A Peace of Green

For all you tree-huggers out there, this is your chance!

Greenpeace is looking for volunteers.

They are an independently funded organization speaking up to protect the environment, which has no voice of its own... They challenge governments and industries to change harmful practices by negotiating solutions, conducting scientific research, introducing clean alternatives, carrying out peaceful acts of civil disobedience and educating and engaging the public.

Their mission statement is to:

* Protect biodiversity in all its forms
* Prevent pollution of the Earth’s oceans, land, air and fresh water
* End all nuclear threats
* Promote peace, global disarmament and non-violence.

For more information check their Volunteers Website!

Underlining Spring

Javex Canada is inviting Montrealers to come celebrate the arrival of the warmer season this weekend by getting a head start on their 'Spring Cleaning' and bringing in their used clothing to Dorchester Square. An immense clothing-line will be displaying all the goods gathered from April 9th to 12th, which will then be handed over to Accueil Bonneau. The organism helps people living on the streets by providing 320 000 meals a year, and are open 7 days a week. It also contributes to the social reinsertion of homeless persons by providing them with stable housing, better living conditions and helping them recover autonomy and dignity.

Donations are welcome today through Saturday.
Corner Peel and Rene-Levesque West,
between 10am and 6pm.

Clothing of all sizes is welcome.
As well as donations in cash.

And while your staring at the overwhelming amount of clothes
hanging on the line at Dorchester Square,
take a few moments to consider your consumption patterns, please.
How many of the pieces you gave away were purchased and never worn?
Left to age badly in an already packed closet?

What does it say about us, as people, that we are willing to discard
a fifty dollar shirt, because it is faded or outdated.
But often unavailable to spend an hour making the world a better place?

Next time you feel like shopping for new clothes:
consider these addresses - they carry 'made from recycled' pieces!

On & On Ecolo Chic
is available at Espace PEpin
350 St-Paul West

Preloved
4832 St-Laurent St.

Lolita
274 St-Viateur St.

Creation Genest
available at Boutique La Gaillarde
4019 Notre-Dame West


Or if your just looking for great ideas
to eco-friendly your wardrobe!
Be sure to check out The Green Set
an eco-fashion blog for the eco-conscious shopper.

Summertime....and the giving is easy!

The sun is out and days are getting longer...
Which means you might have a few hours to spare
when planning your next week's schedule,
why not spend a few hours volunteering?


You could start with Nourishing your Community at Santropol Roulant's
Meals on Wheels initiative. It's a volunteer organization run by dynamic young people living in the Montreal community. It provides youths with bike-delivery jobs and helps them counter social adversity in creative ways. Meals-on-wheels helps bring people in the neighborhood together across cultures and generations through their innovative service. It's become quite the community space.

The organization has been using food as a vehicle to break social and economic isolation between generations, having youths deliver supplies to elderly people who have lost their autonomy. It also serves in strengthening and nourishing the local community by gathering funds through a thrift store and housing a volunteer bike shop. They encourage a diversity of people to take an active role in their communities through initiatives that address the health and food security needs of Montrealers.


They also have a great Rooftop Gardens Project aimed at 'Liberating Spaces for Healthy Cities' and making widespread rooftop gardening a reality in Montreal and around the world. The Rooftop Garden Project is a tangible link between local action and global thinking.

Find out how to get involved by volunteering in the demonstration garden.

Culinary Delights for Social Plights

When donating to help feed children in Montreal
gets you a showdown of the city’s culinary masters,
the giving’s worth the goods.

And that’s just what’s happening on April 14th.
in MONTREAL’S IRON CHEFS competition
at La Queue de Cheval,
celebrating their 10th anniversary this year!

For the occasion, an open air kitchen will host
the city's greatest chefs, allowing them to
impress and entertain judges and guests alike
with their originality and culinary prowess.

Taking part in this gastronomical battle are: Marino Tavares (Café Ferreira), Richard Bastien (Leméac), Olivier de Montigny (la Chronique), Lindsay Petit (Quintessence), Jérôme Lefil (Garçon), Chuck Hughes (Garde Manger), John Zoumis (Trinity) and Fred Morin (Joe Beef).

