in-sight

2 | In-sight | Sample Issue 1

South America

Africa

North America

Europe

Developed countries

Developing countries

Under-developed countries

In-sight | Sample Issue 1 | 3

Asia

Australia


CONTRIBUTORS

IntroductionWow…What a manic couple of weeks…. only just caught a breath to write an editor’s note for the very first sample issue of In-Sight, which we have had great joy in producing, in hopes of you having a great time in reading, although it’s not been with-out it’s fair share of trials and tribulations.

Although, initially a slow start, the support has been overwhelmingly increasing, and the In-Sight team would like to think we have included most things to satisfy

the needs of a savvy “culture vulture”, from music and film reviews to a feature on Latvian art, and it doesn’t stop there, with future bi-monthly instalments at a phenomenal 70 pages…. the possibilities are endless.

We aim to bring you a positive portrayal of the developing world (not to patronise) but if you didn’t know already, we have in-cluded a colour coded map just to highlight how much of the world is under the tag, ‘developing’…I know it amazed me, and this mag-azine has definitely been a learning curve, in which we hope to pass on to the masses, through ‘In-Sight’.- tanya bay, editor

Luis Rubimassistant editor

Ruth Stivey publisher

Omar Hernandezart director

Elizabeth Evansfashion editorLizzie is a freelance journalist and radio presenter for online radio station Reprezent. She has worked for Zest, Glamour and The Times magazine.

Luis is a freelance photographer. He has had works published in the economist and other reputable publications and has a BA Hons in Digital Media Production from the University of the Arts London.

Omar is a freelance illustrator and has studied film at the University of the arts,with a penchant for music production on the side.

Ruth is currently a staff writer at Recognise. Over ten years, she has worked for The Big Issue, Big Issue Invest, Union Chapel and the Economist. Ruth’s specialist subjects are social enterprise, charity, international development and campaign journalism

Tina Remiz(photographer/journalist) Aaron Spencer- Charles(sub-editor) Tim Horner(sub-editor) Juan Pavezano(Journalist) Lauren Ashi(journalist) Farah Ghuznavi(writer) Sarah Versi(journalist) Strand of Silk(fashion)


Contents

World in a month

Fashion

Recipes of the world

Introducing Vera Bondar

Reviews

Judgement Day

Festivals

6

7

8

12

14

10

11


World in a month

EUROPE

MIDDLE EAST AFRICA

THE AMERICAS

World Development NewsBY RUTH STIVEY

Post-commie Albania new eco hot-spot

Get your bikes ready: Albania’s barren mountainous regions are being developed as an eco-tourism destination of choice. The Albanian-American Enter-prise Fund has pledged $140m into revamping tourism and education together with local groups like the Outdoor Albania Association keen to bring work to the regions, while honour-ing sustainable and ecological practices.

Buried peace in Afghanistan

Archaeologists have uncovered a 2,600-year-old Buddhist monastery, complete with impressive statues and gold ornaments in Mes Aynak, Afghanistan, on the Silk Road: the famous inter-connector of Asia and the Middle East. With reports from the Global Heritage Fund suggesting that heritage sites in developing countries could potentially bring in $100bn annually by 2025, let’s hope this isn’t another piece of unheard history left to crumble.

Banking on hope in Tajikistan

Forget the bankers of the City, The Asian Development Bank is fighting poverty throughout Asia and the Pacific, provid-ing grants and extra help to its developing member countries. ASD has just rewarded Tajiki-stan a £120m grant to upgrade the road to Uzbekistan through the agriculturally abundant Gis-sar Valley, providing a vital pas-sage for trade and investment to help alleviate poverty.

Other riches in Costa Rica

Costa Rica is the happiest coun-try worldwide according to the Happy Planet Index. Although the ‘rich coast’ of Latin America is classed as a developing coun-try, peace-loving Costa Ricans experience the most years of happiness and longer life satis-faction than any other popula-tion. Ecologically bountiful, high levels of human interaction and time to rest... flight out of the rat race for sanity anyone?

