On International Human Rights Day [10th December 2009], the family of Jean Charles de Menezes can announce that permission has been granted for the official installation of a permanent memorial to Jean outside Stockwell tube station.
Thanks to [...] the petition backing the mosaic and following discussions between the family and London Underground, agreement was reached to place it on the wall outside of the station.
The mosaic will serve as a permanent reminder of the Menezes family’s fight for justice and will replace the shrine that has been maintained for four and half years outside Stockwell tube station.
The mosaic was created by artist Mary Edwards with help from Jean’s cousin Vivian Figueiredo and Chrys Vardaxi.
Speaking on behalf of the family, Vivian Figueiredo said:
“All of our family are so happy this memorial has been approved and we thank London Underground for their support. The pain of never achieving justice for Jean’s killing continues to haunt us everyday. But knowing his memory will be kept alive in the local community through this memorial is a tribute we could not have dreamed of. We thank all the members of the public who have supported us from the bottom of our hearts”
Jean’s family will be joined by special guests to unveil the beautiful locally-designed mosaic at 9:00am on January 7th 2010 to mark what would have been his 31st birthday. Further information on this event will be issued in early January.
PLEASE COME AN JOIN US ON 7 JANUARY AT 9am AT STOCKWELL STATION FOR THE UNVEILING OF THE MOSAIC
A couple of years of hard graft are starting to pay off for Portugal’s Buraka Som Sistema, whose blend of Angolan kuduro rhythms and European electro sounds has been destroying dancefloors across the world since the release of their From Buraka To The World EP in 2006.
Being asked to mix a fabriclive CD is a sure sign that the group have cemented their place on the dance music A-list, and the Buraka boys don’t pass up the opportunity to show exactly why they got invited to the party. This mix goes hard from the word go, with one or two more laid-back moments only serving to lull you into a false sense of security before the beats and basslines batter you again.
Touching on electro, house and dubstep, as well as their own nu-kuduro sound, the pace is relentless and the tunes come thick and fast. Apparently the group set out to avoid “making a compilation of 20 club bangers that two months from now are going to be totally forgotten,” and only time will tell if they’ve managed to pull that off. But right now this looks a lot like the sound of 2009.
You can check out a little taster – featuring Rio’s own Deize Tigrona – below, and buy a copy for your grandma’s Christmas stocking here.
Buraka Som Sistema feat. Deze Tigrona – Aqui Pra Vocês (Buratronic Mix)
Bernardo Senna is a Rio-based designer whose style, I’m told, is based on the element of surprise. He makes awesome chairs (em cima) and ambient lighting (em baixo). Shout to Rosana @ Simples Decoração for the heads-up.
There’s a great moment in one of the early series of Family Guy where Peter Griffin invents a ‘new type of flying machine’ with ten wings. “You know,” says baby Stewie, “I vaguely recall seeing footage somewhere of something exactly like this that, uh… leads me to believe this probably won’t work.”
I couldn’t help remember that scene when I read that Rio state governor Sergio Cabral is to hire former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani as a security advisor. The plan, it seems, is for Giuliani to advise the Rio authorities on a new ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy towards crime in the build up to the city’s hosting of the 2016 Olympic Games.
The New York Daily News carries a fine example of the kind of insight Giuliani has to offer, straight from the horse’s mouth:
“You have to pay attention to big and small things,” Giuliani told reporters after visiting a local shantytown. “And you also have to make the community safer, cleaner, healthier – plus educating the children.”
Right. Good. Thank you.
It seems unhelpful to suggest that this might be – at best – a complete waste of money and, at worst, an absolute disaster. But even leaving aside the fact that the supposed effectiveness of Giuliani’s ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy and ‘Broken Window Theory’ has been pretty comprehensively debunked, there is genuine cause for concern here.
In 2003, Giuliani Partners (“Integrity. Optimism. Courage. Preparedness. Communication. Accountability”) were paid $4.3 million to suggest solutions to Mexico city’s endemic crime problems.
How did it go? Not that well, actually. Murders went down, but rapes went up. And so did drug offences. And aggravated assaults. And fraud.
So I suppose all we can do is hope that, this time around, Mister Giuliani’s incredible flying machine turns out to be more of a Hercules and a bit less of a Hindenburg.
A photo from the Denver Post website, in a collection called Policing the Slums of Rio de Janeiro. The caption reads: “A young girl stands in a shopping cart in the poverty ridden City of God favela, or slum, on December 2, 2009 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.”
Not sure what to say about this really, just two observations:
(1) the photos ride under a banner ad for the job of Police Chief in Grand Junction, Colorado (it pays $120,000 if you’re interested)
(2) if I had a pound for every use of the phrase ‘poverty-ridden’ on that page I could… well I’d have quite a lot of pounds.
Nice short from Beija Films about the fantastic Rio-based NGO Luta Pela Paz (Fight for Peace), which works to overcome division and violence and promote the potential of young people through boxing, martial arts, education programmes and youth support services.
Superb, single-minded blog The Mid-Century Modernist is carrying a fascinating set of photos by architect Julian Weyer which focus on modernist Brazilian design. Weyer modestly describes his pictures as a ‘predictable’ tour of mid-century brazilian highlights, but although Oscar Niemeyer’s space-age architecture does feature heavily, the real star of the show is Roberto Burle Marx.
Marx was the landscape designer who worked alongside Niemeyer in creating and shaping so much of the public space in modern Brazil – and especially Brasília. But perhaps his biggest contribution to the country’s visual culture was the crazy paving design he created for the Copacabana promenade in Rio.
Check out the full set of Julian Weyer’s photos on his flickr.
You’ve heard the rumours. I’ve heard the rumours. We’ve all heard the rumours. But now it’s official: 2010 will finally see the release of Beyoncé’s long-awaited first foray into the world of forró music, I Am Maria Bonita. This one gots hit written all over it…
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