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3.23.2020
3.21.2020
Experten fordern bedingungslose Hilfe fÃŧr Iran
Angesichts der Corona-Pandemie benÃļtigt der Iran dringend medizinische Infrastruktur. Doch die fehlt, vor allem aufgrund der US-Sanktionen. Experten und Politiker fordern ihre Suspendierung.
Noch sind es nur Berechnungen, die Wissenschaftler der iranischen Scharif-Universität fÃŧr Technologien im Hinblick auf das Coronavirus angestellt haben. Doch sie fallen auch im gÃŧnstigsten Fall dÃŧster aus: StÃŧnden die Risikogebiete des Landes unter Quarantäne, folgte die BevÃļlkerung diszipliniert den Anweisungen der BehÃļrden und träte kein Mangel bei der medizinischen Versorgung auf, wÃŧrde das Land in der kommenden Woche den HÃļhepunkt der Pandemie erreichen - mit etwa 12.000 Todesopfern.
Notstand, Katastrophenfall, Ausgangssperre
Wer darf die Freiheiten der BÃŧrger in welchem Umfang einschränken? In zentral regierten Staaten ist das anders geregelt als im fÃļderalen Deutschland. Hier ist es Aufgabe der Bundesländer, die Menschen zu schÃŧtzen.
Weltweit ergreifen Staaten MaÃnahmen, um die Ausbreitung des Corona-Virus zu unterbinden oder zumindest zu verlangsamen. Rechtlich gesehen gibt es dabei durchaus Unterschiede. In China wurde - juristisch gesehen - kein landesweiter Notstand ausgerufen, sondern es wurden eine Reihe regionaler MaÃnahmen erlassen. In Italien wurde der Notstand ausgerufen, zunächst regional im Norden des Landes, später fÃŧr die gesamte Republik.
Spanien hat ebenfalls den Notstand ausgerufen, genauso wie die USA. Dort hat Präsident Donald Trump am 13. März den nationalen Notstand erklärt und damit finanzielle Hilfen mÃļglich gemacht. Weitere Befugnisse liegen bei den Bundesstaaten, die auch im Alleingang MaÃnahmen erlassen und die Bewegungsfreiheit ihrer BÃŧrger einschränken kÃļnnen.
William Kentridge retrospective: Africa's largest modern art museum goes beyond identity politics
South Africa's leading contemporary art museum is about to show one of the country's most beloved artists, William Kentridge. Should race still matter when it comes to art? DW's Sertan Sanderson reports from Cape Town.
When you walk into the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town, it feels like you're entering a sacred space. What used to be a 57-meter-high grain silo storing maize, wheat and similar crops now inspires the kind of awe you might only experience by visiting a temple or a cathedral, as larger-than-life art installations in the entrance hall greet visitors.
But since the opening of the Zeitz MOCAA in September 2017, some African artists and curators have questioned the choice of opening a museum that celebrates African art in Cape Town — without doubt the most "European" metropolis of the entire continent.
Located at the city's touristy Victoria & Alfred Waterfront and originally built in 1921, the grain silo was transformed into a museum by the London-based British architect Thomas Heatherwick — and not an African one.
The museum owes its name to German businessman Jochen Zeitz, who developed the project through a public-private partnership and who has permanently loaned his vast private collection of African art to the museum. With a European male philanthropist and a European male architect behind the project, critics inevitably questioned the neo-colonial, Western perspective of the museum.
Kentridge reflects Africa's complex histories'
With one of South Africa's most recognized white contemporary artists, William Kentridge, about to be hosted at the Zeitz MOCAA in August, questions surrounding black representation in African arts and culture are arising once again ahead of the museum's second anniversary.
Nails. Thousands of completely normal nails, each one driven into a wooden board covered with linen. Some straight, some slanted, but none hammered in all the way. GÃŧnther Uecker has finished one of these nail reliefs every year for over half a century. They've made him famous in Germany and beyond. Not just screens, but also sewing machines, chairs, record players and grand pianos have borne the brunt of those little shafts of steel. Hardly any other artist has equally dedicated his work to the craft of simple physical labor.
