AFRICAS GRAND MASTER JEDI, JACK KATARIKAWE

AGONY AND EMPTINESS AS EAST AFRICAS GRAND MASTER JEDI, JACK KATARIKAWE RESTS HIS PAINTING BRUSHES AND COLOUR PALLETE IN NAIROBI.

In 2016, I was tasked to research and write about contemporary Ugandan Artists. I was cautioned to situate my research within the period stretching from the 1940s through the 60s to the late 90s. My findings indicated that the name Jack Katarikawe appeared more than any other in most published local and foreign Journals, Catalogues, newspapers, books and periodicals about contemporary African Art.

That is how i was baptized with new knowledge concerning Jack Katarikawe. This new knowledge about Jack Katarikawe led to permanent withdrawal from my earlier assumptions that since I had mastered the perfect interplay of western principles and elements, I had less interest in reading about artists who had not gone through formal training. I must confess that in my blindness, the first time I looked at Katarikwes work, I didn’t see much of the ingredients that defined Art with a capital. (I am not alone in this category of Artists who do not bother to look outside their box). Little did I know that in this universe, God secretly served wisdom and luck to all created beings in doses. Following this secret formula, people like Kataritawe received the right dosage and luck from the creator who they call Ruhanga in Kataritawes native language. Katarikawe must have realized these two God given gifts at an early age and he quickly applied the icing sugar of Determination and hard work to his cake of wisdom and luck.

I was humbled to find out that Kataritawes work had been exhibited and collected in more than one hundred museums and galleries across the different six continents that make up our world. I wrote all those findings plus making a thorough analysis of his painting style which I submitted as part of the fulfillment for an award. I was told that Katarikawe lived in Nairobi and I kept on thinking I would pay him a visit and interview him with or without invitation. This never happened.

On the 25th/10/2018. I received a shocking notification from the president of Uganda visual artists and designers association (U.V.A.D.A) concerning the death and send off program for this Grand master Jedi Jack Katarikawe. (Jedi is nowadays used to refer to someone who possesses a special skill in doing something) The UVADA president organized a special send off and public viewing of Jack Katarikawe’s body at Nommo Gallery in Kampala before leaving for Kabale, the final resting place. The function was attended by a few Ugandan Frontline Artists, Katarikawe’s family members and the Art fraternity from Kenya. The reasons for taking Katarikawes body to Nommo Gallery for public viewing can be explained by the UVADA President and Uganda’s soldier Artist Gen. Tumwine.

Runyanzhuka Village the birth place and final resting place of the legendary master Katarikawe is located in the Kigezi region of south west Uganda in Kitumba county off the Kabale Katuna- Rwanda boarder, past Rushoroza girls school.

I am laboring to give a detailed explanation of Runyanzhuka village on the presumption that you can never understand the true life and style/ work of an artist unless you know his birth place and the circumstances under which he was nurtured.

Jack Katarikawe was born in 1938 and raised in the mysterious landscape of Runyanzhuka, a dramatic conglomeration of breathtakingly beautiful, neatly laid out terraces covering thousands of hectares of high rising flat topped and round topped hills.

The thousands of hectares of heavily cultivated hills must have registered a permanent kind of squared or rectangular canvass picture in Katarikawe’s memory. This inspired his desire to become a painter who must have wished to earn a living from making and selling paintings on canvasses that emulated the shapes and colours of the large tapestry of cultivated fragments that surrounded his village.

The Geographers have always guessed that thousands of years before Katarikawe’s great ancestors settled in Runyanzhuka, there must have been one major break where a fault in the underlying parent rock caused a section of the highland to suddenly drop and create a series of spectacular valleys. Today, what we see is that, not only are the valleys steep sided, but the faults cut deep into the floor and create winding cliff lined valleys within a valley. The valleys are filled with dense human settlements and jungle like vegetation. Sensational slow moving mixtures of fog and smoke occasionally rise from underneath the valleys causing an Eldilla. (an Eldilla is a mysterious smoky manifestation of the Holy Spirit in medieval philosophy!). This slow moving Smog causes a blur effect on distant hills and it is seen in Katarikawe’s paintings.

Katarikawe also benefits greatly from the highly sophisticated anthropological advantage of his native Kiga culture. This is in terms of language, orthography, folklore and other unique forms of oral literature that define his ancestry. It is a known fact that up to this day, the Banyakigezi have remained at the frontline as far as promotion and preservation of unique forms of cultural expressions like stories, proverbs, idioms, riddles, dance and song is concerned.

The tendency of combining human and animal forms in most of Katarikawes paintings enables the artist to explore his inner world of emotions, to identify the metaphysical echoes of love, lust, pain, fear, and anger against which all living things are powerless.

This subject matter of Katarikawe’s paintings therefore originates from his rich culture and it is against that backdrop that the UVADA president requested Sana Gateja, a highly respected artist and personal friend of Katarikawe, to deliver UVADAS condolence message in the local language. (Certain things are better said in our local languages than the English language). The Kenyan fraternity was represented by Lady Annabelle, a self-taught Artist who passed through the hands of Katarikawe. Lady Annabelle invited the director of the national museums of Kenya Beatrice Wangeshi who eulogized Katarikawe as a legend.

