Global corruption report - corruption remains a critical problem world-wide



The 2013 Global Corruption Barometer recently released by Transparency International charts increasing public disquiet over the level of corruption in many segments and institutions of society. Over 114,000 people in 107 countries were surveyed for their views on corruption and the results by country demonstrate a strong public perception that corruption has a strong influence.

Transparency International is an global Non-Government Organisation with its Secretariat in Berlin, Germany and membership and organisational chapters throughout the world. Transparency International has been active in strengthening anti-corruption initiatives, such as the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, UN Convention against Corruption and UN Global Compact.

For Australia the results were generally positive with some obvious exceptions:

Percentage of respondents who felt these institutions were affected by corruption in this country –

58 % political parties

58 % media

47 % business

44 % religious bodies

 

Question: How effective do you think your government's actions are in the fight against corruption ?

16 % stated effective

32 % stated neither effective nor ineffective

36 % stated they were ineffective

16 % stated they were very ineffective

 

The Report can be accessed at this link:
Global Corruption Index Report

 

The Earth's Threatened Species - the list grows

Orange-bellied parrot, Eastern Australia: critically endangered

The latest 'Red List of Threatened Species' assessment released in June 2013 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) continues to paint a bleak picture for the future of most of the planet's animal life. The Red List is not about climate change impact as the methodology and process was established long before the current global warming issue came to mainstream public debate. The assessment remains grim with 24 to 50 per cent of species being hihghly vulnerable, 22 to 44 per cent of amphibians and 15 to 32 per cent of corals - the lower estimate being the most optimistic and higher figure being the most pessimistic.    

In a separate study which specifically addresses the impact of climate change, species which are at the greatest risk from climate change are not currently conservation priorities. The IUCN paper, published in the journal PLOS ONE, is one of the largest studies of its kind, assessing all of the world’s birds, amphibians and corals. It draws on the work of more than 100 scientists over a period of five years. Up to 83% of birds, 66% of amphibians and 70% of corals that were identified as highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change are not currently considered threatened with extinction. They are therefore unlikely to be receiving focused conservation attention, according to the study.

Sydney Film Festival Digital Archive Online

The Sydney Film Festival has now placed its digital archive online as part of the 2013 Festival. The archive covers all of the films shown at the festival for the past 60 years.

Click the link below to go to the website -

The Sydney Film Festival Digital Archive

Sydney Film Festival 2013 - Film Review - Thanks For Sharing

Mark Ruffalo and Gwyneth Paltrow - Thanks For Sharing

Film director and screenwriter, Stuart Blumberg and an experienced and diverse cast, including Mark Ruffalo, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim Robbins, Pink and Josh Gad, bring an unusual comedy topic to the screen with a warm, witty screenplay. The story line follows a group of people who join a support group for sex addiction. There is also a nod given in the film to other addictions which affect people's lives such as drugs and alcohol and this interplays as a sub plot. The general outline of the film follows Adam (Mark Ruffalo), who has reached the 5 year mark in controlling his urges and is ready to consider dating and a relationship again. He meets the attractive but wary Phoebe (Gwyneth Paltrow), a cancer survivor who has previously experienced a relationship with an alcoholic. Adam's sponsor in the support group, Mike (Tim Robbins) has his own problem to confront through his now recovered drug-addicted son returning home. A newcomer to the group is Neil (Josh Gad) a doctor whose addiction is destroying his hard worked-for career in medicine. The group is completed by Dede (Pink) whose life and relationships are being ruined by her own addiction. The film has many funny moments as well as scenes which confront the issue of addictions in whatever guise they come. The overall message is one of hope and life affirmation.  

Sydney Film Festival 2013 - Film Review - Breathe In

Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce - Breathe In

Aspirations and reality, frustrated ambition, disconnection and a sense of entrapment are the critical themes explored in Breathe In from director and screenwriter, Drake Doremus. Set in a small community in Connecticut in the United States, the film story line centres on the life of high school music teacher, Keith Reynolds (Guy Pearce), a former rock musician now classical music cellist and his family. Reynolds lives a standard middle class life with his cookie-jar-collector wife Meg and his sports oriented daughter Lauren. He plays part-time for a New York Symphony Orchestra and yearns to have be a permanent member of the Orchestra so he can leave teaching. Into this situation comes British foreign exchange student and classical musician, Sophie (Felicity Jones) who not only is accomplished in her field of music but understands the rigours and fears of the concert performer. She also seeks escape and is drawn to Keith on several levels and the two almost start a relationship and run off together, just as discovery by Megan and Lauren occurs.

This is an intimate family drama film with good understated scripting and consummate performances by Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones. The seemingly perfect suburban family is seen as a facade and the subject of frustrated ambition is poignantly highlighted - all the more so as Keith wins a permanent position with the Symphony Orchestra with Sophie's calming presence. An intelligent drama carefully constructed.

Sydney film Festival 2013 - Film Review - Only God Forgives

Ryan Gosling - Only God Forgives

Danish director, Nicolas Winding Refn brings to the screen a visually dazzling yet brutal story set almost entirely in the neon, nightime world of Bangkok. With a notable cast including Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas and from Thailand, Vithaya Pansringarm and Yayaying Rhatha Phongam, this muscular film set against the backdrop of Thai Kickboxing and organised crime follows a theme of rage, betrayal and ultimately a form of redemption. The storyline follows Julian (Ryan Gosling) an American who runs a Thai boxing club in Bangkok and whose brother, Billy operates a drug dealing business on the side. When Billy is murdered as revenge for his killing of a Thai young sex worker girl, Jenna (Kristin Scott Thomas) the mother of Julian and Billy, arrives in Bangkok to collect her son's body and to seek revenge. Their protagonist is a senior Thai police officer Chang, also known as the 'Angel of Vengeance' who ceremonially dispatches his opponents with a Thai short sword (known as the Krabi) with a terrifying interpretation of justice. When Jenna orders a hit on the Thai police which fails, there is no doubt that little mercy will be shown.

This film has a superb element of menace, dark mood setting, controlled extreme violence with just a small element of the similar cinematic style of Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill). Although not for the faint hearted, this film has value within its genre not the least of which is the rendition of characters by the actors - Kristin Scott Thomas portrays Jenna superbly as manipulative, malevolent with elements of Oedipal tendencies, Ryan Gosling is the brooding, sexually repressed dysfunctional Julian while Vithaya Pansringarm provides the contrast with the disciplined, measured, take-no-prisoners approach to policing.

Sydney Film Festival 2013 - Film Review - Before Midnight

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy - Before Midnight

Richard Linklater's film starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy is a tedious affair resembling a endless, trivial conversation shot with a single continuous take - but lasting over one and a half hours. An American man, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and a French woman, Celina (Julie Delpy) now close to middle age, recount the moment when they first met as young adults on a train in Austria and thereafter the ongoing details of their domestic life are recounted while they constantly walk (and sit) in various locations - in ruins, in shops, on the seaside, as guests in a group lunch, at a cafe, in the car and so on. The dialogue is quite well written but unduly repetitive and endless with little other activity occurring on screen. This is a film which could have provided a greater level of depth and fails to use the talents of Hawke or Delpy to any great level. Although the film is promoted as providing an atmosphere between the two leads as 'fresh and new' in reality, the title of the film could have been better set as 'After Midnight' so the audience could be forgiven for being asleep.