Africa’s green horizon

ASIA & THE PACIFICAlbania

Afghanistan

Tajikistan Costa Rica

Not a continent that immediately conjures up ideas of ‘green’ technology, Africa is now harnessing sustainable practises after eco practices have proved successful and cost effective. African decision makers are meeting in March at a unique matchmaking convention, Green Buildings World, where successful projects will be showcased and green projects can be sourced.

VSO is the world’s leading independent, international development charity that works through volunteers to fight poverty in developing countries.

VSO’s vision is of a world without poverty in which people work together to fulfil their potential. The part VSO plays in making this vision a reality is to promote volunteering to fight global poverty and disadvantage. In each country where VSO works, we build partnerships with organisations that benefit disadvantaged people, and bring people together to share skills, creativity and learning to build a fairer world.

www.vso.org.uk


I’m not crazy, you know, even if they’ve sent me to you for an assessment! My husband wants me commit-ted to a Rest-and- Reprogramming facility “for self-protection”. For his own protection, Jai means...The consequences of marrying a much younger man chrystallised with my daughter’s arrival; Jai didn’t want to be a grown-up, let alone a father. Asian cultural conventions still favour women marrying ‘mature’ men. But I’d realised men never grow up anyway, so their age at marriage is irrelevant. I chose Jai because I’d made more money from my robotics patents than I’d ever spend, and I yearned for a family, for motherhood. Was that so strange? My male range-mates were all married. Most had multi-stage families by then - their wives con-tinuously getting younger, until some had daughters the same age as their latest marital trophy.Little was said beyond the inevitable eye-rolling that accompanied the “men will be boys”-type comments. Yet Jai was considered my aberrant consolation prize, the rich female singleton’s ‘joy-boy’. Dowry violence and female foeticide are fragments of past shame, but some attitudes linger on. Once I held Anandita, I didn’t care. I’d used frozen eggs, but carried her internally instead of seed-ing a bio-capsule for ‘risk-free reproduction’. Why do it, if you feel nothing? My problem was I felt too much. Anandita was premature; and after surreptitious advice that the colostrum would help, I went ahead. But when I continued breast-feeding, Jai claimed I was reverting to a primitive state. My marriage flushed itself quietly but relentlessly down the toilet, Jai complaining of spousal neglect. That’s what do-bots were for, he argued, to free humans from menial work. Yet I actually found childcare enjoyable... As for the role of do-bots, is there anything humans have left to do - or need each other for any more? Artificial Intelligents undertake every conceivable task. So I knew what was coming when Jai brought a humanoid robot home, ostensibly to help me with childcare. He called her ‘Pammie’, modelled on some ancient TV show about lifeguards. Pammie handled Anandita well enough; she was programmed with over a trillion stories, songs and games for a child’s entertainment. And she handled Jai even better! All of which served to emphasise my redundancy. Espe-cially after I made Jai co-chip-holder to my assets in a serious moment of oversight failure. Perhaps motherhood had done something strange to my mind, after all. Nevertheless, I’m not insane. Or suffering neo-natal depres-sion because of the “backward” birthing system I chose. The vertical learning curve aside, I’d never been happier than I was experiencing the sudden raptures and hormonal firestorms of new motherhood. Unlike Jai. So he decided to get rid of me. We all know no-one comes out of these reprogramming facilities intact.Sadly, technological progress notwithstanding, human cupidity remains constant. And Meditechs aren’t immune to ‘persua-sion’ either; not on the scale of my patent income. Now they’re expecting you to provide a laser-scan of my supposedly addled brain that’ll send me straight to where they’ve decided I belong. Anyway, I know you’re not really listening, but you’re my last hope. After all, if an Alphatek-series machine can’t be objective when it’s doing a scan, who can?

Judgement dayby Farah Ghuznavi Bangladesh

Illustration by Omar Hernandez


Introducing...

Small in stature, but definitely not in imagination, Vera en-capsulates the big, wide world around her with an art style reminiscent of the old mas-ters of the Soviet. Tina Remiz catches up with her while on her travels in Latvia.

How does the story begin?

