The Search for Missing Men Goes Beyond Police
Missing Adults in the UK from CC Production on Vimeo. Every two minutes a person is reported missing in England and Wales, according to the latest police statistics. Most of these cases are closed within a week, but the Home Office estimates there are at least 2,000 people who have disappeared and remain unaccounted for....
In Portugal, recession triggers new wave of human trafficking
Portugal, a case of human trafficking from Helena Alves on Vimeo. Portuguese trafficked for labor is not something new, but this year a disturbing trend has emerged. 2012 has seen more reports of people being exploited than in the past three years combined. As the economic crisis continues and unemployment rises, austerity measures have dragged...
Defend the block: Tottenham gran challenges looters and police
Smoke had already obscured the sky above North London when Tottenham grandmother Paulette Campbell did something very brave. It was 6 August 2011 and the disorder that would spread for days around the United Kingdom had begun. Late that night, near Tottenham Hotspurs football stadium, weapon-toting young men shoved a shopkeeper to the ground and...
Greek artist Vasilis Asimakopoulos scrutinizes Europe’s ‘identity crisis’
By Nargiza Ryskulova in London, UK. I found myself staring at a beautiful statue, trying to determine what was wrong with it. Then I had it: the figure’s form was asymmetrical—its legs disproportionate. As I continued along the gallery of Greek artist Vasilis Asimakopoulos’ work, I discovered more statues, which at first looked like copies...
After the trial, the story continues
So it is over. After ten painful weeks, Norway’s largest and most excruciating trial since 1945 has come to an end. What Anders Behring Breivik declared to be the “propaganda phase” of his project, is finished. For him, the rot-behind-bars-phase carries on. Whether he will spend the rest of his life in prison cells or...
Where does he draw the line?
Norway’s most promising illustrator divides his time between working for The New Yorker and making comics about businessmen with superhero ambitions. All photos by Anne Valeur People say that dog owners tend to look like their dogs. The same thing could be said about cartoonists and their cartoons. In that sense, Bendik Kaltenborn is no...
Recap
News from the week of 29 May – 04 June 2012 Portraits of Queen Elizabeth II have been created by everyone from Lord Snowdon to Andy Warhol. In celebration of the Diamond Jubilee, an exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery, The Queen: Art & Image, curates a selection of the most iconic works. Stylist magazine...
The Art of Giving
In the quagmire of development aid pitfalls, micro-financing has become a viable way for people in developing countries to borrow their way out of poverty. One Irishman has learnt the hard way that giving is a tricky business. On Brian Iredale’s first day in Africa, a guy in a bar gave him a “sob story”...
No more Meat Eating Blues
In collaboration with our friends at Meat Eating Blues we made a vegan, South East Asian tofu salad. Documented for your entertainment and reference. Yum. Ingredients: 1/2 a Red Cabbage 1/2 a Green Cabbage 3 Carrots Large amounts of coriander and mint 1 Large Red Chilli Three Limes 500g of Tofu Peanuts Sesame seeds Sweet...
Names & numbers
The city of London is a melting pot, home to about eight million people from all over the world. Brian Leli spent an afternoon knocking randomly on some of their front doors. These are just a few of the people he met. Janet lives with her husband in flat number 11. She’s a housewife, has...
Taj Mongolia
It was a frozen afternoon. I hurried past the recently burned modern art building, the burned People’s Revolutionary Party headquarters, and past a statue of comrade Lenin to the Red Warrior Hotel. My newspaper colleague called this place “Grope Plaza” because of the prostitutes working there. “Everything here is wrong,” she told me. The stately...
A New Beginning
In developing countries, a devastatingly common childbirth injury ruins hundreds of thousands of women’s lives. But a clinic in dusty south west Uganda offers hope to those who have lost everything. The first thing that hits you on entering the fistula ward in Kitovu hospital is the acrid, overpowering smell of urine. Women sit or...
Recap
News from the week of 22 May – 28 May 2012 United Nations special envoy Kofi Annan is set to hold talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Tuesday. The talks follow the massacre of at least 108 people, many of them children, in the country’s Houla region on Friday. Christine Lagarde caused...
Mrs Robinson
A political tour de force and former Irish president, Mary Robinson is gathering steam in her latest mission – climate justice. Statuesque and commanding, Mary Robinson, reportedly, doesn’t suffer fools gladly. But while fools should steer clear, some of the world’s most vulnerable people have found a champion in her unwavering dedication to human rights....
A place at a feast of languages
Young brown men entered the yard at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, slapped palms in urban handshake and pressed their nose and foreheads together in hongi – the traditional Māori greeting. The murmuring crowd was silenced by a deep blast on the Pūkaea – a Māori trumpet – calling the armies of Toroi (Troy) and the Kariki...
