The exhibition, which runs from 23 November 2011 to 19 February 2012 at the Durban Art Gallery, has also been turned into the book, DON’T/PANIC, which features written contributions by Nomaduma Masilela, Sean Slemon, Sean O’Toole and Jyoti Mistry.
Ngcobo was recently interviewed on SAfm, where she described how she went about selecting works for the exhibition:
DON’T/PANIC brings together many powerful voices as it engages African artists dealing with the current ecological situation. Many of these voices are critical; sometimes overt, sometimes subtle, sometimes humorous, sometimes standing as an indictment. Some of the works may raise awareness, others offer a vision; some may simply be poetic statements.
DON’T/PANIC contributes to the dialogue around culture and climate change by adding a unique African artistic perspective to the discussion, with written contributions by Gabi Ngcobo, Nomaduma Masilela, Sean Slemon, Sean O’Toole and Jyoti Mistry.
Batoul S’Himi, Bright Eke Ugochukwu, Clive van den Berg, David Koloane, Dawit L Petros, Doung Anwar Jahangeer, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Donna Kukama, George Osodi, Helen Timm, Jacques Coetzer, John Roome, Jyoti Mistry, Kim Anno, Liesel Prins, Mlu Zondi, Moshekwa Langa, Nástio Mosquito, Nils Burwitz, Nomaduma Masilela, Otobong Kanga, Penny Siopis, Ruth Sacks, Sean O’Toole, Sean Slemon, Thando Mama, Thierry Fontaine, Willem Boshoff and Zamani Makhanya.
Jacana Media is pleased to invite you to meet the Grand Dames of the Garden at Open Book Festival.
Join them for breakfast as they talk about growing for love and growing for food. Meet Margaret Wasserfall, former editor of SA Garden and Home as she chats with Christine Stevens, author of Harvest, and Pat Featherstone, author of Grow to Live. The event will take place at Starke Ayres Garden Centre on 23 September at 9.30 for 10.00 AM.
Seats are strictly limited to 50 people, so hurry and book by 19 September 2011. Please provide your full name and contact details.
The best and cheapest food is the food you grow in your own piece of dirt. One Magic Square shows how, with a ten-minute effort, you can start your own productive food garden on a single square metre.
Most food-gardening failures occur through starting too big. By following these plot designs, you can extend by one square metre each season to keep your labour pleasurable as your self-sufficiency increases. This timely guide will assist both first-time and experienced gardeners to take control of their own food supply at a time of water restrictions and increasing fuel and food prices. Food gardening is one of the most intelligent adult endeavours on earth – Lolo Houbein shows you how to do it, and why you should.
Plots include: salad, bean, anti-oxidant, stir-fry, curry, Aztec, pea, anti-cancer, soup, herbs and spices. There’ s even a chapter on ‘ gardening with attitude’ , as well as advice on taking produce from garden to table, cooking suggestions, correcting poor soils and dealing with pests and predators. Tips, tricks and explanations of exactly what to do, diagrams and vivid illustrations make growing your own food not only achievable, but fun.
About the author
Lolo Houbin’ s great-great grandfather was a market gardener in North-West Frisia who passed on a food gardening gene down every generation. In Lolo’ s youth she saw her hometown in western Holland implode under the impact of war, until all animals, birds and rodents were eaten, all fish angled, all trees used for firewood and a long winter of famine ensued during which 24000 people died of starvation in an area approximately a sixteenth the size of Tasmania. Food security has been Lolo’ s life-long pre-occupation and this book is an offering for survival to those who have never even grown a radish. Lolo Houbein was educated at the universities of Adelaide and Papua New Guinea in the literatures of Australia, Britain, Papua New Guinea, the Pacific and Africa, classical studies, world religions and anthropology. She is well known as an author of fiction and non-fiction. Her novel Walk Barefoot Road won the Bicentennial/ABC Fiction Award.
Book details
One Magic Square: The Easy, Organic Way to Grow Your Own Food on a 3-Foot Square by Lolo Houbein
EAN: 9781770099111 Find this book with BOOK Finder!
The long-awaited Copenhagen summit on climate change gave to the world a broad political agreement, but without any teeth. Meanwhile concerns over the climate change agenda finding its way into the multilateral trading system are growing, at a time when the trading system is struggling to find its own feet.
