Showing posts with label activism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label activism. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

" What matters is how quickly you do what your soul directs" -Rumi

“What matters is how quickly you do what your soul directs.”
― Rumi

Violence is an act without soul.
Direct life in love
Anger won't last
and we will be
Direct in what we see
Soul will fill
Love will lead.

 -Athena Lambers



  

Monday, March 17, 2014

Public art meets crowd-funding for social change #ANOTHERLIGHTUP in Cape Town, South Africa






 On De Waal Drive, driving out of the city bowl in Cape Town, South Africa, you have the view of the Cape peninsula's valley also known to many people as The Flats.  The Flats extends all the way to areas like Monwabisi, a sub-area of Khayelitsha, one of Cape Town's most populated districts.


 On that same drive, you can see the new Urban Visionary, a multi-storey mural and light installation created by the founders of Thingking and artist Faith47.  They collaborated on the new design and have enabled public street art to be a catalyst for change through crowdfunding for a social cause.  They aim to raise funds for public street lights to be installed in Monwabisi Park, Khayelitsha, through the organisation VPUU (Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading).  For every light that is funded for in Monwabisi, the Urban Visionary mural is lit up in the evening- inspiring and engaging more people to become more active members in their society through #anotherlightup


 To read more about it here and to donate to #anotherlightup:



About the project | #ANOTHERLIGHTUP







#ANOTHERLIGHTUP from Design Indaba on Vimeo.

The mural on the same wall before Feb 2014 Urban Visionary #anotherlightup was put up

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Justice, Travyon & Historian Robin D.G. Kelley . . .


 
Sense Masala: athena lamberis perspective blog-Justice in USA
source: gregorykroger.com

"The point is that justice was always going to elude Trayvon Martin, not because the system failed, but because it worked. Martin died and Zimmerman walked because our entire political and legal foundations were built on an ideology of settler colonialism—an ideology in which the protection of white property rights was always sacrosanct; predators and threats to those privileges were almost always black, brown, and red; and where the very purpose of police power was to discipline, monitor, and contain populations rendered a threat to white property and privilege. This has been the legal standard for African Americans and other racialized groups in the U.S. long before ALEC or the NRA came into being. We were rendered property in slavery, and a threat to property in freedom. And during the brief moment in the 1860s and ‘70s, when former slaves participated in democracy, held political offices, and insisted on the rights of citizenship, it was a well-armed (white) citizenry that overthrew democratically-elected governments in the South, assassinated black political leaders, stripped African-Americans of virtually all citizenship rights (the franchise, the right of habeas corpus, right of free speech and assembly, etc.), and turned an entire people into predators."-Robin D.G. Kelley

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Exposing the Truth: Make something happen.


                                             Follow my blog with Bloglovin

via Exposing The Truth.co
Draw something, cook something, sing something, build something, make something, Buy Nothing.

 I also would like to add:

 Grow Something
 Share Something
 Trade Something
 Teach Something
 Do Something

 X

Friday, June 21, 2013

Creativity with Food & Videos. Education for Change.


This is creativity  . . . in the kitchen.  What happens when a Music selector makes mashed visual alchemy with a visual artist?
This brilliance.  Enjoy this week's Rhymes and Rhythm Wrap up with two great videos:

Artist Driven | What's Cookin? from LRG on Vimeo.

And now with a strong message on exposing the ills of our modern food systems.  Showcasing the need to take responsibility for our food security, to choose wisely in the world of greed in the seed industry.  What happens when we only are given access to food products that don't nourish us on a cellular level but rather stuff a slow 'death down our throat'?  Dr. Vandana Shiva said it best, "It's more dangerous than bombs."  Let's eat foods that grew naturally from nutrient-rich soil.  Let's support permaculture, bio-dynamic farming practices, small-scale local organic farms--but most of all, turn your community into an edible landscape.  Peace to grass lawns, yes to green beans and wheat grass.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." -George Orwell





    There's a film to be made.  What's the movie all about?
SANTO 7.13.15 is a story that shows our future in 2045 when over population has reached critical levels and food supply can't keep up with demand.



