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July 2, 2022

Aucun fruit ne devrait être défendu : Dole Sunshine Company exhorte Sa Sainteté à redorer le blason de la pomme

Cette lettre amusante vise à transformer la pomme du péché originel en collation originelle et à attirer l’attention sur l’importance d’une bonne alimentation pour tous

SINGAPOUR, 1er juillet 2022 /PRNewswire/ — La calamité du péché originel (et le rôle qu’y a joué la pomme) est indéniablement le désastre de relations publiques le plus catastrophique auquel les fruits aient jamais été confrontés. Aujourd’hui, en l’honneur de la journée internationale des fruits, Dole Sunshine Company a publié une lettre ouverte à Sa Sainteté le pape François, dans La Repubblica, pour demander l’absolution pour la pomme. DSC demande de redorer la réputation des fruits et de les célébrer en tant qu’en-cas originels « sains ».

Pendant des milliers d’années, la pomme a subi cette diffamation après qu’Ève ait croqué une bouchée du « fruit défendu » dans le jardin d’Eden. D’une manière amusante, mais qui, espérons-le, portera ses fruits, DSC cherche à inverser cette diffamation et demande au pape François d’absoudre le fruit de son rôle erroné dans le péché originel. La lettre, un plaidoyer humoristique et sans précédent adressé au souverain pontife, vise à susciter un dialogue mondial sur l’importance des fruits dans un régime alimentaire nutritif et à mettre l’accent sur les avantages des fruits et leur accessibilité globale.

« Nous avons conscience que demander ce changement est une demande audacieuse et provocatrice, et nous ne voulons bien sûr pas manquer de respect à Sa Sainteté ou à l’Église », a déclaré Pier Luigi Sigismondi, président du groupe Dole Packaged Foods & Beverages. « Nous pensons que si nous parvenons à corriger cette représentation erronée du fruit, nous pourrons lancer un nouveau récit narratif mondial qui se concentrera sur ses bienfaits, et créera de nouvelles habitudes alimentaires plus saines, conformes à notre objectif qui est de favoriser une bonne nutrition pour tous. »

Publiée dans le seul journal que le pape François a déclaré lire, la lettre souligne respectueusement que, même si la pomme n’a jamais été explicitement nommée dans la Bible, ce fruit, en particulier, a fait l’objet de calomnies depuis qu’il a été associé à tort au péché originel. Et, dans un monde où il existe clairement des aliments plus mauvais et décadents, la pomme ne devrait plus être considérée comme le fruit défendu. DSC soutient plutôt que le fruit peut même être le héros de l’histoire et impulser un changement dans la conversation sur l’alimentation saine. Ainsi, il deviendrait un moteur pour une meilleure nutrition au niveau mondial.

DSC conclut sa lettre par cette demande humble, mais percutante, au pape François :

« Pour toutes ces raisons et bien plus encore, nous demandons humblement l’absolution que vous seul pouvez offrir. Un petit changement qui peut changer le monde. Envisageriez-vous de modifier la Bible ? Seulement un petit mot. Remplacer “fruit” par tout autre aliment malsain, par exemple ? C’est juste une idée. Si cette demande vous semble un peu trop ambitieuse, ne vous inquiétez pas. Nous comprenons. Peut-être qu’un message de soutien contribuerait grandement à restaurer la confiance du monde dans nos fruits bien-aimés. »

L’intégralité de la lettre, parue aujourd’hui dans le journal préféré du pape François, La Repubblica, peut être consultée sur DoleSunshine.com.

À propos de Dole Sunshine Company

Le nom Dole Sunshine Company est utilisé pour représenter les intérêts mondiaux et les efforts combinés de Dole Asia Holdings, Dole Worldwide Packaged Foods et Dole Asia Fresh. Dole Sunshine Company n’est pas une entité commerciale réelle et n’opère pas en tant que telle dans quelque pays ou région que ce soit. Pour en savoir plus sur Dole Sunshine Company, visitez DoleSunshine.com.

À propos de la promesse de Dole

En juin 2020, Dole Asia Holdings a annoncé la promesse de Dole, dont les trois piliers sont la nutrition, la durabilité et la création d’une valeur commune.

Faire mieux pour les personnes : Faire en sorte que 1 milliard de personnes aient accès à une alimentation durable d’ici 2025 et éliminer le sucre raffiné de tous les produits Dole Packaged Foods d’ici 2025.

