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TELEVISION > Forgotten People
Canada's CBC last week broadcast this story about one Inuit community in Puvirnituq, a village on Hudson Bay in northern Quebec's Nunavik region. Although Canada marked National Aboriginal Day on June 21, CBC's Justin Hayward filed this news story about how change has marked this community. The Inuit in the area had formerly cultivated a nomadic life now live established and rooted in small towns like Puvirnituq. Dog teams have been replaced with the skidoo or snowmobile. Cultural traditions are vulnerable to change. Young people and adolescents, having lost their cultural compass, have experimented with drugs, and suicide has soared in this remote outpost. Check out video from Hayward's broadcast on CBC about how Puvirnituq is struggling to adapt to changes in culture and community.
Canada's CBC last week broadcast this story about one Inuit community in Puvirnituq, a village on Hudson Bay in northern Quebec's Nuna... more -
In airport's twilight, Berlin's old song
The future of Berlin's Templehof Airport hangs in the balance between possible preservation and an unknown fate if the city of Berlin decides to terminate funding for the aging icon -- a nostalgic symbol of the city's modern civic projects and metropolitan air travel. New York Times' writer Michael Kimmelman contributed this story about the questionable fate of Templehof -- site of the U.S.-led airlift to supply West Berliners in the beseiged city 60 years ago and where Orville Wright earlier demonstrated his aircraft -- in this recent reprint on the International Herald Tribune site (19 May 2008). Although Berlin city Mayor Klaus Wowereit would like to close Templehof by year's end, a city-wide referendum narrowly passed with residents wishing to spare the old facility. Whether their votes will be enough to save Templehof remains uncertain as Berlin looks to expand Schnefeld airport on the city's eastern edge and move forward with plans for a newer airport -- the Berlin-Brandenburg International. Read more details about Templehof's landmark connection to Berlin in Kimmelman's article on IHT.com The future of Berlin's Templehof Airport hangs in the balance between possible preservation and an unknown fate if the city of Berlin ... more
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Dubai will become city of supertowers
Move over Burj Dubai, and make room for a new generation of supertowers! Dubai, formerly known as the modest "city of merchants," has been laying out a new foundation for urban growth with gleaming new high-rises climbing vertically from the desert port. The Burj Dubai which opens in June 2009 will be the world's tallest skyscraper topping with 160 habitable floors. The mixed use residential and commercial tower will also unveil Armani's debut hotel. See the Burj Dubai site for further info here > http://www.burjdubai.com.
Meanwhile, eleven newer projects are planned in Dubai that will make up a new class of supertowers, rising upwards with more than 100 habitable floors each, including EP Site 09 (pictured). Find out more in this Gulf News article contributed by Business Editor Saifur Rahman (04 May 2008). Move over Burj Dubai, and make room for a new generation of supertowers! Dubai, formerly known as the modest "city of merchants," has ... more -
Green city to rise in the desert
Emirate Abu Dhabi is moving ahead with a large-scale project to build Masdar City -- a "green city" near the Abu Dhabi airport. Masdar City, expected to cost $20 billion and ten years to complete, will be a unique urban project that will be car-free, solar-powered, and feature advanced recycling facilities. Residents and visitors will get around on a light-rail system powered by solar energy in an eco-friendly city constructed with a contemporary design aesthetic. Read more in Craig and Marc Kielburger's contribution on this story in the Toronto Star. Emirate Abu Dhabi is moving ahead with a large-scale project to build Masdar City -- a "green city" near the Abu Dhabi airport. Masdar... more
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Golf and the Environment: How Green is Golf?
Golf Digest Magazine explores whether golf is green in this month's issue. John Barton, in his article "How Green is Golf?", identifies core problems with golf courses -- increasing water cost and scarcity, and the burden of golf green maintenance with pesticides. Burton raises some interesting questions which have been explored by environmentalists for years, but only initially explored between the golf establishment and environmentalists together at a Pebble Beach conference in 1995.
Golf course maintenance incurs high costs, and use 300,000 gallons of water each day for golf greens around the United States, according to Burton's article. But golf courses do not depend on water alone to keep it evergreen. Pesticides and synthetic chemicals are sprayed regularly, which compound the environment, and can result in disease and cancer.
Read more in Burton's essay, and additional interviews with golf architects, environmentalists, and others about these issues.
Photo: Desert Springs Golf Course, Costa de Almeria, Spain. Golf Digest Magazine explores whether golf is green in this month's issue. John Barton, in his article "How Green is Golf?", identifi... more -
São Paulo: A City Without Ads
Adbusters Magazine ran this interesting story last fall (Adbusters #73, Sep-Oct 2007) by David Evan Harris, and featured an interview by On The Media’s Bob Garfield with Vinicius Galvao, a reporter for Folha de São Paulo, Brazil’s largest newspaper, about São Paulo’s ban on visual pollution. São Paulo’s “Lei Cidade Limpa” or Clean City Law, which went into effect last year, put an end to commercial advertising and signage around the city, the fourth largest metropolis in the world. The ban extends to all kinds of outdoor signage and has a greater reach than putting an end to billboard campaigns, and has become an unexpected success. Read more in this fascinating feature about ending visual pollution in São Paulo. Adbusters Magazine ran this interesting story last fall (Adbusters #73, Sep-Oct 2007) by David Evan Harris, and featured an interview ... more
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Gays in Egypt besieged by wave of suppression
Police in Cairo have escalated arrests of gay men and alleged HIV-positive men who meet in public on streets around the city. Although homosexuality is not illegal, human rights advocates and independent observers have commented on the arrests as a symbolic show of force by governments "to out-moralize Islamic parties that have denounced the perceived depravity of Arab societies," writes Daniel Williams, a reporter for Bloomberg News. Read more about this story in a reprint in the International Herald Tribune.