South Africa’s economy, and by extension Southern Africa’s economy, is based on resource production and to some extent beneficiation, in turn dependent on cheap energy. Its international visibility — not least in climate change negotiations — means that it may be in line for imposition of trade policy measures on its carbon-intensive exports.
With collected writings from notable contributors, Climate Change and Trade: The Challenges of Southern Africa straddles several distinctive bodies of knowledge, notably trade policy and diplomacy, and environment policy and diplomacy, in order to shed light on these challenges from a Southern African perspective. As such it represents the first major attempt to synthesise these “sealed” policy challenges and sketch policy implications for the region.
The book is dvided into two sections. The first addresses the global and multilateral dynamics in climate change negotiations, and their relationship to the trading system, notably the World Trade Organization. The second focuses on Southern Africa, revealing the state of knowledge with respect to projected climate warming impacts on the region, and a series of case studies that detail country-specific climate and trade issues in Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique and Zambia.
About the Editors
Peter Draper joined SAIIA as Trade Research Fellow and Project Head of the Development through Trade Programme in 2003. He previously headed the Department of Economics and Economic History at the University of Durban-Westville; the Asia and Mercosur desks at the Department of Trade and Industry; and Economic Analysis and Research in the DTI’s International Trade and Economic Development Division. He is a member of Business Unity South Africa’s trade committee and lectures International Business at Wits Business School. He is a board member and non-resident senior fellow of the Brussels-based European Centre for International Political Economy; a member of the IMD-Lausanne’s Evian group including its “Brains trust”; and a board member of the Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis. He holds an M.Com (Economic History) from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Ivan Mbirimi is a Research Associate at SAIIA, and an economist with nearly 30 years of professional experience specialising in trade policy analysis, research, capacity building, international trade negotiations, climate change and environment, with a particular focus on the concerns of developing countries. His expertise covers the following areas: trade policy analysis, particularly the promotion of policy coherence within trade and between trade and other economic policies; WTO issues, especially enhancing the participation of developing countries in multilateral trade negotiations; trade in services, standards in international trade; aid for trade; economics of climate change, in particular issues concerning adaptation and links with development policy; and regional integration issues, including trade preferences. His main geographical focus is Southern and Eastern Africa.
Pink champagne and white lilies decked the tables at the Fraiche Ayres coffee shop at the Stark Ayres garden centre for Grand Dames of the Garden, the first event of the Jacana Jamoboree to sell out completely!
Margaret Wasserfall hosted the brunch with authors Una van der Spuy, Pat Featherstone and Christine Stevens. The common theme connecting the books was the vital connection that exists between the garden and the people that pass through it.
Each author highlighted the importance of understanding that what we put into the soil and what we take from it to put in our bodies has a significant impact on the health of our bodies and our planet.
If the vitality and verve of the crowd who attended this event is anything to go by, it is proof positive that gardening is one of the best health promoting activities on offer. Birthday girl, Nanette, celebrated her 82nd with a toast of bubbly.
The darling of the day was surely Una Van der Spuy, who at 98 has just published Old Nectar: A Garden for All Seasons her eleventh book on gardening! She reflected on the changes in gardening techniques over the years, pointing out the catalogues which boasted a fantastic range of 104 different types of camellia, some thirty years ago. She lamented the loss of flower shows. The last flower show happened some 30 years ago.
She observed how much easier gardening has become with modern technology. “In the old days, a hose was made of rubber and was heavy to carry about. Now people have drip systems. All you have to do is turn on a tap. And turn it off again.”
She advised that planning a garden should be done with the same attention to detail as home decoration. Consider the size, shape, texture and colour of the species you plan to plant. Choose leaves of different shapes and sheen to make the garden more interesting. Don’t just go to the nursery and buy.
Her tip to folk with small gardens was to avoid choosing plants with large leaves and dense foliage that would make their gardens cramped and seem smaller.
Christine Stevens, author of Harvest: Recipes from an Organic Farm, urged gardeners to consider growing food for the table. She and her husband moved to a remote wine farm in Slanghoek ten years ago. She set about building vegetable gardens in all sections of the farm, grown naturally, or what is trendily called “organic”. She uses no herbicides or pesticides.
