A shirtless David greets me with a wide smile. Muscles ripped, tattooed arm and long hair, I mentally placed him at 30 years old. He’s actually in his 40s. He too had completed the Camino de Santiago six years ago.

“[It’s] an incredible experience that changed my life forever”, he explained. Shortly after he quit his job, left his house and decided to help pilgrims along the way between Santibañez de Valdeiglesias and San Justo de la Vega by selling organic food and drinks. The pilgrim pays whatever he thinks it’s worth, also known as “donativo”. This place is what he’s called home for the past four years. With no electricity nor running water David is all about sharing, either lending his guitar for lonely chords to find meaning on the air, or by talking about life itself. “The problem with society today is greed. Humans always want more and more. I decided to give and give.”

All the money he makes at his little “food truck” is used to buy more organic groceries delivered by a truck every week to provide food for the next pilgrims. He does not miss electricity, let alone cellphones or laptops. Water comes from the rain or a river two kilometers away. A mattress on a makeshift bed is his bedroom. I wave goodbye at him with the traditional “Buen Camino” pilgrims greet each other. “Feliz Camino” he replied. I find good friends also sharing David’s food among themselves and knew that those 15 minutes with David would stay with me forever.

But what is the “Camino” and why can it change people so drastically?

Camino de Santiago, or The Way of St. James, is a pilgrimage journey across Spain and one of the main ones for Christians, alongside Jerusalem and Rome. Santiago was one of the Apostles of Jesus and his remains are believed to be enshrined in the Cathedral of Santiago, in Spain. Traditionally the pilgrim would leave his or her own house and start walking towards the cathedral, which is what David did in Barcelona.

My name is Robert Born, I am 28 years old, born and raised in Brazil, so it was physically impossible to walk across the Atlantic Ocean to reach the Cathedral of Santiago in Spain. Therefore I took one of the traditional routes, the most famous one: Camino Francés, or the French way. Starting from Saint Jean Pied de Port, a French town near the Spanish border, I had to cross the Pyrenees into the Peninsula through Roncesvalles and before reaching Santiago I would also go through some big Spanish cities such as Pamplona, Logroño, Burgos, León, Astorga and Sarria. I started on June 10th until July 10th, plus another three days hiking until the end of the world in Finisterre, completing 862 kilometers.

One can easily describe the core of the Camino in a few sentences. Wake up at 5 a.m. Eat an apple or banana. Choose between 3 sets of clothes to wear. Put on smelly shoes. Carry a heavy backpack. Start walking for two hours non-stop before the first real breakfast. Keep walking for another three or four hours. Find accommodation. Take a shower. Eat dinner. Sleep. Repeat for the next 30 days. But to reach Santiago de Compostela is not the goal. The way and its teachings are the goal and believe me when I say that a pilgrim will change after the Camino.

Nameless

At the beginning no one has a name. You actually do, but since you are meeting around 15 new people every day it is hard to keep track of people`s names. Therefore your name blends with the place you come from. Evidently I was Brazil and I started remembering people as Justin Holland or Daniel Taiwan. Before you notice you start introducing yourself first by the country you’re from, followed by your actual name.

Along with being nameless a pilgrim gets a blank field for his personality as well. You can be anyone in the Camino. Mary Canada struck me as a talkative person; she found it easy to make new friends and make people feel comfortable around her with her jovial and funny attitude. A short brunette, it was hard to resist the urge to hug and throw her in the air after one of her impressions. She confessed being a shy person back in Canada. That surprised me. I myself find it hard to initiate conversation with strangers, although it felt natural during the Camino.

The first week is mainly physical pain. Legs, ankles, back will feel sore in spots you did not know you had muscles. Talking about the condition of your feet becomes the introductory conversation to new faces. The counting of blisters was my personal highlight, as I ended up with 26 – getting a silver medal on a secret championship, behind Amanda from United States who stopped counting after blister number 30 during the third week.

The physical pain gives space to physical happiness. After conquering steep mountains, plain fields and dense forests I started feeling the joy of overcoming what I thought was my physical limit. I was carrying an 18 kilo backpack with me – something every guide advises against, unless I weighed 180 kilos, which is double my actual weight – I walked around 25 kilometers every day and I only ate a proper meal once a day.

