Fighting corruption

Peter Eigen is the founder of Transparency International and was the World Bank manager of programs in Africa and Latin America.  He spins an interesting tale about corruption in development aid, for example how foreign bribes were tax deductable in Germany.

Art infection

Art Rotterdam 2010 infected Rotterdam this new year, with gallery openings and happenings across the city (in fact, the majority of the action was across the Maas River on the notorious R’Dam southside, does that make us like Brooklyn?).  ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ showed the dark side of the hedonistic lifestyle in Mama Gallery.  In the Charlois neighborhood, SOUTH TOUR invited the art community to a night out with free food, beer, and live music (with some art as well) through 20 galleries and studios.  The main event of the urban festation was in the Cruise Terminal, a dizzying catalogue of 74 galleries from 11 countries, from within which I wrote down the names of three artists:

Bas Princen (Van Kranendonk) amazing urban landscapes from countries in transition. He will be famous I think.

 Mokattam ridge (garbage city) Cairo 2009

Eric Sep (Gist Gallery) installed an infrastructural sculpture of a layer cake infrastructure urban monolith, playfully constructed from miniature models complete with miniature graffiti.

‘favellatower’

It was also fantastic to see the new-classic by Sergey Maximishin.

‘Ferry transportation through Irtysh river, Tobolsk’

NL not so wet as some say

  

Two interesting quotes from this article about sea level:

“A United Nations report wrongly claimed that more than half of the Netherlands is currently below sea level. In fact, just 20 percent of the country consists of polders that are pumped dry, and which are at risk of flooding if global warming causes rising sea levels…”

“Dutch researchers reporting to Minister Cramer on Wednesday said that global warming appears to be slower than had been assumed. In a brochure published by the Dutch Platform for Communication on Climate Change (PCCC) the academics say that sunspot activity was relatively low over the past decade and will continue to be low for the foreseeable future.  The lower the solar activity, the smaller the warming effect. According to the PCCC, the average temperature may even decrease by between 0.2 and 0.4 degrees...”

Dutch participatory planning

“An ecological living quarter was built in Amsterdam in 1998. Ten years later this film was made to evaluate.”

A well-captured overview of the planning process and outcomes for the GWL neighborhood in Amsterdam with interviews from the community leaders, consultants, and architects.

GWL site 10th anniversary: birth of an eco-area from Diego Pos on Vimeo.

Evictions in Mukuru

• A settlement covering an area larger than Kibera, enumeration probably not so dissimilar
• Hugging Kenya Rail and Ngong River make it both vulnerable to evictions and flooding
• Area is called “Pipeline” – for there is an oil line connecting Nairobi and Kisumu
• Mukuru, made up of 13 villages, is c.o.v.e.r.e.d. i.n. t.r.a.s.h.      

                         Main road in Sinai Village, Ngong River dividing Sinai and Kwa Reuben Village.

Eviction Recount 1: Just before Christmas 15/12/2009, at 2am, evictions began with the bulldozering of the informal primary school for deaf students (marginalization of a societal group). Bulldozer and 100+ police evicted without notice; the reason: new pipeline. Shelters hug the tracks kilometers on end, evictions began at the very end/start of the village, and halted when villagers revolted and cut off the fingers of the driver of the bulldozer…

Ngong River separates Sinai Village with Kwa Reuben Village. The two are characteristically different, while Sinai is rusty and disorganized, hugging the railroad, Kwa Reuben shows evidence of parallel roofing; plotting. Although there is a row of Railway Hawkers, the settlement starts from a safe 30m from the tracks. The 20+m between hawkers and settlement provide a public space where a hawker has laid out all of the (washing) tubs he sells for display. He also sells home-made oil-lamps, constructed from light-bulbs turned upside down.

In Kwa Reuben, rooms cost 1000KSH +20KSH for ‘protection’, if you are a shop-owner. Protection is provided by Masai Warriors.

       

                Railway tracks along which the 13 Mukuru villages are situated, a footbridge.

In Mukuru, settlement squatting seems to work like this: there is a local area chief (though he may not necessarily be a traditional landowner – he might just be some guy from the country). He has his Vice-chairman; his right-hand man; his wingman. (He, too, needs not be a traditional owner; he is just some guy; a middleman). To receive a plot or a shelter, one must make an offer to both the Chief and the Vice-Chairman, neither is a representative of the Government; and both will disappear come eviction time, which is exactly what happened in the Gateway Zone.