In the last years of high school I got interested in interior design, and my friend recommended a private drawing course she was attending. I went for an intro-duction lesson, where Russian painter, Ludmilla Perec, showed her own work and the pictures of her students and was so im-pressed, I remember thinking, “If only I could draw like this, I would be happy!”

“Realism is seeing a rebirth, as people are getting tired of the abstract art, conveying the mes-sages that are clear to nobody but the artist”

After attending drawing and painting classes for several years, how difficult was it to get into the Arts Academy of Latvia?

The academy is known for being hard to enter, and it took me two years to get accepted (thanks to a girl who took a gap year!) but in my opinion, nationality does play a major role. The applicants with foreign surnames have to be prepared to work twice as hard.

What are your thoughts about the level of education in the Latvian Arts Academy?

We still have some old school practitioners, who were trained in Soviet times and have strong self-discipline, great knowledge and skills. However, the academy

Vera Bondar


does put emphasis on the creative use of original visual techniques, instead of focusing on the basic drawing skills. As a result, many students have no understand-ing of form and proportions, not painting, but xeroxing the subject. I can see a gradual de-cline of traditions and a rejection of academism, when the theory exists only on paper and has no relation to artistic practice.

How do you explain those changes?

It is easier to create an abstract representation than a precise copy of the subject. There are different views on the issue, but I see the trend as a sign of decay; if a person can’t convey what they see, what are the chances they will be able to paint their

certainly influences my work, but I don’t want to draw the line, as my personal style is still form-ing. I, equally, enjoy working on a portrait, landscape or a scene from everyday life.

There is a certain feeling, which is hard to describe or define, that creates a need to transmit the situation on paper. When some-thing triggers a strong emotional response, I want to share the feel-ing of excitement with others.

What are the perfect conditions for painting?

An absolute freedom to do my work.

Words and photography by Tina Remiz

feelings.

Nonetheless, Realism is seeing a rebirth, as people are getting tired of the abstract art, conveying the messages that are clear to nobody but the artist.

How much of Latvian art is identified in your work?

I am not overtaken by patriotism and think that every painting is primarily a fruit of the individual work.

How would you define your personal style?

My teachers are the adherents of the School of Realism, plac-ing a strong emphasis on the role of colour in conveying the emotional palette of a scene. This


Recipes of the world

1. Cut chicken into small square pieces2. Chop and liquidise the garlic, ginger and onions together.3. Fry the garlic, ginger and onion mix with chilli powder. After 5 minutes, add the chicken.4. Stir for several minutes and add 3 cups of water. Add cooking salt to taste5. Add fish sauce and boil for 10 min utes. Then add coconut milk/ piece6. Add another cup of water and boil for a further 15 mins on low heat

NoodlesBoil the egg noodles for 5 minutes and drain

Serve noodles and soup in seperate boils accompanied by dried red chilli, lemon and 1/2 a thinly sliced onion for taste, that should be readily availably on the table.

Ingredients

Serves 6-8

• 2 lb of chicken breast• 5 tbsp fish sauce • 1 teasp cooking salt • 1 tbsp chilli powder • 1 tbsp oil • 1 pc coconut or 50 gm of thick coconut milk • 3 boiled eggs • 3 onions• 4/5 garlic cloves• 1 stem of ginger• 3 lb egg noodles

BURMESE COCONUT CHICKEN SOUP (OHN-NO-KAUK-SWEY)


The Fes Festival

The Fes Sacred Music festival, Morocco, is one festival this summer where you won’t need Wellington boots, camping equipment or hangover cures. Running from the 3rd to the 11th of June in various venues across the city, it boasts a cultural extravaganza of world music from sacred traditions as varied as Sufi, Raga’s and Gospel with a peppering of contemporary art-ists.

Last year French songbird Camille performed and although Ben Harper was scheduled, he later cancelled (bad boy Ben). It will be interesting to see what this year’s schedule has to offer.

The festival is currently in its 17th year and was established as a bridge between cultures and religions through the common interest of music – the language of inclusion!

Fes is the second largest city of Morocco and the walled part, Fes el Bali, is a UNESCO World Heritage site, ripe with site seeing and shopping galore.

