HRAFF 2019: The Panama Papers Review

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The Panama Papers

Image courtesy of HRAFF

The Panama Papers 

Directed by Alex Winter

We live in a world of collected information. Data is created, collected and maintained in almost all aspects of our daily lives. This data collection continues with government, multinational organisations and other business relying more and more on the ability to transact across global networks, sharing data with each other, and of course, shifting data between each other in a way that has never before been possible.

Over the course of a decade we have witnessed, under the organisation Wikileaks, the release of thousands of documentation related to topics such as the War on Terror and potential war crimes, cables about political interference in trade, emails concerning presidential races and collusion and most recently the private letters of Pope Francis in regards to a power struggle within the Catholic Church and the Knights of Malta. Wikileaks had been aided by former US Army soldier Chelsea Manning in the release of classified or sensitive documentation around what was termed ‘Iraq War Logs’ and ‘Afghan War Diary’ with media organisation Der Spiegel arguing that they were the greatest leaks in military history as they brought to light crucial and hidden information about US involvement in civilian deaths.

In 2013 Edward Snowden, former Central Intelligence Agency and sub-contractor to the National Security Agency gave information to various news organisations about widespread surveillance by the Five Eyes alliance made up of the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom on citizens through mobile phones, internet usage, emails and instant messaging.

It is argued that both Wikileaks and Snowden released information to increase awareness about the dark areas of government, the areas where there is very little transparency in regards to decision making and even less in regards to accountability. The amount of data that both Wikileaks and Snowden released however pales in comparison in regards to the biggest release of data and documentation under what is termed as The Panama Papers.

The Panama Papers comprise of over 2.6 terabytes of data and include approximately 11.5 million documents in the form of emails, photos, Pdf files and internal database information.  It is the single biggest leak in history so far, but what is it and what does it all mean?

Alex Winter’s documentary of the same name The Panama Papers rips open the biggest global corruption scandal in history. It starts with a simple message of “Hello. This is John Doe. Interested in Data?” and sends journalists down a path which leads to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Chinese Politburo members and former Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson to name a few of the high-profile leaders, politicians and celebrities hiding away billions and billions of dollars in a bid to avoid paying tax.

Winter’s fascinating documentary focuses on the painstaking collaboration that occurred between Süddeutsche Zeitung, one of the largest newspapers in Germany and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), where journalists – often at great risk to their own lives – started to untangle the web of deceit around tax avoidance and the shift of billions of dollars of money through offshore and shell accounts lead by multi-national Panamanian firm Mossack Fonesca. Mossack Fonesca, powerfully aligned with offices around the world often had criminal clients with strong connections to organised crime and arguably lauded over the biggest international conspiracy in modern times.

Over 370 journalists spanning some 70 countries were involved in the data interpretation and Winter’s The Panama Papers expertly tells the story of some of those whom were intimately involved, illustrating the lengths required to safeguard not only the journalists but the whole effort itself, for the long arm of corruption was never far away. In presenting The Panama Papers Winter contributes towards shining a light over the dark areas of government and business following on from the work of Wikileaks and Snowden in illuminating corruption and greed.

Since the release of The Panama Papers, it is estimated that almost $1.2 billion dollars has been recovered in back-taxes and penalties. Winters riveting documentary of the same name can only assist in helping people understanding the lengths to which the wealthy will go to in order to sequester money and to avoid tax. It’s scary and confronting but something that definitely needs to be dealt with – power, government and money do not make for good bedfellows.

We can only wonder what the next big release of data will be about and brace ourselves.

Originally published here.

The Power of Human Connection: a review of The Fox Hunt

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The Fox Hunt: Four strangers, thirteen days, and one man’s amazing journey to safety

Mohammed Al Samawi

Scribe Publications

Mohammed Al Samawi’s The Fox Hunt starts dramatically on March 22, 2015 in Aden, Yemen. Al Samawi is stuck in the bathroom in his new apartment where he’d fled to escape the constant threats on his life during what turned out to be the beginning of the Yemeni Civil War which still rages unabated. With mixed factions vying for control of the entire country, from President Hadi loyalists and his supporters to Houthi rebels and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) on the other side.  Indeed, the AQAP checkpoint is seen through the small gap in his curtains and social media checks, albeit timed to when the area has working electricity, allows Al Samawi to keep check of the escalating dangerous situation.