She noted that people don’t grow fruit any longer. “Every garden should at least have a lemon tree in it.” And every garden should certainly have a compost heap. This cuts down on the methane gasses that go into landfills and enriches the soil in which one is growing one’s food.
She said there was a tendency to overdo the nurturing of plants. “A plant is a hardy thing. When we moved onto the farm broad beans were hard to find in the shops. I planted some in the garden, and some in the rows of vineyards. I dug around the ones in the garden, watering and weeding, nourishing and attending. The ones in the vineyard were left to their own devices. Blow me down, come September at harvest time. The beans in the orchard were larger, tastier and had many more beans on them.”
When the soil dries out, the roots go deep and a sturdier plant develops. For those who are mindful of the state of the earth’s water resources, the injunction not to water indiscriminately resonated deeply.
Stevens encouraged gardeners to grow different types of plants together, for example basil and tomato. Flavours that taste good together will usually grow well together.
Pat Featherstone has devoted her life to wholesome soil as the founder of Soil for Life. Featherstone, author of Grow to Live: A simple guide to growing your own good, clean food, mentioned that the Medical Research Council recently stated that the tenth biggest health risk affecting the country is that 80% of South Africans are eating less than three servings of fruit and vegetables daily. The World Health Organisation said in 2002 that 25 million deaths each year were diet related.
“South African topsoil is being lost at rates of 300 to 500 million tons per annum, washing into rivers and into the sea. Since the last world war, America has lost one third of its topsoil.” This has dire implications at a planetary level, but locally, some 55% of the land in the Eastern Cape is in such bad condition that it might never be restored for agriculture again.
Where the fertility of the soil is severely compromised, artificial fertilisers are used that cause the plants that grow too fast and consume too much water. This results in a watery flavour and a killing off of the soil. Bad planting practises, including mono-culture and lack of crop rotation, have contributed to the destruction of soil. She recommended commercial seeds should be washed before using to remove the pesticides with which they are sprayed.
“Plant lettuces between your roses and spinach in your ornamental garden. You don’t need a dedicated vegetable garden in a huge amount of space to have delicious salad stuffs,” said Margaret Wasserfall.
The message from the panel was loud and clear: Grow your own! Additionally, support your local farmers. Go to a local market, subscribe to an organic box scheme and keep the carbon footprint neat and tidy.
Jacana Media, in association with the Cape Times and Equal Education, is thrilled to invite you to the Jacana Jamboree, a series of events running in venues all across Cape Town before, during and after the Cape Town Book Fair.
Please join us from Wednesday 28 July to Sunday 1 August – and again from 19 to 31 August – to partake in an incredible lineup of books, authors and events. The complete programme is below – we’ll see you at the Jamboree!
Please bring high quality children’s and young adults’ books, in good condition, to donate to Equal Education’s book drive for school libraries. 10% of all Jacana Books sold at the event will also go to Equal Education for their library book drive
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Print and download the complete programme at Scribd:
Time: 5:30 PM for 6:00 PM Venue: The Book Lounge, 71 Roeland St, Cape Town Cost: Free RSVP: 021 462 2425 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 021 462 2425 end_of_the_skype_highlighting, booklounge@gmail.com
The author in conversation with Damon Galgut!
Slow Motion is a collection of non-fiction stories about walking. This collection has been written over a number years, and documents transformation in South Africa through the eyes of pedestrians across the economic, racial and age spectrum. The book inevitably examines the issue of crime, and how we have moved from a race-based to a class-based society, as pedestrians of all colours continue to be marginalised in an increasingly autocentric society. It is, nevertheless, essentially an optimistic book; it tells the stories of South Africans (and visitors) who have chosen to ‘reclaim the streets’ from predators and traffic. The band of pedestrians includes writers, artists, political activists, disabled people, dogs and their owners, Walk for Life members, Jews on the Sabbath, domestic workers, refugees, babies learning to walk, and even a golfer and a caddie.
In conversation: Jonathan Crush and Daniel Tevera, with a performance by Jonathan Khumbulani Nkala!
The ongoing crisis in Zimbabwe has led to an unprecedented exodus of over a million desperate people from all strata of Zimbabwean society. The Zimbabwean diaspora is now truly global in extent. Yet rather than turning their backs on Zimbabwe, most maintain very close links with the country, returning often and remitting billions of dollars each year. Zimbabwe’s Exodus is written by leading migration scholars, many from the Zimbabwean diaspora. The book explores the relationship between Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis and migration as a survival strategy. It includes personal stories of ordinary Zimbabweans living and working in other countries, who describe the hostility and xenophobia they often experience.
