Friday, October 14, 2005

Oct 15, Documentary Screening: The Take

This Saturday, October 15, 1:00PM, we're watching The Take, a documentary by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis. That will be followed by group discussion.

"In the wake of Argentina's dramatic collapse in 2001, Latin America's most prosperous middle class finds itself in a ghost town of abandoned factories and mass unemployment.

"In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave. All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act - the take - has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head.

"Director producer Avi Lewis and writer/producer and renowned author Naomi Klein take viewers inside the lives of ordinary visionaries, as they reclaim their work, their dignity and their democracy."

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

[expletive deleted] for the U.S. in New Orleans

[Photo: I am thinking of you] Now I try to avoid foul language, particularly in print, but there's an extremely apt and descriptive term I'm seeing all over the place to describe what has gone on, and is still going on, in New Orleans: It's a clusterfuck. (Wiktionary defines that as “A disastrously unsuccessful collaborative effort.”)

From people being prevented from leaving the city on foot—turning them back at gun-point [another reference]—to blatant exploitation of the, predominantly black, poor, to what are effectively prison camps for survivors (with scarier implications for the more conspiracy minded).... It seems like practically everything that can go wrong there is going wrong—either through ignorance and extreme stupidity, or through wilful neglect.

Countless attempts to help the people there have been blocked. All sorts of excuses are being conjured up to prevent people from recovering, from getting the basic needs of food, clothing, shelter. The abuses being heaped on the survivors are deeply disturbing.

A very surprising amount of the media coverage, particularly the early coverage, didn't try to apologize for the government(s) responsible. Although that has inevitably begun to shift as the spin control comes into play.

[photo: Bush: One of the worst disasters to hit the U.S.] Meanwhile, the U.S. dictatorship is shunting the responsibility to help the survivors onto the charity of the public instead of doing everything it can. This is in stark contrast to the efforts of individuals who still have—unlike the Bush Regime—their humanity, who try to do everything they can to help without fretting over political or bureaucratic implications. Although, sadly, many who are willing to help are being blocked at every turn.

And the long-term implications of this disaster are just as scary (if not scarier).

There have been a number of very expressive pictures coming out, both actual and collaged. I've seen a number of them using the Bush guitar photo-op from a couple days into the disaster.

The extreme expressions of racism, classism and unfathomable inhumanity in the (lack of) response to this disaster (and the creation of the circumstances that contributed to it) is beyond any reasonable comprehension. I will echo the sentiment I heard from someone recently that they wished they believed in Hell so they could believe that the people (ir)responsible would be going there.

[this entry copied from my personal blog]
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Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Source for Chomsky and related videos and audio

ChomskyTorrents.org has a whole pile of interesting documentaries, videos, audio books and other media related to Noam Chomsky, his writings and other stuff not related to Chomsky, but relevant to the issues he talks about.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Gaviotas Eco-Village in Columbia

Gaviotas is an amazing-sounding eco-village in Colombia. According to an article on Social Design Notes, they have achieved energy self-sufficiency and no net greenhouse gasses (due, in part, to their massive reforestation efforts - over 1.5 million trees planted).

See also:Seen at Boing Boing: Water pump driven by kids' roundabout.
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Gaviotas Eco-Village in Columbia

Gaviotas is an amazing-sounding eco-village in Colombia. According to an article on Social Design Notes, they have achieved energy self-sufficiency and no net greenhouse gasses (due, in part, to their massive reforestation efforts - over 1.5 million trees planted).

See also:Seen at Boing Boing: Water pump driven by kids' roundabout.
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Thursday, June 23, 2005

Organic Art Action - Saturday, June 25

This Saturday (June 25, 1-3pm), we're having an Organic Art Action.

We'll be gathering to collectively create public art using found natural elements (e.g., twigs, leaves, 'weeds', rocks, etc.).

Meet at Eau Claire Plaza (map is approximate), near the Prince's Island Park pedestrian bridge. We'll go west along the river pathway (on the downtown side of the river, in the direction of the 10 Street bridge), creating organic art along the way. If you're late, just walk the path along the river until you find us.

You can download and print a PDF poster of this info (about 1MB file size) to promote the event.

Some inspiration: Chelsea's post on Andy Goldsworthy's art.

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Monday, May 23, 2005

Video Screening: The Corporation

[The Corporation] At this coming Saturday's meet, we'll be watching the excellent documentary The Corporation.

Come for the movie, stay for the discussion.

Saturday, May 28, 2005 - 1-3pm(ish)
@ the Arusha Centre (106, 223 - 12 Avenue SW)

Space is limited, so RSVP to ensure your spot.

Sunday, May 1, 2005

TV Turnoff Week in Calgary

[TV Person] [TV Turnoff Week in Calgary] On April 30, 2005, we did some fun street theatre at Tompkins Park (17 Ave SW) for TV Turnoff Week.

The first was putting television on trial.

We also lined up along the sidewalk, with our mock-tvs, to admonish passers by to "Obey," "Consume," "Trust Your Televsion," etc.

