Jim Naughten: Namibia

Spectacular.

 

 

Sent to you by knoemoore via Google Reader:

 

 

Jim Naughten: Namibia

via Thisispaper Magazine by Thisispaper Magazine on 12/18/12

Namibia by Jim Naughten- Set against the searing intensity of the Namibian landscape, acclaimed photographer Jim Naughten's dramatic portraits capture the magnificent costume of the Herero tribe. As this fascinating book reveals, the men's paramilitary uniforms and the vibrant Victorian-style gowns worn by the women are a stark reminder of Namibia's tumultuous past. In the late nineteenth century, the influence of missionaries and traders in what became German South-West Africa led to the Herero women adopting the European dress of the day. Over time, this evolved to reflect their cultural identity, with the addition of horn-shaped headdresses representing the importance of cattle in Herero society. Rounded to resemble healthy cows, the dresses contain up to 10 metres of cloth, despite summer temperatures reaching 50ºC. The men's distinctive ceremonial uniforms also have origins in colonial times. Following the brutal German-Herero war of 1904-08 and the end of colonial rule in 1915, the Herero adapted the uniforms of the German colonial forces for their own Otruppe ('troops') movement. In so doing, they sought to appropriate the strength and diminish the power of those who had cost them so dearly. In his insightful introduction to Conflict and Costume, Dr Lutz Marten explores the cultural and historical context of the Herero's dress. Jim Naughten's stunning portraits of the Herero people, set against a landscape that he describes as being 'one of unforgiving intensity but also of silent witness', then allow the past to speak. Exhibition An exhibition of Jim Naughten's portraits of the Herero tribe will be held at the Margaret Street Gallery, London W1 from 5th March to 13th April 2013. - Words: Dr Lutz Marten Photos: Courtesy of Jim Naughten

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to Thisispaper Magazine using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Rick Fedrizzi Defends LEED, Attacks The Naysayers and Delivers Barn-Burner D...

Tell them like it is...

 

 

Sent to you by knoemoore via Google Reader:

 

 

Rick Fedrizzi Defends LEED, Attacks The Naysayers and Delivers Barn-Burner Defense of Green Building

via Latest Items from TreeHugger by Lloyd Alter on 11/28/12

The CEO of the USGBC brings it on and fights back against the Plastic People their poodles in Congress

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to Latest Items from TreeHugger using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Watch Koolhaas; Hadid; Rogers Stirk Harbour; and Foster pitch their proposal...

This should be educational and entertaining.

 

 

Sent to you by knoemoore via Google Reader:

 

 

Watch Koolhaas; Hadid; Rogers Stirk Harbour; and Foster pitch their proposals for the new L&L Tower

via Archinect by Archinect on 11/19/12

The series of videos below offers a fascinating insight into how this generation of "starchitects" behaves under pressure, as they each pitch to win one of the most high-profile competitions in recent years: a new tower for L&L Holding Company on Park Avenue in New York. The site has such daunting neighbours as Mies van der Rohe's Seagram building, and it will be the first full-block office tower to be built on the street in almost half a century.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to Archinect using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Progress and Prosperity in Botswana…Without Women

African governance continues to evaluate itself.

 

 

Sent to you by knoemoore via Google Reader:

 

 

Progress and Prosperity in Botswana…Without Women

via Okayafrica. by Maryam Kazeem on 12/6/12

Botswana is often characterized as an anomaly to the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, exemplified by its good governance and booming economy. The nation has achieved stable and rapid growth since independence in 1966, mostly through supportive relationships between an open market economy and a system of elite democracy, successfully blending 'traditional' and modern elements, and offering a range of fairly free and meaningful political choices.  In other words, if you ever happen to take a business/economics class about opportunities in Africa, we'd be surprised if you didn't hear the professor say "Look to Botswana" yes, over the horizon there.

This week headlines again are applauding the nation for achieving the title as "Africa's Least Corrupt Nation." The annual report by Transparency International indicates that Botswana ranks 32 on the globe, highlighting their "success story." These accounts are also cognizant of Botswana's war against HIV/AIDs with the second highest rate in the world. Estimated adult HIV prevalence among 15-49 year olds is 24.8% with young women contracting the disease at much higher rates than men. But the government has made HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment a priority, and is the first African nation to provide free treatment to citizens living with HIV/AIDS.

What might be the problem then? While Transparency International's report hones in on corruption, perhaps we need to be more critical of what we define as an "African model." In their article for the Huffington Post, Nake M. Kamrany and Jennifer Gray describe Botswana as a model for progress and prosperity on the basis of GDP per capita ($16,100), stable population growth rates, an expanding economy, and en effective health agenda against high rates of HIV/AIDS. These facts are all worthy of praise, but it becomes somewhat of a concern in milieu of the decade of African women, when the model for Africa has women represented with only 6.6% of the seats in parliament and only 19% of the position in local government.

Corruption seems to be the talk of the town whenever it comes to leadership throughout the continent. Similar to the controversy surrounding the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Good Governance, governance seems to always place African leaders (typically men) at the forefront of the conversation. In some ways, focusing on corruption and how simultaneously problematic and exciting it is, undermines our ability to see how corruption and governance are implicated in other aspects of leadership and democracy. These aspects specifically being gender and women's political representation. We're not holding African countries to higher standards either, the United States has had an issue with female political participation as well and is still below 20% in Congress. However, the goal for African countries should not simply be: good economy, good governance, no corruption. Women's rights, LGBTQI rights, and political participation have to be worked in and through those aspirations.

In the case of Botswana, NGOs in Southern Africa such as Open Society Initiative have considered these questions and suggested that Botswana's government is "not genuinely committed to promoting and protecting the rights of half the population." A concern throughout southern Africa is Botswana's failure to ratify the SADC gender protocol (Southern African Development Community), which underscores the significance of women's rights and political participation. We're not throwing shade at Botswana's achievement, but we need to change the conversation so that the model we have in mind isn't imported by certain Western models of modernization and capitalism, and most significantly that it necessarily includes and represents women as leaders, politicians, and perhaps the very thing we keep referring to as progress.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to Okayafrica. using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites