Poesia no Dia Internacional da Mulher
PRESENÇA AFRICANA (Alda Lara)
&
MEU AMOR DA RUA ONZE (Aires de Almeida Santos)
(Leia Aqui)
RESPECT (Aretha Franklin)
*[Postado inicialmente a 08/03/07]
Showing posts with label MY PICTURES. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MY PICTURES. Show all posts
Thursday, 8 March 2012
ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY [*]
Poesia no Dia Internacional da Mulher
PRESENÇA AFRICANA (Alda Lara)
&
MEU AMOR DA RUA ONZE (Aires de Almeida Santos)
(Leia Aqui)
RESPECT (Aretha Franklin)
*[Postado inicialmente a 08/03/07]
ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY [*]
... and Healing Sounds From Mother Africa @ Luanda Azul, Luanda Blues
The Healing - Pops Mohammed/Paul Hanmer/Anna Tietie/Khanyo
*[First posted 08/03/09]
Monday, 14 February 2011
When Contemporary Art Goes to The Laundry... [Updated]*
... Or The Shape We're In!
This used to be one of our local launderettes. Then, be it because of the crisis or some other reason, at some point in the last few months it became just some sort of 'premises to let to whoever and for whatever' - the "happenings" there just keep changing all the time...
So, I wasn't supposed to be surprised at what just appeared there a couple of weeks ago... but... I was!
Covering the full front window, it just happened to us, everyday passers-by, this piece of contemporary art by Tracey Emin...
So, that's the shape we're in, I guess...
[*] Just found out some more about this "happening":
here, here and here.
Saturday, 24 July 2010
An African Postcard (3)
Blouberg - South Africa
Jazz Lee - Today's Yesterday
[in from Mzanzi with love]
Blaawberg
[Morro (do) Azul]
E' tanto o mar
de teu azul
tanto o vibrato
de teu marulhar
tanta a toalha
de tua mesa
[onde seco peixe e estrelas]
tanto o sol
de teu por-de-lua
que em tua areia
viro espuma e sal.
A.S.
[Linked here]
Friday, 2 April 2010
Cape Town International Jazz Festival
Este 'slideshow' ja' por aqui passou, numa altura em que este blog, na sua versao original, tinha um espaco designado Pebbles, onde publiquei muita coisa que depois pura e simplesmente "desapareceu" e que aos poucos, na medida do possivel, do interesse e/ou da relevancia, vou recuperando.
Trata-se de uma "reportagem fotografica" que fiz da edicao de 2006 do Cape Town International Jazz Festival, ao qual tive o prazer de assistir na sua quase totalidade. Foi uma edicao a todos os titulos memoravel e que ficou especialmente marcada pela participacao de Manu Dibango e pelo ultimo grand show da saudosa Mama Afrika.
Na altura fiz acompanhar o 'slideshow' de musicas dos artistas "reportados". Desta vez, mesmo porque infelizmente nao o posso assistir, faco-o acompanhar de musica de alguns dos artistas no programa do CT Jazz 2010, com destaque para Paulo Flores (cuja participacao nesse festival, curiosamente, eu havia aqui sugerido), aqui num dueto que pela primeira vez me deu a conhecer a voz de Wyza (outro artista Angolano que espero venha tambem a fazer a sua estreia numa das proximas edicoes desse festival!); uma mensagem do Nilo trazida por McCoy Tyner ja' aqui transmitida por ocasiao do primeiro Festival Internacional de Jazz de Luanda e um pouco do sabor local que nos e' servido pelo Capetoniano Jonathan Butler.
Enjoy!
E' Doce Morrer no Mar [Paulo Flores feat. Wyza]
Message From The Nile [McCoy Tyner]
I Found Myself In You [Jonathan Butler]
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Sunday, 14 March 2010
Just Poetry (XIII)
CriaçãoCrê-se que Deus
maior artista de todos os tempos
e céus
criou
entre outros seres
os humanos
[esses que vivem, morrem e são]
numa simples, mas precisa
mística operação
de barros, sopros e ceres
em dias prenhes de mistérios
num ritual labor
de água, sangue e pão.
