You can’t help being enthused and inspired by our affiliate Pan Jazz International which is a truly global music community that brings young people of all backgrounds together from across the globe with music.  Not just any music, they play funky jazz with orchestras built around the Carribean-style steel pan drum. They are a collective of music enthusiasts who starting with only six youngsters in the 1980s have managed to grow into a global family that spans three continents and boasts a wealth of diversity.  Their community comprises the founding UK-based Porchester Panyard; the South Africa Pan Jazz Project and Pan Jazz Project India.  These three groups are funded in part by the proceeds from their own performances and other fundraising efforts.  In the spirit of cultural exchange and global community a contingency of 45 members of the Porchester Pan Yard has recently returned from a tour in South Africa.

There they had the appropriate honour of playing concerts as part of (and in the spirit of) the just ended football World Cup festivities alongside members of the South Africa Pan Jazz Project. Through interaction and cultural exchange based around the medium of music; the two groups have developed lasting bonds in a web which will continue to perpetuate as the Pan Jazz fervor continues to grow with more and more exchange programmes. Their work is especially poignant in a place like South Africa; where social divisions from the past have left inevitable scars.

Pictures and a testimonial from one of instructors on the recent trip are available after the ‘read more’ jump.
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Accepting that there are some elements of our identities which are pre-detetermined such as our appearances, the prevailing culture where we are born and the things we experience from our surroundings - What makes an individual’s identity unique? We are social animals, meaning that if we are ‘normal’, we live in contact with others – friends, family, significant others and acquaintances. As a result we are constantly comparing ourselves to each other and tend define ourselves in reaction to other people and their perspective stereotypes. More specifically, we are influenced by others.  There is no such thing as  identity without a socio-cultural/politcal context to relate it to in the first place. We either act to be identified with or apart from certain stereotypes and pre-conceived notions which we think other people have awareness of and can relate to.

It seems that in making choices about how one wants to be perceived in our information-age societies of pre-packaged social norms, there is only the choice between conforming or being the outcast. An example of such behaviour  is putting on one’s best outfit for a job interview with the understanding that people who wear well tailored suits appear more capable and successful. The flip-side to that would be someone who constantly wears casual attire  to make a statement that they are carefree as opposed to being ‘preppy’ for fear of being perceived as a ’stiff-nosed tosser’. However I’m sure that most of us a familiar with the phrases ‘mutton dressed up as lamb‘ and ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing‘…

Take Michael Jackson as an example of a paradox in identity politics (see hyperlinked article). He was inspired by read more…

Transportation (of people and goods) seems a benign topic on the surface of it. However, when one start to think of its role in our daily lives (i.e. its facilitation of human progress and interaction); we begin to realise how it should not be taken for granted. Transport networks are the metaphoric “blood circulation” of our global society’s  on both a micro and macro scale. Transport facilitates trade and travel which bring people together.

Now imagine a world where you’d be able to eat dinner in New York and have dessert in Paris less than an hour later having traveled there by train.  Unfathomable?

According to the video above; by 2099 it may be possible.  However; China is one nation taking bold strides to develop our global transport networks today.

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Good question… after all modern technology enables to connect with and see events from the other side of the planet in almost real time. Indeed we live in a world where there are now so many sources of information available to us, it is possible to read/hear/see about the same event in dozens of different newspapers, websites, blogs, radio and television stations. Moreover, the explosion of You Tube and user generated content on the Internet has helped to increase the variety of news sources although not necessarily the quality or impartiality.

Yet, how objective can someone be if they only read The Sun or the New York Times or just watch Sky Sports News and Fox News every night when all are owned by Rupert Murdoch? (For a full length documentary on the influence of Murdoch’s empire click here). What if you only got your news from one source? What would that do to your view of the world around you? Well the reporter in the video below undertook to find out, by relying on the Daily Mail alone for his news for an entire month. The video raises some interesting questions about keeping an open mind with regard to all news sources because you never know when that “conspiracy” theory might end up being true.

Over the jump; check out a short comical song also inspired by the Daily Mail!!

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Things have changed once again.  It used to be that you could get on a plane quite easily after your baggage was x-rayed for contraband – drugs, excessive cash etc. However, the September 11th attacks ushered in a slew of aviation security changes which are now considered to be commonplace such as: metal detectors, pat downs and stricter check-in procedures to name a few. It seems unfathomable that knives were once allowed onto planes. The botched attack of the infamous shoe-bomber, Richard Reid, meant that some of us now have to accept being asked to take off our shoes for x-raying as part of the security measures. The 2006  transatlantic aviation attack plot led to hand luggage liquid bans/restrictions as well.

Things are different now. The attempted attack by the 23-year old Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, otherwise known as the “christmas or crotch bomber” on Detroit-bound Flight 253 has change things once more. The latest slew of security measures in include full body x-rays, tighter immigration rules and behavioural profiling…
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The devastation caused by the earthquake has led global society to rally round in such an extraordinary manner. If it was not before, Haiti (the poorest country in the Western hemisphere) is on everybody’s mind at the moment. The vivid extensive media coverage and availability of modern technology has ensured that global society has been able to rapidly coordinate a program of much needed relief through donations of cash and kind. This is a true testament of human empathy – Governments (like Senegal’s have even offered free land for resettlement), along with celebrities and individuals alike whom have also risen to the occasion after having been compelled to respond creatively and give generously. A new report by the Inter-American Development Bank estimates that the total cost of reconstruction from ‘the most destructive disaster of modern times‘ could be as high as $14 billion.

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There is campaign currently being waged in the UK to get Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name” to be Christmas Number One and it is hard not to support such a move when the motivation has arisen from the grassroots. Basically some music fans fed up of being on the receiving end of another X-Factor ballad ruining their listening pleasure set up a Facebook page to get RATM to Number One. Indeed the campaign has been such a success that Rage are currently leading X-Factor winner Joe McElderry by about 10,000 copies… and the song could hardly be more appropriate with the infamous lyric opposing conformity used as the title for this article. Check out the video below where the band themselves explain why they think the campaign is a good idea. What a shame the BBC could not allow RATM to vent their frustration live on air, even if it was eight in the morning. Indeed the idea that Rage would agree to be censored by the BBC, particularly on this song, for this cause and not sing the lyrics they have written is laughable. Go on RATM, take the power back!!!!!

Download the single now from itunes to show your support!

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