Seriously, this is not ironic. UNICEF is bottling Rihanna and other celebrities’ tap water and raffling it off.
This is all–to coincide with Water Week–to raise awareness about “… the lack of access to safe, clean water for nearly 900 million children and adults across the globe.”
Who dreams up these campaigns? We give up.
On Saturday, 26 March at the Swedish CinemAfrica Festival the film directors Teddy Goitom and Benjamin Taft of Stocktown TV will premiere their ode to new South African hipsters:”Stocktown South African Roadmovie,” a 28 minute film that “sets out to capture the creative street vibes of South Africa.” Some of the hipster acts featured in the film include heavy metal band Ree-burth, photographer Musa Nxumalo, Johannesburg”style setters” Smarteez, video gamers label 2bop, rappers Die Getuies [The Witnesses], filmmaker Ebrahim Hajee, and the music of Dirty Paraffin and Gazelle. More information and updates here and here.
By Immanuel Wallerstein
There is so much hypocrisy and so much confused analysis about what is going on in Libya that one hardly knows where to begin. The most neglected aspect of the situation is the deep division in the world left. Several left Latin American states, and most notably Venezuela, are fulsome in their support of Colonel Qaddafi. But the spokespersons of the world left in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe, and indeed North America, decidedly don’t agree.
Hugo Chavez’s analysis seems to focus primarily, indeed exclusively, on the fact that the United States and western Europe have been issuing threats and condemnations of the Qaddafi regime. Qaddafi, Chavez, and some others insist that the western world wishes to invade Libya and “steal” Libya’s oil. The whole analysis misses entirely what has been happening, and reflects badly on Chavez’s judgment – and indeed on his reputation with the rest of the world left.
I was hoping it would not come to this.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation has launched an “international clothing line.”
The Nigerian-born performer Emmanuel Uwechue, a k a Hao Ge, has risen to stardom singing in Mandarin Chinese.
Karen Rothmyer writing in this month’s Columbia Journalism Review on why NGOs prefer bad news when it comes to Africa:
The UK (via Jamaica) toaster, Tapper Zukia’s “MPLA” off the album from the same name. Because the song (and the album) came out in 1975, some made links to the Angolan liberation movement, the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola, who that same year formed Angola’s new independent government (after a protracted liberation war against Portuguese colonial rule). This fan video–with its Cold War and anti-colonial images–contributes to that myth I suppose. Instead, the song was more about Rastafarianism and a reflection of 1970s London black identity politics.
H/T: Tony Karon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK0dfuAWDIQ
ABC News on Ben Affleck’s “time with the people of Congo” and his “odd couple” pairing with Cindy McCain.
There’s also this.
French-Congolese musician Abd Al Malik’s star is rising fast in Francophone Europe. Behind his, say, rather straightforward song titles are some revealing lyrics, so we don’t mind his songs here being played on the radio over and over again. Above is last year’s hit Ma Jolie. Last month he released another great single, Mon Amour, taken from his album Château Rouge. Earbugs, both of them.
