Millions of Africans watch Nigerian films every day, many more than see American fare. And yet Africans have mixed feelings about Nollywood. Among Africa’s elites, hostility is almost uniform. Jean Rouch, a champion of indigenous art in Niger, has compared Nollywood to the AIDS virus.A slight problem. Rouch did not compare Nollywood to the AIDs virus. What Rouch compared to the AIDs virus was the advent and proliferation of video as the go to format in Africa, hence hastening the demise of film or celluloid. Since Nollywood is in many ways a video phenomenon, the sentence via a comparison and the avoidance of quotation marks presents the logical extension, albeit a misleading one, that makes it appear Rouch was specifically talking about the Nigerian movie industry. He was not.
Rouch himself had noted, in his final years, “that video is the AIDS of the film industry” (p. 3), a quote that Barrot finds puzzling and open to multiple interpretations; was he warning about the viral nature of piracy, which is frequently associated with video, or making a point about the rapid proliferation of video-players? Or perhaps he was warning of the dangers of this equipment, since video, as a tool designed for mass consumption, was beginning to replace film, previously the preserve of a small group of specialists? (p. 3, my emphasis) Whatever his precise meaning, as Barrot notes, “if video is a kind of virus, then its victims seemed to be embracing it.” (p. 4)More of that passage from Barrot - here. In order for the quote to work, one has to reduce Nollywood to simply a video phenomenon to make it seem Rouch, who was dyed in the wool of participatory cinema and film camera innovations, was talking about the Nigerian filmmakers spearheading the use of video, rather than the nature of video technology itself. Yet, such use of "ergo" runs contrary to the central premise of the fine piece, which is Nollywood's success can't be reduced to the video format; that it comprises of several other factors:
... atrocious state-run television and slow internet connections mean there is little competition for entertainment. A steady decline in the price of digital cameras and a rise in average incomes makes for healthy profit margins. Yet the same conditions exist in many developing-world countries that have not created vibrant film industries. Three other ingredients are crucial to Nollywood’s formula: language, casting and plotting.To further show Rouch's gripe was with video, not Nollywood, here is Rouch talking to someone about the future of visual anthropology:
In an earlier article (Hanlon 2004), we argued that donors promoted corruption in Mozambique. In their rush to promote Mozambique as a free-market aid success, they entered into a tacit agreement with the elite that corruption would be permitted so long as ‘market-friendly’ policies and all other donor demands were accepted and publicly praised. The crunch came when the IMF and World Bank forced (Hanlon 2002) the privatization of two state banks in 1995 and 1996. In both cases honest central bank officials warned the Bretton Woods institutions that the only potential buyers were corrupt, but the reply was that even a corrupt privatization was better than state ownership.
This was an era of what was known as ‘goatism’ (cabritismo), from the saying ‘a goat eats where it is tied’. In other words, people wanted a share of whatever passed within their reach. No project could go ahead without local and national party officials extracting a share. The situation deteriorated so much that many projects could not go ahead because the share for the goats made them unprofitable. David Stasavage (1999) notes that this was encouraged by a civil service organization in which bureaucrats maintained extensive power and discretion over economic processes. Increasingly in the smaller neo-liberal state, bureaucrats only had power to block economic development and had few resources to assist, so they became increasingly rent seeking. Many of the corrupt Frelimo elite were supported by donors and the international financial institutions, who assured them that by becoming personally rich, they would actually promote development.
This mask's] whereabouts remained unknown until the family contacted Sotheby’s last year. Jean Fritts, director of African and Oceanic art at Sotheby’s, said: “It has an amazing, untouched surface which collectors love. Its honey colour attests to years of rubbing with palm oil.”Wait... The implication being because the descendants of Colonel Sir Henry Lionel Gallwey took good care of what their ancestor
I knew it was only going to get worse at DC Comics: in his continuing efforts to form Batman Inc, Bruce Wayne recruits an Algerian Muslim living in France, in Clichy-Sous-Bois, where the Muslim riots grew out of in 2005, over the death of 2 delinquents who electrocuted themselves by stupidly entering a power station, and the blame was laid upon at least 2 policemen who weren't even at fault and didn't even know they were there. How about that, Bruce Wayne goes to France where he hires not a genuine French boy or girl with a real sense of justice, but rather, an "oppressed" minority who adheres to the Religion of Peace. And this is a guy whose very parents were murdered at the hands of a common street thug!Others have even concocted their own cover for this year's "The 99"-"Justice League" team up "The 99" creator, Naif Al-Mutawa, mentioned - here.
