Lisa Reinisch

Got 5 minutes or $25 to spare? Go do some good!

Here is a thoroughly forwardable article I found on Mashable about nine projects that allow anyone with a bit of spare time or cash to, you know, contribute to the greater good and what not.

At the risk of coming across all sanctimonious, I have to say I like the idea of micro-philanthropy; I like the every-little-helps spirit of it and, erm, it resonates with my somewhat severe personal fiscal regime these days.

I especially like the initiatives that involve mobile apps, games and the coughing up of funds by corporate sponsors (see Free Rice and CauseWorld).

On Google’s moral compass

Now that Google’s stand-off with the Chinese government is in its next round, the Guardian’s digital content blog ponders the necessity for search engines to adopt an ethical code similar to that followed by journalists.

“Traditionally, journalism informed people. Can we say that now search engines inform people, too, and should therefore commit themselves to the standards of media companies?,” asks PDA’s Mercedes Bunz.

She gets some interesting responses of different degrees of cycnicism from Clay Shirky, Ben Hammsersley and Dan Gillmor.

Somehow the idea of making search engines commit to ethical guidelines reminds me of the “levy” (post-crisis code for tax) on financial transactions that is currently being promoted by the French and German governments; a noble plan to protect the public from the consequences of the lucrative meddling with a global system that is is too complex to fathom even for those running it.

But, just like the global tax on financial transactions, a moral code for search engines is right up there with international action on climate change and equal rights: all good ideas that only have a marginal chance of becoming reality within the lifetime of anybody reading this somewhat jaded, but secretly hopeful little blog post.

Still, Google’s tussle with the Chinese is good news. I for one am grateful for any grand, expensive gesture that is not purely motivated by a balance sheet.

AGi Architects rethink the traditional walled compound

I just came across this on desMena: a private residence in Kuwait by AGi Architects that is a clever play on the walled compound, the structure that continues to dominate urban landscapes in the Middle East and North Africa.

A remarkable effect is achieved here by making the wall the defining feature of the building’s interior as well as its exterior: it acts as both a barrier and a link between the private and the public spheres; it shields from the city’s hubbub, but also creates a dialogue between street and family space. The project is still on the drawing board and due to be completed next year.

Click here for more pictures and floor plans.

AGi architects specialises in sustainable develpments in the Arab region and recently won the Commercial Building/Mixed-Use Future Architecture Award at the Cityscape Awards 2009 in Dubai. The firm was founded in 2005 by Nasser Bader Abdulhasan from Kuwait and Joaquin Perez-Goicoechea from Spain.

Cultural identities lost and found - Islam and hip hop

This is the first of two articles on the relationship between Islam and hip hop I just did for The Samosa. I tracked down a couple of outstanding artists and documentary filmmakers to find out how people bring together these two rapidly growing global cultures that often appear at odds with each other.

It’s well worth checking out two recent films on the subject: Deen Tight by Mustafa Davis and New Muslim Cool by Jennifer Maytorena Taylor.

Through the research for these articles I discovered a whole new bag of incredibly gifted hip hop artists. More about them later. But for now, I leave you with one of my new favourites - Narcicyst’s tragicomic new release Phatwah:

UK court sets environmentalism on a par with religion

There’s an interesting Greenview column in the new Economist about a recent UK court decision, which says that employers may not fire people over their environmentalist attitudes, just as they can’t fire someone over their religion.

Last month Mr Justice Burton stated that anyone holding a “philosophical belief which is based on science as opposed, for example, to religion” should also be protected from discrimination at the workplace.

Writes The Economist about the case: “He (Mr Justice Burton) provided a five-pronged test to shore up the ruling: the belief must be genuinely held; it must be held for a long period of time; it must relate to something of grave importance to humanity; it must reach a certain level of cogency and seriousness; and it must not trample on existing ideas of human rights. By way of example, he said belief in the supremacy of the Jedi knights of “Star Wars” fame would be excluded, but he conceded that allegiance to the doctrines of Marxism or communism might not.”

Of course, it’s not news that environmental issues such as manmade climate change are a question of faith to many. But who would have thought environmentalism would find its way into labour legislation quite so quickly?

Jalal Luqman - Pan’s Labyrinth meets Hieronymus Bosch in Abu Dhabi

Perhaps more than a hundred people gathered around an ominously large object hidden under a black drape at Ghaf Gallery last night. It was the opening of Under a Thousand Masks, the new exhibition by Jalal Luqman - the local art scene’s wild man.

Since the rest of the gallery was cordoned off, the room quickly filled with guests and press photographers engaging in speculative banter and high-brow gossip. After a well-timed delay, Luqman revealed the centre piece of the show: The Invisible Giant, a sculpture made of welded-together sheaths of metal, towering more than two metres above its audience.

In Luqman’s own words, he wanted it to be a reminder of those who are gifted, but never discovered, forever waiting for their turn in the limelight. Somewhat alien, androgynous and feature-less, the sculpture seems to indicate that genius is easily overlooked, especially if the search for it is bound by conventions.