Hammering nails into backdrops and objects with force and precision, GÃŧnther Uecker creates reliefs that he terms "nail fields" and that achieve their full effect in the play of light and shadow.
A life of war and peace
Born in the of town of Wendorf near Schwerin in northeastern Germany on March 13, 1930, GÃŧnther Uecker found himself boarding up doors and windows of his family house at age 15 in an effort to protect his mother and sister from the Russian army at war's end. It was the beginning of a life-long preoccupation with hammers and nails.
Post-World War II, he studied pictorial arts from 1949 until 1953 in Wismar, then in East Germany. In 1955 he fled to West Berlin and eventually found himself at the Art Academy in DÃŧsseldorf, studying under Professor Otto Pankok from 1955-57.
During his studies he encountered the artists Heinz Mack and Otto Piene and joined their artists' conglomerate named ZERO in 1961. Together they represented a Zero Hour of art untouched by the horrors of the Second World War, marking a new beginning in art history.
Timeless art, nailed and painted
The avant-garde artists' group made waves far beyond Germany and their time. ZERO's ideas have undergone a renaissance in the new millennium, with ZERO retrospectives staged regularly worldwide since 2004. The Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin dedicated a big exhibition to ZERO in March 2015.
Back in 1966, no one could have anticipated the group's future popularity. It dissolved soon afterwards, and the artists went their separate ways.
Meanwhile, GÃŧnther Uecker's abstract art has been shown in over 60 countries and frequently been considered pioneering. In 2012 he became the first Western artist to be exhibited in the Iranian capital Tehran since the 1979 revolution. In 2007 came an exhibition in Beijing originally scheduled for 1994. On invitation from the Chinese government, Uecker had prepared the conceptual artwork Letter to Beijing.
Opinion: Eurovision demonstrates the power of empathy
This year's Eurovision Song Contest entries varied from a call to action to end capitalism to pure party songs. The winner won on a personal note, says DW's Rick Fulker.
Music can polarize and be a vehicle for tribal impulses and group identification. Music can divide — but it can also unite. That phrase is heard so often at international music events that it sounds hackneyed. It finds a clear expression at the Eurovision Song Contest, however.
Now in its 64th year, Eurovision was founded nine years after the end of World War II to bring former enemies together in friendly competition. Now it seems to be the last European institution that is embraced enthusiastically by the entire continent.
Eurovision grew to 41 countries
The seven founding countries, all in western Europe, were joined over the years by former Eastern Bloc countries, the Balkans and associate members of the European Broadcasting Union such as Azerbaijan, Australia, and Israel.
With 200 million viewers, the competition is no longer a European event.
Icelandic broadcaster fined for Hatari's pro-Palestinian protest at Eurovision
The Icelandic sadomasochistic band Hatari had displayed scarves with Palestinian flags at the contest in Israel. Eurovision rules prohibit political messages during the competition.
Icelandic public broadcaster RUV will be fined because the band it entered at the Eurovision Song Contest displayed scarves with Palestinian flags at the contest in Israel. Read more: Opinion: Should the Eurovision Song Contest be politicized?
Icelandic band Hatari held up the Palestinian colors when the final results were being announced at the contest, which was held in Tel Aviv.
The European Broadcasting Union said the act violated the competition's ban on political statements. They did not mention the size of the fine
Is the Eurovision Song Contest too 'gay' for Hungary?
Hungary has pulled out of the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest that will take place in Rotterdam. No reason was given, but many people are speculating that the decision is related to the government's homophobic stance.
The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is a decidedly colorful, gaudy music festival — and it is also gay. It glitters. Beautiful people use grand gestures on pompous stage sets, and love is in the air. The ESC events attract people of all sexual orientations; the competition is simply a cheerful party for people from many different countries who celebrate music asceneemselves for a few days.Two weeks ago, Hungary canceled its participation in the 2020 contest, as did Montenegro. Both countries have a longstanding tradition of participating in the event. Hungary was actually quite successful — the country participated 19 times, and had five candidates making it among the top 10. So why the cancellation?
