https://fempages.org/ Recent content on Ullas Amazing Wee Blog Hugo -- gohugo.io en-gb Sat, 18 Aug 2012 15:52:31 +0000 https://fempages.org/about/ Tue, 11 Jan 2022 10:00:00 +0000 https://fempages.org/about/ This is the blog of Ulla covering a period when she was a writer and reporter who was involved with Indymedia and other projects. All entries pre 2006 have been imported from Phpslash to WordPress Content Management System, which all then in Jan 2022 exported as Markdown files and using Hugo built into a static html version of the blog. https://fempages.org/2012/08/18/little-baby-brother-arrived/ Sat, 18 Aug 2012 15:52:31 +0000 https://fempages.org/2012/08/18/little-baby-brother-arrived/ The little baby brother arrived in a rush after Sunday lunch at the Botanics. This time we had a good home water birth although it seemed much more painful than the first time. But it was brilliant to be able to raid the fridge in the night and to get onto the internet and computer and send pictures and reports to friends and relatives straight away. And it is so much more relaxing if you know who is coming through the bedroom door and when. Since then we had been very busy with our two-year-old toddler who is keen to test out any rules from not bringing sand into the house to not playing with the toilet water or throwing about the cat litter. https://fempages.org/2012/05/19/update/ Sat, 19 May 2012 17:13:45 +0000 https://fempages.org/2012/05/19/update/ When you have kids, or even one, time flies by and there seems to be so much more urgent things to do than writing a blog. I am pregnant again with our second baby due in summer. And so far 2012 seems to become quite a tough year for us. Our toddler is however our biggest delight, his favourite word is “no” now. https://fempages.org/2011/10/26/the-secret-millionaire-in-pilton/ Wed, 26 Oct 2011 04:31:23 +0000 https://fempages.org/2011/10/26/the-secret-millionaire-in-pilton/ Last Sunday the episode of “The Secret Millionaire” which is situated in Pilton, has been broadcast on Channel 4 [ Episode guide ]. I found it quite intriguing to see Pilton portrayed by an outside TV production crew. They really managed to get the worst shots of the areas, mainly by going over to Muirhouse and filming the empty houses marked for demolition, which are still standing because of legal problems with some owners. The TV crew managed to take shots of the shopping centre without the audience being able to see any of the new buildings like the North Edinburgh Arts Centre or even the library or the super Craigroyston Community High School surrounding it and managed to portray the area worse than it really is, although the protagonist stressed that the area has got a really good community feel with a lot of the residing projects and charities. https://fempages.org/2011/09/12/peace-love-and-petrolbombs/ Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:42:52 +0000 https://fempages.org/2011/09/12/peace-love-and-petrolbombs/ If somebody you know writes a novel with strong autobiographical influence then one of the attractions of reading it is to find out and speculate about whom he writes about, how much of the story has really happened and in what ways it got changed and what has been left out and why. Out of this reason I did enjoy reading the book. So I liked the best reading about the political protests and parts which were similar to things I experienced, like when the author sets the scene at a London squat or describes the Anarchist Bookfair. Personally, I found the writing style really good and the plot has enough tension for the reader to carry on reading one chapter after the other immediately. https://fempages.org/2011/09/11/books/ Sun, 11 Sep 2011 05:58:57 +0000 https://fempages.org/2011/09/11/books/ I did enjoy being on maternity leave a lot, and as baby has been so well-behaved even got the chance to read some books: Sheila Kitzinger: “Understanding your Crying Baby” is a great book and educated me about some common misunderstandings and prejudices. For example, I did not know before I read this book, that the mothers of many of the babies, who cry most, like over 6 hours a day, also experienced a bad, stressful pregnancy, a traumatic birth with lots of interventions and drugs and a patronising, autocratic hospital environment. Also interesting the fact that babies cry most at the 3rd week and in the 3rd month after birth and that some drugs take about a month to clear out of the babies system which leads to some babies changing behaviour dramatically afterwards. https://fempages.org/2011/08/06/baby-fringe/ Sat, 06 Aug 2011 16:52:06 +0000 https://fempages.org/2011/08/06/baby-fringe/ So, one advantage of living in Edinburgh is the huge offer of activities, especially cultural activities like the Festivals. Having looked at the Festival Fringe program, I decided to go to some children’s shows with the little one. As he is still just about one year, I tried to find something appropriate for his age range, and came up with “Stickman”, especially after looking through the book in the library. Which I have to add at this occasion a complaint about the totally smelly and blocked toilets, the little one started crying because of the bad stink, last Friday in the MUIRHOUSE library! https://fempages.org/2011/05/23/the-diaper-free-potty-training/ Mon, 23 May 2011 18:39:01 +0000 https://fempages.org/2011/05/23/the-diaper-free-potty-training/ Me and our little one have started potty training. Most conventional books say potty training can only start when the baby can walk and pull up and down the trousers and put the timing at about 2-3 years of age. But our darling son just always hated wet nappies and so he started to pee whenever we changed him or put him on the changing mat. Or he cried when he wet or dirtied the nappy. First, we tried holding him on the toilet and it worked sometimes, but I was worried it would be too uncomfortable for him. The old potty was just too unstable for our 9-month-old. https://fempages.org/2011/04/30/which-baby/ Sat, 30 Apr 2011 12:25:00 +0000 https://fempages.org/2011/04/30/which-baby/ Which? the consumer rights group, has an excellent baby section. Amongst the latest research are the most useful and the most useless baby products parents advocate. Amongst them baby carrier, baby sling, bumbo seat and nappy stacker. Actually, I have to say that most of the most useless items are actually quite important in our household. the nappy stacker is brilliant if you use reuseable, washable nappies to tidy them up all in one place, but I agree that if you use disposables nobody would find the time taking these out of the plastic bags and putting them into a nappy stacker just because it looks a little bit tidier. https://fempages.org/2011/04/17/baby-groups-and-activities/ Sun, 17 Apr 2011 07:47:16 +0000 https://fempages.org/2011/04/17/baby-groups-and-activities/ Me and little one were off to the National Museum yesterday. The Science Festival is on at the moment, and the wonderful North Edinburgh CREATE Team organised an event there. The under 5es were able to handle some Roman exhibits, one of the artists dressed up as a Roman, and we had some song and dance activities in the Museum, too. Afterwards, the kids were making a mosaic. Our 8 months old just loved exploring the feel of materials and the lights and the architecture of the place. He handled a Roman mortar and a little cutting tool and mouthed a soft toy rat. https://fempages.org/2011/03/23/first-potty-success/ Wed, 23 Mar 2011 03:51:34 +0000 https://fempages.org/2011/03/23/first-potty-success/ Our little one used his potty today for the first time! He is sooo clever and such a well-behaved boy (most of the time). He is having his “G” phase now loving the “Ging Gang Gully” song, the Googlies books and everything “good”. Also, he loves baby-led weaning, he is munching away anything he can get hold of. However, we are all having a bit of a bad cold at the moment and our little one had extremely flushed red hot cheeks and swollen eyes on Thursday and Saturday in particular we are wondering if that is his first allergy too? https://fempages.org/2011/02/12/reuseable-nappies/ Sat, 12 Feb 2011 06:48:45 +0000 https://fempages.org/2011/02/12/reuseable-nappies/ I just love being a mum. It’s so much fun as our little one (lo) is a star. He gives such excellent hugs and cuddles! And he likes going out and about and watching people and daily life from the comfort of the sling. We have been trying out different things to see what works best for us and our darling son (or ds/dd as they are known on websites like mumsnet or netmums). One of the recommendable issues for us are the Real Nappies we have been trying out. There is quite a controversial debate as to how ecological these really are in comparison with disposables (see Wikipedia). https://fempages.org/2010/09/26/the-first-few-weeks-with-baby/ Sun, 26 Sep 2010 06:06:11 +0000 https://fempages.org/2010/09/26/the-first-few-weeks-with-baby/ Thank you very much for the interest, good wishes and presents for our little one and our new family. My baby is now over a month old and is doing really well and growing really fast – at his birth, he weighed 3 600g/7 pounds and 15 ounces and now he is already over 4kg. He is starting to show cute facial expression and tries to learn smiling. He has recently developed a huge visual interest in colours. He loves dancing with Daddy and going out with him in the baby sling. He likes meeting new people who all adore him, so he is putting on extra cheeky charm. https://fempages.org/2010/09/06/our-lovely-baby-boy-is-born/ Mon, 06 Sep 2010 14:56:30 +0000 https://fempages.org/2010/09/06/our-lovely-baby-boy-is-born/ Yes I have had my baby boy on Wednesday last week – what an experience to treasure! What an adrenaline trip and together with sleep deprivation and raging hormones an unbelievable life experience. My mind started to go in a daze and I was most times living in a different reality to how other and most people perceived my life at this moment. It is difficult to remember any facts as I have hardly any recollection of objective timing and locations and people, I was living totally in Ulla-Land and totally absorbed with the birth. I love to tell you my whole story so you – and everybody else interested – can take advantage of my positive birth process and prevent any repetition of the negative side-effects of my hospital stay. https://fempages.org/2010/08/22/ethics-and-ecology/ Sun, 22 Aug 2010 08:58:21 +0000 https://fempages.org/2010/08/22/ethics-and-ecology/ So I have been wandering around the local area – not too far from home – and ended up in the library reading the Which? consumer magazine during a little rest. non-compostable teabag remains I got shocked by two articles: that most teabags are not anymore 100% compostable, as they include a polypropylene plastic netting in order to heat-seal the bags. These include fairtrade and organic brands like “TeaDirect” and “Clipper”, too. And astonishingly, also fruit and herbal teas. Which a quick dig in my wormery confirmed – for several hours I had to sieve out the left-overs of teabag netting to put into landfill instead. https://fempages.org/2010/08/22/t-towards-birth/ Sun, 22 Aug 2010 08:11:32 +0000 https://fempages.org/2010/08/22/t-towards-birth/ The baby is still not there. We are waiting for him to make an appearance now every day. My midwife has already talked about inducing the birth, but I am very much against it after reading about the possible side effects. I am very grateful to have been made aware of the AIMS (Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services) publications as they research these issues very well – from possible mistakes in calculating the due date to flawed research regarding home births and breech births. Ina May Gaskin’s book “Guide to Childbirth” is also very recommendable and empowering as based on the practical outcomes of over 2000 midwife-led home births from the 70ies till the new millennium. https://fempages.org/2010/07/15/on-maternity-leave/ Thu, 15 Jul 2010 07:01:02 +0000 https://fempages.org/2010/07/15/on-maternity-leave/ I am on my third day of maternity leave and it’s great, I can sleep how much I want, which is a lot. I haven’t yet got my nesting instinct as the flat still looks a mess. My parents have furnished the nursery though and the little one is kicking around in my belly and loves music, the baby is supposed to be a boy. For some strange reason, he seems to like in particular Opera and choir music, both not my favourites, but I just put the CD player under the duvet and let the little one wriggle away. https://fempages.org/2010/04/08/summary-of-the-last-months/ Thu, 08 Apr 2010 06:28:49 +0000 https://fempages.org/2010/04/08/summary-of-the-last-months/ I haven’t been blogging for the last months as there are so many new developments in my life. First of all: I am pregnant! And totally excited about it! So we have been trying to get ready for the baby, by searching for lots of baby items second-hand, getting a load of stuff from the former freecycle recycling group “freegle” and my partner’s work colleague even handed down a cot bed to us, too, which was fantastic. There seems to be quite a bit of discussions and disagreement amongst mothers and mums-to-be about whether its better to get baby items second-hand or new; my mum is a fan of used items, especially clothes as she fears residues of pesticides and chemicals, whereas other mums don’t like any potential transfer of bacteria or germs. https://fempages.org/2009/11/30/stats-for-this-blog/ Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:00:23 +0000 https://fempages.org/2009/11/30/stats-for-this-blog/ Just looking at the stats for this blog. One of the most often viewed and linked to entries is the unique article about the “Wild West” in Edinburgh, summarising the history of the cinema at Springvalley Gardens. Its also linked from a website about the buildings of Scotland’s Cinemas , which includes a lot of historical entries like the Springvalley Gardens Cinema, with pictures from inside of the building. I always loved this house for its character, its surroundings and its atmosphere, it is something really special. The other most popular entry is of course “How to catch a lost hamster”. https://fempages.org/2009/11/29/audio-interview-about-bin-worker-dispute-in-edinburgh/ Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:54:37 +0000 https://fempages.org/2009/11/29/audio-interview-about-bin-worker-dispute-in-edinburgh/ Here is a five minute Interview with the bin worker solidarity group. The bin workers themselves did not want to be interviewed on audio recorder or filmed as one of the binmen who gave quotes to the Edinburgh Evening News has been suspended for talking to the press. Interview (Ogg-Vorbis, 5 min, ca. 3 MB) Interview (WAV, 5 min, ca.27 MB) Interview (mp3, 5min, ca 5 MB) <dd class="wp-caption-dd"> private company’s bin lorry </dd> https://fempages.org/2009/11/25/the-little-nato-imc/ Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:19:00 +0000 https://fempages.org/2009/11/25/the-little-nato-imc/ The little NATO imc Made three features for Imc Scotland [ NATO PA disrupted | Opposition prevents SDL from marching | Protest against social care privatisation ] and one for Imc UK [ Scotland in Resistance ]. Also tried to interview the striking bin workers at the meeting, but they are too afraid as one of them was identified when quoted by the Edinburgh Evening News and suspended for doing so. https://fempages.org/2009/11/16/fire-in-our-highrise/ Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:42:43 +0000 https://fempages.org/2009/11/16/fire-in-our-highrise/ This morning I smelt a disgusting stink when getting up, quickly dismissing it as “the kids have set the rubbish chute on fire – NOT AGAIN“. So I wasn’t too alarmed when three firetrucks pulled up in front of the house. But quickly it turned out to be much more, as the ladder was brought up and the firemen wore gas masks and oxygen bottles, and the smell became more, not less intense. fire brigade in front of Fidra Court We got a bit more alarmed when a fireman on his ladder rushed by in front of our window on the way up. https://fempages.org/2009/11/12/carers-and-support-workers-protest-at-edinburgh-city-chambers/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:18:53 +0000 https://fempages.org/2009/11/12/carers-and-support-workers-protest-at-edinburgh-city-chambers/ Wednesday was an incredibly bad day for me with nearly everything going wrong which could go wrong. The only highlight was that I finally was able to make it to report from the protest at the Edinburgh city chambers, against the privatisation of the social care and support services. Report and pictures as usual on Indymedia – UK for pictures and Scotland for local report and networking. I even brought the camcorder along but it was a bit too dark for filming. Nevertheless, hopefully, I’ll have time to produce a little video, but not more than 2 minutes long with a voice-over only. https://fempages.org/2009/11/09/videos-on-nordbayern-de/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:32:00 +0000 https://fempages.org/2009/11/09/videos-on-nordbayern-de/ During my work experience at the Nuremberg based newspaper’s online department, I produced eighteen video clips with my colleague. My favourites are still the “Dogdancing” video and the “Life of a Stuntman” video. Although the last videos are technically and editorially the best; the Square-Dance video and the presentation of the rare Kolitrappen chick in the local zoo. https://fempages.org/2009/11/05/nuclear-bunker-also-in-nuremberg/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:23:55 +0000 https://fempages.org/2009/11/05/nuclear-bunker-also-in-nuremberg/ Reading the local Bavarian paper on the internet, my attention was drawn to a video clip about the cold war nuclear bunker in Nuremberg. I did not know there was a nuclear bunker in Nuremberg at all, let alone underneath the main pedestrian shopping zone. Compared to the secret bunker in Crail in Fife, it is a civilian not a military bunker though. In 2006 the German government decided that it was unlikely that the bunker would be needed anymore in future and therefore gave up its maintenance, handing it back to the local authorities. In the case of Nuremberg, the local fire brigade ended up with the obligation to look after the building. https://fempages.org/2009/10/05/films-to-recommend/ Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:03:57 +0000 https://fempages.org/2009/10/05/films-to-recommend/ I just got into watching old movies with the 1981 Australian “The killing of Angel Street”, describing a community struggling against commercial property development in the 70ies in Sydney. It is based on the history of activist Juanita Nielson , who was murdered because of her opposition to the high-rise developments. The film is now hard to get. Yesterday I watched marxist (?!) filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard’s “Alphaville”, a classic 1965 film about a totalitarian, de-humanised and computer-controlled society. It came with a pack of videos some artist dumped on us in a tidy-up action, along with Luis Bunuel’s 1964 “Diary of a Chambermaid”. https://fempages.org/2009/09/07/visit-to-earthship-in-fife/ Mon, 07 Sep 2009 07:57:37 +0000 https://fempages.org/2009/09/07/visit-to-earthship-in-fife/ For several months now I have tried to arrange a visit to the Earthship in Fife. But the opening times were incredibly restricted, with the whole of August closed and in June and July it was only openend the weekends, and also not every weekend either. Yesterday we finally made it to see the ecological building, and again it was closed, but we had come nevertheless and were able to walk around in the park. A notice on the front door of the closed Earthship explained that it was due to a lack of volunteers. It was quite disappointing to realise that actually, nobody lived in the house like the ones in the US – in Fife it was basically just a pretty unused showcase it seemed, absolutely not representing the amazing enthusiasm and philosophy of its founder, which got me so fascinated with it in the first place when watching the documentary “Garbage Warrior” about the history of the Earthships and the realization of the sustainable living idea. https://fempages.org/2009/05/04/scotlands-secret-bunker/ Mon, 04 May 2009 08:26:39 +0000 https://fempages.org/2009/05/04/scotlands-secret-bunker/ We went and visited Scotland’s Secret Bunker the other day. I was really fascinated by the nuclear bunker in Fife, that I totally forgot to look at the exhibits in a critical way. At the moment I am still wondering how much of the exhibition in the bunker was actually authentic or not, and if it is, from which time period. As the bunker was decommissioned in 1992 or so, but built in the early fifties, there are for example a wide range of red telephones from different decades on show. However, it was very exciting actually seeing the bunker, which is based in the middle of nowhere near Crail, about two hours drive away from Edinburgh and South- East of St. https://fempages.org/2009/04/13/castlewatch/ Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:15:06 +0000 https://fempages.org/2009/04/13/castlewatch/ Me and my hubby had a fantastic day out last weekend. We borrowed a book “The most amazing coastal places in Britain” from the library and were off exploring the close-by recommended sites south of Edinburgh. With the Marathon though running through Musselburgh and beyond we missed out on the close-by places and ended up in Dirleton, visiting Dirleton Castle, which is famous for its gardens which mainly consist of one huge flower border. Dirleton Castle Afterwards, we went into the local pub, the Dirleton Inn, which was recommended by the staff in the Castle, as it had just had a change of owner and got refurbished. https://fempages.org/2009/03/27/application-of-serious-crime-act-against-indymedia/ Fri, 27 Mar 2009 21:50:00 +0000 https://fempages.org/2009/03/27/application-of-serious-crime-act-against-indymedia/ I am so pissed, that I can’t even tell you how. After Indymedia’s server in Britain, in Manchester was seized in January, Kent police arrested some server hosting guy in Sheffield on Monday. Now I am wondering first of all, of what the bloody Kent police is doing in Sheffield and in Manchester – shouldn’t they care about what’s happening in their area rather than tinkering around all over the country? Second of all, they are claiming to hunt for the IP of an anonymous poster of a comment on the forum like alternative news outlet Indymedia. Now how can it be that some person posts a comment on an open-publishing website which is actually removed pretty quickly is at all relevant to anything? https://fempages.org/2009/03/26/busy-busy-holidays/ Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:14:44 +0000 https://fempages.org/2009/03/26/busy-busy-holidays/ If this year is continuing to be like the last months it will certainly be very busy – especially on holidays! In order to get to Germany, we visited Cambridge on the way and tried to visit Burghley House, Park and Gardens – it was still closed though and is only opening from about Easter onwards for summer. Even the toilets were closed – so we headed to Stamford to find some, the beautiful little village beside Burghley House, which because of the conservative attitude of the major landowner has no petrol station and no out-of-town shopping centre. So the town is kept very historic and traditional; it looks very beautiful with its little streets and everything. https://fempages.org/2009/01/19/worm-article/ Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:04:05 +0000 https://fempages.org/2009/01/19/worm-article/ It was the Monday before New Year, I just got up and sat in my jimjams on the couch having my first-morning cuppa and watching the brand-new Wallace and Gromit bakery murder mystery: “A Matter of Loaf and Death” when the doorbell rang. intercom: “Hello here is the photographer from the press agency.” me: “Haeh?????” intercom: “I am here to take a picture of the worms” me: Double-haeh?? Anyways, as there is no use having debates on the doorbell system I buzzed her in. Neglected to mention that there is a lift, with the hope of throwing myself into clothes quick enough whilst the photographer climbed lots of stairs. https://fempages.org/2008/12/11/gordon-ramsays-cookalong/ Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:52:23 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/12/11/gordon-ramsays-cookalong/ For the last week, me and my partner have had great fun joining privately into the Channel4 Cookalong. It’s basically a very enthusiastic cooking course on TV with lots of people cooking simultaneously the same dishes together. The first dish was a Salmon en Croute, here I made the mistake of first getting the wrong doe – a puff pastry – as I could not find any other pastry in the shop, but then realising it was supposed to be a shortcrust pastry. I also got a piece of salmon that was too thick to be flipped on top of each other with the filling. https://fempages.org/2008/11/19/muirhouse-community-council-looses-members/ Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:20:36 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/11/19/muirhouse-community-council-looses-members/ Norman Duncan died last Tuesday, 11th of November. He is the third Muirhouse Salvesen community council member to die this year, after Jenny Marrow’s death in late spring and Elizabeth Maginnis start of September. We also had a series of resignations from the community council and with the tense situation of cuts of more than 150 000 pounds in our community in the provision of public services to the elderly, the young and the socially excluded we are having a tough year ahead in our community. https://fempages.org/2008/11/19/korona-scales-are-the-best/ Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:01:58 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/11/19/korona-scales-are-the-best/ I promised to write a positive blog entry about the firm that kindly exchanged my faulty digital kitchen scales. Due to my own fault, I lost the receipt when buying these scales several years ago in Saturn, a German electronic warehouse famous for its good offers. I tried out the scales quickly as in switching them on and then took them with me over to Edinburgh, where I realised these were switching themselves off too quickly to be working properly. The batteries might have been too old for the scales not weighing, so it took me some more years to buy a number of batteries. https://fempages.org/2008/11/05/last-days-2/ Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:31:28 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/11/05/last-days-2/ We brought the worms indoors now as it was getting colder and colder and they were all cuddling up to each other in a big ball in the middle of the wormery. However not sure if they are happy beside the washing machine as they seem to be quite sensitive to vibrations. The last two weeks we have also joined the cookalong: it was very hectic and the first Friday I was behind about 45 minutes because of difficulties with my pastry and lack of preparation. Never got to make the crumble! Last week was much better though I was still about 10 minutes behind and also I never eat the starter during the broadcast as am worried I am not finished with it quick enough. https://fempages.org/2008/10/22/rhubarb-no-rhubarb/ Wed, 22 Oct 2008 10:36:00 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/10/22/rhubarb-no-rhubarb/ At the moment I am trying to get all the ingredients for Gordon Ramsey’s cookalong on Friday. Could not get any rhubarb at all! Will try Waitrose as they have the illusion on their website of the rhubarb season lasting to mid-November, but blimey, the rhubarb in the allotment has all died down now, on the neighbour’s plots as well. This is from a chef who has called to outlaw out of season produce! There is no rhubarb in Morrisons, none in Lidl, Somerfield or anywhere in Edinburgh. https://fempages.org/2008/10/05/worms-settle-in/ Sun, 05 Oct 2008 08:04:58 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/10/05/worms-settle-in/ The worms are all happily settled in now. All 4000 of them! None of them escaped anymore and there weren’t any more on the top of the lids and only two or so in each of the sump trays. They also seem to start eating the tea bags put in for recycling – they seem to like the peppermint ones in particular – and the worm treats seem to be gone already, too. Micah put some of his burnt and cold toast in; I am wondering if that will work. Nearly every book, leaflet, website and user seem to list different ingredients suitable for vermicomposting and there is quite some contradictory information out there about what can go into the worm bins for recycling and whatnot. https://fempages.org/2008/10/01/worm-troubles/ Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:45:03 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/10/01/worm-troubles/ This morning I found the first dozen or so dead worms which committed suicide by escaping from the worm compost bin onto the dry floor. I left the other layers off the worm compost bin as I was worried it would squash the worms but now put them on top to prevent any more break-outs. The other issue I want to keep recorded is that the lid of the can-o-worms does look upside down very much like a tray, and I accidentally thought it was the bottom tray. I hope that when I flopped the whole contents out of the lid into another tray it did not matter that the cardboard used as a mesh did fall into pieces and couldn’t be used anymore. https://fempages.org/2008/09/30/worms-arrival/ Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:29:30 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/09/30/worms-arrival/ The first two wormeries arrived today and it was fun putting them together. The Can-O-Worms seems to be rather more useable than the worm factory because the worm factory has its legs actually only clipped on and I am a bit scared that it isn’t secure enough if the weight of the compost and the worms increases; also that it could go brittle after some years. Anyways, Danni and Charlie are going to test out other wormeries which are cheaper, but have no legs like the EcoWormery; and the Executive Wormery is not only green but also UV-light resistant so it should be doing well on a south-facing balcony. https://fempages.org/2008/09/05/back-in-scotland/ Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:32:38 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/09/05/back-in-scotland/ Came back to Scotland in the middle of August and it was quite full-on from then: I got a bit ill with flu-like symptoms, and because I had a tick bite some weeks earlier I was warned to take tetracycline antibiotics if this would happen – of course it could have also been the change into the very cold, grey and rainy Scottish autumn which caused all the headaches and sniffles. But then I got even more ill because of the side-effects of the tetracycline and was again lying flat and sick for over a week. With the Edinburgh festival, we had also about five guests or more staying, apart from that I was applying for jobs, heading for interviews, try to get the dissertation going with my tutor suddenly retired and away, getting the whole MOT car service and yearly renewals out of the way, fetching the guinea pigs and selling on the spare cage, hutch and run now that they moved all in together. https://fempages.org/2008/08/08/start-of-olympia/ Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:00:28 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/08/08/start-of-olympia/ Usually, I don’t bother about the Olympic Games, as they seem to have become just too commercial, but I am getting quite excited about the Olympic Games in China, mainly because they have already been so newsworthy, partly controversial and very unusual. I am just watching the opening ceremony whilst doing other stuff and am impressed with the mass spectacle and with what creativity it has been organised. It is a very beautiful, exotic and enlightening performance to watch. I haven’t watched any opening of an Olympic ceremony for the last 20 years or so, because they seemed so absolutely predictable, or in the case of Atlanta very commercial and focused on a few individuals’ performances and celebrity appearances such as Muhammed Ali’s or Cathy Freeman. https://fempages.org/2008/08/06/putzfimmel-kundendienst-und-ahnliches/ Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:46:52 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/08/06/putzfimmel-kundendienst-und-ahnliches/ Habe heute den totalen Putzfimmel. Den krieg ich normalerweise nur einmal im Jahr, und ungünstigerweise passiert mir das gerade heute. Wahrscheinlich aus zwei Gründen: a) ich sollte meine Abschlussarbeit schreiben und b) meine Schwester hat vor ihrem Abschied in den Wanderurlaub gesagt, dass ich wirklich NICHT putzen brauche. Und das löst natürlich immer die gegenteilige Reaktion aus bei mir. Ausserdem fangen gerade jetzt an alle möglichen Geräte hier verrückt zu spielen – angefangen von der Kaffeemaschine bis zur Spülmaschine, auf einmal machen die alle Faxen. Die Kaffeemaschine will nur noch manuell bedient werden und die Spülmaschine springt gleich immer zum Ende ohne vorher zu reinigen. https://fempages.org/2008/08/06/edinburgh-festival-highlights/ Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:24:32 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/08/06/edinburgh-festival-highlights/ This weekend the Book festival starts off in Charlotte Square, with a lot of celebrities and international journalists presenting their new publications. Also, on Friday, the World Press Photography Exhibition starts off in the Scottish Parliament, with the Festival of Politics starting on the 20th of August. I was also looking forward to the Festival of Peace and Spirituality, till I realised that most of the interesting events are no longer free as they were the years before. Maybe I’ll manage this year to go to the non-commercial events of the Edinburgh’s People Festival and the alternative Free Festival. To go to the International Festival or most Fringe events will just be too expensive and unaffordable if I would have to pay. https://fempages.org/2008/08/05/leaked-polices-guidelines-to-suppress-protest/ Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:55:26 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/08/05/leaked-polices-guidelines-to-suppress-protest/ A policeman has lost one of his pocket rulebook to policing protest at the climate camp. It has been written by a department called NECTU: National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit, but nowadays apparantly also covering environmentalists. Not since Wikileaks published secret documents about operating procedures in Camp Delta in Guantanamo was it that much *fun* (you know what I mean) to read something the public isn’t supposed to know. [ past report ] The policing at the Climate Camp seems to be rather aggressive – watch BBC video. Unusually the mainstream media seems to be very engagingly reporting from the camp, like The Guardian and also Channel4 News – but for the Press Association, which is demonstrating once again why the journalist profession is one of the least trusted in Britain. https://fempages.org/2008/08/05/animal-problems-solved/ Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:55:00 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/08/05/animal-problems-solved/ One of my top articles is still “How to catch a lost hamster” with about 60 comments. This gets me thinking – there are always practical animal problems no expert book solves. Like how to introduce adult unrelated guinea pigs to each other. The expert books usually just say to not do it, but practically most guinea pigs are sold in pairs and thereby one is likely to die before the other. And it was a really tricky task to get Minilli to accept Misty. Guinea Lee was more open-minded, but Minilli was very jealous. Interestingly, as