August 14, 2005

in vernon british columbia canada

I feel like the past few days back in BC have been surreal. Since arriving on Wednesday night, I have spent a day and a half getting over something akin to a flu, been to my niece's first birthday party, and been to two weddings, one of which is in Vernon. It is hard to think that a few days ago I was in such a different environment. It's strange not to hear 'bloody' every few words and to see Tim Hortons again (seems to be the place to eat when on a road trip).

Anyway, I'm off to see my beautiful friend Reagen in Kelowna. I expect things to slow down after Vernon and will be able to write about the last week in London, as I'm sure you're all waiting to hear about that.

August 07, 2005

openDemocracy

I forgot to mention another newsite. Now this one I enjoy reading.

Written by and for people across the world, from South and North, from the powerless to the influential, we seek to bring together those who are not well-known with writers and thinkers of international repute.

It’s in our name: openDemocracy.net is dedicated to opening up a democratic space - free thinking for the world.

August 03, 2005

news and schNEWS

My friend James alerted me to the fact that his sister-in-law's husband (I guess that makes him his brother-in-law?) is the Chief Editor for Global National website and has revamped the site and is adding all these apparently cool techie things to it. I say apparently because it sounds techie, therefore foreign.

I have created a link to it, but I have also added a link to
schNEWS to keep the balance. News from opposite spectrums might be good to tap into every so often.

Global National is owned by
CanWest Global Communications, owner of Global TV, 10 major dailies across Canada, 27 other daily, weekly or community publications, more channels and more publications. Basically, CanWest is Canada's largest media company and is an example of what you hope wouldn't happen to media ownership. CanWest was owned by the late Izzy Asper, a politician (Liberal Party & staunch Israel supporter) turned media mogul, whose politics dictated the news of the day. His sons who took over prove to be just as 'shrewd' with media business.

On the other hand, a colleague from work also alerted me to another site, which I have also added. It is
schNEWS, a UK based weekly direct action newsletter (read - anarchist). It is created by volunteers and as they say,

'Our stories originate anywhere from anarchist literature to the dodgy Financial Times (no, really), from conversations in the pub to the internet. While we always try to be as accurate as possible and chase people up to verify the stories, the idea behind SchNEWS is not to believe the printed word, but to get up off yer arse and go and see for yourself. So articles are often first hand accounts from trusted sources or ourselves as we storm all over the country causing trouble/saving the world/having a laugh.

A little bit of a different flavour of news. Enjoy the smorgasbord.