gooddagui

Tuesday, 7 February 2012

VIDEO: Art by animals goes on show

A work of abstract expressionism by a chimp and a still life of a flower by an elephant are part of a new exhibition in London of artworks created by animals.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/entertainment-arts-16860961

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Thursday, 2 February 2012

Aye-aye

Aye-ayes are the largest nocturnal primate in the world. They are also the only primate thought to use echolocation, which they use to find insect grubs hidden 2cm deep inside a tree. During mating, aye-ayes hang upside-down on a branch, and the procedure lasts for about an hour.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Aye-aye

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Saturday, 28 January 2012

Can London 2012's opening ceremony beat its predecessors?

Danny Boyle is up against faked footprint-shaped fireworks, aliens in flying saucers and spectacles with artillery fire and pigeons

Anyone concerned that Danny Boyle faces a daunting, Newton-like climb on to the shoulders of choreographic giants in his role as the Olympic opening ceremony organiser needs only to glance at some of his predecessors' efforts for reassurance.

Beijing 2008 saw computer faked footprint-shaped fireworks trek across the sky from Tiananmen Square to the Bird's Nest stadium, and a seven-year-old singer's vocals mimed by a more aesthetically-pleasing girl.

In 1984, not content with sending torch-bearer Rafer Johnson up the longest, steepest staircase imaginable and having an Evel Knievel lookalike in a jetpack buzz the crowd, the LA games organisers decided for the closing ceremony that nothing embodied the Olympic spirit quite as potently as a big alien in a flying saucer.

Hitler's ambitious plans for the 1936 Berlin Olympics ? complete with Leni Riefenstahl's famous film of the games ? were heroically undermined by Jesse Owens' victories. However, the games did produce one major legacy: the torch relay. Less tradition-setting were the Austrian and French teams' Nazi salutes at the Berlin ceremony, though some French athletes later claimed they were giving the not wholly dissimilar Olympic salute. Eight years earlier, the Amsterdam games kicked off with a spectacle involving pigeons, artillery fire and the Olympic flame being lit for the first time. Sadly, Queen Wilhelmina missed the extravaganza. Either furious at the organisers' failure to consult her or disapproving of the fact it was held on a Sunday, she became the first host head of state not to attend the opening ceremony, remaining in the isolated splendour of her Norwegian holiday retreat.Doubtless much to the relief of the planning committee, the Queen managed to overcome her umbrage, or principles, in time to make the closing ceremony, also on a Sunday.

But if it's a masterclass in feelgood internationalism that Boyle seeks, he may wish to look all the way back to the 1896 Athens games: 80,000 people joined the Greek royal family at the Panathinaiko stadium to usher in the first modern Olympics, where the Danish-born King George (watched by his Russian wife Olga) patriotically declared: "Long live the nation. Long live the Greek people."

The ceremony clearly met with the approval of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics. Watching the crowds stream into the stadium, he was delighted to witness the "joyous and motley concourse".

Sam Jones

Edward Gibbes

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jan/27/past-olympic-games-opening-ceremonies

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Wednesday, 11 January 2012

In praise of ? dream returns | Editorial

As Thierry Henry proved against Leeds, a dream return is more than just the remembrance of things past

The game was drifting off to sleep. All the talk was of the impending replay and Arsenal's perennial frustration with its lost cutting edge. On comes Thierry Henry, on loan from New York Red Bulls. Nine minutes and five touches later, Henry slips past Leeds' stalwart defence and curls the shot around a hitherto untroubled keeper. He must have done the same shot dozens of times. This was his 227th goal for his old club. But doing it there and then made this one the stuff of dreams. For a dream return is more than just the remembrance of things past. Henry can no longer slip past three men before a turbocharger kicks in. But he can reinject the old magic, restore that sense of self-belief, put the adrenaline back into the system. Paul Scholes for Manchester United, and Ian Botham when he was recalled against New Zealand and took two wickets in 12 balls, have this quality is common. For a brief moment, they all played as if they had never really left.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/11/praise-dream-returns-editorial

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Sunday, 8 January 2012

Youssou N'Dour: the singer who changed his tune | Observer profile

The foremost figure in world music once said he never had any political ambitions. Now he wants to be Senegal's president, becoming a force for change rather than just a voice of change

It stands 49 metres tall at the western tip of Africa. The costly bronze statue, on a hilltop overlooking the Atlantic from Dakar, Senegal, is meant to symbolise continental renaissance. Critics regard it as a symbol too ? of another African leader who has lost the plot, consumed by hubris.