In the words of Magnus Denmark: “I’ve still got a long way to go, but I look back and realize everything I already conquered and I’m proud of it”. He mentioned that the day I met him while he was struggling with pain on his right foot. Unfortunately he had a bone injury and had to go back home earlier than expected. “But I will come back and continue from where I stopped”, he swore before entering a taxi to the next city.

To have a new personality does not mean you need to pretend to be strong. Both physically and mentally. Physically everyone can help you. During the first few days while walking alone I was always asked by people if I was ok or if I needed any help when I was just taking a water break. I once saw a group of 8 people, strangers to each other, who stopped to help Rachel from United States with a blister on her right foot. This is Camino!

Even though you might spend a few hours with total strangers, only a few minutes are needed to create a bond. Your fellow pilgrim is going through the same physical problems as you are. Psychologically can be different, which opens up deep conversations. I had conversations with people I’d known for roughly three hours that I never had with my closest friends back in Brazil. One day in the Camino feels like a month socially speaking.

“Ask and the Camino provides”

This quote was from Mary Canada somewhere along the way, but it was true from the beginning. On my first hostel, before the walking started, I met Sweden Michael, a tall strong bearded blonde in his 40s. During the first day of walking, I met Danish Daniel, a smiley blonde and very white Scandinavian guy in his mid-20s. When I reached the first albergue (pilgrim’s hostel) I wished to see Daniel and Michael again, and lo and behold, Daniel was right in front of me when I checked in the hostel in Roncesvalles, while Michael was coming down the stairs. Ask and the Camino provides.

But there is a “truer” quote that says “The Camino provides what you need, not always what you ask for.” This became clear to me on the fourth day when, after walking and meeting Michael and Daniel along the way, I was in so much pain that I could not reach the same city they were planning to stop at. Me and a new friend, German Naomi, stayed one city back, around 5 kilometers, only to push the limit the following day and try to find them. One day difference in the Camino feels like being in an entire new generation of pilgrims. If you stay back one day, or if you push your limit and go ahead a bit more, you will find a complete set of new people.

According to every person on the Camino, including those who worked at albergues, all accommodations in Pamplona were closed due to San Fermin – the street bull racing tradition – so people were advised to stay one city before or after Pamplona. Naomi pulled out her German guide book and pointed at a German albergue in the outskirts of Pamplona city center. Luckily it was open and it still had three beds available. Danke schön Deutschland. I never saw Michael or Daniel again, but I did meet Rachel from United States in the albergue. Her first words to me that day: “You’re here. Now everyone who is cool is here”, she shouted to the next bedroom. I barely knew her, although I knew she was from Houston, Texas and I shared a joke with her when, having to stop along the way to pop a blister, I said “Houston we have a problem.” I couldn’t resist.

Still from Camino de Santiago, movie (2015)

Rachel was in fact shouting to Sanne from Holland, but I called her Dutchie, Marie from Norway, Julia from Germany, Rachel’s friends also from the United States Katie and Mike, Tomi from Italy and Mary Canada. That group, with some temporary additions and some goodbyes were now my group along the way until the end of my journey.

To have a group went against everything I believed the Camino was about. This pilgrimage was supposed to be a silent walk, a journey to find your true self and not to keep walking in the pace of other people. That can be true if you want to, but I found out there was nothing more rewarding than seeing friendly faces when you take a break or when you check into an albergue. After all, happiness is only real when shared. “I meet a lot of people, but I don’t have the time to create a strong bond with them”, said a sad pilgrim who was doing the Camino in reverse. No wonder I do not recall his name.

Life in the Camino is simple. A swimming pool is the greatest remedy after walking five hours under a punitive hot sun. Smaller luxuries can also mean the world, such as a kitchen to cook proper food; blackberries, grapes, apples and figs for free on the trail; hot showers and a bed instead of a bunker; a mini market with more than three option of fruits; a guitar for the pilgrims.

The group did well without a guitar also. Norway Marie would sing acapella followed by the rest of the group who did not have the same lung experience as she did. If it wasn’t her, Sanne Dutchie would spin around with her walking sticks playing air guitar and screaming loud and clear making everyone laugh.

In the spirit of meeting more people, I disconnected from the group only to meet a couple of Danish and German pilgrims along with Tina from Slovenia – a psychologist and enigmatic person who would get stories out of you…but rarely share some of her own. She, like myself, did not want to tag with any group and was constantly walking faster or slower to meet new people. We ended up walking together all the way to the end of the world, with occasional mismatches. She ended up mingling with a group who later merged with mine. “I am so happy I am part of a group”, she confessed on the final week of the Camino. The Camino provides what you need, not always what you ask for.