E assim o terá feito
por uma simples razão:
que suas criações
fossem entendidas
tanto em prosas como em versos
entre outros seres
pelos evolucionistas
[esses que pensam, formulam e teorizam]
de todas as gerações
e universos.
E assim
simples e misteriosamente
o são.
A.S.
Escultura de autor anonimo, obtida a beira de uma estrada poeirenta do Botswana, nas coordenadas 23°26′S 20°0′E / 23.433°S do Tropico de Capricornio: a fronteira mais a sul da zona torrida dos tropicos, e a latitude mais austral em que o sol brilha directamente sobre a cabeça ao meio dia.
Friday, 12 March 2010
Caso BNA
Por tras da imponente fachada e por cima dos telhados de vidro, pairam por la' passaros de todas as latitudes fazendo seus ninhos...
Estes, no entanto, sao prob(i)os... e desprotegidos e nao ganham premios The Banker.
Estes, no entanto, sao prob(i)os... e desprotegidos e nao ganham premios The Banker.
Saturday, 23 January 2010
Friday, 11 September 2009
Saturday, 1 August 2009
LUANDANDO (XI)
CONVERSA NA PADARIA
Ia fotografando estes paineis, um por um, quando comecei a sentir aquele aroma irresistivel a pao quente que se foi tornando mais intenso a medida que avancava ao longo daquelas vias de extincao, apressando-me...
Ia fotografando estes paineis, um por um, quando comecei a sentir aquele aroma irresistivel a pao quente que se foi tornando mais intenso a medida que avancava ao longo daquelas vias de extincao, apressando-me...
Extintas as vias, se dei encontro com a padaria - bem, mais 'deposito de pao', como se chamavam esses nos outros tempos…
Pao quente, uniformes brancos dos pes a cabeca... bicha, kanvwanza? Nada…
Em Luanda?
Definitivamente, novos tempos.
Mas nao havia tempo, nem atencao, para os clientes: so’ olhos e ouvidos para a TV onde se anunciava que o Papa viria falar de “novos tempos”… Mas enquanto ele nao vinha, o assunto quente era a primeira pagina do semanario que trazia a imagem do dito e citacoes da sua primeira mensagem ao pais. Porque? Pergunta o cliente, mais acusando o Papa de vir agora mandar nos jornais: assim entao ele ja’ e’ que e’ o dono, ne’?! O Mais Novo: Mas voce nao entendes que nao foi ele que mandou o jornal por isso ai? Isso sao mesmo os jornalistas que fazem!
O cliente, inconformado, 'blasfema': Esse so’ veio aqui maze’ trazer feitico, ohme'!E abandonou a cena. Bazou.
As atencoes voltam a concentrar-se na TV, onde um entrevistado diz “estamos muito felizes e honrados por termos aqui o Santo Padre, o Nosso Pai”. O Mais Velho atira: Nosso pai, nosso pai!… Ele e' que te fez, ele e' que te nasceu?!
Bom, finalmente la’ consigo atrair a atencao do Mais Novo, que me vende um pao, uma garrafinha de agua fresca e um pacote de sumo.
Pao quente e agua fresca… souberam-me tao bem enquanto prosseguia luandando!
Entretanto, alguem me mandou essa foto de um qualquer outro pais por onde o Papa havia passado nessa sua digressao. Feitico contra o feiticeiro, diria o nosso 'blasfemo' cliente luandense…
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
REVISITING ANGOLA AT A TIME OF ECONOMIC CHANGE
A perennial concern of economists and, prominently among them, economic historians, is the process of economic change. As North put it, “understanding economic change including everything from the rise of the Western world to the demise of the Soviet Union requires that we cast a net much broader than purely economic change because it is a result of changes (1) in the quantity and quality of human beings; (2) in the stock of human knowledge particularly as applied to the human command over nature; and (3) in the institutional framework that defines the deliberate incentive structure of a society.”The expansion of China’s economic involvement in Africa, and especially in Angola, in recent years, provides a particularly interesting research field where changes in all three vectors underlined by North are taking place at an extraordinary pace. It was thus to investigate the role of China as a driver of economic change in Angola and to understand the process underlying it, through empirical research based on primary sources, that I recently traveled to Luanda.
