Briarpatch articles from August 2007

Briarpatch archives from August 2007

Communities, intentional & otherwise.(Letter from the Editor)
August 1, 2007... I'VE BEEN THINKING LATELY THAT A healthy community is a little like a spider s web. From the thinnest threads is crafted a thing of incredible strength, and with each additional thread, every new point of connection, the web grows stronger. And...

Art raffle, R.I.P.(The Business End of the 'Patch)
August 1, 2007... For the first summer in many years, Briarpatch will be foregoing our annual art raffle. Though the raffle has been an important and well-loved fundraiser for many years, we have decided that the staff resources required to manage the event and...

On the subject of creative fundraising ...(The Business End of the 'Patch)
August 1, 2007... Support your local organic food store! That goes for everyone, but particularly if you live in Regina and are a Briarpatch subscriber. We are thrilled to announce a new partnership between Briarpatch and locally-owned Eat Healthy Foods (3030...

Reader survey results: a correction in two haiku.(The Business End of the 'Patch)(Correction notice)
August 1, 2007... Only twenty-eight percent of our subscribers want less poetry. Incorrect info appeared in our last issue. We apologize.

The route to gender reconciliation.(Letters to the Editor)
August 1, 2007... I AM A 64-YEAR-OLD HETEROSEXUAL male in a first marriage of 30 years and father of one--a now 27 year old male. I have read Briarpatch faithfully for several years. I appreciate the recent expansion of focus to include international labour...

Empire or umpire?(Letters to the Editor)
August 1, 2007... WHILE ANTHONY FENTON ["PROPAFghanda: The Battle for Canadian Hearts & Minds," June/July 2007] makes a very impassioned case for the lack of press freedom in Canada today, largely owing to the conglomeration of the media and a government shroud...

Activist seeking other activists.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2007... ON BEHALF OF THE PEACE COALITION and the Canadian Peace Alliance, I am planning an anti-war, anti-global warming event for August 20 in Prince Albert, SK. That's the day that Bush is scheduled to meet in Montebello, Quebec, with "Steve" Harper...

A fundraising proposal.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2007... I AM MR. FRANCIS OKOH, MEMBER OF the contract award committee, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Nigeria. I am in search of an agent to assist with the transfer of US$12.6 million and subsequent investment in your country. You will be...

... And speaking of sound investments.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2007... I JUST FINISHED READING THE LATEST issue of Briarpatch [June/July 2007, "The Media Issue"] cover to cover. What an outstanding issue. This is the kind of coverage and information curious Canadians want to know. We're tired of the bland diet of...

Alternative routes: a cross-country exploration of community: Shayna and Dominique are criss-crossing Canada in a search for community. They'll be blogging about what they find, and will report back in the pages of Briarpatch in a few months.
August 1, 2007... AS TECHNOLOGY and globalization rearrange communities on a massive scale, the very definition of "community" is becoming increasingly ambiguous. Physical communities, where neighbours share more than just property lines, are being replaced by...

Justice denied: Haitian political prisoners and Canadian development dollars.
August 1, 2007... THERE WERE NO KIDS PRESENT IN THE LONG LINE of relatives waiting outside the prison gates in Port-au-Prince. Haitian regulations bar children from visiting the National Penitentiary, and it is in fact doubtful whether many would have endured...

Guerrilla traffic control: the art of sticking it to car culture.(stickers on traffic signs)
August 1, 2007... STOP eating meat. STOP driving. STOP bush junior. No, I'm not trying to tell you what to do with your life. But somebody is. I'm referring to those stop signs upon which stickers have been stuck to instruct people to change...

The one-state solution: Zionism and the future of Israel/Palestine: Hassan Husseini interviews Joel Kovel, author of Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine.(Interview)
August 1, 2007... Ascholar and activist, Joel Kovel studied medicine at Columbia University and psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Kovel practiced psychiatry and psychoanalysis for 24 years, but since 1988, he has been a professor of Social...

Bursting the ethanol bubble: the case against food-based fuels.
August 1, 2007... My first doubts about the benefits of ethanol came a decade ago, after a chance encounter on an airplane. In 1997, I was returning from an environmental conference in Brazil that I had been covering as a freelance reporter. Sitting next to...

Naturally suspicious: does the rise of the "naturals" industry represent a small step in the right direction, or merely a distraction from a much larger problem?
August 1, 2007... ON JANUARY 3 OF THIS year, Environmental Defence released a surprising and troubling report entitled Toxic Nation on Parliament Hill. The report detailed how four prominent MPs were carrying around a significant toxic burden--the build-up of...

Unrepentant: Kevin Annett and Canada's Genocide.
August 1, 2007... Unrepentant Kevin Annett and Canada's Genocide Produced by Kevin Annett, Louie Lawless and Lori O'Rorke, 2006 "Their reason for killing and destroying such an infinite number of souls is that the Christians have an ultimate aim, which is to...

Dinner plate ethics: as long as hunting is dismissed as unethical while the act of paying for food at the grocery store is seen as benign, we are unlikely to make much progress.(Parting Shots)
August 1, 2007... WE HAD JUST MEASURED the multi-focal lenses on my eyes when the optician asked, Would you like to order a single-focus set too?" "Yes," I said, grateful for the reminder. "I use a shotgun and need the best peripheral vision I can get." ...