Read more: Opinion: Homosexuality is not a disease
No reason was given, but the British daily The Guardian and the Hungarian index.hu website quoted an employee of Hungary's MTVA state broadcaster who said the withdrawal had something to do with the ESC's proximity to the LGBTQ+ scene
Rosa von Praunheim: Germany's controversial 'gay film director'
The prolific filmmaker recently received a lifetime achievement award for more than 50 years of taboo-breaking movies largely centered on LGBTQ themes. After 150 films, his unconventional art is set to go on.
When Rosa von Praunheim recently received the SaarbrÃŧcken Filmfestival Max OphÃŧls Preis for Lifetime Achievement, he mockingly described it as a kind of "death Oscar."
Having been recognized at Germany's preeminent festival for young filmmakers, the 77-year-old director showed off the self-deprecating wit that has marked the 50-year career of one of Germany's gay cinema pioneers.
150 films and counting
Widely recognized as Germany's best-known "gay film director," von Praunheim sees the moniker as a badge of honor: "I think that worldwide I am the one who has made the most films on gay subjects," he said, adding that his work has covered the gamut of gay, lesbian and trans subjects. He's proud of the roughly 150 films he's made, he says.
Von Praumheim was born Holger Radtke in 1942 in a prison in Riga, Latvia. His mother died shortly after the end of the war in a Berlin sanatorium. He was adopted, which he only discovered in 2000, and he only learned of the fate of his biological mother at age 64. She has been a subject in his films, along with many other aspects of his personal life. He took on the name "Rosa" (pink in German) as a reminder of the pink triangle that the Nazis forced homosexuals to wear in the concentration camps. "Praunheim" refers to a district in Frankfurt where the director once lived.
Filmmaking was not von Praunheim's first passion, he told DW: "I studied painting, and I still paint, I still do exhibitions, that's a mainstay. I wrote, and I'm still writing. I like writing poems. I'm working on a novel, I write plays. Film joined the picture at some point."
KINO favorites: German film at its best
What are the best dramas, the funniest comedies and the most talented stars of German cinema? DW's Hans Christoph von Bock and Scott Roxborough give their personal picks in KINO favorites: German film at its best.
What are the best dramas, the funniest comedies and the most talented stars of German cinema? The editorial team behind Deutsche Welle's movie magazine; DW's Hans Christoph von Bock and Scott Roxborough, shares its personal picks in KINO favorites: German film at its best.
Cartagena takes action against sex tourism
Child prostitution is a serious problem in Cartagena in Colombia. For years the city has been a hotspot for sex tourism. The local initiative "La Muralla ¡Soy Yo!" campaigns against it.
Cartagena de Indias on the Colombian Caribbean coast is a popular holiday destination. Only the capital BogotÃĄ attracts more visitors every year than this port city in the state of BolÃvar.
Cartagena's mixture of colonial heritage and Afro-Colombian culture is unique. The narrow streets with their colorful houses and flower-filled balconies are ideal for strolling and relaxing.
However, not all tourists come here for the charming atmosphere. For years, Cartagena has been a hotspot for sex tourists who target children.
Prostitution rings recruit children and juveniles via social media
Child prostitution is a serious problem in the city. As 26% of Cartagena's inhabitants live in poverty, many families have no other way out of deprivation than to sell their young daughters and sons to prostitution rings. Increasingly, victims are also being approached directly via soci
al media.
Fernando (name changed) was 13 years old when a stranger made him a seemingly lucrative offer on Facebook: "When they offered to pay me for sex, I naively agreed because I didn't have enough money to live the way I wanted to. I had no idea how much this decision would hurt me." For two years he was regularly abused and intimidated by a group of men.
He made the leap out of this vicious circle thanks to a local initiative: La Muralla ¡Soy Yo! (I am the Wall).
Child prostitution long ignored for fear of being stigmatized
"La Muralla ¡Soy Yo!" was founded in 2009 by the NGO Renacer and is dedicated to combating child prostitution in Cartagena. The concept: a combination of prevention, raising awareness, reporting and prosecution.
