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LUIS CARDADOR

Producer/Journalist

 

 

 

 

 

In the UN-sponsored book A Partilha do Indivisivel (Sharing the Unshareable), a group of photographers and writers capture the spirit and challenges of daily life for the peoples of the Atlantic islands of Cape Verde.

 

Inspired by UN Millennium Development Goals, the project aims to raise awareness of the objectives stated in the charter, i.e. reduction of poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination.

 

 

Scroll down to read the introduction to the book published by ACEP (Association for Cooperation Between Peoples), which I helped translate.

 

 

 

 

I am available for any freelance Portuguese-English or English-Portuguese translation projects as well as subbing, copy-editing and voice-over work.

 

Simply send me an e-mail and I'll get back to you a.s.a.p.!

luiscardador@gmail.com

"Partilha do Indivisivel" - "Sharing the Unshareable"

Introduction by Fátima Proença

ACEP (Association for Cooperation Between Peoples)

Adopted nearly 60 years ago by the United Nations General Assembly, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights began by proclaiming the "recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world ... "

Many will agree that, since then, we have come a long way as far as people's rights are concerned - from the end (?) of colonialism, to the discovery of brand new methods of combating disease and allowing people to communicate from opposite ends of the world.

Even so, what better occasion than the turn of a century or even a new millennium to have us look beyond our private worlds and acknowledge that many statements of rights have been tall on promises but short on delivery?

To name but a few, the diseases of poverty continue to be regarded lightly, not least because they are a distant problem - as far and isolated as the families who still measure in hours the distance that separates them from the water wells - in the same way that we are not all born equal; for girls do not always get a place in school, just as their mothers are not always able to chose their place in society.

This negation - or forgetfulness - of basic rights needs reminding.

As we entered the new millennium, the United Nations Assembly signed a new resolution - the Millennium Declaration - defining Eight Goals for the fulfilment of a list of basic rights. There was a need for these rights to be re-written in order to remind us of their pertinence and to put and end to the way they continue to be unacceptably violated. They include the right to basic well-being, education, equality of opportunity, birth and maternity care, the treatment of diseases such as AIDS and malaria, access to potable water, environmental equity, technology and fair - and indiscriminate - employment for the young.

Perhaps the turn of a new millennium might be a good enough reason to say we have no right to feel at peace with ourselves.

From our privileged geography - mostly the Northern latitudes - let us look toward the South and to the evidence suggesting that the North-South relationship capable of resolving the perpetual conflict between hope and frustration is still missing.

We must also pay regard to the perseverance of the many who continue to fight, courageously and anonymously for the right to exist with dignity - sometimes sitting in the shade of our protagonism and more often than not muffled by our noises; those who continue to garner the very little that becomes so much when it comes to sharing: the "islands of fire", the individuals and associations to whom, several years ago, we suggested a journey with the explicit intention of uncovering what was hidden.

We pursued this project with the help of the keen eyes of Cape Verdean Leao Lopes and Mozambican Antonio Valente, inviting them to portray the faces and the miracles of Cape Verde - the thousand and one ways of bearing fruit, of tricking the steep "ladeiras" into holding water, and tricking what we came to know as fate.

The project grew wings with the words of many others, among them journalists and writers from these islands and from more than one continent - individuals who dreamt, reflected, cried or found inner peace: Mário Lucio, Fátima Bettencourt, Alexandra Lucas Coelho, Teresa Montenegro, Ana Paula Tavares, Carlos Narciso, Pedro Rosa Mendes, David Gakunzi. All of them engaged in a quest for a place where human rights co-exist with a sense of belonging to a world that does not forget, refuses to conform and does not postpone.

Links:

»ACEP Association for Cooperation between Peoples (in Portuguese)

»UN Millennium Development Goals

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