As a vocal Yemini peace activist, Al Samawi was keenly aware of the danger in which he found himself in, indeed, this is explored in memoir style as he recounts how he overcame childhood loneliness arising from disability, heard in taunts such as “Mohammed the maimed” or his own creation of Ana hemar “I am a donkey,” to wanting to explore and learn about other cultures and religions in a more meaningful way. This, we find, is quite difficult in Yemen where there are strict parameters around religion in the predominately Muslim country.

In writing The Fox Hunt Al Samawi offers us a glimpse into Yemen’s social and religious history and the complex ways in which different countries and factions have had their hand in creating and maintaining a “Yemini” identity.

Coming from an influential family who are said to be able to trace their lineage back to the Prophet Mohammad, Al Samawi writes about the influence of Saudi Arabia on the educational curriculum and religious ideology. He writes, too, of primary school lessons denouncing Israel and the Jewish faith and the shooting of Palestinian child Muhammad al-Durrah during the second intifada that impressed upon other Yemini children the vulnerability of youth and, with the clarity that only retrospective consideration offers, the hatred that comes with indoctrination against everyone classed as ‘other’.

The author’s questioning of the status quo leads to a fascinating and intensely personal journey in which he starts to question everything that he has been taught, from anti-semitic rhetoric to how to deal with personal relationships – and forgoing potential love for an arranged marriage – to the big-ticket item of wanting to explore the various interfaith dialogues that he started to come across in his quest to educate himself about religions other than his own. It’s this exploration that makes Al Samawi so dangerous to the newly emerging Yemen backed by religious hardliners and extremists.

Al Samawi’s The Fox Hunt’s personable writing style easily draws the reader in to not only the authors personal life, but the lives of others who feature throughout the book. As friends and acquaintances pull together to try to save the life of one person who is trying to bridge a gap in progressing interfaith dialogue – we become keenly aware too of the impact one person can have and the change that one person can bring.

Originally published at Right Now.

Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia: a review

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Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia

Edited by Anita Heiss

Black Inc.

Dr Anita Heiss, Wiradjuri woman and prolific writer with the well-known 2012 memoir Am I Black Enough For You in her back catalogue, has published the anthology Growing up Aboriginal in Australia, a collection of short stories from a diverse number of indigenous Australians that speak from the heart and provide deeply personal insights into what it means to be an Aboriginal Australian.

A nationwide call out for nonfiction submissions saw more than 120 accounts about growing up over country from Noongar in Western Australia to Gumbaynggirr in New South Wales to Kuku Yalanji in the rainforest areas of Far North Queensland and all places in-between. The submissions chosen for the book are therefore just a part of the personal experience that individuals wanted to share with a wider audience, a part carefully curated to illustrate the breadth of experiences so that readers may ponder on the content of stories not yet shared into the public realm, but which are very much a part of the shared experience of Indigenous Australians.

While each story is as individual as the person sharing it, there are experiences that are shared amongst the writers that deeply impact upon themselves, their families and their own sense of growing up and identifying as an Aboriginal Australian.

The Stolen Generation, the forced removal of children from their parents from 1869 onwards, has had catastrophic effects with the suffering passed down to each generation ­– if they’ve been able to reconnect.

Experiencing overt and subtle racism and a feeling of trying to find self between “two worlds resting in on each other,” as eloquently described by Evelyn Araluen in the piece Finding ways home is also a shared experience amongst contributors.

Araluen, at twenty-four, reflects upon how her identity changed in the shift from primary school to teenage hood and high school and how she was called names such as “shit-skin” and “Abo” at the same time she was she learning to celebrate her ancestral heritage.  Alice Eather’s Yúya Karrabúrra which starts with an evocative poem using some Ndjébbana language also speaks of walking between two worlds, mentioning too the prevalence suicide has on communities and young indigenous people. Alice’s contribution is particularly poignant as, at the age of twenty-eight, she took her own life.