  Read more about it here, and see if film entertainment can actually change people's choices and work to change policy . ..  for our future.

 Back it here:  KICKSTARTER: SANTO 7. 13. 15

Friday, June 14, 2013

We Can Help Eachother Flourish

Original embroidery by Nina Montenegro

CREATE ART
to
 convey messages
relate to global issues, systems thinking, and communal concerns.


Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Turkey in Action

Full Page Ad for Turkish Democracy in Action | Indiegogo


What will placing an ad in the New York Times do?  This is just one of the ways messages can be spread and advertisements for what we can change rather than profit gain.  

This could also be done to overcome other issues that are even embedded in culture.  To reverse the use of Rhino horn.  To support non-GMO foods.  To take responsibility for eachother, in solidarity.

What is Happening in Turkey? 


People of Turkey have spoken: We will not be oppressed!

Millions are outraged by the violent reaction of their government to a peaceful protest aimed at saving Istanbul’s Gezi Park.

Outraged, yet not surprised.

Over the course of Prime Minister Erdoğan’s ten-year term, we have witnessed a steady erosion of our civil rights and freedoms. Arrests of numerous journalists, artists, and elected officials and restrictions on freedom of speech, minorities’ and women’s rights all demonstrate that the ruling party is not serious about democracy.

Time and again, the Prime Minister has mocked and trivialized his nation’s concerns while Turkey’s own media have remained shamefully silent.

The people protesting bravely throughout Turkey are ordinary citizens. We span several generations and represent a spectrum of ethnic, religious, socioeconomic, ideological, sexual, and gender identities. We stand united because of our concern for Turkey’s future. Our future.

We demand an end to police brutality.
We demand a free media.
We demand open democratic dialogue between citizens and those elected to public service, not the dictates of special interests.
We demand an investigation of the government’s recent abuse of power, which has led to the loss of innocent lives.

Join the conversation and stand with us in solidarity.

Crowdfunded Entirely by Concerned Individuals from Around the World


Wednesday, June 5, 2013

World Environment Day is Every Day!



Acknowledge and Respect our planet by choosing to eat foods produced by nature.

Learn how to make delicious nourishing food that sustains our soil, our Earth and in return develops a stronger and smarter planet. 

For more inspiration, watch films like Hungry For Change, Food Inc, Food Matters, and the GMO debate: The World according to Monsanto

Let's be a part of the change that teaches children about proper healthy simple nutrition that is not funded by processed white flour food product companies, corn fructose flavours and milk chocolate sugar fake energy bars.

The better we eat, the better we learn, the easier to protect and develop our planet into a healthy home for every living organism.

Happy World Environment Day!

Monday, May 27, 2013

Urban Agriculture and Balanced Nutrition for the City of Cape Town: Food Security Summit



 Tomato flavoured corn chips are more accessible to children than GM-free tomatoes in South Africa.

  Meanwhile, Hulett's Sugar was a main sponsor/contributor for The National School Nutrition Programme Recipe Book.

 Is Education being sold out to food companies controlled by profit instead of the well-being of their consumers?

Was combatting dietary diabetes on the Dept. of Education's agenda?

The good news is that questions surrounding food security are being asked and brought to the awareness of Cape Town citizens.

One solution is to develop proposals for preferential trading of producers selling
Sponsors of the Department of Education support a recipe book filled with their products. 
healthy and local food.  This could change our feeding
landscape and changing this picture to the left of the young child snacking on "Crack -a- Snack" to him displaying a bite from his apple grown on his street corner.

Only two options for vegetables in the South Africa Dept. of Education Recipe Book.  Oh, and don't forget to add sugar!

Other questions regarding food security concerns and solutions in Cape Town:

Wetlands to possibly be used as organic farming in? 
 Agricultural focus schools?
Educational programmes to reduce dietary diabetes and practical skills for healthy food production?
Utilising urban space for food gardens?

The Food Security Summit held in Khayelitsha on May 24 and 25, 2013 addressed pressing issues around our shared necessity: Food justice, urban agriculture, and health education were some of the topics discussed.  Below is the document that was shared on May 26th, 2013.




