Plett Arts Festival 2021 – “Expect the Unexpected”

The stunning coastal village of Plettenberg Bay with its many pristine beaches has long been a hotspot for tourists of the local and international variety thanks to its stunning natural assets and a variety of one of a kind attractions. These include Cruise the Crags home to the Elephant Sanctuary, Birds of Eden / Monkeyland / Jukani Wildlife Sanctuary, not forgetting the famous Robberg Nature Reserve and Bloukrans Bridge Bungy for the adrenalin junky thrill-seekers.  Even in the middle of Winter, there are opportunities to enjoy the natural beauty of Plettenberg Bay.

Apart from much needed economic benefits that can be derived from Arts Festivals, they serve to improve perceptions of places and people and thereby enhance local image and identity.  Often attendees at many festival towns say they come away feeling more positive about the place where the festival was held.  Not that Plett needs promoting.

Nevertheless, it comes as no surprise that it is all systems go for Plett Tourism to start this year’s Plett ARTS Festival, especially after the Covid pandemic put a damper on the last 2 years.  Due to South Africa’s move to COVID Stage Four they had to postpone the 6thinstalment of the Plett ARTS Festival – scheduled for 10 – 20 July 2021 – to the new dates of 1 – 9 October 2021.  

Plett ARTS Festival 2021 is Themed “Expect the Unexpected”, and is aimed at ‘’celebrating the finer things in life’’.  

To keep festinos safe, strict Covid-19 regulations will apply, including limited capacity at events, wearing of masks, sanitising, well-ventilated venues and online ticketing.  In addition, Plett outdoor spaces are to be used as much as possible. Performances and exhibitions of all manner take place in unexpected places, so one can explore and adventure in the wild and at the same time in the arts.  

Plettenberg Bay Tourism chief executive Patty Butterworth said this year’s festival is geared to put Plett attractions, restaurants and “secret gardens” centre stage. Organisers said performances and exhibitions would therefore take place in “unexpected places”. Although the venues will be interesting, the artists will still enjoy the spotlight on “these amazing stages”. 

The programme will include some recognizable Plett Arts Festival favourites from over the years, including an array of entertainment, food and drink as well as art exhibitions, street festivals, performances, film screenings and wine.  Look forward to locally produced Garden Route wines to enhance good conversation while enjoying the compelling film screenings and exhibitions. The popular Plett Twilight Meander will again occur during the festival period where one can take to the open streets of Plettenberg Bay for a memorable evening of admiring art under the stars. Plett Fringe will again connect open-minded visitors with gifted poets, actors and comedians.  Back on the programme is the Plett Winter School, which was first introduced in 2018. This involves teaching young and old about various art disciplines. “Bring your old dog and learn some new tricks,” said Butterworth.

A unique element of this year’s festival of the arts is Enviral Landart which introduces interactive experiences of guided landart creation during hikes or while kayaking or canyoning. This encourages visitors to embark on various outdoor adventures that Plettenberg Bay is well suited for, and be met by art and song in wild, outdoor and unusual places. Get ready to be elevated by good music at Plett Sunsets and look forward to numerous contemporary, classic and jazz performances on ocean and river waters, surrounded by the natural assets of the stunning Garden Route.

Bookings for this not-to-be-missed festival, taking place from 1 – 9 October 2021, is available on Quicket. Digital streaming options will also allow those at home to experience parts of the event online via Social Media, whilst a continually developing programme promises to excite those attending from all walks of life, near or far.

For more information, visit www.pletttourism.com, or when in town Plett Tourism is located in the Melvilles Centre at the start of Main Street (near the dolphin roundabout).

Some sad news for those who were thinking of flying in to Plett is that all commercial flights from South Africa to this award-winning holiday destination of Plettenberg Bay have been suspended as a result of the aviation authority SACAA downgrading the airport.  This was confirmed to News24 by SACAA communications manager Marie Bray that it’s inspectorate had “met and had a discussion with the Bitou Municipality to address severe non-compliances relating to the aerodrome, in the interest of aviation safety and security”.  The nearest airport is at George approximately 100 kms away.

World Peace Summit Calls for Concerted Action for Sustainable Peace in the New Normal Era

Over 30 000 people gathered online on Saturday, 18th September, via Youtube live and Zoom, to commemorate the 7th Anniversary of the HWPL World Peace Summit.