I arrived in Luanda, my hometown, on the eve of Pope Bento XVI’s first visit to the country. On my way from the airport to where I would be accommodated, I couldn’t avoid to notice the relative cleanliness of the streets, in sharp contrast with the sighting of piles of rubbish everywhere for which the city was still unfortunately known at the last time I was there six years ago. The first sign of change, or just because the city is expecting the Pope’s visit? – That is a question that does not stay in my mind for long, as I am assured by permanent residents that Luanda’s sanitation and rubbish collection services have significantly improved in the last few years.
Making our way through the traffic jams that have now replaced the rubbish as the city’s most vivid nuisance, and as we climb Morro da Samba, just before arriving at Cidade Alta, I had my second striking encounter with the signs of change noticeable everywhere in Luanda: the unexpected imposing view of a brand new building, just close to completion. It is the new Palacio da Justica, which will serve as the headquarters for the country’s judicial institutions. The building, valued at about USD 42 million, was erected over a basic engineering structure left incomplete by the Portuguese at the time of Angola’s independence in 1975, having remained untouched until the Chinese constructor Jiangsu International was awarded its completion work in June 2007, as part of the current massive construction drive radically transforming the city’s landscape.For that reason, I believe that, encompassing the oil industry’s boom fuelling the country’s recent economic growth rates, the highest in the continent, averaging 20% annually in the last few years, and over and above the currently observed decline of those rates as a result of the global economic downturn, this building will stand as a symbol of the changing times brought about by the, seemingly unparalleled on the continent, China’s footprint in Angola – even more so than the brand new headquarters of the state’s oil company, Sonangol, built between 2004 and 2007 by a consortium of South-African, Portuguese and South-Korean firms and currently being heralded as Luanda’s new ex libris.
These first observations were to remain on the back of my mind as I proceeded with the investigation of China-Angola economic relations, from an Angolan perspective, focusing specifically on the impacts of those relations, through the main channels of Trade, Investment and Development Aid, on Angola’s long-term economic development prospects.However, one prior caveat imposes itself over my specific research concerns: in the case of Angola, it is extremely difficult to measure and forecast separately the expected developmental impacts through each of the selected economic channels to be investigated, due to the observed high level of bundling between trade, investment and aid flows within the existing institutional framework of the country’s economic relations with China.
That particular feature arises from the fact that economic relations between the two parties are shaped around a series of bilateral agreements, involving successive credit lines extended by China to Angola since 2004, mainly to finance reconstruction projects included in Angola’s Public Investments Programme (PIP) in exchange for oil and other mineral exports and requiring that 70% of all inputs to be used in the projects under these credit lines are sourced from China, in what has become known in some quarters as the “Angolan Model”.
The existing credit lines, currently amounting to an estimated USD 8 billion, with a further USD 1 billion pledged during President Eduardo Dos Santos most recent visit to China in December 2008, are managed in China by the Exim Bank, a government policy bank under the direct control of the China State Council and solely owned by the Chinese central government, and in Angola by the Gabinete de Reconstrucao Nacional (Cabinet of National Reconstruction - GRN), a body led by the Chief of the Presidential Military House, an army General, which is only accountable to the President.With some provisional answers to some of my main research issues and questions, and still with a few others unanswered, I end my visit inclined to subscribe to my last interviewee’s point of view: “Given some political and institutional conditions yet to be fully met, China, alongside other international partners, can act as a positive driver for economic change in Angola.