Along the way you meet incredible people with which I could write a book about it, even though I spent a day or two with them, sometimes a few minutes. Albán is a guy we nicknamed Jerusalem although he is from France. He walked from his doorstep to Jerusalem and then started walking from there to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The day I was entering the city he was leaving. “Walking back home now, another two months on the road”, he explained.

Jeróme from France was practically living inside a movie script doing the Camino. He was also spreading his mom’s ashes on the way. He told me his mother never expressed the desire and his two siblings were against it. “I’m doing it for myself. Not for her or for anyone else actually. I discovered that I’m doing it because I’m selfish and I’m not proud of it anymore.”

Gregori from Belgium is finishing his studies, but felt a “call” to do the Camino this year. Very religious, he would always have something deep to talk about and often found meaning in ordinary moments. Although he said he does not have many friends back home, he was always around people who loved him in the Camino. His life is a puzzle to many, as he shares only enough and at the right time, making people comfortable with his kindness.

During the walking: you are nameless; you can have the personality you want; you do not have a boss to tell you what to do and how; you do not have to walk 30 kilometers if you don’t want to; you can stop whenever you want and people will still see you as a winner, not a quitter. This is the personal universe of the Camino.

Combine that with social factors which are essentially nice and interesting people all around you, everywhere you go, and it’s hard not to understand why people embrace this lifestyle with such passion. Maybe for the first time you are 100% in control of your life. The ultimate freedom in this contemporary world.

Earlier I told you that the Camino will change you. I lied. The Camino does not change people. It is you, who changes you. To quote Tina Slovenia: “The Camino only makes you think. It makes your brain work and forces you to think about stuff that matters to you the most. After thinking, you decide what needs to change, but you can only do it yourself.” So what comes after the journey ends? I leave you with a personal metaphor I developed along the Camino:

The Camino feels like a different universe. But more detailed. It is like a dark room in our own universe. As soon as you enter it, somehow you are gifted with a candlelight, although it is not lit. In the beginning you walk, stumble across something or even someone, but you keep walking. Once in a while someone from the outside will come into the dark room but with an internal light of their own – those people for me were Belgium Gregori and Mary Canada, both willing to help anyone anyway possible. They stumbled across me and, kind souls as they are, they lit up my candle. I felt blessed and started sharing my light with more people I came to know. In no time, the room is filled with light. The Camino is no longer a strange dark place. You can see the end, and the last door you will open inside this parallel universe. And once you are out, what happens? Do you dump your candle in the nearest garbage bin and go back to your old life? Or is the wind of the ‘real universe’ too strong to blow off your flame?

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On the other hand, men’s beauty standards have not been as diverse as women’s. Only the statues of the ancient world and the Renaissance show the shapes of male figures. We can only imagine what was hidden under the armour of medieval knights, or under the variety of costumes men have donned over the centuries.

But what about now? What makes the ideal ‘Modern Man’? Is it his looks, his job title, or his personality? Or is it something else entirely? Nowadays, men look after themselves much more than 10 years ago. For the last few years, the market for men’s beauty products has increased by a staggering 70% worldwide. According to Avaj, a men’s luxury lifestyle retailer, men glance in the mirror 23 times a day, and women only 16 times. Males usually admire their favourite parts of the body, while females check their least favourite parts to make sure that they look okay.

David Zepeda

David Beckham

So what are the men’s beauty standards around the world? Let’s have a look at Great Britain first. Celebrities such as David Beckham and Jamie Dornan are known by some as the hottest men in the UK. Maybe this is why men’s facial hair and body tattoos are a top trend. The footballer’s body is considered the ideal male body, and grooming and ‘manscaping’ are also very popular in Britain.

It takes only one look at pictures of actor David Zepeda to understand the standards of men’s beauty in Mexico. Macho (Spanish for “male animal”) sums it up. Back in 2000, Mexican men took second place after Venezuela, to be crowned as the second most vain males in the world. In Mexico, plastic surgery among men is very popular particularly penis enlargement.

Turkish men are always on the list of the most handsome men on the planet and this year is no exception. In contrast to Mexican machos, Turkish men drive women crazy by being romantic, tender, supportive to their partner – and hairless! According to the science journal “Archives of Sexual Behaviour” Turkish women prefer men with a hairless chest. This ‘ideal man’ is portrayed in Turkish soap operas. Perhaps this is why they are so popular, with people across Turkey and the Middle East glued to them in their millions.

