Merry Christmas,

Love banksy

What Would Jesus Say?

Banksy Mural in Islington, London (2008) Children Saluting the Tesco Supermarkets Empire.

As if imitating art, a former Methodist Church is now a Tesco Express in Westbourne, Dorset.

Get your Prayers, Ciggies and Lottery Tickets all in one go.

 Banksy fotocred: Paul Flannery 

My African Mind

Film: My African Mind

MY AFRICAN MIND from BOFADACARA on Vimeo.
I saw this on Love(me)less's blog (http://aimemoimoins.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/my-african-mind) and have tried to find out more info, but alas nothing could be found apart from that it was posted by Bofadacara on Vimeo. If anyone has more info, hit me up, otherwise kickback and enjoy a six minute history lesson on the construction of race.

H.o.w L.o.n.g ? ¬ Del.

From Babylon With Love, Disguised Charity.

Destination: Ghana, where stolen umblical chords return as defunct electronic chords. Keyboards wedged in the sand send toxic letters to the deceased, buried beneath the wastemounds, declaring d-e-a-t-h s-t-a-y d-e-a-d to all would-be spirits and reincarnates and to the living who come everyday in search of copper, brass and zinc wires, premature obituaries reading ctrl-alt-del are strewn across the dumpyard. The fizzing sound of ice incinerating the yard fires drown the hacking coughs of yardies as they discard the melted plastic coverings for metal. Melting from the heat and flames, a liquified keyboard reads,
h.o.w l.o.n.g ? ¬ Del.

h.o.w l.o.n.g ? ¬ Del.     till

h.o.w l.o.n.g ? ¬ Del.     death

h.o.w l.o.n.g ? ¬ Del.    can

h.o.w l.o.n.g ? ¬ Del.    no

h.o.w l.o.n.g ? ¬ Del.      longer

h.o.w l.o.n.g ? ¬ Del.   be

h.o.w l.o.n.g ? ¬ Del.   dumped?

h.o.w l.o.n.g ? ¬ Del.

h.o.w l.o.n.g ? ¬ Del. till

h.o.w l.o.n.g ? ¬ Del. these

h.o.w l.o.n.g ? ¬ Del. walking

h.o.w l.o.n.g ? ¬ Del. corpses

h.o.w l.o.n.g ? ¬ Del. are

h.o.w l.o.n.g ? ¬ Del. buried?

copyright konwomyn 2010

UN #Fail ...Again

pic jacked from newsone.com

I recently finished assisting on an academic project on UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on the protection of women from violence and their involvement in peacekeep and conflict prevention processes. After it's unanimous declaration in 2000 in Windhoek, Namibia, the subsequent failure to implement by member states led to a further UNSCR 1820, 1888 and 1889 being passed with the aim of safeguarding women and girls from sexual and gender based violence. Needless to say these were meaningless diplomatic hand-wringing declarations that amounted to piffle.

Even in countries where UN peacekeepers were stationed, violations of women continued unabated, Liberia and the Congo are prime examples. Even in an instance where the UN had a mandate to act as country administrator, like in Kosovo, the rights of women were not protected by UNMIK (UN Mission in Kosovo) or any of the UN Resolutions. On numerous occassions, UN peacekeepers have been found guilty of taking sexual advantage of civilians, trading food for sex or raping civilians as young as 6 particularly in the Congo, Haiti and Sudan. 

The latest in the series of catastrophies is the mass rape of 150-200 Congolese women and children by rebel fighters in Kivu in a space of 4 days, just an hour away from the UN base. How did the UN fail to intervene? How did they not know? A UN official in DRC claimed that "there was no particular suggestion of an attack, much less the kind of events like the mass rape." Lies. Absolute lies. The UN was 20km away for crying out loud! In '09 UNIFEM released statistics showing that in Kivu 40 women are raped per day! And we're s'posed to believe there is no 'particular suggestion'??? The UN should admit it's failure, it's more dignified than trying to weasel one's way out of this. While the UN is not be responsbile for the barbaric rapes (yes we all know that is the work of Rwandan Hutu and Congolese rebels, for want of minerals and military conquest), the UN is responsible for failure to act on them. With a year to go before the UN peace troops pull out of Kivu, this goes down as yet another failed UN mission and proof that a complete, complete, complete (!) overhaul is needed within the UN, that experts like Thomas Weiss have been calling for, for the longest time. But instead all this will amount to is one more beautifully worded 'never again' apology to the victims of Kivu and another non-mandatory, conscience-cleansing Security Council Resolution.

(Wrinkled) Cash For Sex in Kenya

Behind Malindi from Peter Murimi on Vimeo.

fisttap thisisafrica.me

The Scramble For Africa Continues

The Scramble For Africa: Yinka Shonibare (2003)

Ethiopia is one of the hungriest countries in the world with more than 13 million people needing food aid, but paradoxically the government is offering at least 3m hectares of its most fertile land to rich countries and some of the world's most wealthy individuals to export food for their own populations.
But Ethiopia is only one of 20 or more African countries where land is being bought or leased for intensive agriculture on an immense scale in what may be the greatest change of ownership since the colonial era.


An Observer investigation estimates that up to 50m hectares of land – an area more than double the size of the UK – has been acquired in the last few years or is in the process of being negotiated by governments and wealthy investors working with state subsidies...The land rush, which is still accelerating, has been triggered by the worldwide food shortages which followed the sharp oil price rises in 2008, growing water shortages and the European Union's insistence that 10% of all transport fuel must come from plant-based biofuels by 2015.

....Together they are scouring Sudan, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Malawi, Ethiopia, Congo, Zambia, Uganda, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Mali, Sierra Leone, Ghana and elsewhere. Ethiopia alone has approved 815 foreign-financed agricultural projects since 2007. Any land there, which investors have not been able to buy, is being leased for approximately $1 per year per hectare.


Saudi Arabia, along with other Middle Eastern emirate states such as Qatar, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi, is thought to be the biggest buyer. In 2008 the Saudi government, which was one of the Middle East's largest wheat-growers, announced it was to reduce its domestic cereal production by 12% a year to conserve its water. It earmarked $5bn to provide loans at preferential rates to Saudi companies which wanted to invest in countries with strong agricultural potential .

...Since 2008 Saudi investors have bought heavily in Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia and Kenya. Last year the first sacks of wheat grown in Ethiopia for the Saudi market were presented by al-Amoudi to King Abdullah.

Some of the African deals lined up are eye-wateringly large: China has signed a contract with the Democratic Republic of Congo to grow 2.8m hectares of palm oil for biofuels. Before it fell apart after riots, a proposed 1.2m hectares deal between Madagascar and the South Korean company Daewoo would have included nearly half of the country's arable land.

..."The biofuel land grab in Africa is already displacing farmers and food production. The number of people going hungry will increase," he said. British firms have secured tracts of land in Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria and Tanzania to grow flowers and vegetables.


Indian companies, backed by government loans, have bought or leased hundreds of thousands of hectares in Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Senegal and Mozambique, where they are growing rice, sugar cane, maize and lentils to feed their domestic market.

Nyikaw Ochalla, an indigenous Anuak from the Gambella region of Ethiopia said, "The foreign companies are arriving in large numbers, depriving people of land they have used for centuries. There is no consultation with the indigenous population. The deals are done secretly. The only thing the local people see is people coming with lots of tractors to invade their lands.


"All the land round my family village of Illia has been taken over and is being cleared. People now have to work for an Indian company. Their land has been compulsorily taken and they have been given no compensation. People cannot believe what is happening. Thousands of people will be affected and people will go hungry."

from http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/07/food-water-africa-land-grab