(Al Jazeera English: 0726 PST, April 5, 2011) Renewed violence has broken out in both capital Sanaa and the city of Taiz, with supporters of embattled president Ali Abdullah Saleh and his opponents blaming each other for at least three deaths and hundreds of injuries.

UN officials have urged government forces not to attack protesters, while president Saleh has called for negotiations with his opponents. Al Jazeera's Tarek Bazley has more on the deepening divisions in Yemen.

Deadly Clashes in Yemen as Saleh Clings to Power

(Associated Press: 0745 PST, April 5, 2011) Tribesmen loyal to Yemen's embattled president on Tuesday clashed with a group of soldiers whose commander has sided with the opposition, and the fighting in a suburb of the capital Sanaa left three tribesmen dead.

When I found out I’d be screening a film with a gay man as the protagonist, I was both apprehensive and curious. I’ve seen too many films where a leading gay character has to die or suffer some miserable fate as a necessary part of the story’s narrative (BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, A SINGLE MAN). However, as a gay man myself, I was curious about gay life in eastern Europe, particularly in a non-urban setting. It didn’t hurt that the film was a 2010 GLAAD award nominee for best film.

THE COUNTRY TEACHER, directed by Bohdan Slama, presents a realistic portrayal of a gay man in conflict that is refreshingly free of Hollywood’s more annoying stereotypes. The movie tells the story of Petr (nicely underplayed by Pavel Liska), a closeted prep-school teacher from Prague who comes to a bucolic Czech village to instruct children in the natural sciences. In an early lesson he advises prophetically, “If we don’t understand nature, we can’t understand ourselves.”

Shortly after his arrival, Petr is befriended by Marie (Zuzana Bydzovska), a local cow herder who lives with her teen son Lada (Ladislav Sidivy). While tutoring Lada in math, Petr finds himself attracted to the young man and embarks on a course of action that has traumatic consequences. It made me wonder, if Petr had been an out gay man, would he have had the problems he had? Is it possible to have a healthy romantic relationship if you still have at least one foot in the closet?

This provocative yet sensitive movie doesn’t flinch from showing Petr’s feelings for Lada. We also see that certain cultural touchstones for adulthood are more relaxed in this rural community. There is no adult censure when 17-year-old Lada is seen drinking hard liquor or smoking pot and there is acceptance of his sexually active relationship with a young woman. Does the film show that homosexuality is also acceptable? Well, to a certain extent, yes, but there is also a good deal of bewilderment, fear and ignorance.

Director Bohdan Slama (LIKE HAPPINESS, THE WILD BEES) bravely declines to portray Petr as criminally disturbed and it was great to see that Petr’s parents seemed more concerned about his loneliness than his sexual orientation. While Petr may have felt the need to be alone when he fled city life, he soon discovers that isolation is not the answer. As he stumbles awkwardly toward making bona fide human connections, he discovers they can be found in unanticipated places.

As for Marie’s reaction to Petr’s encounter with her son, Zuzana Bydzovska’s beautifully layered performance shows us that a cow herder can have a pretty sophisticated understanding of human nature. In fact, Marie’s intuitive abilities regarding both Petr and Lada left me wondering whether she was the real “country teacher” here.

For nature lovers, there are two graphic scenes showing a cow giving birth on Marie’s farm. I leave the symbolism for others to discern. But if you’re in the least bit squeamish, you’ve been warned!

(Mosaic Video Alert: February 4, 2011) Massive demonstrations in support of Egypt's pro-democracy protesters were held today in Iran, Tunisia, Turkey, Belgium, Jordan, Thailand, South Africa and the Czech Republic. Protesters in Malaysia marched to the U.S. embassy in Kuala Lumpur, demanding U.S. president Barack Obama pressure Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down immediately. The protesters clashed with police, who tried to break up the demonstration.

Click here for important background information on the unrest in Egypt.

Robin Blotnick has worked as a freelance editor, and as a developer at Walden Media. His current project, "Gods and Kings," is a feature documentary about media, magic and popular culture in the Mayan highlands of Guatemala. If it is anything like his award-winning entry for our ViewChange Online Film Contest — Chocolate Country — then we want to see it! Chocolate Country is a catchy story about a group of guitar-plucking cacao farmers in the Dominican Republic. In the Huffington Post, Blotnick describes the idea behind his work:

“The story I set out to tell was the story of chocolate itself. I wanted to show city people what a mazorca of cacao looks like when it's cut open to reveal its syrupy white seeds. And I wanted to reveal the faces of the men and women who grow and harvest the ingredients for our chocolate bars.”

