing. More often than not, kids drift towards the most readily accessible example of people who have escaped poverty: the drug runners and gangbangers. Positive role models are few and far between in a sea of rickety shacks and makeshift abodes. In 1993 in the midst of the Vigário Geral favela, however, a seed was planted in the minds of a few brave individuals-- a seed that would grow into an idea and a way of life that gave hope and provided direction to a generation of favela youth.

Anderson Sá was a typical young kid in 1993, in the process of being sucked into drug trafficking like so many others. That year a tragedy took place so devastating that it would be forever burned into the memories of favela residents. The Rio police, enraged by the killings of four officers, stormed Vigário Geral with guns blazing, looking to kill anyone in sight. When the shooting finally stopped and the dust cleared, 21 innocent people were dead. Anderson Sá’s brother was among them. This had an immediate and life-changing impact on Anderson. His mother worried that the killing would push him further into the world of drugs, but it had the opposite effect. Right then and there, he set out to find a way to stop the endless cycle of violence that his community was trapped in.

Anderson’s thinking soon led to the realization that the only way to end the culture of violence was to substitute it with a more positive cultural model. The first manifestation of this was the Grupo Cultural AfroReggae, a cultural group focused on music and black culture that Anderson started along with his friend José Junior and others. It published the AfroReggae Noticias, a newspaper for youth that focused on hip-hop, reggae and soul music. There was such a need for a positive cultural message that their first community center, the Núcleo Comunitario de Cultura, was opened. It filled a void in people’s lives, and all of a sudden kids in the favela had a place to go to learn music, capoeira, theater and dance. They opened the Vigário Legal AfroReggae Cultural Center in 1997, a larger facility in the community. The musical aspect was especially appealing, and from there Banda AfroReggae was formed. It soon became a huge hit in the favela, thanks to some donated percussion and sound equipment. The band and the movement steadily gained national popularity, thanks in part to the charismatic face of the organization, Anderson Sá.

Several years later, budding filmmaker Jeff Zimbalist was at home in Brooklyn when he received a call from his friend Matt Mochary, who was on the phone from a favela in Rio. Jeff and Matt had been looking to make a movie focused on an example of a successful and innovative community in Latin America, and Matt had found the perfect story. He wanted to examine the community built around AfroReggae and how other communities and favelas throughout Rio were confronting violence. Jeff was sold on the idea, to the point that he quit his job and met Matt in one of Rio’s most violent favelas, Vigário Geral. The scope of the movie steadily shrank as the process progressed and it became more and more apparent that Anderson Sá was a natural vehicle through which to tell the story of poverty, violence, and AfroReggae.

Jeff and Matt spent three years filming in the favela, making many trips back and forth between Rio de Janeiro and New York and becoming close friends with the leaders of AfroReggae. The film Favela Rising emerged naturally from their experiences. It was one of the first documentaries to shine a light on the violence that grips the everyday lives of poor people in Brazil. It shows how courage in the face of fear and intimidation can change the futures and destinies of kids whose outlooks were once hopeless. It illustrates the power that music has to transform society.

Join us this Sunday at 11pm EST/8pm PST for the DOC-DEBUT premiere of the groundbreaking documentary Favela Rising.

Earlier this week, Jennifer Kirby, Link TV's COO, and I were invited to be guests on a show called Open at the local cable access channel BronxNet in the Bronx to talk about our organization and why we are partnered with so many PEG channels. Jennifer Kirby has been working with Link TV for many years, and she is as New York as you can get, having been born and raised in the city, with roots in every borough including her Italian side from the Bronx. It was very meaningful for her to be able to promote Link TV to this special community, and exciting for me to be a part of this incredible opportunity as well. You can watch our interview here (we come in at 27 minutes, but please, if you have time, enjoy the whole segment!):

Open is a weekly series on BronxNet that focuses on international news and gives voice to those who are marginalized in the diverse neighborhoods of the Bronx. The channel is received in 1.5 million households, 60% of which have been shown by independent marketing studies to be tuning in! Link TV is thrilled that BronxNet is airing explore three times a week, bringing Charlie Annenberg's global findings through his unique message of philanthropy, "Never Stop Learning", to the people of the Bronx. 

It was so much fun to meet the staff at BronxNet, to see their station, and witness the youth mentoring and media training program in action. BronxNet is the only public access station in the nation that operates six different channels, including one that is made by young people for young people! Now that Link TV has an engagement department that works with an active youth network of over 160,000 through YouthNoise, we are excited about all of the ways Link TV can engage the audiences and young media professionals who are trained through programs like this one at BronxNet. 

At the end of our interview, we were asked if BronxNet could put more Link TV programs on their channel... to which we gladly replied that they should take as much content as they possibly can! A special thank you goes out to their Executive Director, Michael Max Knobbe, who has kindly helped connect Link TV with the neighboring public access channels in both Queens and Brooklyn. Michael has been working at BronxNet for almost two decades, since before it was even BronxNet! This kind of dedication and longevity is not uncommon at public access stations. In fact, every single leader I've met in public access has been working for their channel for many, many years. The only other place I know of that retains employees to that extent is Link TV, which also is still run by the same people that started it over ten years ago. We could all probably get much higher paying jobs somewhere else in the media landscape, but the work that we do is so rewarding and important, I'm not sure any of us would feel like ourselves if we were to leave it behind.  And so we are proud to keep moving things forward, protecting independent media, alternative information, and freedom of expression. 

