AFRICAN INGENUITY (5): Ethiopian Wind Farms

Although it relies on water-generated electricity for most of its power, Ethiopia is now turning to the wind to keep its county going. Right
now the nation is in the early stages of a near $300 million scheme to develop 120 wind turbines — the largest such project in the world

Set for completion in 2011 — and undertaken in conjunction with French turbine experts Vergnet — the project hopes to make Ethiopia self-sufficient in energy creation and perhaps turn it into a net power exporter.

Good luck!

AFRICAN INGENUITY (5): Ethiopian Wind Turbines

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Although it relies on water-generated electricity for most of its power, Ethiopia is now turning to the wind to keep its county going. Right
now the nation is in the early stages of a near $300 million scheme to develop 120 wind turbines — the largest such project in the world.

Set for completion in 2011 — and undertaken in conjunction with French turbine experts Vergnet — the project hopes to make Ethiopia self-sufficient in energy creation and perhaps turn it into a net power exporter.

Good luck!

TREND ALERT: Detox Hotels

French First Lady is just the best-known fan of the new Hotel Gabriel in Paris’ Marais district.

Along with organic facials using rosewood and cypress oils, the Hotel is becoming increasingly well-known for its myriad antioxidant-rich juice shots and other liquid concoctions including the Biooster Grog, made from oranges and herbs.

Of course, this being Paris, harder stuff is served at the bar.

A sante!

WANTED: 800 Extras for Governors Island Zombie Movie Shoot

This weekend welcomes the Summer opening of Governors Island, which kicks off the warm-weather with a polo championship headlined by none other than Britain’s Prince Harry.

While youthful royalty are certainly lures, the real news over on the former military base is that hip arts organization Creative Time is helping to develop a new move called Isle of the Dead — which tells the story of New York at the moment of the art world’s demise.

Shot on both the Governors Island and the NYC mainland, the film’s producers are looking for 800 extras to serve as a wacked-out Zombie army complete with zombie make-up by the film crew’s make-up team and zombie music to get the crowd pumping. The extras are needed for shooting on Governors Island on June 7th.

Fun!

If you wanna do it, you gotta move fast — RSVP is by June 1.

Meanwhile, as for the rest of the summer, polo is just one of many outdoor activities taking place this year on the island, a onetime military base. There are free bikes for rides around its historic waterfront, jazz concerts, the Figment Art Festival, and even a beach, which opens for the July 4th weekend.

Who knew there was so much going on down there.

OPEN IN MALLORCA: The Monocle Pop-Up Shop

Mere weeks after debuting their Los Angeles outpost, Monocle Magazine is setting up shop on the sunny island of Mallorca with a special “pop-up” boutique all summer long.

Located in Palma’s Santa Catalina quarter, the shop will house all sorts of Monocle-branded goodies as well as the latest — and greatest — issues. There will also be a clutch of products Monocle-made especially for summer.

Time to fish out those Euros.

Monocle Shop
Calle San Magin 64
07013 Palma/St. Catalina
Mallorca, Spain
++ 34 971 451 844

AT RISK: The Bolivian Andean Club

Founded back in 1939, the Bolivan Andean Club is the highest-altitude ski club in all of Latin American and one of the highest in the world — nearly 5,500 meters in the mountains.

But global warming is taking a toll on one of the least-known ski spots on the planet.

In recent years some 80 percent of the glacier on which the ski area is found has melted! Today, the main lodge is nearly bereft of snow. And the region’s sole remaining piste only provides a two minute swish down the slopes.

As a playground for the local elite, we suspect tackling this sporty issue is not on Bolivian President Evo Morales’ immediate to-do list. But this blatant result of rising global temperatures is awfully unfortunate, nonetheless.

BATTLE OF THE BEAUTIES: Brazilian Fashion Shows Must Meet Minority Model Quotas

Despite a population that is over 50 percent non-white, Brazilian fashion weeks in Sao Paulo and Rio are notorious for their near all-Caucasian models. Indeed, much like during NYC Fashion Week, a model of color is almost as common as a model of size.

But now Brazilian prosecutors are taking legal action to compel fashion show organizers to diversify their model offerings for June’s Sao Paulo Fashion week. Indeed, shows that do not have at least 10 percent African or Indigenous models will face fines of $120,000. It’s not much — but a big improvement over previous seasons, in which a scant 2.3 per cent of models were black.

Shame!

SONY vs. EMI: New Character Enters Nasty Legal Drama

Earlier this month Sony Music took smaller rival EMI — and its exec Ron Werre — to court after Werre broke a last-minute/$3 million deal to join Sony as President of the Commercial Music Group.

It appears as if Werre was doing some shady double-dealing and only used the threat of moving to Sony to secure a big-time promotion and pay raise back at EMI.

It worked — and Werre went from mere President of Music Services to COO at EMI.

According to Sony — Werre never had any intention of moving companies and was playing both music giants all along. Indeed, EMI was so keen to retain Werre that its big-wigs directly contacted Sony Music Chief Executive Officer Rolf Schmidt-Holtz to scrap Werre’s new contract.

As for the sad sucker Werre was intended to replace, he had already been canned by Sony.

Harsh!

Now, EMI and Werre will face Sony in court — at a time when EMI is in serious financial dire straits.

But meanwhile, we can report, Sony itself is shifting into proactive mode and will now award the coveted President of the Commercial Music Group title to Richard Story, who is currently chief operating officer of Sony Music Continental Europe.

The move places Story — currently based in London but soon shifting to NYC — in a far more global position while suggest to Werre that he better be secure in new EMI glory.

We’ll see both sides in court.

DEVELOPMENT DEBATE: Dambisa Moyo vs. Jeffrey Sachs

Back in February, we wrote about economist and author Dambisa Moyo, whose new book Dead Aid offers a scathing critique of the conventional international aid model.

Three months on, it appears as if Moyo’s global vision — one in which poor African nations are lifted out of poverty via investment, trade and micro-finance — is making her the literal bete noir of more established development icons.

Chief among the is Columbia’s Jeffrey Sachs, who calls Moyo’s world-view not just dangerous, but potentially calamitous. Her ideas, Sachs has said, are “absolutely pernicious, and could lead to the deaths of millions of people”.

Problem is that Moyo — who recently ascended to Time magazine’s lofty 100 most influential people list — is African, female and sexy to boot. She’s a problematic target for Western White dudes like Sachs and threatens to steal the thunder from his powerful cohorts.

This battle, we suspect, has only just begun.

Let’s hope that millions, as Sach fears, are not caught in the crossfire.

TREND ALERT: Money-Management Cruises

Even though it may be one of the costliest cruise lines around, Crystal Cruises is helping its passengers tackle their money woes.

This fall, the company is launching a series of voyages with on-board experts who will help cruisers learn to better handle their money and investments.

Their October 8th sailing between NYC and Montreal, for instance, features notable investment-world experts including former Deutsche Bank chairman Bob Froehlich who will provide his insights on investing in the current global economy.

Considering the cruise’s cost, crowd and conversation — this should make for an interesting high-seas get-together.