soon as I went on holidays, they all got on well together, mainly because they had to move into an unknown to all and exciting new environment. https://fempages.org/2008/08/03/usmanov-russian-billionaire-still-trying-to-silence-uzbekistan-blog/ Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:18:00 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/08/03/usmanov-russian-billionaire-still-trying-to-silence-uzbekistan-blog/ I was just wondering where the little thumbnail to the past libel threat vs. Craig Murray, Ex-ambassador of Britain to Uzbekistan was disappearing to, when I followed up the past reporting and found out that there is another and new libel threat by Shillings lawyers towards Craig Murray to prevent the publication of a new book. This time the debate is about the methods of Tim Spicer, who is running one of the private, publically unaccountable mercenary armies in Iraq. How lucky that I’ll be back in Edinburgh to follow the next episode of the Shillings libel drama live: “We note from your website http://www. https://fempages.org/2008/08/03/german-army-in-the-spotlight/ Sun, 03 Aug 2008 11:30:34 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/08/03/german-army-in-the-spotlight/ Internationally the pressure on Germany has been mounting to send more troops to conflict zones. Lately, Barack Obama called for more German troops to Afghanistan and also for these to be sent to the fighting zones in the Southern provinces. Gordon Brown is also fighting for his political survival. Since he became Prime Minister, Labour has lost every election possible. One of Gordon Browns strongest promises was to withdraw the troops before Christmas 2007 from Iraq in particular, but an end to the military intervention in Afghanistan has also been expected [ BBC Forum: Should British troops be in Afghanistan ? https://fempages.org/2008/07/28/journalists-and-climate-camp-discussion/ Mon, 28 Jul 2008 06:44:16 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/07/28/journalists-and-climate-camp-discussion/ There is quite a discussion going on between the National Union of Journalists and the Climate Camp facilitation group about the media policy and thereby restrictions of journalists on the camp site: see Indymedia. https://fempages.org/2008/07/27/nuremberg-time/ Sun, 27 Jul 2008 08:21:18 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/07/27/nuremberg-time/ For the last weeks, I have been visiting friends and relatives in Nuremberg in Germany. I am having a fantastic time and am really busy. In fact, I am having one of the best times of my life – though I seem to repeat this every year by now. Reviewing the Edinburgh Festival for Three Weeks was also a brilliant experience, as was reporting the G8 summit in Germany last year. At the moment I am very happy doing little internet video clips for a local media outlet in Nuremberg; it is good fun as I have a very funny colleague and lots of interesting topics to engage with – we got sent to the huge music festival Rock im Park to do pictures and we could listen to bands like Against Me! https://fempages.org/2008/07/26/indymedia-uk-breaking-up/ Sat, 26 Jul 2008 12:13:19 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/07/26/indymedia-uk-breaking-up/ Indymedia London just announced that they’ll be moving to a new technical CMS and thereby plan to leave the MIR site. As York Indymedia and our little Scotland site also did before, and Bristol also reconfirmed its technical autonomy some years ago, but partly because of different reasons. Reasons are that the site is just getting too big now, and also there seem to be difficulties maintaining it as there are too few voluntary programmers willing and able to cope with the huge workload and able to code with Java; the original system has also been modified a lot so it would be a difficult task for new people to get involved with it. https://fempages.org/2008/07/26/every-worm-in-my-compost-bin-is-happy/ Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:08:14 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/07/26/every-worm-in-my-compost-bin-is-happy/ Over the last months, I have been initiating a worm composting project in our highrise community in Edinburgh. I found a very enthusiastic supporter in Jenni Marrow, the chair of the Muirhouse Community Council, who managed to get a waste recycling grant from Edinburgh Council for this pilot project. Unfortunately, Jenni died in the middle of May, the funeral was pretty big with about 120 or so attendants. However, Jenni worked hard for so many more people – she pretty much single-handedly managed to derail the privatisation of social housing in Edinburgh by campaigning hard against the stock transfer which had a multi-million pound PR project, and she won against them. https://fempages.org/2008/05/11/allotment-rhubarb-season-started/ Sat, 10 May 2008 23:32:01 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/05/11/allotment-rhubarb-season-started/ Last weekend, we started the allotment rhubarb crumble season. Delicious! It’s such an easy thing to grow and cook and I don’t understand why rhubarb is so expensive in the shops – £1.88 per pound or about £3.86 per kilogram. The last two years I had less rhubarb than the first year, by minimising the four or five rhubarb plants to just one gigantic one, which seems to have died now and needs to be split into all the little rhubarby knots developing out of it. The first year I had so much rhubarb I did not know what to do with it – I distributed it to neighbours and friends and fellow allotmenteers and had gigantic loads of plastic bags full to give away. https://fempages.org/2008/05/07/guinea-pig-dreams/ Wed, 07 May 2008 08:24:02 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/05/07/guinea-pig-dreams/ I had a dream this weekend, but a less dramatic one than Martin Luther King’s. I dreamt that my three guinea pigs had multiplied into a colony of 40 and come all with their own cages or so, and I went on holiday and quickly needed to find people to look after and keep them. So, my task in my dream was to match up guinea pig personalities with friends’ and colleagues, and it was a quite weird task. Luckily Minilli, Guinea Lee and Misty weren’t appearing in my dream. The three pumpkins are doing well though I haven’t yet managed to integrate Misty into Minillis and Guinea Lees close-knitted community. https://fempages.org/2008/04/27/couchsurfing/ Sat, 26 Apr 2008 23:36:43 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/04/27/couchsurfing/ SB is proud to have published more blog entries over the last few months than I did. So, though am not really keen to do some blogging I’ll just summarise some of what’s been going on – I have been starting to participate in the Couchsurfing networking site. As I haven’t been able to stay anywhere yet, I have just hosted people, and experiences differed quite a lot: my first guest was a really nice guy from Germany, who cooked us an excellent Salmon and Leek lasagne and we got on really well. My next guests were from Australia and America, and because I have written in my description that I like leftwing, alternative people I ended up with some kind of spiritual ghostwhisperer and energyhealers on their way to Findhorn Community. https://fempages.org/2008/04/07/nuj-adm-in-belfast/ Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:40:00 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/04/07/nuj-adm-in-belfast/ This year’s NUJ ADM in Belfast also had a blog, although it seems nobody knew about it, few contributed, and it wasn’t linked from the NUJ’s front page. The Blog for the ADM in Birmingham seemed to be quite successful last year, and the year before in 2006 in Liverpool seemed to start the whole blogging experience off. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go this year, and I am a bit doubtful that I actually would have wanted to go either. It seems to be easier to go as a student than a member of the NUJ anyways, as there are only 2 positions for the Edinburgh Freelance Branch available, but last year, four students from Edinburgh were able to go to the ADM. https://fempages.org/2008/03/06/no-to-starbucks/ Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:37:28 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/03/06/no-to-starbucks/ Reading Sarah Allen’s piece on Starbucks in Tuesday’s CiF, I was impressed with her style but angry about the content. On first glimpse, it seemed to be more promotion of Starbucks rather than being critical of it, although the main point, that a coffee shop worker can not be trained in three hours, is indisputable. However, there are so many other negative points to be made about coffee [ A brain on caffeine ], its production [ Mini Black Gold ] and Starbucks [ Wikipedia]: from the now historic lack of recycling to lack of support for Fairtrade [ commondream ] to the lack of workers rights and trade union sabotage [ Starbucksunion ] as well as its coffee outlet in Guantanamo’s Camp Delta – it seems startling that the quality of training would be the only point of criticism in this article [ Starbucks gossip ]. https://fempages.org/2008/02/21/wikileaks-censored/ Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:50:25 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/02/21/wikileaks-censored/ Wikileaks, the anonymous whistle-blower website, has been faced with a legal injunction to be taken down by orders of US District Judge Jeffrey White. The website, which is devoted to the battle against web censorship and for anonymity, published documents proving that a Swiss Bank – the Julius Baer Bank and Trust – engaged somehow in money laundering and tax evasion via the Cayman Islands – or something like that. [ Slashdot | Wired | The Register ] Well, if the bank tried to protect its reputati0n, it certainly backfired: Newsoutlets from all over the world from the Guardian to the Taz report on the attempt to shut down the site, which recently leaked documents related to prisons in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. https://fempages.org/2008/02/02/fluffy-is-dead/ Sat, 02 Feb 2008 13:16:44 +0000 https://fempages.org/2008/02/02/fluffy-is-dead/ Fluffy died this morning at about 11 o’clock at the vets. He had developed some rapidly growing tumours in his belly, and in the end, he was hardly able to leave his house and couldn’t climb anymore. Fluffy touched the hearts of everybody who knew him, he was a very polite, curious, adventurous and good-looking Syrian hamster. He was about 800 days old when he went to his final sleep. Fluffy He can be remembered in pictures and in his star movie: “How to catch a lost hamster“. https://fempages.org/videos/hamstervideo.wmv He will be buried in a nice sunflower box in our allotment. https://fempages.org/2007/12/27/anniversary-of-sebastian-haffner/ Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:39:47 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/12/27/anniversary-of-sebastian-haffner/ Today is the 100th anniversary of Sebastian Haffner’s – pardon, Raimund Pretzel’s birthday. The pseudonym was created to protect relatives still living in Nazi-Germany, after the lawyer managed to emigrate to Britain and started to write. Now, a lot of people will wonder why the former Observer journalist is still relevant and exciting us today; especially since his obituary [link] has already been published. But since his death in 1999, a bundle of memoirs from the Thirties have been discovered and when posthumously published in 2002 in the English translation as “Defying Hitler”, the nearly forgotten author topped the reading charts once again. https://fempages.org/2007/11/23/flat-packed-furniture/ Fri, 23 Nov 2007 09:52:39 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/11/23/flat-packed-furniture/ I just love Charlie Brooker’s column in The Guardian. His latest take on the media lists is spot on. And is so impressive, that it clearly lightened up my day when I was nailing together a bookshelf, just by wondering if it would make it into his list of “908 Items of Flat-Pack Furniture to Assemble Before You Die”. Definitely, I would NOT put the ARGOS bookshelf into this list, but the small animal wooden log cabin should easily be able to make it into the Top Ten. Because the little hut is made of untreated wood for the guinea pigs to eat, consists just of 4 walls and a roof, and has got three windows and a door and has a beautifully rustic and simple architecture and looks pretty snug, too. https://fempages.org/2007/11/19/guinea-pigs/ Mon, 19 Nov 2007 12:07:56 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/11/19/guinea-pigs/ The last days I have tried to tidy up a little bit by optimistically getting rid of stuff I hope I won’t need anymore in future. But like everything, it has become more of an exchange of things rather than being able to get rid of stuff. Especially as I got two guinea pigs now, via freecycle. I originally wanted a non-barking dog, but then that offer came along and I thought I would try. The two are not that tame yet, but seem to be happy to listen to classical music and they are very shy and a bit overweight. https://fempages.org/2007/10/29/bookfairs/ Mon, 29 Oct 2007 14:36:19 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/10/29/bookfairs/ This weekend it was the London Anarchist Bookfair as well as Edinburgh’s Independent and Radical Bookfair by Word Power. I was a bit disappointed that they both clashed, and the Edinburgh bookfair had less interesting events than usual, but a whole lot of Palestine Solidarity and other more socialist tendencies. This year there was hardly any factual, investigative or news journalism presentations, but novels, poems and prose. Mike Small and Kevin Williamson are planning to launch a new magazine (again), called “Bella Caledonia”, with a seemingly slightly Scottish nationalism editorial. However, there was some tendencies and new books which were interesting me: one investigation into “Blackwater”, the private American mercenary army, a lot of books about criticising New Labour’s policies into spending £60 billion on “consultants” to change and privatise education, health service and other public services and some books about PFI and one about the water struggles. https://fempages.org/2007/10/22/great-international-childrens-book/ Mon, 22 Oct 2007 09:28:58 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/10/22/great-international-childrens-book/ Have created a list of great international children’s book on Amazon. I am just so shocked that a lot of my favourite children’s books are not recognised or known at all in British culture – like Pippi Longstocking for example or even Momo. Unfortunately I could not find the Turkish book I have read a while ago, or the one set in ancient Rome. I thought it was called “Quo Vadis”, but I am sure it was a children’s book and not the classic by Henryk Sienkiewicz. I forgot the title of the book about the heist mystery set in ancient Egypt and the story of the Great Dane dog. https://fempages.org/2007/10/19/the-myth-about-f1-hybrid-seeds/ Fri, 19 Oct 2007 10:25:10 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/10/19/the-myth-about-f1-hybrid-seeds/ I have been busy swapping seeds on the Grow Your Own Grapevine Forum, and as I offered Red Onion seeds, I got into discussions about the fertility of F1 Hybrid seeds, and Phreddy pointed me to this excellent article. https://fempages.org/2007/10/05/developments-in-chiapas/ Fri, 05 Oct 2007 10:32:25 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/10/05/developments-in-chiapas/ Jason reports from Chiapas that both Coca-Cola and Pepsi first take and then pollute the drinking water at their factories above San Cristobal de la Casas. At the same time BASTA reports on Indymedia Germany that the wave of repression towards the Zapatiastas has lately increased. SINALTRAINAL reports that violence is also increasing towards Coca-Cola unionists in Colombia. [KanalB documentary] https://fempages.org/2007/10/04/usmanov-bribes-journalists/ Thu, 04 Oct 2007 17:20:39 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/10/04/usmanov-bribes-journalists/ The Arsenal News Review reports Usmanov newest PR efforts: “On Tuesday, Alisher Usmanov flew the British press to Moscow in a private jet and put them up at the five-star Kempinski Hotel. An amazing stunt which many have dubbed a ‘charm offensive.’ The party of about 10 reporters included The Guardian (Matt Scott), The Daily Mail ( Charlie Sale),The Times (Matt Dickinson), The Sun (Shaun Custis), The Mirror (Martin Lipton), The Daily Telegraph (David Bond), the BBC (Richard Galpin) and The Independent (Jason Burt). The press conference at his Moscow HQ was widely reported on Wednesday morning but only Charlie Sale admitted they were all flown there in Usmanov’s Gulfstream 550. https://fempages.org/2007/10/01/nuremberg-travel-feature/ Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:43:02 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/10/01/nuremberg-travel-feature/ I love Nuremberg. I do love Nuremberg. Though it has been voted to be the most boring city in Germany by Spiegel magazine several years ago. The author just has to have had made a mistake. Nuremberg is one of the most exciting, yet unboastful city with a lively and vibrant subculture, it even has a bigger alternative and autonomous scene than posh and tidy Munich, and of course, culturally hip Edinburgh. Maybe the poll editor just looked in the wrong places and looked for trendy, upper class clubs and discotheques of which they are few? The trick is that Nuremberg lies very close to two other major cities: Erlangen, where most of the shared university is located, and Fuerth, which is best known for its industry. https://fempages.org/2007/10/01/edinburgh-open-day/ Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:27:28 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/10/01/edinburgh-open-day/ This weekend we enjoyed the Edinburgh Open Day [pictures], organised by the Cockburn Association. We were able to visit the inside of the HBOS headquarters, the Parliament House used for High Court, the Fire Museum, the Reid Concert Hall with the Collection of Musical Instruments and the historical “Caves” in South Niddrie Street, which are a part of Underbelly during the festival but historicaly were built under the South Bridges to store whisky, but they were a bit too damp, so they were just filled with rubble, mainly Oyster Shells. Unfortunately we did not manage to see the historical Drumsheugh Baths Club, mainly because we weren’t sure if we should bring swimsuit or not to the Open Day. https://fempages.org/2007/09/28/sudden-link-explosion-thanks-to-usmanov-dispute/ Fri, 28 Sep 2007 09:05:42 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/09/28/sudden-link-explosion-thanks-to-usmanov-dispute/ This morning I was suddenly astonished by a mass of links to my site. It seems the resistance against Alisher Usmanov started to link to my blog, too. It’s now more than 300 blogs which reproduce the initial blacklisted article or give background information on the events. Tim Ireland gives a timeline of events on Bloggerheads. Reads like a drama, maybe a new version of Macbeth or something. One of the interesting things is, that when the 2007 article was taken down, the lawyers seemed to focus on the 2005 article about the torture of Sanjar Umarov, leader of the Uzbek opposition Sunshine Coalition, and Craig Murray’s analysis of Alisher Usmanov’s involvement in the confinement and torture of this other oligarch? https://fempages.org/2007/09/27/online-seed-swap/ Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:31:16 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/09/27/online-seed-swap/ The Magazine “Grow Your Own” has a very active Forum called “Grapevine”. They are running an online fruit and vegetable show with photographic entries allowed till 30th of September. They have some nice prices for winners, too. But what I like most about the Forum is the seed swap. I got some passionfruit seeds, apple cucumbers are on the way, purple kale and peanuts and cabbage seeds so far, and I sent away a bulk of sweet peas, nasturia seeds and shared some asparagus seeds and hot pepper Jalapeno with interested gardeners. The mix of seeds consists partly of shared commerical seed packets, as sometimes there are hundred of seeds in one packet when only few are needed. https://fempages.org/2007/09/26/community-council-agm/ Wed, 26 Sep 2007 11:16:17 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/09/26/community-council-agm/ So we had our community council AGM yesterday, which was quite interesting. Apparently I have missed a planning application for more than 242 units on the former BT land up near the primary school, despite signing up for the planning alert and getting the weekly list of planning applications. Luckily enough a member of the local housing association has noticed it and the association will dispute the application. Over the last years our former “Trainspotting” area has been discovered by private housing developers for a quick buck; and whilst our multi-storey council houses got demolished to make way for new buildings intended to lead to much less density of people living here, the private developers have built crackers of “luxury apartment towers” before we had the community councils and when it was more difficult to actually see the list of applications and documents. https://fempages.org/2007/09/24/news-100-laptop-for-kids-guatemala-election-protests/ Mon, 24 Sep 2007 11:29:41 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/09/24/news-100-laptop-for-kids-guatemala-election-protests/ BBC World reports that the Linux laptop for kiddies in developping countries is up for sale on a Buy1 – Give1 basis. Originally though I just wanted to check if the BBC World -usually the best on reporting foreign news – has a report about the election protests in Guatemala. Indymedia Germany reports over 200 arrested and one person killed, including reports that a town hall had been burned down, four policemen kidnapped, the house of the mayor and other houses got destroyed, burning barricades erected and that ballot papers were burned. Otto Pérez Molina, the former dictator-general who is held responsible for massacres in the bloody civil war with disappearances and torture, has been running for president, too. https://fempages.org/2007/09/24/lidl-goes-fairtrade/ Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:53:43 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/09/24/lidl-goes-fairtrade/ At my last visit to Lidl – prices of fruit and veg cut by 70% – I have noticed a shelf full of new fairtrade products. The brand is called “Fairglobe”, but I am getting a bit suspicious of all the fairtrade products creeping into big supermarket chains and cafes such as Starbucks. I would be very keen to examine and investigate this issue, in particular after seeing Jan Nimmo’s film about the fairtrade banana production in Panama. She shows in her film, that not all fairtrade labels are actually produced under the ethical circumstances we would expect from the label; like the minimisation of pesticides, the possibility to form and join a trade union, health & safety protection for the workers in particular in regards to chemicals, health care for their workers and families, enabling school visits for the workers children, and protecting the environment do that in particular the drinking water, the fishes, the farm animals and the people are safe from waste and residues. https://fempages.org/2007/09/23/last-days/ Sun, 23 Sep 2007 19:39:46 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/09/23/last-days/ I am very happy that both The Guardian and Channel4News/More4News have taken on the Uzbekistan story. They focus more on the web censorship aspect though than onto the underlying mystery if Murray’s accusations towards Ushmanov are really true or not; but then as much of it is based on events happening a long time ago in Uzbekistan it might be difficult to prove. Just good to see that it’s not always good to give up on the mainstream media just yet. Apart from criticising, The Guardian and the Channel4/More4News are still the best. The Independent would be, too, if they would just not exploit poor journalism graduates volunteering there for ages without contract and pay. https://fempages.org/2007/09/21/uzbekistan-enforces-web-censorship/ Fri, 21 Sep 2007 10:13:17 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/09/21/uzbekistan-enforces-web-censorship/ I love scooping news. Neither the Guardian nor the Independent have yet released the story, but am sure they will or at least they should follow – maybe they are just a few hours behind and wasting time on “the beauty of the language” in their news reports, or maybe their lawyers are sharpening their red pens, or maybe, they just run out of bravery, ethical and socially responsible behaviour and are in a state of FUD. Craig Murray’s website has been taken offline; alongside any other websites, such as Boris Johnson’s (apparantly more due to collateral damage) and Tim Ireland’s webserver. https://fempages.org/2007/09/15/the-shock-doctrine-of-naomi-klein-iraq/ Sat, 15 Sep 2007 09:55:53 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/09/15/the-shock-doctrine-of-naomi-klein-iraq/ One thing I would like to have more explored in detail in conjunction with the “Disaster Capitlaism” is the idea that the resistance in Iraq against US and UK soldiers/occuption has grown and exhilarated also because of the neoliberal way of “building” the country up again. And even more interesting would be to research if and to what extent that resistance of suicide bombings had an effect on the privatisation and exploitation drive of communal, formerly state owned, resources. Given that the Left is said to be in a crisis by not being able to stop the neoliberal free market policies in the first world countries; it would be interesting to see if that very crazy way of Iraqi resistance has any impact on the free market policies there locally. https://fempages.org/2007/09/15/the-shock-doctrine-of-naomi-klein/ Sat, 15 Sep 2007 09:51:57 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/09/15/the-shock-doctrine-of-naomi-klein/ I have been quite intrigued by the discussion of Naomi Klein’s new book on The Guardian. Somehow though it seems that my comments don’t have any impact at all on the discussions and questions are not answered. When Naomi Klein discussed China’s Tienanmen Square repression as the shocking event to introduce free market capitalism into China, nobody seems to take on the point that the fall of Communism and the end of the Cold War with the disintegration of the USSR fell into the same period as well. When I remember 1999, I think of the one afternoon when a train full of Eastern Germans refugees from the (was it the West German or US) Embassy in Hungary travelled through the GDR to West Germany; and then the Monday demonstrations in Leipzig; and I was sitting in front of the telly in excitements and shudders, “I hope they don’t shoot. https://fempages.org/2007/09/14/g8-reflective-essay/ Fri, 14 Sep 2007 09:56:00 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/09/14/g8-reflective-essay/ Reflection on my personal journalism at the G8 In order to report for and investigate the issues around alternative media and protest, I travelled to the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, near Rostock at the Baltic Sea in Germany in June 2007. I did not travel alone but with my boyfriend, who took two weeks of his sacrilege holiday allowance, and we also visited my family. However much he was supportive, when reporting, he also became a hindrance, for example as he does not have a press pass he was not allowed to cross police barriers, so I had to leave him behind when visiting the sit-in blockades. https://fempages.org/2007/09/14/g8-dissertation-summary-of-evaluations/ Fri, 14 Sep 2007 09:52:30 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/09/14/g8-dissertation-summary-of-evaluations/ Reflections After the G8, a whole lot of debriefs and reflective summaries were published by the protesters. There were differences in opinions depending on the groups’ characters, nationalities, examining questions, time of debrief, questions in focus and tactical preferences. Most questions examined were the effects of the protests, the question of militancy in protests and violence and consequences for the future. During the weekend June 30st and July 1st, activists in Netherlands met in Amsterdam to discuss the G8 activities. The tone of their feedback is light-hearted and humorous, starting off with the statements:_ “It is difficult to make deals with clowns” says a represent of the Dutch Clown Army with a serious face. https://fempages.org/2007/09/12/the-guardian/ Wed, 12 Sep 2007 09:29:08 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/09/12/the-guardian/ The Guardian has been running excerpts from Naomi Klein‘s new book: Disaster Capitalism, which is very impressive – both the book and The Guardian’s in depth coverage, including the videos. In fact, these excerpts are the really rare articles which are much nicer to read in print than online, as they are quite long and occasionally require some reading breaks to think about and it’s nice to show these other people and to discuss the issues and the articles with them. Which might be the reason why they haven’t attracted any comments yet on CiF – most Internet bloggers have a short attention span. https://fempages.org/2007/09/06/friendly-blogs-update/ Thu, 06 Sep 2007 16:42:28 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/09/06/friendly-blogs-update/ Just received an invisible comment by El Chavo! and also found out that the BBC Slideshow damages the blog’s style sheet so that comments and contents don’t display properly. When adding these links to the blog, unfortunately I discovered that both the URLs for the ethicaladventures blog by Neil and the Forest Cafe blog are not leading anymore to any inspirational websites, the same for Tasneem Khalil’s blog, so they have to be taken off. Upgrading the system also meant that all special characters fell out of their formatting and so all the old entries have to be reformatted. Ooops. https://fempages.org/2007/09/06/gogol-bordello/ Thu, 06 Sep 2007 11:50:41 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/09/06/gogol-bordello/ The Gypsy-Punk Band Gogol Bordello produces some of my favourite music at the music. They are (unfortunately) also getting increasingly popular [discussion], especially after playing Glastonbury and Live-Earth this summer. Now Madonna has made a film “Filth and Wisdom” with the lead member and the band, to be premiered at the Sundance Film Festival next year, and the band will be touring the US and Europe this winter, passing by in Glasgow on 13th of December. [videos: Not a Crime, Wearing Purple, Wanderlust King ] Comments Comment by EL CHAVO! on 2007-09-06 16:31:53 +0100 Here’s another take on GB and Madonna: https://fempages.org/2007/09/04/holidays-on-a-houseboat/ Tue, 04 Sep 2007 11:08:17 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/09/04/holidays-on-a-houseboat/ I have been away for a week, as my mum’s idea to celebrate her 65th birthday in style was to assemble her whole family on a houseboat. My sister then contributed to the holidays by cooking strictly themed diet meals – the first days we had only potato-based dishes, then soups, then beans and then rice, and then we had a bit of a diplomatic family crisis which was solved by going into a restaurant (puh, finally!!!) My sister can be so enthusiastic that she is quite good at overdoing everything she is passionate about, and this time it was definitely diet-ing. https://fempages.org/2007/09/04/human-rights-news-and-views/ Tue, 04 Sep 2007 09:18:14 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/09/04/human-rights-news-and-views/ Tasneem Khalil, fellow political blogger, had been arrested for his writing, but then released and his wife send an email thanks round to everybody who showed solidarity. Somehow the arrest and repression did not come to my attention as I wasn’t on the email list and just linked to and read his blog every now and again, so I am very sorry about not being able to help him and get the news and calls for solidarity published on Indymedia. His former blog is now offline, what a pity, as it gave valuable insights into life in Bangladesh. ” It took all of us 22 hours to get him out of DGFI hq. https://fempages.org/2007/08/26/peter-buckley-hill-and-some-comedians-xi-review-for-three-weeks/ Sun, 26 Aug 2007 01:27:49 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/26/peter-buckley-hill-and-some-comedians-xi-review-for-three-weeks/ Peter Buckley Hill and some Comedians XI Peter Buckley Hill’s Free Fringe Before attending this crammed comedy event, i have never before realised the subtle different degrees and tastes of humour. Peter Buckley Hill warms up the audience with randomly chosen noises to welcome every guest comedian and also delivers some silly songs about Scotland’s national dish – the flying Haddock with Chips and Peas. The first guest comedian from Gateshead pocked fun at the absurdities of his home town when it lost out to Liverpool in the “City of Culture” contest. The second comedian totally and unexpectedly hit my taste with his wonderfully absurd, spontaneous and intelligent humour. https://fempages.org/2007/08/24/festival-rush/ Fri, 24 Aug 2007 08:26:13 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/24/festival-rush/ Have been running around like mad for the last days, but I like it. The Edinburgh Fringe John Lewis shopping window turned out to be great, but as it is only on at main shopping time, I misunderstood a bit the timing, so no, I did not have to stay there for the three hours, but in the end it was so entertaining I stayed there for two. Though everybody was kind of gobbsmacked that I had my foldable chair and picnic with me to make it more comfy on the footpath. I liked the Breakfast with the filmmakers at EIFF in the Sheraton hotel, they had so much lovely food on offer, but there was hardly any time to chew as there was so much chatting going on. https://fempages.org/2007/08/22/saints-and-sinners-sightseeing-tour-review-for-three-weeks/ Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:51:42 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/22/saints-and-sinners-sightseeing-tour-review-for-three-weeks/ Edinburgh’s Old and New Towns Walking Tour Saints and Sinners Walking Tour This sightseeing tour leads up the Royal Mile, down the Mound and via the New Town and St. Andrews Square finishes up on the Bridges about two hours later. Four different guides offer this entertaining walk under the Saints and Sinners Banner; however, here the topic is more generalised into explaining also the negative side of Edinburgh; and not just the bright side. We are treated to a whole lot of facts and figures, historical dates and some illustrations, amusing tales and unusual stories. I liked the various changes of narrative; from factual – informative to the subjective first person tale to how the the tour participants would have coped with fashion in the Middle Ages. https://fempages.org/2007/08/22/run-granny-run/ Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:50:12 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/22/run-granny-run/ Run Granny Run Marlo Poras / USA / 2007 / 77 min We all love underdogs (well at least here in Scotland), who fight the good fight. So Granny D. is straight up our road, with her 94 years and who is running in the election for senate against the hardcore conservative. At the same time, she is campaigning against funding from special interest groups,too, and walking through the US and her state in protest. The film is a light-hearted, for all audiences enjoyable documentary about people power. The film has a good pace, is never boring and is nicely cut and edited. https://fempages.org/2007/08/22/garbage-warrior/ Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:47:41 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/22/garbage-warrior/ Garbage Warrior Oliver Hodge / UK (England) / 2007 / 86 min The film is about Michael Reynolds, an architect in New Mexico. Well, almost! Whilst the film starts like a typical character study of this environmental rebel, it later on broadens out to include a little bit more about the “earthship”, his invention of self-sustainable housing. Amazingly, the visionary takes on planning authorities, lawyers, senate, extreme climates, the architects association, funding crisises, and emergency housing tasks after earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis. Impressing with his hard physical and clever intellectual work, his passion, enthusiasm and humanity, he founded not only several earthship communes in the desert and mountains of New Mexico, but also builds prototypes all over the world, such as in Honduras, Bolivia, France and even Brighton, where he met the film maker Oliver Hodge on a UK test site. https://fempages.org/2007/08/22/the-other-side-of-the-country-de-lautre-cote-du-pays/ Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:42:48 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/22/the-other-side-of-the-country-de-lautre-cote-du-pays/ The other side of the country (De l’autre côté du pays) Catherine Hébert / Canada / 2007 / 83 min The film is about the northern part of Uganda, which is split by the Nile. Whilst the subject is about the Lord’s Resistance Army and should therefore be interesting and enlightening, the director managed to make this film incredibly boring. Everything just takes too long – the titling, the interviews, … . There is no focus on a particular character, there does not seem to be any structure and the director just tries to be too objective for the viewer to get involved. https://fempages.org/2007/08/22/beaufort/ Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:30:01 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/22/beaufort/ Beaufort (Bufor) Bavaria Film International Joseph Cedar / Israel / 2007 / 125 min Oshri Cohen, Itay Tiran, Eli Eltonyo, Ohad Knoller, Itay Turgeman, Arthur Faradjev, Itai Szor This film is based on a novel by Ron Leshem; but you wouldn’t notice that it is a fiction film as it seems so incredibly real. Set in 2000 in southern Lebanon, this is the story of the retreat by the last Israeli outpost on the historical Beaufort mountain and a character study of its commander Liraz. The narrative is very quiet and very slow, but tense and tight at the same time, mainly because of the unexpected interrupting explosions. https://fempages.org/2007/08/22/children-of-glory-szabadsag-szerelem/ Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:25:04 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/22/children-of-glory-szabadsag-szerelem/ Children of Glory (Szabadság, Szerelem) Krisztina Goda / Hungary / 2006 / 123 min Kata Dobó, Iván Fenyo, Sándor Csányi, Károly Gesztesi What an amazing film! Absolutely brilliant, heartbreaking, historically informative and accurately enlightening! For me it is the best film of this year. The open end also works well, because somehow there is no end to history. Set during the Olympics in 1956, it narrates the history of the Hungarian uprising like no one has ever done before; with sound, colour, movement and acting like Hollywood, a masterpiece with wonderful continental and emotional depth and clever story-writing. It portrays the situation in the Soviet block, in Budapest and the rather accidental student uprising spreading out and about not only for more personal freedom, but also for the independence of the country from Russia. https://fempages.org/2007/08/19/british-piano-music-review-for-three-weeks/ Sun, 19 Aug 2007 08:37:04 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/19/british-piano-music-review-for-three-weeks/ British Piano Music Ian Farrington There is something beautiful about watching masters at work, what enjoyment they show when they tackle challenges and with what ease they perform the most difficult of tasks. What pride they have got in their work whilst thriving on the admiration of the ordinary laymen. Pianist, Organist and Composer Iain Farrington enjoys playing these modern, unmelodic, disharmonic, dramatic and nearly arbitrarily sounding notes. The artists painted the scenes with sounds and Ian Farrington explains the context of the music before each performance. Benjamin Britten’s Early Morning Bath was a revitalising, refreshing short piece; however, as impressive as the concert was, that type of classical music makes the majority of mankind try to escape from as quickly as possible. https://fempages.org/2007/08/18/audio-with-interviews-about-fringe/ Sat, 18 Aug 2007 17:36:33 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/18/audio-with-interviews-about-fringe/ Here is some 4min audio about some novelties at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. Filesize is circa 1 MB. Includes an interview with manager of Jekyll and Hyde about the Free Fringe and with the manager of Dare to be Digital video game competition. ullafringe.mp3 Unfortunately there wasn’t any more time, so I had to cut out some historical background information about the Fringe, the interview with a comedian, the interview with the Imam of the Edinburgh Mosque about the Islam festival and the other interviews which surrendered to some technical problems, such as the John Lewis shop window interview and the Book Fringe with Elaine from Word Power. https://fempages.org/2007/08/18/acting-and-creating-a-character-workshop-review/ Sat, 18 Aug 2007 17:19:43 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/18/acting-and-creating-a-character-workshop-review/ Acting and Creating a Character Sweet Entertainments The workshop started of with a one hour theory and finished with half an hour improvisation acting on stage for some selected few. The workshop was disappointingly lecture like; there actually was not much interactivity, improvisations, no group work and hardly any practical acting. Everybody noted down on paper the definitions of active and passive imagination, character, purpose, acting, environment and similar. Actor Julian Moore from Sweet Entertainments engaged the brains of the twenty participants and discussed the character of the nurse in Romeo and Juliet more in depth. But his approach to acting training was far from “refreshingly new” as promised in the Fringe programme, and creating a character just another term for in-depth background research. https://fempages.org/2007/08/16/2nd-rebustours-review-for-three-weeks/ Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:28:17 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/16/2nd-rebustours-review-for-three-weeks/ Rebus – Hidden Edinburgh Rebustours with Colin Brown In the “Hidden Edinburgh” Tour many real places of the Rebus books are explored; from St. Leonards police station with his office to his favourite pubs, newsagent and crime locations. The start of both tours is the same, with the Royal High School for Boys, Salisbury Crag, Dumbiedykes and the Flodden Wall; this tour is particularly recommendable for the fans of the crime novels. We are treated to a lot of exclusive and inside information about Ian Rankin and his inspector, who celebrates his 20th anniversary this year and is also currently honored with an exhibition in the Writers Museum and a special beer. https://fempages.org/2007/08/16/dare-protoplay-videogames-review-for-three-weeks/ Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:16:08 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/16/dare-protoplay-videogames-review-for-three-weeks/ Dare Protoplay Dare to be Digital For the first time in eight years, the annual dozen different prototypes of video games are accessible to both the Fringe and the public. All team members want to win the audience and the industry award; they are encouraging everybody to play. There is a water blobb moving through a labyrinth, a cupid shooting love arrows, motor racing, sinking ships in the bath, and my favourite – a guitar-playing hero blasting musical monsters. And even though I don’t like video games in general, I totally forgot the time trying to reanimate my rocker after he fainted three times into the arms of the evil, https://fempages.org/2007/08/16/nachtmusique-review-for-three-weeks/ Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:12:58 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/16/nachtmusique-review-for-three-weeks/ Nachtmusique Bank of Scotland Queen’s Hall Series Ahhhhh! Classical, light-hearted beautiful music like this is just so wonderfully de-stressing, relaxing, calming, harmonising. So it’s no wonder that BBC Scotland is recording this performance to be broadcasted on 30th of August on BBC 3, for all who missed it live, want to hear it again or could not get a seat in this nearly sold-out concert hall. The six musicians are specialists in period instruments and early music arrangements; they also explain some basic knowledge about these wind instruments, in particular the unusual basset horn. And as fantastic as the performance was, its appeal did not stretch beyond the usual classical music lover, with an average age of over 60, giving the impression of the audience to be a massive care-home outing. https://fempages.org/2007/08/14/window-on-the-fringe-review/ Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:19:14 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/14/window-on-the-fringe-review/ Window on the Fringe John Lewis A stage replaces the luxurious carpet display in the main shopping window of John Lewis. Every half an hour the acts change when a short performance is shown. Each theatre company has a weekly slot during the peak shopping time, which had to be booked in advance via the Fringe website. Outside the shopping times and during breaks the window is disappointingly empty, but the organisers are planning to cooperate in future with Edfest TV. Audience numbers for this brilliant, eye-catching shopper stopper vary between zero, ten and a hundred; dependent on weather, individual time commitments and performers. https://fempages.org/2007/08/12/festival-experiences/ Sun, 12 Aug 2007 22:56:53 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/12/festival-experiences/ Wow, since the Edinburgh Festival started, there has hardly been a pause to breath. Which sounds unusual, as the past seven years I have hardly ever been to any show or event. Basically did not have enough money, something most newspaper seem to forget about or dismiss [Guardian podcast] . So the free festivals have been great to catch up at least with some of the excitement, and so has volunteering and events at the local arts centre. Unfortunately though the Festival of Peace and Spirituality have now introduced entry fees to many of their events, which used to be free. https://fempages.org/2007/08/12/holy-war-festival-of-peace-and-spirituality/ Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:42:39 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/12/holy-war-festival-of-peace-and-spirituality/ Conversations on Power and Freedom Festival of Peace and Spirituality In the “Holy War?” one-off panel discussion a theologian and a former Catholic priest, who converted to Islam, muse about nonviolence and faith. It was disappointing though that the talks were not prepared or substantiated as the questions were answered by the two older, white and male faith experts of the top of their heads. The event was split into half a panel discussion and the other half as an audience led Q&A. The discussion remained boringly generalising, superficial and avoided insights into the burning contemporary questions of the Iraq War, Terrorism and the Palestine/Israel conflict. https://fempages.org/2007/08/10/reviewing-drsketchys-anti-art-school-for-three-weeks/ Fri, 10 Aug 2007 22:21:13 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/10/reviewing-drsketchys-anti-art-school-for-three-weeks/ Dr. Sketchy’s Burlesque Art Salon Clockwork Unexpectedly this is one of the most cheeky and fun events. Guest models are changing daily in this life drawing session with a twist. New Burlesque is quite trendy now after appearing in popular television series such as America’s Next Top Model or America’s Got Talent as a glorified upper-class mimicking strip tease act in 1920er style with imaginative use of props. So it was surprising when suddenly the Marx Brothers from “Waiting for Groucho” appeared on stage and threw themselves into pose to be quickly sketched down with coal or pencil as superheroes or the seven world wonders. https://fempages.org/2007/08/10/the-house-of-the-holy-afro-review-for-three-weeks/ Fri, 10 Aug 2007 22:11:02 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/10/the-house-of-the-holy-afro-review-for-three-weeks/ The House of the Holy Afro Third World Bunfight and Assembly This is not a concert, but a big party. At least if the audience would react like the seven soulful harmony singers, poet Odidi Mfenyana and the madly hopping and waving DJ Dino Moran want to. The performers describe traditional and modern life in South Africa via singing, drumming, dancing and acting; but the underlying background music is just too loud and distracting to get into the rhythm. So therefore earplugs are advised to follow this colourful, expressive spectacle. It feels awkward to dance, but at the same time weird not to. https://fempages.org/2007/08/09/rebustours-review-for-three-weeks/ Thu, 09 Aug 2007 08:05:42 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/09/rebustours-review-for-three-weeks/ Rebus – Body Politic Rebustours with Colin Brown This two hours walk to stand and falls with the weather and the friendly personality of tour guide and local community historian Colin Brown. It includes five readings from Ian Rankin’s works; from an early biographic excerpt to a world premiere reading from the next, yet unnamed and last ever Rebus book to be published in September. Along the way, the small group is also treated to amusing general anecdotes whilst numerous explanations about other general tourist sightseeing points apart from the city mortuary, Dumbiedykes housing estate and Fleshmarket Close are provided. Disappointingly, there is a lack of exclusive information on the main topic, substituted by general literary information. https://fempages.org/2007/08/09/whisky-tasting-session-review-for-three-weeks/ Thu, 09 Aug 2007 07:50:43 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/09/whisky-tasting-session-review-for-three-weeks/ Whisky with …Chocolate The Scotch Malt Whisky Society with Plaisir du Chocolat   This tasting session reaches out to a diverse audience giving everybody the chance to experience and appreciate Scotch Whisky and also excellent handmade chocolate. French expert chocolatier Bertrand Espouy is proudly bursting away as much knowledge as possible, treating us to eight different, beautifully presented samples topped with extraordinary, specifically designed art inspired by the flavour mint, vanilla, orange peel or green tea soft filling called “ganache”. These worked really well with the 11 years old Glenmorangie Whisky we got first served to observe, smell, dilute and taste. https://fempages.org/2007/08/08/eurobeat-review-for-three-weeks/ Wed, 08 Aug 2007 12:43:08 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/08/eurobeat-review-for-three-weeks/ Eurobeat – almost Eurovision Glynn Nicholas Group/No Mates Production   Lah-la-lah. La-la-lah. La-lala. - That's Ireland's entry to this interactive musical, which is just like, but even better, than the real thing. Eurobeat is Australia's answer to Eurovision, but restricted to ten countries. The competition provides endless fun in a fantastic, happy atmosphere. Each audience member gets assigned to one country and can vote for their favourite five entries via sms. Incredibly enjoyable, visually stunning, the memorable, satirical songs stick in the head and made me not only sing along but continued humming these even two days later. My face muscles were aching because of smiling so much, with unstoppable tears of laughter running down my face. https://fempages.org/2007/08/07/a-busy-night-for-a-taxi-driver/ Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:36:31 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/07/a-busy-night-for-a-taxi-driver/ Busy Night UP & @ EM This one man show is quite enjoyable, light-hearted entertainment. Simon Goodall, a real life licensed cabbie driver, takes his detailed observations on his most extraordinary passengers and puts them into an amazingly, astounding explosion of sounds. At first, due to the rainy night, the show seems to be modelled on the Honda advert where a choir creates the car’s sounds, but slowly it develops to be so much more as his passengers share their past, their dreams, their day, their experiences and their body fluids. With the help of the sound technician, the enthusiastic Simon gives it all when creating music and atmospheric background noises to his monologues, whilst easily changing in and out of the various characters. https://fempages.org/2007/08/07/adolfs-10th-fringe-anniversary/ Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:30:04 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/07/adolfs-10th-fringe-anniversary/ Adolf Guy Masterson Mankind is forever mulling over why it was possible for the Holocaust to happen. In this play, Pip Utton searches for the answer in solely exploring the personality of Adolf Hitler and his appeal to the masses. This is the tenth year the actor performs this show at The Fringe, and his award-winning performance is still hard-hitting and disturbing. The one person show consists of two parts; the first is about Adolf Hitler’s last remaining hours in the Berlin bunker in 1945, the second about everyday racism and discrimination. Despite significant historical inaccuracies, the rest of the bleak set-up, choreography, sound effects and performance are flawless; history is kept alive to warn us of its possible repetition. https://fempages.org/2007/08/05/orpheaus-as-physical-dance/ Sun, 05 Aug 2007 20:44:26 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/05/orpheaus-as-physical-dance/ Orpheus Clipa Theater (Israel) This modern interpretation of the Greek myth is strange but beautiful. The storyline conquers not only the underworld but also somehow the smoking ban. The two actors make clever use of props, costumes and puppets, therefore the cast appears to be much bigger. The story is conveyed solely by body movement and music rather than the conventional way of vocal, dance and facial expression. The performance is full of abstract symbolism and incomprehensible metaphors. Everything on stage portrays a deeper, soulful, somehow impressive but not very realistic, meaning. The music crosses over into being a sound installation rather than creating an emotional atmosphere and then changes back into providing the lead narrative. https://fempages.org/2007/08/05/the-penultimate-solution-at-the-free-fringe/ Sun, 05 Aug 2007 14:56:56 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/05/the-penultimate-solution-at-the-free-fringe/ The Penultimate Solution Heresy Project If you like predictable attacks on good taste and simple humour intending to shock, this is the show for you. Controversial discriminatory jokes, non-stop swearing and disrespectful absurd evaluations provoke constant sympathetic grins or offended disapproval from the audience. Additionally the two big mouths are keen and enthusiastic to tackle any heckling; they like to interact with the viewers and encourage participation. The self-proclaimed over-18 show is rough at the edges as these two comics set out to satirise and send up both religion and militant atheism at the same time. The slightly crazy performance is well paced, the blasphemous content well structured, thought out, entertaining and the two comics make an unforgettable effort to impress. https://fempages.org/2007/08/04/woyzeck-review-for-three-weeks/ Sat, 04 Aug 2007 12:59:48 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/04/woyzeck-review-for-three-weeks/ Woyzeck Sadari Movement Laboratory This polarising Woyzeck interpretation could be an IKEA advert entitled: “1001 usages for chairs”. It is a brilliant, unique production which impresses with fantastic classical and Spanish music, atmospheric lightening, exceptional choreography, mesmorising acrobatic performances, and unbelievable excellent elegance. If there is one obvious flaw, it is the loss of the content; Buechner’s working-class tragedy has been changed into a much more enjoyable experience for the audience than originally intended. The social-political context and critique of war, poverty and the link of morality with wealth has unfortunately been totally lost for the non-Korean speaking audience; English explanations are only occasionally provided in this international mind-blowing experience. https://fempages.org/2007/08/03/edinburgh-fringe-review-return-to-reason/ Fri, 03 Aug 2007 19:12:15 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/03/edinburgh-fringe-review-return-to-reason/ Return to Reason Bottlefed This theatre piece makes you want to scream. The audience is invited to join three women in week 9 of their local screaming course. Equipped with orange substitutes we barge into the liberating search of the innermost. The all female, international crew let their impulsive emotions run riot without a cause. So the weird story doesn’t make much sense despite the fantastically enthusiastic and believable acting of the protagonists. This is slightly mad dynamic physical theatre showing off a range of nearly uninhibited human behaviour. “The origins of this play are rooted in improvisation theatre”, explained director Kathrin Bigler. https://fempages.org/2007/08/02/harry-potter/ Thu, 02 Aug 2007 10:47:56 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/02/harry-potter/ The new Harry Potter book is out, and I have just read it yesterday in a one-day marathon. It is amazing, in comparison to the last book, it’s full of adventures and less psychological teenager trouble. Of course, I have been a bit late with reading it, and also with buying it. The £5 ASDA price war offer has sold out, the £5 TESCO offer isn’t anymore either, and the £6.99 WHSmith offer has now risen to £12.99, Waterstones is £10.99. Actually, the price development of Harry Potter books was quite a phenomenon in itself, differing apparently with every book. https://fempages.org/2007/08/01/houseboats/ Wed, 01 Aug 2007 07:37:10 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/08/01/houseboats/ The last few days I have been mulling over houseboats, and if they would be a way to escape the rising property prices in a pragmatic way. It all started when my mum decided that for her 65th birthday, she would take us all on a houseboat holiday. Of course, I imagined the traditional vintage boats, when invited, and not the yacht variety they booked to float around within the South of France. So, two weeks ago, when visiting Tesco I came across an English houseboat magazine, and flicking through it seemed quite interesting. Advertised were boats for about £65,000 pounds, but there was also a cheaper one on offer for £12,000. https://fempages.org/2007/07/27/edinburgh-festival/ Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:58:00 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/07/27/edinburgh-festival/ In today’s Guardian, Lynn Gardener writes about the Edinburgh Festival. Unfortunately, this opinion piece does not give readers the opportunity to comment on it, maybe it is because most of the Festival audience would actually disagree with her, and the Edinburgh public as well, when she argues that Edinburgh City Council should spend more money on the festival and for example create a free camping space, like for the G8. That piece can make anybody living in Edinburgh REALLY angry. https://fempages.org/2007/07/27/news-and-views/ Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:48:55 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/07/27/news-and-views/ At the moment everything is kind of okay here despite the continuous rain. My allotment is pretty much overgrown and I am frightened to go there because there are so many weeds waiting for me and a lot of raspberries and red currents to pick, whilst the tomatoes, peppers and aubergines did not seem to have really survived this summer’s weather in a productive state and the beans are staying embarrassingly small. So, in a desperately intelligent moment, I decided that the only category I could possibly show off in this year’s FEDEGA flower and vegetable show are the house and home craft categories. https://fempages.org/2007/07/25/documentaries-the-debate/ Wed, 25 Jul 2007 11:58:54 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/07/25/documentaries-the-debate/ As an enthusiastic reader and commenter of the Guardian and its Comment is Free, I am delighted to link to this debate about the state of documentary films and also to this rather amusingly enlightening blog of a TV commissioner. The Edinburgh International Film Festival people have confirmed my press accreditation for this year’s event, which is really nice of them, because I chanced it a bit as a freelancer without any commission and only poor old Indymedia as the main publication. Ooops. Didn’t have time yet to look for another outlet. The programme looks interesting, though in the documentary area, there seem to be fewer social-political documentaries with less interesting content on than last year. https://fempages.org/2007/07/24/how-to-catch-a-lost-hamster-the-movie/ Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:54:33 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/07/24/how-to-catch-a-lost-hamster-the-movie/ Finally, the new video, also subtitled _“Success with containers”_ has uploaded. You can watch it either on download the 97 MB big heavyweight from this website. It has been made with the help from Pilton Video, the best community video project in the world! Fluffy has been a brilliant movie star, very quick he was on his feet, but after he got accustomed to the camera, he quite liked all the treats he was getting for doing funny stuff, like hopping into the bucket or coming when called. The video was initiated by all these poor fellows loosing their escaped hamsters, its a little guide on how to prevent it, how and where to find the hamster, how to tame him or her and how to catch him/her. https://fempages.org/2007/07/19/riots-and-repression-in-oaxaca/ Thu, 19 Jul 2007 12:16:01 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/07/19/riots-and-repression-in-oaxaca/ The conflict in Oaxaca has flared up again. I wouldn’t have noticed if Tom would not have put up an article on Indy Scotland. Quick look around and apart from the BBC website, no mention at all about these events in the media, and the BBC takes the usual authority-supporting stance. Maybe the article is written by a news agency, not sure if they have anybody in Latin America and if so, where. On Indy, it’s a completely different picture, though. It has been discovered, that a former teacher has been arrested unharmed and then been beaten into a coma by police. https://fempages.org/2007/07/18/and-the-dissertation-drags-on/ Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:25:08 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/07/18/and-the-dissertation-drags-on/ The last days I have been fighting with my dissertation topic. I am not quite sure what it is about. Given that it has to be handed in at the start of September and August is filled with reviewing the Festival, it’s getting a bit late. I know it is about the G8 and the protests and activists because I have done a lot of interviews and already written my reflective essay, which only needs to be intellectual-ified with quotes and references and beautifying the language, but the headline and take on the whole issue is still varying greatly. My supervisor is nearly as frustrated and nervous as I am, he insists that it needs to be a topic attractive enough to sell for publication and the work should be about something totally new. https://fempages.org/2007/07/11/blogging-strike/ Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:00:34 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/07/11/blogging-strike/ The last days I have been on a blogging strike. Unfortunately, I don’t think anybody noticed. The strike is against too much nonsense on the internet, and in particular in mainstream media. So was one of the latest articles: “Breaking News – Hamster returns happy and healthy after two days disappearance”, it was a bit of a piss-take. Slightly Paris Hilton like. But again, big astonishment as nobody noticed. Sometimes my science degree just breaks through – I can’t bear long articles with hardly any content nor intelligent thoughts. That’s probably why I hate Sunday papers – there are just too many words padded around the gist of an article, it’s so annoying. https://fempages.org/2007/07/02/dissertation-troubles/ Mon, 02 Jul 2007 16:28:03 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/07/02/dissertation-troubles/ For the last week, I have been working on my dissertation, as I suddenly realised how far I am behind in the timetable. It has to be submitted on the 7th of September, and then there is the Festival in August, family holidays, the time for printing and binding the work and a lot of other things coming up. I am still unsure if I should stick with my original topic of “Alternative Media in Scotland” or change to “R_eporting the G8 summit 2007 in Germany_“. Finally, I have been able to upload the first video to Current.tv . Now I hope that there will be enough positive feedback and good responses to hopefully get it on TV if it is regarded to be good enough. https://fempages.org/2007/06/25/how-to-write-your-address-book/ Mon, 25 Jun 2007 15:37:00 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/06/25/how-to-write-your-address-book/ I am a news junky. Can’t get enough of it. Unfortunately, most coverage seems disappointing and boring, as it seems quite removed and distant actually from (my) life. So, in the end, the hamster disappearance is more important to me than Gordon Brown’s prime ministerial adventures, or Big Brothers potential love and relationship conflicts or even the poor Alan Johnson saga. https://fempages.org/2007/06/24/breaking-news-hamster-returns-happy-and-healthy-after-2-days-disappearance/ Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:16:40 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/06/24/breaking-news-hamster-returns-happy-and-healthy-after-2-days-disappearance/ Thank God, Fluffy is back. He sneaked off on Thursday night when he was having a run in the living room. Unfortunately, the living room door was open(ed), maybe by Fluffy himself, and then he was gone. At first, I did not worry as he is very curious, but when he is exhausted, he usually comes back for some food and water and just to check on what’s new around his home and if his hoard is still okay. But this time he didn’t. So I went to bed thinking that he might chill out somewhere in the bedroom or that I would hear him rampaging and gnawing anyways when he is having his nocturnal adventures and then be able to pick him up again. https://fempages.org/2007/06/19/the-last-english-g8-interviews/ Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:13:18 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/06/19/the-last-english-g8-interviews/ Sam, student, 2min, mp3 Sam, student, 2min, ogg-vorbis Ambidox, French communarde, 4min, mp3 Ambidox, French communarde, 4min, ogg-vorbis Here is an interview with Dave from London, who is organising conscious clubbing events. Its 22min long, but a nice, friendly, good-mooded chat about the protests and personal life. Dave, conscious clubbing, 22min, mp3 Dave, conscious clubbing, 22min, ogg-vorbis https://fempages.org/2007/06/19/festival-preparations-are-starting/ Tue, 19 Jun 2007 09:56:30 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/06/19/festival-preparations-are-starting/ The Edinburgh Festival and Fringe program are out now. Coinciding with this, I had an interview with Three Weeks to do some reviews for them in August, and with the Big Issue Scotland to get a crew together to cover the Amnesty International Human Rights Festival. It’s all volunteering though. Which I don’t mind but for the lack of money. But at least the power balance of worker and boss is nicely egalitarian. I particularly like the more non-commercial festivals, like described in previous year’s blog entry: “Edinburgh Festival for free”. Word Power, the best bookshop in Edinburgh/Scotland/Britain, is launching this year its own little festival contribution. https://fempages.org/2007/06/19/square-dance/ Tue, 19 Jun 2007 09:39:34 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/06/19/square-dance/ The weather here is unfortunately grey, rainy and cold as ever. Phoned my parents and they have got sunny hot weather with about 30 degrees and Daddy is swimming in the huge open-air public swimming pool nearly every day. They had a day out with their Square Dance Club last weekend, and my mum told me about the boat trip and tourist events they organized. _“But Mum, “_I asked, “didn’t you do any Square Dance?” “Of course we did!” she replied proudly. “When we had about half an hour waiting time in between trains, we danced on the platform in the train station. https://fempages.org/2007/06/17/more-interviews/ Sun, 17 Jun 2007 10:40:33 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/06/17/more-interviews/ here are three more interviews about the anti-G8 protests. One is with Marion Hamm, academic from the University of Luzern in Switzerland, another interview is with Claire, a christian protester from Belfast and the last is with Micah, anticapitalist protester on holiday. Claire, christian G8-protester, ogg-vorbis Claire, christian G8-protester, mp3 Marion Hamm, academic, ogg-vorbis, ca. 7min Marion Hamm, academic, mp3, ca. 7min Micah, anticapitalist, ogg-vorbis, ca 4.51 min Micah, anticapitalist, mp3, ca. 4.47min Here is some English audio up at Flash Radio: http://flashradio.wordpress.com/ More audio, especially German, is up at this non-commercial = community radio website at: http://www.freie-radios.net/portal/index.php G8 TV: https://fempages.org/2007/06/15/back-to-the-allotment/ Fri, 15 Jun 2007 10:14:01 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/06/15/back-to-the-allotment/ When returning back home, a pleasant surprise was waiting for me: £40 in gardening vouchers for writing a “star letter” to the Amateur Gardening magazine. Wow! I went out at once and got some necessities for the allotment, a weed incinerator, which more or less looks like a metal rubbish bin with holes at the bottom and a chimney on top, and an insect house to encourage wildlife like bumblebees, ladybirds and other beneficial insects to stay close to my plot. Also, a little bird feeder which is filled with water, so that insects and birds can have a drink, as lots of the flies were recently drowning in my nettle brew, which is supposed to be a DIY liquid fertiliser. https://fempages.org/2007/06/13/g8-evaluation/ Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:52:24 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/06/13/g8-evaluation/ So, we are now back in grey and rainy old Scotland, washing the mountains of dirty clothes and reflecting on the protests at the G8. I am working on my interviews now, and here are the first Vox Pops of some protesters chilling out at Camp Reddelich on Friday. VOX POPS PODCAST: German only: Das Schoenste Erlebnis waehrend des G8 Gipfels 3.57 min, mp3 German and English: Was war Dein bestes Erlebnis waehrend des G8 Gipfels? 10.39 min, mp3 English: What was your best experience during the G8 protest week? mp3 (also on Indy UK) English: What was your best experience during the G8 protest week? https://fempages.org/2007/06/11/friday-report/ Mon, 11 Jun 2007 22:30:02 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/06/11/friday-report/ On Friday, we stayed in the camp and I did the interviews I promised for my dissertation project. Many people were already packing and leaving, and the atmosphere was relaxed, so I hoped to get some good insights and talks; it was hot as usual with the sun burning down, definitely, more than 30 degrees and campers stood at the exit of the camp waving DIY signs to catch a lift to the BEACH!!!. I first talked to a friend of mine from IMC UK, but the minidisc recorder seemed dodgy, so I just asked people hanging around the info tent and the IMC tent. https://fempages.org/2007/06/08/thursday-report-from-the-anti-g8-protests/ Fri, 08 Jun 2007 18:29:56 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/06/08/thursday-report-from-the-anti-g8-protests/ Thursday night was short, so after the more autonomous protesters gave up their 4.30am morning walk and I was back at about 6 am, I decided to go back snoozing a bit in the tent, as I had only 2 hrs sleep at most. Another protest started off at camp Reddelich to join protesters at the Westgate, but without the black-blocky people and I met all the other IMC UK volunteers, who had slept in for the morning walk. They decided to join that march, so I thought that as I had a car, I could either catch them up later or go to a different event, so we had everything covered. https://fempages.org/2007/06/07/wednesday-report/ Thu, 07 Jun 2007 10:12:41 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/06/07/wednesday-report/ Wednesday was the day of blockading actions. These seem to work amazingly well, with even the little steam train “Molli” being blockaded as well as the three gates in the security fence. But it is not sure how much of a difference it actually made, as this year’s G8 summit has the whole Wednesday scheduled for arrival, with the first official event being dinner on Wednesday evening. We first went with a car to the rally points to blockade the airport Rostock-Laage. Unfortunately, not many activists were present at the two of the four points we visited, before organisers dissolved the legal rally points at 2pm. https://fempages.org/2007/06/06/tuesday-report/ Wed, 06 Jun 2007 14:00:22 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/06/06/tuesday-report/ On Tuesday, there was a court case decision about the blockade of the airport and it seemed to get legally restricted to only a few people, about 50 or so, therefore we went over first to Bad Doberan to stock up on energy foods and then moved on to Kuehlungsborn, where we had a dip in the very cold Baltic Sea. We saw some police boats shipping along and some helicopters and a lot of police escorted convoys. The press centre is located here, they have already been under heavy criticism when they refused about 40 journalists accreditation before the summit, most of them because of their left-wing opinions and declared them to be a security risk. https://fempages.org/2007/06/05/monday-report-from-the-g8-protests/ Tue, 05 Jun 2007 07:58:50 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/06/05/monday-report-from-the-g8-protests/ Today we moved on from the Rostock inner-city campsite to the one nearest Heiligendam, the location of the G8 summit. There were several reasons for this: we met friends from imc uk at the gig yesterday, who told us they would relocate here, as most of the British protesters would be located at the Zapatista barrio and fed by the Anarchist Teapot food collective from Brighton. The vegan, animal-product free and therefore animal-friendly food was great, with soy pieces I haven’t had in years and good veggie stuff with salad and curry potatoes in a variety of sauces, and the team there is working round the clock to provide food and finally proper Black Tea with Milk and coffee round the clock. https://fempages.org/2007/06/04/audio-radio/ Mon, 04 Jun 2007 18:49:00 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/06/04/audio-radio/ Here is some Engl. audio up at Flash Radio: http://flashradio.wordpress.com/ There is some more audio up for non-commercial=community radio use, partly in English, at: http://www.freie-radios.net/portal/index.php More radio streams at: http://de.indymedia.org/2007/06/179702.shtml G8 TV: http://g8-tv.org/ https://fempages.org/2007/06/03/indymedia-at-the-g8/ Sun, 03 Jun 2007 17:00:47 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/06/03/indymedia-at-the-g8/ As usual, it is very hectic during activist camps and big protest events. This hasn’t been helped much by a lack of internet connectivity and computer access. This Sunday morning we went up to the building at the end of the camp where some computer and the wireless network is located and as i was the first one there, people came up to me the whole day and asked for help. I was disappointed that some of the demands were just so unrealistic, some were not that politely formulated either, and some people did not show much regard for the work I was concerned with, like picture editing, following the news dispatch or writing a paper dispatch for all the people demanding information about thde outcome of yesterdays events. https://fempages.org/2007/06/01/arrival-at-rostock-and-quick-report-of-saturday/ Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:14:56 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/06/01/arrival-at-rostock-and-quick-report-of-saturday/ We arrived at midnight yesterday (well Friday) and after a pleasant arrival at the Independent Media Centre in pretty central located Friedrichstrasse we went to the convergence centre in Evershagen to crash out for the night. It was pretty crowded and hard to find a space to put down our sleeping bags. We woke up early in the morning – at about 7 am – and were shocked to find the police already totally blocking access to the city centre but for pedestrians and cyclists. After we made our way to the campsite, we were pleasantly surprised with the camp, which is also at least today in danger of being overcrowded and is very well situated in walking distance of a train station and the city centre and the IMC and not too far from the convergence centre. https://fempages.org/2007/05/28/internet-journalism/ Mon, 28 May 2007 11:18:50 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/05/28/internet-journalism/ Mike Small, fellow activist, has got his first blog entry in The Guardian (Unlimited) this weekend. Preperations for the forthcoming G8 protests are frantic, here are two brilliant personal accounts of activities in Hamburg. Am not sure, but could even be by a friend of mine – maybe, maybe not; the only indication being the sentence: “I hadnt slept in a couple of days.” I only really know one person, who regards protesting against the G8 and associated police repression as a relaxing and unwinding holiday activity, compared to the day-to-day job. Which says probably a lot about the state of trade unionism in this world. https://fempages.org/2007/05/22/newcastles-cinema-coop/ Tue, 22 May 2007 11:46:46 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/05/22/newcastles-cinema-coop/ This weekend we were away to give a talk at Projectile in Newcastle. What I did not realise beforehand is that they run the Star and Shadow Cinema amazingly well as a collective. Our rant about Indymedia luckily clashed with Jamie’s “Why is it so hard to love” workshop and we also had to wait till the Argentinian video “(((i))) – the movie” finished. Surprisingly it went quite well with connecting the laptop to the projector and getting the internet on screen and we could show people the websites and how to post and how to set up an IMC, which I was told by the organisers they would want to. https://fempages.org/2007/05/19/adventures-in-amazonia/ Sat, 19 May 2007 22:29:54 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/05/19/adventures-in-amazonia/ Martin and Nina are writing this cool blog from Ecuador: http://colonos.wordpress.com/ https://fempages.org/2007/05/15/police-denies-globalisation-critical-journalists-accreditation-for-g8/ Tue, 15 May 2007 13:23:35 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/05/15/police-denies-globalisation-critical-journalists-accreditation-for-g8/ Just got an email stating that the police in Germany is screening the journalists’ applications for reporting from the G8 2007 in Heiligendamm – and denied at least one person access to report from it. It is suggested that the member of a community radio station had been denied accreditation because of supposedly left-wing political opinions, as he seems to have a track record in delivering globalisation-critical reports. He hasn’t been given a reason yet either, it has only been mentioned that he should contact the head organisation of the police for more details. https://fempages.org/2007/05/11/justice-and-journalism-assignment/ Fri, 11 May 2007 11:30:56 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/05/11/justice-and-journalism-assignment/ Examine one current affairs TV series being broadcast in the UK. View one program from this strand (e.g. Panorama, Channel4 Dispatches) and critically examine and analyse its content. BBC’s Panorama Midwives Undercover program was 58 min long and aired on Thursday, 3rd of May, on BBC 1. It investigated serious allegations into systemic failings of understaffed, underequipped and underresourced maternity units in NHS hospitals in England, using an undercover reporter as a work experience volunteer and quotes of experts, midwives, courts, government, NHS trusts managers and concerned parents. That May week, it was the only investigative program on TV which focused on a British issue. https://fempages.org/2007/04/21/report-of-the-nuj-student-conference/ Sat, 21 Apr 2007 15:08:51 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/04/21/report-of-the-nuj-student-conference/ The one-day student conference at the centenary ADM in Birmingham was attended by eleven participants from Edinburgh, Falmouth, Cork, Essex, Nottingham, Leeds, Newcastle, Swansea and Gloucester. Following agenda topics were discussed: how to set up and what to expect from a student chapel, exploitation during work experience and an NUJ/NUS arbitration agreement in cases of student media disputes. In the discussions, students expressed their wishes for more training regarding student media and addressed the main problem of finding a properly paid job in the media after finishing their degrees. General Secretary Jeremy Dear and the outgoing president Chris Morley also chatted with us students, whilst Linda King explained the NUJ training opportunities and courses. https://fempages.org/2007/04/20/blogging-the-nuj-adm/ Thu, 19 Apr 2007 23:04:59 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/04/20/blogging-the-nuj-adm/ Paul Bradshaw organised a blog run by students to report live from the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Annual Delegate Meeting (ADM) in Birmingham. This year I took a lot of pictures for the 100 years of NUJ Flickr site. I also recorded some audio, but unfortunately my minidisc recorder was stolen back in Edinburgh, from Infoseed at The Forest Cafe, before I had a chance to edit it. For me, it was luckily enough possible to write a lot for the blog because of having the old laptop with me but unfortunately the wireless connection did not work. Reports by me about the NUJ conference are: https://fempages.org/2007/04/10/st-andrews/ Mon, 09 Apr 2007 23:24:14 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/04/10/st-andrews/ Me and my friend went over to St.Andrews last weekend as the sun was shining for a day out. It is still quite fresh, so got a cold. On the way back I spontaneously got a furry kiwi tree. It is doing quite well though am not sure how to treat it correctly. A pity we don’t have that good of garden centres in Edinburgh, guess Dobbies is the nearest, but B&Q and Homebase are not that good, really. They don’t have specialist equipment such as root trainers and rooting hormone and not even ceramic pots in every size. I went a bit overboard with plants lately I guess, the whole kitchen and the windowsill is all full of seedlings. https://fempages.org/2007/03/07/what-is-direct-action-audio-piece/ Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:16:48 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/03/07/what-is-direct-action-audio-piece/ **Audio Package about Direct Action, including:** Telefon-Interview with Benjamin Franks, Interview with Ann Hansen, Interview with Robert from Dissent! Interview with Duncan McLaren, Friends Of the Earth Scotland Direct Action; 1,8 MB, mp3, ca 7 min Direct Action; 2,7 MB, ogg-vorbis , ca 7 min Comments Comment by b on 2007-03-20 22:19:34 +0100 Yuck – journalists! https://fempages.org/2007/03/07/why-do-we-need-specialist-writers/ Wed, 07 Mar 2007 14:44:23 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/03/07/why-do-we-need-specialist-writers/ With the introduction of computers and digital resources into the newsroom, the media landscape changed. It did not just open up into a multi-format crossover industry whilst demanding a broader variety of general journalistic skills, but alongside requires in contradiction a higher degree of expertise and in-depth knowledge of the reporters, too. The Internet in particular now allows the public to self-educate itself to a far higher degree, with users hardly paying for information provided and cross-referenced on the web. This development is still highly debated in the journalism industry, with job cuts resulting from swindling paper sales and loss of advertising. https://fempages.org/2007/02/08/dieing-for-a-union/ Thu, 08 Feb 2007 12:53:00 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/02/08/dieing-for-a-union/ Police in Cameroon shot dead two students on Wednesday, 29th of November, after two days of protests against unequal access to the newly opened Faculty of Medicine. Protests continued at the University of Buea-Ambazonia (UB) according to The Post, Cameroon’s leading English-language newspaper: “In spite of claims by UB authorities that Molyko was safe, a score of police officers, by 1: am on Tuesday, December 5, broke into students’ rooms, fired gunshots and arrested four student leaders and whisked them off to an unknown destination. One of the student leaders only escaped the claws of the police through the ceiling of his room. https://fempages.org/2007/02/08/craig-murray-ambassador-for-student-rights/ Thu, 08 Feb 2007 12:43:46 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/02/08/craig-murray-ambassador-for-student-rights/ The former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, is now running for rector at Dundee University in the March elections. The outspoken critic of the Uzbek president Islam Karimov became famous for exposing the human rights abuses and torture by the US-funded regime which happened “on an industrial scale”, thereby violating orders from the British Diplomatic Service. Craig Murray, who graduated in 1982 with a Masters in Modern History, says: “Well, I think, that the rector’s position should not be just an honorary position for a celebrity. It is my old university and I have been president of the student union there and followed its progress. https://fempages.org/2007/02/08/greece-%E2%80%93-protests-against-tuition-fees-turn-bloody/ Thu, 08 Feb 2007 12:40:13 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/02/08/greece-%E2%80%93-protests-against-tuition-fees-turn-bloody/ The conservative government in Greece is attempting to change the constitution to allow tuition fees and make studying harder. Proposed changes include time-limit on university studies, an effort to restrict the provision of free academic books, the introduction of managerial positions in the Universities and allowing the police to access university grounds. Because of the students historic resistance to the Military Junta, police is currently prohibited from entering university grounds unless invited. At 3 am on the 17th of November in 1973, tanks crushed down the barricaded gates of the university with the police opening fire on the students who had occupied the university for several days and broadcast over a clandestine self-made radio calls to the population to overthrow the dictator. https://fempages.org/2007/02/08/action-day-for-education-in-germany/ Thu, 08 Feb 2007 12:34:08 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/02/08/action-day-for-education-in-germany/ Students in over 25 universities in Germany protested against the introduction of tuition fees during the “Action Day for Education” on 30th of November. Demonstrations and street parties were held in Berlin, Bochum, Bonn, Cologne, Darmstadt, Fulda, Hamburg, Freiburg and Oldenburg. In Frankfurt the job centre was stormed by about a thousand students who put up banners and held speeches on its roof and proclaimed solidarity with the unemployed workers movement. The student unions call for a boycott of tuition fees and mass lawsuits by students against the state, as the constitution was modified in 2005 to allow tuition fees. https://fempages.org/2007/01/27/whats-hot-on-the-continent-at-the-moment/ Sat, 27 Jan 2007 12:00:55 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/01/27/whats-hot-on-the-continent-at-the-moment/ I have experienced some of the best gigs in Europe, backed by the community station Radio Z, in the punk club, KV in Nuremberg. This subcultural alternative venue is now situated at the Nazi Party Rally Grounds in the former military barracks, which were first built and used by the the SS, and then the US army. Now it is home to artists and community groups. Many declared at first the unsuitability of the building as it was in a bad state with no heating, no toilets and no electricity. But, as usual the punks did not bother and were the first to move in with candlelight leaving the last squatted wooden building – with the legendary hole in the ground as a toilet – behind for destruction and for redevelopment. https://fempages.org/2007/01/06/year-2006/ Sat, 06 Jan 2007 12:34:47 +0000 https://fempages.org/2007/01/06/year-2006/ The New Year’s or Hogmanay Party in Edinburgh was cancelled this year due to storms. Which is fair enough, especially as the whole city centre is usually cordoned off and only people with passes – either bought, residents or applied for about half a year in advance by writing to the city council – are allowed into the inner city. This get’s me so angry – but then, it is said that otherwise there would be too many people in the inner city squeezing each other to death. One of the problems is surely that fireworks displays are only organised by the council, and not generally available for sale around new year, as they celebrate Guy Fawkes Night on the 5th of November. https://fempages.org/2006/12/05/interview-with-stewart-home/ Tue, 05 Dec 2006 18:23:50 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/12/05/interview-with-stewart-home/ It is pretty late for doing my interview for the cultural journalism course assignment, and the planned talk with the ex-ambassador to Uzbekistan has just fallen through. My last hope is a reliable libertarian communist: Stewart Home, unconventional pulp-fiction author, prankster and performance artist is now teaching postgraduates as a writer in residence at Strathclyde University. Stewart expresses happiness with the postgraduate students he teaches. He encourages them to establish personal blogs as imaginary persons on Rupert Murdoch’s MySpace website. “It is amazing when you first make them do something and initially they don’t like it but then are really getting into it. https://fempages.org/2006/12/05/review-of-get-a-fucking-job-the-truth-about-begging/ Tue, 05 Dec 2006 11:19:17 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/12/05/review-of-get-a-fucking-job-the-truth-about-begging/ GET A FUCKING JOB – the truth about begging published by New Social Art School, 2006 Eva Merz & Bob Steadman 96 pages, soft cover, text / interviews, b/w illustrations, 21×27 cm. Non-fiction, £12, ***** This book is not just an art book about begging in Aberdeen. The whole concept of this book is to rebuild society from the ground up, using arts just as a tool. It has an exceptional, outstanding political and structural basic-democratic social purpose and approach, and uses art as a sparingly sprinkled spice to complement and illustrate the project’s purpose without distracting from it. https://fempages.org/2006/12/04/review-of-ken-loachs-the-wind-that-shakes-the-barley/ Mon, 04 Dec 2006 20:28:32 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/12/04/review-of-ken-loachs-the-wind-that-shakes-the-barley/ DRAMA THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY Dir: Ken Loach Runtime: 127 min Classification: 15 Country: Germany / Italy / Spain / France / Ireland / UK *** Ken Loach’s film The Wind That shakes the Barley is controversial. Whilst the Jury at Cannes Film Festival awarded the Palme D’Or for Best Film, conservative mainstream media labeled it anti-British,_ a recruiting campaign for the IRA _and “old-fashioned propaganda” because of a perceived unfair portrayal of the unionist occupation forces. Historian Stephen Howe found the tale about the Irish republican independence struggle set in the 1920s’ politically distorted and misrepresenting, though he admits many of the scenes portrayed in the film have been reported by eyewitnesses. https://fempages.org/2006/12/04/summary-of-left-wing-culture-in-2006/ Mon, 04 Dec 2006 20:18:26 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/12/04/summary-of-left-wing-culture-in-2006/ BOOKS There have been lots of political libertarian books published in 2006. Many have been presented at the Edinburgh Independent and Radical Bookfair, organised by Wordpower Bookshop. Wordpower has also published “Rainbow City: Stories from Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Edinburgh” in July 2006. Famous authors such as John Pilger launched “Freedom Next Time”, whereas Greg Palast premiered “Armed Madhouse” and Mark Thomas presented “As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela: Underground Adventures in the Arms and Torture Trade”. **Eva Merz’**s social-inclusive art project “Get a fucking Job – The truth about beggars” sparked controversy in Aberdeen, but helped to defeat the banning of the beggars, many of whom struggle with current or previous drug addiction. https://fempages.org/2006/12/04/review-of-i-the-film/ Mon, 04 Dec 2006 18:32:29 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/12/04/review-of-i-the-film/ DOCUMENTARY FILM SCREENINGS i – The Film Ignolia/Lyon | Argentina/US 2006 | 83 min *** Another edition to Ulla’s crazy chaotic communal lively socio-political film shows certainly garnished with a roaring coffee machine and burrito delivery in the background. Even slightly too much talk in this film doesn’t matter as there is always action in The Forest Cafe with passers-by running through the audience in the search for the leaking toilets. An upgraded, more conventional, focused and sorted presentation can therefore be experienced at the Quaker Meeting House. All organised under the Indymedia brand, this film is certainly not only about the news website Indymedia, but it is Indymedia live – the non-linear structure, organisation and narrative of the film is nearly as horizontal and non-hierarchical as the network, mimicking real life. https://fempages.org/2006/12/04/review-of-kz/ Mon, 04 Dec 2006 17:45:57 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/12/04/review-of-kz/ DOCUMENTARY KZ Rex Bloomstein | UK 2006 | 97 min | U12 Shooting People Films **** “But we want you to return home safely and with a sound mind to use in future for Freedom, Justice and Truth.” So begins Rex Bloomstein‘s first feature documentary. Is the “sound mind“ the key to this film? The Holocaust can drive you crazy. The insanity of the realised idea of mass extermination, impossible to grasp and comprehend without losing yourself in the process, without asking questions of doubt about humanity. How do we deal with such a past? How can we still write poems? https://fempages.org/2006/12/04/review-of-enron-the-smartest-guys-in-the-room/ Mon, 04 Dec 2006 17:29:38 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/12/04/review-of-enron-the-smartest-guys-in-the-room/ ENRON – THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM £19.99 DVD release: 11.09.2006 Duration: 110 min Genre: documentary Lions Gate Home Entertainment ****     “So, how exactly does Enron make its money?” asks business reporter Bethany McLean the Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling for the magazine Fortune in March 2001. And is a bit surprised that he can not answer the straightforward question. In fact, even now, five years after the collapse and bankruptcy of America’s seventh largest corporation, the question is still a mystery, given that Enron’s accounting firm Arthur Anderson shredded one ton of balance sheets before the full extent of the fraud was known. https://fempages.org/2006/12/04/review-of-the-power-of-art-pablo-picassos-guernica/ Mon, 04 Dec 2006 17:19:01 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/12/04/review-of-the-power-of-art-pablo-picassos-guernica/ Simon Schama is the presenter of the television series: “The Power of Art“, which runs for eight weeks on BBC 2 on Fridays. The Professor in art and art history at Columbia University in New York City narrates the documentaries using beautiful and descriptive language as well as creative and artistic form and style. He uses his impressive in depth-knowledge to feature the artists, their biography, the motivation to and the development of their work. Last Friday’s episode was the seventh in the series and focused on the emergence of Pablo Picasso’s political art piece “Guernica”. The title “The Power of Art“ does unfortunately not refer to the influence of art on politics or society in general, but to the immediate impact on the individual viewer. https://fempages.org/2006/11/25/catching-up/ Sat, 25 Nov 2006 15:57:49 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/11/25/catching-up/ I haven’t blogged for a while, but I have written a lot. Mostly reviews. I was trying to get them printed in newspapers and magazines, and am still unsure if I need to hold back the articles from putting them on the blog before they are printed and published. We were away as well, the last three weekends, visiting relatives. We went down to Leeds and visited a Leonardo DaVinci drawings exhibition and also the rest of the museum with sculptures. In Nottingham, we went to a Space centre and an Industrial Museum, which was fun. And in Nuremberg, I went to the left-wing bookfair and got some brilliant music and books, and also enjoyed some talks and visited the Red Cross Museum, the courtroom 600 in which the nazi trials took place and the Museum at the nazi party rally grounds. https://fempages.org/2006/10/29/infoshop-coverage-of-indymedia-activists-death/ Sun, 29 Oct 2006 10:16:53 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/10/29/infoshop-coverage-of-indymedia-activists-death/ On Infoshop, there is a moving eyewitness report about what really happened at the barricades. Apparently, the footage has been recovered, too. I wonder if this is the first Indymedia volunteer who died since Indymedia was founded. Infoshop reports: “Suddenly, about a dozen people started shouting, donning masks, picking up Molotov cocktails (known as bombas Molotov) and cohetes (large bottle rockets typically shit out of PVC pipes the people call bazookas), and collecting rocks and sticks.” And: “Many corporate news outlets, most notably those relying on AP “reporter” Rebeca Romero (widely believed to be on Ulises Ruiz’s payroll), have claimed it was “unclear” as to who shot first. https://fempages.org/2006/10/28/indymedia-activist-shot-dead/ Sat, 28 Oct 2006 14:25:41 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/10/28/indymedia-activist-shot-dead/ Documentary filmmaker, photographer and reporter for various Indymedia projects Brad Will has been shot by paramilitaries in Oaxaca, Mexico, yesterday. Apparantly he died with his videocamera in his hand. Fellow friends and activists said they have been able to identify the murderer by the footage. BBC, Reuters, Yahoo News and AP lied in their article that there would have been a shoot-out and unclear who shot first. However, LaJornada and witnesses say that protesters only had stones, slingshots and some DIY defences. It makes me really angry to read that on the mainstream media, as if to avoid the public getting too interested in what’s really going on in Mexico at the moment. https://fempages.org/2006/10/17/review-of-dan-gillmors-we-the-media-grassroots-journalism-by-the-people-for-the-people/ Tue, 17 Oct 2006 12:42:34 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/10/17/review-of-dan-gillmors-we-the-media-grassroots-journalism-by-the-people-for-the-people/ Dan Gillmor: “We the media – Grassroots Journalism by the people for the people.” O’Reilly 2004/Paperback 2006 £10 *** (3 out of 5) The problem with books about the Internet is the timeliness: as soon as they are written, edited, published and printed, they are already out-of-date. And whilst the Internet and world-wide web don’t explicitly feature in the title of the book or most of the chapters, it exclusively focuses on grassroots media on the Internet. And, of course, the author doesn’t mention podcasting or “YouTube” or “Odeo” or “MySpace” or “CommentIsFree” or “Grokster” yet, as its actuality is based on the technology in 2003. https://fempages.org/2006/10/15/anarchy-at-the-edinburgh-radical-and-independent-bookfair/ Sun, 15 Oct 2006 09:05:44 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/10/15/anarchy-at-the-edinburgh-radical-and-independent-bookfair/ This weekend, Word-Power’s 10th Radical and Independent Bookfair is taking place in the former Drill Hall “Out of the Blue” in Leith Walk. Michael Albert was fantastic with his presentation about a “participative economy“. It was just a so empowering and optimistic talk, that I now wanna run out and get and read all of his books. It was also a really Down-to Earth presentation. Also I enjoyed **Achin Vanaik’**s talk about the defintions of terrorism in the slot about “Political Terrorism and the US Imperial project“. He really distinguished very well between all the different definitions of this violent tactic according to purpose and effects, organisation and strategy, and he included state terrorism, too, which I found quite important. https://fempages.org/2006/10/07/dentist-and-community-councils/ Sat, 07 Oct 2006 13:21:55 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/10/07/dentist-and-community-councils/ After 3 months, I finally got a proper filling in my tooth. Really, I was very astonished when I found out that I first mentioned the lost filling on the 22nd of July, and now, finally, last Monday in the morning of the 2nd of October I got the filling. Since the middle of August it started really hurting and then I discovered a black increasing hole in my tooth. I went to my NHS dentist and they first gave me a date, but when I appeared, the new alarm system had locked them all out, at the second date the pregnant dentist was sick and off work and the third I rang up to tell them I would be a bit late and they then cancelled the appointment and said I would have to wait a month till the new dentist would arrive, or come back in the morning and pay privately to have it done immediately. https://fempages.org/2006/10/07/how-to-catch-a-lost-hamster/ Sat, 07 Oct 2006 12:09:01 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/10/07/how-to-catch-a-lost-hamster/ Today this blog entry received a comment, asking for help: “omg help I lost my hamster and I don’t know what to do please help me it’s been 2 days”. Hamsters are escapologists. They make break-outs a profession. They are such curious little love hearts and regard themselves as explorers as well. Don’t worry about your hamster. It will be back. Just leave the cage on the floor with some food in and his homely sleeping house and he will return regularly at night to fill up his cheeks. My hamster likes to dig himself into and behind the sofa and the heating when he is out on leave. https://fempages.org/2006/09/22/forthcoming-political-events/ Fri, 22 Sep 2006 10:01:14 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/09/22/forthcoming-political-events/ In October we’ll have the Independent Radical Bookfair in Edinburgh, guests are Vandana Shiva and Michael Albert from Z Magazine, George Monbiot, Ilan Pappe and others. Exactly at the same weekend, Document4, the Human Rights Film Festival, is happening in Glasgow, and we have got the Argentinian film makers coming over to screen ithefilm about Argentina Indymedia the same weekend. I am looking forward to it in some way, but in another I am a bit pissed off with the scene at the moment. Basically after the G8, I got to realise that hierarchical decision-making has got its advantages, too. Basically, it gets macho men to take responsibility for tidying up their mess. https://fempages.org/2006/09/20/my-garden-year-reviewed/ Wed, 20 Sep 2006 10:26:02 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/09/20/my-garden-year-reviewed/ So, it is nearly autumn now, and the rain season has begun in Edinburgh. After my parents tidied up the allotment with me, it is now time to bring in the final harvest and prepare the plot for winter. As a nice finish to my first gardening year, I went to the 54th Annual Flower and Vegetable Show in Edinburgh. Our Ferry Road Site even won a first price – mainly because we were the only ones entering in that category of cross allotment site vegetables. It was quite a nice, amusing community event and good fun. For the kids, there were categories like vegetable monster, miniture gardens in seed trays, nicest decorated biscuit and statues out of receycled material. https://fempages.org/2006/09/19/my-country-my-country/ Tue, 19 Sep 2006 10:59:18 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/09/19/my-country-my-country/ “My country, my country” is a documentary film about the election process in Iraq. It was shown at the Edinburgh International Film Festival middle of August. It is a very good film. Partly because the canditate for the election, Dr.Riyadh, doesn’t get elected himself as his party withdraws from the election process. Also, the film maker ****Laura Poitras cuts the narrative down to let the people in the film and the events speak for itself. She spend 8 months alone in Iraq and documents the events and proceedings around the Election Day in Iraq in January 2005. The film starts in July 2004, 6 months before elections, with stunning pictures out of a low flying helicopter to dramatic music by Kadlum Al Sahir. https://fempages.org/2006/09/05/edinburgh-festival-for-free/ Tue, 05 Sep 2006 16:27:02 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/09/05/edinburgh-festival-for-free/ More and more alternative festival options are surrounding the Fringe and the Edinburgh International Festival: The People’s Festival, the Free Fringe, the Islam Festival, the Festival for Peace and Spirituality, The Internet Festival, The Politics Festival, the Annuale. But these festivals have different reasons for their existence: some were born out of criticism of the existing Fringe and the Festival, like the People’s Festival –_ by the people for the people_ or the Free Fringe, describing the Fringe as an open arts festival that anyone can take part in ‘as long as they can afford’, and The entire Fringe is financed by the personal losses made by artists. https://fempages.org/2006/08/31/international-software-freedom-day-on-16th-of-september/ Thu, 31 Aug 2006 09:02:08 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/08/31/international-software-freedom-day-on-16th-of-september/ On 16th of September, the use of free libre open software will be marked in over 150 countries, celebrating it as far away as Nepal, India and Africa. International Software Freedom Day was born in January 2004, when the initiator Matt Oquist drove past a retail store with piles of AOL CDs lying around and considered that a CD filled with free software such as Open Office, Firefox, and the GIMP would be of vastly greater value to the public. Matt concluded that “Free Software had improved to the point of being suitable for public use?”, and that “public ignorance would be one of the primary roadblocks to public acceptance? https://fempages.org/2006/08/23/5-days/ Wed, 23 Aug 2006 20:15:08 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/08/23/5-days/ 5 Days –_“The Prisoners Dilemma”? _ is a documentary film by Yoav Shamir which chronicles the events during the 5 days withdrawal and forceful occupation of Israeli settlers from Gaza in August 2005. It is introduced with a strong narrative of the film-maker. The film shows the unique psychological and physical conflict of the Israeli Defense Force set against their own, deeply religious and conservative people; 40 000 soldiers evacuating 8000 settlers. “There is no glory here. There are no winners in this battle. There is no victory!”