At the launch, Jonathan Khumbulani Nkala will be performing, The Crossing, his one-man play about his journey on foot from a dusty Zimbabwean village to Cape Town.
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Thursday 29 July
PINK CHAMPAGNE BREAKFAST WITH GRAND DAMES OF THE GARDEN: Margaret Wasserfall, Una van der Spuy, Pat Featherstone and Christine Stevens in conversation about growing for love and growing for food
Time: 11 AM – 12:30 PM Venue: Fraiche Ayres at Stark Ayres Nursery, Liesbeek Parkway, Rosebank Cape Town Cost: R80 RSVP: To book: www.strictlytickets.com
Margaret Wasserfall, in conversation with Una van der Spuy, Pat Featherstone and Christine Stevens!
Margaret Wasserfall, former editor of SA Garden & Home speaks with Una van der Spuy, Pat Featherstone and Christine Stevens about their passion: growing.
Una van der Spuy is one of South Africa’s best-known gardeners, author of 11 gardening books – most recently Old Nectar, on her famous home garden, Old Nectar, which has been visited and admired for decades. Now an irrepressible 97 year old, still active and enthusiastic, Una will share the wealth of knowledge and experience she has distilled over a lifetime.
Christine Stevens, organic farmer, wine-maker, extraordinary cook and author of Harvest: Recipes from an Organic Farm, will share her passion for growing things and taking food straight from the garden into the kitchen, focusing on the benefits of seasonal planting and companion planting.
Acclaimed home-grown photographer, Jodi Bieber, has created an open-ended essay which is a celebration and a portrait of life in Soweto today. The importance of Soweto in the collective consciousness is hard to overstate. It registers as a place born of resistance, perhaps even embodying the South African struggle for freedom. But the birth of Kwaito is attributed to Soweto too. And beyond the grand narratives, there is, and always was, a proliferation of dancing, art and fashion in this place defined by its energy and cosmopolitan nature. Labelling and un-labelling, claiming and discarding, Sowetans have created Soweto anew. This is a phenomenon that is celebrated in this photographic publication, which contemplates daily lived realities, where here, as elsewhere, South Africans are continually reinventing themselves and their urban space.
Jodi will be in conversation with Ismail Farouk, an artist and urban geographer. His work explores creative responses to racial, social, political and economic justice. He is currently employed as a researcher at the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town.
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DISCUSSION: Writing science in South Africa
Time: 5:30 PM for 6:00 PM Venue: Central Library, The Old Drill Hall, Darling Street (opposite the Grand Parade), Cape Town Cost: R30 Book: www.strictlytickets.com
Science writers and journalists in discussion about how to make quality science writing more accessible and exciting for the public.
Activist and writer Nathan Geffen (author of Debunking Delusions) in conversation with Marcus Low (editor of Equal Treatment magazine), Christina Scott (President of the South African Science Journalists Association), Adele Baleta and Prof. George Claassen (author and co-author of five books including, most recently Geloof, Bygeloof en Ander Wensdenkery: Perspektiewe op Ontdekkings en Irrasionaliteite, 2007).
HIV denial, global warming scepticism, fears over the Hadron collider, defences of intelligent design: How can science writers rejuvenate scientific discourse and help liberate it from the murky waters of social relativism and uninformed scepticism? How do we prevent the flame of science from being extinguished in a storm of over-hyped press releases, sensationalist headlines and short attention spans? Top South African science writers and journalists discuss these and other burning issues in the world of South African science writing.
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DISCUSSION: Pop, Popular, Populist: examining the relationship between the ruling party and society
Heavy-weight political analysts come together to look at the state of our democracy and ask: Where to from here?
Speakers: Richard Calland in conversation with Judith February, Raymond Suttner and Ronnie Kasrils
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Friday 30 July
WORKSHOP: How to make a success of NGO Publishing
Time: 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM Venue: Cape Town Book Fair, Room: 1.42, CTICC Capacity: 60 people Promotion: Lucky Draw!