Site E in Khayelitsha.  Potential for urban food production.
Declaration of the Food Security Summit held in Khayelitsha on 24 and 25 May 2013



We, the delegates gathered here at the Khayelitsha Campus of the False Bay College, have engaged over the last two days about the challenge of food security facing our communities. 
With the benefit of listening to a keynote address by the Minister of National Planning, an address by the acting Mayor of Cape Town and various inputs from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), the Provincial Department of Agriculture, the City of Cape Town, the Philippi Horticultural Area Food and Farming Campaign and the Mitchells Plain Education Forum (MPEF);
And having participated in vigorous discussions in commissions that covered the following critical areas of urban food security:
1) Enabling urban food production and access to markets for small-scale farmers;
2) Addressing the health and well-being of urban residents through food-based interventions (e.g. household and community gardens, nutrition education, making healthy foods more accessible in the market);
3) Social safety nets to ensure food security: The role of civil society and government in assisting vulnerable groups;
4) Urban planning and governance as tools to address food insecurity; and
5) Food justice and the Right to Food;

Food security solutions: Urban agricultural, community gardens and home food production
And having had the privilege of conducting site visits to the Siyazama Community Gardens, the Rocklands Primary School and the Philippi Agricultural Area;
And further noting:
That food security is defined by the FAO as:
“[T]he condition when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active, healthy life.”
Although much of the focus has historically been on ensuring the availability of food at the national scale, household-scale food security is comprised of availability of food, access to food, use of food, and the stability of availability, access and use. Each of these dimensions needs to be addressed in order to ensure food security for urban residents.
There has been a remarkable turnaround since about 2005 in child underweight and stunting trends (although the latter, especially, is still too high) but at the same time there has been a steady upward trend in both mean Body Mass Index figures (with the mean now close to technical obesity) for adults (both male and female).
Food insecurity is not simply determined by household poverty and food choices, but also by market structure, food pricing, access to safe storage and cooking technologies, access to social protection, amongst others.

We therefore resolve :
To ensure the utilisation of existing land attached to people’s houses for food gardens, beginning immediately with a pilot project in at least one Mitchells Plain and one Khayelitsha street;
• To engage National, Provincial and Local government authorities, parastatals as well as private land owners including churches and mosques to release excess land at schools, churches, correctional and health services facilities;
• To lobby the City of Cape Town to ensure that urban agriculture is included as one of the land uses in the spatial development framework;
• To engage with the owners and prospective owners of the “DENEL” land at Swartklip to ensure that the development plan includes clear set-asides for urban agriculture to benefit the surrounding communities;
• To protect all agricultural-zoned land within the City of Cape Town and on the urban edge from opportunistic attempts to rezone and/or sell such land;
• To initiate a focused land audit to identify appropriate land for urban agriculture within the South East Metro region. This audit should be completed within six months;
• To investigate the use of the wetlands within the PHA for organic farming;
• To campaign for the establishment of an agricultural support centre/hub to support all aspirant agriculturists and farmers in the South East Metro;
• To support subsistence smallholders as well as commercial farming where viable within the South East Metro;
• To support small-scale producers with access to abattoirs, warehouses and packaging facilities to ensure that these producers obtain maximum value from the various stages of the production and distribution chain;
• To support the objections to all attempts to rezone the Philippi Horticultural Area, including the consideration of legal steps to secure this land for urban agriculture. In particular, the Summit agreed to organise a special presentation to the leadership of KDF and MPEF as well as the steering committee concerning the 475 hectares Rapicorp 122 land;
• To initiate awareness programmes on balanced meals in the community;
• To have education programmes on the dietary causes of diabetes;
• To initiate comprehensive training on the establishment and maintenance of household and community gardens, especially for people who are not able to buy and store fresh vegetables;
• To promote early childhood and school-centred solutions to provide balanced meals for poorly nourished children. Such solutions should include food gardens at schools and kitchens with trained community dieticians/nutritionists. This could include community development workers and those employed by the Community Works Programme.
• That the NPC be requested to assist to ensure alignment and co-ordination of government programmes regarding social safety nets;
• That a social compact including KDF and MPEF and other role players should be established to drive social 
security provisioning in these areas; 
• That the IDP of the City should be used as a tool to address the food security needs of the community on a sustainable basis. Such IDPs should include a clear programme of land release to support a fair social safety net and be informed by the need for a local food security strategy;
• To reaffirm that Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain have been declared as Presidential urban renewal nodes and that this status should be maintained to ensure ongoing support from all spheres of government;
• That co-operatives should be the main vehicle through which community food production takes place and that there should be an urgent investigation as to the status of the Khayelitsha Poverty Reduction Programme;
• That recipients of Child Support Grants should be monitored as part of the social compact to ensure that they complete their schooling;
• That there should be community consultation about urban space utilisation for food gardens;
• That there should be national regulation for food retailing;
• That there should be monitoring by the City of both food pricing as well as quality;
• That, as part of the process of finalising the National Food and Nutrition Security Policy, an opportunity should be created to discuss the use of pesticides, GMOs and other farming production inputs;
• To develop proposals about preferential trading for those producers selling healthy and locally produced food and to lobby for implementation of these proposals by the City;
• That central to the attainment of the right to food is to ensure adequate access to land, water and appropriate seed;
• To embark on a programme to strengthen all community-based organisations involved in urban agriculture by securing support for organisational development, funding and capacity building; 