? says General Commander Dan Harel of the Southern Israeli Forces. The lack of policemen and the soft approach of the soldiers towards the Jewish settlers is startling compared with the usual repression of protesters. https://fempages.org/2006/08/22/you-tube/ Tue, 22 Aug 2006 13:53:51 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/08/22/you-tube/ I am totally stressed out this week. My parents are coming to visit me, the flat is a mess, the allotment chaos and I am so far behind with everything I need to and want to do. I got a press pass to the Edinburgh International Film festival, but unfortunately could not really use it that much so far, as all the press screenings are during the day. I am at the moment doing some work experience and am expected to be there most of the time from 9-6, which I am not really used to anymore. I am looking forward to uni starting again, so I can destress a little bit from all the crazy summer. https://fempages.org/2006/08/06/the-bourne-trilogy/ Sun, 06 Aug 2006 15:18:18 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/08/06/the-bourne-trilogy/ Some weeks ago, I got a cheap video on special offer: The Bourne Supremacy. Anyways, as it was a thriller I got quite hooked after seeing it this week. The DVD of the first in series: The Bourne Identity, was on special offer, so I got it, too. But as it was published as a book by Robert Ludlum before, I went into the library and borrowed as many of the series I could find. But the book and the films have hardly any resemblance to each other! Whilst the books are set sometime in the 70ies or even 80ies, in the cold war and have the hero rooting in the Vietnam war and fighting Chinese and Russian super terrorists and assassins, the films offer no explanations whatsoever and the plot is totally different. https://fempages.org/2006/07/29/quick-diary-entry/ Sat, 29 Jul 2006 22:51:31 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/07/29/quick-diary-entry/ I am a bit ill this week with a weird type of summer flu. The Filmhouse sent Indymedia 10 tickets for free for the community festival experience, for the film: “Who needs sleep?” which is about labour rights and trade unions (or their absence) in the film and movie industry. The Russian language student will leave tonight and the French has first moved away into student accomodation and then got rapidly sent back home today as she went a bit overboard with her teenage freedom. We even got paid the telephone bill in total, which we did not really expect anymore, but her dad stepped in and sorted finally the stuff out. https://fempages.org/2006/07/22/this-week/ Sat, 22 Jul 2006 13:13:20 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/07/22/this-week/ This week has been very exciting. I had an interview yesterday for a part time job. The fun thing about it was that they used an electronic pre-screening test via an interactive website, and I was second best. The French language student has run up a phone bill of about £80 in the last 2 weeks, dialling premium call numbers for example for about 2-3 hours in the middle of the night at about 2am to a French mobile. This call alone cost £15! We tried to get BT blocking the numbers, but BT was pretty crap, always saying that it would take 7 days for the service to work, and then not even starting it until you put in the code number they gave me. https://fempages.org/2006/07/19/mouth-of-silence/ Wed, 19 Jul 2006 08:50:42 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/07/19/mouth-of-silence/ “I speak to cover the mouth of silence, said Umberto Ak’abad.?” exclaims Max, the Indian alcoholic refugee, reflecting on the forty years of civil war in Guatemala. He stars in the theatre play “Mouth of Silence?”, which was brought to the North Edinburgh Art Centre at start of July by the Birds of Paradise theatre company. It features a refugee family returning back home, reflecting about their personal situation from different angles and discussing ways to deal with the past. “No one listens to the voices of the past.?” claims the victim Maria, who talks via sign language. The play is fully signed, not everything is translated into English. https://fempages.org/2006/07/19/edinburgh-international-film-festival-community-experience/ Wed, 19 Jul 2006 07:48:39 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/07/19/edinburgh-international-film-festival-community-experience/ The Filmhouse published in its last programme its intentions of offering free tickets for community groups at the EIFF. the tickets get sponsored partly by Standard Life and a Business & Arts link up group. Yesterday the meeting of all community groups interested in taking part in the free ticket scheme happened at the Filmhouse. There seemed to be about 20-30 different groups present, and the Filmhouse crew mentioned they had to turn many more away. Unfortunately they only have 100 free tickets in total. They also did not say how they would select the groups, and I exploded a little bit with my hungarian side going up the roof, which wasn’t particularly helpful, but made them probably realise the extend of the problem, and they seem to have shifted their focus slightly from selecting groups to giving all groups some, but fewer tickets. https://fempages.org/2006/07/16/film-festival-programme-out/ Sun, 16 Jul 2006 00:25:06 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/07/16/film-festival-programme-out/ I had hectic past weeks. The shower finally got electrified last tuesday and it is so brilliant being able to take a shower every day. I also got a goldfish today. He is still pretty shy and hides behind the plants. The pH is pretty low in the water. i wonder how it could be increased. Fluffy made an escape into the kitchen and it was difficult to get him back out from under the shelf. I have got two language students here to stay at the moment, one from France and one from Russia, and it is good fun and very exciting to have them around. https://fempages.org/2006/07/08/279/ Sat, 08 Jul 2006 09:01:00 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/07/08/279/ Andrew Walker, Nazi War Trials, Hardback, Pocket Essentials, 160 pp, RRP: £9.99 As 2006 marks the 60th anniversary of the first of the Nuremberg Trials, this informative, factual and comprehensive newest addition to the pocket essential series is well worth the £10 pounds price tag. Andrew Walker compresses the Nazi War Trials into 152 pages, structured into the three parts following the chronology of proceedings against those leading Nazis who had survived and were captured: The Prosecution Case, The Defence Case and the outcome of the trials. He reveals the personalities and strategies of not only the defendants, but also the prosecutors. https://fempages.org/2006/07/08/big-picks/ Sat, 08 Jul 2006 08:33:50 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/07/08/big-picks/ Laddy and the Lady Henry Coombes Tramway Glasgow July 7 – 30 July Free Admission Henry Coombes, best Glasgow School of Art graduate in 2002, presents his new award winning short film “The Laddy and the Lady”. The issues at stake are unconditional love, cruelty, structures and different dynamics in relationship. An out-of-control golden retriever is subjected to relentless physical and verbal abuse associated with gun dog handling. Laddy becomes a golden receiver of abuse. Artist talk on Wednesday 12th of July at 6.30 p.m. No animals were harmed or distressed whilst making this film. Van Gogh & Britain Pioneers Collectors https://fempages.org/2006/07/08/sport-relief-vox-pox/ Sat, 08 Jul 2006 08:27:06 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/07/08/sport-relief-vox-pox/ Sportrelief is coming up. Do you think this is a good idea? And what do you do for charity? Gordon C., 22, veterinary medicine student “Yes it is a good idea. Previously I have done fancy dress, raffle-tickets, selling sweets: tuch-ups and other fundraising events. I like to walk the Westhighland Way. It can take about a week to do. I like to do that for Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) or the Greyhound Awareness League.” Jane S., 66, pensioner “Yes. I have done sponsored walks for 25 years. Just recently I participated at the Moonwalk, which was very tiring and took several hours. https://fempages.org/2006/07/07/allotments-are-the-green-lungs-of-our-cities/ Fri, 07 Jul 2006 23:08:44 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/07/07/allotments-are-the-green-lungs-of-our-cities/ Dear Big Issue Vendors, Readers, Writers and Friends Thanks very much for putting together the Big Issue every week. I love the magazine and in particular the news information and updates about campaigns, especially grassroots groups. I like the diversity of issues tackled and the urge to improve the world. The Big Issue has been such a great reliable supportive voice before and during the G8 protests last year when many other media outlets seemed to focus more on scaring the local population. I like the Big issue’s editorial focus on community issues and the Vox pops. I also appreciate the interviews with homeless Big Issue vendors from all over Scotland and also the ethical classified. https://fempages.org/2006/07/07/muirhousesalvesen-community-council-update/ Fri, 07 Jul 2006 22:59:45 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/07/07/muirhousesalvesen-community-council-update/ The Muirhouse/Salvesen community council had its inaugural meeting on Monday, 3rd of April in the Muirhouse Millenium Centre. The interim positions were filled: Betty Stevenson will act as chair, Brian Eddington as the secretary and Roy Douglas is the treasurer for the time being. The final appointment of the office bearers will take place at the AGM of the community council. The constitution was approved, and financial arrangements such as banking, insurance and council grants were organised. Councillor Lesley Hinds and representatives of the Council, such as the Elections Officer and the Community Council Liaison Officer, were also present to guide through the initial process of setting the group up. https://fempages.org/2006/07/07/what-are-community-councils/ Fri, 07 Jul 2006 22:56:11 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/07/07/what-are-community-councils/ North Edinburgh now has four community councils, Muirhouse/Salvesen, West Pilton/West Granton, Royston Wardieburn and Drylaw/Telford. Drylaw/Telford community council has been active for 25 years since it has been founded in 1981, and according to secretary Dave Pickering its biggest and most successful campaign has been the recent Open Spaces consultation, which gave the community the opportunity to decide on possible housing developments, retention and upgrade of green spaces. The first community councils were established in Edinburgh in 1980 at Longstone and Merchiston. Now there are 39 out of 44 possible community councils in the city and over 400 community council representatives. https://fempages.org/2006/07/07/critical-reading/ Fri, 07 Jul 2006 22:33:46 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/07/07/critical-reading/ The Activist Training Programme is running a critical reading group for community members who want to engage with local issues and the connections to wider social causes. Previous texts and discussions included Anti-social behavior, housing, Hurricane Katrina, the power of multinational corporations, the World Social Forum, consumerism, participatory democracy and social movements in Venezuela, sustainable way of living, the impact of the class system, the role of property investment and redevelopment in areas like the Waterfront and a comic on John Ruskin’s ideas on wealth and happiness,. The first session of the critical reading group took place on 25th August 2005. https://fempages.org/2006/06/18/repression-in-oaxaca-mexico/ Sun, 18 Jun 2006 15:06:26 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/06/18/repression-in-oaxaca-mexico/ So just today I finally managed to compile a feature for Indymedia Scotland and Indymedia UK about the police attack in Mexico, Oaxaca, which was said to have killed 11 people on Wednesday. The mainstream media here in Britain hasn’t reported one bit of it, as usual. Compiling the feature today took about 4 hours, but without translating anything, just reading across several websites, emails and texts and trying to compress the most important facts. Yesterday it also took some hours to find all the original texts, about further 2-3 hours. At the moment I actually don’t really have the time any more to do this as frequently as some years ago, but I still would want to spend more time on it, as it is something quite meaningfull. https://fempages.org/2006/06/13/nuj-freelance-meeting-in-edinburgh/ Tue, 13 Jun 2006 08:29:56 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/06/13/nuj-freelance-meeting-in-edinburgh/ Yesterday, I went to the NUJ (National Union of Journalists) Edinburgh freelance meeting, which included a talk of Napier University’s Journalism senior lecturer Rob Brown. The NUJ always supported Indymedia UK, when we got into trouble, so I looked forward to meet some of the individuals behind it, and had probably high expectations. At the end of the evening I left quite disappointed, and wondering if the progressive libertarian lefty forces of the NUJ are all accumulated in London. Rob Brown’s talk was quite good, if you like his style. I always have a bit of problem with his style and find it a bit boring and structured like a rant, and yesterday, I suddenly realised why: he actually seems to talk like a written feature. https://fempages.org/2006/06/11/the-great-unknown-local-mystery/ Sun, 11 Jun 2006 11:03:36 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/06/11/the-great-unknown-local-mystery/ The whole North Edinburgh community seems to be keen to discover the secret behind the anonymity of the “Piltonsucks.com” webmaster. At the last Muirhouse Community Council meeting on Tuesday, even I was suggested, which is a bit of a bummer, but because of not wanting to destroy my reputation, I just answered “Haeh ?”. But now I got curious, too, and so had a bit of a look at the website, and it seems to be registered pretty anonymously at an address in New York in the Whois records. Half of the people slagged off on the website I don’t even know, and sometimes I do feel it is an unnecessarily harsh critique, but then I actually don’t seem to have a clue what the guy is talking about half of the time. https://fempages.org/2006/06/10/updating-the-gallery/ Sat, 10 Jun 2006 11:40:57 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/06/10/updating-the-gallery/ Wildhunt may like the pictures of Rosslyn Chapel I just uploaded, a mix between pagan green men and Christian religion stonemasonry. It is situated south of Edinburgh near Bilston Woods Protest Camp, and is the most beautifull and unique church I have ever come across, I would predict even world-wide. I try and get most of my previous protest and other pictures of Scotland and similar now online, but will try to stick to the best one. It also dependes on how I can access the old Windows partition. I am absolutely tired today and the last days. My friend has gone to see his little nieces, so I have dropped him at the airport early this morning. https://fempages.org/2006/05/30/solidarity-volunteers-stuck-in-chiapas/ Tue, 30 May 2006 08:04:50 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/05/30/solidarity-volunteers-stuck-in-chiapas/ Because of the Red Alert, following the event in Atenco on the 3rd of May, foreign internationals are not allowed to enter Zapatista areas. Most of the 200 + civilians are still said to be detained, beatings and (sexual) abuse of the arrestees has been reported, too, as well as raids of homes and a boy of 14 has been killed by gun wounds. Because of the Red Alert human rights observers and other sympathetic visitors are stuck from going and visiting or helping out. The Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Campaign, one of the most active and practical groups in Edinburgh’s libertarian Left, is running a stall next weekend at a fair, and also organises a social get together with a report and a screening of a self-made video about the twinned community. https://fempages.org/2006/05/29/david-graeber-talk-in-edinburgh/ Mon, 29 May 2006 07:58:46 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/05/29/david-graeber-talk-in-edinburgh/ David Graeber, anarchist former lecturer at Yale Uni in the US, came to Edinburgh yesterday to talk about the G8. Well, that was the plan. In the end it was just Q&A and an extensive break. AK Press hosted the event, which was a good get together, but a bit disappointing as David hadn’t prepared a talk, and is in my opinion not a particularly good speaker as he did not manage to keep the attention of people. He did answer the questions very generally and seemed to be more keen to have a general discussion and hang out with people, which is fair enough. https://fempages.org/2006/05/28/is-gardening-political/ Sun, 28 May 2006 08:29:01 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/05/28/is-gardening-political/ Whilst working in the garden, there is lot of time to think. So, I can’t help comparing my life at the moment to my life last year in May, when the preperation for the anti-G8 mobilisation were running high. Working in the garden is actually quite destressing, and it is nice to see at the end of the day what has been achieved. It is also satisfying to eat your own, self-grown, organic vegetables and fruits. Also, it makes me happy to share my products, such as rhubarb, and to exchange seeds and seedlings. The other day, an allotment neighbour offered me some mint and lemon balm plants, and I have already planted them in. https://fempages.org/2006/05/27/scotland-to-support-trinidad-and-tobago-in-the-football-world-cup/ Sat, 27 May 2006 09:41:13 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/05/27/scotland-to-support-trinidad-and-tobago-in-the-football-world-cup/ Apparantly a leading politician has called for Scotland to back Trinidad and Tobago in the forthcoming Football/Soccer World Cup in Germany, instead of neighbouring England. Of course, there has been a mild outcry by the shocked rest of the British Islands, mainly London, that Scotland would dare to support anybody else but England, and anti-english sentiments are blamed for it. Most of the mainstream media is based in London and often focuses on news in England, with the British Parliament based there as well. Because of the history of oppression, many Scottish people seem to tease nowadays some Southerners with weird results of the devolution. https://fempages.org/2006/05/25/freecycle-network/ Thu, 25 May 2006 08:54:22 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/05/25/freecycle-network/ We have here in Edinburgh a vibrant community of Freecyclers. Freecycle is a loose network of email groups, running on Yahoo (unfortunately), with the aim to reduce landfill. Basically people just announce when they want to get rid of something (furniture, pets, … kids…- just joking- ) and then anybody who wants to, can reply and try to persuade the person to give it to him or her. Whilst it works sometimes really brilliantly, and I got a lot of stuff from it, particularly for the G8, it can be sometimes a bit frustrating. For the G8 we got computer(s), monitors, sofabeds, minidisk recorder, video recorders, dictionary, office chairs and desks and so much other stuff for free, it was really helpful. https://fempages.org/2006/05/25/philosophy-exam/ Thu, 25 May 2006 08:05:36 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/05/25/philosophy-exam/ Just bottled the last exam this year. It’s really, really embarrassing, but I feel I totally let myself down. First I could not find the notes or had lost some of the handouts. Then I just could not remember who the academics were who kind of opposed each other for some decades with their research. However, I remembered a bit of the practical relevant outcomes, but all the theory stuff just didn’t make it into the exam. Comparing the stuff I wrote with the notes, there is just too much of a discrepancy… whilst I got the gist of the commentating discussion we had a bit as students, the other stuff I just forgot. https://fempages.org/2006/05/22/stewart-home-on-the-nude-murders/ Mon, 22 May 2006 15:52:30 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/05/22/stewart-home-on-the-nude-murders/ Stewart has written a new article about “Jack of Jumps” by David Seabrook (Granta Books 899) featuring theories about the identidy of Jack the Stripper, who murdered several prostitutes in the Sixties, and was never caught. Stewart is hitting out at the British Libel Law, The Observer for sloppyness, lack of research and the uncritical literary review. Good article. And it is only available on he website of the Stewart Home Society. So, read it! Stewart is a real clever bloke, though he has dropped out of college and doesn’t have a university education. He proves that you don’t need to go to Oxford or Cambridge to be clever or a good writer, a bit of intelligence, good research and a willingness to kick arse will do. https://fempages.org/2006/05/21/garden/ Sun, 21 May 2006 23:28:06 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/05/21/garden/ It has been raining for the last days and it got colder here. So haven’t been in the garden for about a week. Today there were some hours of dry weather so I just went there for a look. The rhubarb is absolutely massive, although I already took out several plants , there is no way stopping it. It is quite expensive in supermarkets, I wish I could sell my rhubarb for 2pounds for 500g like in Lidl, too, and I could finance my whole year’s allotment rent with it. Honestly. Micah is already pleading with me not to dish up rhubarb more than 3 times a week. https://fempages.org/2006/05/10/report-of-the-scottish-parliament-discussing-nuclear-issues/ Wed, 10 May 2006 10:31:19 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/05/10/report-of-the-scottish-parliament-discussing-nuclear-issues/ In a motion passed by the Scottish Parliament last Thursday, the Scottish Executive pledges not to build any new nuclear power stations for the foreseeable future. All other parties were outraged when the Scottish Executive boycotted the discussion on nuclear issues in the morning, claiming it would be solely a Westminster Issue. The Scottish Green Party initiated the committee meeting about the building of potential new nuclear power stations in Scotland and how to deal with nuclear waste and transport. The renewal of Trident was also discussed. At the decision time, the motion not to replace Trident got defeated, whereas the pledge against new nuclear power stations in Scotland succeeded. https://fempages.org/2006/05/06/another-student-service-to-close-at-napier-university/ Sat, 06 May 2006 12:51:35 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/05/06/another-student-service-to-close-at-napier-university/ Miller’s Graphic, the specialised print and design shop situated on the ground floor at Merchiston Campus, is considered to be closed at the end of term due to loss of sales. The shop offers graphic materials for students and specialised pens, as well as hardback binding for dissertations. Design students have started a petition to rescue the shop, to be handed in at the end of the week. They are quite disappointed with the uncertain future of the shop and hope the management would change their mind. Shop-assistant May Henderson says: No company wants to run at a loss. https://fempages.org/2006/05/06/new-tesco-supermarket-to-open-in-bruntsfield/ Sat, 06 May 2006 12:38:44 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/05/06/new-tesco-supermarket-to-open-in-bruntsfield/ A new Tesco store will open end of May at the ‘Holy Corner’ near Napier University’s Merchiston Campus. The area is currently dominated by local, small, independent, high-profile shops, but worries of their sustainable future have been expressed at the newly launched Bruntsfield Consumers’ Forum. Tesco in particular, but also other major supermarkets, have been blamed for the phenomen of Clone Towns and Ghost Towns, where few independent shops and services are left after superstores were opened. Last week Tesco announced a 30% share of the UK supermarket sales and a £2.3 billion profit. The new Tesco Metro in Bruntsfield will cover a floor area of 13,500sq ft. https://fempages.org/2006/04/20/fluffys-new-nickname-the-destructor/ Thu, 20 Apr 2006 10:46:30 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/04/20/fluffys-new-nickname-the-destructor/ Fluffy has destroyed my sofabed. Not that he actually needed to do much: it was pretty brittle anyways. But I am still sour that he he chewed actually a corner off. And now the mattress cover has not only got a hole but has split apart. I wonder if he is actually now in the rebellious teenager age for hamsters, he was such a well-behaved little cute rodent before. Maybe it is also that his teeth are growing too fast for him to controll his urge to chew, but when I put some branches in he did not use them to shorten his teeth, but instead destroyed the mineralstone to little pink pieces. https://fempages.org/2006/04/19/starbuck-employees-win-against-the-company/ Wed, 19 Apr 2006 12:14:17 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/04/19/starbuck-employees-win-against-the-company/ Strange how somehow these events fall together: I have just been blogging about Starbucks trying to sabotage the funding of the community radio station Leith FM after a broadcast reporting the solidarity protest of Zapatista supporters and IWW members against Starbucks, and swoosh the day after the news of the employees winning their court case against this multinational company comes through. What a telepathic coincidence! Here is the full email received: Union Scores Big Victory Against Starbucks at Labor Board IWW Starbucks Workers Union March 8, 2006 from www.starbucksunion.org Union Scores Big Victory Against Starbucks at Labor Board Coffee Giant Must Rehire Fired Baristas and Rescind National Anti-Union Policies https://fempages.org/2006/04/17/news-of-the-day/ Mon, 17 Apr 2006 21:09:20 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/04/17/news-of-the-day/ Yes, I have planted the pumpkin seeds the wrong way round! Actually the round ends are to become the leaves and the pointed tops are where the roots are spreading from. One of the houseplants is an azalea and I have planted it in the wrong compost – they need a sour soil (low pH) and I just used the ordinary lime based one as well as used an ordinary fertiliser. They actually are mini rhododendrons and need shade as well. Arrgh, tomorrow I need to rescue it by getting the right compost for it. At least now i know why these sort of plants have always died in my home so far – as well as the lack of water obviously contributed. https://fempages.org/2006/04/16/journalism-arguments-more-trouble-with-leith-fm-yet-again/ Sun, 16 Apr 2006 15:59:50 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/04/16/journalism-arguments-more-trouble-with-leith-fm-yet-again/ Leith FM is going nastily mental again. Really odd some of the other board members behaved suddenly towards me, since Friday, there is a nasty email exchange going on. And I haven’t even started it, which is very unusual. Suddenly after a year of silence they seem to gang up on me. They behave like they would want to bully me out before having their AGM so there would be no danger of me saying something critical about them in public, with some of the unemployed volunteers doing the dirty work for the mighty man in the background. Who knows what they conspired up to at the last board meeting. https://fempages.org/2006/04/16/adult-education-courses/ Sun, 16 Apr 2006 15:14:47 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/04/16/adult-education-courses/ Finally, the ILA Scotland approval has come through. I am unsure which course to select, as I am gardening wild at the moment I am considering the horticulture course by the Royal Horticulture Society held at the Botanic Garden. There is also a one day workshop available on plants, but it seems closed and only available to people who are already taking part in their current regular weekly course. Anyways, after looking around on their websites, I found their full educational programme. Also, they seem to have a plant shop, too, and guided tours. Other possibilities are driving courses such as the extension of the driving license to include passenger transportation – not sure if this is a minibus license. https://fempages.org/2006/04/09/work-in-the-allotment/ Sun, 09 Apr 2006 18:03:02 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/04/09/work-in-the-allotment/ My parents are here for a week and we have been working in the allotment together. In the shed we found about 12 lawnmowers and 2 other large unidentifyable tools, as well as piles of other rubbish. We have been joking since what one individual would need so many lawnmowers for, and also how and why he collected these. He did not have a lawn even in this allotment where he stored these. The whole entrance was obstructed with nettles and doors and wooden window frames and similar. Also i already dragged away 4 carpets, and several mores are covered up with soil and nettles. https://fempages.org/2006/04/01/allotment/ Sat, 01 Apr 2006 22:44:01 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/04/01/allotment/ Here are the pictures of the allotment. It is pretty overgrown and there is a lot of rubbish on it, like doors and similar. Today Micah planted a gooseberry and pruned the blackberries, hedges and other wild shrubberies and bushes, he also dug up the whole light brown plant bed. There is a fox which seems to live around the bushes and hedges. I have made a start with one plant bed which had old rotting leaks in, and basically pulled out lots of weeds and nettles by hand, took stones out, and planted a red currant and a little bush to mark the corners. https://fempages.org/2006/03/31/moviemail/ Fri, 31 Mar 2006 01:11:41 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/03/31/moviemail/ I just make a quick note of moviemail as they sell political videos and BFI ones. Also I am trying to collect all my previous writing, audio, video and academic research on a new website. Am not sure how it will look like and how to structure, so am comparing with other similar websites. I still like the really simple websites [Ana, Robert Bullard | Andrea Wren ] of authors who actually put their whole articles online for the benefit of everybody, but I also like simple Blog websites used for porfolio purposes [Chris Alden], which seem to be userfriendly enough. https://fempages.org/2006/03/29/panorama-2/ Wed, 29 Mar 2006 18:13:49 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/03/29/panorama-2/ Panorama Article to be accompanied by a fact box of about 200 -300 words: Name coined from the fantastic view out of the office window at the BBC headquarters at Alexandra Palace. The first episode was broadcast on 11th of November 1953 and was a disaster as the audio tape of a brainwashed spy was played backwards. Longest running current affairs program worldwide. Its founder was Dennis Barton. Some of the most famous presenters were Richard and David Dimbleby . Jeremy Paxman was a Panorama reporter, Michael Buerk, Peter Snow, Gavin Hewitt, Robert Harris and the boss of Channel 4, Mark Thompson worked there as well. https://fempages.org/2006/03/29/critically-assess-the-value-of-objectivity-as-the-dominant-professional-perspective-in-journalism/ Wed, 29 Mar 2006 17:32:24 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/03/29/critically-assess-the-value-of-objectivity-as-the-dominant-professional-perspective-in-journalism/ Objectivity can induce both: better and worse journalism. Of course, if it would encourage better coverage of events it should be the dominant value in future journalism, but, on the contrary, if it would cause flawed coverage then it should not. Objectivity can hinder analysis, the question why, background research and interpretation of events and reduce news to plain events reporting. It can even bring about untruthful reporting if the psychological impact on the reporter and the humanitarian side of disasters, crisis and wars is suppressed. Subjective reporting can empower people, make them passionate about issues and encourage activity and involvement in their communities as well as in decision-making and politics. https://fempages.org/2006/03/27/a-tv-programme-i-just-cant-get-out-of-my-head/ Mon, 27 Mar 2006 15:15:59 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/03/27/a-tv-programme-i-just-cant-get-out-of-my-head/ Last Friday, for some strange reason I ended up watching Channel4’s Adopt me, I am a teenager. I can’t just get it out of my head. On the website it says: “Justine and Lakeisha are two teenagers desperate to be adopted. They live in America, where a radical approach to adoption has been pioneered. In an attempt to find a new home they’ll be marketed American-style at adoption parties and on TV shows. This film follows their search to find a mum and dad, but unfortunately things don’t always go according to plan.” I just found it so sad to watch. https://fempages.org/2006/03/25/national-union-of-journalists-stops-support-for-participatory-media/ Sat, 25 Mar 2006 20:39:39 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/03/25/national-union-of-journalists-stops-support-for-participatory-media/ The Guardian launched ‘Comment is Free’ 2 weeks ago. Basically, the Guardian is opening up its commentary and opinion pieces up for discussion. There are some audio pieces discussing the blogs [ Mediatalk – Guardian Media Podcast | Panel Discussion about ‘Freedom of Speech’ ] Unfortunately my own podcast hasn’t yet progressed much. The Gallery is coming along nicely though there are still some hundreds of pictures waiting to be uploaded. I am wondering if to try to select only the best or give a bit of a wider view. Also I might have made them too bright because of my monitor settings. https://fempages.org/2006/03/24/panorama/ Fri, 24 Mar 2006 16:48:57 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/03/24/panorama/ In the end, I chose the Panorama article to be accompanied by a fact box of about 200 -300 words. The reason was that my cold got worse and I felt like my head is a boiler to central heat a highrise, it certainly feels like it. Also my lecturer pointed out that the other features would be more news rather than a feature suitable for the task. Apart from the Vanessa Redgrave interview. And the BBC has all the facts up in nice chunks already on their websites, especially as Panorama just had its 50th birthday. [ BBC Panorama website | 50 years of Panorama ]. https://fempages.org/2006/03/22/features-supplement/ Wed, 22 Mar 2006 17:13:48 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/03/22/features-supplement/ I have been ill the last days with a bad cold. For some strange reason that seems to be the fourth cold or so in a row. Now, I have to write a feature box for friday of about 200-300 words and am unsure what to write. I am torn in between: – the 10 worst blunders in medicine (in connection with the drug trial gone wrong) – some of Vanessa R. most famous films (interview with Vanessa Redgrave) , or something political about V.R., or something about the Merchant-Ivory films – history