FundiPau, IPB member, collaborate in the dissemination of this report, directed and produced by Lalo García and Txell Sabartés:
Tuesday, 12th November 2013. It’s not a secret that arms trade is one of the most lucrative businesses in the world. Arms sales are completely widespread and normalized around the planet and, until recently, it was immune to control and regulation. From now on, with the Arms Trade Treaty approved and in the process of ratification, we can expect that arms transactions become contingent to the respect of Human Rights. But there is still a long way ahead.(*)
The report Welcome to the real World by Lalo García and Txell Sabartés approaches the viewer to the crudeness of the arms trade from the cold, calculator and sometimes frivolous point of view of those who do businesses with it and of those that use the arms.
The film is a portrait of the 2012 edition of Eurosatory, one of the major arms fair in the world, held in Paris every two years. Like any other commercial fair, Eurosatory showcases the new trends and the innovations of the industry. An industry that moves billions of dollars around the world.
As the authors say:
“Portraits show the outside of what is portrayed, but they also reflect an inner reality. Scars of past sufferings, fear and pride in a gaze, spoken and silenced words in a mouth, the lines of life experiences.
The film’s vision - sometimes ironic, sometimes pure poetry - shows the reality of one of the public arenas of the international arms trade.
The governments, the armies and other groups who attend Eurosatory go there to obtain information, to be surprised, to be impressed, to buy and sell...weapons.
This is their portrait.
We will appreciate if you circulate it as much as possible.
For more details and information:
Directed and produced by
Lalo García, lalo@lalogarcia.es, and
Txell Sabartés, txell@voodooproductions.net, 619 763 001
FundiPau, Lourdes Vergés, lverges@fundipau.org, 93 302 51 29
(*) According to ACDN, a member of IPB, the only way to respect Human Rights is not to "regulate" arms transactions, but to prohibit them and to dismantle the arms factories.
ACDN supports the Charter for a Livable World, whose first chapter claims:
Articles
1. Peace and Disarmament
Understanding between peoples is essential if we are to make the world livable. A world at war can resolve none of its problems. Conflict resolution has to be done peacefully.
1.1. Stopping the Trade in Arms and Warfare
WE WANT
A. A ban on the arms trade, we want different uses for the industries that are now producing arms, and we want a halt to arms exports.
B. An end to all the arms-industry fairs.
C. A ban on all mercenary fighters.
D. The promotion of nonviolent methods of conflict resolution, education for nonviolence, and the dissemination of nonviolent education methods.
1.2. Participation of France in International Disarmament
WE WANT
A. The withdrawal of France from the military structures of NATO and the revision of all her military cooperation agreements, with a view to dissolving all military alliances in the world.
B. The abolition of the collective death penalty: the banning and elimination of all weapons of crime against humanity, the so-called “weapons of mass destruction”, nuclear, biological, chemical or new-technology weapons.
C. The effective and complete application of the 1925 Geneva Convention banning biological weapons and the 1993 Paris Convention on chemical weapons.
D. The withdrawal of all nuclear weapons from the “high alert” or “hair-trigger alert” status which makes its possible to fire them immediately.
E. A commitment by France to engage in negotiations with the other nuclear-armed states, whether or not they have signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, with a view to achieving a convention for the elimination of all nuclear and radioactive weapons, with international monitoring that is strict and effective.
F. The opening of a national debate on nuclear arms and a referendum consulting the French people on the following question : « Are you in favour of France participating, with the other states, in the complete elimination of all nuclear weapons, in the framework of reciprocal international monitoring that is strict and effective? ».
G. The transformation of the Ministry of Defense into a Ministry of External Security, Disarmament and International Cooperation.
To sign the Charter for a Livable World, to join, support or encourage ACDN, please write to contact@acdn.net