A man is never lost at sea.

A man is never lost at sea., originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Superhero EFL/ESL lesson plan

General Fiery Chrome, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

1 Students think of examples of different superheros e.g. Spiderman. The teacher writes them in the board.

2 What special ability does each possess?

3 What special ability would you like to have have and why. Students write that down on a small piece of paper 5cm by 5cm and hand it in.

4 Tape a small piece of paper on each student's forehead. They are allowed to ask the other students any question they like but the answer most be either "yes" or "no".

E.g. Does it make travel you more quickly?
Is the the ability to fly?

Alternatively

The teacher writes the abilities on the board the the students have to guess which person wanted which ability.

5 Tell students to form into groups of two or three and go to The Hero Factory website.

6 Go through the different categories and explain the terms if necessary.

7 Give each group 10 minutes to design their own superhero comic character.

8 Now each group works on giving a small presentation about their hero which includes abilities, background, history, weakness etc. in a a couple of paragraphs.

9 The superhero could be posted on class/personal blogs.

Follow on projects could include;

a - A fictional biography of the character see here for the example of Spiderman on Wiki.

b - A news story involving the character. This could be written in the style of a newspaper article or done as a straight to camera piece.

c - An interview with the hero which could be videoed.

d - Create a comic strip using the hero.

e- Describe the hero's arch enemy.

Sci-fi Friday - THX 1138 (1971)

Before Phantom Menace, before Ewoks, even before the first imperial cruiser drifted majestically across our screens George Lucas made THX 1138 in 1971.Originally, a film school project the short film was turned into a full length feature starring Robert Duvall and Donald Pleasence. A dystopian vision of the future, it died at the box office but if you watch it now you'll see many of the ideas and themes featured are a staple diet of modern sci - fi movies. Enjoy!!!!

Demonstration against the grenade attack on the Immigrant Hangout in Athens

Demonstration against the grenade attack on the Immigrant Hangout in Athens, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Yesterday evening there were protest marches in both Thessaloniki and Athens in order to demonstrate against an attack on the Immigrant Hangout (Steki Metanaston) in the Exarchia district of the Greek capital. Last week a fragmentation grenade was thrown at the building while a meeting of Greek conscientious objectors was taking place. Thankfully, the device exploded outside the hall where the meeting was being held and no casualties were reported.

For more details on the Exrchia incident from Now Public click here.

Poverty in Australia

Poverty in Austraila, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Poverty in Australia are an anarcho-punk band originally based around Fitzroy in Melbourne. Formed in 2003, the band's original line up consisted of: Colin Farmour (vocals), Frank 'Pace' Carrenzo (drums), John Hatzi (bass), Steph (guitars), Paulina (vocals), Pawel Nihilist (visuals).

Their first release was the ep "Nothing but Total Surrender" on Slash Records. By the time they released their debut album I Suspect people of Making me Happy on Corpse Christi Records, Pauline and Pawel had left the band.

PIA later set up their own Mortified Record label, which put out releases by other artists including Magar, Ikons of Self, Lost Youth, Bg 17 in 2006.

PIA on Facebook

"I Suspect People of Plotting to make Me Happy" album review in the Guardian 21/08/2008

Street protest for pedestrian rights - Thessaloniki

Street protest, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Την Τετάρτη 4 Μαρτίου στις 6μμ (και για καμιά ώρα...) διοργανώνουμε μικρό ακτιβιστικό επεισόδιο στη διάβαση πεζών Αριστοτέλους με Λεωφόρο Νίκης. Θα περνάμε από τη διάβαση σταματώντας τα αυτοκίνητα, υπενθυμίζοντας την προτεραιότητα των πεζών και θα μοιράζουμε φυλλάδια. Ελάτε, φορώντας τα γιλέκα των πεζών όσοι έχετε. Πλακάτ θα έχουμε εκεί.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=69780293101

Fiery, fiery night

Here are two news stories I noticed which didn't get widely reported outside Greece. I wrote about them for Now Public but not many other English language news sources picked up on them.

Multi - million euro arson attack on Athens subway

Nine subway carriages worth 13.5 million euros went up in flames during the early hours of Tuesday morning following an arson attack on the Athens - Piraeus Electric Railways (ISAP). A group of approximately 15 - 20 people wearing party masks boarded the last train at 1 am and when it reached the final stop in the Athens suburb of Kifissias set fire carriages (click here to see video from Mega Channel).

According to unconfirmed police reports as soon as the train reached Kifissias, its last stop the attackers forced passengers to disembark and then doused the carriages with inflammable material and set fire to it. Afterwards molotov cocktails were thrown at other parked carriages nearby.

Although no group has claimed responsibility there is strong possibility that the incident is connected with the recent attack on a labour activist who was worked as a cleaner for ISAP. In December Konstandina Kouneva who was secretary for the All - Athens Union of Cleaners and Domestics Cleaning Employees was abducted and forced to drink acid resulting in massive internal injuries and the loss of one eye.

According to Kouneva the assault followed a series of telephone threats prompted by attempts by the union to expose alleged labour rights abuses by the OIKOMET employment agency.