of Panorama (factual programs receive jobs and money cuts in BBC) https://fempages.org/2006/03/22/this-is-lovely-fluffy/ Wed, 22 Mar 2006 13:26:43 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/03/22/this-is-lovely-fluffy/ Here are some pictures of the most well-behaved, lovliest hamster in the world. He is now running around in the flat every evening but returning to his house after an hour or so. He likes sitting behind the sofa and has so far not damaged any cable or anything else apart from some paper. He has also abandoned to my relief his holiday home in the heating. He comes and listens to me when i talk to him and even comes to me when he is running around in the living room, though he is not yet really tame. https://fempages.org/2006/03/19/allotment-offer/ Sun, 19 Mar 2006 12:09:42 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/03/19/allotment-offer/ The council wrote to me offering me half a plot of allotment to rent. [FEDEGA: Edinburgh Allotment Association | BBC Allotment NEWS ] I am so excited! The waiting times are usually something in between 5-7 years, in particular spots up to 11 years. I am looking forward to do a bit of composting and growing organic veggies. However, nearly all my experiences with gardening and plants is trying to leave this green stuff alone as much as possible, but am not sure if it works. I want to grow loads of cucumbers, pumpkins and courgettes, and some flowers and berries. https://fempages.org/2006/03/13/lost-my-hamster-in-the-heating/ Mon, 13 Mar 2006 15:26:23 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/03/13/lost-my-hamster-in-the-heating/ Fluffy has had its first free range living room experience yesterday and promptly disappeared inside the electric artificial open fire heating. Luckily it was switched off. He only returned four hours later to play in his wheel, chill out and eat a bit. Today I also got the good news that I am part of the Community Council, even without voting, as there are/were just enough nominations to fill all seats. The best about it is that I seem to know nearly everybody sharing the council with me, so it will be fun, because they are all good neighbours who enjoy a good rage against injustice, such as privatisation of public services, council house stock transfer and similar. https://fempages.org/2006/03/11/dogs-2006/ Sat, 11 Mar 2006 23:13:34 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/03/11/dogs-2006/ just to say that comments on this blog need to be approved now, as so much spam comments is hold up in moderation. At the moment there is Crufts 2006 going on in Britain, Europe’s biggest dog exhibition. The BBC does daily 2 hours reporting and has a comment section on their website. The Guardian ran its own mongrel picture competition of dogs, which is also sweet. Unfortunately I haven’t got any dogs, but if you live in or around Edinburgh and want to go on holidays, I am happy to dog-sit, especially non- or few-barking varieties, as have sensitive neighbours. https://fempages.org/2006/03/10/have-love-will-travel/ Fri, 10 Mar 2006 13:29:39 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/03/10/have-love-will-travel/ My home is now in both, Scotland and in Germany. I am comfortable in both and sometimes torn between them. But it was not always so. Five years ago, I imagined Scotland from afar to be like the South of England, stylish, but a bit more eccentric, with added tartaned kilts, snarring bagpipes, fury cows, castle ruins on green hills, sword-swinging Highlanders dancing Ceilidh and a general public fondness of pies and uniforms. At my arrival I was greeted by much rain and dark, grey skies. Basic living in this country seemed incredibly expensive. People seemed so reserved, an effort to socialise with and so polite that it was occasionally even deceptive. https://fempages.org/2006/03/01/court-case-report/ Wed, 01 Mar 2006 10:43:35 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/03/01/court-case-report/ A teenager, who plead _not guil_ty at the Edinburgh Sheriff Court was acquitted yesterday of an assault leading to injury and permanent disfigurement of the complainant. In the trial against Andrew C., 17, from Edinburgh,the witness statements have not proven to the majority of the jury, that he smashed a glass in the face of the family friend Daniel G. during a pub brawl at the Hibernian Supporters Club in Sunnyside, Edinburgh, a year ago. The evening of the birthday party ended with Daniel G. sustaining three wounds on the head and face, he needed forty stitches. Andrew C. claimed he threw a punch in self-defence, whilst also incriminating a friend of his,18-years old James. https://fempages.org/2006/02/27/reporting-a-court-case/ Mon, 27 Feb 2006 22:04:14 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/02/27/reporting-a-court-case/ When I came back it seemed the builders were here and put up an anti-pigeon net on the balcony. What a surprise. Last week, some activists from Leeds were in Edinburgh, conducting interviews for a book about Autonomy. This book is initiated by the Trapese collective and is said to be published by Pluto Books later this year. Comments Comment by xxx on 2006-02-28 03:04:48 +0100 how must i do for subscript my blog to anarchoblogs? my rss feed is http://manzanaspodridas.blogspot.com/atom.xml thanxxx https://fempages.org/2006/02/26/community-councils/ Sun, 26 Feb 2006 14:35:25 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/02/26/community-councils/ Yesterday I was rung up and asked if I am interested in a position as a “community counsillor”. Which brings me a bit in a odd conflict. I haven’t yet followed the discussion about the whole new restructuring and development of decision-making in local communities. Also not sure if it is an (un)accountable, unelected position, if it is a representative position of power, which we anarchists would reject, as we don’t want to claim to represent anybody other than ourselves. Also I might not be British enough. Also not sure if it is worth doing it, if it is just a consulting post. https://fempages.org/2006/02/19/podcasts/ Sun, 19 Feb 2006 16:57:00 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/02/19/podcasts/ Listened to Democracy Now! and it included a brilliant interview with John Perkins, the author of the book “Confession of an Economic Hitman”. The On the Media podcast is brilliant as ever, this week it focussed on the government trying to substitute access of the press to governmental events by supplying them with press release and their own approved photographs. Another important topic is the “Trusted Computing” initiative, which will see at worst chips implanted in every computer, making not only pirate programmes but most likely even free software and GNU/Linux programmes impossible, or harder to work with or basically economically boycotted. https://fempages.org/2006/02/18/picture-gallery/ Sat, 18 Feb 2006 23:49:59 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/02/18/picture-gallery/ We are trying to produce a magazine for postgraduates at uni, and today my lovely Micah and me have set up a picture gallery for me to show my photography on the web. Unfortunately it is not as good as I would like it to be, firstly as money to use for new funky photography equipment is limited, and so because of the delay I still can not take snapshots or picture expressions unless somebody holds the same expression for more than 10 seconds. Secondly because my experiences are still limited, maybe I should try to get into some of the professional courses at Telford. https://fempages.org/2006/02/16/am-ill-today/ Thu, 16 Feb 2006 17:15:02 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/02/16/am-ill-today/ I am ill today with headache, cold, period and so on. Anyways the Guardian has deleted my job application today, one day before the deadline, with already most of the forms filled in, only some questions about reviewing the newspapers and website remained. When my auntie worked at another less known newspaper, she already then said that only the offspring of the editors really has a change to get the internships and workexperience, and that chances are bad and relationships all. Here in Britain some usefull Cambridge-Oxford connection would be helpfull, too. Please mail me if you can provide some! https://fempages.org/2006/02/14/social-action-research/ Tue, 14 Feb 2006 18:20:19 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/02/14/social-action-research/ In my community I try to participate at the Community Psychology Project which tries at the moment to conduct a Social Action Research. Now, the first interviews are conducted and hopefully we will have some exceptional truthfull conclusions soon on the issues of unemployment and training, education, careers advice and work agencies and how all these government strategies fail because of ignoring the actual practical needs of the jobseekers in the council estates. However, sometimes it seems we are actually too disorganised to achieve what we want. I could not yet do my audio editing for the podcasting experiment as busy with other things over the weekend. https://fempages.org/2006/02/10/one-step-further-to-podcasting/ Fri, 10 Feb 2006 20:52:22 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/02/10/one-step-further-to-podcasting/ Yesterday, I found out that I can record audio with Odeo.com if I use Windows. On Linux however, the microphone is still silent. I don’t know if that is connected with the sudden unusability of Audacity under Linux as well. But I can listen to Radio Z. Today i made a logo for my podcast Channel Kickin’Europe News. However it is still under contruction. But we have found out what we actually would need to construct: in fact there is even a plug-in to podcast with this WordPress CMS solution. However it also works just by creating a new category! https://fempages.org/2006/02/08/starting-2-podcast/ Wed, 08 Feb 2006 18:54:52 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/02/08/starting-2-podcast/ I want to start podcasting now, without having an i-pod though. Maybe I should wait till the cheap nano i-pod comes out. Odeo is very recommendable and seems to be the easiest solution to start podcasting. I hope i find out how to use it best and add my old audio reports and also add and mix some musical intro and some good music. I would like to create a new channel called “KEN” or “Kickin’ Europe News“. And have mainly radical and alternative news translated from community media outlets in Europe, like especially Germany and Britain, because of language knowledge. https://fempages.org/2006/02/07/visit-of-police-online-poker-and-sudanese-music-filesharing/ Tue, 07 Feb 2006 19:40:41 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/02/07/visit-of-police-online-poker-and-sudanese-music-filesharing/ This morning I got a visit by police. I was still in my pjamas and confused the policeman with the postman bringing me new exciting documentary films, as both wear dark blue uniforms. How very embarrasing. Anyways, apparantly they are looking for someone who would have to appear in court in relation with something more or less G8-y or something like that and who gave my address as a bail address. My reaction was very “Haeh?”, till I actually found out what the person there wanted, but I am actually still not clear what exactly was going on. Luckily enough I had a visitor then who helped me out a bit, because all these “No comment” and legal guide thingy’s actually don’t really tell you what to do in such situation where you might get somebody else in trouble or yourself in trouble by being just stupid. https://fempages.org/2006/02/06/knowledgelab-in-lancaster-conference-between-linux-hacklab-vegan-food-floorspace-accomodation-anarcho-folkband-gig-sociology-and-indymedia/ Mon, 06 Feb 2006 22:49:17 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/02/06/knowledgelab-in-lancaster-conference-between-linux-hacklab-vegan-food-floorspace-accomodation-anarcho-folkband-gig-sociology-and-indymedia/ The Knowledgelab in Lancaster was fantastic. The organisation was perfect. The food and accomodation was free and the facilities flawless. There was lots of entertainment offered from a gig of the anarcho-folk band “Seize the Day” to more arty-groovy-techno VJing on Friday, and for the non-party people it was possible to stay and chat in the pub, which would have also offered fantastic food, too. There were quite a lot of Indymedia people and in some sense we probably took over the alternative media, although other workshops were also running in the media space, such as about Creative Commons and Licences, and Salsaman (one of the creators of Dynebolic , the multimedia Linux distro) presented his new software programm LiVES, a video editing program, Mick his Clearer Channel grassroots video distribution project, and some artists from Chicago their 60ies video archiving art project. https://fempages.org/2006/02/06/fluffy-is-better/ Mon, 06 Feb 2006 14:28:05 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/02/06/fluffy-is-better/ Fluffy’s condition has well improved. we went to the vet on Friday and the antibiotics saved the day. Instead of diarrhoea, (s)he has now constipation. I am so happy Fluffy is well again and rotating in the hamster wheel. Fluffy is a fitness addict now, it seems. I hope to soon post a picture of Fluffy, but officially Fluffy is not yet tame and can only be held without struggeling when feeling ill. Otherwise it is a quick running little cute intelligent beasty squeezing into inaccesible corners. https://fempages.org/2006/02/02/fluffy-is-ill/ Thu, 02 Feb 2006 23:43:56 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/02/02/fluffy-is-ill/ Fluffy is sick. (s)he has got quite a bit of diarrhoea. The whole bottom is wet. I am a bit worried it would be the “wet tail syndrom” which requires immediate antibiotics. Poor Fluffy. No wonder (s)he did not get out of her hamster house and did not eat anyhing or use the hamster wheel. When examining the bottom, I had another look and today Fluffy looks like being male. Damn, you never know with these small little pets! Hopefully Fluffy recovers over the weekend, will try to make it to the vet tomorrow. The Knowledgelab plans to run 4 streams. https://fempages.org/2006/02/02/applications-applications/ Thu, 02 Feb 2006 12:31:28 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/02/02/applications-applications/ Now, I am trying to apply for some work experience, jobs and internships. As they insist that stuff would have had to be published either on the web or in print, the easiest option is of course to just drop it on the blog. Hope the essay on copyright did not offend anybody, but that was the topic given and could not change it. It took quite a lot of effort to actually find some positive aspects of copyright law, with the main one that it is still better than patents. The weekend we are off to a GNU/Linux meeting, the Knowledgelab in Lancaster. https://fempages.org/2006/01/31/what-justifications-are-there-for-restrictions-which-a-system-of-copyright-entails-on-the-freedom-to-use-the-creative-works-of-others/ Tue, 31 Jan 2006 17:15:00 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/01/31/what-justifications-are-there-for-restrictions-which-a-system-of-copyright-entails-on-the-freedom-to-use-the-creative-works-of-others/ Copyright are exclusive rights by which creative works is protected from unauthorised use, sharing, modification, share of modifications and creation of derivative works. It grants a monopoly to creative workers for limited time for their own endeavours. The justification for copyright is given [1] as to recognise the labour of the creator, strive a balance between the intrests of users and creators as well as to balance the interest of the public with the rights of the creator. The owner of the work is identified and deserves attribution as well as the reward for his efforts. Another justification is the incentive to create more creative works and to ensure that better results by devoting time and energy will be produced in future, because of the creators being able to rely on Copyright as the legal framework for the protection of their works. https://fempages.org/2006/01/31/it-is-easy-to-write-opinions-but-it-is-difficult-to-report-facts/ Tue, 31 Jan 2006 16:29:26 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/01/31/it-is-easy-to-write-opinions-but-it-is-difficult-to-report-facts/ Behind the privacy of the closed doors of media corporations and the friendly smile of the receptionists an eternal and from the public hidden battle is raging. News reporters and columnists each insist their job is the most difficult in the journalist profession and compete for public and professional recognition. Mark M., former foreign correspondent for the Reuters news agency states: “It is easy to write opinions, but it is difficult to report facts”?. He adds with a smile “But you have 800 words to convince me otherwise.”? “Now that the facts are free, comment costs?”, counters Cristina Odone in her Media Guardian article about the “rise of the supercolumnists. https://fempages.org/2006/01/28/fluffy/ Sat, 28 Jan 2006 12:49:46 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/01/28/fluffy/ Got a hamster yesterday, called it “Fluffy”, as it has still its baby hamster fluff, it is about 8 weeks old. Fluffy settled in really well. It is grey and brown with some white spots and really cute. [Hamster colours] It went straight up to me and nibbled on my finger, and without any problem curiously went into the cardboard box, too. It never had seen a wheel, but it pretty quickly found out how to use it and after about half an hour started to exercise the whole night. I hope I will be encouraged to exercise with him on my treadmill, to keep fit, too. https://fempages.org/2006/01/26/booking-problems/ Thu, 26 Jan 2006 13:32:16 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/01/26/booking-problems/ At the moment I am reading an autobiography by John Simpson, the BBC World Affairs Editor. It is quite interesting and I found out I like autobiographies much more than biographies, which are most of the time factual, but boring. Review will appear here shortly, as I have already a lot to say about it. And finally after 4 weeks, I got my “Scot’s Law for Journalists” and the Guradian style guide. After trying for months to order it from WordPower, Edinburgh’s radical, independent bookshop, who were unable to obtain it, whilst all my collegues already got it from Amazon, (also anti-trade-union) I switched over to order it on the web because I hoped I would get it before the Law exam, but unfortunately something went wrong – I neither had a parcel number, nor ever got a card from DHL the transport company, and only was able to make some progress by stopping a driver from DHL on the road asking for contact details. https://fempages.org/2006/01/22/video-workshop-on-encoding/ Sun, 22 Jan 2006 14:21:15 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/01/22/video-workshop-on-encoding/ Yesterday, some nice Indymedia Manchester, Indymedia UK, Video Indymedia people came up to Edinburgh to do a workshop with a community video group on how to encode videos for the web. Training resources and some video clips can be found here. We got a new book “The Video Activist’s Toolkit” for free from the Community Media Association, and it was a fantastic workshop which was as usually well organised despite without hardly any funding but was still free for the participants. Today the same workshop will take place at the Camcorder Guerillas Office at the GMAC in Glasgow. https://fempages.org/2006/01/19/balochistan/ Thu, 19 Jan 2006 20:37:53 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/01/19/balochistan/ Contrary to my beliefs, this region does really exist in the West of Pakistan, near the Afghanistan and Iranian border. Somebody posted a contribution to Indymedia Scotland about an atrocity being perpetrated in Balochistan, and with some help of Indymedia volunteers we found out that this is true, though the posting is still problematic to actually find out what happened when where and why and by whom. Horrible pictures of mashed up brains and heads and people are attached, but that’s what people should see if there is a war – the truth and reality. I wish I would have time to investigate a bit more about what is going on, but have exams in the following days and weeks. https://fempages.org/2006/01/15/big-brother/ Sun, 15 Jan 2006 10:34:18 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/01/15/big-brother/ Have watched “One Day in September” and it is a brilliant film. Still leaves a lot of questions open, such as how three of the hostage takers survived. It also does not explain the political climate and the lack of experience at the time, so that nowadays many of the decisions taken seem absurd. I am wondering if Steven Spielbergs “Munich” closes the gaps left open by the documentary, but probably more by assumtion rather than research. Hopefully the topic is kept authentic enough. George Galloway is in Big Brother, a “fly-on-the-wall” entertainment real life 24hrs a day TV show, modelled on George Orwell’s 1984, and which seems also to be related to hostage taking, as the people kept in the house are totally under the controll and mercy of the commercial company Endemol. https://fempages.org/2006/01/12/g8-reflections-booklet-out/ Thu, 12 Jan 2006 23:27:16 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/01/12/g8-reflections-booklet-out/ The new booklet about the G8 is out. It is called “Shut them down” and consists of a whole lot of vanguardist bullshit. Thus said, it is at least easier to know why my submitted article wasn’t accepted by these elitist idiots: It wasn’t deemed good enough by these “non-hierarchical” big-mouthing intellectuals, it wasn’t glorifying enough, too much true and realistic. Anyways, it seems anticapitalism is a whole lot of ideological shit when these “comrades” behave worse and more dishonest than anybody else in this society. At least I did not give them the pictures. I love Indymedia. <div align="left" style="text-align: center"> <div align="left" style="text-align: center"> Everybody can contribute. https://fempages.org/2006/01/12/my-favourite-dish-creamed-spinach/ Thu, 12 Jan 2006 22:12:07 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/01/12/my-favourite-dish-creamed-spinach/ Micah also likes creamed spinach. Micah has got his own blog now: http://blog.j12.org Unfortunately Lidl doesn’t stock it anymore, it is the most delicous dish, especially to loose weight. My sister has given me a lot of presents this year, amongst them a nice mobile phone and funding for my telephone rechargable battery and a documentary DVD “One Day in September”. This documentary has won an Oscar and now Steven Spielberg has made a film out of this topic, called “Munich” and will be released on 27th of January. Also Alison has sent me an email pointing out a new webpage she found about documentary films. https://fempages.org/2006/01/12/new-blog/ Thu, 12 Jan 2006 12:09:25 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/01/12/new-blog/ I love this new blog solution. My boyfriend, the lovely Micah, has set it up for me. He is a super person who defies all technical difficulties and is a free software advocate, and always happy and chirpy. I also decided that I would professionalise the blog, rename it, create a new lay-out and style, have less rumours and activisty moaning in it and more reviews and journalistic writing. This is because not all of the postings were transferred and I worked about 8 hours yesterday manually transferring. Whilst reading through these I decided that the most interesting and usefull ones were actually reviews of political films, videos, events, books and transfer of knowledge in general. https://fempages.org/2006/01/07/hello-world/ Sat, 07 Jan 2006 12:32:45 +0000 https://fempages.org/2006/01/07/hello-world/ Welcome to AnarchoBabes Blog now running on WordPress. Note although some of previous post have been imported from phpslash, not all of them have nor have comments, but then previous phpslash install can be found where it was for now, note scroll down past errors. https://fempages.org/2005/12/15/local-news-referendum-on-council-housing-stock-transfer-in-edinburgh-ends-today/ Thu, 15 Dec 2005 10:48:06 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/12/15/local-news-referendum-on-council-housing-stock-transfer-in-edinburgh-ends-today/ Tenants of Edinburgh Council Houses will have made a decision today (Wednesday 14th of December) on the ownership transfer of their homes to the newly found City of Edinburgh Housing Association CEHA, Sian Roberts, spokesperson for Electoral Reform Services states. The outcome of the ballot, participation and numbers will be passed on confidentially from the Electoral Reform Services to the council later this afternoon. The City of Edinburgh Council will publicise the outcome tomorrow as a press release on their website and inform the council tenants in writing, Jim (Surname withheld) from the Better Homes for Edinburgh info line said. https://fempages.org/2005/11/07/blog-back/ Mon, 07 Nov 2005 20:37:26 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/11/07/blog-back/ This blog always battles with a variety of error (messages) and was out of use for quite a bit. Am happy it is back. https://fempages.org/2005/11/06/wild-west-town-in-edinburgh/ Sun, 06 Nov 2005 17:51:42 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/11/06/wild-west-town-in-edinburgh/ Edinburgh’s Wild West Town is currently up for sale and might soon be demolished or converted into residental flats. The reason for the Mexican – American refurbishment style was to provide an advertising feature for “The Great American Indoors”, a company trading Santa Fe style furniture in Morningside. “The only place that worked was the cinema, but that was well before my time. The rest is just for show.”, says Brian McLochlin, who worked for a year in the carpentry of the Western Town. He points out that the Western style attracts quote a bit of attention and visitors, especially during the festival. https://fempages.org/2005/11/05/diy-activism-vs-professional-journalism/ Sat, 05 Nov 2005 14:04:35 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/11/05/diy-activism-vs-professional-journalism/ Indymedia is so much better than professional journalism, in my opinion. No self-obsessed by-lines, at least here in Britain, accountability towards the reader and the other indy volunteers, no hierarchies, and instant possibilities of the reader to contribute opinion, clarification and corrections make Indymedia a much more happy community news resource than any other mainstream media outlet. Not that the amount of conspiracy theories would not be bothering – the slight flaw in the Indymedia philosophy of “discuss it all out and the truth will eventually win the argument” is that hardly anybody has the time to read and investigate facts and opinions and to really discuss them out. https://fempages.org/2005/10/30/review-of-kim-fletchers-the-journalists-handbook/ Sun, 30 Oct 2005 16:21:12 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/10/30/review-of-kim-fletchers-the-journalists-handbook/ The book has two parts, roughly separated in practicalities and issues. Though the whole book is about practicalities, the second part deals with the Press Complaints Commission and its guidelines, moral issues, the difficulties of knowing the audience’s interests, the rise of the internet with new possibilities and its limits. The first part is focussed on individual skills as to how to improve writing and reporting, expanding to the topics on how to get into journalism as a profession. It is the second part which is really usefull for beginners with a richness of examples and case studies. The book is recommendable for students and wanna-be journalists, the second part may also be of some relevance to initiate discussions amongst more experienced reporters and journalist colleagues. https://fempages.org/2005/10/23/review-of-jon-snows-autobiography-shooting-history/ Sun, 23 Oct 2005 17:54:58 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/10/23/review-of-jon-snows-autobiography-shooting-history/ There are only few journalists today who are trusted by the public, and even fewer whose reports are trusted by anarchists. Jon Snow is one of the few. That might be because of his radical left student past. However, also Andrew Marr describes himself in his biography as something similar to having been a “marxist” once upon a time. So, do former leftists have a quality of trustworthiness and integrity other journalists fail to deliver? Does ideology and attitude of the journalist affect his status in the general population? Is the description “have been a lefty once upon a time” as much of a quality assurance as having smoked dope at university a generation time before reporting on a mainstream media outlet? https://fempages.org/2005/10/23/the-guardian-media-conference-what-is-it-like-working-in-the-media/ Sun, 23 Oct 2005 09:05:32 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/10/23/the-guardian-media-conference-what-is-it-like-working-in-the-media/ Here is a review of The Guardian Media Conference: What is it like to work in the Media? from the Glasgow event on 18th of October 2005. I wasn’t very impressed and should have spent my time and money staying in Edinburgh reading books, persuing projects, job-hunting and writing. The long review is in the content box, including suggestions for making it better. Slight problem in how to get this review to the people who matter, and to get them reacting and changing for the better. Now, i wonder if anybody would appreciate that or not. Actually nobody would most likely appreciate it, subject to apathy and inertia from the organisers site and probably scared rabbit like behaviour from the audience. https://fempages.org/2005/10/22/yippieh-blog-back-online/ Sat, 22 Oct 2005 14:28:23 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/10/22/yippieh-blog-back-online/ Ahh. The blog is back. Some evil hackers broke into the server and were trying to get other people’s money with scams. Luckily enough it was early detected and the whole thing shut down. Then it was necessary not only to rebuild the whole thing, but also to check the technical solutions and additionally to move to another server. There has been a lot happening the last weeks and I am really, really happy as I am back to studying. I am also really happy that I am out of ACE. So much time available better spent on other projects. https://fempages.org/2005/09/12/the-gratification-of-volunteering/ Mon, 12 Sep 2005 10:55:26 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/09/12/the-gratification-of-volunteering/ I am still chewing on the ACE issue, but I have now thought about it, and am considering leaving a political project is like splitting up a love relationship, but in ‘Zeitraffer’ (fast motion). Reading the letter I got from ACE after I left, it was astonishing that it rather pointed out mistakes I made and seemed to slag me off, and chatting to somebody left me wondering why, when you leave a political collective, people rather send letters out critising volunteers than “Thank you for all your help in the past years” notes. If i would write a “good-bye” letter to myself, than I would have pointed out all the good stuff I have done and which I am proud of, along with a “you are always welcome back” note, rather than critisism. https://fempages.org/2005/09/10/the-autonomous-centre-of-edinburgh-ace/ Sat, 10 Sep 2005 11:46:14 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/09/10/the-autonomous-centre-of-edinburgh-ace/ After the G8, I resigned from the Autonmous Centre of Edinburgh (ACE). I felt pretty much associated with it since I first arrived in Edinburgh six years ago. But now I feel pretty exhausted and burnt out. It seems to me that the centre demands endless supplies of efforts, enthusiasm, motivation and resources, without ever giving back anything or too few to its users. One of my philosophies was that, if I myself put lots of energy, work and resources in something, than others will join eventually to realise the project and then to share the benefits of it with everybody getting their equal share. https://fempages.org/2005/09/06/g8-reflection-booklet/ Tue, 06 Sep 2005 12:01:29 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/09/06/g8-reflection-booklet/ On Indymedia Uk and the ResistG8 list, there was a call for submissions for a “Reflections on G8” booklet. I have submitted one of my write-ups, but it seemed to never get printed – and maybe never will, because the style might be too simple and modest. (Inner beauty, apparantly that’s what “modesty” is called in Chinese! According to BBC Learning Zone). So, I put it up here on my blog, because that is why I have it, isn’t it. Ode to the cleaners! A local perspective after the G8. It is now the 20th of July, and the big hype is over. https://fempages.org/2005/09/05/katrina-relief-effort-is-the-ultimate-consequence-of-capitalism/ Mon, 05 Sep 2005 09:01:51 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/09/05/katrina-relief-effort-is-the-ultimate-consequence-of-capitalism/ Seeing the victims of the hurricane Katrina begging for help from rooftops with no water nor food gets me so angry. The world’s richest nation and yet no help, just army for days. What the fuck is going on? Have we already approached the century of barbarism? Good to hear that at least Food Not Bombs and Infoshop and the anarchists have got their act together. Good to see New Orleans Indymedia still up with uptodate newswire and breaking news, and supported by Houston Indymedia, too. But hey! did we not have this before? Senseless stupid office burocrats shuffling off responsibility whilst making decisions – or no decisions – resulting in thousands to die? https://fempages.org/2005/08/27/nothing-unusual/ Sat, 27 Aug 2005 22:27:26 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/08/27/nothing-unusual/ Nothing particularly exciting happened the last days. I watched some films, e.g. Conspiracy, Delicatessen , Battle of Algiers, which was even shown at the Pentagon film festival to educate senior officials about the Insurgent war in Iraq, and some other DVDs. Got the Indymedia G8 Newsreel, but the DVD was faulty, could only watch the reports about Friday, Saturday and Sunday, rest did not work. I also tried out the sewing machine, at first everything went fine till I decided to try out the button hole function, which resulted in major knots of thread inside the sewing machine, with me spending the rest of the day to take it apart, try to remove the knot and then put it all together again. https://fempages.org/2005/08/22/g8-film-premiere-on-first-weekend-in-october/ Mon, 22 Aug 2005 21:05:34 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/08/22/g8-film-premiere-on-first-weekend-in-october/ Heard today that the premiere of the G8 documentary video will most likely be on the first weekend in October. As far as i know it will be the only film apart from the Indymedia European News Real special G8 edition, as most of the activists and campaigns refused to work and discuss in front of or with any mainstream journalists or filmmakers because of the unfair, crazy and excillerating media hype before the G8. I am sure it will be a good film, though probably more talk than would be in an indymedia production, and the people who make it are all really fanastically nice and deserve a huge success and praise even if it would not fulfill expectations. https://fempages.org/2005/08/21/edinburgh-film-festival/ Sun, 21 Aug 2005 10:48:40 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/08/21/edinburgh-film-festival/ We went yesterday to watch the international premiere of “Our Brand is Crisis”. It is a good film, and hopefully will be on telly soon in Britain, as it apparantly got funding by BBC Storyville. It will also be on in Edinburgh next Wednesday late, worth going to. Although it is a good film it does not yet have the anxiety shaking narrative of “The revolution will not be televised” hunting shudders of excitement up