The city hosts a wide range of accommodation from budget to opulent, try a unique family run Riad for an authentic Moroccan experience. Tempera-tures in June are comfortable with highs of 28 c and lows of 15 c, ideal for city wanderers.

Both Easy Jet and Ryan air fly to Fes making it an affordable departure from the Western hemisphere.

Attend Fes Sacred Festival from 3-11 June, visit www.fesfestival.com

By Sara Versi

In-Sight

The Perfect Getaway

This Summer

UNI-TY


Fashion

When you think of Indian fashion these designs could easily spring to mind, and are definitely a cultural awakening, with Indian embellishment and style.

Online fashion store, Strand of Silk brings a piece of India to the West with these Indo-west-ern designs, to put India on the fashion map.

Strand of Silk realised that Indian fashion wasn’t so easily available to the rest of the World, and made it their mission to create a hub, in which to provide their latest collections all over Europe.

Strand of Silk support The Big Issue, UK Young Enterprise, Slum Rehabilitation in India and Mother Teresa’s Missionaries. They are also currently contributing to a charity that is helping build a memorial for Noor Inayat Khan.

For more information, you can follow them on Twitter and Facebook or alternatively visit their website, www.strandofsilk.com


Emmanuel Jal: See Me Mama

Emmanuel Jal has a story to tell. A former child soldier in the Sudanese civil war, singing and community activism helped heal the pain of his front line experiences – now Jal uses rap as a vehicle for authentic change as opposed to the pursuit of street cred-ibility, largely unlike the current state of hip-hop culture in the US, that he has openly and passionately criticized. His unique brand of hip-hop, layered with African beats, is as strong as ever on fourth studio album See Me Mama, with lead single We Want Peace gaining worldwide support and critical acclaim.

Skarm – In Troubled Waters

Filipino hip-hopper Skarm deliv-ers an incisive piece of work on his In Troubled Waters EP. Thoughtful rhymes fused with synth, strings and raw hip-hop beats harks back to the golden days of the unblemished under-ground. His lyrical layering is refresh-ing, but the rhyme complexity comes across a little laboured at times, as on, What’s Next featuring ONE3D, Liquid and Los. Stand out tracks include, Cuts The Deepest and Untitled, where the refrain of, “They’re all puppets”, makes his feelings on mainstream art-ists felt. True hip-hop heads, that rep the no-frills and candid acts that make you think, will not be disappointed.

Didier Awadi: Presidents d’Afrique

One of Senegal’s most celebrated radical hip-hop artists, Didier Awadi finally releases his album Présidents d’Afrique after five years in the mak-ing. Featuring international guests including M-1 of New York, hip-hop duo Dead Prez and Skwatta Kamp from South Africa, each track on the album includes a sound byte from famous speeches by prominent politi-cal leaders of Africa and the Diaspora. Jomo Kenyatta and Nelson Mandela are among the voices heard, and lead single Dans Mon Rêve splices echoing sounds of Martin Luther King and Barack Obama. An accompanying documentary explores the meaning, history and future of independence for the continent, as the African nations mark 50 years of independence.

MV Bill – Causa e efieto

MV stands for “Mensageiro da Verdade” - “Messenger of Truth”, and for leading Brazilian rapper MV Bill, truth, politics and hip-hop are indivis-ible. Causa e efieto is a reflection on the political system in his native Rio de Janeiro and day to day living in the region. It boasts quality produc-tion with Dr Dre sensibilities. Backed up by MC Kmilla on the jazz-funk influenced domestic debate Estilo Vagabondo and catchy crunk-inspired beats on O Bonde ne paro the album serves up slick wordplay, political in-sight and a selection of sounds. From the string and bass-led Libert se, to samba horns and whistles on Sou Eu, this is an album not to be missed.

ReviewsmusicHip-hop- a universal languageBY LAUREN ASHI


Secret In Their Eyes2009 (UK, 2010) Argentina(Subtitled - Spanish) Opening in 70’s Argentina in the midst of the fascist junta, the film focuses on the rape and murder of a young schoolteacher, and the 20-year quest by a Deputy clerk of a criminal court to bring the real killer to justice.