The pieces vary in length, ranging from two pages such as Taryn Little’s Just a young girlwhere she writes of her memory of smashing cherries, at twelve-years old, into beloved cousins at a family friend’s farm, to the longer A story from my life by William Russell on the complexity of identity. Each contribution though has a strong connection with being an Aboriginal Australian, on country, about country, talking about awareness of ancestral heritage or the passing down of memories and identity that makes each writer unique but part of the tens of thousands of years of history that follows them on their journey in contemporary Australia.

Growing up Aboriginal in Australia is an important anthology that serves as a collection of public history, the personal tales providing insight into the everyday experiences that have shaped and continue to shape Aboriginal Australians – in many different and diverse ways.

Originally published at Right Now

Queer Screen 2019: Right Now’s top picks

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Rafiki 

Directed by Wanuri Kahiu

Rafiki, directed by Wanuri Kahiu, has an interesting backstory in that it is the first Kenyan film to make its debut at the Cannes Film Festival, and there was talk of it being submitted as Kenya’s entry for Best Foreign Language film at the 2018 Academy Awards. But in order to get there, and to have audiences view Rafiki, Kahiu had to bring a lawsuit against the Kenya Film Classification Board and the Kenyan Attorney General.

The promotion of same sex relationships in Kenya is illegal under the Kenyan Penal Code so the depiction of a blossoming romantic relationship between two young women, Kena and Ziki, whose fathers are political rivals, was originally banned by the Kenya Film Classification Board due to the films lesbian themes.

In order to have the film, with its sublime hyper-real colours and beautiful cinematography submitted to the Academy Awards, it needed to be released domestically. A High Court challenge resulted in a temporary lift on the ban of the film and audiences sold out the screenings. Watching Rafiki, it is easy to see why. Kahiu has captured the tenderness and excitement of friendship and love between Kena and Ziki, who don’t want to be “typical Kenyan girls”, whilst also highlighting the danger around the expression of their relationship within their tight-knit community in Nairobi.

The film moves along to a great soundtrack that ebbs and flows along with their story. Whilst Kenya didn’t end up submitting Rafiki to the Academy Awards the hype around the film is well deserved and will have you thinking about it long after you’ve left the cinema.

Rafiki will screen for the Closing Night Gala at 7pm, on Thursday the 28th of February. Tickets can be purchased here. Watch the trailer below.

Originally published here.

AACTA DOCS FEST | Tales of Loss, Redemption and Forgiveness

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Some tales are hidden and wait for the right filmmaker to come along and weave their stories into something that creates such an impression on the audience that they’ll forever carry a part of that story with them. Gabrielle Brady’s ISLAND OF THE HUNGRY GHOSTS, Mathew Sleeth’s GUILTY and Catherine Scott’s BACKTRACK BOYS are stories that will stay in the minds of audiences long after the films end.

Christmas Island is full of hungry ghosts; ghosts of people who have died and not received a proper burial and ghosts who are living, caught between the injustices of the Australian immigration system and the brutality of the place that they flee.

Brady’s ISLAND OF THE HUNGRY GHOSTS is as hauntingly beautiful as it is distressing, with Michael Latham’s cinematography expertly capturing both the volatility and vulnerability of the island. Christmas Island is both a safe haven to the island’s famous red crabs who are cared for in their migration from jungle to sea, but also a jail and a place of suffering for those seeking asylum in Australia. The film follows Poh Lin Lee, a trauma counsellor who provides detainees with the opportunity to talk about their traumatic past. Yet these opportunities are never enough to alleviate the untold hurt and suffering of those seeking asylum who are detained indefinitely in the high-security Australian run detention centre. The island holds its secrets well and Lee’s struggle to navigate the increasingly political environment leaves her with few choices, impacting heavily on those she cares about.

Loneliness and isolation is a theme that connects Brady’s ISLAND OF THE HUNGRY GHOSTS with Sleeth’s documentary GUILTY. The last time a prisoner faced corporal punishment in Australia was the 1967 hanging of Ronald Ryan. Whilst Australia abolished the death penalty, numerous countries around the world still practice it and Indonesia, Australia’s closest Asian neighbour, is one such country.