Earlier coverage of this subject can be found in a substantial New York Times article with the sensational headline, "Prisoners of Sex" by Negar Azimi, the senior editor of Bidoun Magazine. Azimi writes, "There are no gay bars in Cairo, so coffee shops and the Qasr el-Nil Bridge are popular meeting spots." Photo: Qasr el-Nil Bridge by Ziyah Gafic, 2006, courtesy of the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/magazine/03arabs.html Police in Cairo have escalated arrests of gay men and alleged HIV-positive men who meet in public on streets around the city. Although... more -
Life in London captured digitally
The Memory Project, a digital photography installation, is capturing a panaromic snapshot of London's skyline from the banks of the River Thames every five seconds. Designed by Gabby Shawcross and Jason Bruges, the Memory Project will tour Edinburgh and Liverpool after leaving London in the coming weeks. The Memory Project, a digital photography installation, is capturing a panaromic snapshot of London's skyline from the banks of the Ri... more
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Vancouver transit cops still bullish on Tasers
Transit police defend taser policy against fare evaders on SkyTrain in Vancouver, British Columbia. The controversial tasering policy is upheld -- even against non-violent fare evaders. Transit police defend taser policy against fare evaders on SkyTrain in Vancouver, British Columbia. The controversial tasering policy ... more
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Doc Debut : Super Amigos
Link TV will broadcast Super Amigos, a documentary about masked luchadores -- Lucho Libre-style wrestlers -- who wage fights against social injustices in Mexico City. The five anonymous "social wrestlers" include Super Animal who asks bullfighters to fight him instead of bulls; Super Gay champions gay rights and battles homophobia after a savage beating kills his boyfriend; Ecologista Universal fights for environmental protection and preservation; Fray Tormenta, who experienced homeless as a youth, battles against the injustices and struggles of homeless children and opened a shelter; and Super Barrio helps poor tenants resist evictions in neighborhoods facing emergent gentrification. Super Amigos was written, produced and directed by Arturo Perez Torres, and has an air date on Link TV on April 27.
For additional info, check out the films' official site here:
Super Amigos
http://www.opencityworks.com/superamigos/
Link TV will broadcast Super Amigos, a documentary about masked luchadores -- Lucho Libre-style wrestlers -- who wage fights against s... more -
Exhibition - World's Away: New Suburban Landscapes
The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis is currently exhibiting new work that comment and defy conventional stereotypes about contemporary American suburban life. The fact that suburban growth has shaped culture and how individuals engage in work and leisure is also the inspiration for new art. Visit the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis to see World's Away, on view through August 17 at the Target Gallery, and later at the Carnegie Museum of Art, October 4, 2008 - January 18, 2009, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Image: Sarah McKenzie, Site, 2007, oil on canvas 48 x 72 in. Courtesy the artist and Robischon Gallery, Denver. Courtesy of Walker Art Center, walker.org.
The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis is currently exhibiting new work that comment and defy conventional stereotypes about contemporar... more -
The New Mexico Rail Runner Express
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is encouraging support for the New Mexico Rail Runner Express, currently serving communities between Belen and Bernalillo with stops in downtown Alberquerque, New Mexico, and adjacent communities. The project is planned to extend service and new track towards the state capitol in Santa Fe. This extension of service is expected to be in operation by late 2008, and should be a great addition for commuters and tourists alike. Although Amtrak offers rail service on the Southwest Chief route between Albuquerque and Lamy -- the nearest community to Santa Fe -- the Rail Runner will offer a direct commuter connection between the two cities and also offer an alternative to an increasingly congested highway on the I-25 corridor. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is encouraging support for the New Mexico Rail Runner Express, currently serving communities betwe... more
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The New West : Photographs by Robert Adams
Aperture Foundation has planned a reprint of Robert Adams' "The New West," his long out-of-print monograph documenting Colorado's new suburban developments, shopping malls, and tract houses in and around Denver and Colorado Springs. His book, originally published in 1974, depicts a kind of new Levittown, a Rocky Mountain homogeneity in high-contrast black-and-white. Natural and artificial light cast deep shadows in the high desert, and it is the light that captures his attention with his subject. Aperture is republishing this book ahead of a touring exhibition planned in 2010. Aperture Foundation has planned a reprint of Robert Adams' "The New West," his long out-of-print monograph documenting Colorado's new ... more
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Ahmed Ahmed
Take a tour through Dubai with Ahmed Ahmed, a hilarious stand up comic travelling through the Middle East.
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urban studies