As the biggest film industry in the world, Bollywood has had a massive impact on Indian society in terms of beauty standards, family values, and traditions. India is the world’s largest market for male skincare products. In recent years, skin lightening creams have become popular among men, spurred on by endorsements from Bollywood actors and cricket players.

Rodrigo Santoro

Rodrigo Santoro, a Brazilian actor who played a modest and extremely good-looking guy in “Love Actually”) is perhaps the most internationally recognisable Brazilian, known for his great looks. Generally, Santoro’s look would be close to the perfect example of male beauty in Brazil. Fair straight hair, tanned skin, toned body and of course plastic surgery, is the epitome of handsome. Plastic surgery as an 18th birthday present is to many, completely normal. The popularity of plastic surgery, has seen Brazil surge into second place in the world, with 2 million procedures.

Despite all of this, women remain the biggest consumers in the cosmetic surgery market, 90 percent of all procedures. There are many reasons, deeper than a mere desire to look better, that make men and women go under the knife in their millions in drastic procedures, and its not 100% clear why. But after all, while there is nothing wrong with looking after yourself what matters the most is what is hidden behind the veneer.

Image via, and story inspired by Buzzfeed.

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Wearing gym clothes, yet looking neat and discreet, Jacky opened the door and politely asked me not to take pictures until his assistant had brought him a smart change of clothing. He is clearly an active person and was full of energy, his morning routine clearly enables him to power on through the day.

The conversation started so easily and continued to flow so naturally I almost forgot that I was there for an interview. He was relaxed and down to earth as he told me how it had all started and who had  inspired him in his formative years.  At university, “Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol became big heroes of mine.  As my aesthetic developed, I decided to do something big, something really unique by combining traditional Chinese art with Western Pop Art.”

A few years ago Jacky was attending a friend’s wedding, whose father happened to be a collector of a traditional art.  While Jacky was appreciating one of the pieces from the collection there, an interesting thought came to him. “This could be very cool in a modern way, the only thing I need to do is to combine all the different aesthetic forms to create a unique language of my own”. And that was beginning of his remarkable journey.

Despite the warmth of our conversation, I couldn’t avoiding asking him why symbol of death is so prevalent in his work.

Skulls, and indeed other symbols of death in Chinese culture are feared and are therefore often unseen.“The skull is a good symbol to indicate how we are reborn from death.  My skull is about beauty, so it would never be scary. I respect and value traditions and though I’m naturally scared of a skull myself, I have created a different, beautiful floral skull to overcome my fears.”

Fears? I repeated. Do you have any? “No, I don’t” he smiled. Later on Jacky admitted that in his early career he had fears and doubts about how would he survive in London and where would he fit in as an artist, but overall, he was extremely lucky and suffered less than most of artists. “I am a happy person and even if I lost everything now, I could achieve everything again!” He laughs.

I left the interview with renewed admiration for Tsai. Not only for his optimism, but for his ability to use a variety of ways and mediums to express himself. He has dabbled with embroidery, lacquer carving, screen printing, porcelain and sculpture, to name but a few. “The process is time consuming , it’s not like a typical artistic process when you have an inspiration, and get up at night and start creating. My art is made by very careful research and preparation, from the very first scratch on a paper until the final piece of work. If I described my work process, then everyone could be Jacky Tsai.” .

At the moment  Tsai’s  main focus is trying to become a factory manager and distribute his artwork to different people. “If I did my artwork on my own, I would never finish it. The people I work with make the journey shorter and  are able to deliver the best results. But in order to do so I have to describe my work techniques first.”

Looking at Jacky Tsai’s website, I couldn’t ignore the fact that together with beautiful timeless art pieces, there are menswear T-shirts which caused me to wonder if Jacky Tsai would leave the art world to become a fashion designer – a significant loss to the modern art generation. “I don’t see myself as a fashion designer, it’s my hobby, all I want is to make my art more accessible to others. I don’t want to be called a fashion designer because I’m not, I am an artist and always will be.”

Being a citizen from an emerging country himself, Jacky Tsai has some interesting opinions on collectors from the emerging markets and how they are different to collectors from the West.