Who, then, will challenge its builder, Abdoulaye Wade, the octogenarian president set on clinging to power beyond his time? Step forward Youssou N'Dour, spine-tingling singer, composer, occasional actor, entrepreneur, political activist and now would-be saviour of Africa's latest imperilled democracy.

The 52-year-old has suspended his lucrative recording and touring career to take up his "supreme patriotic duty" of running for president in next month's Senegalese elections. Accusing Wade of "hearing only in mono, not stereo", N'Dour says he is answering the demand of the people for an alternative.

From Later? With Jools Holland to the political front line: time will tell whether this will also go down as an act of hubris. Gloriously gifted, N'Dour is the undisputed king of Senegalese music, mixing the country's traditional mbalax with everything from Cuban rumba to hip-hop, jazz and soul. His prolific output sings of Africa's identity, heritage and hopes, sometimes with a political edge. He is arguably the most important figure in world music.

And he is famous for much more than being famous: the embodiment of the self-made man, he is feted at home as an entrepreneur and job-creator, owning two recording studios, a micro-finance company and a stake in a leading nightclub. He is a media mogul with television and radio stations and the widely read L'Observateur newspaper. "I have more than a thousand people working for me," he told the BBC last week.

His political credentials doubtless make him palatable to the west. N'Dour campaigned for the release of Nelson Mandela, performed at concerts for Amnesty International and Live 8 and is a Unicef goodwill ambassador, a role he has temporarily stepped aside from while he campaigns. But his change of gear now, plunging into the hurly-burly of domestic politics, is something else. It could be described as analogous to Bob Geldof or Bono running for taoiseach.

N'Dour told the Guardian four years ago: "I want to use my music to deliver a political message? but I don't want to be a politician. In politics, sometimes you have to lie, or you make a promise that you cannot keep. If you play a political role, you have to stop being an artist."

He will hope his celebrity brings greater success than it did for George Weah, the former world footballer of the year, defeated for the Liberian presidency in 2005, or for Afropop pioneer Fela Kuti, who announced plans to seek Nigeria's top position in 1979 and 1983 but was disqualified both times. N'Dour is a late entrant to a crowded field and his political nous is questioned.

"For the last 20 to 30 years, this man has been able to express the feelings of the Senegalese," said Mamadou Diouf, a Senegalese academic and director of the Institute for African Studies at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs in New York. "But how is he going to move from the claim, 'I am not a politician' to a genuine campaign for political office?"

Diouf believes the musician has an uphill task to win the election, arguing that he lacks organisation and that Senegalese voters tend to prefer their leaders university educated in the western tradition. Senegal was the first of France's west African colonies; residents of its four main towns were granted French citizenship. L�opold Senghor, the first president, was considered one of the 20th-century's finest lyric poets in French.

N'Dour does not even have a school certificate. He was born in a working-class suburb of Dakar, the eldest child of a car mechanic, and began by hustling pirated CDs in car parks. "It's true that I haven't pursued higher education," he admitted last week, adding: "I have proved my competence, commitment, rigour and efficiency time and time again. I have studied at the school of the world."

Despite his father's wish that he pursue law or medicine, N'Dour started singing at circumcision ceremonies before his voice had broken and was professional by the age of 13. With a voice that seemed heaven-sent, he sang in small clubs in Dakar in Wolof, the language of his griot (praise-singing) ancestors, and was rapidly crowned "Le petit prince de Dakar".

In 1979, he formed his own ensemble, the Etoile de Dakar. Their early work was in a Latin style popular all over Africa then, but in the 80s he developed a unique sound when he started his current group, Super Etoile de Dakar.

It was then that Peter Gabriel, the former Genesis singer turned producer and promoter, flew to Paris to hear N'Dour perform to a Senegalese audience. "I was blown away," he told the Observer. "The words that came to mind were liquid gold. A fluid and expressive voice."

N'Dour appeared on Gabriel's platinum-selling So album in 1986 and joined him on a subsequent world tour. "He's probably the top African artist in many ways. His music has reached a lot of people outside his culture. He's also become something of a statesman with all the campaigns he's taken on."

Gabriel, who is godfather to one of N'Dour's sons (the singer reciprocated with Gabriel's son), said N'Dour is probably the best-known person in Senegal. "When I was there, whenever I was stopped by police or asked for a bribe, I identified myself as a friend of Youssou and the problem generally disappeared."

But the notion that N'Dour could do for African music what Bob Marley did for reggae looks difficult to sustain. Musically, there have been hits and misses. He collaborated with Paul Simon and Branford Marsalis and his duet with Neneh Cherry, "7 Seconds", was one of the bestselling songs of the 90s. Twice, however, he has been dropped by major labels, struggling to balance African and western tastes.

