Image Bank: infographics

E-waste sources and destinations

Image Bank: infographics

an infographic on China's production in comparison to world's. (for example China produces 75% of toys in the whole world)

yellow part is production, green one- export

Africa in China

Most of the debates on China in Africa has followed the flow from China to Africa but its not all one way traffic. Areas like "Chocolate City" in Guangzhou, China attracts thousands of African traders seeking business opportunities in the East. What the view like from this perspective?

Artists Bill Kouélany & Goddy Leye recently visited "Chocolate City" as part of their Sparck residency and produced "Chocolate Banana"

Also see Farhad A.K. Sulliman KHOYRATTY (fiction writer, editor, translator; Mauritius) Journey to the West published at 2010 IWP:

"I was in Hubei province, having boarded the ship a week earlier at Shanghai, a good
few provinces east. I was heading upstream towards East Tibet. It wasn’t a ship really, more
a low‐cost transport craft, a riverboat.
This is how I describe myself: 43, elegant, an adventurer at heart. My name’s Marco,
one of the most common names among Mauritian Christians my age. I am of Black African
origin spiked with some French here and there. I was brought up a Catholic but am now as
lapsed as can be. My wife, Lakshmi, is Mauritian Hindu...." More here

Le Monde Selon Monsanto (2008)

The documentary The World According to Monsanto produced by French journalist and film maker Marie-Monique Robin paints a grim picture of a company with a long track record of environmental crimes, health scandals. It is also by far the leading producer of genetically engineered (GE) seed, holding 70%–100% market share for various crops. It’s development and marketing of genetically engineered seed and bovine growth hormones, as well as its aggressive litigation and political lobbying practices, have made the company controversial around the world and a primary target of the anti-globalization movement and environmental activists.

source

Music Stories

Toumani Diabaté - The Mandé Variations

Economics of music > world music boom, role of the internet/ blogs, shifting dyanamics in the global industry

My Name Is Albert Ayler documentary(2005) - an opportunity to write about Ayler
Directed by Kasper Collin
Screenings in 2007/ 2008

The Global Food Crisis

Riots in Haiti , Burkina Faso, Cameroon,Cote d'Ivorie, Egypt, Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Yemen and more. Massive crisis in Somalia

Sky rocketing prices due to rising fuel costs, weather problems as well as the push to create biofuels from cereal crops.

World bank’s genetically-engineered Green Revolution

US farm subsidies

Robert Berold > an alternative take on farming (see Drive Out Hunger: The story of J.J.Machobane of Lesotho by Robert Berold & J.J. Machobane and People's Workbook a manual of rural practical skills by Robert Berold et. al.)

Comparison to Cuba’s response to the food crisis created by the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1989?

“Nongqawuse pattern” - Achille Mbembe

Stealing Empire: P2P, intellectual property and hip-hop subversion

Adam Haupt

Stealing Empire poses the question, "What possibilities for agency exist in the age of corporate globalisation?" Using the work of Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt as a point of entry, Adam Haupt delves into varied terrain to locate answers in this ground-breaking inquiry. He explores arguments about copyright via peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms such as Napster, free speech struggles, debates about access to information and open content licenses, and develops a politically incisive analysis of counterdiscourses produced by South African hip-hop artists. From ‘empire stealing’ through their commodification of countercultures to the ‘stealing empire’ activities of file-sharers, culture jammers and hip-hop activists, this book tells the story of people defining themselves as active, creative agents in a consumerist society.

Stealing Empire is vital reading for law, media and cultural studies scholars who want to make sense of the ways in which legal and communication strategies are employed to secure hegemony.

Go Open: click here to download the entire book for free