Many South Africa dinner tables do not serve fresh fruit or fresh vegetables.  It mainly consists of starchy produce, grain,  sugar and sometimes meat.
• To call for the urgent finalisation of the National Food and Nutrition Security Policy and ensure an opportunity for dialogue and participation as part of this process;
• To fully support Section 27 of the South African Constitution and call on Parliament to urgently address the required legislation and regulatory framework to give effect to these provisions;
• To call on DAFF and the broader social cluster within Government to convene a broader Western Cape summit for all urban communities in the province on urban food security, with the possible support of the NPC. To further call on DAFF and the social cluster to convene similar food security summits in at least one urban centre in each of the nine provinces;
• To support the unregistered ECD centres to obtain registration so that they may benefit from the relevant state subsidy;
• To convene a public forum in the South East Metro to discuss the impact of GMOs on food security;
• To call for an urgent engagement with the relevant Government departments to ensure that the ECD, Primary and High school curricula include the provision of practical skills for the production of food;
• To approach DAFF and DTI to conduct a value chain study to assess the income earned by small-scale producers as well as other participants within the South East Metro;
• To initiate a broad public awareness campaign about food justice and the right to food. 

We further resolve that, in order to ensure the implementation of this declaration, the KDF and MPEF executives should convene the steering committee within two weeks to develop an implementation plan to take the content of this decaration forward.
We further noted the following offers and proposals:
• Bidvest offer to enter an MOU regarding the purchase of product grown by community growers;
• An Urban Agriculture Exhibition (Show) for Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain;
• Youth Animal Show;
• Agricultural focus school to serve Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain;
• A social media intervention, including cellphone technology, for community nutrition and farming networks; and
• Invitations, both formal and informal, for a community delegation to visit various organisations in China, Cuba, Brazil and Italy.
And thus resolve that these proposals be further discussed by the steering committee to be convened by the KDF and MPEF.
In conclusion we declare our deep gratitude to all those responsible for organising and funding the Food Security Summit in Khayelitsha.

Our special thanks are noted to the following Sponsors:
• DAFF
• Old Mutual
• City of Cape Town (URP)
• Brimstone
• Khayelitsha Community Trust
We leave this summit energised and passionate about implementing the contents of this declaration and are confident that we will make progress in the struggle against poverty and food insecurity.

Sunday 26 May 2013 

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

What purpose does WTO serve?

The World Trade Organization appointed Brazilian Roberto Azevedo as new the director.

The question remains to many around the world . . . what purpose does this organization serve?  Exactly who is benefitting?

 Polyp depicts:


Sense Masala | Polyp WTO Serving Suggestion Cartoon |
Many North and Eastern African countries are Non-Member and Observers.  Most WTO disagreements surround agricultural open markets and import disputes.  The modern global food system continues to cause cancer.   I don't want my main dish to be international agricultural trade disputes but rather a seasonal medley of locally produced and fair traded products, preferably even what can be foraged and grown in our community.  

