Feb 26, 2009

INDEPENDENT MEDIA by Steve Anderson On February 17, hearings that could well decide the future of Internet broadcasting in Canada will begin in a small room in Gatineau, Quebec. There, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) will decide whether or not to roll back its 1999 decision to exempt Internet content from regulation. Some...

Feb 26, 2009

NUTRISPEAK by Vesanto Melina The scrumptious aroma of potatoes baking in the oven on a winter afternoon. Minestrone soup simmering, bringing an invitation from onion, garlic and herbs. The vibrant reds, greens and purples of a rainbow-hued salad. The explosion of flavour when you bite into an avocado and tomato sandwich. If the word “vegetables”...

Feb 26, 2009

ON THE GARDEN PATH by Carolyn Herriot I spent a full year searching for a property where I could grow as much of my own food as possible. From the moment I stepped foot on the land we bought, I started visualizing my new garden 10 years down the road. Amazingly, it only took five years to achieve year-round self-sufficiency in fruits and vegetables. Now I know...

Feb 26, 2009

THE POWER OF NOW by Eckhart Tolle If someone is seriously ill and completely accepts their condition and surrenders to the illness, would they not have given up their will to get back to health? The determination to fight the illness would not be there anymore, would it? Surrender is inner acceptance of what is without any reservations. We are talking...

Feb 26, 2009

UNIVERSE WITHIN by Gwen Randall-Young Nothing is more precious than peace. Peace is the most basic starting point for the advancement of humankind. – Daisaku Ikeda A ubiquitous quality among humans is the tendency to judge others, regardless of age, culture or geographical region. Of course, this is the work of ego. Interestingly, the judgment of...

Feb 26, 2009

FILMS WORTH WATCHING by Robert Alstead Opening this month, Laurent Cantet’s French language feature The Class (Entre Les Murs) won the Palme d’Or, the top prize, at the Cannes Film Festival this past summer. The film is based on teacher François Bégaudeau’s 2006 novel about his experiences at a junior high school in a...

Feb 26, 2009

EARTHFUTURE by Guy Dauncey What are we to make of the world financial crisis? Some analysts are comparing it to the Crash of 1929, which triggered The Great Depression of the 1930s. Almost without exception, they assume it to be a bad thing. Pension funds are evaporating into thin air, people are losing their jobs and businesses are failing. If we picture the...

Feb 26, 2009

SCIENCE MATTERS by David Suzuki with Faisal Moola Well, 2008 was a wild ride. A global economic crisis, elections here and in the US, turmoil in parliament and a worsening environmental situation – it’s enough to make you want to climb under the blankets and hope for the best. And there are some hopeful signs. But hope, unfortunately, is not enough....

WRITING ON THE WALL by Joseph Roberts On May 12, a referendum fwill be held across BC offering voters the opportunity to replace our current first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system with the far more democratic single transferable vote (STV). In order for STV to supplant FPTP, however, more than 60 percent of the total provincial vote is required as well as a...

Feb 26, 2009

by Milt Bowling Pictures in the newspaper could not have prepared me for the bear of a man I met for the first time at the David Suzuki Foundation – Jim Fulton. Jim was one of those people whose gaze let you know you were being appraised as friend or foe in the first few seconds. His handshake and/or hug revealed how you’d fared. Jim started as a...

Feb 26, 2009

by Deepak Chopra Like the tiny spark of fire that consumes a forest, the spark of love is all you need to experience love in its full power and glory, in all its aspects, earthly and divine. Love is spirit… In the West, what we generally call love is mostly a feeling, not a power. This feeling can be delicious, even ecstatic, but there are many things...

by Jonathan Schell The inauguration of Barack Obama, whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant, is both a culmination and a beginning. The culmination is the milestone represented by the arrival of a black man in the office of president of the United States. That achievement reaches back to the founding ideals of the...

Feb 26, 2009

DRUG BUST Alan Cassels “Drastic action is essential to preserve the integrity of medical science and practice and to justify public trust.” – Journal of the American Medical Association You can learn a lot about the effects of drugs and the actions of drug manufacturers by peering into a courtroom. When you hear what the companies themselves...