In this way, the initiative aims to combat a problem which, according to Irvin PÊrez, has for a long time not been recognized as such by the Cartagena Tourism Board: "Like any holiday destination, we were afraid of being demonized and of suffering a loss in visitor numbers," he says. "But the city has decided to face the problem and take an absolutely clear position against these illegal activities."
Like the rampart that has protected the historic center of Cartagena from intruders since the late 16th century, the symbolic protective wall of the "Muralla" initiative is intended to shield children and young people from danger. To this end, local authorities are working hand in hand with the tourism sector. Taxi drivers, barkeepers, hoteliers... thousands of them have learned in workshops how to spot and report illegal activities.
Not afraid of confrontation
VÃctor Padilla rents out sun loungers on the beach of Castillogrande. Before "Muralla" he was not aware that things happening in front of his eyes were considered child abuse. For 10 years now he has been a dedicated member of the child protection initiative. "If we see anyone misbehaving, we'll inform them that this will not be tolerated. We cannot abandon our children and young people to these criminals," says the father of three. "My support for the 'Muralla' comes from the heart. No one is forcing me to do it. I will defend my community and I will do so with my hands, feet, teeth — with everything I have."
Egypt: Why not take a tour of Cairo's Garbage City?
"Welcome to Garbage City
My tour guide slowly drives down a narrow, bumpy road framed by five-story buildings. It's a paradise for flies and there's trash everywhere you look; inside streets, house entrances, even on rooftops. We pass dozens of honking pickup trucks loaded way past their capacity, a shisha bar, various shops and goats.
"In the early morning, men collect the garbage from the roads," the guide tells me. "Their wives and children sort it by hand and store it inside their houses. Then they sell the recycled products – plastic bottles, metals and other valuable items – or create new materials from it."
Some 25,000 mostly Coptic Christians inhabit Garbage City, a slum settlement at the base of Mokattam hills, southeast of central Cairo. The Zabbaleen, literally "garbage people," have been the city's informal trash collectors for decades.
A slum with piles of foul-smelling garbage isn't usually high on the agenda of tourists who visit the land of pharaohs and pyramids. But when my tour guide suggests visiting this off-the-beaten-path attraction in favor of another mass tourism site, I immediately say yes.
To Nader Khattab, a freelancer like most other tour guides, this flexibility is one reason why he decided to offer his tours with ToBadaa, an Egyptian startup that wants to be a social network connecting travelers directly with tour guides without involving middlemen.
"We can offer the guests a program according to their individual wishes and can extend the time here or there," the 23-year veteran told me. "That's not possible if you work for a regular tour operator."
Get your guide
Typically, foreign tourism companies contract local travel agencies, which hire freelance tour guides. With the foreign company keeping the lion's share of the booking fee, local operators usually cannot pay guides much. According to several guides I talked to, they make as little as $20 (€17.9) a day. As a result, they depend on tips from tourists and commissions from local shops and restaurants they generate business for, often to customers' chagrin.
This so-called leakage effect, when tourism receipts leak into the pockets of big international corporations, also prevents socio-economic benefits from reaching the local communities.
Economic empowerment of tour guides as well as more affordable, higher-quality tours and experiences for tourists are the stated goals of ToBadaa. It's like Get Your Guide, but in the truest sense of the word.
Founder Ahmed Hamed, who shelved his career in the travel industry with companies including IBM to launch ToBadaa in early 2019, believes excluding middlemen gives ToBadaa a leg up on the likes of Airbnb Experiences and TripAdvisor.
ToBadaa founder Ahmed Hamed (left), 29, and freelance tour guide Nader Khattab in Cairo's Coptic quarter. Hamed says none of the big players like Get Your Guide presently focus on the Middle East, which he calls an "untapped market." Men working in tourism receive 85% of the average wage in Egypt.
According to Skift Research, the tours and activities market could be worth $150 billion . Given that it still exists 80% offline and is projected to grow 9% annually over the coming years, it's safe to say that this sector is ripe for disruption.
