Boogiewall Soundsystem and Odel will be performing along side The Native Roots, an Albuquerque based Native American Reggae band dedicated to the pride and spirit of Native American and Roots Irie culture.

Speaking of Roots, it looks like future help may also be on the way for the Nature of Hope from our vegeatation friend the Thale Cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) in the continous efforts to help clean up landmines in Africa:

A Danish plant that can find landmines creates hope for millions of people in former and current war zones. The plant has been developed by Aresa Biodetection.

The Danish Biotech company Aresa Biodetection has reached a significant milestone with the genetically engineered plant Red•Detect™ which changes colour from green to red when it grows in close proximity to landmines or unexploded ordnance (UXO).

Says Simon Østergaard, CEO Aresa: "Several years of development and a unique collaboration with the Danish Armed Forces has resulted in a plant that changes colour when it grows on or near landmines. We have come closer to having a plant ready that can be used as new tool in the fight against landmines and UXO on arable land."

Landmines represent a significant problem, especially in the third world, where 26,000 (source:Red Cross) people in average are killed or injured every year. Another significant problem is that large areas of agricultural land (in Cambodia estimated 40%, in Angola estimated 90% (source:UN) are unused with severe socio-economic consequences for the population/countries. According to UN there are still millions of landmines in the world today and some 15-20,000 people are killed or maimed every year. A large part of the areas infected by landmines and UXO are arable land which is not in use due to the fear of explosives.

The results of Aresa Biodetection have been achieved under realistic growth conditions where the plants grow in soil with landmines and explosives. The Red•Detect™ plant was capable of changing colour after only 3 weeks and all mines and explosives where identified.

Simon Østergaard, CEO Aresa says: "It is our hope that the Red•Detect™ plant can become a valuable addition to the existing methods used in demining, supporting a fast identification of landmines on arable land, with subsequent release of the land for local crop production".

Aresa plans to perform further tests in collaboration with DANDEC and are seeking test partners among the NGOšs involved in demining operations.

Aresa Biodetection is a biotech company established in 2001 based on several years of research from the Institute of Molecular Biology at the University of Copenhagen.

We also had the extreme honour of hooking up with Brinsley Forde of Aswad fame when he was in Toronto during the Irie Festival this year. You can listen to his interview with Odel and tk2000 from Boogiewall Soundsystem on BBC 6's Lively Up Yourself .