“Collectors from emerging markets are more realistic in the sense they buy art as an investment, while Western collectors, regardless of background or class, appreciate and understand art. But there are more and more Chinese people who have now developed a real taste and feel for art, so I believe in 10 years there won’t be a difference between emerging and Western countries in this area.”

I had the answers to all my questions, but I wanted to ask a few more, just for myself – simple questions about what makes him happy, what his dreams are and whether or not he believes in destiny. “If you have talent in a specific area and if you are a hardworking, dedicated person, sooner or later your the chance will come” he mused. Even though Jacky calls his work with Alexander Mcqueen an accident, it’s really not the case. The world had to discover the floral skull phenomenon created by this talented artist. Like any other visionary all Jacky Tsai wants is to be remembered by people and to be able to leave a significant mark in art history. I think he’s achieved it. “When I die, my floral skull will become more meaningful, because I will finally become part of it.”

Jacky’s show runs from 18 September – 2 October 2015 at The Fine Art Society, New Bond Street

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We congratulate New York gallerists Edward Winkelmann and Murat Ozorobekov in their achievement of having 6,500 visitors attend over the three days – exceeding their best-ever attendance for the New York editions.
This year they featured 22 artists represented by galleries and non-profit spaces from Europe, North America, South America, and Asia.

Some of the eager visitors during this years’ exhibitions

Kalliopi Lemos , a sculptor, painter and installation artist based in London, was selected to receive the The Borusan Contemporary Art Collection Prize. Kalliopi Lemos is represented by Gazelli Art House, of London, which describes the award-winning artwork as follows

“Lemos’s new piece expands her ongoing exploration of bodies in unnatural positions, diverse scales and the quest for balance and she asks from the visitor to find ‘the centre’, their own compass for this universe. At the Centre of the World opens a space for visitors to reconsider the tension between inside and outside, body and spirit, material and immaterial; ultimately, the work raises questions about the limits and pain of the human body while hinting at all that cannot be fathomed or expressed in the quest for a place ‘at the centre of the world’.”

Kalliopi Lemos, At The Center Of The World, 2015. 16mm B&W with sound, 08:29 minutes. Courtesy of Gazelli Art House, London. The sculpture ‘Iron Sphere’, featured in the film, was made by Kalliopi Lemos in 2015.

Among the historical works presented at this second edition of the fair in Istanbul is a rarely seen work by Ana Mendieta (presented by Galerie Lelong, New York). Recently remastered, this 1978 silent film is one of the artist’s characteristic “Earth ­Body” works. Also presented this year are several shorter black and white works from Martha Wilson’s seminal “Complete Halifax Collection” (presented by PPOW Gallery, New York).  Among the installations is a room-sized multi-channel work by Michael Nyman (presented by Myriam Blundell Projects, London). Featuring ten independent, yet interrelated, edits of Nyman’s 2009 film NYman with a Movie Camera, this complex installation engages in a visual discourse with Dziga Vertov’s 1929 film Man with a Movie Camera, presented in its entirety on an eleventh screen. The five-channel work by Kon Trubkovich(presented by Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York) weaves YouTube videos of Russian speakers singing American songs with multi­-channel compositions culled from hours of found and family footage, ultimately creating a visual poem that addresses personal and collective history, the Cold War, migration, assimilation, loss, and memory.

The wide range of single-channel works in Moving Image Istanbul 2015 features the work Top View by Nevin Aladağ (presented by Rampa Gallery, Istanbul), who approached various people of different ages in the center of Munich and asked them to perform a few dance steps for the camera. Although the people in the film remain anonymous, and one sees little more than their shoes and the movements of their feet, even these tell a lot about people’s identities and characters. Taus Makhacheva’s 2009 work, A Space of Celebration (presented by .artSümer, Istanbul), involves wedding halls from her native Dagestan in which anthropomorphic figures move, freeze, play, and dance, trying to establish a way of interacting with the outer as with the inner. Humour and irony, as instruments in this work, make visible the attempt to form a subject in the new public space. And in Xavier Veilhan’s new work Vent Moderne (presented by Andréhn­Schiptjenko, Stockholm), he creates a film that plays with perspectives, scale and the links between set and architecture. The sequences are built around the figure of a designer, a creator, and an architect, to whom French actor Micha Lescot lends his traits. The film  brings to life a succession of fantasized moments in the protagonist’s life: the design process, meetings, travels, and moments of celebration.