The organiser of the event, Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), has been conducting citizen-centered peacebuilding activities to create “a culture of peace” advocated by the UN and international community to set up an environment of peaceful coexistence since the World Peace Summit in 2014. This year’s event dealt with the progress of international efforts and the plans to promote the peace agenda in the ‘New Normal’ era shifting from the post-Covid to the with-Covid.

This event presented the concerted action for sustainable peace with cases from various sectors such as international law, religion, education, and the media. Also, it addressed international cooperation to overcome the current crisis that threatens the coexistence and harmony of mankind, which has come to the fore during the pandemic.

Chairman Man Hee Lee of HWPL

“Our objective is to end wars in the global village and establish peace and make it a permanent legacy for future generations. Without peace, everything that we managed to build would be destroyed. … We should not let this happen. So, to achieve peace, shouldn’t we achieve our objective with the same spirit?” said Chairman Man Hee Lee of HWPL at the event.

Peacebuilding efforts led by HWPL to establish legal foundations and international norms for peace through connecting global actors are embodied with its effort to advocate the international law for peace by drafting the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW).

“The DPCW Handbook enables us to systematically teach international law and the essence of peace to these students and others. It enables them to become lecturers in the following course,” said Dr. Mizanur Rahman, Chief Advisor of Asian Association of Law Professors (AALP) as well as Former Chair of National Human Rights Commission, Bangladesh (NHRC-BD), highlighting the need to encourage public discourse on peacebuilding by academia.

In addition to the basic principles of peace assigned to nations to uphold, the DPCW has presented principles that should be dealt with in the present era, such as prohibiting the use of force, fostering religious freedom, and civic participation to spread a culture of peace. In particular, it states that efforts for peace come from all members of the global society by identifying not only nation-states but also international organizations and all citizens as the main actors of building peace. Former President of Ecuador, Dr. Rosalia Arteaga Serrano shared:

“We know that it will be hard to achieve peace if we are not all working for it. This is why we need to encourage children, the youth, and adults to prevent verbal abuse and work towards reducing inequalities and eradicating disparities to achieve a more equitable, stable, and peaceful world,”

Hon. Octavia Alfred, Minister of Education, Human Resource Planning, Vocational Training, and National Excellence of Dominica, said that the students learn the necessity of mutual coexistence and cooperation through HWPL peace education and pass on to their friends, parents, and teachers what they have learned. She addressed it also deals with concepts that can develop psychosocial competency skills, such as respect for diversity, order, conflict resolution, and negotiation, so it is being used for teacher’s training.

Former High Commissioner of Lesotho to South Africa, Evelyn Letooane speaking at the event.

Former High Commissioner of Lesotho to South Africa, Evelyn Letooane, encouraged women to take up their role in the work of peace, encouraging all women to actively become agents for change.

“While the pandemic chart continues, global war must cease. This is a clarion call to cease all wars and call for peace activities to continue for women and children suffering from war and conflict. Women must immerse themselves into the work for peace rather than letting themselves sit outside of it trying to get work done. Action is the operative word. To this end, women should aim for “working for peace” rather than “protected peace” and peacemaking rather than peacekeeping. It should be emphasized that women are active agents of peace in that process. I am a peace lecturer of IWPG Peace Education having undergone training. My role is to promote peace education, with the spirit of peace, in my country and region.”

Swami Vedanand Saraswati, Spiritual Head at the Arya Samaj in Durban, South Africa, speaking at the event.

Swami Vedanand Saraswati, a faith leader represented Southern Africa WARP Offices in the InterContinenal World Alliance of Religions for Peace panel discussion, saying:

“What we did today, and what HWPL continues to do and has done since its inception, was to selflessly serve through these dialogues. These dialogues help educate and to quash any form of misunderstanding or perception [between religions]. As we get the perceptions cleared, as we dialogue with each other, the heart of the issue lies out there in the community. It is now that we, as faith leaders need to take this out to our congregations so that the fighting stops.”

Coronavirus: South Africa Administers More than 16 Million COVID-19 Vaccines

South Africa has surpassed the 16 million mark for total administered COVID-19 doses since the start of the country’s vaccination rollout programme.