Guests will, of course, get to voice their satisfaction. But the true contest lies in the four course meal, divided into eight plates, accompanied by fine wines. This, and only this, will allow judges to crown the winner.

All proceeds go to the « Nourrir un enfant » campaign, an initiative by the Cardinal Léger Charity Foundation to help feed children living under the poverty line in the great Montreal region.

Tickets are still available!
Prices range from 350$ - 1000$.
Doors open at 7.30pm.
For more information check out the Queue de Cheval website
or contact 514-390-0090 to reserve a table.

Dare to Care

Sometimes in life we're lucky enough to come across truly amazing people.

Helen Downie, is one of those people.

She's an executive member of STAND (Students Taking A Stand for Darfur)
and Amnesty Concordia,
but she's also a bright and spirited young woman,
who wears her heart on her sleeve.
And worse of all,
She makes it seem so easy.

I was fortunate enough to be able to interview her.
And am thanking her again for the opportunity.

If your feeling like you need a little motivation to make the world a better place,
this video should set you straight.

Enjoy!
Download the interview

Or for a sneakpeak,
Helen's pitch for STAND Canada's:

If you could get one person off the street, would you?

"Devil Plays Hardball is an experimental, interventionist documentary that has the potential to change lives. In this social experiment, four mentors – all accomplished and compassionate individuals - are challenged to help realize the hopes and dreams of four homeless individuals. The process is not without its pitfalls, however, as the mentors learn that people who live on the streets end up there for a complex variety of reasons, and that being homeless means more than just not having a place to live." -Paperny Films

Devil Plays Hardball is directed by Nijole Kujmickas,
produced by Audrey Mehler of Paperny Films
in association with CBC Newsworld.

One for You & Two for Me!

There was an excellent cover story in La Presse this morning, by Stéphanie Bérubé on World Famine.

The rapidly escalating global food crisis has reached emergency proportions.
It is threatening to draw back at least seven years of progress in the fight against poverty. According to the U.N. World Food Program, 30 countries are presently experiencing accute food shortages, 18 of which are situated on the African Continent.

The price of wheat, milk and meat have doubled within the last year. And rice, coffee and soya are at a ten year high.

If we look at the figures, meat consumption requires at least 6 kilos of cereals for one kilo of meat. That's costly. At this point we are consuming more than we are able to produce. According to Paul Roberts, we could reduce 20-30% of our meat consumption without affecting our protein intake.

Meanwhile a billion human beings live on a dollar a day. And on that income, when prices explode, disaster can be expected. The U.N. will need to amass half a million in funds before the end of the month, without which some aid missions will have to be abandonned and the hungry, left to their own devices...

Protests erupted last week in Haiti over rising prices.
In Pakistan, police now have to escort shipments of food to commercial venues.
In Somalia, inflation has raised to 100 000% this past year and 80% of the population lives under the poverty index, the state of famine is on it's fifth year.

We'll all have to make some changes. Because eating the way we do today will no longer be possible.

In Canada if you eat less and exercise more.
Cances are you'll live longer.
Longer than some, at least.



For further reading:"Who will Feed China?" by Lester Brown

Five Days for the homeless

Students from Concordia raised over $37,000 last week,
students and friends spent five days and nights outside
for the Homeless charity campaign.

If you would like to know more about the students’ experience:
Go check out the team's blog!
Or make some newspapers trails by reading "Concordia students take fund-raising to the street" in the Montreal Gazette.

©Tobyotter





Night 1


Night 2

Humanitarian Intervention

I can gladly say that I get a fair share of my information from the radio.
I like leaving it on scan and randomly picking up whatever strikes my fancy.
Call me a sucker for diversity.
It's true.

Yesterday morning I fell upon an interview on CBC Radio 1
with Dr. W. Andy Knight, who is a professor of Political Science
and International Relations at the University of Alberta.
Check out his website!

Unfortunately, the interview isn't as of yet available on CBC's webpage,
I'm waiting on them for a link.

What was important about Mr. Knight's message is that he addressed the United Nations' "Responsibility to Protect" Mandate. Explaining in some detail that it would give the UN the right to intervene in circumstances where national governments fail to provide sufficient security to their civil populations.