The short film features the lush, beautiful rainforest region of Loma Guaconejo. The campesinos (farmers) of the area had decided to stop competing with each other against the harsh competition set out by the big cacao companies, and were now working together in a cooperative. They work to directly market an improved, organic product. Blotnick expresses his admiration for their enthusiasm to engage in their community:

“People always remark at how, despite their poverty, the cacao growers in Chocolate Country seem genuinely happy. I believe they're happy because they're empowered. Working together, they're taking some control over the fate of their community. My wish for the people of Loma Guaconejo is that they develop in a way that doesn't alleviate the bad by sacrificing what's good: the freedom of working without a plantation or factory boss, the music and stories they have time to create and share, their ties to the land and, most of all, their ties to one another.

"While being a "conscious consumer" no doubt does some good (or, more accurately, un-does some bad), I'm under no illusion that it's enough. If we really want to transform the conditions that maintain human suffering, we'll have to transform ourselves first, to break out of the passive role of consumer and unite with our neighbors to actively engage the forces of history. In other words, we'll have to be more like the members of the Loma Guaconejo cooperative.”

To hear the music and stories of the empowered campesinos, watch Chocolate Country below:

Read Robin Blotnick full article in the Huffington Post.

It's been a tough year. And frankly, the holiday season can be stressful even in the best of times. So here's a light-hearted, whimsical, stop-motion Christmas Carol video from Czech Republic, and Tomáš Kočko & Orchestra.  Enjoy.

Christmas Carol Stop Motion from SEEACH on Vimeo.

There now. Feeling better?

With six other albums to his credit, Tomáš Kočko (pronounced Kotch-ko) has been fusing Czech and Slovak music with many other elements for years, while remaining true to its core spirit. On the website of his label, Indies, we find this intriguing statement: "The carol is a very old tradition. Its history goes back to the pre-Christian era of ancient Rome where they celebrated the holiday of winter solstice called Calendae [kalende]…. It’s not a coincidence that the Catholic Christmas is very close to the winter solstice holiday. Both traditions celebrate the birth of a little baby God who puts an end to the reign of evil on Earth and new solar year begins, which is a cause for happiness and joy! Both traditions are merging and both are, in their original form and in their pagan-Christian merging as well, part
of our history."

Wishing you a Merry Christmas, a Happy Kwanzaa, and a Spectacular Solstice.

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!

A few weeks ago Lili Ortiz, one of our viewers, wrote this to us: "Check out Rita Indiana! She streams from her heart the young sounds that resemble reggaetón... and the hard rhythms from the Dominican Republic, with a galactic flavor....I laugh when I think how the machista and traditional Dominicans are reacting to this asexual brash extrasterrestrial, in fact, they call her that, they explain her that way and accept her because of her talent and because she works with the musical roots and the Latin American influences. At the end of her video she sings Todos Vuelven" by Blades. There's no ignoring her."

I found myself thinking the same thing when I saw the spacey video. She reminds me of David Bowie... a praying mantis...  I wanted it immediately for Link!  Easier said than done.  No reply from her or her management for weeks.  And I even wrote her in Spanish.  So I figured: We'll stream it on the blog!

 
I'm still hoping I'll get a reply, and we'll be able to use the video as a premiere on the channel.  But 'till I do, this is the next best thing. By coincidence, the visual resemblances and divergences between "Hora de Volve" the video, and our video premiere by DeLeon, are notable.

Coming up for Cinco de Mayo, a profile of Rana Santacruz: Mexican roots, Brooklyn based.

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!

NPR's Morning Edition did a major piece this morning about how the structure of publicly held companies prevents them from doing good in the world. The premise was the directors and officers of these companies have a legal duty to maximize shareholder profit, and therefore could be sued if they did things that impacted the profit, even if done for social good. As an ex-Wall Street corporate lawyer, I can tell you that this is utter nonsense. It reflects a lack of imagination on the part of the directors and officers (and their legal advisors) and replaces their real legal duty with the profit-oriented economic theory that has gripped our country since the late 1980s.

The truth is, officers and directors are legally required to maximize shareholder VALUE, not shareholder profit. That is or can be a very different proposition. "Value" is what the company defines it as. Profit is only part of the value equation, but there is no legal, ethical or moral requirement that it is the only definition of value. So if the highest value of a company is to serve the common good and be profitable (which we at Dean's Beans, among others, have proven is possible for almost twenty years), then when shareholders invest in that company, they will know what they are getting into. There is no shortage of investors looking to put their money where their greater values are, as proven by the billions consciously placed in socially responsible investments in the last decade.

What is required is not a new form of corporation. Rather, social entrepreneurs creating their new businesses for the common good simply have to write their foundation documents (the Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation) to enshrine their social mission into the very bones of their new company. They need to state clearly what the values of the company are that they are seeking to maximize. Thus it is a lack of imagination on the part of the company's lawyers and advisors, not a lack of legal possibility, that prevents new public companies from being organized for the common good, as they define it.

I will be happy to give free advice on this subject to any social entrepreneur who wants to insure that their new company can pursue its social mission without the fear of being sued by shareholders for not putting profit above everything else.