Discussions around bespoke materials for second language audiences, NGO publishing for the trade market, and packaging research for organisational outcomes and the trade market.
Facilitator: Marcus Toerien with Aadielah Maker (Soul City), Lee-Anne Smith (SAIIA) and Moira Levy (IDASA).
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DISCUSSION: Creating literature for children in Africa
Time: 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM Venue: Cape Town Book Fair, Room: 1.42, CTICC Capacity: 60 people
Librarians, educators and others concerned with creating literature for children in Africa, come and share your ideas about what books our children should be reading, what they should look like AND how we get these books to them!
Speakers: Carole Bloch (PRAESA’s Early Literacy Unit), Niki Daly (author/ illustrator), Arabella Koopman (publishing consultant), Nombulelo Baba (Centre for the Book/National Library) and Pamela Maseko (UCT).
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CAPE TOWN LITERARY BUS TOUR
Time: 12:00 PM for 12:30 – 2:30 PM Venue: Meet at Clarke’s Bookshop, 211 Long Street for a bus trip around the Cape Town CBD Cost: R80 Catering: Mulled wine and cinnamon biscuits Book: www.strictlytickets.com
Come with us on a literary tour that will provide a chance to meet some of the writers who have created and recreated Cape Town in writing. Writers on board the bus will read extracts from their work at the places that have served as locations for scenes in their work or provided the inspiration for their writing, and there will be an opportunity to chat with them on the road. This will be followed by mulled wine and cinnamon biscuits and a chance to get books signed by the authors at Clarke’s Bookshop.
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DISCUSSION: Cannibal Ogres, Mock Europeans, Faux Tintins and the Hovering Showerhead
Time: 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM Venue: Michael Stevenson Gallery, 160 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock, Cape Town Cost: Free Capacity: 50 people seated Book: 011 628 3204, thando@jacana.co.za, or book via www.strictlytickets.com
World-class political cartoonists come together to examine symbols, stereotypes and issues of representation in South African political cartoons!
Speakers: Moderated by Dr Stella Viljoen, in conversation with Zapiro (aka Jonathan Shapiro), Andy Mason and Anton Kannemeyer.
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BOOK LAUNCH: In The Balance: South Africans Debate Reconciliation
Speakers: Editors Fanie du Toit (Director for the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation) and Erik Doxtader in conversation Raenette Taljaard and Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela.
Reconciliation is an open and urgent question. We do not agree about what reconciliation means. We do not agree about how it works. We certainly do not agree about what it has done or the ways in which it can be brought to bear on the problems that confront South Africa today. In short, reconciliation keeps us off balance. A source of strength that sits at the very heart of South Africa’s remarkable transition to democracy, reconciliation is also a frustrating fault line and a yet unfulfilled promise.
There are no simple answers. As the leading voices in this book make clear, reconciliation is a question that must be debated – together – with a candid acknowledgement that the disagreements provoked by reconciliation are an opportunity to interact and learn from one another. Only by sharing our diverging accounts of reconciliation will we come to terms with its contested legacy, its contemporary meaning and its future possibilities. Direct and thought-provoking, the essays here offer staunch defences and pointed criticisms of reconciliation. Together, they challenge the conventional wisdom and sound an important call: once again, it is time to ask after reconciliation’s meaning, practice and value.
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DISCUSSION: South African Writing Now
Time: 8:00 PM Venue: Societi Bistro, 50 Orange Street, Gardens, Cape Town Cost: R180 Book: www.strictlytickets.com Promotion: Win a hamper of books
Some of South Africa’s most exciting and innovative writers come together over dinner to talk about new directions in local literature!
Time: 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM Venue: (to be confirmed) The Annex (Iziko), Govenment Ave, Company’s Garden Cost: Free Capacity: 60 people Book: thando@jacana.co.za, 011 628 3204
An interactive one-day introduction to the world of cartooning, facilitated by Andy Mason and Kathy Coates, with appearances by Zapiro, Stephen Francis & Rico of Madam & Eve, and artists from Supa Strikas!
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STORYTIME READING with Maryanne and Shayle Bester
Time: 11:00 AM – 11:45 AM Venue: The Book Lounge, 71 Roeland Street, Cape Town Cost: Free RSVP: 021 462 2425, booklounge@gmail.com
The Bester sisters are an author-and-artist team who publish exquisite children’s books in English, Xhosa, Zulu and Afrikaans.
