Thursday, February 26, 2004

garbage to sculpture gardens Posted here Thursday, February 26, 2004 at 9:24:54 AM     This is a good reminder of what can be done - anywhere. (Nick Chand in India - Chandagar is another). Today, however, the trash is gone, and patches of dusty hillside have been planted with trees and vegetable gardens. Residents have built makeshift theaters and cooking huts, and walls of rock have been piled up to form "dialogue circles" - spaces for meetings, parties, and performances. Projects like this reflect a "greening" movement that is slowly spreading in neglected urban townships and degraded rural settlements, where most South Africans live. While communities improve themselves for a variety of reasons, Soweto's changes were spearheaded by one individual, Mentoor, on a mission to bring culture and employment to his home. "Through the development of this mountain, the young people are having fun and giving back to their communities.... They are becoming changed people," says Mentoor. "They have ownership of it."   ********

Evictions for Olympics - part of a pattern of privilage. Posted here Thursday, February 26, 2004 at 9:06:04 AM     We do not see what we do. Remember that Dee Hok said "the function of business is to separte the consumer from the consequences of production." 'Thousands evicted' for Olympics Reuters in Geneva Thursday February 26, 2004 The Guardian China had evicted 300,000 people from their homes in Beijing to prepare for the 2008 summer Olympics, the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (Cohre) said yesterday. The group said the evictions were part of a global crisis which saw an average of six million people illegally thrown out of their homes every year. The mayor of Beijing, Wang Qishan, admitted on Saturday that in some cases the demolition of homes and evictions had been conducted illegally. Scott Leckie, the executive director of Cohre, said: "Large international events including global conferences and sporting events like the Olympic Games are mostly accompanied by forced evictions. ********