Develop Integrate Grow and The City of St. Catharines' Sustainability Strategy
October 5th, 2011Our Word is Our Weapon sits down to discuss some of the projects going on in St. Catharines
Grassroots and student run organization, D.I.G [Develop Integrate Grow] discusses some of the important contributions they have been working on and continue to work on.
D.I.G operates with a low-budget to sustain 2 plots of land. As of now, those projects have been very successful, increasing awareness by teaching volunteers, outreaching to community groups (Food Not Bombs), and being present at the Brock University Famers Market.
D.I.G recognizes that there are many opprotunities to expand these projects which aren’t limited to growing partnerships between Climate Action Niagara, OPIRG, and BUSU.
Current initiatives are to increase volunteer networks, build the already approved Brock community garden, run workshops throughout the winter, and volunteer dinners.
St. Catharines is a growing urban landscape and D.I.G recognizes that they can benefit from local farmers’ knowledge of the land. By seeking sustainable solutions to food sustainability, climate change and education, D.I.G can inspire others to get involved with the community and bring these issues into political policy making and our consciousness.
Omar Mosquera co-founder of the group and has a natural ability to teach others whether it is through art or sustainable gardening, or his silly humor. His knowledge and passion stems from memories in Columbia where farming is valued in the highest regard. His art is a heartfelt representation of the life he leads and seeks to illustrate a warped reality we live in. Through photography, prints, mixed media, visual shorts and incredible instalations, Omar constantly ties in themes of what it means to be human (at least that is my interpretation of it). He is constantly creating and questioning his role in our community and continues to inspire others.
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Melissa Hellwig also speaks about her work as an environmental educator and consultant in Niagara. She works with the city of St. Catharines corporate planning department to implement the integrated community sustainability plan.
By supporting non-profit groups and Niagara’s “green economy, municipal energy management policy and regional climate change strategy, Melissa is breaking down the barriers that these institutions and structures have in place. She is an advocate for community programming and outreach, and encourages others to voice their opinions.
The integrated community sustainability plan is an ongoing project, fighting to be more than just a book on the shelf of a city counsel member. It is meant to be an accessible idea generator and reference guide to make our community a better place. The plan prioritizes interrelated concerns St. Catharines has such as food sustainability, climate change, transportation, etc.”
“In order to channel these and other ideas into a strategy for long-term community
sustainability, the City is proposing four themes:”
1. Living within our means
2. Building resilience
3. Strengthening community identity
4. Integrated decision making
“Municipal governments in Canada and throughout the world are recognizing that their activities can contribute to the future sustainability of their communities even though there are jurisdictional and fiscal limits to their involvement,” from the Sustainability Strategy.
The community needs people like YOU to get creative and use the resources that we are so lucky to have…Like D.I.G, OPIRG, CFBU Radio, Food Not Bombs, the Raft, and people like Melissa and Omar, and the million other groups not mentioned.
For more information about D.I.G check out their super cool blog: http://digitatbrock.wordpress.com/ or on Facebook
Fore more information about the Sustainability Plan check out www.stcatharines.ca
or email Melissa at mhellwig@stcatharines.ca
Ofcom recognises AsOne's Contribution to Radio Website
The following is taken from the Latest Ofcom report for Community radio and reports the positive impact the AsOne designed and built Website and iPhone app has had on the station as well as how it compares favourably to the more wealthy commercial stations.
The launch of the new Tameside Radio website has been instrumental in driving traffic to the site. The site contains news and presenter information but also an events feature where organisers can post their own event onto the website, the site is then a source of information for presenters when constructing local links and community notice guides. Tameside Radio is, according to Google, the second most searched news source for the area on the internet. In conjunction with our website designers we have developed our own Iphone App. It has all the functionality of commercial radio apps but with an added benefit. It allows the user to access the events page of the website to see what local events are taking place and when. - Tameside Radio, Tameside
The full report which features more about Tameside Radio can be found here: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk
Financing Community Radio
So I’m in my final year and I have to do a Multimedia Project. It includes doing a proposal, a research Essay on what I do to create my feature, that actual feature for either TV or radio and an online version of that feature. I decided that after working with community radio I’d use that as my topic and more importantly the finances.
The more interesting point is when you compare the money som
A lot of them seem to get money from the organisations for projects they do in the community. So by helping the area they are responsible to cater for they are getting money to help themselves to carry on benefitting everyone. It’s a win win situation. Even those who on principle won’t accept advertising can acheive this.
But then you get other stations who seem to find it difficult to get any money. Although it is not as easy as commercial station as you are unlikely to have a big business to pump money into the station during difficult times and reap the rewards when you are doing well, it is still possible.
There are monetary funds out their for projects you can take part in, Ofcom itself has a Community Radio Fund which gives out around £500,000 a year to stations for basic functions such as hiring a member of staff who is vital to them, or for other basic functional needs involving the running and management.