I am also convinced, more than ever before, that in order to fully understand that process, it is always advisable to bear in mind, again resorting to North, that it is the admixture of formal rules, informal norms, and enforcement characteristics that shapes economic performance. While the rules may be changed overnight, the informal norms usually change only gradually. Since it is the norms that provide "legitimacy" to a set of rules, revolutionary change is never as revolutionary as its supporters desire and performance will be different than anticipated. And economies that adopt the formal rules of another economy will have very different performance characteristics than the first economy because of different informal norms and enforcement. The implication is that transferring the formal political and economic rules of successful western market economies to Third World economies is not a sufficient condition for good economic performance (...) It is culture that provides the key to path dependence - a term used to describe the powerful influence of the past on the present and future.
In particular, it ensues from that formulation that it is the formal rules and enforcement mechanisms to be enacted within the confines of the brand new Palacio da Justica in Luanda, alongside the informal norms embodied in the culture prevailing in the broader Angolan society, that will ultimately shape the economic performance brought about by the current process of economic change fuelled by the finance and investment flows from China.
Indeed, it is within the prevailing admixture of formal rules, informal norms, and enforcement characteristics particular to the Angolan state (let us not forget: a self-proclaimed ‘Marxist state’ until not that long ago) that both the Pope’s visit and the long strides the country still has to make towards long-term sustainable development ought to be contextualised. This is partially revealed in one of President Eduardo dos Santos’ addresses to Pope Bento XVI:“We have tremendous challenges to surmount, such as poverty and unemployment, affecting respectively about 40 and 28 percent of the population; about 60 and 50 percent of people, respectively, don’t have access to clean water and energy and more than 50 percent don’t have proper housing. (...)The Roman Catholic Apostolic Church, that Your Sanctity highly governs, is the best positioned institution to help us in this task of educating the new man that Angola needs. A man with a solid moral and civic foundation, law-abiding and responsible for his actions, working consciously for the common good, in solidarity with the neediest and participating actively in the construction of a more just, dignified and equilibrated society.”
On his part, the Pope left this message to Angolans, an estimated 70% of whom are declared Catholics:“My friends, armed with a heart filled with integrity, magnanimity and compassion, you can transform this continent, freeing your people from the scourge of greed, violence and disorder and guiding it through the path of those principles which are indispensable in any modern civil democratic society: the respect and promotion of human rights, a transparent government, an independent judiciary, a free media, an honest public administration, a network of schools and hospitals that function adequately and a firm determination, rooted in the conversion of the hearts, to end corruption once and for all.”
In spite of not professing any religion, I cannot but say: Amen.
Echoed here and here.
Thursday, 21 May 2009
LUANDANDO (IX)
NANDO'S: A (UN)SUCCESSFUL BRAND IN ANGOLA
I grew up thinking that our Angolan flame-grilled chiken or, more precisely, o nosso churrasco, was something ‘very ours’ – we had invented it, no one else in the world had ever even thought about it!
I grew up thinking that our Angolan flame-grilled chiken or, more precisely, o nosso churrasco, was something ‘very ours’ – we had invented it, no one else in the world had ever even thought about it!
Well, that was until I found Nando’s for the first time in Botswana, some years ago... then in South Africa... then in London. Then I started hearing about the brand’s success wherever it opened and particularly in African countries. So, I started wondering - especially looking at the majority of Nando's clientele either in Africa or Europe - whether this thing with our churrasco was that ‘very ours’ after all, coz it looked more like a ‘very black ting’ all over the world!
And even though, to my taste, Nando’s flavours all considered didn’t beat our very own Angolan churrasco, I was still convinced that, given a chance, it could be a big hit in Angola – after all the brand is all built around Portuguese mystique, themes and flavours.
But... surprise, surprise... it opened in the heart of Luanda and closed down soon afterwards! And with it went its South African sister brand Steers. Lack of interest from the locals, I was told. More than that: an affront to our very own churrasco! And so, it closed down.