Loose Women
What would it take for women to rule the world? According to a new study, societies need to loosen up to let the ladies have their say. When Hilary Clinton commented on women’s reluctance to participate in political life after the Arab spring: “for many of them, politics was still kind of a dirty word”,...
Recap
News from the week of 15 May – 21 May 2012 On the 15th May, Palestinians celebrate the day of Nakba or “catastrophe”, to commemorate Palestinian exodus following the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. This year, Vice UK found riots, flag burning and plenty of rubber bullets when young Palestinians clashed with...
A Cairo Minute
A Cairo Minute is a series of pictures made up of multiple shots taken over a minute or so, then stitched together to create a panorama. (Click the individual images to view the full panoramas.) Alexandria seaside, September 2011. People pose for a picture against the colourful wall Alexandria seaside, September 2011. People pose for...
A capital rises on the steppes
Astana, Central Asia’s flashiest city, has been Kazakhstan’s capital for 15 years. But who wants to live there? The first you see of Astana is a cluster of high, gleaming glass towers. Surrounded by nothing but Kazakhstan’s eternal steppes – miles upon miles of flat, desolate landscapes. Alongside the futuristic architecture of Astana’s high-rises, it...
Recap
News from the week of 8 May 2012 – 15 May 2012 Legendary author, illustrator, designer and King of the Wild Things, Maurice Sendak, died last week aged 83. He believed in the intelligence of children, subverting traditional romanticized literature, with works that celebrated the frightening, fragile and magical world of childhood. Germany’s dominance of...
Election day with Siobhan Benita
It is election morning and Siobhan Benita is sitting in her kitchen in Kingston having a cup of tea. An open box labelled “Power Megaphone With Pistol Grip” is sitting on a counter across the room from her. Benita’s campaign manager, Paul da Gama, is filling up orange and green balloons from a bright red...
Orange Madness reigns over Holland
For one day every year oranjegekte – orange madness – reigns over the Netherlands. On April 30, the Dutch celebrate Queen’s Day, officially a patriotic front to honor Queen Beatrix, but really an excuse for an improvised nationwide street carnival. I joined the party in Amsterdam where the madness is at its peak. “Rio’s Carnivale...
Jumping off the media carousel
The current trial in Norway is painful to follow as it unfolds in horrible detail. Is the intensive coverage important for us in order to understand, or speculatively feeding on our curiosity? For most Norwegians, last week was a painful exercise in tearing open last summer’s wounds. As the terrorism trial began, we all followed...
Why Fender is going public
The leading guitar manufacturer Fender has recently announced it is going to float on the American stock market. The musical instruments corporation wants to raise over a hundred million pounds through their public offering. Teodora Barzakova, Chiara Francavilla and Steven Ercolani set out to find what might have caused a major company like Fender to...
Where the time goes
Memories are liars. Manipulators. The sooner that is understood the better. Every now and then I smell something that transports me immediately to a different time, a different city. It floors me that I can be walking down a street in London, or riding my bike up a street in Chicago, and in one breath...
Europe’s common asylum problems
The river Evros floats on the border between Greece and Turkey, a physical barrier to migrants hoping to live better lives inside the European Union. On the Greek side of the river, a razor wire-topped fence will soon stand, making it even more difficult to enter – a clear signal that the EU is a...
Photo essay: Thank you for visiting Bogotá
In November 2010, bored with life and afraid to face another Thanksgiving, Brian Leli packed a bag and went to Bogotá. He wandered the streets for seven days, taking photos and writing in his notebook and laptop. (Part one. Part two.) 30 November 2010 Chicago, IL: All around me are notes and images. Some in...
Photo essay: Welcome to Bogotá
In November 2010, bored with life and afraid to face another Thanksgiving, Brian Leli packed a bag and went to Bogotá. He wandered the streets for seven days, taking photos and writing in his notebook and laptop. (Part one. Part two.) 23 November 2010 Bogotá, Colombia: The line begins on the plane. There are two...
Photo essay: Cairo’s revolutionary graffiti
Campbell MacDiarmid photographs the graffiti around Cairo’s Tahrir Square. These pictures show some of the revolutionary graffiti in downtown Cairo, on walls around Tahrir Square. In particular, one wall on Mohammed Mahmoud Street – the site of many clashes between protestors and the police – has developed into a sort of shrine. The last major protests took place...
Living the dream war
Few Western journalists have attached themselves to Afghanistan as much as Anders Sømme Hammer. Living and working there over five years, he sees a glimmer of hope in a country ridden by violence and broken promises. When walking the wintry streets of Oslo, Anders Sømme Hammer listens to music through a large headset. It is...
