SATURDAY, JANUARY 25, 2014

A sunflower comes up in a flower bed between the runways at legendary Tempelhof Airport, the site of the Berlin Airlift in Berlin. A woman reads the paper seated on a bench among allotments at legendary Tempelhof Airport. — AFP photos Urban gardens greening Berlin rooftops, airfield

omatoes, veggies and herbs are sprouting plots recently produced the first batch of honey group project, do something together, it’s a more unusual settings, including cooking pots, from Berlin parks, a shopping mall rooftop stamped “Tempelhof Airport”. During the day, place where everyone takes part,” says Burkhard old shoes, a hiking backpack and on an old Tand even a former airfield in community the hobby farmers work with wheelbarrows, Schaffitzel, one of the founders of “Ruebezahl office chair. At the garden in Tempelhof, a gardens that pioneer farmers say add green shovels and garden hoses. At sunset, their mud- Garten”. “People come from all walks of life, ‘town square’ has sprung up where a bicycle spice to urban life. Perhaps the best-known city caked hands grasp cool cans of beer to cele- from Turkish immigrant to students to retirees,” repairman has set up shop in a battered old car- gardens are on the former Tempelhof Airport, brate the collective spirit of their grassroots added Gerda Muennich, one of the leaders of avan and gardeners enjoy their home-grown almost the size of New York’s Central Park, movement. One area, “Allmende-Kontor”, takes “Allmende-Kontor”, which has about 300 ten- fare with barbecued sausages. which hails from the Nazi era and became the its name from a medieval form of community ants and a waiting list of another 200. “The kitchen garden is not just a place for site of the Cold War Berlin Airlift. In the shadows gardening, while its neighbor “Ruebezahl self-subsistence but also to learn about com- of its grand terminals, between cracked runways Garten” is named after a folklore mountain spirit ‘Politics in the lettuce patch’ munication with urban planning services and and disused towers, the green-fingered now known from legends and fairy-tales. Plants are grown in above-ground contain- the neighborhood,” said sociologist Christa lovingly tend to organic rucola, chilli peppers But the movement has spread far across the ers because the city does not allow permanent Mueller, who has edited a book on urban gar- and bean sprouts grown in elevated wooden once-divided German city. In the district of plots, but also because growers want to avoid dening. Community gardens grew up in big crates. Wedding, a group is now planning to grow car- potentially contaminated city soil and even cities, in part, as an anti-poverty tool in In summer, cucumbers, celery and basil grow rots and strawberries on the roof of a supermar- unexploded ordnance from the war. While blighted neighborhoods and have swept the in the shade of sunflowers in these vast urban ket, the latest of the Berlin rooftop gardens. “The rough plywood boxes are standard, other gar- globe as the world’s population grows more community gardens. A beehive set among the idea is to grow vegetables but also to join in a deners opt to rear their fruits and vegetables in urban. —AFP ‘Mr Chow’ comes home with Hong Kong exhibition est known as a celebrity restaurateur in pre-communist , Chow enjoyed a instead packed off by boat to Britain in 1952 at whose 1960s mission to change Western privileged upbringing. Wanting to follow his the age of 13, leaving a life of pampered opu- Battitudes to Chinese food has lasted nearly famous father’s footsteps into theatre, he was lence for boarding school in a bleak, war-ravaged 50 years, Michael Chow is also a trained painter who, until recently, had not picked up his brushes for decades. Mr Chow restaurants became glam- orous centers for Swinging London, New York’s disco days and today’s Hollywood and art world elite. The man behind them has unveiled his first solo exhibition in Asia, a show he says reflects his complicated relationship with and the father he last saw when he was 13. Zhou Xinfang was one of China’s best loved stars of Opera-a discipline combining dance, music, mime, singing and acrobatics-who died in the chaos of the . “Something I had forgotten about, something wiped out of my memory, has been reunited. I Michael Chow didn’t know I could paint that well,” the 74 year- old told AFP in an interview flanked by his impos- and food-rationed country. In doing so he avoid- ing mixed-media canvases at Pearl Lam Galleries ed the ravages of the 1966-76 Cultural in Hong Kong. Revolution, unleashed by then-leader Mao “It’s like me coming home to reclaim my Zedong to reassert power after the famines Chinese heritage, and reclaim the name Zhou-my caused by his disastrous Great Leap Forward. The father’s name,” said Chow, who paints under the In this picture, people look at Michael Chow’s artwork displayed in a gallery in Hong period inflicted myriad personal tragedies and name “Zhou Yinghua”. Born into a wealthy family Kong. — AFP threw society into chaos. —AFP