It it is true that more than ten of Katarikawe’s paintings are permanently exhibited in the Frankfurt museum in Germany and more than fifty others in UK, USA, Australia and Canada, then Katarikawe has served as Uganda’s ambassador to the outside world more than any other Ugandan. This means that he deserved a hero’s welcome and a state funeral .I have always lamented that there is lack of a clear policy regarding the visual arts in this country, Does this mean that the story of Katarikawe may temporarily fade?

According to Amos Wekesa Uganda Tourism guru and president of Great Lakes Safaris, in 2016 alone, Uganda hired three PR firms in the US, Gernany and UK whose job is simply talking about how beautiful Uganda is. A lot of tax payers’ money is spent on these PR firms who simply copy and paste a few camera shots of Uganda’s flora and fauna, use their laptops to manipulate a few digital clips, create a blog or some kind of “website” and use it as evidence to convince Uganda tourism board to sign their huge cheques. People like Jack Katarikawe and other legendary Ugandan artists who have sold more of their works abroad such as David Kibuuka, Noah Wamala Nyanzi, Dan Ssekanwagi and many others have been practically marketing and talking about the beauty of Uganda through their works for more than fourty years. Why pay the PR Firms and bury our heads in the sand when it comes to recognizing Visual artists? Is it because the PR firms are “smarter” and know more about “marketing” than the visual artists?

Now, let the Uganda Tourism board be born again and realize that in the beautiful hills of Kitumba in Runyanzhuka – Kabaale, lies a great man called Jack Katarikawe whose works will continue to market Uganda to the outside world. To wash itself clean, let the Uganda Tourism board liaise with the director of the National museums in Kenya and the president of Uganda visual Artists and designers Association. The three bodies will get in touch with Katarikawe’s family members who have already announced a grand project, the Jack Katarikawe foundation. This foundation can be developed as a tourist destination in addition to the much publicized gorilla permits or “hanging fruits” in Kibale National park, Bwindi, and queen Elizabeth National Parks.

If the Uganda Tourism board thinks that this is unnecessary, someone from Gremany, UK or Australia will come to Uganda one day and will be the first to recognize the final resting place and the contribution of Katarikawe towards contemporary East African Art.

IBANDA JOSHUA
FINE ART HISTORY POLITICS MUSIC CULTURE.

Finland Leads the way in Education

Finland schools: Subjects scrapped and replaced with 'topics' as country reforms its education system

With Finland radically reforming the way its children are taught, Richard Garner visits Helsinki to find out if the teachers approve

Richard Garner 
Friday 20 March 2015 18:43
Source: The Independent 

Pupils at Siltamaki primary school perform a rap as part of their cross-subject learning ( Jussi Helttunen )

For years, Finland has been the by-word for a successful education system, perched at the top of international league tables for literacy and numeracy.

Only far eastern countries such as Singapore and China outperform the Nordic nation in the influential Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) rankings. Politicians and education experts from around the world – including the UK – have made pilgrimages to Helsinki in the hope of identifying and replicating the secret of its success.

Which makes it all the more remarkable that Finland is about to embark on one of the most radical education reform programmes ever undertaken by a nation state – scrapping traditional “teaching by subject” in favour of “teaching by topic”.

“This is going to be a big change in education in Finland that we’re just beginning,” said Liisa Pohjolainen, who is in charge of youth and adult education in Helsinki – the capital city at the forefront of the reform programme.

Pasi Silander, the city’s development manager, explained: “What we need now is a different kind of education to prepare people for working life.

“Young people use quite advanced computers. In the past the banks had lots of  bank clerks totting up figures but now that has totally changed.

“We therefore have to make the changes in education that are necessary for industry and modern society.”

Subject-specific lessons – an hour of history in the morning, an hour of geography in the afternoon – are already being phased out for 16-year-olds in the city’s upper schools. They are being replaced by what the Finns call “phenomenon” teaching – or teaching by topic. For instance, a teenager studying a vocational course might take “cafeteria services” lessons, which would include elements of maths, languages (to help serve foreign customers), writing skills and communication skills.

More academic pupils would be taught cross-subject topics such as the European Union - which would merge elements of economics, history (of the countries involved), languages and geography. There are other changes too, not least to the traditional format that sees rows of pupils sitting passively in front of their teacher, listening to lessons or waiting to be questioned. Instead there will be a more collaborative approach, with pupils working in smaller groups to solve problems while improving their communication skills.

Marjo Kyllonen, Helsinki’s education manager – who will be presenting her blueprint for change to the council at the end of this month, said: “It is not only Helsinki but the whole of Finland who will be embracing change.

“We really need a rethinking of education and a redesigning of our system, so it prepares our children for the future with the skills that are needed for today and tomorrow.

“There are schools that are teaching in the old fashioned way which was of benefit in the beginnings of the 1900s – but the needs are not the same and we need something fit for the 21st century.”
The reforms reflect growing calls in the UK – not least from the Confederation of British Industry and Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt – for education to  promote character, resilience and communication skills, rather than just pushing children through “exam factories”.

But there would currently be little appetite in the UK for going as far as ditching traditional subjects.
Even in Finland, the reforms have met objections from teachers and heads – many of whom have spent their lives focusing on a particular subject only to be told to change their approach.
Ms Kyllonen has been advocating a “co-teaching” approach to lesson planning, with input from more than one subject specialist. Teachers who embrace this new system can receive a small top-up in salary.