Addaia Arizmendi, Innovation Specialist at the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), thinks so, too. "Disrupting the traditional tourism sector can bring many new benefits and opportunities," she told me. "However, such enterprises need to be legitimate businesses — pay their taxes, meet all the relevant health and safety standards, and operate in a fair manner."
On the ToBadaa app, each guide lists their own tours and sets their own prices. My 4-hour trip with Nader Khattab, for example, would normally cost $70 for eight hours and four people. When you subtract the 25% commission ToBadaa keeps from each booking, Khattab would still earn some $50, far more than the roughly $20 the average Egyptian makes per day in the broader economy.
According to founder Hamed, ToBadaa's currently 170 freelance guides have recorded over 350 bookings in Egypt and seven other countries, including Turkey, Italy and Indonesia.
Although the 6-month-old app is still very basic and a bit crude when I test it, ToBadaa's timing is good: Egypt's tourism industry has rebounded after international arrivals plummeted by over 60% from close to 15 million in 2010 to 5.4 million in 2016.
The upswing is mainly due to the three years of turmoil that started with the Egyptian revolution of 2011 and the bombed airliner carrying holidaymakers from Sharm El-Sheikh to Russia in 2015. Now in its fourth year of recovery, Egypt is nearing prerevolution numbers, thanks in part to a particular surge in arrivals from Germany.
Hedging sustainable ideas
ToBadaa and four other tourism-focused startups recently went through an incubation program in Cairo initiated by German nonprofit Enpact and the TUI Care Foundation, the charitable arm of TUI Group.
After 12 weeks of working on their business models with the help of mentors, the founders pitched during a so-called demo day in early December at Startup House Cairo, one of the epicenters of Egypt's nascent startup scene.
The winners, Halla Travel, a digital platform working with small travel agencies to develop the domestic travel market, and Blue Odysea, a platform for sustainable and regenerative traveling, both received a cash reward.
The "Travel Tech for Good" (#TT4G) accelerator #DemoDay is on its way at Startup House Cairo.
Fun fact: Tourism employs 1 in 10 people globally. @enpact_startup @TUIUKcares @UNWTO #egypt #startups #cairo #SDGs #tourism #travel #FDI @toby3d @nora_cecilie
st pitch: @ToBadaa_, "Everyone's good companion," an app-based "social network for travelers" that connects tourists with tour guides.
Founder Ahmed Hamed says they're trying to raise $300K.#TT4G tobadaa.com
See Benjamin Bathke's other Tweets
In Egypt, it is not easy to set up a business for a lack of accessible expertise, finance and support services," TUI Care Foundation's Jost Neumann told me. World Bank data on Ease of Doing Business echoes this , ranking the Arab Republic 114 out of 190 countries.
But given the access to talent and resources due to Cairo's size — home to roughly one out of five Egyptians and the largest city in Africa, the Middle East and the Arab world — it's perhaps not surprising that the megalopolis ranks above average globally and is home to all of the top 20 tech startups in terms of money raised, according to a recent report on Egypt's startup ecosystem .
When it comes to female business ownership, however, the country is doing very poorly. With the percentage of self-employed women in Cairo being a mere 1%, women are dramatically underrepresented. In the tourism sector, which in many countries provides greater opportunities for women's entrepreneurship than the broader economy, things look even worse.
According to UNWTO's 2019 Global Report on Women in Tourism , only one in 50 people who work in Egypt's tourism sector are female. And only 1.5% of those women are self-employed. In other words: Only three in 10,000 people in the tourism sector, or 0.03%, are female.
Blazing the trail with geotourism
This makes Reham Abobakr, one of two female founders who participated in said incubator, not only an anomaly in Egypt's male-dominated entrepreneurship scene; having started the first company specializing in geological tourism in Egypt, she's also the absolute exception and a pioneer in the male-dominated tourism sector.
Geological tourism, or geotourism, is a distinctive form of nature-based tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place – its environment, heritage, aesthetics, culture and the wellbeing of its residents.
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