C’est cette après midi, à 15h (GMT) que Paul McCartney, et son épouse Heather Mills, asssistaient à une session de chat portant sur l’association « Adopt-A-Minefield », et cela, depuis le site officiel de Paul.
Nous vous livrons ci-dessous la transcription intégrale de ce chat !
Heather and Paul McCartney and Steve Sinnott, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers and official Friend of Adopt-A-Minefield did a Webchat on November 4, 2004.
INTERVIEWER: OK WE ARE READY LETS GO
PAUL: Hi welcome to our chat we are looking forward to talking with you today… Heather & Paul
INTERVIEWER: Hi everybody, hi Paul and Heather. Can I really make a difference by only donating 2 Pounds a month? I mean, what happens with the money?
PAUL: Yes Neena every pound makes a difference. It costs about a pound to clear one square metre of minefield and £50 will fit a child out with a prosthetic limb and the training to be able to use it – thanks for your question.
HEATHER: In addition by donating £2 a month this money can be pooled together to make a big difference for many donors to clear a minefield.
INTERVIEWER: How long do you think it will take to rid the world of all landmines?
HEATHER: Hi Michelle – good question – the great news about this question is that it is actually possible to achieve a mine free world – the way to do that is obviously to raise funds, the more funds raised the quicker we will remove the mines already planted especially now that more and more countries are not laying down more landmines due mainly to the Mine Ban Treaty.
PAUL: If the money comes flooding in – maybe we could rid the world of landmines in 0 years – if the money comes in more slowly it could take much longer… it’s up to you.
INTERVIEWER: Heather, thousands of civilians are affected by the Landmines every year. What kind of assistance and treatment does a Landmine Survivor need? FROM Danielle Gomes (27), Rio de Janerio, Brazil
HEATHER: Hi Danielle Landmine Survivor Assistance is the most important thing to me as care for an amputee is for life – so if you are lucky it’s a lot more than 20 years – even once we reach the reality of a landmine free world, survivors will always need help – the good news is by giving them the independence and helping them to become self sufficient – we can minimise the help need and encourage them to go on and help others – around £50 can get these innocent survivors of the atrocious weapons back on their feet again.
INTERVIEWER: We’re raising funds for landmine clearance at Sacred Heart Catholic College in Crosby, Merseyside. We’ve raised just short of £2000. FROM David Moor head, Head of RE
STEVE: You know this question makes me think of Paul’s Liverpool Oratorio. Now i come from Liverpool as does Paul and everytime i hear this line – it makes me shiver « being born where i was born carries with it certain responsibilities » and i think that’s exactly right. So i’d say to the teenagers of Merseyside – YOU know what’s fair and what’s right – and Landmines are the opposite of that. Getting rid of Landmines is absolutely fair and absolutely right and we should all work together to rid the world of this terrible scourge.
PAUL: My old school motto was in Latin but translated it meant ‘not for ourselves – but for the whole world were we born’ and i think that’s an important thing to remember and i’m sure kids at Sacred Heart know this already – thanks for the question and your great donation.
INTERVIEWER: How many people die or get hurt every because of landmines?? FROM Elsa Rut Gylfad, Kopavogur
HEATHER: So Elsa – one person gets killed or maimed by a landmine every 20 mins that’s about 18,000 a year – it used to be every 22 mins which made it 24,000. The improvement is based on organisations like AAM working to clear minefield or mine affected countries as quickly as possible and teaching local communities about mine awareness – interestingly enough – your country Iceland has one of the biggest prosthetic manufacturing company’s in the world called Ossur and we are trying to work with them and your government to help amputees around the world who have been affected by Landmines.
INTERVIEWER: We are planning on having friends over for a bonfire in our yard this November. We will be serving hot soup, hot chocolate and, of course could beer. What is « The Night of 1000 Dinners » and would our little get together qualify? Love ya, FROM Lorri Hughes, Woodbury, Minnesota, USA
PAUL: Yes Lorri – your little get-together will definitely qualify – we don’t mind how people organise these dinners as long as they take part in A Night of 1000 Dinners… the main thing is to have a good time, raise awareness about the Landmine problem and then raise some money to help clear them and to help survivors.
HEATHER: Maybe one of you is a good storyteller and can log on to our website and read up about a young survivor who has been helped with previous funds raised through Night of A 100 Dinners – this way you can motivate your guests by relaying this story around the fire and explaining what a huge difference – people like yourselves are making by giving their time and money contributing to this cause…
PAUL: More info about a Night OF 1000 Dinners and all our work can be found on www.landines.org.uk
INTERVIEWER: Hi Heather, Paul, and Steve! Thank you for all your work to help people and your effort to make more people and governments aware of this important issue. How many areas has Adopt-A-Minefield cleared since it began? Approximately how many landmines have been removed? FROM Tori in Texas
HEATHER: Hi Tori – Adopt A Minefield have cleared over 18,000,000 square metres of land – we don’t have a total of how many landmines that is… as it costs nearly the same amount of money, to clear an area filled with mines as it does to clear an area of only a few, the reason being clearance is mainly done by hand for many reasons, and because of this every area has to be checked through inch by inch – so the costs works out the same.
INTERVIEWER: Will there be a No More Landmines Day next year? FROM Isabella, Lisa, Jess, Kate and Anna from St. Pardarn’s Primary School, Aberystwyth
PAUL: Hi Isabella, Lisa, Jess, Kate and Anna – yes there will definitely be a No More Landmines day next year and we hope as the years go by – it will get bigger and better with more cool people like yourselves joining in to help us.
HEATHER: In addition to your generosity and continued support over the years to come we hope and pray – that one day No More Landmines Day will no longer be needed.
INTERVIEWER: As a primary school teacher I’d love to get my pupils involved in this campaign how can we help Paul?
FROM Daniel Barratt, Hull, United Kingdom
STEVE: I think Paul is going to hand this one over to me. The first thing you can do is get on the Internet and download the free lesson plans the National Union of teachers has worked on with Adopt-A-Minefield at www.landines.org.uk and the thing i think is really important to say is that these lessons are based on real people’s stories. Real stories of real kids affected by landmines – who kids in every school and every class will be able to identify with. Stories like the one about Lai, who was playing on the beach when he got blown up – i mean these are real kids. So raise awareness in class and assembly and the second thing and this is really important – is to raise funds.
Schools are perfect places for fundraising aren’t they? And the thing that’s smashing – absolutely smashing about this campaign is that you’ll get feedback sent to your school about exactly how the money is used and exactly who has benefitted from your hard work.
PAUL: Hey guys and girls thanks for being with us on this webchat, and mostly thanks for your enthusiasm for the subject and your energetic fund raising efforts to help us with this global problem that we are determined with your help to overcome.
Keep up the good work, keep in touch with us at Adopt-A-Minefield. Adopt-A-Minefield and let us know your progress… Thanks once again… Love from Paul and Heather