This comes after 154 199 jabs were distributed in the last 24 hours.

According to the Department of Health, there are now 7 997 795 citizens who have been fully vaccinated, of which 76 736 people either received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine or the second shot of the Pfizer jab on Monday.

The dashboard also shows that there are now 11 711 920 individuals who have been vaccinated, translating to 29.43% of the country’s adult population.

Meanwhile, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) on Monday reported 1 504 new COVID-19 cases and 42 deaths from the disease.

This brings the latest documented total to 2 884 134 infections and 86 216 fatalities.

“The current surge in COVID-19 infections seems to be showing signs of a sustained downward trend,” the public health institute said, adding that the increase represents a 7% positivity rate.

According to the provincial breakdown, the majority of new cases were logged in KwaZulu-Natal after 391 people were confirmed to have contracted the virus.

The province was followed by 338 cases in the Northern Cape, 217 in Free State, 174 in the Eastern Cape, 155 in the Western Cape, 113 in Gauteng, 59 in the North West, 43 in Mpumalanga and 14 Limpopo.

The data shows that 112 patients were admitted to hospital since the last reporting cycle, pushing the number to 8 474 people who are receiving treatment.

According to the World Health Organisation, as of 20 September 2021, there have been 228 394 572 global confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 4 690 186 deaths and 5 776 127 976 administered vaccine doses.

Canon partners with the United Nations for the Global Week to #Act4SDGs, to educate and inspire the next generation to become active changemakers

Canon is partnering with the United Nations to take part in the Global Week to #Act4SDGs from the 17th – 28thSeptember. Canon will showcase its commitments to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as featuring in the UN’s ‘Turning Point Dialogue’ interview series to discuss the importance of storytelling to educate and inspire action.

The Global Week to #Act4SDGs, which launched in 2017, is designed to flip the script on prevailing global narratives of apathy and fatalism to instead focus on positive messages that can drive actionable change. The week aims to drive inspiration in others through a series of activities including workshops and panel discussions, raising awareness of the work being done to create sustainable change and encouraging others to take action.

Canon will be encouraging its community of partners and regional HQs around the world to get involved by sharing the activity on social media and encouraging partners in local regions to share any local initiatives that are driving forward positive change. #Act4SDGs’ ambition for 2021 is to inspire at least 100 million people to take individual and collective SDG action, up from 56 million in 2020, with its overall target being to mobilise 1 billion actions by 2030.

Throughout the week, Canon will be sharing content on how young people are already working towards the SDGs through its Young People Programme (YPP). Canon’s YPP aims to educate young people across EMEA on the power of visual storytelling, in turn enabling them to create sustainable change by driving projects covering a range of topics including gender equality, wildlife conservation and climate change.

“The Global Week will shine a light of hope across borders, to show that our actions as individuals matter. It is a global mobilization of collective action, bringing about transformative change and turn it around for people and the planet. The Young People Program from Canon not only trains youth to visually express themselves in a creative, it allows us to listen, see, and understand their point of view. With Canon’s support these voices can be heard far and wide, and I am proud of our ongoing partnership as it continues to grow each year.” Marina Ponti, Director UN SDG Action Campaign.

The Global Week will also feature the UN’s Turning Point Dialogue series, consisting of short interviews in which established and emerging changemakers will voice their thoughts on the important issues that affect our world. As part of this, the Canon Engagement Lead for Developing Nations, Jeanine El Moughrabi, and Lens on Live Project co-founder, Sam Powers will be taking part in a panel to discuss ‘turning it around for youth empowerment through visual storytelling’, and their work on a recent Canon YPP in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Congo Young People Programme, named Operation Goma, works with students aged 16-24 comprising of Internally Displaced Persons, orphans and those living in extreme poverty. Over six months, instructors from the local community will run six courses including photography, computer literacy and entrepreneurship. By empowering young people with these skills and the tools for communication, the programme aims to equip them to become agents of change and inspire movement within their communities.

Ahead of the talk, Jeanine El Moughrabi says, “It’s so important that we work to provide opportunities such as the YPP to developing regions and empower the participants to tell their stories in their own voice. By doing so, we can not only help young people from disadvantaged communities to develop their skills and create change for themselves and their communities, but we can also spread the message of the importance of education in inspiring long-term, sustainable action.”