About 70 per cent of the city’s high school teachers have now been trained in adopting the new approach, according to Mr Silander.

“We have really changed the mindset,” he said. “It is quite difficult to get teachers to start and take the first step… but teachers who have taken to the new approach say they can’t go back.”

Early data shows that students are benefiting too. In the two years since the new teaching methods first began being introduced, pupil “outcomes” – they prefer that word to standards – have improved.

Finnish schools are obliged to introduce a period of “phenomenon-based teaching” at least once a year. These projects can last several weeks. In Helsinki, they are pushing the reforms at a faster pace with schools encouraged to set aside two periods during the year for adopting the new approach. Ms Kyllonen’s blueprint, to be published later this month, envisages the reforms will be in place across all Finnish schools by 2020.

Meanwhile, the pre-school sector is also embracing change through an innovative project, the Playful Learning Centre, which is engaged in discussions with the computer games industry about how it could help introduce a more “playful” learning approach to younger children.

“We would like to make Finland the leading country in terms of playful solutions to children’s learning,” said Olavi Mentanen, director of the PLC project,

The eyes of the education world will be upon Finland as it opts for change: will it be able to retain or improve its showing in the PISA league tables published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

If it does, how will the rest of the education world react?

Case study: Finnish approach

 

It is an English lesson, but there is a map of continental Europe on the whiteboard. The children must combine weather conditions with the different countries displayed on the board. For instance, today it is sunny in Finland and foggy in Denmark. This means the pupils combine the learning of English with geography.

Welcome to Siltamaki primary school in Helsinki – a school with 240 seven- to 12-year-olds – which has embraced Finland’s new learning style. Its principal, Anne-Mari Jaatinen, explains the school’s philosophy: “We want the pupils to learn in a safe, happy, relaxed and inspired atmosphere.”
We come across children playing chess in a corridor and a game being played whereby children rush around the corridors collecting information about different parts of Africa. Ms Jaatinen describes what is going on as “joyful learning”. She wants more collaboration and communication between pupils to allow them to develop their creative thinking skills.

FINLAND ~ NUMBER ONE IN EDUCATION

 

Finland To Become The First Country In The World To Get Rid Of All School Subjects

Source: Moon-child.net

It’s no secret that the modern day education system, particularly in North America, desperately needs to be reformed. Children graduate from high school not understanding how to produce their own food, pay their taxes, or accomplish many everyday, “real world” activities. The education system’s sole purpose should be to educate us in order to better ourselves and society, but instead it just tells us what to think (rather than how to think), so we learn only how to assimilate and blend into society. 

Many children graduate not even realizing that the system is broken because they’re so engrained within it. In some cases, they’re even fed propaganda and misinformation. Just take a look in any history textbook: You’d likely see that the Europeans founded North America, completely omitting the mass genocide that took place against Native Americans. Alternatively, if you look into milk education or the Food Guide Pyramid that’s taught to children at a young age in schools, you’d learn that it does not reflect what’s healthy, but rather what’s profitable.

The good news is that this isn’t the case in every country, and some countries are even trying to shift the way we approach education. Finland, a longstanding leader in education, is in the process of completely reforming its education system. Finland will be adopting a “phenomenon-based learning” system, allowing students to drop the standard subjects and experience more holistic, interdisciplinary learning.

What Is Phenomenon-Based Learning?

Phenomenon-based learning takes a very different approach to education, dropping the classic divide amongst subjects like math and science. Instead, students take one particular phenomenon or concept and look at it through multiple lenses, applying it to whatever subjects pertain to it such as geography, history, or economics.
As Phenomenal Education explains on its website:

Phenomenon based teaching and learning use the natural curiosity of children to learn in a holistic and authentic context. Holistic real-world phenomena provide the motivating starting point for learning, instead of traditional school subjects. The phenomena are studied as holistic entities, in their real context, and the information and skills related to them are studied by crossing the boundaries between subjects. Phenomena are holistic topics like human, European Union, media and technology, water or energy.This enables students also to learn 21st century skills like critical thinking, creativity, innovation, team work and communication.
 
So, students would no longer study just one subject like physics, but a whole range of subjects that relate to one topic, taking a more interdisciplinary approach. For example, students could look at the European Union, which could then incorporate languages, economics, history, and geography, and then they could look at climate change the following week, which might involve science, environmental studies, economics, and policy.

The teacher-student relationship will also change fairly dramatically, as students will take a combination of online and in-class courses. The dialogue between students, peers, and teachers will also shift, as students will be encouraged to speak more openly and share information. The structure will be less hierarchical and more of a team-based setting, greatly differing from the classic “teacher instructs student” mentality.

Plus, it won’t be just the teachers and faculty members designing the lesson plans and assessing what students have learned, as the students will play an active role in establishing them. This is great news, as it will hopefully engage students more and shift testing away from focusing only on traditional written exams.

How Finland Will Be Implementing This New Approach

Finland is well-known for being one of the leading countries in education, with incredibly high literacy and numeracy rates. In fact, one of the world’s leading experts on school reform and education, Harvard professor Pasi Sahlberg, has written numerous articles on Finland’s education system. Sahlberg has worked hard to share Finland’s experiences with education reform with the rest of the world, and for good reason.