The only other place where I know Nando’s didn’t stand a chance is the most European of South African towns: Stellenbosch. Equally for lack of interest from the locals, albeit for different reasons: apparently it was ‘too black a thing’ to exist in Stellenbosch. And so, it didn’t even ever open there!
But what you really might like to know about Nando’s today is this:
After the ANC Youth League threatened "militant action" against the chicken outlet for making the youth leader appear mathematically challenged, guess who the government hired to feed the masses at President Jacob Zuma's inauguration?
About 32 000 portions of idla nathi -- a Nando's quarter chicken, chips, roll and a cooldrink -- were distributed to amazed citizens who had assembled at the foot of Union Buildings to cheer the new prez on his big day.
Friday, 8 May 2009
Monday, 4 May 2009
Friday, 24 April 2009
LUANDANDO (VI)
LUANDA SUL
Si j'avais beaucoup d'argent... canta o Wyza. E esse parece ser tambem o mantra de todos quantos aspiram a um lugar, de negocio ou de habitacao, na 'up and coming' Luanda Sul, em particular na Talatona. Nada parece ser mais 'in' em Luanda, hoje em dia, do que morar na Talatona... isto e', nos seus condominios que custam (nao valem necessariamente) milhoes de dolares, sendo que alguns se assemelham a verdadeiros campos de concentracao. Eu, por mim, mesmo se tivesse muito dinheiro, so' por absoluta falta de melhor opcao escolheria morar num condominio... na Talatona, ou em qualquer outro local; em Luanda, ou em qualquer outra cidade. Viver enclausurada por muros altos ou arame farpado e bofocada pelas casas e os olhares dos vizinhos nao e' exactamente a minha ideia de bem-estar. Mas... e' o que esta' a dar agora em Luanda e seus inflacionados arredores.
Nzemba - Wyza
Mas o Wyza, primeiro album dele (Africa Yaya) que descobri la' na Talatona - no Belas Shopping, primeiro e unico shopping centre da capital e do pais, tambem ele cercado de gradeamentos e arame farpado... - o Wyza, voz dele que tinha antes apenas ouvido por acidente a duetisar aqui com o Paulo Flores, mas musica dele mesmo, de verdade, que so' comecei a ouvir ha' cerca de uma semana, quando pude finalmente por o CD dele que comprei la' na Talatona a tocar (... Oh Wyza! Quem, ou o que, te tem cercado de arame farpado este tempo todo? Desde 2004?! ...) e que me tem tido completamente fitissada desde entao... o Wyza tambem diz... pera ai que eu ja' vou...
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
IT'S ELECTION DAY DOWN HERE
Today's general election in South Africa is predicted to be won by the ANC with about 72% of the vote.
[Update - 24/04/09: Looks more like about 67%, i.e. just about a two thirds majority]
Homeless - Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Thursday, 16 April 2009
LUANDANDO (V)
Picturei estes paineis, entitulados "Portugal no Mundo", atraves do gradeamento que da' acesso a um atrio no interior do edificio da Marinha de Guerra de Angola (sao claramente do periodo colonial, mas foi a primeira vez que os vi... nao estava la' ninguem, o gradeamento estava fechado a cadeado...), situado na continuacao do Largo Tristao da Cunha
Ao lado, (re)construcao de...
... "calcada portuguesa"!
Do outro lado da rua, o novo (renovado?) "Palacio das Comunicacoes"
{Bom, pelos vistos nem tudo o que e' (ou parece a alguns) "patrimonio nacional" esta' a ser destruido...}
E, por falar nisso, nao muito longe dali...
O tristemente celebre "Palacio de Dona Ana Joaquina"
Marco, 2009
Friday, 10 April 2009
Sunday, 5 April 2009
LUANDANDO (IV)
Felicidade, ou brinca na areia (na praia), na areia (na praia)...
Algures na Praia do Por-do-Sol (Luanda, 28/03/09)
Algures na Praia do Por-do-Sol (Luanda, 28/03/09)
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