Faire mieux pour la planète : Faire en sorte de ne gaspiller aucun fruit des exploitations Dole jusqu’aux marchés d’ici 2025 et supprimer les emballages de plastique fabriqués à partir de combustibles fossiles d’ici 2025. Nous visons aussi à ce que les activités de Dole atteignent la carboneutralité d’ici 2030.

Faire mieux pour tous les intervenants : Dole continuera d’avoir une influence positive sur l’ensemble des agriculteurs, des communautés et des personnes qui travaillent pour elle grâce à son engagement envers l’égalité salariale et des chances et en offrant un niveau toujours plus élevé de sécurité, de nutrition et de bien-être. L’entreprise cherche également à promouvoir les droits de l’homme dans le cadre de ses activités et au sein de ses chaînes d’approvisionnement en bâtissant une culture de transparence et de responsabilité. Dole a aussi pour objectif d’augmenter la valeur de son entreprise de 50 % d’ici 2025.

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July 2, 2022

Angola qualify for African Cup of Nations in Algeria

Luanda – The Angolan senior table tennis teams, in both sexes, have qualified (teams and singles) for the African Championship, to be held from 30 September to 8 October this year, in Algeria.

To achieve this feat, the national representatives composed of seven players (four male and three female) placed second, by teams, in the Region -5 Games, which ended today in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Besides this category, won by the host country, on this last day, the Angolans still competed in singles, where they are also among the first eight (8) classified, ensuring also the qualification to the African Championship in Algeria.

The event in Algeria will select the representatives of the African continent for the World Cup in South Africa, in 2023.

The representation of the country, guided by coach Manuel Pimenta, is composed by table tennis players Hermenegildo Agnelo, Edvane Neto, Domingos Manuel and António Lemos.

In the female sector, are Isabel Albino, Jerusa Borges and Kailane de Sousa. The delegation is headed by the Angolan Table Tennis Federation (FATM) president, Manuel Morais.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

July 2, 2022

London Pride Parade Marks 50 Years, Looks Back on Progress

London Saturday celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first Pride parade, marking half a century of progress in the fight for equality and tolerance but with warnings that more still needs to be done.

Several hundred people took part in the first march July 1, 1972, just five years after homosexuality was decriminalized in the U.K.

Fifty years on, more than 600 LGBTQ+ groups danced, sang and rode floats along a similar route to the original protest, in the first Pride since the coronavirus pandemic, watched by huge cheering crowds.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan told reporters the event, which organizers said was the “biggest and most inclusive” in its history, was a celebration of community, unity and progress.

But he said it was also a reminder of the need to “campaign and never be complacent” and the need for “an open, inclusive, accepting world.”

“We saw this time last week an attack in Oslo just hours before that parade, where two people lost their lives and more than 20 were injured,” he said.

“So, we’ve got to be conscious of the fact that there’s still a danger to this community of discrimination, bias and violence.”

Khan’s predecessor as mayor, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said it gave him “the greatest pride to lead a country where you can love whomever you choose to love and where you can be free to be whoever you want to be.”

The 50th anniversary was a “milestone,” he said, paying tribute to the bravery of those who did it first.

Peter Tatchell, a veteran gay rights campaigner who took part in the 1972 march, said some from the original event have boycotted the modern-day sponsored version as “depoliticized and commercialized.”

Campaigning

In 1972, “Gay Pride,” as it was then known, was a demand for visibility and equality against a backdrop of lingering prejudice, discrimination and fear among many gay men and women about coming out.

In the 1980s, Pride became a focal point for campaigning against legislation by prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government against the “promotion of homosexuality” in schools.

It also helped to raise awareness and support for people with HIV/Aids.

Now, with the rainbow flag of inclusion and tolerance spread ever more widely over the spectrum of human sexuality and gender, Pride in London is more celebration than protest.

Tatchell said that despite victories such as same-sex marriage, “we are still fighting to ban LGBT+ conversion practices which seek to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.”

“We’re still fighting to secure trans people’s right to change their legal documents with ease by a simple statutory declaration. And of course, we are standing in solidarity with a global LGBT+ movement,” he told AFP.

Julian Hows, now 67, was at the first march. He said, “progress is always incremental,” criticizing curbs on LGBTQ+ rights around the world.

“We have to be vigilant. The price of liberation and to keeping people’s human rights intact is vigilance,” he added.