Thanks for checking in, and please come back soon for our next update on Public Access where Link TV is able to be a part of thinking globally, and acting locally!

One of the challenges here at Link TV when it comes to distributing our content to local cable channels is the need to prove that what we have shared has actually gotten on the air. Recently, we spent some time contacting channels to find out how they feel about the content they have taken from us to see if it has been well received and put to good use. Here are some of my favorite testimonials:

Old Rochester Community Television in Marion, MA, writes in:

"explore programs are an essential part of our programming philosophy here at ORCTV. On a personal note it was like a gift from the heavens the day I came across your programming as I feel the world can only become a more peaceful place when we as people come to understand that there is more commonality across cultures than we are often led to believe. At the end of the day most of us here on this planet simply want a roof over our heads, food for our families and education along with a better and safer life for our children... Your programs express these ideas to our viewership better than any other programs currently available to Public Access outlets."

And from Artesia, New Mexico:

"[I am] absolutly thrilled and happy...with PegMedia.org AND Link TV. I've been downloading a number of shows that have really increased the viewership of the station, and explore is one of our crowning jewels. The quality of the show is outstanding and a number of people have commented to me directly on how happy they were to see something so well-made, timely and interesting on the station. I couldn't be happier with the feedback. A HUGE thank you to you, PegMedia, Link TV, and (especially) Charlie. You've made my life much easier, my station viewed more, AND the viewers much more educated!"

If you haven't yet had a chance to check out explore, you can visit to www.linktv.org/explorespecials or www.explore.org. explore has served as our front-runner since the beginning of our distribution efforts, and thanks to the compelling and high-quality content, every channel that saw it, liked it, and became an official Link TV affiliate. So, many thanks to the explore Team, and Charlie Annenberg who has always believed in the importance of independent media and community media. There is no way Link TV would have had the resources to share our content with all of our new friends in Public Access without Charlie's vision for us to do so, and the support to make it happen. To date, there are 16 full episodes of explore on PegMedia.org!

If you want to bring this show or any other Link TV programs to your local cable channel, contact us and select "Request Link TV in Your Area" from the drop down subject menu. Lastly, if you have seen Link TV on a local cable channel in your community, please post a note below to let us know!

Welcome to Link TV's latest blog subject, Public Access, where we will be updating you on how you can watch Link TV on public access cable channels all around the country, and even around the world! In the past few years, Link TV has been sharing lots of its best content with local community cable stations (as reflected on Link TV's reception page) so that people who don't have the ability to watch us on DirecTV or Dish Network can also have access to the paradigm-shifting glimpses of the world that you only see on Link TV.

What started out as a DVD giveaway campaign has turned into a state-of-the-art online platform for broadcast-quality content sharing called PegMedia.org. Link TV encouraged the development and supported the funding of PegMedia.org, but this project reflects the passion, courage, and brilliance of a volunteer from Maine named Robert Nichols. Bob has donated his time, energy, and personal funds to get this incredibly exciting project up and running. Bob holds public access in high regard as the final shelter for freedom of speech and information. He also has an incredibly evolved concept of community–community is no longer a group of people who are tied by geographical proximity, but rather a group of people who are tied together by the same concerns, curiosities, and dreams. When a public access station located in a tiny town in New Mexico creates and uploads content about water scarcity, and that content is then downloaded and broadcast by a tiny channel in a dry desertified town in Colorado, the citizens of each of these towns are effectively communed.

Link TV's mission has always been to bring outside perspectives and marginalized voices into our homes in order to foster dialogue and create cross-cultural communication, so why not start tearing down fences right here in our own communities? If you are interested in bringing Link TV into your community, just send an email to us at www.linktv.org/contactus and select "Request Link TV in your area" from the drop-down menu under "Subject".

Recently, we just uploaded ColorLines to PegMedia.org for channels to download. It is an exciting new program about race and economic recovery in America today. Stay tuned for regular updates on Link TV's new distribution abilities - we want to be wherever you want us to be!

Rupa, who fronts the April Fishes is certainly a multi faceted creature. A doctor, a musician, a painter, a linguist, she is someone who doesn't just sing about life, she plunges in with both feet.  She spent quite a bit of time talking to me in New York about the various bandmembers and singing their praises (sorry Fishes, I didn't use that stuff --and readers, it IS an excellent band!) but eventually we got down to some of the subjects that drive her.

A documentary about the band's trip along the border between Mexico and the USA is in production.

On another note, there is a very moving video that while as commercial as it gets, cuts to the heart. It is an homage to Neda, and all the young people who have demonstrated and suffered during the recent government crackdown in Iran. The majority of people living in that country are now below the age of 30-- Possibly the largest demographic on earth of educated young people to be held back by their own government. These days we all know we are watching history when we watch Iran.

The ripples continue to spread outward.