SYDNEY Maillot Layvin Kurzawa Paris Saint Germain , March 23 (Xinhua) -- A famous protest of Australian union workers against Japanese invasion of China and the atrocities they committed against the Chinese people has become the topic of a new Australian-made documentary released on the weekend.
"The Dalfram Dispute, 1938: Pig Iron Bob" tells the story of a group of Australian wharf workers who refused to load pig iron on board the steamship Dalfram, which was bound for Kobe, Japan because the materials were being used to make weapons used in Japan's war against China.
The incident led to a nine-week workers lockout and climaxed when the then Australian prime minister Robert Menzies came to the Wollongong port, south of Sydney, to sort out the strike. When Menzies arrived, protesters yelled out: "Pig Iron Bob," and the term became his nickname, and part of the title of the film.
Associate producer and current Australian union leader Arthur Rorris said the story reflects a bond between the Australian and Chinese people.
"There was the Chinese people suffering unimaginable suffering, acts of inhumanity and a community on the other side of the world, and the maritime workers of Port Kembla who took those courageous steps in standing themselves in the way, literally, being used to build an imperialist war machine," he said at the opening of the film on Saturday.
Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said the people of his city played a major role in highlighting the atrocities committed by the Japanese against the Chinese in the late 1930s.
"Back in 1938 the people had compassionate concern for the people caught up in the dreadful situation where Japan invaded China," he said.
"There was a group of people down here in this very small country, not in terms of geography but in terms of population. They had a conscience and responded, and more specifically those in the union movement at the time that took up the cause."
Producer and director Sandra Pires said the film features interviews with survivors of the Nanjing Massacre.
"The stories of the Nanjing survivors brought us to tears, but this film is about peace. The survivors said that if they could forgive the Japanese, anyone could," she said.
The film will tour Australia in the coming months and she hoped it would be screened in China in September this year.
KIGALI, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- African economies should take the lead in embracing crop genetic varieties in a bid to enhance food security and sustainable agriculture, experts said Wednesday.
They made the call during the African Union regional forum on the Implementation of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) in Kigali, capital city of Rwanda.
The treaty was adopted by the Thirty-First Session of the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on Nov. 3, 2001, whose objectives are the conservation and sustainable use of all plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of their use for sustainable agriculture and food security.
Rwanda hosted the meeting from Sept. 19 to 20 that paves way for the upcoming 7th Session of the Governing Body of the ITPGRFA in Kigali from Oct. 30 to Nov. 3, 2017.
The two-day meeting that attracted agriculture experts from across Africa and beyond aimed at discussing the contribution of plant genetic resources towards increasing agricultural productivity and food sufficiency on the continent where food insecurity is most prevalent.
"In most countries of the continent, problems related to malnutrition and low crop yield are the primary food insecurity concern. Plant genetic resources and resilient seeds have high chances of boosting yield and making existing crop fields more productive," said Kent Nnadozie, secretary for ITPGRFA.
According to ITPGRFA, plant genetic resources are the raw materials of new crop varieties that are essential to humankind's fight against hunger.
Janet Edeme, Acting Director of Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture of African Union Commission, called on African governments and institutions to provide conducive environments for crop genetics to thrive and contribute to poverty and famine reduction.
"Investments are needed in agricultural research, crop biodiversity and development to ensure new crop seeds have a positive impact on productivity and ultimately improve the livelihood of farmers," she added.
Janet Edeme said the forum provides a platform for Africa to negotiate joint position on biodiversity conservation and use on seeds under ITPGRFA.
The meeting also dwelt on how agriculture can adapt to a changing climate so as to build a resilient food production system in Africa, basing on available crop diversity.
Participants called for the involvement of farmers in activities such as plant breeding, variety selection and conservation of improved seed varieties.
Hunger is on the rise in the world as, overall, hungry people increased to 815 million in 2016 from 777 million in 2015, according to a FAO's report. Among 815 million hungry people, 243 million are in Africa, said the report.
The report said Africa has the highest hunger rate in the world as hunger affects one-in-four people on the continent on average, compared to the global rate of one-in-10 people.
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