Under a Thousand Masks is a small, somewhat disconnected show of eight pieces, with the Gentle Giant being the only sculpture. The other works are examples of Luqman’s digital art, many of them are of a dark, nightmarish mood. Inhabited by contorted, scarred and disfigured subjects, his works don’t shirk difficult issues such as addiction, exploitation and oppression and are reminiscent of both Hieronymus Bosch and the eerie yet comical character design in Guillermo del Toro’s film Pan’s Labyrinth.

Luqman goes far in his rebuttal of the more ornamental traditions in Arabic art, but doesn’t negate them. His works are certainly not what you’d expect to find in an average living room in the Middle East - or anywhere else, for that matter. They are too angry, dark and personal to work as decoration - which is exactly what gives them their power.

PS: No, I’m not putting up a snapshot of The Invisible Giant - go check it out yourself! Under a Thousand Masks runs until 30 November 2009 at Ghaf Gallery, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Organic farming in the UAE

Turning the desert fertile is part of the UAE’s national mission statement. Unsurprisingly, the country has acquired a serious chemical-fertilizer habit. Nitrate levels in the groundwater and crops have become a cause for alarm in some regions and so the government has made the wise decision to start backing organic farming methods. But the underlying question remains: can desert farming ever be economically viable - let alone sustainable?

The Samosa just published an article I wrote after visiting an organic farm in Shahama, near Abu Dhabi, this summer. It was an eye-opening experience - one that has made me even more curious about the UAE’s dream of turning the desert green. More to follow on this.

Bend it like Beckham in the Westbank

Just came across this beautifully-written article about the first ever international women’s football match in the Westbank, which took place this week. Palestine was playing Jordan, they drew 2-2. Facts aside, this is a good read.

Now, I don’t much like football, but I can’t help liking its strangely powerful potential for breaking all sorts of barriers.

Cycling in the desert and a city guide to Ramallah - a UAE magazine that does its own thing

I just discovered Brownbook, a three-year old magazine based in Dubai, which was recommended to me by a friend. He told me it reminds him of Monocle, and its neat but playful manner certainly suggests that the team behind it has taken a thorough look at some of the more off-beat up-market titles in the West (i-D, Frame, Mark and Mono.Kultur maybe?) and come up with a MENA spin on them.

Editor-in-chief Rashid Bin Shabib says: “Our focus is to look at Middle Eastern agendas and Middle Eastern culture and find out what is important in the region. (…) Everything exported from the Middle East is always about conflicts or mega-projects. It’s never about skiing in Tehran or surfing in Yemen or a new movement in the Sahara region.”

Content-wise and visually it’s a joy - especially when held up against some of the other mags that originate here in the UAE. The editorial line is decidedly apolitical, but the Agenda section is full of edge-skimming stories about contemporary life across the Middle East, written by a roster of international correspondents. This is social reportage of the Monocle-variety, but with a lower degree of elitism.

Plus they produce Podcasts, most of which are excellent.

With so many international titles out there, it’s not easy to set a new benchmark. But Brownbook appears to be making the cut. As more local writers, designers and artists get (back) into regional media, Brownbook could well accomplish the fine-tuning of its regional style. If it can sustain its current editorial and production values, it may even plant the seed for a more authentic, witty and aestethical cosmopolitanism in the region’s media.

The magazine is distributed internationally and is available in UAE, KUWAIT, QATAR, SAUDI ARABIA, BAHRAIN, BELGIUM, THAILAND, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, FRANCE and LEBANON. Selected retail outlets:

EGYPT
-The Townhouse Gallery
-Diwan Bookstore
PARIS
-Colette (Rue Saint Honore, Paris)
MILAN, ITALY
-10 Corso Como
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
-FAMOUS APE (17 rue de la rôtisserie)
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
-ParisTexas
BARCELONA, SPAIN
-The Rent Shop
AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
-Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum
JAPAN
-BALS Store, Tokyo
INDIA
-Bombay Electric (10 Reay House, Mumbai)
SINGAPORE
-Anthropology (Raffles City Shopping Center)

Inequality is a good thing because… Goldman Sachs says so.

After all, inequality ultimately leads to prosperity and opportunity for all - at least according to Brian Griffiths at Goldman Sachs. Speaking at a panel discussion on the subject “What is the place of morality in the marketplace?”, he also said that bankers should donate chunks of their re-inflated earnings to charity to make up for any perceived callousness.

So there you have it, that’s why Goldman Sachs has allocated an amount that is “just shy of the all-time high $16.9 billion allocated in the first three quarters of 2007″ for bonus payments this year. Out of charity.

All this at an event held at one of London’s oldest cathedrals on 20 October 2009, which was also attended by Financial Services Authority chairman Adair Turner, who called for a global tax on financial transactions to “redistribute bank profits to the world’s poor and to causes like fighting climate change”.

Wish I could have been there. Sounds like this debate, organised by the St Paul’s Institute got stuck right into the murky depths of the financial world’s moral quagmire. At least, that is what this Bloomberg report suggests.

The way the Bloomberg story is written has something incendiary about it, almost as if the agency reporter relished the chance to play off these two opposing schools of financial faith and really get the crowd going.

When faith meets finance, expect fireworks - in this case they take the form of deluge of criticism and, hopefully, a renewed interest in the question of if and how to reform the international financial system.