Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/797847
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 12 MARCH 2017 40 This Week It's one of our best known flowers, and certainly one of the most common at this time of year. The crown daisy adds colour to our country roads with its barrage of intense chrome yellow flowers, so yellow that we use its name as a metaphor for absolute yellowness when we say "isfar lellux"; its frilly, rich green foliage completes the picture of vigorous growth and beauty. Seemingly appearing out of nowhere, these seasonal hedges grow extensively on mounds of rubble, road verges, gashes in tarmac, broken pavements and other areas people try their hardest to uglify with refuse and neglect. No matter! Insects home in on those million miniature suns to gorge on the pollen and nectar, while crab spiders skulk among the petals, to gorge in turn on many of the insects. And then, within a few weeks, the feast of colour and acivity is all over, as the crown daisy seeds and disappears. As did our dearly departed Tieqa Żerqa for which we're all grieving. Visit Friends of the Earth's website for more information about our work, as well as for information about how to join us. You can also support us by sending us a donation - www.foemalta.org/donate Text and photo Victor Falzon There are only a few big players in the highly competitive cocoa trading and chocolate confectionery market. While these companies are competing for an ever higher market share and higher profits, millions of cocoa farmers bear the brunt of the costs by receiving a smaller and smaller portion of revenues. Grinding and trading cocoa is dominated by five big companies sharing more than half of the world market: Cargill (USA), Barry Callebaut (Switzerland), ADM (USA), Petra Foods (Singapore) and Blommer (USA). Based on their market power they have a strong influence on the prices paid for cocoa. In chocolate production, the situation is similar, more than two thirds of the market share is held by only five companies: Mars, Mondelez, Nestlé, Hershey and Ferrero. Up to 2012, the global chocolate confectionery market had generated net sales of approximately $80 billion and is predicted to grow to $100 billion in 2016. At the same time, most cocoa farmers live in destitute poverty and have to get by on less than $1.25 per day, which means living below the absolute poverty line. Bittersweet Chocolate Tough Competition with many Losers 548. CROWN DAISY GREEN IDEA OF THE WEEK 451 PACKING MATERIAL: Newspaper is a great substitute for bubble wrap. To pack a box with fragile contents, first wrap the items individually. Place them in the box, separated by crumpled paper. Then fill any remaining space with crumpled paper. Photography bridging two cities A photographic exhibition entitled 'A Tale Of Two Cities' by Maltese photographer David Pisani brings together in the singular vision of the photographer two different cities – Nicosia and Malta's capital Valletta – and two different histories which are both a portrait of architectural poetry and a metaphor for the hu- man condition. The exhibition be- ing held in Cyprus is intended as a cross cultural dialogue between two Mediterranean Island states whose recent histories have been diverse in a political sense but similar in their narrative of social displacement. The exhibition forms part of the European Capital of Culture Pafos 2017 and is running until March 20 at Palia Ilektriki, Vladimerou Herak- leous 8010 Pafos, Cyprus. In 1982, photographer David Pisani embarked on a personal pro- ject to document the city of Valletta and the surrounding harbour area. What started as a photo essay of the derelict buildings in the city evolved into an epic documentation of Val- letta spanning 29 years. From 2009 to 2012, David Pisani also produced a photographic essay on the city of Nicosia and the surrounding areas as well as the conflict areas in the north of Cyprus. "Buildings are commonly per- ceived as being very permanent, not only because of their structural integrity, but because they give us a sense of belonging (houses, shops, schools and so on) or they connect us with our history and social origins (churches, historical monuments). For this reason, we are fascinated and disturbed in equal measure when build- ings are destroyed, sometimes by natu- ral disasters such as earthquakes, or by man-made conse- quences such as wars," said Pisani. "Whenever such disasters occur it is the political will and eco- nomic conditions that usually determine the rate at which recon- struction takes place. In general, the desire to rebuild after a war or cata- clysm is quite strong and possibly re- flects humanity's desire for progress and development. The nuclear dis- aster of Fukushima is one such case of rapid reconstruction, and may be interpreted also as a bid to for- get, and to move on. The social and economic consequences of war are very different from those of natural or industrial disasters and the case of Cyprus is compelling because the war of 1974 has until today not been politically resolved. For this reason, the war of 1974 has held the country in a kind of emotional stalemate for forty years," Pisani added. David Pisani is a professional photographer specialising in archi- tecture and urban reportage. He is the author of an extensive personal photographic essay on Valletta en- titled 'Vanishing Valletta' which in the year 2000 was included in the permanent collections of the Biblio- thèque Nationale de France. Vanish- ing Valletta was also published as a monograph in 2007. He has also produced a photographic essay on the city of Dubai entitled 'Future City' which was commissioned by Emirates Airlines for their corporate art collection. His most recent work includes two photographic essays on Cyprus and the city of Kyoto in Japan. He is a fanatical darkroom printer with more than 25 years ex- perience in commercial and fine art printing. David Pisani's photographic essay 'Vanishing Valletta' is an extensive, personal work spanning our capital city David Pisani. Photo by Thomas Pisani