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THE NATION WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014
The Midweek Magazine
E-mail:- ozoluauhakheme@yahoo.com
• Mareike Borgdstedt (second right) speaking at the exhibition opening while Goethe Institut Director Marc Andre Schmactel (first right) listens
The many challenges and future implications of climate change, limited supply of fossil fuels, economic recession and global crisis are issues captured in a travelling exhibition – Post-Oil City: The history of the city’s future, at the Goethe Institut, Lagos, reports OZOLUA UHAKHEME, Assistant Editor (Arts)
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Stirring debates on sustainable future
OW will the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy affect the process of urban planning and the city? How will the use of renewable energies affect urban metabolism and the politics of sustainability and mobility? These are some of the questions being raised by organisers of a travelling art exhibition, Post-Oil City: The History of the City’s Future at the Goethe Institut, Lagos. After showing at Johannesburg and Accra, the exhibition organised by Germany’s Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (IFA), Stuttgart, in cooperation with ARCH+, presented the Lagos audience with 12 panels/tables showing selected photographs and videos on the subject of the exhibition. It is a unique platform for dialogue and debate on the many challenges facing urban settlements. But for each question, the collection provides the ‘timeline with historical background, presentations of current projects, and discussions of the link between today’s solutions and the visions of mid-20th century modernism.’ At a time when more than half of the world’s population is living in cities, the effects of climate change on urban life can no longer be ignored. The exhibition as well as the ac-
companying catalogue edited by ARCH+, present innovative projects in Asia, Africa, and America that address these urgent questions: How will the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy affect the process of urban planning and the city? How will the use of renewable energies affect urban metabolism and the politics of sustainability and mobility? Post-Oil City is as much about the future as it is about the past. As indicated by the exhibition’s subtitle – ‘The History of the City’s Future’ – every vision of the future is based on a vision of the past. By contrasting 11 current projects in the field of sustainable urban planning with nine from the past, the exhibition aims to show that many of today’s developments have their roots in the urban utopias of mid-20thcentury modernism. Today, urban planners are returning to these concepts and adapting them to the challenges posed by climate change, a limited supply of fossil fuels, economic recession, and global systemic crisis. Urban planning provides a laboratory for social as well as ecological change. Some experiments discussed in ‘Post-Oil City’ are Masdar City (Abu Dhabi), Xeriton (Dubai), and the NEST project in Ethiopia. Other examples of urban experi-
Dasuki urges personnel on security
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HE National Security Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd), has urged security personnel on their roles. He spoke at the Conference on Security and Governance in West Africa at the New Chelsea Hotel, Abuja. The three-day event, organied by CLEEN Foundation with the Altus Global Alliance, brought together security and governance experts in West Africa to exchange opinions on a study carried out by Altus. The research carried out by experts, according to the CLEEN Foundation Executive Director, Oluwakemi Okenyodo, is likely to pave the way for a security blueprint for interventions in West Africa and other parts of the continent. She said: “Over the years, the perception is that security personnel may have aggravated conflicts in the some areas but the study also reveals that security personnel y have developed good practices for security engagements in the region.” To curtail this development, critics called for “a good practice guide for security interventions in conflict zones, which was
By Evelyn Osagie
expressed in the research. Mrs Okenyodo said: “As a result a good practice guide for security interventions in conflict zones will be distilled from this research based on the findings of the Study and opinions elicited from stakeholders in the conference.” The Chairperson of Altus Global Alliance, Dr Pramod Kumar, participants, who were drawn from West African countries such as Liberia, Ghana, Niger Republic, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso. Dignitaries from the international community, including the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), the African Security Sector Network (ASSN), and the Ford Foundation, would also be in attendance. The Regional Representative of Ford Foundation, Mr Innocent Chukwuma, urged security operatives to brace to the security challenges of the time.
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mentation featured in the exhibition modify existing structures: creating a public transportation system in Curitiba’s inner city, renaturalising New York’s High Line, and building a network of electric cars with battery switch stations in Israel. Raoul Bunschoten and his team at CHORA—a London architectural firm at the cutting edge of urban design—are currently pursuing several interactive projects giving communities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait the chance to directly experience new measures in urban design and energy production. The works of Studio Mumbai Architects demonstrate the way how a ‘slow’ architecture that roots in local traditions can be translated into the language of modern construction. Most of the projects are accompanied by computer animations and videoclips. The models of the Masdar Plaza and Xeritown give an idea of how sustainable urban planning in arab cities nowadays can look like. Though different in method and scope, the projects presented in ‘Post-Oil City’ all have something in common: they exemplify the combination of reason, innovation, and flexibility that we’ll need to make our cities and planet sustainable for the future.
O ensure standard and quality of service delivery in the hospitality industry, the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) has kicked off a nationwide inspection of hotels and other tourism enterprises beginning with the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and its environs. NTDC’s Director-General, Mrs. Sally Mbanefo, said the exercise is an oversight function of the corporation, which is the apex outfit in Nigeria charged with ensuring efficient and effective services to both domestic and foreign tourists. She added that the exercise would avail the Federal Government the opportunity to ensure that facilities and operations of hospitality and other tourism establishments conform with international best practice standards, noting that hotel practices across the globe are the same and are rated based on internationally acceptable indicators. She said the Inspectorate in the corporation is structured to be a watchdog of Hospitality & Tourism Enterprises (HTEs) with the aim of ensuring and sustaining standards. Mrs Mbanefo added that the corporation will use the inspectorate to advise, guide and /or sanction defaulters accordingly. Mrs Mbanefo said tactics
NTDC inspects hotels, tourism outfits known in banking as ‘mystery shopping’ have been used to catch the law breakers. The Director, Hospitality and Travel Trade Department (HTT) Mrs Rae-Omoh and Head of the Inspectorate Division, Mr Ody Anumba confirmed that investigations revealed that some hotels are operating secretly and below globally set standards. They observed that some fake tourism enterprises that specialise in defrauding unsuspecting members of the public in the guise of packaging foreign tours are in operation. “It is the aim of the Inspectorate to ensure that such outfits are exposed and have their operators prosecuted accordingly,” they added. It will recalled that on assumption of duty last year, Mrs. Mbanefo promised to grow the tourism value chain as part of her threefold strategic imperatives. It is expected that the mandate given to the Inspectorate will further complement the drive to ensure a viable hospitality industry, experts said.