All photos curtesy of Moving Image

ArtInternational Celebrates its Fifth Year

Istanbul’s ArtInternational modern and contemporary art fair wrapped up a record-breaking year last Sunday with artwork sales totalling $30.2 million. Eighty-seven art galleries from 27 countries displayed work by over 400 artists at the three-day fair which was attended by 32,383 visitors. Organizers said the number included over 2,000 collectors from around the world. Last year’s fair, its second edition, was attended by approximately 20,000 visitors.

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Yet awareness is everything. Thanks to increased exposure via the internet, we can’t avoid the horrifying stories about sex slaves from India, sweatshop workers from Bangladesh, early marriages in Africa. Harrowing as this can be, it is a good thing. These are real stories, real people who are desperate for help and support. And the people behind your T-Shirt are in a similar position.

‘Fast fashion’ may be enticing for consumers but it is characterised by cheap material, cheap labour, and poor quality. It may shrink in the wash but at those prices, why not buy another throw away garment tomorrow?  And not many of us know, or even care, that behind all of it are underpaid and undervalued workers, who get as little as $2 a day.

But it’s not just the low pay.  Factory management has become notorious for using violence against workers who stand up to them. The work place can be dangerous too. Who can forget the collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh in 2013 and shocking numbers of deaths? It isn’t even a surprise anymore.

Despite fears surrounding safety, sweatshop employees are forced to go back to work in order to provide for their families. I will never forget the scene from The True Cost when one of the Indian workers has a small child by her, sitting workshop floor, as she works. Such women don’t have the option of sitting at home with their new-born. They can’t even leave their children at a nursery or with a babysitter – there is no such a thing.

The consequences of this situation are terrifying and will lead to a global tragedy. Yet only a few people and organisations are trying to tackle this issue. Safia Minney, founder of the Fair Trade fashion label People Tree, is one such person. As is Livia Firth, Creative Director of Eco-age, a sustainability brand consultancy and founder of Green Carpet Challenge (GCC). Lucy Siegle, author and journalist, is another prominent figure in the movement. They may come from different backgrounds and are working on different projects but they are all  dedicated to making the world a better place and to supporting those who need aid the most.

But what is the real crux of the problem, is it our love of fashion, our blindness to the troubles of the manufacturing industry or is it in fact an unstinting hunger for money on the part of fashion labels?

Let’s be honest, expensive clothing, accessories and lifestyle do make us feel better about ourselves and happier for a moment. We may be buying different things, in different shops but we all seem to share a desire to be accepted by society, to be loved and appreciated by friends, and somehow fashion gives us this. This is why we work harder, we get a job that is better, and we get a house that is bigger. Our natural desire to be noticed is making us spend more and more money on clothing, accessories, travel, education, nice houses and cars.

Big companies and brands know about this attention-mania and utilise it perfectly by presenting beautiful adverts and selling an irresistible dream. We want to be part of this dream therefore we can buy it. Narcissism and materialism have become epidemics within our generation and there seems to be no vaccination against it.

I’m not telling anyone to stop buying cheap clothing. But I feel that somehow we have got lost somewhere. We’ve lost something important and meaningful in our lives. By running around, trying to please and impress everyone, we forgot about who we really are and what we really need. It doesn’t matter where are you from and how much you earn: sweatshop workers from India and Bangladesh or bankers and CEO’s of a big companies, at the end of the day we all want to come back to a nice house with food on a table, surrounded by the people we love and care for.

If you can’t help these poor people in India or Bangladesh, help someone who is near you: that old gentleman who sat down by himself in the coffee shop or old lady who needed a sit in a tube. Being kind costs nothing but can make a difference in someone’s life. Just try it, the world needs more of it.

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We held a panel discussion event to celebrate the achievements of Emirati Women in Aviation. #EmiratiWomensDay pic.twitter.com/nHDdkX2gAG

— Etihad Airways (@EtihadAirways) August 28, 2015

International Women’s Day may have been almost six months ago, but this did not stop the United Arab Emirates from continuing to celebrate the invaluable contribution that women make to society. The 28th of August marks the inaugural celebration of #EmiratiWomensDay.