Photographers must realize they aren't doing journalism, Kasmauski says. Instead, they are supporting a particular goal or goals of an organization. In this sense, it is like working for a corporation. "NGOs aren't necessarily looking for the story that should be told because they have an agenda, 'We have to raise money. We have to be able to keep this program going.'"Looks like 'O Connor was on point about the media coverage in Haiti.
In serving a nonprofit, photographers should be careful about their approach. "You're walking a fine line with an NGO," Kasmauski says. "There are a lot of hardcore documentary makers out there that do fairly heavy-duty pictures of people in distress. Those pictures are not going to engage people. They are going to turn people off ... The other side of the coin is also ineffective. The big smiley faces of kids: if everything is so happy, why do you need our help? You have to have that fine line of photography that not only tells the story, but engages the viewer to bond with your subjects. To show the humanity in the subject. So that you can say, yeah that's kind of like me standing there."
Photographers should not work for a nonprofit just so they can get access to compelling shots for their porfortlios. Kasmauski was uneasy with both the large numbers of photographers who flew to Haiti after the earthquake and some of the images coming back. "Particularly in this day and age when people always want to see the extreme, the bloodiest images... The Haiti coverage was driving me crazy. It was like people were almost taking medical pictures of the poor victims -- close in on people's wounds."
While neither the Triga I or Triga II reactors function, CREN-K's nuclear scientists continue to work. They conduct agricultural research (such as irradiating and mutating corn), study nuclear medicine, produce isotopes, analyze and identify neutron material, study radiography and teach University of Kinshasa students physics and nuclear science...Professor Lumu, who runs the facility, told Emboffs he wants to restart the nuclear reactor. Lumu has been lobbying the international community to provide the necessary funds and technology to do this. Lumu said he plans to use the reactor to study x-ray detraction, radiology, agronomy, gamma irradiation, nuclear medicine, environmental science and radiation protection...Because CREN-K's security is poor, it is relatively easy for someone to break into the nuclear reactor building or the nuclear waste storage building and steal rods or nuclear waste, with no greater tool than a lock cutter. It would also be feasible to pay a CREN-K employee to steal nuclear material. It is imperative that the international community find a way to help better secure the facility, even if GDRC remains unwilling to give up its fuel rods. Priority funding needs are new fencing, proper nuclear waste storage and disposal and security training.Still on nuclear research, AlJazeera posted a few days ago a look at South Africa's scientists--SA's one of the world's biggest suppliers of medical isotopes--using technology from the country's apartheid era nuclear weapons programme to now pioneer the use of extracting molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) from low-enriched (LEU), rather than highly-enriched, uranium. According to a Dec 9th Homeland Security News wire, "The United States has just taken delivery of the first shipment of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) made from LEU. It was made by the South Africa Nuclear Energy Corporation at its Safari-1 reactor at Pelindaba":
Hundreds of thousands of Ugandan youths have also been drawn to the bright lights of the capital, exposed to a lifestyle so at odds with the rural, traditional lives of elder generations. Wine is the torchbearer of this brave new world. He offers pride and a sense of community to the scores of dispossessed, the slum kids fighting for a living. “We call it urban” he says. “Whereas rural music is narrative... informative... passive, urban music is more active and aggressive.” National kora maestro Joel Sebunjo will perform there in his annual “diplomats tour” concert next month.... “More and more musicians in Uganda are drawing from their traditional roots and blending it with contemporary urban music” says Sebunjo. “Artists like Mesach Semakula or rapper Navio are using traditional themes in their songs and fusing that with an urban approach.” Sebunjo recalls a hugely popular song Mesach produced that referred to the Kabaka (King of Buganda). “When artists sing about something from their culture, people respond so much more than to songs with abstract ideas, where people can’t relate.”More videos + article - here. At the Bayimba Int festival of the Arts in September, 2010...
Performing a mixture of other rock artists’ songs, like Kings of Leon, and their own, they got the audience literally off their feet, had their hands swinging in their air, drew them closer to the stage, and wrung loud screams out of them. Uneven proved two things: that rock had found someone to adopt it in Uganda. They also gave testament to the fest’s mission: to provide a platform for underappreciated musical forms and those who perform them. Going by their performance, there’s every reason to believe with rock in their hands, it’ll surely flourish. But Uneven weren’t alone. They’d partnered with Rachel K, the jack of all musical trades, who, when she took the stage, did something no other artist had done so far: command the stage and the audience. Where the Golden Oldies got people dancing and demanding their favourite tunes, Uneven drew them closer to the stage and had them screaming and jumping, Rachel K, with her good dose of teases here, sexiness there, and some tantalising body wiggling, made them wish they could climb up on it. One more thing was evident about Rachel K: she was so comfortable that many people in the audience could be heard remarking that it is perhaps in rock music where she belongs.
