Monthly Archives: October 2012
Warnock, John W. SASKATCHEWAN: the roots of dissent and protest. 2004. Black Rose Books, Montreal.
Warnock was the first person who came to me in the mid-eighties and said: you have to learn about Free Trade; It´s very important. So when an elderly friend told me to do something about the planned FTA, I responded to her by organizing a meeting for Jack to speak about Free Trade. Since then he has published several books on this topic, all excellent resources about the planned takeover of our commons.
Jack moved back to Saskatchewan and has been very active in political life there in recent years. His return to the crucible of much of Read more [...]
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Filed under Book Reviews, John W. Warnock
Waring, Marilyn. 1 WAY 2 C THE WORLD: writings 1984-2006. 2009. University of Toronto Press. Canada.
Waring is a brilliant woman, what some might call a renaissance woman. She earned a PhD at the age of 22; then she became a Member of Parliament in her native New Zealand at 24 years. She could be described as a politician, a scholar, a peace, environmental, feminist, human rights activist and a goat farmer. She spoke recently in Victoria and I was delighted to hear her witty and wise speech which I dubbed to myself as, ´Commonsense about the Commons.´ Much of her wisdom comes from her intense commitment to her principles and her dedicated Read more [...] Comments Off on Waring, Marilyn. 1 WAY 2 C THE WORLD: writings 1984-2006. 2009. University of Toronto Press. Canada.
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Vaillant, John. The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed. 2006. Vintage Canada, Toronto, Ontario.
“A culture is no better than its woods.” W. H Auden, p. 215
“How would you convince people that material temptations, social status, and educational institutions, are used to preserve and perpetuate the status quo, with very little real consideration for life on earth?” Grant Hadwin. p.171
The main threads of this engrossing work are the lives of one obsessed man and a mutant Sitka spruce in Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands, BC). The fabric is an impressive swath of the history of coastal BC, of globalization, privatization, and Read more [...] Comments Off on Vaillant, John. The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed. 2006. Vintage Canada, Toronto, Ontario.
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Urbain, Olivier. DAISAKU IKEDA´S PHILOSOPHY OF PEACE: Dialogue, Transformation and Global Citizenship. 2010. I.B Tauris, UK, and the Toda Institute for Peace and Policy Research.
“When we have a genuine sense that, no matter how difficult our present circumstances, we are not alone––that we are vitally connected with others and with the world––we will, without fail, rise up to the challenge of living again.”
This comprehensive work is a biography, a scholarly analysis and a historic context for peace activity in Japan. Urbain has managed to compress the prolific work of one person´s lifetime into this complex and well–documented volume.
Daisaku Ikeda founded a secular Buddhist movement in 1975, Soka Read more [...]
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Filed under Book Reviews, Olivier Urbain
Urbain, Olivier, editor. Music and Conflict Transformation: Harmonies and Dissonances in Geopolitics. 2008. I.B. Tauris, UK, in collaboration with the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research, Tokyo, Japan.
“Music has an inexplicable way of elevating humankind to its noblest action.” Youssou N´Dour, Senegalese singer
“…creative
ability is a quintessential part
of being human: to assert one´s
Creativity is also to assert one´s
Humanity.” Dennis Brutus, South African poet
“…music can enable people, somehow, to ´get inside´ each other´s minds, feel each other´s suffering and recognize each other´s shared humanity –that is, in common understanding, to have empathy for each other”. Felicity Laurence. P. 14
This collection Read more [...]
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Filed under Book Reviews, Olivier Urbain
Tormey, Simon. Anti–Capitalism: A Beginner’s Guide. One World Publications, Oxford UK.
This useful summary and overview is part of a series of beginner’s guides published by Oneworld. I’d like to see the others also – on Genetics, Palestine–Israel and particularly Postmodernism, a subject on which I shall always be a beginner.
Tormey presents a well organized schematic look at the modern anti–capitalist movement in recent years. He believes that the last five years since WTO Seattle in 1999 calls for a redefinition of anti–capitalist movements – essentially the hopeful and forward looking strategy that has developed Read more [...]
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Toledo, Rebecca, Teresa Guiterrez, Sara Flounders and Andy McInerney, editors. War in Colombia: Made in U.S.A. 2003. International Action Center, New York, USA.
“Cultural intervention can alter a whole society, destroying traditions, customs, values and mores developed over centuries…Far beyond its economic exploitation, cultural intervention destroys the aspects of life that best identify a whole people from all their history, imagination and character…
Psychological intervention invades the mind, telling its subjects what they are to believe and be.” Ramsey Clark in his opening essay
Some years ago I was struggling to understand the situation in the former Yugoslavia, the conflicts, wars and Read more [...] Comments Off on Toledo, Rebecca, Teresa Guiterrez, Sara Flounders and Andy McInerney, editors. War in Colombia: Made in U.S.A. 2003. International Action Center, New York, USA.
Filed under Andy McInerney, Book Reviews, Rebecca Toledo, Sara Flounders, Teresa Guiterrez
Tokar, Brian ed. Redesigning Life? The Worldwide Challenge to Genetic Engineering. McGill-Queen´s University Press. Montreal & Kingston, CANADA. 2001.
A great collection of essays from a global range of authors about all different aspects of biotechnology, from food to body parts, from cancer to cloning. Very hopeful that this is one struggle the people for life may win.
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Tilly, Meg. Gemma. Syren Book Company. 2006. Minneapolis, USA.
This is a harrowing, but believable novel by the actor Meg Tilly who grew up in British Columbia. Although it is a novel, Tilly says she suffered abuse from men her mother knew in her childhood; this novel is based on some of her experiences.
Childhood sexual abuse by close family members and friends is one of the last taboo subjects in our society. Yet nearly every family has experienced it, some acknowledge it and others ignore it. What is so hard to comprehend is expressed in this book, that often parents, particularly mothers, and others Read more [...]
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Suarez, Thomas. PALESTINE: SIXTY YEARS LATER. 2010. Americans for Middle East Understanding. New York, USA.
“Palestine today is a wasteland of powerful nations´ hypocrisy…Palestine is also a land of people determined to hold on to their humanity, a people who refuse to be erased or pummelled into the role of victimhood.”
Suarez has taken powerful and revealing photos he accompanies them with a well-written, factual and authoritative text. Suarez observes and records with a sensitive eye and a keen empathy for the lives of Palestinians. If Azoulay´s book, From Palestine to Israel, is a record of the cataclysmic formation of the state of Read more [...] Comments Off on Suarez, Thomas. PALESTINE: SIXTY YEARS LATER. 2010. Americans for Middle East Understanding. New York, USA.
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Stauffer, Julie. The Water You Drink: Safe or Suspect? 2004. New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, BC.
The Water You Drink: Safe or Suspect? is a comprehensive manual on the use and conservation of our most precious resource. Stauffer starts by explaining that although much of our planet is covered with water, most is salt water and large scale desalinization of the oceans is not feasible. Only 3% of our water is fresh and of that, less than 1% is available for drinking water. Water does not disappear; it is a constantly recycling resource. We may drink and pee the same molecules many times in our lives. Much of our accessible water is becoming polluted Read more [...] Comments Off on Stauffer, Julie. The Water You Drink: Safe or Suspect? 2004. New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, BC.
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Stauber, John & Sheldon Rampton. Toxic Sludge is Good for You: Lies, Damn lies and the Public Relations Industry. Common Courage Press, Maine, USA. 1995.
Witty but wise look at the great lengths and deceit the corporate world will go to, to sell us products and lies that damage and destroy life and society. Some great anecdotes about how some have been exposed.
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Filed under Book Reviews, John Stauber, Sheldon Rampton
