Collective Poetry

A love virgin beneath a canopy of cupcakes, technicolour. With a shot glass full of intrepidation. Oh, but now I love to be by the sea. Surrounded by nymphs celebrating love.A dog keeps us company, cupcakes and champagne on the table. Oh, how I love to be by the sea. Crash boom, bang. It is beautiful to be alone.  It is beautiful to be in love. to be with people and they are complimentary. Not contradictory. Evole evolution. Love Revolution. Living in this warrioress light of infiltration.  Love born in the sultry of the east coast summer, travelled and wisened abroad, settled in the cape where oceans meet, and we feast on the grape, wine, wonderful wenches weekend, what could be happier than celebrating our goddess of virginity, fertility, verility, femininity-champagne and tea! Oh the magic & wonder of the bride to be . . . The valkyrie bliss she brings to me. The great virgin of love, the purest abundant dove. Your union of dreams makes us burst at the seams.  Purple-lilac roller on your solar-flying plane. Your vibe keeps the love breathing, respiring, through violet flashing wings. Love songs with love . ..  For my Tina Athena . . . You are: Beautiful, inspirational, creative spirited.  The love you share with Chris is blissful bountiful and beautiful!  May it be a beacon of light & hope to all . . . A brilliant light a chocolate delight every starry night I see you in sight...soon you’ll take flight LIVE BRIGHT. Holy schmolly miss wiggamolly, nolly 

bejolly.            

  written by 10 women on a weekend away in Yzerfontein, South Africa.

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 

Cape Town Taxi Cab Drivers: Food for Thought

   A few years ago, I contacted Layne Mosler, founder of TaxiGourmet.com.  I admired her taxi journals and the search for New York City's best food joints by the city's very own cabbies.  I knew Cape Town would be a great place to explore the city's diverse culture, stories and places to eat. Food is not only a shared necessity, but I thought a unifying tool for positive interaction and meaningful conversations.  Highlighting taxi cab driver's tips and favourite spots, could promote a broader awareness, respect and appetite for the cultural diversity and flavours in our city.  Since then, I have met various cab drivers and digested delicious food and interesting stories that come from various parts of the country and Africa.  

  Today, I sat on the steps of Darling St. and Plein St. with Eti, an independent taxi driver.  He shared some thoughts about Cape Town, his struggles and happiness and where a vegetarian, like himself, goes to eat Cape Town's best burger.

         

  It was past lunch time, and the streets were full of Saturday shoppers.  Four young men were playing "Beautiful Girl" on trombones and trumpets with a growing crowd of afternoon spectators.  While Eti waited for customers he told me that making a living on four wheels gives him happiness and minimal stress. 

"To work for yourself is very good. I like people and I enjoy being a taxi driver." 

 His jovial smile and sociable manner matched the slogan painted across his white taxi: Meet as Strangers, Leave as Friends.  Eti has been an independent tax cab driver for four years.  He arrived in Cape Town, South Africa from Burundi, in 2000.  He left his birth country, Burundi, as a young man to avoid being forced to fight in the army.

"I came by ship to Zambia," he proclaimed, "I came to seek peace."

He crossed Lake Tanganyika, the world's longest fresh water lake in the world, to escape the war in Burundi.  Four days later, he arrived in Cape Town to meet his brother and cousins who had settled here.

"Cape Town is my home city, no doubt.  But my refugee status is the only problem.  It's like you're in prison. When my father passed away I couldn't leave because of my refugee status.  This makes me sad.  If I wanted to leave and go on holiday, maybe Mozambique or Zambia, I can't."

  A person with refugee status in South Africa can lose their refugee or asylum status if they leave the country without permission from The Ministry of Home Affairs.  Applying for asylum in South Africa involves applying for a permit/Section 22 every three months until their application is approved.  The permit does not recognise a person as a refugee, it is simply proof that they have applied for the status.  If the application is approved, then the person will receive a refugee document ID and travel documents, which have to be renewed every two years.

Before Eti became a taxi driver in Cape Town, he worked as a security supervisor in Groot Constantia near Jonkershuis Restaurant.  

"The owner of Jonkerhuis, Chris, is a good friend.  He is a good person to me.  I know him because I was looking after his business when I worked in security."

He shared his thoughts about Cape Town and what makes it different from where he grew up.

"It's a city with a lot of different people and different countries.  Even the city authorities care for the people in the Mother City."

In the winter season, taxi cab drivers work longer hours to meet their daily quota.  For Eti, he parks his taxi close to one of his top three lunch spots.

"Eastern Food Bazaar has everything; Asian, Pakistani, Indian.  I like the fried rice. I'm a vegetarian," he proclaimed. "It's keeps you strong, and it keeps me healthy. 

His second choice on where to eat in Cape Town is Jonkershuis.

"I eat their burger."  He confessed that the burgers are so tasty that even a vegetarian would eat them. :)

"I also eat at the Nigerian restaurant on Loop St near the Pepper Club.  I enjoy the bitterleaf soup." 

 "I'll definitely try that!" I answered.

I asked him what else he wanted to tell people visiting or living in Cape Town. 

"Instead of people being afraid of Cape Town's city or the taxi drivers, they must trust us,"  Eti added.

  This sentiment is shared by many independent Cape Town taxi cab drivers.  Besides finding cabbie's recommendations for Cape Town's restaurants and cafes, sitting down and listening to stories of Cape Town cabbies highlights our culturally-plural and complex city.  It promotes an exchange of ideas, reveals global topics and issues and promotes a greater understanding of our city and fellow citizens.  Many cab drivers in the Cape Town continue to share and access the best of what the city has to offer and like Eti, reveal their happiness and peace by calling Mother city their home.  

_______________________________________________________
*names have been changed.  

 On May 25th, 100 in 1 Day, a festival of doing was activated in Cape Town with over 100 urban interventions/activities/installations, etc.  Taxi Cab Lunch, was an intervention to motivate people to Taste, Share and Explore the city through the eyes of Cape Town's cab drivers.

The Hungry Season - Food Security in South Africa

#foodsecurity #southafrica 

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:

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?

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.

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.

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.

Earth In Mind: David Orr's quote for Earth Day every day

Nutella Saves the Day

 The one thing I know how to clean . . . is a Nutella jar.


 Help Save Water, Lick it clean.