Finland didn’t always have incredible education statistics, but the country holds a strong appreciation for teaching and learning and has undergone significant educational change. Finland doesn’t use these scores to assess its education system; instead, educators focus on what students need to learn in their lives, not what the exams or rankings say.

The Finnish education system is also decentralized, allowing teachers to alter their lesson plans and arrange schooling according to their local needs and preferences. This greatly differs from the more centralized approach taken in the public education systems in North America.

The Finnish approach to education is already quite innovative, so perhaps that’s why so many teachers are on board with this shift in teaching. In fact, 70% of the teachers in Helsinki are in some way involved in shifting the education system towards phenomenon-based learning.

Some teachers had already started implementing phenomenon-based learning in their classrooms. This isn’t really surprising, as it seems like it would be more rewarding for teachers to be able to connect with students more and teach them what they’d actually like to learn.

Finland plans to gradually change the system, so schools won’t be fully phenomenon-based learning until 2020. The first big change occurred in August 2016 under Finland’s National Curriculum Framework (NCF). The NCF is a binding document that highlights the overall goals of the education system including teaching techniques, learning styles, guidelines, assessments, support services, and more.

The NCF now incorporates phenomenal-based learning and encourages an interdisciplinary approach to teaching. However, this style wasn’t necessarily new to the Finnish, as some teachers have used a more holistic teaching method for quite some time.

As of August, public schools with students aged 7-16 years old need to have one extended period using phenomenon-based learning, the length of which can be determined by the school. Many schools just have two or more periods, each lasting a few weeks, that take this approach.

Why Is This Important?

Many children don’t have a perfect “family life,” so they learn through their experiences outside the home or by themselves. This is why the argument that “children don’t need to be taught practical subjects in school” is so flawed. The education system is supposed to represent the entirety of what we want children — who represent our future — to learn. So why would we be feeding them propaganda and teaching them that there’s only one way to think, one way to feel, and one way to determine intelligence?

There is not one way of determining intellect because we are all unique in our own way. That’s the beauty of duality; our differences are our strengths, and we shouldn’t have to suppress them and conform to society. The public education system should embrace this and teachers should educate their students from the heart and in their own unique way!

That’s why decentralization and phenomenon-based learning could be so useful. It inspires a more collaborative environment and allows students and teachers to connect in a way that division and hierarchy prevents them from doing. Perhaps through this new system, teachers will recognize that they can learn just as much from their students as their students can learn from them.

Obituary | Captain Bob-Nosa Uwagboe

The Will of Life | Tunisia

Firstly, here is an extract taken from the book, "The Wretched of the Earth" by Frantz Fanon ~ p.166, Chapter 4. On National Culture

"To take part in the African revolution it is not enough to write a revolutionary song; you must fashion the revolution with the people. And if you fashion it with the people, the songs will come by themselves, and of themselves.

In order to achieve real action, you must yourself be a living part of Africa and of her thought; you must be an element of that popular energy which is entirely called forth for the freeing, the progress and the happiness of Africa. There is no place outside that fight for the artist or for the intellectual who is not himself concerned with and completely at one with the people  in the great battle of Africa and of suffering humanity.*

*Sekou Toure, 'The political leader as the representative of a culture'. Address to the second Congress of Black Writers and Artists, Rome, 1959.


Beware the "Saatchi Effect" |  As Admen move in on the children of the revolution it is vital they understand the culture in Tunisia is rich beyond that found in the Western World ~ A poem by the Tunisian poet, Abu-L-Qasm Al Shabbi | The Will of Life

Demonstration in Tunisia | The Guardian

The Will of Life

If, one day, the people should want to live,

Fate is certain to respond.

Darkness will meet the dawn,

and shackles will be broken!

Those constantly refusing to accept

            the longing for life

Will surely evaporate into the abyss

            and be forgotten ~~

Grief to anyone not aroused by

            the burning desire of life.

Let others fear the slap of oblivion!

This is what life said to me,

this is how its spirit spoke.

= {|} =

The wind muttered between

            the valleys and the ravines;

“When I aspire to achieve my goals,

I ride my wishes, forgetting caution,

face the wilderness, the rugged trails

and flaming days –

He who does not like scaling mountains

will live eternally in potholes.”

So the sap of youth churned in my heart

As other tempests raged within my breast.

I bent my head, listening to

the loud clap of thunder,

the chimes ringing in the breeze,

and the steady tempo of the rain.

= {|} =

When I asked the earth,

“Mother, do you hate mankind?”

She replied, “I bless those

            with ambition,

those who brave danger –

I curse the ones not keeping

            step with time,

those who are content to live

            a fossil life.

The vibrating universe

            loves what moves

and despises the dead,

            forgetting their greatness.

The horizon hugs no

            stiffened bird

nor does the bee kiss

            an emaciated flower.

Not even graves would

hold the dead,

save for the tenderness

            in my motherly heart!

Woe to the one not longing

            for life!

Let him beware the curse

            of extinction!”

= {|} =

On an autumn night

            laden with boredom,

I was so drunk on starlight

            my sadness drank too.

I asked the dark, “Does life

            return the spring of youth

once it has dried up?”

The lips of darkness did not move

nor did the virginal dawn.

Then the forest gently spoke

like the quiver of a chord:

            “Winter comes, bringing in the mist,

            bringing in the snow and the winter rains,

and creation slowly dissolves.