GUILTY is a story of personal redemption and a nation’s heartache. Expertly capturing the final 72 hours of Myuran Sukumaran‘s life on death row in the infamous Kerobokan prison, the film offers a heartfelt glimpse into the transformative power of art in an contemptible situation. GUILTY showcases the dual fragility and strength of the human condition. Interspersed with archival footage from Sukumaran’s sentencing and newspaper reportage, and reflecting cinematographic influences from artistic expression the film is a moving tribute to Sukumaran’s legacy as well as an indictment on corporal punishment.

Forgiveness and redemption often go hand-in-hand and in Catherine Scott’s BACKTRACK BOYS the power of self-belief and the offer of non-judgemental assistance to vulnerable boys is a potent mix.

When Bernie Shakeshaft was younger he spent time in Tenant Creek where he was taught to track wild dogs, not by pushing them away but by listening to them and instead having them approach him. The lessons learned have kept Shakeshaft in good stead with the Backtrack Boys volunteer group he created, made up of caring adults, at-risk young boys and a group of dedicated working dogs looking for their own safe place in the world. Set near Armidale in regional New South Wales, the film exposes the harshness of the juvenile criminal justice system and the daily struggle to keep young boys from being caught up in it. Using their own words, BACKTRACK BOYS’ intimate exploration of the value of at-risk boys believing in themselves tugs at the heartstrings and provides a glimpse into the vulnerability of all involved in wanting these children to succeed.

You can read the original here.

Counterfeiting and Illicit Trade Book Review

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Peggy E Chaudhry (ed), Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017 hb

The increased ease with which international trade and commerce occurs across the globe brings with it not only the ability to reach new audiences and markets for goods and services but also the ever-present threat of counterfeiting and illicit trade.

This is a comprehensive and well researched handbook that calls upon experts from industry, law enforcement, the legal community and the private sector (to name a few) to provide working insight into diverse topics covering such things as money laundering and terrorist financing, music piracy and pharmaceuticals.

Divided into five sections, the first part deals with trends and global enforcement issues in relation to illicit trade. Part II details the United States, Mexico and China’s initiatives in stemming illicit trade, which makes for an interesting comparative study highlighting the complexities of regulation and enforcement. The focus shifts in Part III to counterfeit pharmaceuticals, luxury goods and the tobacco sector while Part IV deals exclusively with the internet, including an extensive chapter on social media and intellectual property rights that came out of the 2015 United Kingdom’s Intellectual Property Office research into social media platforms and IP infringement. Case studies and industry examples are peppered throughout the handbook, which serves to highlight the enormity and complexity of the issue of curtailing illicit practices on a global level.

The final part of the handbook provides an overview of managerial and consumer perceptions around the various anti-counterfeiting tactics deployed in the international business space and offers real insight into the impacts on consumers of illicit trading. These are supplemented by recommendations that could offer tangible benefits to consumers and business and deal crippling blows to the counterfeiting and illicit trade industry.

This book is essential reading for those interested in the impact of counterfeiting and illicit trade on international business.

Originally published in Law Institute of Victoria Journal ‘in_print’, 2nd July 2008.

This is Congo Right Now’s HRAFF 2018 film picks

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One of the most resource rich countries in Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been ravaged by over 20 years of civil instability and its vulnerable people are the ones who suffer the most.

In the first five minutes of Daniel McCabe’s This is Congo you are given a frightening glimpse into the sights and sound of civil war and this sets the stage for the rest of the film.

The threat of war is everywhere, from the 50 plus armed groups vying for control over areas rich in gold, diamonds and other minerals, to the feared Rwanda-Ugandan backed M23 rebels who are well armed and move through the country with impunity.

The rebels all share one thing in common: they’re united in their mission to overthrow the Kabila government whom they see as corrupt and siphoning away the potential of the country for their own material gain. But is this a recent issue for the DRC? McCabe’s use of archival footage illuminates the path that the country has found itself on, willingly or not.

McCabe’s focus on the four characters that he has chosen – a National Army Colonel, a high-ranking army officer, a mineral dealer, and a tailor – shows the impact of living in a country that is constantly at war with itself.

This is Congo is as harrowing as it is beautifully shot. The frontline footage is confronting but so is the story of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and it’s one that needs to be told.

This is Congo screened on Friday 4 May at 6:00pm at ACMI (Melbourne),