Political rivals should heed his resilience, however. He won a Grammy in 2005 for Egypt, an album of Islamic praise songs. N'Dour is a member of the country's most powerful Sufi brotherhood, which will do his election chances no harm. He told Observer Music Monthly in 2004: "I'm a modern Muslim. I pray, and if I have a question, I ask someone who is more educated in the religion than me. But for me bringing religion into politics is wrong and it shouldn't be necessary to kill even one person in the cause of Islam."

Egypt was interpreted as a political statement in the post-9/11 world and N'Dour cancelled a major US tour after the Iraq war. In 2006, he was the only black actor in Amazing Grace, Michael Apted's film about slavery. As a goodwill ambassador for Unicef, he has focused on African issues such as the Darfur crisis, broadening internet access and the famine in Somalia.

N'Dour once supported Wade and sang for him during official visits before they fell out. The president's 11-year reign has been soured by widespread allegations of corruption, nepotism and erosion of free speech. He tried that old trick ? amending the constitution ? to all but guarantee himself a third term, only to be knocked back by a wave of protest.

N'Dour's bid to restore the democratic shine is no publicity-seeking whimsy, according to Richard Dowden, director of the Royal African Society. "Youssou N'Dour is a really serious guy," he said. "He genuinely cares about the music and gets involved in the causes. "

Critics take a different view, arguing that N'Dour is running for president to protect his businesses from Wade. When he applied for a licence to open his TV station, approval was held up for two years and he was then ordered to limit its programming to "cultural" matters. Diouf suspects that it may be commercial interests, not change-the-world idealism, which prompted N'Dour to enter politics now.

Indeed, the pragmatic N'Dour risks being seen as more Cliff Richard than Occupy Wall Street. He is most popular for the mbalax beat, a traditional style that does not necessarily resonate with the under-25s who make up about two-thirds of Senegal's population.

They favour hip-hop and it is rappers who have taken the lead in agitating against Wade. Diouf added: "N'Dour is 52. He's part of the old group. He's no longer a social interpreter; he's now a well-established artist and entrepreneur. The rappers are playing the most important role against President Wade."

Should he win, however, this voice of change will have real power for the first time. What would he do with it ? and what would it do to him? Gabriel admitted: "I have mixed feelings. In politics, it's hard to remain pure. It isn't easy to be president of any country. He's a reluctant politician. He never had political ambitions when I was working with him.

"It's out of desperation this time. People feel betrayed and they identified Youssou as the only one popular enough to remove the one responsible. I'm worried for him, but I'm also hopeful. He has great heart and an absolutely pure passion for his country and I hope that will carry him a long way."

David Smith

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2012/jan/08/observer-profile-youssou-ndour

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Let this be the year we decide we are proud of our society | Sunder Katwala

The British Future/Observer State of the Nation poll suggests we Britons are confident of who and where we are

This is a year when Britain will want to tell a story to the world. The message that we want to project overseas must depend on what we want to say to ourselves, too, about who we are, what we stand for, and what we feel about how we have changed.

These are anxious times when it comes to identity questions. As Alex Salmond prepares for a Scottish vote on independence, will we still be British in five years' time? When will the English find their voice? With the government struggling to reduce net migration, will calls to cap the population grow? The British Future/Observer State of the Nation poll captures all of these anxieties. There is a sober awareness of the perils facing British and European economies, the dangers of a lost generation if young graduates can't find jobs, and potential pressures on public services from both austerity and immigration. But we remain quietly hopeful about our families and the places we live ? and most people are looking forward to some Olympic golds and a bit of royal bunting, too, to lift the spirits.

This could be the year that we decide that we are proud of the society that we have become. This poll suggests a confidence in being able to combine the modern and the traditional. At the millennium, the failure of the Dome was its mistaken idea that Britain would be more confident about its future by drawing a line under our history. The result was contentless and empty. So we should celebrate Shakespeare and Dickens as we remember that these Olympics are being held in London, not Paris, because Seb Coe and east London's teenagers captured the Games with their vision of modern British pride.

The Queen's diamond jubilee will spark reflections not just on the service of the monarch, but on how the past six decades have changed Britain, for better and worse. We may watch Downton Abbey, but we do not want to live in it, yet the question of whether we are more classless than six decades ago divides people. Our poll also finds that ethnic minorities feel just a little more proud to be British than white Brits, and immigrants most optimistic about the future. That could be good news for integration, as long as we pay more attention to those who fear being left behind.