What budded and ripened in
the gleaming notion of fields

under the quiet charisma of the
bright sky has vanished – gone like
branches that fall with their leaves.

Now the wind tosses dead petals

for floods to bury them, haphazardly.

All perish like a lovely dream

which, shone in the hearts of the few,

            then disappeared.

Only the seeds remain,

            kernels of memory,

still embracing, even under

            thick fog, the snows,

the heaps of earth –

the shadow of life that never dulls,

the green embryo of spring

dreaming of birdsongs,

the musk of flowers,

            the tang of fruits.”

= {|} =

“Time and trouble tumble on,

seasons diminish, others are reborn.

Dreams awaken laced with the mystery

of daybreak, asking,

            “Where is the morning mist?

The evening’s mystique? The glow of the moon?

The elegant swarm of butterflies?

The buzzing of the bees? Where are the clouds

            that floated by,

the sunbeams and creatures,

            the life that we all seek?”

“I have grown thirsty for the

sheen of light on branches,

thirsty for the shade beneath the trees!

Thirsty for the fountain that

            sings through blossoming fields,

            for the voices of birds,

            the whisper of clean fresh air,

the raindrops fluid melody –

I am thirsty for the universe,

searching for the long-awaited world!

Maybe it lies beyond the reaches of our sleep

and we need just awake in order to find it.”

= {|} =

“Like a bird’s slight flutter,

the seed longing to sprout

bursting till it cracks

the surface of the earth

and beholds a world

of exquisite marvels.

And spring returns with its

parcels of dreams,

its sweet-smelling freshness,

and kisses the lips

of all that had faded,

saying, “You have been granted life,

immortalized in your abundant seed.

The light has blessed you –

Now is the time to receive it!

Whoever worships the light in

            their dreams

Will be blessed in that light,

            wherever it shines.

Onward! To radiant spaces,

            inside the dreamy furtile earth!

For you are, whatever is luminous!

For you are, undying beauty.

The meadows, the air, the stars in the sky

            will be your home.

Commune with the moon

            and the stirring of life in all its glory.”

= {|} =

The diaphanous night revealed a 'Beauty'

that kindled in the mind.

A strange magnetism was flung

across the skies

as a giant wizard

            lit the glittering stars.

Incense drifted from flowers

            on the moon’s quiet wings…

A holy hymn singing out in a temple!

Across the universe it was proclaimed:

Endeavour is the flame of life,

the heart of victory.

If the spirit chooses life,

Fate is certain to respond!”

FATMA CHARFI | Flowers and the Human Lace

Here are the final works of the Finest Artist of Africa ~|~ FATMA CHARFI performed at the Paul Klee Museum in Bern, Switerzerland.

Paul used to visit the gardens on a regular basis but Fatma only found that out after she had created the work. She was at the last stages of breast cancer at this time and this work is really her swan song to the world. I was so delighted to be asked by her son Nabil M'seddi Charfi to translate (well more interpret than a full translate) the final words of such a huge figure in the world of Contemporary African Art. So without further a do here is Fatma's Last Works.

The Artist version in french:

Interpretation in English by ~|~ Joe Pollitt

 

Flowers and the Human Lace | Elfenau Gardens in Bern, Switzerland

In the last three years I have become a lot closer to nature, inside of which I am able to calm my revolting cells and tranquilize my dreadful neurosis during these (simultaneous) world revolutions. In spring, summertime and especially in the fall, I visit the gardens of Elfenau in Bern. Here is where, my (Aberics) and I, live out this magical connection with the flowers. I have discovered the vibration of sound, the importance of the meditational frequencies and often listen acutely to bird-songs and in doing so I am able to tune in to the voices of the flowers that speak to me. Mutually, we have gained a certain kind of privacy and a magnificent trust has been building up. Day after day, I monitor the micro details of their daily transformations. Original or exhausted flora, rooted or on the ground, always sublime. My gaze constantly amazed, not to mention my joyful attention.

I watch them intensely and in turn they ostensibly look back at me. I fear that the moment will disappear, blown away by a gale, in a-blink of an eye, a-glorious rainbow sky, a-stroke of time, a-momentary distraction, a-passing detachment of my constant devoted curiosity…

Lately, I have been building transient interfaces with intermingled foliage, tips of branches, pieces of colour and ends of faded bloom. Rays of hope on a background of dark stems as daylight creates the unification of the ‘many-flower’, made-up from not-so-dead petals found on the ground. A rose, with its diverse coloured plumage layered together to form another, blended to create a high-bred plant with the use of washed out petals that gently lean on one another, to become unusual, novel yet blooming...

It was then that I knew and the flowers knew, that hereafter every tomorrow would never be the same... I felt that instant connection as the flowers engrossed me, completing me into existence. Together, we grew far deeper and way beyond the general visitor's brief and lazy stares....

Like a petal on a tissue, paper issues of  "Itself", I plunged into the world of flowers in the gardens of Elfenau in Bern.
A lace of vegetation, the new-born-strong and beautiful, its structure distinctive, its multi-coloured goodness, its rebirth and its pristine light...

Just like the natural world we are human lace, capable of intelligence to evolve to become the paramount of ourselves…

Human silhouettes-cum-dancers, bonded by handstands, stick-thin arms, antenna arms, root arms, arms raised in celebration.