The incident prompted several protest marches and attacks on targets connected with the OIKOMET, which employed Kouneva and has a contract with ISAP.

UPDATE

Two previously unknown groups calling themselves The Gangs of Conscience and Perama Extremists claimed responsibility saying, it was, in part, a protest against what happened to Konstandina Kouneva. In addition it also said that it intended futher attacks on the public transport system in its proclamation.


The second story is from the Greek port of Patra.

Afghan refugees riot in Greece

Hundreds of refugees from Afghanistan clashed with riot police for hours yesterday evening in the western Greek city of Patra. The disturbances were sparked off when an Afghan man was seriously injured while trying to board a truck entering the city's port. After the accident tens of fellow refugees attacked the vehicle throwing rocks and other objects.

Later the tensions escalated leading to protesters setting up barricades and closing streets near the port. In reply the police deployed riot units and used tear gas in an effort to disperse them.Running battles lasted into the early hours of Tuesday morning as police attempted to confine the protesters to a shanty town that serves as a home for over a 1000 refugees in the city.

Unconfirmed eyewitness accounts reported on Greek blogs and Indymedia Patra speak of the involvement of residents including members of far right groups in efforts to put down the demonstration. Eventually the police were able to push back the refugees to their encampment and disperse far right groups.

Patra, which is Greece's gateway to Italy has become a way station for immigrants seeking to reach the rest of Europe. However, the Greek state has been reluctant to give official asylum status to all but a handful of immigrants entering the country without proper documentation. Greece's daily newspaper Kathimerini has reported that out of 20,692 asylum applications submitted in 2007, Greek authorities approved eight.

As a result refugees are forced to attempt the crossing to Italy illegally, often in the backs of trucks bound for the Italian ports of Brindisi and Ancona.

The riots are the latest in a series of clashes between refugees and the authorities in Patra, including a series of accusations of police abuse of Afghan refugees. In September 2008 there were also riots as refugees clashed with police and Customs officers inside the port following the beating of three immigrants.

Clean Monday - Καθαρά Δευτέρα

Clean Monday - Καθαρα Δευτερα, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Welcome to Exarchia

Welcome to Exarchia, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

The Devil makes work for idle hands.

The economic downturn bites even deeper

"As many as 51 million jobs worldwide could be lost this year because of the global economic crisis, says the International Labour Organization(ILO).

The UN agency says that would push up the world's unemployment rate to 7.1% by the end of 2009, compared with 6.0% in 2008 and 5.7% in 2007.

The ILO's most optimistic forecast is for 18 million more unemployed, giving a global jobless rate of 6.1%"

Click here to read the rest of the BBC article.

Battle in Seattle - Η Εξέγερση

"Its November 1999, and five days are about to rock the world as tens of thousands of demonstrators take to the streets of Seattle in protest of the World Trade Organizations Ministerial Meeting. Among them are Django (Andre Benjamin), Sam (Jennifer Carpenter), Lou (Michelle Rodriguez) and Jay (Martin Henderson). Each has a unique story, but they're united in a common desire to be heard and to make a difference in the world. For these four protesters, this is very personal and the stakes are higher than mere politics."



Battle in Seattle is perhaps one of the most radical Hollywood movies I've ever seen. How this ever got made is beyond me as it overtly political in a way that mainstream movies almost never are. The fact that it has a budget greater than Tom Cruise's catering tab and stars actors who you've heard of (Charlize Theron, Ray Liotta, Woody Harrelson) makes the film all more unusual.

Having seen the riots in Greece in December and January and witnessed first hand what happens when demonstrations turn violent I would say that the film captures the energy and sense of being in such a situation accurately. It reminds me of the style and approach of the Battle of Algiers and Bloody Sunday in the sense that it mixes documentary and movie making aesthetics.

Also Battle in Seattle also deals with issues such as the role of the media in portraying such events, police violence and the use of agent provocateurs in protests.

To find out more about the background to the movie check out;

Battle in Seattle (film) - Wiki

30 Frames a Second - The WTO in Seattle

World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity - Wiki

Το πριόνι θα φτάσει μέχρι το κόκκαλο

Ο εκσυγχρονισμός του Ελληνικού πολιτικού λεξιλογίου σε χρειάζεται.

Greek police involved in new brutality case

A university student has accused police in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki of beating him during a routine stop and search. The 22 year old was stopped after leaving a bar with two friends during the early hours of Saturday morning. According to the sworn testimony given by police officers present Rafael Pagadas, refused to provide ID and became abusive. Afterwards the student repeatedly attempted to injure himself by banging his head on the patrol car present and on the wall of the Plateia Demokratias police station where he was taken.

Pagadas claims that he and his friends were stopped without reason and that when asked for ID he presented his Italian passport which lead to his being handcuffed immediately. Later he was taken to the police station where according to his statement plain clothes officers punched him repeatedly while he was handcuffed to a bench. Later, according to Pagadas officers slammed his head against the wall and dragged him by his hair around the station.

The 22 year old is due to stand trial 6th March for disobedience, refusing to provide ID and insulting a police officer.

Now Public

The writing is on the wall

The writing is on the wall, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.