person:kim basinger

  • In a Guardian Story About an Environmental Conflict in Kenya, the White Saviour Rides Again · Global Voices
    https://globalvoices.org/2017/06/24/in-a-guardian-story-about-an-environmental-conflict-in-kenya-the-white

    The Guardian recently published an article by Tristan McConnell, their correspondent in Nairobi, Kenya, titled “Who shot Kuki Gallman? The story of a Kenyan conservationist heroine.” McConnell attempts to tell the story of a conflict in Laikipia, a county in northern Kenya, through the eyes of Gallmann, who is best known for her autobiography I Dreamed Of Africa, which was turned into a 2000 feature film starring Kim Basinger.

    ...

    Let’s begin with the article’s descriptions of the Laikipia landscape—”undulating savannah, forests, winding rivers, waterfalls, rocky hills and steep-shouldered escarpments. The land is home to elephants and rhinos, giraffes, zebras and antelopes, wild dogs, bat-eared foxes and lions.” It was here, the article continues, that “white, often British, settlers came to farm wheat and raise cattle during the first half of the 20th century, before independence. ” The ahistoricism of the description is jarring. It suggests that Laikipia was a terra nullius, an empty, unclaimed vastness waiting for someone to put it to good use. This, of course, is not the case.

    Laikipia was the traditional homeland of the Maasai and Samburu people. It was violence—guns, coercion and deceit—that pushed these people out and created the “emptiness” so beloved of white settlers. Laikipia is not merely the habitat of bat-eared foxes and wild dogs—it is home to real, breathing humans. And the settlers were not a bunch of benign farmers looking to raise livestock. They were backed by the firepower and coercive machinery of the colonial state.

    L’article décrié
    Who shot Kuki Gallmann? The story of a Kenyan conservationist heroine
    https://www.theguardian.com/global/2017/jun/18/who-shot-kuki-gallmann-the-story-of-a-kenyan-conservationist-heroine#co
    avec entre autres ce commentaire

    Desaprate savages in a voilent and fore-lone land. This article despite being mostly factual is steeped in colonial spin. Laikipia is home to elephants and rhinos yes, but it is also home to millions of Africans of different tribal nations. The white farmers - mostly British- did not just come over here ’to farm wheat and raise cattle during the first half of the 20th century’. They stole their lands after forced expulsions of the Maasai and other tribes off of fertile lands in the Rift Valley in the 1920’s. Today, 52 years after independence 51% of Laikipia is in the hands of private ranchers, some of them the post independence Black elite who ’acquired’ colonial ranches. This issue is too complicated to wrap around the convenient ’White hero helping save poor blighted Africa’. In the 1990’s after one of the worst droughts there was a huge backlash at private ’conservancies’ that kept their lands fenced off and their dams full for the wildlife as local people died of starvation. This led to a change whereby some ranches agreed to share their grass and water with locals during times of drought. The land issue here as in most parts of Kenya was never resolved, mostly because any action to nationalise lands and distribute them fairly in the 1960’s would 100% have led to a CIA/MI6 sponsored coup under the guise of ’fighting Communism’. This left space for local African elites to fill in the gap left by the fleeing colonials to become the new owners.
    Forward 50 years and the pressures of climate change and population growth added to local political agitation has led to the death of Kenyans of ALL types.
    Blaming White land owners is not the answer, neither is blaming poor pastoralists who have no option. However the colonial legacy is alive and well - I wonder how many other victims in Laikipia got treatment from the British Army in Nanyuki... We need to focus on ALL the causes of the violence and combat the negative and hopeless image perpetuated by articles like this.

    p.s. Kenya has had several elections without violence since independence through out the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s and recently the 2013 and 2003 elections. Just saying...

    #Kenya #conflit #conservation #colonialisme #peuples_autochtones #climat #élevage #agriculture #environnement

  • Las cincuentonas más deseadas
    http://www.el-nacional.com/escenas/cincuentonas-deseadas_0_79793385.html

    Swofty, le nouveau néologisme

    Las «swofty», mujeres solteras de más de cincuenta años, son hoy las más deseadas, las que mayor admiración despiertan y las más difíciles de conquistar.

    Les « swofty », femmes de plus de cinquante ans, sont aujourd’hui les plus désirées, celles qui éveillent l’admiration la plus grande et les plus difficiles à conquérir.

    Sharon Stone, Susan Sarandon, Kim Basinger, Madonna, Demi Moore o Andie MacDowell hacen gala de esta nueva etiqueta que se acomoda en la sociedad del siglo XXI y deja a un lado el adjetivo «cougar» (puma), mujer «depredadora» que mantiene una relación sentimental con chicos más jóvenes, explica la escritora y periodista española Joana Bonet.

    "Sharon Stone, Susan Sarandon, Kim Basinger, Madonna, Demi Moore ou Andie MacDowell illustrent cette nouvelle appellation qui convient à la société du XXIè siècle et écarte l’adjectif « cougar », femme prédatrice entretenant une relation sentimentale avec des garçons plus jeunes" explique l’écrivaine-journaliste Joana Bonet.

    Orgullosas de haber celebrado los 50 años en todo su esplendor, estas mujeres, que trabajan sus músculos, luchan por preservar su juventud y estudian sus estilismos, son conscientes del interés que despiertan y salen a la calle pisando fuerte, con seguridad.

    La edad ya no es un impedimento ni para el amor ni para resultar tremendamente sexy.

    Fières d’avoir fêté leurs 50 ans dans toute leur splendeur, ces femmes, qui travaillent leurs muscles, se battent pour préserver leur jeunesse et travaillent leurs looks, sont conscientes de l’intérêt qu’elles éveillent et s’affirment dans la rue (?), avec assurance.