Upwards, and forwards, a creation of a human lace with a new universal skin, an innovative thrust, graceful movements, a perfect result. A network of everything and just as lace ties so a bird flies....

Fatma Charfi (2006... 2012... 2014)

Charfi, F. (F.C.). Human lace and Elfenau Flowers in Bern (2014), Bern, Switzerland. 

Paul Klee's Grave in Bern, Switzerland

The Gardens of Elfenau in Bern.

Flowers in Bloom

KILL AFRICA WIN THE WORLD

The Illuminaughti

The World is Killing Africa

To win the Peace we must first chop off their heads!

In watching the various videos below about Uganda, Rwanda, Congo, Zambia and an article on Cameroon with the influences of Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, it becomes alarmingly clear that politics takes precedence over human life. Stories are repeated from country to country right across the East down to the South. The way in which the Africans are being treated is abominable, all agencies working in the Aid Industry should be ashamed. Your actions have proven useless and millions have died.  We begin to see that the United Nations are an utter disgrace. The Security Council full of highly paid liars and Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International even Genocide Watch are organizations unfit for purpose. The way to rule the world with absolute impunity is to side with Power be it UN, US or UK followed by such joy to be had from the creation of conflict which, if done successfully, causes Wars and of course, those necessary famines. Like lambs, the majority are born to be slaughtered and with commerce on the rise, pollution is a small price to pay. As in the case with Glencore in Zambia in the toxic copper mines, the company regularly poisoning the water-table, contaminates the air as the children choke as we watch their elderly crawl their way around each and every room. We are the present that the future certainly doesn't want and clearly doesn't need. Check this video out. The Church of England has shares in this company......Turning a blind eye for profit.

The loop-holes in the Law are there to hang us all.

The simpletons, the small boys in uniforms acting as Dictators doing the will of others and thinking themselves ‘freedom fighters’; nothing could be further from the truth. They are Western educated, well-trained Agents of hate. Legal murderers, motivated by personal greed, bought by bigger fish whose Power exceeds the yearning for mere pounds, shillings and pence. In the end they will leave these futile and vain Agents out for the wolves to devour; washing their hands of them and once again becoming invisible, happy in the knowledge that their instigation of mass-murders has seen a return on investments which have paid such handsome dividends.

Murder as a model of success

Akon wants me to turn my back on the majority and talk about the few. To lie as much as possible; to hide what is true. He wants me to focus on the rich, on the possibilities of Africa. To help the Continent rise ~ rise on the back of a bunch of lies.

As friends, can we put our hand on our hearts and say Tony Blair has done so much good for the world? Firstly, as PM, taking Great Britain into War with Iraq, then Afghanistan, then leaving office and becoming the Peace Envoy for the Middle East and now as a Political Advisor to Paul Kagame of Rwanda, a job he does for FREE! Paul Kagame and his Rwanda Patriot Front, made up of Tutsi's, have since 1994, mass murdered over 5 million Rwandans, both in Rwanda and the Congo. This is what the International Community sees as a model of success? Blah, blah, blah. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZpjmEjGuFs. Here is the Beeb and the Untold Story of Rwanda, watch if it even matters, stay silent, stay safe. Here the story unfolds, tells of truth and what has been going on in the dark corners of East Africa. BBC News |  

The people of Northern Uganda haven’t got long to live. The clock is ticking. A solution must come sooner rather than later.

We are hiding behind the cloak of Aid and simply throwing money at the problem and so Aid becomes the perfect excuse, the Pardoner, which makes donors, satisfied that they have assisted in some small way in the plight of the most vulnerable. Nothing changes, everything stays just as it always was and will be. What we need is effective change rather than money that slips into the pockets of the perpetrators. We need Leadership that protects the citizens rather than starves them into submission. In a Continent that is so rich in resources it seems unthinkable that people should starve in our Modern era. Disgraceful behaviour. No decent human being wants to turn their backs on the most defenseless but by doing nothing we are effectively allowing evil to overcome good. Staying ignorant can longer be a justification for staying silent.

 
Word from the Artists | "Cameroon wants no outside help, no intervention. No Foreign Aid. This is a victory that will be won with their own blood, sweat and tears. This is regime change, home-grown revolution and foreigners are no longer welcome." WE ARE WATCHING! The Commonwealth Amnesty International UK Humanrightswatch HuffPost The Independent The New York Times The New Yorker Conservatives Forum Education Unhcr_cmr The Spectator Seven Stories Press Vanity Fair Time Magazine

https://qz.com/1291273/cameroons-anglophone-activists-say-unreported-killings-like-rwanda-genocide/

Time to Go Out. Meet my town in the flesh.

Shall I go out today? I am on my own, I look like an oddball, a weirdo, I can hear them all whispering behind my back, ‘look at him, loser, chubby chappy, what-a-cock, nob-jockey’. Shall I go out today? Can I go out, I am so fixed behind this screen, fearing the world, thinking all are against me, shall I go out today? Fuck it, why not...the world is full of cunts, just like me...WHY NOT...Let me risk it for a chocolate biscuit. I am off to find some friends at the Unfest - Tunbridge Wells Fringe Festival

I've gone out in the town, beside me I see this sexyPepsi and want to chat up this beautiful bird and out of my mouth comes this, "I am a witness to a Genocide in Uganda", that has to be one of the world's worst chat up lines ever. I have to somehow get this out, express myself to the world. Have you seen the documentary, "Brilliant Genocide" it was shown to the students of Columbia University in NYC. Click and enjoy:

Turned to Social Media and what happens next, ping, my email is calling me, a note from Twitter …

LETTER FROM THE HATERS!

