Nur Ahmad Furlong

Category: Society

  • Faith 47 & the South African Reality

    Many of us who have spent the last few years in Cape Town may have come into contact with the street art of Faith 47. I’ve always wondered about the purpose behind these activists and their semi-subliminal messages which are scattered about on the neglected walls of our society. Faith 47 being one specific artist who’s work has always interested me, possibly due to the name Faith or maybe because it’s clear there’s more going on behind the scenes than just street art.

    When I saw this video I gained a much better perspective, and almost an instantaneous appreciation for the value of consciousness art, something as a web designer for the last decade I have almost completely forgotten about.

    the cape of good hope from rowan pybus & faith47 on Vimeo.

    The Cape of Good Hope tells the story of the tragic and sometimes horrific newspaper headlines that people are faced with every day. It captures the darkness while suspending the headlines in time through a visual installation in the grimy district of Gympie Street in Lower Woodstock, Cape Town. The music for this video was produced by Inge Beckmann. – found on designindaba.com

    This video presents a street art piece, captured in an intensly emotive video presentation. It takes a deep look into the messages which litter our street lamps and signs about the ugly side of life in South Africa.

    No further comment!

  • Blog Action Day 08 Tackles Poverty

    Some of you might have heard about Blog action day last year. It’s an annual event setup by Envato (ex eden creations) to motivate bloggers to focus on a specific issue on a specific day by blogging about it in whatever way they see fit. By doing so bloggers worldwide created hype around environmental issues last year. This year Poverty is the main focus of the event.

    Global issues like poverty are extremely complex. There is no simple,
    clear answer. By asking thousands of different people to give their
    viewpoints and opinions, Blog Action Day creates an extraordinary lens
    through which to view these issues. Each blogger brings their own
    perspective and ideas. Each blogger posts relating to their own blog
    topic. And each blogger engages their audience differently.

    Blog Action Day 08 aims to focus the lens on the issue of poverty and change the conversation on the web on one specific day. The idea is to stimulate discussion, debate and hopefully come out with some solutions to tackling Poverty woldwide.

    Bloggers are playing an increasingly important role in tackling social issues through awareness campaigns and by influencing activism. This year’s blog action day has taken the effort a step up by providing resources for bloggers to understand the issues which contribute to poverty.

    If you’re interested in participating in this event you can register your blog to notify the site that you will be participating. The next step would be to work on your personal part of blog action day by writing a post/s, creating a podcast or video cast, and then posting these on 15 October 2008.

    Some Big web 2.0 names ave gotten behind the event this year including Tech Crunch & Read Write Web so make sure you join the effort to tackle Global Poverty blogger style.

    At the same time, in your local setting don’t forget to make the life of a poor person easier in whatever way you can by feeding, clothing or facilitating ife for them in some way.

  • Support Mustadafin in feeding & clothing 10 000 + Refugees

    In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

    As you are aware, the xenophobic violence has left an estimated 25 000 victims displaced, destitute and in despair. We can only but pray to the Almighty for a solution to this political and humanitarian crisis.

    The City of Cape Town’s Disaster Management has appointed Mustadafin Foundation, along with four other NGOs, to provide meals and blankets for the displaced people. This co-ordination aims to ensure that all communities are well provided for in this trying time and that no clashes occur between NGOs and other relief organizations.

    Working in Harmony Park, Phillipi, Mitchells Plain, Stellenbosch and other areas, Mustadafin provides cooked meals, twice a day, every day to over 10 000 of the displaced victims with. (See full list below). We are also providing victims with clothing, toiletries, baby packs and other essentials as donations from the public are received.

    But the work is not over. And while donors have been very generous in terms of food stuffs, the Foundation is desperately in need of volunteers to aid in the cooking and food distribution.

    For a list of ways you can help, please scroll to the bottom of this mail.

    Many of the victims have lost hope in the South African government to solve this crisis, some have threatened to go on a hunger strike to get the United Nations to step in. we are appealing to all in our country to, in any way possible, help solve the xenophobia outbreak. Help us help our neighbours from Africa. Support Mustadafin’s Xenophobia Relief appeal.

    If you would like to help ease the plight of the victims by working with Mustadafin, you can contribute in any of the following ways:

    Mustadafin is working in the following areas:

    Area

    Number of people

    Summer Greens

    300

    Table View

    80

    Claremont Main road

    80

    Rondebosch East Masjid

    200

    Bellville

    600

    Macassar

    120

    Harmony Park

    1500

    Sir Lowry’s park

    40

    Stellenbosch

    350

    Cape Town station

    400

    Tennyson Street Masjid

    300

    Community Hall Phillipi East

    800

    Site B Community Hall

    650

    Solly Mahlanga

    550

    Desmond Tutu

    720

    Andile Msize

    500

    Resource Centre

    2820

    Blue Waters in Mitchells Plain

    205

    KTC Community Hall

    500

    Total

    10 715

    1. Volunteer your time and effort

    Area of contribution

    Times

    Cooking

    Between 9AM and 5PM

    *Transporting food (Bakkies especially required)

    At 10AM and 5PM

    *Serving food

    At 10AM and 4.30PM

    Sorting clothing, assembling baby packs and toiletry packs

    Enquire at office

    General administration

    Office hours

    *High priority

    You may volunteer to contribute in these areas any day of the week, including weekends

    2. Donate food or other items at our headquarters

    Foods

    Halaal meat

    Halaal chicken

    Halaal polony / sausages

    Pasta

    Rice

    Vegetables

    Cooking oil

    Tomato Paste

    Garlic & Ginger Paste

    Spices

    Salt

    Sugar

    Tea

    Coffee

    Milk

    Toiletries

    Soaps

    Toothbrushes

    Toothpaste

    Shampoo

    Sanitary towels

    Face cloth’s

    Razors

    Baby packs

    Disposable nappies

    Milk formula

    Purity baby food

    Baby bottles

    All forms of clothing, blankets, prayer mats(musallahs) etc are also most welcome