At #QCC we are extremely proud of our female workers who represent 42% of our workforce. #EmiratiWomensDay pic.twitter.com/WY3KkPNSlD

— QCC Abu Dhabi (@QCCAbuDhabi) August 28, 2015

A very good morning to all our mothers, wives, sisters and daughters. Happy #EmiratiWomensDay #PinkCaravan pic.twitter.com/UhzsCydtJ6

— Pink Caravan (@ThePinkCaravan) August 28, 2015

From industry, to art, to individual people, the community of the UAE is blowing up twitter in honour of the vital roles played by women in the country.

Wishing all the beautiful and strong Emirati women out there, happy #EmiratiWomensDay !

— Kaavya (@Kaavs) August 28, 2015

@TopHerGame @talabadri @HalaKazim @taghrid_alsaeed @LanaAlJaghbeer amazing role models! Happy #EmiratiWomensDay! #topofhergame

— Christina Ioannidis (@christinai) August 28, 2015

This is the first year of the day’s celebration, and it is backed by the chairwomen of the General Women’s Union, Sheika Fatima Bint Mubarak, wife of the late Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who was both the first president of the UAE, and the Emir of Abu Dhabi. Sheika Fatima is a key advocate for women’s rights in the region, and her efforts saw her achieve five United Nations awards. Not only this, but Sheika Fatima was also awarded the Marie Curie Medal for her efforts to alleviate the social ills of illiteracy and for advocating women’s rights, taking her place in history as the award’s first Arab recipient.

In this day we would like thank H.H #sheika_fatima choose 28 AUG be the #Emirati_Womens_day I feel I'm #unique_women in the world #UAE

— ŚєℓA7ɪ (@sale7i) August 27, 2015

2015 may have seen the first Emirati Women’s Day – and clearly it is unlikely to be the last.

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Truck drivers in India, who typically spend 10 months of the year on the road, are inclined to have the exteriors of their vehicles painted in myriad colours, slogans and religious symbols. The purpose is twofold; firstly, this particular modern folk-art form enables the truck drivers to engage with a unique form of self-expression.  Secondly, the art causes the trucks to function as vibrant beacons for clientele, thereby attracting business. 

What does it signify?

Indeed, truck drivers play a crucial role in the functioning of the Indian economy, as they are able to deliver products to remote parts of the country that are otherwise inaccessible by train. Shantung Suma, the graphic designer and filmmaker who created the 2013 documentary Horn Please, commented: “A better looking truck attracts more business […] Imagine the truck is like a moving billboard. It travels from one side of the country to the other, carrying the message of the truck driver and owner.”

Horn Please examines the roots of Indian truck art and its subsequent aesthetic evolution. The documentary also focuses on how the art form has impacted the artistic world at large, including the lives of its own creators and the truck drivers who have embraced it. It also questions whether the art form will continue to exist in the future, as India’s economy is certainly not exempt from capitalist influences.

The title of the documentary itself is literally taken straight from the rear-ends of the trucks; a message that serves to remind the drivers of vehicles behind the truck to blow their horns before overtaking – a long-held Indian tradition.

India spans almost 4 million square km., and so these vehicles double as homes for their drivers, replete with bunk beds and family photos. Suman continued:

“Since [the drivers are]missing their kids and wives, they like to decorate their trucks with ornaments to remind them of home. They might adorn the cabin with bangles – things that remind them of their wives.”

Of course, only the psychedelic exteriors of the trucks are visible to the outside world. They bear images of gods and goddesses, Bollywood stars, rhyming couplets, motifs, and political logos that the driver personally connects with.

Photographer Dan Eckstein, who wrote Horn Please: The Decorated Trucks of India, and travelled over 10,000kms. of the country in order to complete his research, commented: “Depending on which region they’re from, you’ll see Hindi, Muslim, Sikh, and Christian iconography. There’s also a lot of decoration that has to do with luck on the road and warning away bad omens. There’s a little demon face they put on the front of the truck, or they might tie shoes to the bottom which is meant to keep away the evil eye.”

Uncertain future

Unfortunately, it has been reported that the hand-painted designs are being slowly replaced by stickers. Suman attributes this to the generational shift towards capitalism, saying: “”Some of these truck artists who have been carrying forward this profession for generations, now don’t want their kids to do it because they realize the hardship. They say: ‘I want my kids to go to college and work in an air-conditioned office, rather than be here in the sun painting trucks all day.'”

The devolution of this fantastical art form would, of course, pose unfortunate social consequences, as an entire aesthetic would be wiped out and a way of life altered forever. However, its palpability arguably renders it a very informative indicator of the global market evolution.