Hello,
We’re writing to let you know that your account features will remain locked or limited for the allotted time due to violations of the Twitter Rules, specifically our hateful conduct policy.

We do not allow people to promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease.

Please note that continued abusive behavior may lead to the suspension of your account. To avoid having your account suspended, please only post content that abides by the Twitter Rules: https://twitter.com/rules#hateful-conduct.
You can learn more about our policy against hateful conduct here: https://help.twitter.com/rules-and-p…/hateful-conduct-policy.

Thanks,

Twitter

Upsetting people's feelings, really. People have feelings, who would of known?

So I email back:

Dear Haters,

I read your post with interest and I am no longer interested in what you or your friends, of whom you have many, have to say or do ever. I now look forward to deleting you off my Social Media list. I hope that doesn't bother you too much. You are now blocked for good and quite frankly, for the good of others....

Tata for now,

Too_Busy To_Work

Dambisa Moyo | Oxford Union

Al Jazeera 'Head to Head' with Dambisa Moyo 

by Al Jazeera: Head to Head

Free

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Al Jazeera 'Head to Head' with Dambisa Moyo

Tue 12 June 2018, 18:30 – 21:30 BST

Free

Event Information

 

Description

 

IS DEMOCRACY UNDER SIEGE?

In this episode of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan challenges the world-famous economist and thinker Dambisa Moyo, on why she believes liberal democracy is failing, and what can be done to save it.

The best-selling author first made waves with her book Dead Aid where she argued that foreign aid was in fact preserving poverty in Africa instead of relieving it.

Now the economist is taking on an even bigger target: liberal democracy itself.

In recent years, the West has been said to be in crisis: the election of Donald Trump, the UK’s Brexit vote, and the rise of far-right parties across Europe have all been cited by some as evidence of the failures of the current political system.

In her new book Edge of Chaos, the best-selling author provides her own diagnosis for the upsurge of populist and anti-establishment attitudes and provides a radical blueprint for change, which would “restrict the behaviour of politicians, limit the options available to voters, and…narrow the scope of the electorate itself.”
We ask:

• Is democracy really under siege?
  
• Is there such a thing as too much democracy?
  
• Should some people get more voting power?
  
• And, is prosperity more important than political rights?
  

Tickets are free of charge, but must be booked on Eventbrite, in order for you to gain entry. Seats are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, so please arrive by 6.30pm to avoid disappointment. The recording will begin at 7.30pm. 

This event is being recorded, and will be broadcast globally on the Al Jazeera Media Network at a later date. By being a member of the audience at this event, you may be recorded or photographed. By attending the event, you hereby grant Al Jazeera the right to record you at the event and publish this material in all media, worldwide, in perpetuity. If you do not agree, please do not attend.

UGANDA | BRILLIANT GENOCIDE

Here is an extremely graphic documentary about what has been going on in that schism between North and South in Uganda. Warning: Contains disturbing material.

Today the killing continues...

Fourteen Dead in Massacre, As Uganda's U.S.-backed Gen. Museveni Evicts Peasant Farmers on Behalf of Investors

Okumu Langol Li...May 29,2018

Source:  BLACKSTAR NEWS

Champagne toast. U.S. Ambassador to Uganda Deborah Malac and dictator Museveni. This is when she presented her credentials to Museveni in 2015 as reported in The New Vision. Photo: Uganda's Presidential Press Unit.

GULU--Leaders in Uganda's Acholi region have condemned a new spate of killings and evictions of peasant farmers by soldiers and police as the country's U.S.-backed dictator of 32 years Gen. Yoweri Museveni tries to seize land to sell to foreign investors.

Uganda receives more than $1 billion in U.S. financial and military aid from U.S. taxpayers' money each year.

Even though U.S. Ambassador to Ugandan Deborah Malac has not uttered a word Amnesty International has condemned the military attacks. "The evictions have been carried out by the authorities in violation of the constitution and international human rights law," the global human rights organization said in a statement calling for "urgent action."

Village leaders report that 14 people have been killed and two are missing in the latest attacks that occurred from May 15 to 17. As many as 5,700 homes are reported burned and over 15,000 people displaced.

Political, religious, and village leaders from the region have called the campaign "ethnic cleansing." Soldiers have burned down the homes of people evicted from their lands forcing some, including women and children, to sleep in the forests as they hide from the security forces fearing they will be killed.

Fifteen people are reported dead in raids against the population of Apaa villages in Amuru district in the  northern part of Uganda. The raids and evictions were carried out over a three-day period beginning May 15. It was a joint military assault by the Uganda Wild Life Authority, the Uganda Police, and the military which is known as the Uganda Peoples' Defense Force (UPDF).  It is believed that the Museveni regime wants to lease the land to foreign investors who want to turn the huge tracts into game parks reserves.