Between the Durex global sex survey, Facebook polls and recent US Census, we can get a good sense of why it all comes to an end. There are many opportunities for failure with 3 million first dates every day worldwide. It turns out that sex is pretty important as 56% of adults claim to be unhappy with their sex life and 22% of married people worldwide have had an extramarital affair. Turkey has the highest rate of affairs with 58% of married people, and Israel the lowest with 7%. Cheating is one of the most popular reasons for breaking up with 25% of women and 18% of men reporting it as the reason for their last relationship's end. Many find success as 2.5 million per year vow "Till death do we part," albeit nearly half will break that vow. 5.4% of adults, for better or worse die having never married.H/T: Cliff Kuang
Despite warnings from the U.S. government that the publication of secret diplomatic cables could put the local reporters and human rights activists identified in them at risk, WikiLeaks this week published the name of an Algerian reporter who accused Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of manipulating a 2006 parliamentary election during talks with American diplomats, according to a journalists' rights group. The reporter's name was redacted on Thursday, two hours after the New York-based advocacy group, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), asked a lawyer representing WikiLeaks, Mark Stephens, to remove it.But leaks go both ways. Gawker claims it has obtained some of a younger Assange's jilted-bordering-on-stalkish love letters and someone has put up all Assange ever shared between 1995-98 to 2001-02 with other cyberphunks on the mailing list, Cryptome.
But Cote d’Ivoire was living on borrowed time. When its first president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, finally died in December 1993, he had ruled for over 40 years. One of his fiercest opponents had been a college lecturer called Laurent Gbagbo. He stubbornly defied Houphouet, endured persecution and stood against Houphouet in the first multiparty elections held in 1990. This doggedness endeared Gbagbo to those who aspired to live under a democracy in Cote d’Ivoire. When Houphouet-Boigny died at the age of 85, Gbagbo watched with interest as Houphouet’s party, the Democratic Party of Cote d’Ivoire (PDCI) tore itself apart in a succession race. It was the former finance minister and substantive president of the National Assembly, Henri Konan Bedie, who emerged on top. Among Houphouet’s appointees who lost out to Bedie was Alassane Dramane Ouattara, whom Houphouet had appointed prime minister after plucking him back home from the IMF (International Monetary Fund – where Ouattara was a deputy managing director) to put him in charge of the (Central) Bank of West Africa, before appointing him prime minister.France24 Observers live-blogging yesteday's protests. Aljazeera's Yvonne Ndege already explained that because Gbagbo controls the television, outside Abidjan most don't even know what's going on. France 24's Cyril Vanier, again, reiterates the power of the medium:
“There are basically three levers of power here in Ivory Coast: the economy, the army and the TV,” explained Vanier. “The Ouattara camp has not managed to get a firm grasp of the economy and the army is still loyal to Gbagbo. So Ouattara and his government are trying to take control of the TV because at present they have no means of broadcasting their message. The TV station is definitely one of the country’s seats of power and it’s an important symbol.”
For the past week Hip-hop icon Chuck D has been living out his designated role as Hip-hop’s foremost elder statesman. His tour of South Africa started with a press conference and music industry workshop in Johannesburg ahead of concerts in downtown Jozi, Soweto and in Cape Town. His takes to his twitter to unleash the account of his experience. One tweet goes: “The fakeness of black celebrity is this. They are a sliver away from the poverty and drama of their own family. It’s not the blue blood elite”. I wonder then what he will make of his time in Lagos aka flash central, this hub of fabulosity where everybody is somebody and makes sure they look as much. I for one am blown away by the Porsche count here and marvel at the designer order of the MAMAs red carpet: The likes of Louboutin, Herve Leger, Deola Sagoe and no less. But how will Chuck interpret it?