There is a stirring romance accompanying the investigation throughout the film, and it is this that makes Secrets In Their Eyes, so beautiful, extravagant and compelling.

The opening shot of the film is a testament to great filmmaking, probably being one of the greatest shots in film history, with absolutely no cuts. It begins with the camera sweeping down onto a football stadium from above, but provides a truly stunning visionary. This is just one particular scene among many that makes this film such a marvel.

Principally, this film is about the weight and burden of love and remorse felt by the protago-nist, and the justice he seeks against the fascist regime in power at the time. Some critics are hailing it as one of the best films of the last decade

Out Now on DVD and Blu-Ray

Carlos2010, France(Subtitled - Multiple Languages) Imagine the Bourne films with a Latin flavour, a conflicted protagonist, played exquisitely by the phenomenal Edgar Ramirez and some gritty violence, as opposed to Hollywood stylised choreo-graphed stuff, thrown in.

Universally acclaimed by critics everywhere, this film, essentially, is a 158 minute long trailer for the 5 and a half hour 3-part television series. Nonetheless from the opening sequence and throughout the entire length of this pulsating film, you will realise that you are watching a miracle of filmmaking in action.

Spanning two decades and set every-where from Libya to Sudan, Carlos chronicles the extravagant and exciting story of Carlos the Jackal; at one time, the most wanted and notorious terrorist on the planet.

The movie is an energetic, taut, global political thriller that covers Carlos’ many terrorist operations and his egotistical rise to notoriety and, eventually, his downfall. When you’re done watching this movie and are eager for more, just grab those amazing extra three hours, from the truly epic landmark television series.

Out Now on DVD and Blu-Ray

Lebanon2009 (UK, 2010)(Subtitled - Hebrew) We all know war is hell. We know that lives are destroyed and that thesoldiers are left brutalised and distraught. Lebanon doesn’t tell us anything new from your ‘Platoon’s’ or ‘Hurt Locker’s’, but somehow manages to give the age old adage; that war is not very nice, a new and complex edge in a compelling and horrific way. Lebanon is without doubt an important film, tainted by the ‘moral wasteland’ of the filmmaker’s own personal expe-riences of warfare.

A crippling claustrophobic view of a four man Israeli team sent in to clear a recently bombed out town in Lebanon in a dark, cramped sweatbox of a tank - that is almost a character in itself - makes for uneasy viewing, but like a car wreck on the side of the street, you find yourself unable to turn away.

We only see the outside world through the tank’s telescopic gun sight, so es-sentially we see only what the soldiers see. The same goes for all the other senses until you feel like you are there, actually sat in this hellish metal box. This is more than just ‘Das Tank’ as some people have called it, purely be-cause of the tense, moral crossroad we find ourselves as viewers drawn into.

The Israeli government didn’t take too kindly to Lebanon and it’s easy to see why. This film takes you somewhere you don’t want to go, but it’s well worth the journey. Out Now on DVD and Blu-Ray

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, 2010, Thailand(Subtitled - Thai) At first, it’s difficult to really pin-point what it is that makes this film so enchanting. It is often irritatingly slow and devoid of any real plot, but this won The Palme d’Or at Cannes and it won for a reason.

What some may call ‘slow’, I call patient. What others call ‘plot-less’, I call subtle. This is an epic, trium-phant film, which at times radiates pure beauty. Telling the story of a dying man’s last days, he is visited by the ghost of his dead wife and son (in the form of a jungle dwelling monkey ghost, no less)

The slight undertones of troubled politics, as well as the scenery gives this film beauty and depth, but more than anything it’s how you find yourself drawn to thoughts of love, life and death. It’s these important subject matters that make, Uncle Boonmee, an odd but hypnotically amazing movie experience.

Released 28/03/2011 on DVD and Blu-Ray

ReviewsFILMWHAT YOU MISSED IN 2010BY JUAN Pavezano

in-sight

Documents

sight sample issue

big issue

sight team

freelance journalist

music production

freelance illustrator

freelance photographer

developing world