Political and religious leaders, and some of the victims of the raids, met at the Acholi Cultural Institution palace on Sunday May 27, to condemn the attacks by Gen. Museveni's armed forces. The meeting was chaired by Dr. John Baptist Odama, the Archbishop of Gulu Catholic Arch Diocese.
Sabino Ocan, a survivor, said the attack killed Elibarina Auma, 83, a mother of 10 children in her village of Punulyech. "The soldiers came and burnt 270 huts and looted chicken and goats," Ocan, who is a cultural, political and religious leader, said. He said the looted livestock were given to ethnic Madi people from Adjumani to carry for them.

Gen. Museveni has been stoking inter-ethnic violence between Acholi and Madi; fighting between the two peoples, promoted by the regime, has caused many homes to be abandoned. The regime has encouraged the Madi to attack Acholis claiming the latter are occupying land that belong to them. Critics contend the strategy is to make the areas where the Acholi reside inhospitable and eventually lease them out to the foreign game parks developers.

The area in question is about 319 square miles of fertile land. Ocan said soldiers have created a garrison in Punulyech, and in Gazi village in Apaa Parish to prevent people from returning to their homes.

Ocan said the attacks against the villagers were comparable to the atrocities against the Ryohingya, Muslim minorities who were attacked and driven out of Myanmar by the armed forces. "I appeal to international communities..." he said, referring to the attacks as "terrorism."

These new attacks by Museveni's military comes as people in the northern part of Uganda are slowly recovering from the two-decades conflict between the UPDF and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony. Between 1986 to 2006, almost 2 million Acholis --or 90% of the population-- were herded into concentration camps by the regime. It is estimated that as many as one million people perished from hunger and diseases in the camps.

Also at the media briefing, Apaa Village leader Okema Justine was still receiving calls with updates from people describing the burning of homes and torture of villagers by soldiers. “So far the total numbers of grass thatched huts burnt by soldiers is 5,700, displacing over 15,000 civilians,” Okema said. “We have so far lost 14 people and two are missing,” he added.

Livingstone Okello-Okello, the highly-respected former Member of Parliament, and Chairman of Acholi Wang OO, a community networking and mobilization organization, condemned the killing, but also cautioned that people should refrain from Museveni's plan to incite war between the Acholis and Madis which he will then use to seize land.

“This is Museveni's systematic move to cleanse Acholi [ethnic people] and he is committed and doing it,” Okello-Okello said. “He has taken all our land stretching from Kololo to Lipan in Lamwo district.”

The latest attacks have created great anger amongst the youth in the region. Some have approached their chiefs and political leaders seeking their blessing to mobilize armed resistance. Critics contend that is exactly what Gen. Museveni hopes would happen so that he can unleash full-scale war as he did between 1986 and 2006.

“We are being treated unjustly. They want to loot all our wealth and make us useless,” Charles Olweny, a youth from the affected area, said. “We will dare them and never accept such nonsense.”
Member of Parliament Akello Lucy reported to Gen. Museveni on May 27 that soldiers raided the Apaa community. “We wish to bring to your attention that over 100 UPDF soldiers raided this community and during their raid they shot a 26 year old Okello Python and injured two more,” Akello wrote, “348 huts were burnt, several goats and chicken looted and displaced hundreds,” Akello also wrote.

Akello told Gen. Museveni that Brig. Emmanuel Kanyesigye, the 4th Division Commander under whom the soldiers are committing atrocities, told her his orders came "from above."

The community of Apaa sued the Uganda government in the High Court in Gulu District with a civil suit No. 0060 of 2011. The Court issued a permanent injunction on February 15, 2012 which is still valid to this day and the matter is proceeding. However, the regime has repeatedly used the Uganda security forces to violate the injunction by creating a state of terror in the region.

The Deputy Speaker of Uganda's Parliament Jacob Oulanya who presided over a hearing in the House on April 13, 2017 ruled that the issue was not about a boundary dispute between Acholis and Madis because people of Uganda can stay anywhere in the country. “When our people were in IDP camps, their land was degazetted as game reserve without consulting the land owners,” Oulanya said in Parliament. He was referring to the concentration camps, euphemistically called Internally Displaced Peoples' camps sometimes.

Oulanya instructed the Prime Minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda to return on the floor of Parliament to degazette the Land. On June 21, 2017, the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga ruled that the government should go back and reaffirm the boundary between Amuru and Adjumani districts. She went ahead to emphasize that cultural and religious leaders and communities must be involved in the process within one month. One year later, nothing has been done; except the new armed attack against civilians by government forces.

On October 13, 2017, the Local government Minister, Tom Butime declared Apaa parish as located in Adjumani district --not in Acholi but in Madi-- and ordered the police and Chief Administrative officers of the two district to implement his directive. A signpost and roadblock is now set 16 miles inside Amuru district as part of Adjumani.

A Joint Acholi Leaders’ Communique on the Apaa Crisis was issued on May 27. It demands, among other things that: the Museveni regime immediately halt the wanton and inhumane attacks by the state security agencies; and,  immediately withdraw the UPDF, the Police and Uganda wild Life Authority armed agents from Apaa.

The communique, which was read by Justice Galdino Okello, the Court of Appeal Judge, further demanded that: government give assurance of its commitment to resolve the issue and to respect the Court order stopping further eviction; and, that the government officials who violated the Court order be held in contempt of Court.

“The attention of the International Community be drawn to the ... gross violations of human rights happening in Apaa and those involved face the world Court for heinous crimes against unarmed civilians,” the Communique reads in part.