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"... they best be made off beeswax or y'all might as well be white."We thinks white hippies in dashikis make the best Kwanzaa celebrating stereotype anyway - like the dude in the opening of this black history month episode of American Dad way back from season 2:
Further, the financial crisis puts in sharp relief the need to consider the fiscal implications of foreign aid and the fiscal stress created by the MDGs. ... hard budget constraint must drive development strategies... This is not the first, nor will it be the last, critique of the Millennium Development Goals. What is different and dire this time, is that the global economic crisi has placed developing countries, particularly the poorest, in an even more precarious situation, which places an even higher premium for certainty and greater return from public resources (provided domestically and externally.) Growth should be purchased the 'old fashioned way' - you earn it, not borrow it--with prudent fiscal management. The only sustainability mentioned in the MDGs is environmental, not fiscal. Following Zoellick's warning about complacency, complacency should not be addressed by reinvigorating past approaches which had dubious or limited impact. This paper concludes with a proposal to replace the MDGs by the DIGs -- Decade Infrastructural Goals which would promote the certainty needed for development. Thesis: The Millennium Development Goals are not the best bet for the bottom billion: they have never been adequately funded, are unlikely to be adequately funded, are fiscally unsustainable, and not the best investment for poor countries in terms of level and certainty of return. The global economic crisis requires a rethink of development, a return to fundamentals, a return to growth and a return to fiscal probity.H/T: MR
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Regarding the alleged “massive rigging” in the north of the country, this claim is not supported by any international observer mission. After all, during the first round, Ouattara won in all the constituencies in question with more than 70 per cent of the votes. One thus wonders why he would have needed rigging in the second round to win the same. In a statement submitted to the UN Security Council on 3 December, the SRSG notes that he certified the results of the run-off poll proclaimed by the IEC not entirely based on the assessment of the latter, but also that of his own monitors. This led him to conclude that Gbagbo’s purported win “can only be interpreted as a decision having no factual basis”.Anyway, Thursday has been declared high noon.
...[it] does not prohibit companies from buying conflict minerals. Instead, it requires them to carry out due diligence on their supply chain and to report back to the Securities and Exchange Commission what measures they have taken to find out whether they are importing minerals that fuel conflict in the Congo. 'It's a name-and-shame bill,' Toby said. There will only be fines for companies that do not do good reporting and auditing. Companies that carry out all the correct due diligence and report back to the SEC that they are indeed importing conflict minerals will not be fined... Hence the importance of pressure from NGOs, press and private citizens. Since all these reports have to by law made public by the companies, the cost for the company will be reputational.Hence Enough's rankings wants to pile on that pressure - more here and here. For how Enough! came abt the rankings, see methodology at the end of the in the report below or click here.
The release of the report coincides with Kenya's crackdown on foreigners following last Friday's grenade attack on a police car in Nairobi's Eastleigh area. Many Somalis, both Kenyan Somalis and immigrants with refugee status, live in Eastleigh. The report ...makes a gory reading as it gives a detailed account of the suffering of the refugees fleeing the war-torn country and entering Kenya. The report documents brutal police beatings, outright extortion, sexual abuses by hosts and other refugees in Kenya; overcrowding, poor health and sanitation in camps as among the vagaries of a Somali refugee's life in Kenya... Somali refugees are particularly vulnerable to abuse by the security forces in Kenya, given the ambiguity of government policy towards them and the real risk that they can be forcibly returned to Somalia...At African Arguments, Africa Editor of the BBC World Service News, Mary Harper, recalls a conversation with a Somali business man who claims Kenyan police refer to Somalis as "ATM machines" because "the only way we can navigate the situation here is to bribe the police at every turn.” Harper argues , perhaps, the Kenyan government's "ambiguity" might actually stem from a more general Kenyan ambivalence about Somalis:
Prejudice against Somalis permeates many levels of Kenyan society. On the one hand, they are feared and resented; on the other, they are admired for their business acumen. “Somalis are very bad people,” said the taxi driver who took me to Eastleigh, the Somali district of Nairobi. ”They sell everything in Eastleigh, even weapons. They are corrupt and they are always fighting because they are, by nature, a very violent people. Somali pirates come here to Nairobi and buy expensive houses in the best districts. Kenyans hate Somalis, but they are very good at business.” It may be their success in business rather than their links to piracy and Islamist extremism that lies at the root of the hostility towards Somalis. They were doing well in Kenya before the days of pirates and Al Shabaab. Nowhere is their commercial success more obvious than in Eastleigh, which many people call ‘Mogadishu Kidogo’, which means ‘Mini-Mogadishu’ in Kiswahili.Considering all the bank Somali pirates are making, even an episode of 30 Rock from last season was ambivalent about Somalis as well.