Visibility

Padraigin Ni Raghillig, president of Dykes on Bikes London, a motorcycle club for gay women, said the event retained part of its original campaigning spirit.

“It’s still important, I think, to at least once a year to be out and about, and to say, ‘we’re here, we’re queer, and we’re not going shopping,'” said Ni Raghillig, astride a Harley Davidson.

Among those marching was a contingent from Ukraine, who criticized homophobia in Russia.

This year’s Pride saw warnings for people with monkeypox symptoms to stay away, after public health officials said many cases in the U.K. were reported among gay and bisexual men.

LGBTQ+ campaign group Stonewall said everyone had a part to play to stop the spread of monkeypox, which is passed through close contact regardless of sexual orientation.

Source: Voice of America

July 2, 2022

Rock Star Randy Bachman Reunited With Beloved Stolen Guitar

Canadian rock legend Randy Bachman’s long search came to an end Friday when he was reunited in Tokyo with a cherished guitar 45 years after it was stolen from a Toronto hotel.

“My girlfriend is right there,” said Bachman, 78, a former member of The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, as the Gretsch guitar on which he wrote “American Woman” and other hits was handed to him by a Japanese musician who had bought it at a Tokyo store in 2014 without knowing its history.

He said all guitars are special, but the orange 1957 Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins he bought as a teenager was exceptional. He worked at multiple jobs to save money to buy the $400 guitar, his first purchase of an expensive instrument, he said.

“It made my whole life. It was my hammer and a tool to write songs, make music and make money,” Bachman told The Associated Press before the handover at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo.

When it was stolen from the Toronto hotel in 1977, “I cried for three days. It was part of me,” he said. “It was very, very upsetting.” He ended up buying about 300 guitars in unsuccessful attempts to replace it, he said.

Bachman talked frequently about the missing guitar in interviews and on radio shows, and more recently on YouTube programs on which he performed with his son, Tal.

In 2020, a Canadian fan who heard the story of the guitar launched an internet search and successfully located it in Tokyo within two weeks.

The fan, William Long, used a small spot in the guitar’s wood grain visible in old images as a “digital fingerprint” and tracked the instrument down to a vintage guitar shop site in Tokyo. A further search led him to a YouTube video showing the instrument being played by a Japanese musician, TAKESHI, in December 2019.

After receiving the news from Long, Bachman contacted TAKESHI immediately, and recognized the guitar in a video chat they had.

“I was crying,” Bachman said. “The guitar almost spoke to me over the video, like, ‘Hey, I’m coming home.’”

TAKESHI agreed to give it to Bachman in exchange for one that was very similar. So, Bachman searched and found the guitar’s “sister” — made during the same week, with a close serial number, no modifications and no repairs.

“To find my guitar again was a miracle, to find its twin sister was another miracle,” Bachman said.

TAKESHI said he decided to return the guitar because as a guitar player he could imagine how much Bachman missed it.

“I owned it and played it for only eight years and I’m extremely sad to return it now. But he has been feeling sad for 46 years, and it’s time for someone else to be sad,” TAKESHI said. “I felt sorry for this legend.”

He said he felt good after returning the guitar to its rightful owner, but it may take time for him to love his new Gretsch as much as that one.

“It’s a guitar, and it has a soul. So even if it has the same shape, I cannot say for sure if I can love a replacement the same way I loved this one,” he said. “There is no doubt Randy thought of me and searched hard (for the replacement), so I will gradually develop an affection for it, but it may take time.”

Bachman said he and TAKESHI are now like brothers who own guitars that are “twin sisters.” They are participating in a documentary about the guitar on which they plan to perform a song, “Lost and Found,” together.

They also performed several songs at Friday’s handover, including “American Woman.”

Bachman said he will lock the guitar up in his home so he will never lose it again. “I am never ever going to take it out of my house again,” he said.

Source: Voice of America

July 1, 2022

UnionPay International seals a deal with NASCU to roll out UnionPay cards

LUSAKA, Zambia, July 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — UnionPay International (UPI) today proudly announces a new partnership with National Association of Savings and Credit Unions (NASCU), the apex organisation for all financial cooperatives in Zambia, to issue UnionPay debit Card. This new partnership empowers rural and urban savings groups, village banking, and other forms of cooperative society members to aid savings and investments. These groups’ earnings primarily depend on agricultural activities, mining, small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The NASCU Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Febian Mubuyaeta reiterated that most cooperatives in both rural and urban areas in Zambia depend mainly on doing cash business. The partnership between NASCU and UnionPay provides support to all forms of savings groups, village banking, and other multipurpose cooperatives involved in pooling members’ savings deposits and shares to finance their loan portfolios.

