Style over substance and MY VOICE as a person with a disability

The New York Times Style Magazine has a story about Namibia that includes a fashion photo shoot in many of the same places I just went to in Namibia. The blog Africa is a Country rightfully points out that the article and photo shoot reinforces some of the worst colonial fantasies about Namibia and rural Africa in general as a pristine setting to view primitive cultures (see Leni Riefenstahl's Sudan photos). That said, it's always interesting to see how a professional photographer handles the same landscape.

My blog of late has turned into something of a vacation photo album, um sorry. On a completely different note I want to applaud my house mate Louis on the successful launch of his poster series MY VOICE as a person with a disability. You can read about it on his blog here. See the posters here. The program included some great and funny speeches by disability advocates, a skit by a couple soap opera stars and ended with an otherworldly gospel sing along led by arguably Zambia's top pop star John Chiti.

Why does any impromptu group singing in Zambia automatically arranges itself into four part harmonies. I don't get that. It's incredible though. The following are some photos I took at the event.