About Alice Eve

Alice was born in London, to Trevor Eve and Sharon Maughn (the well known British actors). She went to school in London before going on to study English at Oxford University. Whilst at university Alice took part in many theatre productions which is where she developed her love of acting. Her roles at University included Galatica in Scenes from an Execution and Mabel in an Ideal Husband. Alice's first major film role came whilst she was still at University. This was playing the mischievous character of Miss Frain in the hit film Stage Beauty directed by Richard Eyre. The rest of the cast included Rupert Everett, Clare Danes and Ben Chaplin. This film received fantastic reviews and really launched Alice into the British film scene. Her next role came in the summer holidays of her second year at Oxford in Philip Martin's BBC TV Drama Hawking, the story of the search for the beginning of time in which she played the character of Martha. After gaining her English degree from Oxford Alice was immediately cast in the role of Cicely Boyd in the hit UK TV series The Rotters Club. This was a cult TV series which was an adaptation of the novel by Jonathan Coe about three friends growing up in Birmingham in the 1970s. It also proved to be a show case for a lot of British young talent, other cast members included Julian Rhind-Tutt and Hugo Speer. Alice's next project was Big Nothing directed by Jean-Baptiste Andrea. It is the story of a frustrated, unemployed teacher (played by David Schwimmer) joining forces with a scammer and his girlfriend Josie (played by Alice) in a blackmailing scheme. It is a hilarious comedy in which Alice shines brightly. This is due for release late in 2006 or early 2007. Immediately after finishing filming Big Nothing Alice left for the shores of India to begin filming Losing Gemma. This is an ITV1, 2 part 90min movie which documents Alice's characters travels around India. It is due for release in the UK in November. After returning from India Alice went straight in to rehearsals for the critically acclaimed Rock n Roll in London's West End. This is Tom Stoppards new play directed by Trevor Nunn. Alice stars alongside Rufus Sewell, Brian Cox and Sinead Cusack. The play has been sold out months in advance and has received consistently rave reviews from all of London's top theatre critics. The play moves to Broadway later this year. Alice has recently completed filming the Weinstein Company's 'Crossing Over.' Crossing Over is a multi-character canvas about immigrants of different nationalities struggling to achieve legal status in Los Angeles. The film deals with the border, document fraud, the asylum and green card process, work-site enforcement, naturalization, the office of counter terrorism and the clash of cultures. Alice plays a young Australian girl who has recently moved in to the City. Other members of the cast include Sean Penn, Harrison Ford, Ashley Judd and Ray Liotta. The film is due for release in the US on August 22nd 2008. Alice's next project is a DreamWorks production entitled "She's Out of My League."
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What Nkunda Wants

Alice Eve

Alice Eve

Laurent Nkunda considers himself a man of diplomacy and politics. Unfortunately, whether we agree or not has become academic. This war criminal has a following that is growing and will continue to: aside from his Tutsi advocates there is suspicion that he is allied with ethnic Tutsi Paul Kagame (Rwanda’s President), and furthermore it has been speculated that he has the support of the Christian American right. This is a powerful foundation from which to wage a war of unthinkable proportions. Surely the question to ask at this stage is:
What does Nkunda want?

We know the UN Security Council has approved 3,100 additional peace keepers. Hopefully  this will be enough. As Ugandan Eddie Kwizera notes, “there is no peace to keep”. The DRC is the size of Western Europe, yet MONUC (Mission des Nations Unies en République Démocratique du Congo) the biggest peace keeping mission in the world, still only has 17,000 troops there. Neighbouring state Angola acknowledges that: “the direct and indirect interference by third parties will only worsen the conflict”.

The World Health Organization as of last Tuesday has named cholera a ‘serious risk’ in the region. This is perhaps the most concerning of all the developments in the region since August.  Cholera stands to be as powerful a killer as the men with guns. It can be passed on with just a handshake.

It is a handshake that needs to be considered. We have seen genocide just one generation ago in Rwanda. In the 1960’s we saw another failed peace-keeping mission in the area (UNOC). Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General UN, has said the UN forces suffer from a “lack of adequate equipment or a clear chain of command”. Fighting fire with fire is not the answer.

It may seem insufferable to the Gordon Browns and Bernard Kouchners to think of Nkunda as a leader, but a leader he is. Nkunda’s CNDP (National Congress for the Defence of the People) is a growing army with a following. It is hypocritical and embarrassing to be preaching peace only to discover that MONUC finds itself lending its sympathies to the Congolese army. It publicly admonishes the CNDP for abuses that the Congolese army are equally guilty of. How can we expect the CNDP to behave rationally if MONUC itself is taking sides?

As it is the Western idea of partition that was imposed on this region (the Belgian colonizers deciding the Tutsis were a superior race and so creating divisions), the Western idea of peace talks must be followed through with. Finding out what Nkunda wants, and genuinely engaging with and understanding the desires and divisions is the only way forward. If Kabila continues to ignore requests for direct negotiations, Nkunda could be well on his way to fulfilling his promise of toppling his government.

Of course there is an inherent problem, the Congo is mineral rich. Perhaps now would be a good time to stop exploiting Africa’s abundant natural resources. With the current state of the world maybe we should be more concerned with growing our own carrots.