We have finally seen some justice for the Lawrence family. We saw the broadest campaign for British justice that we have ever seen. Who would have imagined an alliance stretching from the radical black left and anti-racist movement, through New Labour ministers to the Daily Mail editor, Paul Dacre, whose brilliant campaign made the legal establishment take notice? The lesson is that we brought about change, not by competing over whose grievances really matter, so again we need to give greater voice to all.

The poll captures the need to take integration seriously, to ensure that we do not segregate our children into mono-ethnic schools in diverse towns. Yet the poll also hits Norman Tebbit's cricket test for six. That will boost the argument of Tory modernisers such as Sayeeda Warsi that that argument's time has passed. It's good news, too, for my dad, who came here from India in 1968: he need no longer fear failing a loyalty test. It may even console him for Sachin Tendulkar's collapsing form, which required much tact on my part when I took him to the Oval last summer.

But I still hope that other British-born children of immigrants will mostly choose to cheer for us, with a soft spot for their parents' birthplace, too.

A confident democracy should always debate the most difficult questions openly. But that can take the form of a conversation, and not always a shouting match. Only a miserabilist minority believe Britain is going to hell in a handcart, but few would claim that little needs to change.

We are launching British Future to explore how we extend confidence in modern Britain to those who do not feel it, to help ensure no difficult issue is kept off limits, and to challenge people to work together ? on issues of identity and integration, migration and opportunity ? to create workable solutions and a future that people want to share. As we seek to create an identity and society we can all share, 2012 feels like a good moment to begin.

Sunder Katwala is director of British Future

Sunder Katwala

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/07/year-we-decide-proud-society

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Curb power of pubcos, say MPs

Ministers face Commons defeat over reform of pub business as MPs call for statutory code of practice in an industry that is losing 20 pubs a month

Ministers are being accused of naivety, if not outright collusion, in their dealings with pub companies, as the government faces the prospect of an embarrassing defeat this week over its relations with the big pub operators.

An all-party move to condemn the government's handling of relations between pub companies and tied landlords will be put to a vote on Thursday. The motion attacks business department proposals to reform the pub industry and calls for a statutory code of practice and an industry adjudicator. The government favours making the industry's own codes of practice legally binding.

It comes at a time when pubs continue to close at a rate of more than 20 a month. Critics have claimed the government's stance puts the interests of big corporations ahead of local communities. Conservative MP Brian Binley said the government had "sold its soul to the devil" by refusing to introduce a statutory code that would give landlords an option to free themselves from brewers. Nearly 29,000 of the 55,000 pubs in Britain are tied.

The Business Innovation and Skills select committee has also called for the introduction of a statutory independent adjudicator. In a report in September ? its fourth on the issue ? the select committee found that the pubcos had "wasted a final opportunity" to reform their practices, offered to them by the committee in a previous report in 2010.

Also lining up against the Liberal Democrat business minister Ed Davey for Thursday's vote will be the all-party Save the Pub group, chaired by Greg Mulholland, one of Davey's Lib Dem colleagues.

Mulholland said yesterday: "I think there has been collusion between the business department and the British Beer and Pub Association, the representatives of the pub companies. I think the minister has colluded in this at worst or at best has had the wool pulled over his eyes.

"The business model of the pubcos has been akin to the banks. They overvalued their estates, borrowed vast amounts of money against that and when the property market collapsed, they found their ludicrous valuations were wrong and they suddenly found themselves billions of pounds in debt.

"They are trying to service those debts ? mainly with foreign creditors ? by taking more and more from the turnover of each pub." Mulholland said the Federation of Small Businesses and the Forum for Private Business had been asking for a free-of-tie option for lessees and an open market rent review.

"In the past if a pub owner was tied he paid more for the beer, but received a discounted rent. What has happened is the pub companies have increasingly put the rents and beer prices up."

Pub campaigners such as Justice for Licensees argue the only way to resolve the issue is to introduce an independent assessment of what rent should be paid for normal beer prices, and if a licensee is willing to charge higher prices, the rent is reduced.

Mulholland said the business department's self-regulatory deal, putting the existing codes of practice on a legal footing, was "not the option people want ? they want a free-of-tie option to end the market abuse".

He added the proposed code made matters worse "since pubcos' wealthy lawyers are using it as a way of binding tenants and lessees into the code of practice that is inadequate, including excluding the option of going free of tie".

The Business department argues the Office of Fair Trading has found no evidence of competition problems having a significant adverse impact on consumers and therefore the government was not minded to intervene in setting the terms of commercial, contractual relationships.

It also argues legally binding self-regulation can be introduced far more quickly than any statutory solution and can, if devised correctly, be equally effective.

Patrick Wintour

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jan/08/curb-pubcos-power-say-mps

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