Refugee women: a hard tale to tell
Helen Bamber talks about her more than 60 years of work with torture victims and asylum seekers at the foundation that carries her name. The stories of refugee women do not begin with once upon a time. Usually, they begin with persecution, torture and sexual violence. Their experiences may be hard to tell but often...
The first day of March
The first of March is a date of celebration in Bulgaria, called Baba Marta. This year, four million Bulgarians will celebrate it abroad. Teodora Barzakova reflects on the meaning of Baba Marta far away from modern-day Bulgaria. Feeling his death slowly approaching, Khan Kubrat gathered his five sons to give them one last piece of...
What rolls around
In London, you’re a fool to leave your bike unlocked. Or secured with a lock that is too tiny. Or if you haven’t locked every part of your bicycle properly. Thieves steal everything they can unscrew, and the biggest fools of all are the bikers who buy stolen parts. One Friday evening, after celebrating a...
How to house people and build a society
In Cape Town, millions live in townships without basic infrastructure and sanitation. But the special case of District Six shows how building houses can be a chance for social and economic integration. Jeanny Gering has seen hope and buildings grow in the heart of the city. Driving from the airport into Cape Town you pass...
Reverb Radio Vol. 1
This is the first edition of Renounce/Reverb’s soon to be weekly audio-visual review of the things that caught our eye. We investigate a Georgian restaurant in London’s Broadway market, find Christchurch residents enjoying a well deserved beer, speak to Kashmiri political cartoonist Malik Sajad and remember one of the great journalists of our generation. Reporters:...
Eurozone crisis: the human cost
Part two of Renounce/Reverb’s look at the effects of the Eurozone crisis from the people’s perspective. It’s the middle of February and the sky is a dull gray. Lambrousi Harikleia is in tears and perched on the ledge of an office building two floors above Patission Street, in downtown Athens. Police and firefighters are standing...
Eurozone crisis: I feel lost
By Manos Papavasileiou in London, UK. Part one of Renounce/Reverb’s look at the effects of the Eurozone crisis from the people’s perspective. We are caught in a European Crisis that creates an uncertainty for Greece’s future. And when I speak about my country I mean its people. Our leaders seek bailout after bailout that could...
Syria’s fallen roses: audio slideshow
By Claire Read in London, UK. Members of the Syrian diaspora in the UK gathered on Westminster Bridge on Valentine’s Day to remember those killed in the uprising. They threw roses into the River Thames and released balloons bearing the words “Syria’s fallen roses”. Waving the flag of “free Syria”, they chanted slogans calling for...
Persian Gulf
As relations between Iran and the West continue in a downward spiral, new questions are arising as to how Britain will deal with the increasing number of refugees fleeing the Islamic Republic. Escalating tensions between Iran and the Western world have sparked a series of political manouvres that may have severe consequences for the people...
Liam
A brief New Year’s Day encounter on the streets of London. I met Liam on New Year’s Day. He said I should take his picture so I did. He asked me to sit down and talk with him and said that it was going to be the worst day of his life. The bench was...
How old is too old? The great motherhood debate
By Sylvia Varnham O’Regan in Melbourne. Carmen Paff never wanted to have children. It wasn’t until her sister had a baby boy that she changed her mind but, by then, she was in her mid 30s. Her doctor urged her to start trying straight away. Fertility problems increase with age and she was warned she...
The Second Coming
It took the first note of flawless falsetto to truly believe D’Angelo had emerged from the shadows of ten years of addiction and self-doubt. But as soon as the singer, once labeled the R&B Jesus, took the stage the incredulity instilled by years of broken promises and overweight mug-shots, melted. Having produced just two albums...
A Vinyl Revival
In the face of the digital dominance of music sales, the founding father of the record industry, vinyl, made a strong resurgence in 2011, almost doubling its UK year-to-year sales in 2011 (Official Charts Company). As musicians and fans search for a tangible relationship with music, vinyl has again become a popular format . And...
Dead Noise : London’s Poverty of Riot Rap
It’s six months since riots took over the streets of London. In some neighborhoods, torched buildings and boarded windows still attest to five furious days in the capital. But you won’t find an extensive record of that period in the city’s flourishing hip-hop scene. Rap music, often seen as a speaker box for the marginalized,...
Let Us Eat Cake
In a city that takes pleasure seriously, Hazel Pfeifer indulges in the magnificent highs and unexpected lows of Parisian patisserie. It’s the smell that gets you. Every time. The heady aroma of crispy dough tempered with the sweet warm undertone of sugar, wafting on the breeze. Like crack cocaine, one whiff and your sucked in....
Requiem for a Death
After 31 years, Brit neo-folk outfit Death in June has disbanded. Controversy aside, they have given us some fine musical moments – and perhaps a greater understanding of the problem with evil. I was 15 when a good friend of mine introduced me to Death in June. This being Norway in the mid-nineties, and us...
