Be Her Nor Us

doctorswithoutborders:

Johannesburg is the economic engine of the most prosperous country on the African continent, but it is also home to inner city slums inhabited by vulnerable migrants. These people came to the city looking for new opportunities, but what many found instead was a life defined and circumscribed by crime, exploitation, marginalisation, violence, and xenophobia. Many fear that they will be deported from the country. As a result, they remain hidden from view in abandoned high-rise office buildings. One of these buildings is now referred to as Dark City, which remained without electricity during the city’s original economic boom.

Urban Survivors is a multimedia project by Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in collaboration with the NOOR photo agency and Darjeeling Productions, highlighting the critical humanitarian and medical needs that exist in slums the world over.

Photo: © Pep Bonet/NOOR

brain-food:

“Burst” by Gurbir Grewal

“I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.”

Yes. Yes you are Oscar Wilde. And I am insanely in love with you for precisely that reason.

I know I spend half my time preaching to the (very few) readers of my blog on what they should be reading/listening to etc (and generally being a bossy cow really), please please PLEASE read anything by Oscar Wilde. And no, the quote above does not count. Read The Importance of Being Earnest or The Picture of Dorian Gray, whatever, just do it! I know what you’re thinking. “Does this slightly deranged teenager actually expect me to spend time reading a book written by a man who’s hair resembles the mix of a demented rabbit and a choir boy? Paha, I laugh in your face!”. That is understandable- those were the exact thoughts that went through my head when I was terrorised into reading it as an innocent 15-year-old. And then I read The Importance of Being Earnest.

It was funny. And interesting! And clever! How bloody dare it! Fast forward a few years and I’m hooked. I sit up late at night rocking backwards and forwards in a corner of my room in the dark if I go too long without reading him. I’m like a literary crack addict. But not in a bad way. In a good way.So now that I’ve convinced you of my healthy lifestyle go forth! Do it! Read the brilliance that is Oscar Wilde and become like me! 

futurejournalismproject:

Mali Celebrates African Photographers

Via the BBC:

Hundreds of artists, collectors and curators have gathered in Mali to celebrate one of Africa’s biggest photography exhibitions, Bamako Encounters. Ecological concerns are a major theme this year. This work is from the series A Vanishing Wetland by Nigerian artist Akintunde Akinyele.

(Source: futurejournalismproject)

sunsetparadiso:

Grace of Monaco, the movie

(Source: endlesslytraveling)

Before now, I’d never even imagined Audrey Hepburn as anything other than what she liked like in My Fair Lady. Growing up with a dad who loved those sorts of films, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Roman Holiday and Sabrina were learnt of by heart from an early age. Cheekbones made of granite, eyes that make the straightest of women question their sexuality, yup, she had it all looks-wise. 

But then, what people don’t recall as much is the fact that she was a good person. She worked with UNICEF until she died, and her (not really her’s) tips on beauty produce a tear or two once read. And so, when you see her like she is here, she just looks more beautiful. Because she isn’t bursting with botox and silicone. She looks human and herself. Yet another reason to idolise her