From a country with vast ecological resources, will the new Brazilian director link labour and environment concerns into the World Trade's agenda?  

What would your plate look like?  How would you change your consuming/trading habits on your plate?

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Taxi Cab Lunch: 100 in 1 day Cape Town-A social movement for citizen-powered change

100in1day_introduction1 - YouTube:

 On May 25th, 2013-- Citizens across the world and Cape Town, South Africa will take part in a 100 or more urban interventions across their communities, streets, towns and neighbourhoods created and implemented by every one and any one interested. Inclusive Acts of Experience.

 Some interventions may be:
 - establishing a public bench with sound equipment for citizen expression, music and message sharing.    - urban gardening
 - city soup swaps
 - installing park equipment
 - planting trees
 - pasting art

 "Citizens, organisation, students, children, teachers, rebels, and politicians are invited to voice their dreams through actions, pop-up events, performances, social games, artistic interventions, and urban hacks. Together we will create a diverse and uncontrolled global movement."  Orange Innovation-KaosPilots

 I visited the KaosPilot's temporary hub for 100 in 1 day Cape Town on 36 Buitenkant Street, upstairs from the Truth Coffee HQ.

I submitted my intervention and invite all of you to become a part of participating in it.

It's called Taxi Cab Lunch: Travel. Experience. Taste. Share.

  Instead of asking a cab driver to take you where you want to go, you get in and engage: ask... Where do you like to  eat lunch?  

 This springs into a genuine exchange through a shared common bond we all share…food, a language that connects us across age, background, economic and verbal language barriers. The variety of our interactions may lead to meaningful and genuine exchange between different crosssections of our society, our city.  It may also highlight many issues and realities of our city and country beyond it's borders.  The taxi cab lunch is a way to bridge our borders and be an aid toward exchange and respect in a cultural diverse canvas … raising our awareness through the experience of food in the culturally plural African city we all share.  As we open our minds and palettes, we can share our experiences. Accessing a part of the city through the eyes and stomach of your fellow urban citizen: The learning starts there.  

 So hop in a cab, and travel, experience, taste and share.  

 Write, blog,  take pictures, GoPro, video, film, audio record and share it across your favourite medium.  

  Send me a link and share your thoughts.  Be inspired!  I was . . . http://www.taxigourmet.com/about-taxi-gourmet/

 Ready, set, . . .  May 25th, 2013: Taxi Cub Lunch.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Inspiration for 100 in 1 Day Cape Town: Let's Plant Some shit.



When the problem becomes the solution: FOOD.  Growing it and sharing the seeds for a healthy future.  Props to "Let's Plant some SHIT!"  Ron Finley's talk gave insight on what motivated him and his team to grow edible usable greens.  http://www.ted.com/talks/ron_finley_a_guerilla_gardener_in_south_central_la.html
LA Green Grounds is an inspiration to create action, intervention, share ideas.  




On a Cape Town ground level: I wonder what we could come up with at 100 in 1 day: Cape Town facilitated by Kaospilots


On May 25th, 100 in 1 day: Cape Town will be a citizen driven festival of doing, that let's us realise our dreams we want to see and create in our city just like Ron Finley did.   

 I want to see food forests and fruit trees to be at bus stops.  When I walk my dog, I can also bring a bag and pick fruits in my neighbourhood along the way.  I do find fruit trees where I can . . . here are some of my recipes from The Culinary Linguist.

An interesting fact:

"Why did Jan Van Riebeeck plant roses in the Cape? Not for cut flowers, but for rose water"

 - Hetta van Deventer-Terblanche - South African storytelling on a plate (from her talk at EatOut Food Network DsTV Conference in Cape Town)

Now I don't feel so bad picking lemons occasionally from Company Garden's lemon tree in the rose bush section.  


