Das Maya-Zugprojekt in Mexiko ist nicht nur ein aktuelles Infrastrukturvorhaben, sondern symbolisiert auch einen tiefgreifenden Konflikt zwischen wirtschaftlicher Entwicklung und Umweltschutz. Als jemand, der aus Mexiko stammt, ist dieses Thema für mich von persönlicher Bedeutung, da es die fragile ökologische Balance meines Heimatlandes bedroht. Um ein umfassendes Verständnis für dieses komplexe Thema zu entwickeln, habe ich eine umfangreiche Recherche durchgeführt, sowohl durch das Studium von Fachliteratur als auch durch das Ansehen von Videos und das Verfolgen von Nachrichtenberichten. Dabei habe ich verschiedene Perspektiven und Meinungen aufgesogen, einschließlich kritischer Stimmen, um ein ausgewogenes Bild zu erhalten. Nachdem ich mich eingehend mit dem Thema beschäftigt hatte, beschloss ich, meine Erkenntnisse in Form von zwei Videos zu präsentieren. Das erste Video dient als eine Art Einführung, in der ich den Maya-Zug vorstelle und gleichzeitig auf die damit verbundenen Umweltprobleme und sozialen Auswirkungen hinweise. Hierbei liegt der Fokus darauf, die Zuschauer über die Hintergründe und die Bedeutung des Projekts zu informieren. Das Video kann leider aus urheberrechtlichen Gründen nicht hochgeladen werden. Das zweite Video hingegen nimmt eine tiefere Perspektive ein, indem ich ein Interview mit meinem Cousin führe, der Biologe und Ökologe ist und über ein fundiertes Wissen zu diesen Themen verfügt. Durch sein Fachwissen kann er die ökologischen und ökonomischen Auswirkungen des Maya-Zugprojekts umfassend beleuchten. Dabei wurden kritische Aspekte wie Korruption, Umweltzerstörung und soziale Ungleichheiten diskutiert. Besonders alarmierend ist jedoch die Feststellung, dass der Maya-Zug nicht nur gegen internationale Umweltgesetze und -regulierungen verstößt, sondern auch als ein potenzieller ökologischer Kollaps betrachtet werden muss, der weitreichende Auswirkungen über die Landesgrenzen Mexikos hinaus haben könnte. Zusammenfassend machen meine Videos deutlich, dass das Tren Maya-Projekt nicht nur ein lokales Infrastrukturprojekt ist, sondern ein Symbol für die drängenden globalen Herausforderungen in Bezug auf Umweltschutz und nachhaltige Entwicklung. Es fordert uns auf, kritisch über die Wechselwirkungen zwischen Wirtschaftswachstum und Umweltintegrität nachzudenken und die Bedeutung internationaler Umweltgesetze und – vorschriften zu erkennen.
Das Medienprojekt „Stadt der Senior*innen” ist ein Kurzfilm in Form von Interviews. Es gibt den Senior*innen die Möglichkeit, ihre Sicht auf das Leben in der Stadt darzustellen. Dabei werden sechs Fragen zum städtischen Leben, dem Wohlgefühl und den nötigen Veränderungen beantwortet. Das Video gibt jüngeren Betrachter*innen die Möglichkeit über den Tellerrand hinauszublicken und die Freuden, aber auch Probleme der Senior*innen wahrzunehmen. Aufgenommen wurde es in dem Stadtteilzentrum Marzahn mit Freiwilligen, die gerade an der Veranstaltung “Tanzcafé” teilgenommen haben. Der Kurzfilm verdeutlicht, wie mobil Senior*innen sich in der Stadt bewegen können und die daraus resultierenden Kritiken, Lösungsansätze sowie Verbesserungen und Wünsche. Aus diesem Grund trägt der Kurzfilm auch den Titel „Stadt der Senior*innen“, da Städte teilweise unzureichend an die Bedürfnisse und Fähigkeiten von älteren Menschen angepasst sind. Somit wird ihnen im Kurzfilm ein sichtbarer Ort für realistische und utopische Wünsche geschaffen.
Urban Greenspaces across Africa are depleting. What are the reasons for this phenomenon?
In this short interview (transcript below) with Mordecai Ogada a conservation biologist, human rights activist and the co-author of the book The Big Conservation Lie, some of the questions surrounding the state of urban greenspaces in Kenya are answered.