How do we get sustainability on the political agenda for the upcoming local elections?
Speakers: Moderated by Prof. Edgar Pieterse (African Centre for Cities), in conversation with Lance Greyling (MP and Chief Whip of ID Parliamentary Caucus), Muna Lakhani (Earthlife Africa), Prof. Mark Swilling (Director, Sustainability Institute) and author Richard Calland.
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HIGH TEA AT THE MOUNT NELSON with Wole Soyinka and Kopano Matlwa
Time: 4:30 PM Venue: The Mount Nelson Hotel, 76 Orange Street Book: Booking at the Cape Town Book Fair booking office
Time: 8:00 PM Venue: Societi Bistro, 50 Orange Street, Gardens, Cape Town Cost: R180 Book: www.strictlytickets.com Promotion: Win a hamper of books
A selection of South Africa’s sharpest wits will join different tables for each course for some challenging, rigorous and out-of-the-ordinary dinner table conversation.
Speakers: Marianne Thamm hosts Rico Schacherl and Steve Francis (the men behind Madame & Eve), Eric Miyeni, Andy Mason, Zapiro, Ndumiso Ngcobo and Tom Eaton.
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Sunday 1 August
DISCUSSION: The Eyes and Minds of the Boys behind the Birds and the Bees
Time: 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM Venue: The Labia Theatre, 68 Orange Street, Gardens, Cape Town Cost: R30 Book: www.strictlytickets.com Catering: Breakfast snack buffet
How field guides and photographic reference books are made – hosted by John Ledger, with some of South Africa’s top wildlife writers and photographers.
Speakers: John Ledger (host) Peter Steyn, Trevor Carnaby and Shem Compion.
DISCUSSION: Dinosaurs or Dynamos: Is there a future for museums in South Africa?
Time: 2:00 PM for 2:30-4:00 PM Venue: Iziko National Gallery, Government Ave, Company’s Garden Cost: Free Book: thando@jacana.co.za, 011 628 3204; or book via www.strictlytickets.com
Pippa Skotnes in conversation with Steven Dubin, Sue Williamson, Riason Naidoo and Andrew Lamprecht!
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ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION LITERARY AWARD WINNER and awards supper
Announcement:
Time: 6:00 PM Venue: Old Townhouse, Greenmarket Square, Cape Town Cost: Free, but booking essential Book: www.strictlytickets.com Shortlist: Click here
Awards supper:
Time: 8:00 PM Venue: 5 Flies Restaurant & Bar, 14 –16 Keerom Street Cost: R180 Book: www.strictlytickets.com
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19 August, to run until 31 August
EXHIBITION OPENING: SA Cartooning: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
The event will include the launch of the Toonlab Tabloid, a publication featuring work by South Africa’s current and future generations of political cartoonists.The exhibition will run from 19 to 31 August.
Time: 5:30 PM for 6:00 PM Venue: (to be confirmed) The Annex (Iziko), Company’s Garden Garden RSVP: thando@jacana.co.za, 011 628 320
The City of Cape Town is heading for disaster: indeed, it’s already in deep crisis if one cares to look closely enough. The recent proliferation of public construction, public squares and public housing along the N2 towards the airport is little more than a mirage compared with the direction of more underlying trends.
Cape Town’s grim future is born out of the confluence of the globalised economic and ecological collapse that is fast becoming the defining feature of the twenty-first century. It is manifested most starkly in the dire situation that faces the majority of the city’s residents, who are excluded from the formal economy and must rely on substandard public services and their own makeshift shelters. The scenario is serious enough to draw everyone’s attention but should be set against the broader issues of long-term economic resilience and environmental sustainability to achieve a low-carbon society – so we have our work cut out for us.
The purpose of Counter Currents, edited by Edgar Pieterse, is to demystify these challenges and present readers with a creative portfolio of thinking, practice and strong vision to show that we can find alternatives – and, moreover, that these alternatives are already emerging in (marginal) sections of the state, civil society and the business sectors.