    3. Monetary contributions

    You can drop your contribution at the Foundation’s Headquarters directly, or deposit into our bank account:

    Donations can be made to:

    Mustadafin Foundation
    Standard Bank, Vangate Mall
    Code : 025909
    Acc No : 072778377
    International swift code: SBZAZAJJ
    Reference: Xenophobia relief

    MUSTADAFIN FOUNDATION

    18 BELGRAVIA ROAD, ATHLONE, 7764, CAPE TOWN P.O. BOX 24503

    025-725 NPO

    PHONE: (+27) 021-633 0010 / 633 0060 FAX: (+27) 021-633 0057

    Email: media@mustadafin.com

    Website: www.mustadafin.com

  • Ad Designed with no electricity, Ogilvy tackles Power Crisis

    I found this interesting story on biz-community.com

    Ogilvy Cape Town’s art director Jennifer Macfarlane and copy writer Cuan Cronwright are the winners of The Times Young Creatives Competition, held 23 – 26 February 2008 at this year’s Design Indaba Expo.

    Winning Ad Designed without using any electricity

    A PR stunt no doubt saw creatives pitting their skills against each other in a fishbowl style space with Public onlookers. Pity the procedings had to be screened on Plasma screens which would have used a fair amount of power themselves. Kind of defeats the purpose a little but I suppose it was about driving a message home and this little stunt certainly did that.

    The winning agency was rewarded with a full page ad they can use for any pro bono client of their choice worth about R50000. Check out the article with all the details.

  • Simple resources to combat Global Warming

    Working on the SA Climate Crisis logo design for Andre Bothma, lead me to finding some interesting resources online. There’s a ton of stuff out there to help us focus on cutting down our carbon footprints and live a life which is less taxing on the environment. One site in particular, live-the-solution.com, has a collection of resources which though very simplistic in nature does an excellent job in conveying the appropriate information without all the jargon and confusing bar charts.

    The following mind map is an excellent example and is available for free to download, spread and share with everyone. It gives simple practical solutions we can all identify with and can definitely start working on right now.

    combating-global-warming-map

    A Few other mindmaps found on the same site explain the impact and science of Global Warming in a plain and simple manner. These can all be found on a mind maps page which conveys a straightforward yet highly effective message in a visual language we can all understand.

    Why use Mindmaps?

    Mind maps are an excellent tool for conveying a mixture of elements & ideas especially when these ideas are linked together. A mind map can condense a whole body of knowledge into a single diagram thereby shorting the time it takes to explain something complex in a dragged out step by step manner.

    The mind-maps have been collated and expanded upon in the e-book developed by Jane Genovese, public speaker, university graduate of Law and Arts and passionate global warming advocate.

    The drawings and mind maps developed to convey her message connect with the viewer even though they have been roughly sketched with simple ink pens found in any child’s stationery kit.

    It shows the author’s deep understanding of the subject and appreciation for human interaction and communication.

    The structure of this beautifully put together little e-book is another point to note. It takes the reader through a necessary cycle from the point of apathy, to the wake up call, why there is a need to change, what to change and how to change it. The author’s understanding of psychology helps her get inside the mind of the person on the street and understand the thought processes and emotions involved in this issue.

    TABLE OF CONTENTS.
    Why We Need Change
    Chapter 1: Waking Up
    Chapter 2: Understanding Global Warming
    Chapter 3: The Big Polluters
    Chapter 4: Too Close for Comfort: Overpopulation

    What to Change
    Chapter 5: You Have the Power!
    Chapter 6: What about the Government?

    How to Change
    Chapter 7: It’s Time for Change
    Chapter 8: Goal Setting for a Liveable Planet
    Chapter 9: Connecting with Nature

    Who Has Changed
    Chapter 10: It’s OK, You’re Not Alone!

    It goes to show that big budgets are not necessarily a major requirement to producing and spreading ideas which can change the world.

    Spread the word

    I recommend taking a look at live-the-solution.com, viewing the mind maps page , downloading the e-book and maybe sharing it with your friends, family, colleagues, whoever. Blog about it, print the mind maps and stick them up somewhere where they could make a difference.

    A huge thanks to Jane Genovese for the excellent work put into producing such engaging content for such an important issue.

  • Think you can escape the web revolution? – Shift Happens!

    Attending the “Web 2.0 Explosion” sessions hosted by Jamaal from Jayz internet solutions gave me a fresh boost of enthusiasm about what I do and refreshed my memory about quite a few web concepts which I have packed into a few boxes at the back of my mind somewhere. Even though I have been following developments in the web 2.0 space for some time now and feel I have a pretty good understanding of the technologies and methodologies having it all presented in a clear, step by step fashion was a good way to connect a few more dots and broaden the picture.

    I especially loved the videos which we were shown explaining some key web 2.0 concepts. I’ve seen this one before but mixed in with the rest of what we focussed on Yesterday it had a much greater impact and I just have to share this with those of you who may not have seen this yet.

    [youtube 3mxbLd9r4Sc Shift Happens on You Tube]

    Now, think about the impact this is going to have on you, your career, your business or organisation, your family and your relationships in only the next 2 – 5 years. We can’t afford to hide anymore. Fear of technology is something you just have to get over unless you’re prepared to be cut off from a huge percentage of the worlds population. Developments are going digital and any strategy which does not include some aspect of these developments could be missing an essential ingredient to its success.