Interview – Transcript:
Introduction Okay. Hi, my name is Mordecai Ogada. I’m a Kenyan conservation biologist. These days I work more in the conservation policy and human rights space, and I live in Nanyuki in Kenya, which is a town near near Mount Kenya. Just just on the equator. Um, my passion very much is how people live and use their natural environments in a sustainable way while also protecting their, their, their rights to use the resources. So that’s why I’m very interested in the, in the Greenspaces project because these are very important for urban people, particularly those who are not wealthy enough to go out on a trip to a national park or go out touring somewhere. So, they need green spaces nearby them for the health of their of themselves and their children as well.
Urban Greenspaces in Kenya are depleting. What are the reasons for that? Okay, there are two main reasons here. One, there are those that are being depleted because of infrastructure development. Basically stuff is being built on them. And this includes highways and some high rise buildings as well. And this happens because of basically commercial pressure and and governments or society feels that open green space is not making money. So this is basically capitalism. And that has been a big problem in Kenya. There’s um, there are a few that have been built over, but there are a few that we have managed to prevent being built over because of the protests and all that. This started with the late Wangari Maathai in the, the late 1990s. There was a big media company from the UK going to build a building in Uhuru Park, which is in the center of Nairobi. And she stood up against that. And the plan got shelved and there’s also been the city park in Nairobi, which was going to be handed over to the Aga Khan Foundation to build some facility in there. But we protested. And then that that was shelved as well. But there’s a lot of pressure in Kenya because real estate prices in Nairobi are sky high and there’s always capitalist pressure to develop these. Um, the second challenge to green spaces is, um, what I can call gentrification. And it has happened to, to Uhuru Park now the same park which Wangari Maathai protested about. They sort of decide that they want to, quote unquote, improve the park to quote unquote, international standards. So what this what this involves is basically the first thing they do is fence it off. They fence it off, then they build maybe some more fancy or high class infrastructure park benches, put some statues or sculptures in there and they they make a gate. A gate which is open, can be opened and closed. So they claim the facility is better now that they’ve got a fence around it and a gate. But in many societies, including Kenya, a gate, even if it’s not closed or you’re not prevented from going in, it’s intimidating to many people, especially the lower class people. They start to feel like they don’t belong and they end up not using the green space. And so then psychologically the green space loses… It’s no longer comfortable for them to go and lie down under a tree or chat or play around with their kids and this kind of thing and that sort of development in the green spaces it involves a lot of loss. There’s a lot of loss of green because a lot of grass is transformed into concrete pathways for people to walk around or people to cycle around. So there’s a lot of loss of grass. Then they for some strange reason in Kenya, they also cut down a lot of the indigenous trees and plant “exotic” tree species that they think are more beautiful and will will give the park a more sort of, um, raise it to the so-called international standards. So anyway, it makes it a more expensive place to be, a more exclusive kind of place and a place that is no longer friendly to the urban lower class people who need these green spaces more than anyone else. So it’s very unfortunate. And even in the process of doing this, like if I deal with the example of Uhuru Park, the process of doing this involved closing off the park to the public for a period of I think it’s it’s took around two and a half years when no one could get in there. It’s now reopened. But the disconnect between the people who used to use it has already happened. So it will take time. If it’s to recover, if it’s to recover its status as the important green space that it is, it’s become a different green space. It’s no longer the sort of beloved green space that it was before. And this is this is something that goes unnoticed in many areas because the loss of green spaces goes under the banner of improvement of those green spaces. And this is not always the case.
What is the connection between the depletion of urban Greenspaces in Kenya and colonialism? I think because you’re right, colonialism was a it was a capitalist venture. And and it was about exploiting resources in the in the colonies. Now, if you see the loss of green spaces, the way the cities developed, like even Nairobi for a long time. Um, Nairobi developed with very clear, clear demarcation. There was the area where the white people used to live. The areas where the high class people live now and where all the diplomats and all the others live. Then there were areas, even in Nairobi and schools where the Indians used to live. The Asians were brought in by the by the British colonialists to do various clerical work, engineering work and sort of mid-level civil servants. So our Kenyan society was stratified into three three strata. One was the white people at the top, the Asians in the middle and the black people at the bottom. Um, there are few towns in Kenya where you can still see some of these divisions in in housing areas and this kind of thing. The government sees Nairobi as a very important urban center commercial hub now. So they want to make the city center high class. They want to make the city center high class. And these green spaces were all being used by the low class people. So that is why they’ve done these things I’m calling improvements, the so called improvements. It’s to make it high class. And this is alienating the lower people. And it’s a capital thing, capitalist thing, because they want to make Nairobi a capitalist, high class commercial hub.