Contents
Introduction – Edgar Pieterse
Reflections on Leadership and Governance in Cape Town – David Schmidt
Jane Alexander: Hunger Artist – Ashraf Jamal
The Right to the City – Abdoumaliq Simone
Karen Press
The Cape Town 2030 Initiative: A contested vision of the future – Stephen Boshoff
Towards Urban Infrastructure Sustainability – Wendy Crane, Mark Swilling, Lisa Thompson-Smeddle, Martin de Witt
Public Transport: Tackling Cape Town’s Achilles Heel – Herrie Schalekamp
Making Public Space in 21st Century Cape Town: An idealistic planning construct or a catalytic city building project? – Barbara Southworth
Cape Town Central City Strategy – Andrew Boraine
District Six Development Framework: Prospects for urban and social sustainability – Lucien le Grange
Oude Molen: Imagining sustainable human settlements – Nisa Mammon
Kosovo Informal Settlement Upgrade: Sustainability towards dignified communities – Mokena Makeka
An Experiment in Public Housing – Luyanda Mpahlwa
Photo-Essay: Social Integration in Cape Town – Tau Tavengwa
Nurturing Creativity: The Spier experiment – Tanner Methvin
A Development Plan for Paardvlei, Somerset West – Dave Dewar & Piet Louw
Space & Transformation: Reflections on the new WCED schools program – Iain Low
Regionalism and Sustainability – Sue Parnell & Greg Clarke
Dealing with Sustainability – Mark Swilling
Why Transformative Change is so Elusive: A conversation – Edgar Pieterse, Mokena Mokekwa, Mark Swilling, Gita Goven, Andrew Boraine, Catherine Stone and David Schmidt
Conclusion: Re-imagining Cape Town through the rebus of identity, economy and ecology – Edgar Pieterse
Don’t miss this important public-policy read: your future may depend on it!
The author, who is the founder of Soil for Life, a Cape Town-based NGO which teaches people to grow their own food, works with the premise – healthy soil, healthy plants, and healthy people.
Environmental activist Anthea Torr, who edits Biophile magazine, introduced Featherstone’s book, saying, “Grow to Live is a tremendously timeous publication for people moving towards living in a sustainable way. We just have to look at the weather to know that it’s time to become reverent towards our life on this planet. With the world facing three major interlinked crises simultaneously – financial, food and environmental – it is evident that those who acquire the knowledge and skills for cultivating the soil and are confidently utilising any space they have available, no matter how small, will be the protagonists of the future.”
Torr introduced the author: “Born, bred and educated in Zimbabwe, Pat Featherstone moved to Cape Town, in 1973 to take up a teaching post at a local High School. It was not the teaching that brought her here, but the father of her about-to-be children. Three girls down the line and many life experiences under the belt, Pat was propelled into the life she had been born to live. Having returned to her home country to set up a new life in the early 90’s things didn’t turn out quite as expected.
“Tough as it was about to be, she drove from her refuge in Zimbabwe, with dogs, children and scant possessions and enjoyed the freedom of just being. No home, no belongings worth mentioning, no work, no money, and no future on the horizon. Only the multitude of gifts bestowed upon her on entering this world, and her three sisters and a mother who believed that there was a life to be lived.
“With the children out of the nest and armed with a BSc Honours degree, a certificate in higher education and twenty years of teaching experience in biology, biochemistry, parasitology, animal diversity and evolution at secondary and tertiary institutions, Pat committed herself to using all of her God-given gifts, to pursuing her passion for the environment, and to helping people to help themselves to a better quality of life.
“She believes that ‘in the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.’
“A vitally important book, perfectly timed for the extraordinary times ahead. There should not be a household without one.” Anthea Torr – editor of Biophile magazine
The benefits of food gardens are many: they deepen our connection with nature, quieten our minds and create a new understanding of life. The food that is grown gives physical sustenance. The experience of growing it feeds the soul. Can we grow ourselves out of the environmental problems that overwhelm the planet today? There is hope that we can if we know how to get going and use the goods and services provided by Mother Nature that enable us to work in harmony with the environment. This beautiful and, above all, practical book will teach you all you need to know about growing your own food and is a celebration of the wonders of the natural world.
When it was announced that COP17 would be taking place in Durban, the Goethe-Institute and the Heinrich Böll Foundation commissioned Gabi Ngcobo to curate an exhibition of African artists whose works add a voice to the debate on climate change. 
WORKSHOP: How to make a success of NGO Publishing
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION LITERARY AWARD WINNER and awards supper