Eviction Recount 2: At 9am, on 27.07.2007, 300 policeman evicted over 25,000 people at the Gateway Zone. A developer had been in negotiations with the area chiefs; the court granted eviction papers;  only to discover that after the developer mounted a 7+m high wall around the entire perimeter; he had no more right to the land than the squatters… or did he?

Informal primary school wall-paintings, with squatter kids in front of a biogas sanitation kiosk “Biocenter”, the quarry: now both a bathing and dumpsite, eviction area 3.

Eviction Recount 3: The 3km wide area was privately owned; the owner allowed settlers to lease a plot of land for an initial fee, and a monthly 100KSH rent- to re-enforce the temporary contract. After the owner’s death, the son sold the plot to a developer: Safaricom, who demanded an empty plot. As such, the son hired a gang, who brought in a gas tank, set it alight and forced settlers out of their homes through a violent rampage.

Mukuru is located on industrial land; this is highly evident, it surrounds a quarry. The quarry has filled with water, at the same time as trash is dumped into the quarry, there are those who are washing themselves.

Discussion with members of Mukuru CBO Alliance and left, David from the Nairobi People’s Settlement Network, “my container.”

To guarentee my return to the neighborhood, the Mukuru CBO Alliance presented me with a gift... Not a goat nor a dance performance, but a shipping container with a large water storage tank as a hat. The container has been unused and remained closed for 5 years… Wild ideas are very welcome!

People Settlements in Eastleigh

The Eastleigh district of Nairobi is infamous for hostility, crime, and Somalis (reportedly, when an oil tanker is pirated, new buildings spring up in Eastleigh).  The youth group Den of Hope kindly toured us through with a four-man protection crew.  The first stop was the free primary education school, a concrete building complex on a plot of open land, typical class size eighty students.  Den of Hope is cooperating with the local government to plant 500 seedling trees, including several on school grounds, as a local climate change action.

The leader of our tour is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable member of the Nairobi People’s Settlement Network, a no-nonsense grassroots organization dedicated to “giving people the tools of knowledge to agitate for their rights”, namely about eviction policies and humanitarian issues.  They also author shadow reports to contradict official state reports.  More about the Nairobi People’s Settlement Network (IRIN News).

Eastleigh primary school, Den of Hope tree planting, Eastleigh wall painting, Eastleigh streets

There is no waste management in Eastleigh, resulting in massive piles of garbage in many streets.  Once in a long while, the government may remove the piles, but they are immediately replaced.

Our tour extended to two informal settlements within Eastleigh, Kitui Village and Galole.

Galole open water where demolished homes stood, inner Galole, visiting a family, father and child in Galole

The characteristics of informal settlements are insecurity of tenure, poor durability of structures, lack of running water, lack of sanitation facilities, lack of electricity, and lack of improved roads.  Galole is the worst in all categories we witnessed.

We were taken through the neighborhood, which the inhabitants refer to as the Ghetto, by members of Faasik, the only NGO in the area, focused on HIV/AIDS issues, such as awareness and providing food for bed-ridden members.  There are about fifty openly HIV positive members in Galole.

600 Galole families live in small (3 by 4 meter) shanties with muddy floors, no toilets, no water (the closest tap is 1km away, costs 5KSH per jerry can), no drainage, and no washing space.  The structures, re-used patchworks of corrugated sheets, were built by “slum lords” who charge 800KSH per month (8 Euro) rent plus 200KSH security to the local slum gang.  The huts are jokingly referred to as “self-confused rooms” because one tiny, low room represents the bedroom, kitchen, toilet, bathing, etc.  The low rooftops collect trash bags, presumably from flying toilets.

The neighborhood squats on privately owned land.  Recently, the land owner had a part of the neighborhood demolished without any warning to the inhabitants and without replacement dwellings.  The demolished plot is now filled with open water, and is feared to be a breeding ground for malaria.

Galole is figuratively and literally a dead end (the dirty narrow pathways terminate abruptly).  The tenants have little hope of upgrading their lives.  The slum lords will not upgrade their structures.  The government has no interest in upgrading their infrastructure.  When the land owner decides to develop, the inhabitants will simply lose what little they have.