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Hot Talons [Almaty]

The sport might be thousands of years old, but the Kazakh bird trainers can look forward to a fruitful future

The sport might be thousands of years old, but the Kazakh bird trainers can look forward to a fruitful future

As Kazakh falconers slip off their gauntlets at the end of another winter season, local bird handlers are prepared to admit that, though their tradition of avian hunting dates back some 3,000 years, the future of the sport looks rosy.

In part, they should thank the Kazakh economy. The oil state remains the economic fulcrum of central Asia, drawing thousands of visitors to country’s biggest city, Almaty. From here the Zhalair Shora Falconry Center and Museum in Nura is within reach, offering courses, a museum and displays.

Though the sport is colloquially known as falconry, Kazakhs actually rear and train a far more formidable species: the golden eagle. With these birds the Kazakhs hunt for hares, marmots and foxes, between November and March, prizing both the meat and the coats.

Increased national awareness on the part of Kazakhstan’s budding middle class and an abiding affection among rural Kazakhs for the eagles also means the birds and their handlers’ futures are assured.

Yet, perhaps more of a boon comes from a recent government scheme. Kazakhstan’s official Cultural Heritage programme for 2009-11 places particular emphasis on the cultivation and preservation of cultural tourism on the Silk Road. It was along this trade route that Persian travellers first introduced locals to hunting with birds. Now, three millennia later, they soar on.

[ADDIS ABABA]

FIT FOR PURPOSE

Why have Ethiopians gone gym crazy?

In today’s Ethiopia, modern gymnasiums are opening across Addis Ababa, as the citizens celebrate their country’s sporting prowess and work off a few excess pounds.

Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie’s (pictured) Alem fitness centre offers steamrooms, massages, aerobics sessions and cardiovascular machines. Bodywise, thecity’s biggest gym, has a beauty parlour, yoga lessons, spinning bikes and treadmills and live CNN broadcasts screened on its wall-mounted TVs.

Yet this recent yen for western fitness habits might have as much to do with social trends as physical needs, as Askale Tekle Haymanot, the manager of BodyWise, Addis’s biggest gym, explains: “People are now changing their perception in Ethiopia. Women want to stay thin and everybody wants to stay healthy. We’re just catching up with the rest of the world.”

Indeed, as Ato Samsom, a 30-something who patronises Leyunet Yelem fitness centre, believes that running machines should be counted in a country’s development index.

“Gyms are a sign of development,” he explains. “They come with satellite TV and the heightened awareness of what others do out there. We are globalising too: new roads, schools, but also gyms.”
Yves Stranger

This month: THE BALANCE THEATRE

SPEND

[ LONDON ]

THREE DAYS OF RAIN
Catch Brit star James McAvoy (of Atonement and Last King of Scotland fame) in the London production of Three Days of Rain. McAvoy (above, centre) plays Walker, the son of a successful New York architect, struggling to come to terms with the past. The best seats in the house go for £47.

Three Days of Rain, Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1, www.threedaysofrain.co.uk

[ DAMASCUS ]

STREET STORY TELLERS

The Hakawati, or Persian storytellers, have a long and venerable history. Though their tales of Middle Eastern derring-do tend to be narrated in Arabic, a few Hakawati throw in the odd English phrase to keep visitors interested. Try the Al Naufara coffee shop near the Umayyad mosque at around 7pm or so. The show shouldn’t cost you much more than some loose change and a drink.

STADT & DELIVER

High rents have forced young Swiss to take unusual action

[ ZURICH ]

SWITZERLAND HAS A HOUSING crisis. Or to be more precise: an affordable apartment crisis as many citizens are struggling to find decently priced city living space.

This being Switzerland it’s a welldressed fight. Zurich protest group Stadt Labor stage events aimed at persuading the city to cap rents. Around 30 of them, dressed up in wigs, sunglasses and vintage clothing, turn up to a viewing of an apartment they feel is overpriced and throw an impromptu party to the bemusement of the hapless landlord.

Claudia Ackermann of Stadt Labor says: “We want the new building construction in the city to offer some of this space first to those on more limited incomes. The gentrification of some areas is squeezing people of the city.”

Mid-priced, city centre apartments (around CHF2,000 [£1,343] for 1,000sqm) are in great demand, and the vacancy rate is almost zero.

Urs Hausmann of Wüest & Partner, a Swiss property consultancy firm, says the cause is the mid-1990s reverse in the declining city population: “Once people had children, they moved out of the city limits to get a detached house which they felt was a better environment for families. But the younger generation want to stay close to their work and connected to the city.” Which means high rents for those who can afford them, and high jinks for those
who disapprove. Celeste Neill-Duvoisin

[ LONDON ]

BROTHERS IN ARMS

One new British dance event is taking male stereotypes in hand

“When you see black male culture portrayed, it always focuses on knife crime,” says Deborah Badoo, choreographer, event director and the woman behind Mission Possible, the touring dance show and workshop.“I wanted to change that, but I also wanted to deal with boys and men in general. They don’t communicate well. Mission Possible is about opening up those channels for the good of everybody.”

With teen assaults making the front page in Britain, Mission Possible’s 2009 tour is well timed. The event stages work by leading Black British choreographers Jeanefer Jean-Charles, Kwesi Johnson and Colin Poole at arts centres throughout Britain, while hosting dance workshops
for younger, less privileged children, at each stop on the tour. If the very idea of modern dance isn’t challenging enough, Mission Possible also seeks to examine the difficult relationships between fathers and sons.

“It’s very topical,” admits Badoo, but argues it actually goes down well with kids, citing a recent pilot project at a Derby young offenders institution.

“The boys were very standoffish to begin, but by the end of the week we had a very positive reaction. Engaging with dance unleashes a lot of hidden things that don’t get dealt with,” she adds, “especially with such dynamic, powerful male role models.” It’s a tough job, but
Mission Possible certainly looks like a step in the right direction.
See Mission Possible around Britain, throughout March and April. www.stateofemergencyltd.com