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?

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Her Love for Horses . . . Off The Track Thoroughbred OTTB qoutes from my sister



This is my sister KOKO and her horse, Lazarus.  She sells clothing apparel with an OTTB graphic and statement that is loved by OTTB owners and lovers.  Join her along for the ride on her blog Sweet Horse's Breath and shop at her Etsy Store OTTB Tee's. Her facebook page is also full of great content to follow: OTTB Tee's FB



The portraits of just her horse, Lazarus, I took when I was visiting her in Michigan.  It's the only horse I actually love, you can understand why by reading her blog.  But also, look at his eyes and giraffe neck . . . swoon.


Thursday, April 25, 2013

David Chancellor's Hunter and Hunted: Images of Social Ecology and Wildlife Economy



David Chancellor: "I'm called a documentary photographer."

In the small lunchtime lecture room at Cape Town School of Photography, we travelled across the Kalahari, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya with Chancellor's 'Ghost Train.'  He described the 'Ghost Train' as a viewer's journey to an unknown place of understanding when viewing some of his images. In his medium format film image, Huntress with Buck, he pointed out that you may see the landscape first, then the girl, then the light, and then wonder about the girl in this landscape.  As a viewer, you may not know where the photo story is going until you start to engage with your own observations and relations.  The 'Ghost Train' experience left my husband, Chris, and I with a feeling of inspiration and engagement with questions of our own.

The Huntress with Buck image won the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

  I was inspired by his technique of 'slow journalism.'  By shooting on film, he finds himself engaging more with people than people being more interested in what he is capturing.
"I like the fact that people can't look at the back of the camera and see an image."
"I don't like digital, full stop."

  His time spent on the series, Hunter, took years to confront people's suspicions and battled with people's perceptions of why he was taking interest in documenting, "What actually happens in the Hunting Industry?"  As a documentary photographer, he looks at subjects that people aren't seemingly familiar with.  He develops trust within a culture, an industry, which in return allows him to develop hundreds of rolls of film.  By default, his photo series weave a story around human wildlife conflict and tourist trophy hunting.

  His sensory process of using film inspires other questions in his work.  While shooting Hunter and Hunted, he came in close contact with dead or dying animals.  In Safari Club and Diorama and Cases, he explored the 'life' of animals stuffed and put back in their natural form.

He explained that his personal work of Hunter, Hunted and Safari Club took 6 years, 4 of which were shooting.  Chancellor wanted to understand after the years of Sir Peter Scott's conservation of wild animals, "Where are we now?"

I recently saw his photo, Untitled Hunter #1, Trophy Room taken in Dallas, Texas at the Wildlife Photography of the Year Exhibition, hosted by NHU Africa and the Iziko Natural History Museum in Cape Town, South Africa.


  The photo taken in Texas, as a part of Safari Club series, was the only photo in the Wildlife Photography Exhibition that had only one living animal in the picture; the Untitled Hunter.  The photo surfaces debate around conservation, ecology, hunting and invites discussion around Social Ecology and Wildlife Economy.  As for the man known as the Untitled Hunter, he has asked David for a print.


   Chancellor continued his lunchtime lecture by sharing some of his current unfinished work in Kenya with Rhino poachers and also some 'snaps' of his family.
"As photographers, we should be able to do anything."
"You don't need people to pigeon hole you"


 I walked away from David's lecture engaged.
 Engaged with the need to question.
 Engaged with the want to understand.
 And engaged with urge to document.
 I'll continue to do so, on all mediums . . . and free from any pigeon holes.




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

Sunday, March 31, 2013

We all have a story to tell . . .

Yes, indeed.  We all have a story to tell. King Adz video takes us through what goes on in our creative minds, in our critical selves that get crippled by distractions, self-created disbelief, insecurity, self-loathing.  Watch this clip and see how you feel.

STORIES from King ADZ/100proof on Vimeo.

 
  To tell my story, to know my story---It's the way I weave all the colours in my tapestry of life- orange, red, turquoise, brown, purple, blue, white and gold- that is me.  And my patterns and tension will vary but the design is beautiful.  So with that I know I keep weaving to know where it leads me next . . . 

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/

Friday, March 1, 2013

Detroit, Sugarman, and South Africa

A story strong to South's Africa heart beat, plays a different tune for Detroit's singer-songwriter Rodriguez.

picture jacked from Google.com
  Living in South Africa and hearing the impact of his music upon adults from that generation is fact to how powerful the powerful influence of music is to our collective history.  Music's language connects personal experiences across the world.

The locational link of this particular music story-South Africa and Detroit caught the interest of my dad, who grew up in Detroit.

 He recently forwarded me this article after watching the Documentary made about Rodriguez and South African listeners: Searching for Sugarman.

 Rodriguez' lyrics and music stretched beyond the artist's imagination into a moment of history that has been shared with the world.

  Click here to read the article:

   Long before Oscar-nominated doc, Detroit writer went on his own search for Sugar Man | Movies | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

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