This is what was missing in 1994 when Rwanda was on the brink of disaster.
Support for this legislation would enable the UN to pressure the Bashir government in Sudan to give further support to the suffering regions in Darfur.

In the mean time,
here is an article by Kurt Jonassohn on Covering Conflict in the 21st Century. It addresses some of the concerns contemporary media has in keeping an independent line during coverage and how editorial lines are increasingly submitted to corporate interests before making the cut.

Dear Readers,

Please forgive the preachy tone and
My slightly alarmist stance.

But the past 5 years have been quite the overview in humanity's
tendency to tear itself apart instead of banding together.
And it scares the living daylights out of me.



These kids are living proof that you can take a camera to the streets
and make a point. It drove home the fact that regardless of all the technology involved in news coverage these days, people are still unaware of major issues.
This is why working to raise awareness is still relevant.

While we have the world at our fingertips, the overwhelming amount of information to contend with, might mean that instead of surfing we are drowning in a sea of change.

It Starts on the Battle Ground

You're thinking: "All this talk of change is great. But what can I do?"

And that's what I wanted my blog to be about.
I'll be looking over volunteer projects over the next few months.

I'm hoping to foster inspiration.
To Push a 'Can Do' attitude.

Focus will be on key organizations, people who make thing happen, and the projects that they hold dear.

I'm planning to look at anything from local food drives to fundraising initiatives through artistic performances.

I'll also be adding some links to volunteer organizations
offering opportunities to get involve in the sections
"Writings on the Wall" and "Broadening your horizons",
as well as Human Rights' News Feeds
to provide an overview of ongoing world events.

The Price of Procrastination

It's been over a month since my last post.

The delay is a direct result of a tumultuous student lifestyle,
of feeling often overwhelmed with the everyday,
not knowing how to start and where go with it...

But there's more to it also.

When we were offered the opportunity to set up a blog for Citizen Journalism class,
a thousands ideas ran through my head...
From covering local art galleries, to doing a showcase of Montreal-based festivals, etc.

And while those we passionating subjects on their own terms,
I needed something more.

You see, I've got this overwhelming feeling.
There's a certain sense of urgency, like there's a train leaving and we're all going to miss it.

We're all living in these comfortable little bubbles.
And the world is passing us by.
There's a bandwagon waiting on a vast number of crucial issues,
like taking the environment seriously, ending world hunger,
trying to stop the spread major diseases (AIDS, Malaria, SARS, you name it).

Information media has been shrinking our worldly distances since the Gulf War.
No longer is the next town, next state, next country, next continent - a conceptual no man's land.
It's time we start acting as members of a human race, instead of nationalities and ethnicities...

To understand just one life...

You have to swallow the world.

It used to be that your universe ended at the corner store, maybe the next town...
But it seems the world's been getting smaller, of late.
Around the globe in 80 days, has become a 26hr trip.
And an email to Shanghai is a matter of minutes,
Getting a quick response is another thing.

It's scary sometimes, I'll admit.
And it's tempting to shy away from our growing interconnections.
To sit idly by and waste away the hours...
But that won't make our mutual differences go away,
And it won't make the world we live in a better place.

For as long as I can remember I've been trying to make sense of various things.
Anything really.
"Why?" is a familiar childhood sentence.
And, I don't know why...
I just like knowing what makes people tick and things move ahead.
How we're all unique and individual in a way.
And ultimately come together through sharing our common spaces.

However, being "informed" is no piece of cake.
And time has remained in short supply.

Sifting through most contemporary news media,
I was sad to find that appropriate context is often lacking.
Due to time constraints, or budgets, or interests biases -
it doesn't really matter.
It's just not there.

Knowledge is important because it dictates our sense of affinity.
How or why we feel close to things often depends on how familiar they are to us.
Most people are reluctant to engage the unknown,
We prefer to stay safely within our comfort zones.

Still, no man is an island.

And if we want to start making the world a better place,
It's about time we start asking ourselves about it.
Whether it's the other side of the globe or the other side of the street.
Things are constantly going on,
it's a matter of getting involved.

To kick things off:
A podcast from Doctors Without Borders. The report focuses on three of the most underreported humanitarian stories from the past year: Sri Lanka's rekindled civil war, the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province and civilian struggles survive amid the violence in Central African Republic.