It makes you wonder what makes some able to succeed whilst others fall down at each road hurdle. Why some can take nothing and turn it into something amazing when other people can’t make something they are given on a plate worth more than it started off.
Whatever the reason, the financial difficulties can be solved but someone needs to step up and take the bull by the horns.
3rd Reincarnation of Our Word is Our Weapon
Our Word is Our Weapon is broadcasting on Brock University’s community radio- CFBU 103.7 F.M at 5:30-6p.m every Wednesday. We are located in downtown St. Catharines.
Last year OWIOW broadcasted every Wednesday from 5-6pm by OPIRG Brock with Amnesty International. The show focused on current events, including hot political issues, human rights abuses, international law questions and many more subjects. The show was about engaging listeners on international topics that might be ignored by domestic media.
Basically, Ontario Public Interest Research Groups’ new and old members have an interest to produce a community radio program that reflects OPIRG’s mandate. OPIRG is a non-profit, student-funded and student-directed organization, which encourages and supports action, research, and education on social and environmental justice.
Originally Our Word is Our Weapon was started by Milica Njegovan and Andrew Barclay after being inspired by the deeply empowering Zapatista movement in Mexico. Our Word is Our Weapon is a collection of writings by Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. Marcos is a poetic representative of the long political struggle.
The two hosts were very familiar with international dialogue on laws and social justice, with strong ties to latin American history. The shows focused around seemingly distant (geographically speaking) discussions of labor, democracy, health, migration, oppression, censorship, war and tied it into why these issues affect us as global citizens while relating it our own community.
We are the product of 500 years of struggle,” the Zapatistas’ declaration of war stated. The struggle today is “for work, land, housing, food, healthcare, education, independence, freedom, democracy, justice, and peace[…]
There are many factors driving global society towards a low-wage, low- growth, high-profit future, with increasing polarization and social disintegration. Another consequence is the fading of meaningful democratic processes as decision making is vested in private institutions and the quasi- governmental structures that are coalescing around them, what the Financial Times calls a “de facto world government” that operates in secret and without accountability.
The Zapatistas really struck a chord with a large segment of the Mexican populace,” Mexican political scientist Eduardo Gallardo commented shortly after the rebellion, predicting that the effects would be wide-ranging, including steps toward breaking down the long-standing electoral dictatorship. Polls in Mexico backed that conclusion, reporting majority support for the reasons given by the Zapatistas for their rebellion. A similar chord was struck worldwide, including the rich industrial societies, where many people recognized the concerns of the Zapatistas to be not unlike their own, despite their very different circumstances. Support was further stimulated by imaginative Zapatista initiatives to reach out to wider sectors and to engage them in common or parallel efforts to take control of their lives and fate. The domestic and international solidarity was doubtless a major factor in deterring the anticipated brutal military repression, and hashad a dramatic energizing effect on organizing and activism worldwide.
-Noam Chomskys’ People Over Profit-1999-The Zapatista Uprising
This ongoing project-Our Word is Our Weapon- is our way of reflecting and preserving local and global history, which is essential when navigating our modern world.
It is extremely necessary to recognize our duty as radio hosts as a valuable and meaningful resource through coalition building, student and community engagement, public discussion, and media advocacy.
We have the right to a voice.
The Niagara Region in Ontario is a thriving community with a growing art, literature, music, activism and education scene. We will be interviewing individuals/groups who can talk more about the importance of grassroot organizing and getting their positive message out.
“The media is absolutely essential to the functioning of a democracy. It’s not our job to cozy up to power. We’re supposed to be the check and balance on government […] Independent media can go to where the silence is and break the sound barrier, doing what the corporate networks refuse to do.”
-Amy Goodman, Democracy Now
-VM
Pony Island Tracks: Dec 7
YOUNG COCONUT:
Mariah: 視線
Jurgen Muller: Seabed Meditations
High Places: Altos Lugares (Live)
Small Black: Love is Not Enough
Atlas Sound: Te Amo
Ken Seeno: Cedilla in My Monogram
Carol Fran: Emmit Lee
Charlie Mitchell: After Hours
William Onyeabor: Tomorrow
Helene Smith: I am Controlled by Your Love
Donald Byrd: Think Twice
DC Public Library news:
Free music downloads!
Fine Forgiveness through 2/5/2012!
Holiday Toy Drive!
Lockridge or Bellevue?
Books Plus Closing :-(
WORT Radio
In November 1996 I moved from Chicago to Madison, WI, in part to shore up my radio resume. WORT is a noncommercial, volunteer-run community radio station, 89.9 on the FM dial. While there I did some work in the promotions and music departments, produced and engineered the 60-minute morning talk show “The 8 O’Clock Buzz,” first for Friday host Jonathan Zarov and then for Monday host Linda Jameson, and hosted various nighttime indie rock shows, including an overnight stint and a monthly program in primetime that I continued to do even when I had moved back to Chicago in 2002. I finally left the station in May 2003 when I moved to Amsterdam (that commute would not have been possible).