and down the spine whilst grasping the seat’s arms. It could have been, if there would have been more focus on the Bolivian people and their struggle instead of talking heads and focusing on Goni and his election campaign and the point of view was not from the public and the people’s point of view, but the perspective was from the privileged, middle to upper class, white, north-american, men, basically trying to persuade Gringo Goni how to lie and spin in the election campaign most successfully to get reelected. https://fempages.org/2005/08/21/doggie-update/ Sun, 21 Aug 2005 07:45:35 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/08/21/doggie-update/ The two G8prisoners who were on remand are both out of jail now. Both pleaded guilty and got released after the intermediate diet. The dog is back to its owners and I miss it. At the end we really got on well, though the dog was too intelligent for its own good – like it does not obey any commands if it thinks there is no reason for it, and runs over the big roads, hunting cats into the old people’s home’s garden and always tries to find holes in fences to suddenly appear at the other side pretending not to know how to get back. https://fempages.org/2005/08/07/shit-happens/ Sun, 07 Aug 2005 22:20:14 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/08/07/shit-happens/ I have got a dog at the moment as long as a friend of mine is on holidays. it is a lovely dog, and very intelligent and a very exciting dog. It seemed to be a bit unhappy about its owners leaving him, and promptly made its diarrhea on the carpet… guess shit happens. Otherwise I have been cycling – with the dog running beside me – to town and back to help staff the stall – which is more entertainment than real work – for the Chiapas Group at the Art and Crafts Fair. Otherwise not much seems to happen. https://fempages.org/2005/08/04/film-festival-third-cinema-zapatismo-and-cillit-bang/ Thu, 04 Aug 2005 16:52:36 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/08/04/film-festival-third-cinema-zapatismo-and-cillit-bang/ People from the Edinburgh Chiapas Group pointed me to a debate between NarcoNews and COHA, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, which published an odd text with academic appearance but full of distorted facts and opinionated against the Zapatistas. In return COHA received bags full of complaints and the writer had to then leave the organisation. There has also been a gathering in Barcelona of European Zapatista support groups. Report by B.A.S.T.A. and translated into english here on Indymedia Scotland. Indymedia Chiapas seems to be unreachable at the moment. Was visting AK Press and to look for books for G8 prisoners, and also found some for myself, in particular “This is Serbia calling” and “Political Film: The Dialectic of Third Cinema”, a book which defines “Third Cinema” as opposed to First Cinema alias Hollywood or Second Cinema= arty films. https://fempages.org/2005/08/03/g8-aftermath-car-broken-jobinterview-bus-strike-prisoner-support/ Wed, 03 Aug 2005 08:12:32 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/08/03/g8-aftermath-car-broken-jobinterview-bus-strike-prisoner-support/ The broken car has been broken into. It has been outside for nearly half a year now, but with the G8 protests and everything, there just wasn’t enough time to deal with it. As well there are always spare time mechanics promising to do stuff- and then don’t. Lack of money also contributed to the delay, as did lack of drivers. It broke down after a dog chewed the seatbelts of and jumped in front during driving on the drivers seat, the motor overheated as driver got distracted, and apparently boiled over a bit (both the driver and the engine). The dog wasn’t particularly well educated and the owner did not care – or better said does believe so much in anti-authoritarian principles that the dog actually has no training. https://fempages.org/2005/07/10/g8-over-protesters-are-leaving/ Sun, 10 Jul 2005 10:53:55 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/07/10/g8-over-protesters-are-leaving/ The G8 is over, the protests are over and everything is winding down. There are still some people in prison, but most of the people arrested on the last Monday are out now, and it seems also a lot of the others picked up on Wednesday and so on. It is not quite sure if people are continued to be arrested, now it seems that particular individuals are targeted. However, the Resist train has left Edinburgh and arrived in London without major problems. At the moment a major tidying up operation is in place – the Indymedia Centre in Edinburgh is already dismantled and the camp in Stirling has till Tuesday to clear off the land. https://fempages.org/2005/06/20/eff-legal-guide-for-bloggers/ Mon, 20 Jun 2005 09:57:22 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/06/20/eff-legal-guide-for-bloggers/ Just got a mail from a legal support list pointing out the Legal Advice for Bloggers on the Electronic Frontier Foundation website. http://www.eff.org/bloggers/lg/ https://fempages.org/2005/06/20/g8-draws-nearer-its-getting-exciting/ Mon, 20 Jun 2005 00:48:14 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/06/20/g8-draws-nearer-its-getting-exciting/ It is getting quite exciting now – only 2 weeks left till the G8 protests begin. Check out Indymedia Scotland and Indymedia UK! We plan to start with daily features now on Indy Scotland. https://fempages.org/2005/06/04/censorship-on-community-radio/ Sat, 04 Jun 2005 21:39:22 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/06/04/censorship-on-community-radio/ Well, not much to say actually apart from the headline. I am foaming, but still biting my tongue and not yet break the story, maybe it can still all be sorted out with some good will and also it is much better now after having had a rest than the previous days. Thank god, that there are courageous, brave community radio stations also out there who want to make the world a better place, community radio stations which also report about human rights abuses in the USA and the gas protests and uprising in Bolivia, community radio stations which report about Linux and the flaws of Microsoft. https://fempages.org/2005/05/17/radical-bookfair-radical-books-radical-audio-and-radical-media/ Tue, 17 May 2005 12:22:59 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/05/17/radical-bookfair-radical-books-radical-audio-and-radical-media/ The Radical Bookfair is over, and after having been so happy about the stall organisation, the committment deflated with the further proceedings of the bookfair, hampered by the incredibly good weather we had for a change here in Scotland, with most of the group members disappearing to the beach or to holidays. Which basically left me and two other accidentially present friends to pick up all the stuff and carry it back to the local infoshop. Including television, table and a papmachee head of – aeh- probably Tony Blair, but could have been Bush either, and about 1 kg of some greek filled wineleaves or something and bread and butter, and an incredibly heavy lot of leaflets, posters, merchandise. https://fempages.org/2005/05/13/radical-bookfair/ Fri, 13 May 2005 13:14:20 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/05/13/radical-bookfair/ This weekend the Radical Bookfair is on in Edinburgh, organised by Word Power. It was quite good yesterday whe I went to the opening event, quite a lot ofpeople were there, and even our campaign stall has been set up beautifully, and it also seemed like the shifts were all sorted out, too. This really left me buffled- most of time, it seems nothing I would want to see personally works out except if done by myself, but this time – WOW- what a pleasant surprise! Anarchism does work !!!, yes, indeed it does, sometimes, with everybody contributing and caring, then it is unbeatable and such a brilliant entusiastic, happy and friendly movement, sometimes. https://fempages.org/2005/05/12/international-networking-meeting-in-thessaloniki-greece/ Thu, 12 May 2005 12:46:50 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/05/12/international-networking-meeting-in-thessaloniki-greece/ From 20th till 22nd of may an International Networking meeting to prepare for the resistance against the G8 took place in Thessaloniki, Greece. It was – and still is – an amazing break from home, and I just wished I would have travelled to Greece earlier. It is my first time here in Greece and it is fucking brilliant. It is usually very bright and sunny, so my mood is bright and happy, too. The Greek activists hold an incredible hospitality towards their guests. Now it is raining though and I am lucky enough to be stuck in an Internet Cafe when it happened. https://fempages.org/2005/05/11/g8-stuff/ Wed, 11 May 2005 11:51:29 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/05/11/g8-stuff/ At the moment I have mixed feelings about the whole G8 protest stuff, varying from digging myself up in my flat for the next three months to not hear, say or see anything to be tempted to jump full on into preperations, ranging from last minute “too many expectations, can’t fulfill, better not to start” examination stress like symptoms to “best just to do anything rather than nothing” to like “don’t care” to “care too much” attitude. How Weird. https://fempages.org/2005/05/10/open-your-eyes-for-the-north-edinburgh-documentary-film-and-video-society/ Tue, 10 May 2005 10:31:47 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/05/10/open-your-eyes-for-the-north-edinburgh-documentary-film-and-video-society/ North Edinburgh will soon have its own film society, aiming to screen documentaries monthly. The launch event is planned for the 25th of june, and the members will continue afterwards to watch documentaries in conjunction with invited guests such as film makers, grassroot groups, campaigns or other “experts” discussing the featured topic, giving presentations or respond in questions and answer sessions. Mike Sheils, secretary of the film and video society says: “This will be a great opportunity for people in North Edinburgh to see exciting films from around the world, which are never shown on TV. We invite all local people to attend the events and participate in the discussions, and also to get involved in choosing the films we show. https://fempages.org/2005/05/08/indymedia-scotland-works-again-but-to-what-extend/ Sun, 08 May 2005 12:24:43 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/05/08/indymedia-scotland-works-again-but-to-what-extend/ Indymedia Scotland finally works again, surprisingly after another upgrade. There are still some difficulties with the media gallery and there is a lot of code flyig around admins when using the site. Obviously not visible to ordinary users, I hope. I drowned my keyboard twice in tea last weekend. The Indymedia UK subsection for Scotland also works fine, but slowly as usual. Indymedia Birmingham has now launched, too, and Indymedia Nottingham is preparing for its start, too. I hope people involved in these two new collectives are as nice and practically constructive as the people from other collectives. As here, I was persuaded to go to a gig featuring Rory Mcleod, who is quite a political folk singer, and it was quite good fun. https://fempages.org/2005/05/04/weekly-update/ Wed, 04 May 2005 09:01:07 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/05/04/weekly-update/ Runing around like crazy for about a week, with today morning the first time for a breath of a break. However, on the other side it is good fun to be busy – especially with a variety of tasks, so every day is interesting and exciting and successull in one way or another. On Thursday I finished the “Women Vs. G8” video finally after about 3 months. Not that I was able to edit every day, but good thing will take a while, because of the time neeed in between to reflect and create a distance to be more able to see the flaws, especially if the video-making experience is limited and it is only my second video anyways. https://fempages.org/2005/04/26/hectic-times/ Tue, 26 Apr 2005 22:18:55 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/04/26/hectic-times/ It’s getting hectic here. The weekend will be full on, with Mayday Carnival, the Camcorder G8 video premiere, the radio debate, the Beltane fire and performances, the official mayday march, the Indymedia lecture at University, and a conference with entertainment. Alongside this a family member is visiting, so are some friends. Finding accomodation for G8 protesters is still an important issue, as Edinburgh Council continues to ignore the problem of maybe some hundred thousand skint protesters in the city – Make Poverty History at least says they would expect as much, but we here are a bit doubtfull – the biggest demonstration Scotland has seen in a long time was the anti-war demo in Glasgow with 80 000. https://fempages.org/2005/04/22/3-piglets-go-astray/ Fri, 22 Apr 2005 21:31:35 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/04/22/3-piglets-go-astray/ Oooops, long time, no blog. Quite a lot happening. Equador’s president has fallen, the new pope is not only from my homecountry and quite dispised there amongst liberal and tolerant thinking people, but was also member of the Hitler Youth, and has put huge hurdles and repressive processes on pregnant women seeking abortion. The mainstream media here is building up an anti-G8 and anti-anarchist hysteria, which now leads to McDonalds and Shell petrol stations being closed down for the week of protests. (Not that anybody would greatly mind these corporations closing for some time, but a big deal is made out of that – guess G8 topic article sell better even without or hardly any news content. https://fempages.org/2005/04/13/burnt-out/ Wed, 13 Apr 2005 17:05:23 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/04/13/burnt-out/ Today I discovered I accidentally burnt out and down my flowerpot. It has now big melted holes and the earth is all black. When I came back yesterday after the radio training I thought the cogigis (constantly giggling girls) from nextdoor would have played a prank, because it was smelling as quite some barbecue, but did not imagine it would be my own flowerpot reacting badly to smoking. Always assumed that flowerpots would be pretty imune to being burnt out and that earth would not burn either. Luckily enough I only smoke outside and can really be happy now, that i stuck to do that. https://fempages.org/2005/04/10/festival-of-dissent-and-g8-worries/ Sun, 10 Apr 2005 10:48:23 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/04/10/festival-of-dissent-and-g8-worries/ This weekend the Festival of Dissent takes place at the westcoast of Scotland in the countryside. Unfortunately I missed the minibus yesterday and also it is wet and cold here and I have had a bit too much of G8 protest stuff in the past, so would be actually really really keen to have a break. After mayday last year in Dublin, it becomes quite clear that a big mobilisation does take out a lot of work on the local activists, and at the moment am a bit disillusioned with everything. Still I look forward to Edinburgh and Scotland buzzying with activists from all over the world, and for the first time after the famous punk picnics in the 90ies for lefties to be the dominant picture in the Scottish capital, which will it hopefully transform into a much nicer, open, social and happy carneval place. https://fempages.org/2005/04/03/documentary-films-and-videos/ Sun, 03 Apr 2005 12:08:05 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/04/03/documentary-films-and-videos/ It is quite difficult actually to find good documentaries and to screen them. Just came across this website which tries to distribute independent films, including documentaries, but the only interesting ones I found are the one about a Black Panther member, one about the Vietnam war protests and one about Berkley in the 60ies. Not quite sure if I will try to get some of these, or if I will try to stick to Cultureshop distribution, as still behind with some videos advertised there. Comments Comment by Roberta Rosenberg on 2006-08-07 12:26:29 +0100 We are trying to get the word out that DoubleTake Magazine, previously published by Dr. https://fempages.org/2005/04/01/political-film-program-forest-cafe-edinburgh/ Fri, 01 Apr 2005 15:12:30 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/04/01/political-film-program-forest-cafe-edinburgh/ Dear all, I proudly present you with the political film programme for the next six months screened in the Forest Cafe. During the build-up to the anti G8 protests, we will focus once again on independently produced documentaries forcing the issues of globalisation, poverty, environmental destruction, protests and activities against the capitalist system, state repression, DIY, alternative media and similar topics on the plates of the Forest Cafe. I am especially happy to be able to present you with “See you in the next War”, a social documentary made by Autonomi TV about the radiostation B92 in Belgrade during the Kosovo war, presented by professional film makers Doug Aubrey and Marie Olesen themselves on Tuesday, 3rd of May. https://fempages.org/2005/03/31/phillis-wheatley/ Thu, 31 Mar 2005 00:23:59 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/03/31/phillis-wheatley/ Phillis war eine Wegbereiterin des Abolitionismus. Sie wurde 1753 geboren. Phillis war in ihrer Zeit eine der berühmtesten DichterInnen in Amerika. Sie wurde an der afrikanischen Westküste geboren und aus der Senegal-Gambia Gegend geraubt, als sie ungefähr sieben Jahre alt war. Ihr ursprünglicher Name war “Fatou”. Als sie 1761 zur Auktion am Sklavenmarkt angeboten wurde, wurde sie durch Mrs Susannah Wheatley umbenannt. Als sie 1761 durch John Wheatley als Begleiterin für seine Frau gekauft wurde, wurde sie nach Boston gebracht. Phillis wurde als Teil der Familie akzeptiert und mit den zwei anderen Kindern der Wheatley aufgezogen. Wegen ihrer schlechten Gesundheit, offensichtlicher Intelligenz, und der Zuneigung durch Susannah Wheatley, wurde Phillis niemals zu einer Hausbediensteten geschult, stattdessen wurde sie durch die Wheatley ermutigt Theology, englische, lateinische und griechische Literatur zu studieren. https://fempages.org/2005/03/28/last-weeks/ Mon, 28 Mar 2005 12:33:38 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/03/28/last-weeks/ The last weeks- since the last entry – passed like a fly. Not much time to do anything, really, just today it seems like the first day to relax. It is Easter Monday today, the clock has now been forwarded to British Summer Time and it is rainy as ever. I had lots of visitors the last weeks, which is and was fun, but I did not really get to do my “homework” or “housework” as such. Noam Chomsky was in Edinburgh on Tuesday, but I could not make it, am still editing on the video. I released now the first alpha version and screen it to people to get some more proposals and creativity on how to make it better, and after a pile of suggestions will try to do some more work on it. https://fempages.org/2005/03/12/women-vs-g8-video-and-report/ Sat, 12 Mar 2005 12:24:04 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/03/12/women-vs-g8-video-and-report/ I am so in stress. There is so much to do and I just don’t seem to be able to cope with all and everything. The video about “Women Vs. G8” I have been editing the whole week, and last week, and it is still not finished. There was an article in the Scotsman slagging of the group and everybody really should write a complaint about this article, if there is enough time, because this journalist tried very hard to misrepresent and create negative feelings towards the different groups of protesters and particularly also against the “Women Vs. G8” group, trying to sell the group as a whole of sexual unfulfilled lesbians taking over the Christians Women centre. https://fempages.org/2005/03/06/trip-to-germany/ Sun, 06 Mar 2005 09:28:23 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/03/06/trip-to-germany/ Just returned from my trip to Germany, It was big fun as usual. Every time I go to Germany I want to stay there. Though at the moment, it seems that the situation is not that good than last time: the unemployment rate is now the highest in Germany since the end of the second world war, more people live in poverty than ever in Germany, especially single mums, and the gap between the rich and the poor has widened again tremendously with the richest people being richer than ever before. The new legislation has affected lots of unemployed by being driven into 1 Euro jobs to get their dole, the benefits have been lowered (or the conditions for getting benefits have been made more difficult, whichever way you look at it), and a visit to the doctor and drugs now are dependent on contributions. https://fempages.org/2005/02/22/new-video-project/ Tue, 22 Feb 2005 23:52:23 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/02/22/new-video-project/ Am editing now the new video project. Am pretty tired, lots to do. Women meeting the last weekend, and projects coming up for International Women’s Day, too. The book project is draining along, lots of guests are coming, most of them whilst I am away, and on Sunday I had one of the worst headaches in my life, it felt like its possible to die from it. Last week I was sick for several days with a horrible stomach bug. It has been snowing here a little bit, though there is hardly any snow left now. https://fempages.org/2005/02/18/quote-for-book/ Fri, 18 Feb 2005 13:59:10 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/02/18/quote-for-book/ Have enquired about the prices of getting the book reprinted, about a hundred copies cost about a 1000 pounds, about five hundred cost about 2500 pounds, and I am pretty confident that this is a good quote, and the finished books would be of the most excellent of quality. But now I understand why there are so many more people wanting to get their books published by somebody rather than doing it themselves. At this point it seems to be pretty important to consider the amount of books worth printing and if to go in partnership with other people and enterprises in this area, and also to consider carefully if this book is really worth putting so much money in, especially – well – especially as it is not per se an anarchist or libertarian book, which loosing money with is not that much of a disillusion cause the soul is refreshed. https://fempages.org/2005/02/17/autobiography-of-a-working-man/ Thu, 17 Feb 2005 16:56:01 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/02/17/autobiography-of-a-working-man/ Finished reading Alexander Somerville’s “Autobiography of a Working Man”, first published in 1848. To publish, it would be good to write a summary, write a C.V. of the author, get a map of the local area of that time, and design a nice cover. Here I’ll reproduce the preface of the latest edition, written by Brian Behan. PREFACE SOMMERVILLE’S England was a turbulent place. A pastoral heaven was being changed by the industrial revolution into a smoky, fiery hell. Human beings counted for very little in the scales of the great (they st:ill count for nothing in the councils of the world). https://fempages.org/2005/02/16/republishing-book/ Wed, 16 Feb 2005 16:28:04 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/02/16/republishing-book/ Fabian, a friend of mine, came up with the idea of republishing a particular book. At the moment I am reading it, after we had some problems finding a copy of the 1848 published book about the life of a working man, living near Edinburgh. Actually it is quite an interesting account, though it hasn’t got much to do with anarchism as such; the poverty people suffered under then was quite terrible. I am trying to have some idea for making the book more attractive; such as finding some illustrations, such as maps of the area, finding out about the reform bill passed in 1832 and a picture or drawing of the uniform of the regiment he served in. https://fempages.org/2005/02/14/dissent-network-meeting-in-glasgow/ Mon, 14 Feb 2005 16:46:25 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/02/14/dissent-network-meeting-in-glasgow/ Last weekend saw the Dissent gathering happening in Glasgow. The media even brought an article about the gathering, see The Scotsman Though some people thought that the media coverage of Dissent could be improved, the article as such does not really seem to be that hostile. It is quite funny though how the journalists at once assume there is something hidden from them just because the venue changed- obviously they probably can’t imagine that we are that disorganised to not know where to meet in a days or 2 time. As such the Dissent! gathering was actually quite good; no big confrontations as expected, no physical confrontations between hostile cliques, groups or attitudes as it was feared by some, and quite constructive discussions, though important issues were hardly mentioned nor – of course- resolved. https://fempages.org/2005/02/10/food-hygiene-and-grant/ Thu, 10 Feb 2005 10:12:11 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/02/10/food-hygiene-and-grant/ Pretty spontaneous it was possibly to go on a course and get a qualification in Food Hygiene, which might be helpful for food kitchen stuff. Got also a reply for the grant proposal, and its looking good, though not much money, but would be for the first time a proposal is successful. https://fempages.org/2005/02/05/g8-mobilisation/ Sat, 05 Feb 2005 23:20:38 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/02/05/g8-mobilisation/ I am getting pretty annoyed with the Dissent! network. nearly every email on the list makes me incredibly angry. It is distracting also a lot from what we should actually do locally, and even more, what would be satisfying, positive and encouraging. I do feel there is too much manipulation going on in the network, without the groundwork being done. It’s really not fun anymore. I visited the Edinburgh Cats and Dogs Home today, as I am considering getting a dog. There are some lovely dogs there, and even a litter of puppies to give away. But puppies take probably a lot more time, so am considering to either get one of the retired greyhounds or either the Labrador cross or the spaniel. https://fempages.org/2005/01/30/anarchist-day-school-and-g8-mobilisation/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 17:16:31 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/01/30/anarchist-day-school-and-g8-mobilisation/ On Saturday there was the Anarchist Dayschool over in Glasgow, organised by GAP, one of the splinter group of the former Printworks Social Centre. I was scheduled in for a workshop about “sexism” – unfortunately, I was never *really* asked, but I found my name on the programme aside of the mentioned workshop together with the name of another person. Anyway, it was a Rangers football match over in Glasgow, and we could have had the most practical workshop about sexism in the Underground that day, or on the buses. Lots of drunken male football fans making obscene commentaries and gestures to every woman nearby. https://fempages.org/2005/01/28/nothing-of-particular-interest/ Fri, 28 Jan 2005 01:18:40 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/01/28/nothing-of-particular-interest/ Nothing happening this week which was of particular interest. Started cycling again, as we had the usual 2 days of snow last week, and now it seems to get warmer and friendlier again. Translated the first two articles of the anti-slavery magazine, which left me battling for a day with old English from 1774. Also trying to put in for some funding for a film society. Hope this is successful. https://fempages.org/2005/01/23/the-tongue-of-the-butterfly/ Sun, 23 Jan 2005 14:52:15 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/01/23/the-tongue-of-the-butterfly/ Also have watched “The tongue of the butterfly”, a wonderfull film about the start of the Spanish civil war. Anyway have cried a lot, because it was about this “anarchist” family, but the mother was quite conservative, always going to mass and so on, and they were in the part of Spain which became fascist early on, and the most hurtfull bit was when the Guardia Civil arrested the anarchists and communists, and the family, particularly the father and the sons cried insults at their former friends, teacher, musicians to save their own lives and to show distance from the ideology. https://fempages.org/2005/01/16/womyn-vs-g8/ Sun, 16 Jan 2005 15:24:18 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/01/16/womyn-vs-g8/ Have been to the launch gathering of “Womyn vs. the G8”. It was brilliant. I love women gatherings. Not too many of them, but every now and then. They are just so lovely fluffy. And everybody takes care of things and helps out. Such there is always tea and coffee and food. Yesterday it was chilli and I also brought 2 cakes, leaving my kitchen in an extremely messy state. The oven does not seem to work properly, as the lemon cake was in for 3 hours instead of half an hour and the cheese-/meringue cake for 4 hours instead of 1. https://fempages.org/2005/01/11/video-projects-and-other-new-troubles/ Tue, 11 Jan 2005 10:06:50 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/01/11/video-projects-and-other-new-troubles/ The dogsitting was great last week, basically was running around for hours in the countryside and the city having much fun. Slight problem that the dog doesn’t listen to any orders, and likes to attack other dogs sometimes as well. When I let it of the lead, it was just running away and I thought I’ll never see it again. Luckily it came back after about 20 min, but could not get the lead back on him either untill I caught him in a door entry of somebody’s house. But the lack of education was apparntly longterm, as the dog was just some months at the friend, and taken out of the Cats and Dogs Home. https://fempages.org/2005/01/03/dogsitting/ Mon, 03 Jan 2005 23:01:27 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/01/03/dogsitting/ I am off dog-sitting for some days. Am quite looking forward to it, though here in Britain they have regulations that dog-owners have to pick up the dog-shit as there is a 500 pound fine (I think its 500, maybe this is the maximum). This dog shit fine is probably singular in the world. Am looking forward to getting the promised camcorder, so desperately needed. Hopefully it is in my hand next weekend, and then it is off making videos! There is an especially interesting article on the Centre for Social Media Studies. Richard Stallman has a blog now, which is offering a write-up of quite extraordinary encounters, like e. https://fempages.org/2005/01/01/videos/ Sat, 01 Jan 2005 17:53:52 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/01/01/videos/ Just watching videos as having bad cold. “Surplus” is absolutely great, will try to get an english version to screen in Edinburgh and somewhere else. “Hacktivists” is great, too, also a german version by ARTE. “Aljazeera exclusive” is also brilliant, by BBC world, should be seen by every journalist student. “El Che- investigating a legend” is very educating, but would be even more so if the interviews would be subtitles in english. The film includes lots of rare footage, unfortunately I still don’t know what exactly happened in Bolivia as the interviews with the eye witnesses weren’t translated, and there was no footage. https://fempages.org/2005/01/01/another-period-of-time/ Sat, 01 Jan 2005 16:04:13 +0000 https://fempages.org/2005/01/01/another-period-of-time/ Just finished reading Stuart Christie’s “Granny made me an anarchist”. This is the first time in ages I managed to finish reading a book. I bought the book after Stuart Christie was up here for presenting his book for Word Power. It is quite interesting to read his account of the sixties and seventies here in Britain and the anarchists, autonomists and even trotzkyists behaving in these times. Actually this book is quite interesting for people who like reading autobiographies. Of course, in autobiographies, the protagonist is always portrayed in a positive light, sometimes maybe even too positive. However, I do like the account of Stuart Christie that he hardly ever meet bad people even in prison. https://fempages.org/2004/12/31/last-year-new-year/ Fri, 31 Dec 2004 16:26:58 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/12/31/last-year-new-year/ This blog has been updated, resulting in a whole load of error messages, and links partly not working. Though it has now a nice wysiwyg editor. The nobordercamps are dead now, via Radio Z and political magazines it got announced that the organisers closed down their mobilisation and organising structure and distributed the rest of the funds. Reason was apparantly not the repression at the last noborder camp in Cologne, but also the lack of the movement to work together, resulting in a split of the noborder camp in an antirepression camp, a gender camp, a refugee solidarity camp, but also another reason given is the lack of response to the mainstream politics via the noborder camps. https://fempages.org/2004/12/28/review-of-spitzel-a-book-about-undercover-police-agents/ Tue, 28 Dec 2004 11:58:57 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/12/28/review-of-spitzel-a-book-about-undercover-police-agents/ I have nearly finished the book Spitzel, which is a German book published by Assoziation A and researches police informants, snitches, narks, police spies, stoolies, and similar. It is a very good book, particularly suitable for the London and British left revolutionary movements, which have the habit of accusing anybody they don’t like or who disagrees with their politics of being a police informer, without any evidence, any proof, and without any interest of providing or discussing the accusations, just for ruining somebody’s elses reputation and to get critical people out of their way. In this book, there is a wide collection of most famous cases of informers, starting with Judas and Christ, the accusations in Karl Marx’s paper versus Michail Bakunin of being a spying Russian police agent, of state agents and informers in the GDR, of the FBI’s COINTEL program against the Black Panther Party by killing Fred Hampton and George Jackson, Leo Trotzki’s writings and experiences to escape police surveillance, snitches in literature, such as Rosenkranz and Guildenstern in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. https://fempages.org/2004/12/26/new-rumour-larc-to-expell-refugees/ Sun, 26 Dec 2004 15:37:05 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/12/26/new-rumour-larc-to-expell-refugees/ Have been in London last Thursday, and heard that the newest rumour is, that manipulation, mobbing and backstabbing is now extended against the refugee(s), previously meeting in LARC, the London Action Resource Centre, as The Refugee Forum The Voice. This really needs to stop, somebody – but who? – should put a stop to these expulsion based on exagerated prejudices and manipulations, backstabbing and rumours and agreements rising before the meetings. It is disgusting. I have decided to translate the magazine: “Power Writers – Discovering and Celebrating Five African Writers who came to London in the Eighteenth Century” into German, and asked a friendly local left newspaper to publish the articles, which they seem happy to do. https://fempages.org/2004/12/22/esf-2004-wombles-statement-out/ Wed, 22 Dec 2004 15:32:39 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/12/22/esf-2004-wombles-statement-out/ The WOMBLES have now published their “Reflections & analysis: the WOMBLES, the ESF & beyond” on their website and on Indymedia UK. http://www.wombles.org.uk/auto/reflections.php http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/12/303051.html I have still not finished my write-up of the ESF, will post it here when ready and summarised. Personally, i find the declaration disappointing. It does not answer the questions I have now, concerning the ESF and to the anti-capitalist and “anti-authoritarian” groups in London. Most declarations just seem to state the obvious, but hardly anything new, relevant or “revolutionary” compared to