What role does the concept of western conservation play in locals being deprived of nature in Kenya? It’s also about pretty much about capitalism, because now if you look at the green spaces out there, you know, where there’s the nature, the wildlife and all that, they’re used by people for keeping their livestock. Um, people collect medicinal plants, vegetables, fruits and stuff in the forests and they graze their animals there. But now this conservation structures want to sort of privatize these spaces so that it is not just a place where people use and share with the wildlife. It becomes a national park where human beings are kept out apart from those who can pay. So it’s pretty much putting fences around nature and putting a gate for it to pay to be paid. So conservation, what we are talking about, the conservation as as conservation is actually capitalism. We are trying to make money from every elephant, from every monkey, from every tree. And these are… And we are denying… to do this we have to deny access to the people who have grown up, populations, who have grown up and evolved together with this nature. Now they have to be cut off for this to be commercialized. So it’s, conservation right now it always involves taking something away from the owner and and selling it to a rich person who can pay for it. So when you hear of something called protected areas, it means an area that is protected from its owners or an area that is taken from its owners. That’s the problem with conservation and protected areas. Right now. It’s the capitalism.
Additional thoughts. Okay. I think all I can add is that, um, capitalism right now is failing. It’s failing in conservation, and it’s failing around the world as well because it leads to violence. And so it’s not socially sustainable the level of capitalism we are trying to do. That’s why we have people with guns in national parks which should not be there. Um, guns to protect nature from people who are living in nature. So we need to find a different way to temper or reduce the capitalism that drives violence if we are to have a sustainable future. Otherwise the future is just going to be very violent and there’ll be a lot of loss of life and loss of human rights.
Trans women often experience discrimination that makes it difficult for them to have access to education, employment, and housing. The condition of trans women in general in the world, especially in developing countries, is still difficult and made worse due to poverty. They find it difficult to pursue higher education and get a job, so many trans women end up on the streets and living in slums. This short documentary is an in-depth interview with Tya, regarding her struggle to finally be able to make the decision to live as her true self. The discrimination, harrassment, and problems she experienced as a trans woman, how she also often feels unsafe in public spaces because she is not a cis-gender woman, “I have to look left, right and who’s behind me…I don’t want to get harassed”.
Ida Mountains Uprising 1/2Ida Mountains Uprising 2/2Gezi Park Protest 1/2Gezi Park Protest 2/2Forest Fires in Turkey 1/2Forest Fires in Turkey 2/2Soma Mining Disaster 1/2Soma Mining Disaster 2/2
Short Description:
In this media project, environmental justice movements that took place in Turkey’s history (Ida Mountains uprising, Gezi Park protest, Forest fires, Soma mining disaster) were highlighted by making interviews. Interviews can be listened to by clicking the audio icon. At the same time, the transcript of the interviews can be read in the PDF. Each Interview consists of two questions with two audio files.
The project is open to everyone who has a sense of justice and wants to learn about environmental events. The context was determined as an interview to provide a diversity of ideas and to see different perspectives. Despite the great impact of the events, a simple design was chosen and it was aimed to instill consciousness in the target group by using many sensory elements. For the target group, who did not know about these events before, the first questions were determined as short descriptions of the events. The second questions are about the feelings of the people, the after-effects of the events, and the atmosphere experienced during the protests.
In this project, a critical socio-political point of view has been brought to the attitude of the Turkish state against these great protests. The result is that the public’s opinions should be taken into account more and new approaches and actions should be taken against the moves made by the state in the environmental field.
Jeder Bezirk in Berlin fühlt sich wie eine kleine eigene Stadt mit ihrem eigenen Charme an. Es gibt in jedem Kiez besondere Ecken und Menschen. Und Berliner*innen wissen ihre Parks und Grünflächen zu schätzen.
Mit diesem Video wird versucht zu zeigen wie divers Berliner Parkstrukturen sein können und wie divers die Nutzenden dieser Parks sind. Von Jung bis Alt, von sportlich aktiv bis relaxed im Park liegend, von wohlhabend bis wohnungslos.
Es wurden 7 verschiedene Parks in 7 unterschiedlichen Bezirken untersucht und dort mehrere Menschen interviewt. Somit bietet dieses Video einen Einblick in die Vielfalt unserer Stadt und die Vielfalt der Menschen, welche die vorhanden Parks nutzen, lieben und sogar mitgestalten.
Each district in Berlin feels like a small individual city with its own charm. There are special corners and people in every neighbourhood. And the citizens of Berlin appreciate their parks and green spaces.
This video tries to show how diverse Berlin park structures can be and how diverse the users of these parks are. From young to old, from active to relaxed, from wealthy to homeless.
7 different parks in 7 different districts were investigated and several people were interviewed there. Thus, this video offers a glimpse into the diversity of our city and into the diversity of people who use, love, and even help shape the parks.