Market myths and the rise of New Zealand’s community growers
In the age of food globalization there is something beautifully nostalgic about a farmers’ market. Who knew that purple cauliflower and enormous daikon could be romantic? Or a passion fruit farmer so charming? It is a liberating experience buying fresh food directly from the producer. The rest of New Zealand seems to agree. The first...
Troubled Tunes: The Musical Legacy of Bloody Sunday
This week marked the 40th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday, also known as the Bogside Massacre, immortalized by Irish rockers U2. Renounce Reverb’s Will Kennedy looks back and ahead at the musical legacy of that grim 30 January 1972. Music critic Neil McCormick has a confession about Sunday Bloody Sunday, the song that rocketed his friends...
Out of Africa: Conversation with the BBC’s Andrew Harding
Renounce/Reverb and friend of the family Sara Delgrossi spoke with the legendary BBC Africa correspondent Andrew Harding while he was based in Somalia covering the famine in the Horn of Africa. Andrew explained the difficulties of attracting media attention to drought in Africa, reporting from such an unstable situation and the obligation of journalists to...
Evolution now, revolution later
Russians are leaving their kitchens and calling for change. They need a stronger civil society, and they deserve respect from the political elite. “Cigarettes in the hands, tea on the table – that’s the simple scheme. And suddenly we find it scary to change things”. These words were sung by Russia’s largest ever rock icon,...
Julie O’Yang and digital artistic autonomy
On the second floor expanse of long, wide corridors inside the Mayfair gallery-cum-meeting house at the Nehru Center in central London, retinues of young South Asian artists congregate and make small talk by the lectern. As they chat about release parties and publishing dates, a pit crew of Indian men clatters about the stage, rolling out...
The tunnel musicians of Chicago
Where there are people, there is music. It makes us feel the things we need to when we don’t already. It enhances them when we do. It carries us backward and pushes us forward. It can be found in every known culture and has been performed in public since the time of antiquity. It should...
Election Special: (Some of) New Zealand votes for “stabillity”
In the first of our election specials, friend of the family Charles Anderson offers insight on last Saturday’s election in New Zealand. A well dressed woman emerged from the ballet in Auckland last night. She made her way across Aotea Square in two-inch heels and found herself confronted with an unpleasant sight – dozens of...
Silk screen fiction
While some of us like to indulge in the real lives of celebrities, German cartoon collective Biografiktion make up fictional stories about them. They also draw stories about food, barely avoiding its gory and pornographic sides. They look slightly uncomfortable, squeezed into the little Shoreditch shop and surrounded by pint-wielding hipsters. One of the two...
A guide to Soviet economy
Renounce/Reverb gives you a brief illustrated insight in the rise, fall and basic mechanisms of an empire that was meant to last for centuries but crumbled twenty years ago.
Everyday they hustlin’
The velvety grooves of Electric Wire Hustle have the 5pm Friday drinkers subconsciously bouncing heads at Verona Café, in Auckland, New Zealand. EWH drummer, Myele Manzanza smiles self consciously, as he and his afro walk into the café and find the group’s thick baselines playing over the restaurant speakers. The drinkers pay no attention to...
A conversation with Dax Riggs
Dax Riggs has spent a lifetime carving a deep and distinct path for himself in the landscape of American music. It began most notably near New Orleans in 1991 with the morbid dirge of Acid Bath. Riggs later provided the mad genius behind the haunting soundscapes of Agents of Oblivion and the stripped-down rock of...
Leaking the big picture – an interview with Kristin Hrafnsson
When WikiLeaks released over 251,000 unredacted cables from the US State Department this September, there was fear that individuals would be harmed for having their names mentioned in the secret documents. WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson explains why he thinks the sources are safe and why publishing was right even if they were not. WikiLeaks has...
Ukraine: Yanukovich in an eggshell
Ukrainian President Yanukovich confused the world by jailing ex-PM last month. Could it be worthwhile alienating all his foreign friends just to get rid of a political enemy? And what’s with all the egg throwing? Ukrainian politics is confusing, bewildering and scandalous, but never boring. Since the country’s independence in 1991, it has seen a...
Self-portrait
You think it will be something like London Calling, but then you land at Heathrow and all you want to hear is Black Flag. A few days later you work out on top of two pillows on the floor of your tiny room at the hostel. You start with Machine Gun Etiquette, but as soon as that...
Tibetan Winter
“Dali Lama photo?” begged a group of Tibetans, the freezing air on their breath. Images of the exiled spiritual leader are outlawed in Chinese occupied Tibet but the desperation in the eyes of these brave people made me find my own courage. We huddled around the two small photos of the Dali Lama I had...