Saturday, March 9, 2013

"Beautify what is Already Beautiful"- International Women's Day

"This photo was taken in the sacred Cecelia Forest in Cape Town by Nadegé Sanz. With it I want to honour and celebrate the pure beauty of every woman and girl on this International Woman's day. I celebrate your sacred body, I kiss your every curve and fold, wrinkle and stretch mark, every ripple of fat. I encourage you to honour yourself too, even when others don't, to free your own spirit, to respect your own body, to treat it with love and awe. You are a warrior, you are an artist, you are a healer, you deserve your own love first, without the approval of others. Shine your brilliant light from inside, dance wildly, swim naked, walk bare foot. At a time that we are so judged, so misused, so misunderstood, so labelled, so hated, so violated, may we make our own selves whole and complete again, as we entered this world...no make up, no cloth to smother, cover or beautify what is already beautiful. We require no one's permission to do this. Only our own. Our own love."  words by Ernestine Deane   http://ernestinedeane.com/

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

What All Parents Should Do . . .

Tina Fey: I want to thank my parent's for somehow raising me to have the confidence disproportionate with my looks and abilities.  Well done, that is what all parent's should do.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Conscious Hip Hop and MC's: She The Hard Way

Eversince Lupe Fiasco released "Bitch Bad", I was thinking where the Female voice was in Hip Hop.  Nicki Menaj and Azelia are bubble gum wrappers that don't have much chew capacity.  Mc's are not absent, they are strong in all parts of the world.

  I am drawn to the sisterhood in Atlanta where the MC's are releasing lyrics to the highest super delight, no need for repetitive materialistic chants-just solid dope lyricists that don't spit from an adam's apple and represent Respect.

 I'm giving respect and spreading inspiration from She the Hard Way.  A collaboration of different poetic flow from Sa-Roc, Khalilah Ali, Stahhr, Rita J, Boog Brown.  I love the way Stahhr describes the compilation as a delicious 5 course meal.  I don't have any information on the progress of this project, but each of these MC's hold a strong place in the way Hip Hop continues to evolve towards conscious poetic messages for our global socio-polito-econo-naturalistic Earth concerns.

 

Saturday, September 22, 2012

World Rhino Day 2012: Do you care if Rhinos disappear?

 

 Our Earth loses 2 rhinos a day due to acts of killing these endangered animals for money.

 Rhinos are poached predominantly for exotic animal-part trade or medicinal mythical cures-medical ideas that have been scientifically proven to not treat or cure what they are advertised for.

 The value of protecting rhinos needs to be taught in order to replace the value of trading their parts.  Poaching is not the only problem, but it is the most important one to stop as educational projects and programmes can reverse the idea that the demand for them is necessary.

   A man in South Africa, as seen in NHU Africa's Saving Rhino Phila has begun to farm as a way to influence a flood of rhinos horns into the marketplace, thus reducing their price and striving to maintain a healthy rhino population. But farming rhinos is not a solution as it doesn't eliminate the myths of these medical 'cures' and provides a 'safe' place for killing animals that will be may one day be called "previous wildlife, now cattle".  Although there are other human-caused risks to rhinos, it is imperative to stop poaching these animals and supporting positive wildlife conservation education.


  Human-centric ideas such as rhino horn uses for human consumption only decrease the longevity of our wildlife and will drive them into extinction.  We have a responsibility to our planet to work towards becoming wildlife conservation activists in our own capacity.

  Chris Mason from Natural History Unit Africa, produced and directed this Public Service Announcement, PSA, for World Rhino Day 2012: a Call for action to support Anti-poaching projects by WESSA, The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa. They filmed it on Kloof Street, Cape Town City Bowl, on a timelapse and reversed the Mak 1 One art piece into a disappearing artpiece.

  It asks a question:  Do you care if Rhino's disappear?  

    Let's hope this message and many other efforts allow us to care everyday to take responsibility to the stop of poaching.  

  Ideas to combat poaching through education projects are welcome to be shared here.




  Other artists share concern about the killing of Rhinos.  The Wooster Collective showcased words and pictures from another prolific Cape Town based graffiti aerosol artist, Faith47,  painting in Shanghai, click here to see and read.  She brought the spirit of African Rhinos into Asia.


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