I occasionally filled in as host of “The 8 O’Clock Buzz,” and the audio player below contains a compilation of what I’m calling “Buzz Bits”; these were originally compiled in this snippet format for use in an audition tape that I submitted to Wisconsin Public Radio. You can also hear in its entirety the first “8:00 Buzz” that I hosted when Jonathan took a month off in the summer of 1997. Guests include Matthew Rothschild, editor of Madison-based The Progressive magazine joined by Giselle Pelican (sp) of Free Speech TV. The audio abruptly ends just short of the 42-minute mark (41:41 to be exact), following an in-studio fiddle performance.
Recordings of my music shows are much more numerous and I will be posting a good number of these in the weeks to come, providing a few more details as I do.
The first of these is a show I did New Year’s Eve 1996 — my first ever on WORT. I had just moved to Madison and started working at the station in November. I had been (mildly) disappointed that, having the prior on-air experience that I had, I couldn’t get on the air right away, but I recognized New Year’s Eve as my chance. Who’d want to work 11:00 p.m.-2:00 a.m. that night? Turned out just me. I had done a couple New Year’s Eve broadcasts in college and really enjoyed being behind the mic on such a night. So I set about doing a special kind of New Year’s Eve show, one that would harken back to radio listening of my youth, namely to WLS, the top 40 station that I listened to faithfully every New Year’s Eve of the late ’70s and early ’80s as they counted down the Big 89 songs of the year just coming to an end. My idea for this night was to play 89.9 songs, 89.9 being WORT’s FM frequency, in a matter of three hours, the time I had on air. I scoured the CD and LP racks for short songs and started compiling my list. The night of the broadcast I found myself operating at a frantic pace for the two hours and 40 minutes it took to play 89.9 songs, discarding just-played records into an increasingly steep mound on the floor below me. Because of that frantic pace, I neglected to roll tape on the show until about 25 minutes in, and then forgot to turn it over and hit record when the first 45 minutes of the show had passed. Consequently, the 45 minutes you’ll find on the audio player below [New Year’s Eve, 1996/97] is all that exists of the show in recorded form. (There’s also an unfortunate audio break that interrupts a Liz Phair song and skips forward; I’m not sure what happened there.)
ALL FM - today from 11am
Tune into The Mainstream today 11am-1pm on ALL FM 96.9 to hear my latest Ukulele Tune of the Fortnight.
This is a regular feature I’ve started doing for the show and it’s nice to be doing something at ALL where my journey with radio began. Listen online if you’re not in the Manchester area.
With all the fantastic stuff I get sent to play on the Uke Hunt Podcast, it’s really hard when I only get to play one!
X-Rated: Women in Music radio show starting in about 5 minutes!
kzum.orgToday is the first of two shows featuring the top non-local songs played on X-Rated in the last year. I’ve got Marina & the Diamonds, Gillian Welch, Cowboy Indian Bear, Neko Case, Lissie, Out Hud, Glasser, Blonde Redhead, Best Coast, Noisettes, Oh Land, Caroline Smith & the Goodnight Sleeps, MEN, Austra, Bat for Lashes, Janelle Monae and more! 1:05 p.m. central to 3 p.m. central, streaming live online.
X-Rated: Women in Music "Best of 2011" radio show starting now
kzum.org
The first of two shows looking at X-Rated’s top songs and albums of 2011, including The Bears of Blue River, The Wandering Bears, Alex Winston, Gloworm, All Young Girls Are Machine Guns, The Betties, Amy Schmidt, Honeybee & Hers, Little Scream, Tennis, Arrah and the Ferns and more! Today is more regional/local music, and next week will feature predominantly (though not exclusively) national acts, as well as several albums heretofore unplayed on X-Rated … streaming live, now till 3 p.m. CT!
Listen to Cognitive Dissonance!
Tune into 93.5 KOCA tonight, 10PM-1 AM MST and keep your dial locked for fab music + Legit Conservative + d-bag o’ the week. And keep your fingers crossed the tech gods are in a good mood tonight.
We’ll have a fantastic interview with Zach Wahls, founder of Scouts for Equality and author of “My Two Moms.” On top of that, we’ll also have another marvelous chat with Rodger McDaniel, author of Dying for Joe McCarthy’s Sins: The Suicide of Wyoming’s Senator Lester Hunt.
On that note, we’ll call out some of our own homegrown wingnuttery.
Tonight’s show is gonna rock your socks!
Don’t forget to send The Legitimate Conservative some questions!
Listen online and talk to us in the live chat! Check out http://myradiostream.com/cognitivedissonance to listen at 10 PM and http://chat.myradiostream.com/FSHs11p6864/ for the chat!
Taking your requests for songs, dedications & d-bag nods til 9 PM MST.
Cheers,
Meg