CNN

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In January, Lok Bahadur Thapa, chief of the government’s passport department announced: “We have changed the passport regulations and will add a third category of gender for those people who do not want to be identified as male or female”. The country is known in the LGBT activist community as one of the most progressive on LGBT rights. Pinky Gurung, leading LGBT rights activist and chairperson of the Blue Diamond Society commented: “It’s a very progressive move, and we welcome it. It’s great that the other category in citizenship has been extended to passport. This is a historic moment.”

The post Nepal Is Now the Third Country to Issue Gender X Passports appeared first on BRIC Plus News.

After returning to Ghana four years ago, the now 27-year-old rapper rediscovered his musical roots, collaborating with several artists from Ghana’s unique musical genre called hiplife. Hiplife is comprised of an upbeat tempo that weaves together American hip-hop and rap in a Ghanian language, and borrows the beats and rhythms from Ghana’s indigenous genre; highlife soul music.

Appiah is now known as Lighter T.O.D.. He will join ten other performers from Ghana and Nigeria tomorrow as opening acts for the Ghanaian headliner, Sarkodie, at New York’s Apollo Theater, which has long been a platform for African-American musical acts. At this concert, hiplife will be performed for the first time in New York.

Jesse Weaver Shipley, a professor of anthropology at Haverford College in Pennsylvania and the author of Living the Hiplife: Celebrity and Entrepreneurship in Ghanaian Popular Music commented:  “The Apollo is really like a test in an exciting way for the Ghanaian artists to reach out to broader audiences and to enter into the American mainstream musical consciousness.”

Of course, this concert is about more than just music. The 27,000 Ghanians in New York make up the country’s largest diaspora. As Mark D. Naison, a professor of history at Fordham University commented:  “I am waiting for this to take off. This is saying: This is a legitimate path for our children to embrace. Because it could lead to some popular recognition for our community. And it could lead to opportunities as producers, promoters and maybe even club owners.”

Ghanian records sold at Nananom in the Bronx. At the time the picture was taken, all hiplife records were sold out.

Terry Masson is the 28-year-old Ghanian promoter who paid thousands out of pocket to help produce the concert. He acknowledged himself that some in the community might be skeptical of the show’s reach, commenting:  “In the view of Africans, they want to see you doing it before they jump on it.”

However, the musician considered to be the godfather of hiplife, Reggie Rockstone, has expressed his enthusiasm over the concert’s significance: “It’s really surreal what my young soldiers are coming up with, what we built. And now they are headlining? It does something to my soul.”

British-born Rockstone was originally called Reginald Yaw Asante Ossei. He had lived in Brooklyn in 1987 at the height of hip-hop’s popularity, and returned to Ghana in the mid-1990s. In 1994, started rapping in Twi, his native Ghanian language, instead of in English. The rapper said that his father, Ricci Ossei, a Ghanaian fashion designer, originally made up the term ‘hiplife’.

Though hiplife is still young, and still has yet to blare out the speakers of clubs in Manhattan and Brooklyn, it could indeed help to bridge the gap between Ghana and its New York diaspora. Rockstone commented: “I’m trying to reach out to my African-American friends to tell them to come. They never have seen nothing like this. There’s a whole movement that’s coming out of the motherland.”

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Living Bridges in India

In the state of Meghalaya, in northern India, an amazing array of living bridges lie, as if floating, among the treetops. The climate in this leafy region ensures that it experiences heavy rainfall. As a result, the traditional wooden bridges of Meghalaya were subject to rot, and could no longer be used. As a solution, the people of Meghalaya went back to nature.

The creation of bridges using trees is not a recent phenomenon. For over 500 years, tree roots have been used to create bridges. In Meghalaya, the banyan fig tree is used for this. The durability of the trees ensures that they have the strength to withstand the constant heavy rains. But it’s not a fast operation. In order for the bridge to be secure enough for use, it takes 10-15 years. As the trees age, the roots grow thicker, making the bridge stronger, and able to last for decades. The breathtaking site of these natural masterpieces, as if burst straight from the pages of a fairytale, show that living bridges are clearly worth the wait.

[via Kuriositas]

It takes nearly 15 years until a tree grows to a living bridge.

[via The Atlantic]

[via Blogspot]

[via Arnab]

If you like this article you may be interested in “Stunning Pictures of China’s Abandoned Village Left to Nature”.

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