“We are thrilled to combine efforts with NASCU to ensure Zambian populations have easy, secure, and convenient payment access to their funds that help them accomplish their goals”, stated Mr. Asad Burney, Head of UnionPay International African Branch.

The program’s target is to be extended to reach a million members in three years. Currently, more than 90% of merchants in Zambia accept UnionPay cards. These cardholders can also use their UnionPay cards conveniently in 180 countries and regions.

July 1, 2022

No Fruit Should be Forbidden: Dole Sunshine Company Urges His Holiness to Redeem the Apple

The lighthearted letter looks to update the apple from Original Sin to Original Snack, and shine the global spotlight on the importance of good nutrition for all

SINGAPORE, July 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The calamity of original sin – and the apple’s role in it – is undeniably the most catastrophic PR disaster fruit has ever faced. Today, in honor of International Fruit Day, the Dole Sunshine Company (DSC) issued an open letter to His Holiness, Pope Francis, via La Repubblica, seeking absolution for the apple. DSC is asking to redeem the reputation of fruit to celebrate it as the Original ‘Healthy’ Snack instead.

For thousands of years the apple has faced this vilification after Eve took a bite from the ‘forbidden fruit’ in the Garden of Eden. In a fun but hopefully fruitful manner, DSC is looking to reverse this vilification and has requested Pope Francis to absolve fruit of its misconceived role in Original Sin. The letter – a humorous and unprecedented plea to the Pontiff – is meant to spark global dialogue around the importance of fruit for a nutritious diet and focus in on fruit’s benefits and overall global accessibility.

“We understand that requesting this change is a bold and provocative ask, and we of course mean no disrespect to His Holiness or The Church,” said Pier Luigi Sigismondi, President of Dole Packaged Foods & Beverages Group. “We believe if we can resolve this misrepresentation of fruit, we can start a new global narrative that focuses on its benefits, and creates new, healthier eating habits that are consistent to our purpose to bring good nutrition to all.”

The letter – published in the only newspaper Pope Francis has stated he reads – respectfully points out that even though the apple was never mentioned by name in the Bible, that this fruit, in particular, has been the recipient of slander since it was wrongfully associated with Original Sin. And, in a world where there are clearly more sinful and decadent foods to reach for, the apple should no longer be considered forbidden. Rather, DSC argues that fruit itself can be the hero, and the impetus for a change in conversation around healthy eating and a driver for better nutrition globally.

DSC concludes the letter with this humble, yet compelling request to Pope Francis:

“For all these reasons and more, we humbly ask for the absolution that only you can offer. A tiny change that can change the world. Would you consider amending the Bible? Just a tiny word. Replacing ‘fruit’ for any other unhealthy food, for instance? Just an idea. If that request sounds a bit too ambitious, no worries. We get it. Maybe then a message of support would go a long way to restoring the world’s faith in our beloved fruits.”

View the letter in full – which appeared today in Pope Francis’ newspaper of choice, La Repubblica – at DoleSunshine.com.

About Dole Sunshine Company

The name Dole Sunshine Company is used to represent the global interests and combined efforts of Dole Asia Holdings, Dole Worldwide Packaged Foods and Dole Asia Fresh. Dole Sunshine Company is not an actual business entity and does not operate as such in any country or region. For more information on Dole Sunshine Company, please visit DoleSunshine.com.

About the Dole Promise

In June 2020 Dole Asia Holdings announced The Dole Promise, with its three pillars around nutrition, sustainability, and the creation of shared value.

Better for People: Access to sustainable nutrition for 1 billion people by 2025, moving towards zero processed sugar in all Dole Packaged Foods products by 2025.

Better for Planet: Working towards zero fruit loss from Dole farms to markets by 2025, aiming for zero fossil-based plastic packaging by 2025. Working towards net zero carbon emissions in Dole operations by 2030.

Better for all Stakeholders: Dole will continue to positively impact all farmers, communities and people working for Dole – through its commitment to equal opportunity, living wages, and an ever-increasing level of safety, nutrition, and wellbeing. The company also seeks to advance human rights within the direct operations and supply chains by building a culture of transparency and accountability. The company also aims for a 50% increase in the value of its business by 2025.

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