[Smashed TV] A local book store showed up with a table to give away free books. They had a sign reading "Kill Your Television." They also brought a smashed television with bloodied baseball-bat.

See our TV Turnoff Photos for more pictures.

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Tuesday, April 5, 2005

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

"The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was called for by United Nations Secretary- General Kofi Annan in 2000. The objective of the MA was to assess the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being and to establish the scientific basis for actions needed to enhance the conservation and sustainable use of ecosystems and their contributions to human well-being."

This website has the full 219 page report
http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/Products.Synthesis.aspx

There is a summary of the report on this website along with some other information
http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/index.htm

Peace Posters

Here are two websites that have some really creative posters/images.

http://www.anotherposterforpeace.org/

http://www.anti-war.us/gallery/index.php

Friday, April 1, 2005

What happened at Fossil Fools Day in Calgary: Jumpstart Ford Protest

[photo of Fossil Fools Day protest in Calgary] We had a really good protest today in honour of Fossil Fools Day (part of the Jumpstart Ford Campaign).

[photo of organizer, Jennifer, at Fossil Fools Day protest]] About 17 people showed up at 5pm outside the Woodridge Ford Lincoln dealership in the south part of town to bring attention to Ford's abysmal environmental record. Since there was only a core group of about 6 people who worked on putting the event together here, we were quite pleased with the turnout. (The weather was pretty nice, too, until just before the end when it started to rapidly cool off.)

[photo of protestors and hybrid vehicle] We had a nice little success story, too. Earlier in the day, the dealer (who had been told about the protest in advance) switched out the big gas-guzzling trucks that were in the most prominent display and put hybrid vehicles in their place (which they had to bring in from another dealership). So, for at least a little while, there was more emphasis on more fuel-efficient vehicles., , , , , , , , , .

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Fossil Fools Day - Jumpstart Ford Campaign

 The Jumpstart Ford Campaign is sponsoring Fossil Fools Day to target Ford for it's terrible environmental record.

Here in Calgary, we'll be protesting on Friday, April 1, 5-6pm, outside the Woodridge Ford Lincoln Ltd. Dealership (7337 Macleod Trail S. - a little north of the Heritage LRT station).

We've issued a [PDF] Calgary Fossil Fools Day Press Release.
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Thursday, March 10, 2005

FFWD: Calgary and area activist guide 2005

This week's issue of FFWD Weekly features a list of activist groups and projects in the Calgary area.

For some reason, they ended up listing us twice (once under Calgary Culturejammers and once under the Adbusters Meetup).

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Thursday, February 17, 2005

Alberta Social Forum

We're scheduled to host a session at the Alberta Social Forum.

Culture-jamming
Saturday, February 26, 2005
1:30pm - 3:00pm
Location: ST 130 (Science Theatres Building, University of Calgary (map).

While admission is free, people are being encouraged to register in advance.

There's an excellent range of other sessions being offered at the Forum, with space also being provided to add sessions on the fly as people make interesting connections during the Forum.
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Sunday, February 13, 2005

Books by bell hooks

bell hooks is an African-American feminist writer, educator and theorist. Some of my favorites among her excellent works include:

 Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (descriptive Amazon entry on hooks' Feminist Theory) which is a great book for exploring feminism and other aspects of movements challenging the various modes of oppression. I would put this on my list of 5 most essential activist books.

 At Saturday's meet, I mentioned The will to change: men, masculinity, and love (descriptive Amazon entry on hooks' Will to Change). I strongly recommend it, especially for men (although women will find it interesting too). The book addresses a lot about the divide that patriarchy creates between men and health emotions, including love. It's identifies some excellent reasons why it is in the best interests of men to challenge (and hopefully contribute to the eradication of) patriarchy.
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Friday, February 11, 2005

Horton Hears a Who - the Activist Bible

 Dr. Seuss' classic Horton Hears a Who (more descriptive Amazon entry on Horton) is what I consider to be the essential text on being an activist.
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Tuesday, February 8, 2005

Calgaryjammers web links

del.icio.us is a website that provides some interesting web-link tracking services.

You can set up a personal account (free) and use it to add links. The thing that really distinguishes it are the tags you can assign to links. Among other things, you can then search based on the tags to find relevant links (not just from your own collection, but from everyone using the site).

I've started using the tag "calgaryjammers" to flag links that may be of interest to folks in our local Adbusters groups.

This works for Technorati Tags, too.
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Sunday, February 6, 2005

Saturday, February 5, 2005

Virgin blogger

*pop* Guess I'm no longer "new" to this. More random thoughts of a cycling junkie to follow.

Sincerely,

Chris.

Welcome to this Blog

This blog is for folks who've been coming to the Calgary Adbusters/Culturejammers meets.

The intent is for people to post links to useful internet resources (such as sticker templates, information sources, etc.) and relevant books and other media.

Rather than a discussion board, this is supposed to be a compilation of useful resources.