the mainstream or even compared to the dominating thoughts and philosophies within the social movements. https://fempages.org/2004/12/20/subversive-films-and-cinema-16/ Mon, 20 Dec 2004 23:39:50 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/12/20/subversive-films-and-cinema-16/ Have been away for the weekend. It was brilliant getting away from politics and to have a bit of a family weekend. My partners family is incredibly nice and friendly and very warm. We also went out of our way to adapt and get some Christmas presents. Looking around, in the shops “Outfoxed” is sold as a mainstream film and video, which is astonishing me, because documentaries rarely make their way into the mainstream, and though “Outfoxed” is a good political documentary, it is also very dry, lots of talking heads and interviews, and not much action at all. To my total astonishment “The Battle of Algiers” is sold even cheaper than “Amelie”, and “The Bee Hive” is also up for grap, as well as some other old revolutionary, communist subversive films (as defined in Amos Vogel: “Film as subversive Art” book – except Amelie, of course). https://fempages.org/2004/12/17/something-positive-about-my-community/ Fri, 17 Dec 2004 13:46:21 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/12/17/something-positive-about-my-community/ Today I got a letter from our community activist group. Very happy to see that next year, a lot of courses and groups will be offered; such as “campaigning skills” and “Social Research” and even an “anti-G8 summit” course. The campaigning skills will be of practical use, such as getting the activists of tenants groups to paint banners, make leaflets, videos and similar. I am extremely happy about the “anti-G8 summit” course, it is going to be independent of either Dissent! nor G8 Alternatives nor any other group. At the moments I am sick of both mobilisation groups, maybe it is the time of year, to be apathetic, grumpy and pissed off with everything. https://fempages.org/2004/12/16/blog-statistics/ Thu, 16 Dec 2004 14:29:09 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/12/16/blog-statistics/ Today I saw for the first time the blog statistic for this blog. It gets about 10 – 15000 hits a month, not that good compared with Indymedia, but probably excellent for subjective musings. What is even more astonishing is, that it has a readership from all over the world – the numbers per hour are usually about the same 24 hours a day, that means it is not only limited to Europe, but also North America and all over the world. The main referrals are from protest.net of course; but also from bloglines, which I should have a look how that is coming about. https://fempages.org/2004/12/15/boring/ Wed, 15 Dec 2004 13:25:32 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/12/15/boring/ Have just finished another book by Kurt Tucholsky, a famous pacifist. One of his most famous quotes: “All soldiers are murders” got an antimilitarist in Germany into court, as the government considered it to be slander. Anyway, the governement lost, but that does not hinder the German government to stop being keen to be involved in wars. But thanks to the constitution, there are a lot of hurdles, so it will take at least a decade till German soldiers are involved in militarist, especially fighting actions around the world (where they clearly should stay at home!) Anyway Kurt Tucholsky killed himself in 1935, and many of his writings are famous,but neglected, so when the Tucholsky book was bought in October, the bookshop owner told this is the first Tucholsky book in the year 2004 to be sold. https://fempages.org/2004/12/13/my-community/ Mon, 13 Dec 2004 13:41:14 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/12/13/my-community/ My community is consulting about re-structuring local self-organisation. There are 3 choices: either community councils, neighbourhood groups or no structures. I am unsure which structural option would be the best for the local community, but it seems that, whatever, the momentarily exsisting structures will be abolished; all three models don’t have a local councillor anymore and the “quengo” which distributed money, funds and grants will be apparantly abolished, too. On the other hand our local community is in various parts, and each part seems to be divided of the other by high fences or walls. The kids go to seperate schools, and the posher parts keep themselves together, as well as do the poorer parts, there is not much interaction. https://fempages.org/2004/12/12/anticapitalist-films/ Sun, 12 Dec 2004 19:14:45 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/12/12/anticapitalist-films/ Today. I have watched some of the new films I got at the London Anarchist Bookfair and in Germany. The German video CD- which after some trials and begging finally was played on the DVD player was surprisingly good for a historical film about Anarchosyndicalism. Not too dry, quite informative and with a little bit of fun. I’ll try to make a copy and send it on to Projectile, the anarchist film festival in Newcastle, which will be running in February. Afterwards I watched the “This is what democracy looks like” video made by Big Noise Tactical and Seattle Indymedia about the Seattle anti-WTO protests in 1999. https://fempages.org/2004/12/11/ordinary/ Sat, 11 Dec 2004 11:48:39 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/12/11/ordinary/ An ordinary life is boring and not for me. Just can’t let go of anti-capitalist politics. There just seems to be no dignified alternative to opposing capitalism. Even though the main problems, on how bad humans treat each other most of the time,is not just rooted in capitalism. Maybe capitalism often provides the obvious reasons and excuses given, but the might have anybody ever thought that the reasons and excuses given could not *just* be capitalist decisions? For example, the exclusion of the 2 fellow activists out of the political space in London has as just nothing to do with capitalism. https://fempages.org/2004/12/10/accounting-and-skytv/ Fri, 10 Dec 2004 21:22:23 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/12/10/accounting-and-skytv/ Today was more or less a lazy day. My computer has been taken apart the rest of last week, and is slowly getting together again. When it is finished then hopefully there will be enough harddisk space to start editing videos. Asking around because of the Sky TV offer, some people in the video have blocked the sale of footage, which is totally understandable. As well as there is a big danger that they’d make something totally hostile to grassroot activism out of it, even though the guy was once working at undercurrents. The main argument though was (slightly or more or less exaggerated), that Rupert Murdoch is so hostile to workers organisation in trade unions, that we can’t expect SkyTV to make a sympathetic film about us! https://fempages.org/2004/12/09/socks-and-stuff/ Thu, 09 Dec 2004 18:19:04 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/12/09/socks-and-stuff/ Who would believe it? Have sold 2 pairs of self-knitted socks at the Forest! Anyway, if anybody feels a desperate need for self-knitted socks – I have a vast supply of them, thanks to my mum. The whole fall-out with people in the political movement still draws it circles…have been told, that actually some people from the Dissent!G8 network wanted me out anyway, and they tried to persuade friends of mine to give us a kick. These included people staying in my house for gatherings and other visits, people who I have cleaned up a squat with for providing accommodation for the ESF thanks to their invitation, and people in whose house I have stayed, too, and people who I have brought myself in shit for at Dublin Mayday because of standing up for them in the Indymedia network. https://fempages.org/2004/12/06/larc-statement/ Mon, 06 Dec 2004 11:36:33 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/12/06/larc-statement/ The statement of LARC has been issued now via an email list. The arguments are pretty crap, though.[see body of text]. On another level, the local anti-G8 mobilising group Reshape was threatened to loose the funds for providing a convergence centre next year during the G8 summit, if there won’t be a PGA conference hosted in the convergence centre. One problem with PGA is that it is not accountable anymore. As in Germany I watched a documentary “Das Unbehagen in der Globalisierung”, made by Swiss Television, about the beginnings of the PGA in 1998, and it has moved away a lot from the attractivity, enthusiasm, equality and visions it had then to a nearly totalitarian, monopolising position in the anticapitalist movement. https://fempages.org/2004/12/05/how-to-get-a-new-life/ Sun, 05 Dec 2004 10:45:01 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/12/05/how-to-get-a-new-life/ So, I am eagerly waiting for a report from the Newcastle meeting. Cutting off such a big part of one’s life isn’t that easy, but I have learned a lot, and my struggle against injustice will never seize, there are many outlets to improve the world, even if it is just joining Amnesty International, and at least I can say that the local crowd involved in the Autonomous Centre is usually pretty fantastic, trustworthy and reliable. One good thing about this crisis is, that you learn to know who you can rely on and who not. Surprise! Surprise! lots of women and local activists who know me, get back with supportive messages, and so do some Indymedia people from outside London. https://fempages.org/2004/12/04/dissentg8-pga-and-more-on-the-expulsion/ Sat, 04 Dec 2004 11:52:58 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/12/04/dissentg8-pga-and-more-on-the-expulsion/ Today, there would be a gathering in Newcastle to resist the G8 meeting next year in Gleneagles, which is just around the corner. I decided not to go, as I am still pissed off with the expulsion and I don’t want to meet people this weekend who have been involved in that decision. This expulsion raises serious doubts if an anarchist anti-capitalist society post-revolution would be any better than the capitalist society we have at the moment. Because people and humans will not be better post-revolution than before. There will still be people who are greedy, jealous, arrogant, intransigent, false backstabbing badmouthing assholes, gossiping, cliquey, elitist, racist, patriarchal, sexist, selfish, violent, mobbing, and whatever character traits are unfashionable then and now. https://fempages.org/2004/12/03/london-action-resource-centre/ Fri, 03 Dec 2004 08:49:14 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/12/03/london-action-resource-centre/ Yesterday, there was the AGM – the Annual General Meeting at LARC, the London Action Resource Centre. Usually, it would not concern me, because the place is too far away to be of any practical relevance to organise here and now; for that, we have our run down, broken ACE, the Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh. But yesterday, there were two friends of mine expelled from this political space, and this pisses me off, because both are honest and trustworthy in personal and political affairs, and in my opinion, this expulsion raises serious questions and doubts about the politics of that space. https://fempages.org/2004/12/01/anarchist-bookfair-mag-and-other-film-festivals/ Wed, 01 Dec 2004 20:08:11 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/12/01/anarchist-bookfair-mag-and-other-film-festivals/ Back now from traveling. Came back to London to enjoy this years Anarchist Bookfair. It was a bit chaotic as it was in the London University Union’s building, over 3 floors, and students and others mixed in. It was quite narrow, too, in between the stalls, and it was tricky sometimes having even a look at particular stalls as too many people squeezed in front of it. Also it was tricky to meet people, e.g. I met several people just in the last 10, 15 minutes who have been there the whole day, but who I had not met yet. https://fempages.org/2004/11/26/trip-to-germany-2/ Fri, 26 Nov 2004 10:35:09 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/11/26/trip-to-germany-2/ At the moment I am traveling through Germany, have been at the leftwing radical bookfair in Nuremberg – [Linke Literaturmesse] where I did a stall advertising several campaigns and selling books from AK Press and Chiapas merchandise for the Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group, as well as the Stewart Home Society. It was really great and thoroughly enjoyed it. [pics and report on Indy Germany]. It was particularly lovely to share the stall with folks from Indymedia Germany, as they really helped a lot with staffing the stall,helped me out with the costs of photocopying flyers and posters and Counter Information, and showed the European Indymedia NewsReal and other video clips on their laptop. https://fempages.org/2004/11/11/floss-workshops-in-glasgow-at-the-cca/ Thu, 11 Nov 2004 11:09:20 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/11/11/floss-workshops-in-glasgow-at-the-cca/ This weekend I was basically busy running around in Glasgow; there were the FLOSS – Free Libre Open Source Software – audio-visual workshops at the CCA – Centre for Contemporary Art, in a new “agile project” to merge art with technology, particularly affordable software, which is mainly Free Libre Open Source Software. It was organised by the main project Your Machines, and Paul from Indymedia Bristol was doing the Audio workshop with teaching Audacity, a sound editing tool. He is very good at teaching, his workshops are always very enjoyable and very practise orientated and he is keen to get involved in Adult Education as a teacher. https://fempages.org/2004/11/09/scottish-anarchist-dayschool-training-for-activists-anti-military-demo/ Tue, 09 Nov 2004 23:44:40 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/11/09/scottish-anarchist-dayschool-training-for-activists-anti-military-demo/ On Saturday the 4th Scottish Anarchist Dayschool took place in Glasgow, I did not go, was too exhausted from the last weeks and just wanted desperately a day off. Also was feeling kind of scared off by the Nationalism discussion and other topics, as I am more into hands-on practical workshops rather than theoretical or ideological discussions. Anyway, was told that the Dayschool was “better than to be expected”, but am still happy to have had a weekend to relax. On Monday there was the Training for Actions workshop in Edinburgh, it was more a Training for training workshop, as it focused mainly on how to organise meetings, workshops and training and make them fun and enjoyable. https://fempages.org/2004/11/06/stuart-christie-book-launch-granny-made-me-an-anarchist/ Sat, 06 Nov 2004 09:42:05 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/11/06/stuart-christie-book-launch-granny-made-me-an-anarchist/ On Tuesday, Stuart Christie launched his book: “Granny made me an anarchist” in Edinburgh, facilitated by Word power, Edinburgh’s radical book shop. it was quite interesting; Stuart Christie was trying to assassinate General Franco and arrested in association with “The Angry Brigade”. The book seems to be quite worth reading, but anyway, his definition of Anarchism is very impressive, though of a different sort than nowadays common, somehow, can’t explain it, maybe more serious in a way, more “full time”, if that is an explanation. Maybe going to prison makes you like that, like being more serious and more determined. Anyway, he is still very nice and friendly and good-humoured. https://fempages.org/2004/10/29/death-of-a-baby/ Fri, 29 Oct 2004 18:33:34 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/10/29/death-of-a-baby/ Today, whilst volunteering, a man ran into the cafe I was in for lunch with a bundle. It was a baby and it had stopped breathing. It was already blue and his eyes were bloodshot red. It wasn’t that old, it did not even have teeth yet, and was quite small. We tried to revive that little girl, but we did not seem to have success. the ambulance took ages, the man (savior) nearly collapsed into a shock, too. He did CPR whilst luckily enough a nurse was in the cafe, too, she did mouth to mouth whilst i tried to find the pulse. https://fempages.org/2004/10/27/latest-development-tenants-meeting-on-work-and-workshops-esf-and-suing-the-fb/ Wed, 27 Oct 2004 20:04:50 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/10/27/latest-development-tenants-meeting-on-work-and-workshops-esf-and-suing-the-fb/ I am on some work experience now – for a charity with the prospect of a proper job, maybe; luckily it is only part-time so far, because it really is quite stressful having some work and a strain to anti-capitalist activities. So far I could quite well keep up with it just by working quicker, more focused and spending less time on the Internet nor in front of the television. but have agreed to host at least 4 workshops in the forthcoming weeks and really need to sort out events, publicity and similar. However, it is now really annoying when I plan to stay in to wait for something like plumber/parcel delivery/electrician and they just don’t come at all, or at totally different times. https://fempages.org/2004/10/21/the-conscience/ Thu, 21 Oct 2004 21:40:44 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/10/21/the-conscience/ “Nothing is more difficult and nothing requires more character than to find oneself in open opposition to one’s time and to say loudly: NO! .” Kurt TUCHOLSKY Germany, 1933 German political satirist and journalist (1890-1935) I am trying to find Tucholsky’s text about the politician and his conscience; it goes like that: at first he is proud of it and shows it off, then he makes more an more compromises and put it away in his handbag, then he leaves it on his desk, then in the shelf on show, and, at last he is hiding it behind and under all his books in the cupboard. https://fempages.org/2004/10/20/esf/ Wed, 20 Oct 2004 20:51:12 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/10/20/esf/ My god, this last week was smashing. Never before in my life I have had such a week, turning over my life perception and attitude again. I am still too exhausted really to digest it and write about, and when coming home, there is seldom time enough to go over everything again and to work through it, as well as there are mostly not the mates around who shared the same experience with you, who could REALLY talk everything through with you and understand and critisise precisely. Well, one good thing I know in a way now, that there is some kind of weird crazy courage inside of me – I always thought I would be a scary useless whimp really, and still no clue when this stupid bravery thing pops its nose out when I’d be actually closer to pissing myself, but fact is, it does exist, I know it now. https://fempages.org/2004/10/08/confusion-on-the-fbi-raid/ Fri, 08 Oct 2004 17:28:52 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/10/08/confusion-on-the-fbi-raid/ It is still in discussion what happened when where and why and by whom concerning the ahimsa hard disks. new updates suggest the France/Imc Nantes connection as maybe not the main factor, apparantly their lawyer hadn’t got the necessary documents together yet. Another suggestion is that it could be connected still with Diebold against Indymedia on behalf of the electronic voting machines being suspected of enabling electoral fraud. Updates via: http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/WhoTookAhimsa https://fempages.org/2004/10/07/fbi-seizes-ahimsa-harddisk/ Thu, 07 Oct 2004 20:26:45 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/10/07/fbi-seizes-ahimsa-harddisk/ As if this day wasn’t boring enough, the FBI raided Ahimsa harddisks, and amongst others, stopped Indymedia UK from functioning for quite a while. At such moments I am so extremely happy that we now have our independent Indymedia Scotland site, which stays up and can be used in such emergencies; however, in such moments it seems everybody helps together to get another site up and functioning as soon as possible. In these repressive moments the solidarity between Indymedia volunteers could not be stronger, it is in such moments of emergency crisis that I love the Indymedia network most. On a slightly different note, I might have a new job soon, somebody saw me during political organising and was so impressed he offered me a job in a charity organisation. https://fempages.org/2004/10/06/after-big-blether-before-the-esf/ Wed, 06 Oct 2004 09:10:12 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/10/06/after-big-blether-before-the-esf/ Am still pretty exhausted from the Big Blether weekend, particularly as I had a fever, which is completely odd if you are camping and you are cold at the back, warm on the front and have a glowing hot head sticking out in the cold. Also, I got drunk, which helped me to sleep through in the slightly wet tent and supported the transport costs of the helpers with the marquee and geodome, as they were running a raffle beer bar, but added to a huge headache on the Sunday to run around with an ataxia similar to the BSE induced spongiform encephalitis. https://fempages.org/2004/09/30/big-blether/ Thu, 30 Sep 2004 22:33:43 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/09/30/big-blether/ This weekend the Big Blether is on in the Scottish countryside. Have been there on Tuesday, it is located in an amazing place this year, on the mountains over Loch Tay, with a stunning view over the lake. Slight disadvantage that my exhaust fell off on the journey. Luckily enough one passenger… aehm not quite repaired it, but made the journey continuable, the exhaust is now lying in the back of the car and it is incredibly more noisy and smelly. The venue is an embryonic community, named Culdees, however, it is less of a community as the landlady wants to make all the decisions by herself and seems to be slightly unpredictable in her decision making. https://fempages.org/2004/09/28/pga-funding-and-drill/ Tue, 28 Sep 2004 12:23:12 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/09/28/pga-funding-and-drill/ Have looked around a bit for events on at the ESF and found a criticism of PGA, the Peoples Global Action. Guess usually it would always browse by myself without any further notice, but there is one political alliance very relevant to here, the Dissent! network, which is based on the PGA hallmarks. A lot of the criticism on the PGA seems to be made on the issue of funding and how money is distributed & used for and from which sources it comes, which is always a tricky topic. Have borrowed out another drill from another neighbour., it is a little bit like taking part in a “Which” or “Stiftung Warentest” consumer protection and product quality research magazine. https://fempages.org/2004/09/27/exciting-days-ahead/ Mon, 27 Sep 2004 16:15:08 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/09/27/exciting-days-ahead/ My neighbours are moving out, and giving a lot of stuff away. So far I got a mixer, a coffee machine, a colander, a tent, a stativ and a lamp. A futon is still held in reserve and it would be good for next years big event to have some more comfy guest facilities – though it might be discussable if futons are comfy. Also I still try to get the holes into the wall, have borrowed out my neighbours drill which is battery powered and just doesn’t really work that well, it gets stuck in the holes instead of making them deeper or larger. https://fempages.org/2004/09/26/xchange/ Sun, 26 Sep 2004 10:21:50 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/09/26/xchange/ Big weekend activist gatherings are usually a market of involuntary exchange- have lost my address book but got a new Edinburgh A-Z map back, and a leather-bound drawing book with cartoons and “karikaturen” of people present at the meeting; got 10 ceramic bowls but the deck chair is missing; and found a badminton set but mislaid my drill, which is about 2 kg heavy and half a metre long, mislaying such a thing is certainly difficult and deemed impossible by me so far. I am thinking about getting a dog if possible one which doesn’t bark much. But first, have to tidy up a little bit. https://fempages.org/2004/09/23/dissent-gathering-in-edinburgh-finally-over/ Thu, 23 Sep 2004 14:16:06 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/09/23/dissent-gathering-in-edinburgh-finally-over/ The Edinburgh Dissent gathering is over now, and it is time to relax. But there is not too much time to relax, as the Big Blether will be the next activist event in ten days, and after that there is the European Social Forum. I have so far never been to one and this year it seems mainly an overgrown “marxism 2004”- as it is heavily dominated by SWP and their front groups. However, in the last months several interesting spaces and discussions have been planned for the Alternative or Autonomous Spaces, which seems far more interesting, so will probably go and have a look. https://fempages.org/2004/09/20/computer-poems/ Mon, 20 Sep 2004 09:58:44 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/09/20/computer-poems/ Just got these poems by email: “The Beatles Updated” Yesterday ——— Yesterday, All those backups seemed a waste of pay. Now my database has gone away. Oh I believe in yesterday. Suddenly, There’s not half the files there used to be, And there’s a milestone hanging over me The system crashed so suddenly. I pushed something wrong What it was I could not say. Now all my data’s gone and I long for yesterday-ay-ay-ay. Yesterday, The need for back-ups seemed so far away. I knew my data was all here to stay, Now I believe in yesterday. ==================================== Unix Man https://fempages.org/2004/09/08/britainwide-dissent-gathering/ Wed, 08 Sep 2004 12:07:53 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/09/08/britainwide-dissent-gathering/ In nearly a week and a half we have got a relatively big meeting here, with about 60 or more folks coming from other places, and maybe a dozen or 2 locally. It seems like the organising group has collapsed during the summer, which doesn’t help at all, and feel quite stuck with trying to organise stuff so its at least pleasant for everybody. Now some people are getting back from holidays, hope that helps. On the other hand am trapped in a stupid argument on the www-features list about Venezuela features proposal, which is really deteriorating the atmosphere on the list, which was actually quite good before the whole Venzuela thing came along. https://fempages.org/2004/08/30/political-activism-is-it-really-worth-it/ Mon, 30 Aug 2004 18:08:34 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/08/30/political-activism-is-it-really-worth-it/ This morning I woke up to the headline on global Indymedia that one of the authorities is making again trouble for Indymedia. So, that as such is not news, but it seemed it is a bit of a double trouble not only with the US secret service trying to stick their long nose into non existant (hopefully!!) log files, why the hell haven’t they just asked to get the stuff hidden? Well at least half a million or so protested yesterday in New York against Bush, which is at least a bit of a relief and hopefully annoying enough for the US administration of intimidation and human rights violation. https://fempages.org/2004/08/24/pp/ Tue, 24 Aug 2004 19:03:19 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/08/24/pp/ Political or Peer Pressure – or PPP. Anyway, if I wouldn’t try to keep the political stuff out of the blog for the next months, actually I would have liked to have ranted on for several pages now about the local chaos experienced here. May the force be with you! https://fempages.org/2004/08/24/telewest-broadband-is-crap/ Tue, 24 Aug 2004 09:44:52 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/08/24/telewest-broadband-is-crap/ Anyway, after having signed the contract with the telephone, internet and digital television company they have let me down. On several levels. Should somebody say that privatisation would improve things. In my experience it doesn’t. Let’s nationalize all the electricity, telephone, water and transport companies again, it can only be better, and would take loads of worries out of the population, I am sure the mental health status of the population would also improve tremendously! So these workers came to install the telephone line and the digital television, and instead of working within the arranged hours 4pm- 7pm, they came at 6 pm and stayed till 9. https://fempages.org/2004/08/19/venezuela-edinburgh-festival-pimples-and-bbc4/ Thu, 19 Aug 2004 10:40:37 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/08/19/venezuela-edinburgh-festival-pimples-and-bbc4/ First I got addicted to blogging, and now I try desperately to wean myself off again. So here is again an unimportant summary of the last days. Firstly my face is full of pimples, and am so happy that Indymedia allows me to hide behind the computer; however, its going to be blamed on the senseless nights awake to cover events in Venezuela about the referendum, which are powered by Cola, coffee, excitement, adrenalin and fast food. Though the excitement/adrenalin level was lower as usual, this might have had something to do with the lack of Spanish language knowledge, which made reporting events for me more a guessing game. https://fempages.org/2004/08/02/edinburgh-streetparty-community-media-gap/ Mon, 02 Aug 2004 19:12:46 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/08/02/edinburgh-streetparty-community-media-gap/ So, the hamster is back to his 5 year old owner. I was away the weekend for a course, about Community Radio, my friend was baby-sitting and luckily for him, he got sponsored a ticket for a pirate theatre comedy play, which he thoroughly enjoyed, too. The good thing about baby-sitting is, that all the fun things are possible to do again without getting too embarrassed. (and also a good opportunity to escape political pure-ism: wanting to go into the zoo? having an urge to go to McDonalds to piss off environmentalists? Wanting to drink coke? like to see the new Walt Disney film? https://fempages.org/2004/07/25/lost-hamster/ Sun, 25 Jul 2004 11:45:42 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/07/25/lost-hamster/ Lost the hamster in my sofa tonight. Guess it was a bit pissed off as I cleaned his house of all the rotten food it saved during the last weeks. Apart from the food starting to rot some of it is also going mouldy, and also it has its hamster shit in between its nuts and veggies. It should be happy that its house is now tidy. But instead, it tried to grab as much food as possible for moving out of its fairly modern one hamster apartment with house, garden and garage into the dark and depth of the sofa, where it got lost. https://fempages.org/2004/07/23/native-americans-over-in-scotland/ Fri, 23 Jul 2004 22:17:30 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/07/23/native-americans-over-in-scotland/ Today there was a protest at the Scottish power shareholding meeting against PacifiCorp, which owns several dams on a river. Anyway made loads of interviews and pictures and met amazing people. Apart from that, I have a horrible stomach bug, which keeps me in close distance of toilets. (More details are censored). Will try to make a feature out of this protest. There was also lots of mainstream media, but am wondering why they are so incredibly unpassionate about this issue – or any other issue. Maybe they are scared of getting sued? Amongst the protesters, there was also an elderly woman, who gave me a press pack, and only when I was at home, I realised, that, in fact, she was protesting against wind farms because of a possible loss of her property price. https://fempages.org/2004/07/19/animal-news-and-experiences/ Mon, 19 Jul 2004 19:36:19 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/07/19/animal-news-and-experiences/ Today is more animal day. I am still furious with this pet shop and the grey parrot. It has been feather picking itself horribly, and they do it because they are so intelligent and when they are bored. The University of Hanover is an expert in these behaviour problems of grey parrots, they founded the “grey parrot dating agency” to stop them from feather picking. Anyway, and they don’t remove any feathers, so the parrot can actually fly, and they build big huge rooms for the loving grey parrots couples. Grey parrots are not particularly revolutionary lovers, as they are monogamous. https://fempages.org/2004/06/25/christmas-advert/ Fri, 25 Jun 2004 21:45:20 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/06/25/christmas-advert/ Today I heard the first Christmas advert for Christmas 2004. And it’s not even July. Funnily enough it was for a restaurant: Book your Christmas party now! I am just wondering why they are broadcast …… https://fempages.org/2004/06/20/quick-update-2/ Sun, 20 Jun 2004 22:44:11 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/06/20/quick-update-2/ Everything seems okay. Have been away for some days. Nothing exciting seems to happen at the moment here. Am thinking about stopping this blog for the next year till the G8 is over, as getting slowly paranoid. (But not only me, can tell you!) Besides, the server where this blog is hosted might be going down soon. Comments Comment by Danl Lines on 2006-07-20 03:32:50 +0100 Nice idea with this site, its better than most of the rubbish I come across. https://fempages.org/2004/06/13/edinburgh-radical-bookfair/ Sun, 13 Jun 2004 19:17:39 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/06/13/edinburgh-radical-bookfair/ The last days have been brainblasting and very exhausting. The Edinburgh Radical Bookfair was on the last days, and it was good. My personal highlight was the event on Saturday afternoon about the media misinformation and propaganda. A new book was presented about Israel, which definitely rocks and certainly is one of the best books ever published about this topic, and I can say that without even having read it. It has just been published and came fresh from the press to the bookfair. Its title is Bad News from Israel. And what makes this book so special is that it had taken 3 years to write it, and is based on intensive research in several countries. https://fempages.org/2004/06/09/nearly-arrested/ Wed, 09 Jun 2004 11:15:38 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/06/09/nearly-arrested/ The cat has finished its hunger strike and this morning I was nearly arrested. Getting up this morning I was just reading about an action at BAE so I just hopped along there. It all seemed to be pretty calm and relaxed but as soon as I started to take pictures, the police started chasing me to tell me either to stop taking pictures or to get arrested at once. This never happened to me before, and not in Edinburgh, Scotland. https://fempages.org/2004/06/08/cats-pestering/ Tue, 08 Jun 2004 10:11:23 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/06/08/cats-pestering/ The cat is pestering me. It has gone on hunger strike. It does not like the cheap ordinary food and is boycotting it, but it’s now pestering me to give it multinational corporation cat food. It has this look on its face: “What – you really expect me to eat THAT?” and then it just turns its back to me and disappears behind the sofa until it gets Whiskas. Comments Comment by John Oddie on 2006-07-20 02:50:09 +0100 Hey, what a great site, keep up the work, its excellent. https://fempages.org/2004/06/07/more-holidays/ Mon, 07 Jun 2004 19:24:49 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/06/07/more-holidays/ Yes, yes, yes the boring time of the year has arrived. Everybody is on holiday or comes back from holidays or is planning holidays. The best is, since yesterday, life is much more exciting because I have got a cat for a month, whilst a friend of mine is on holiday. And finally, after tidying up, i managed to find in the allotment application form which I had last seen 2 years ago. Well, the waiting time for a plot is about 4-6 years, and for a garage, it is even more, at the moment it is 7 years. The office stated he would backdate it, but couldn’t promise he could backdate the application for 2 years. https://fempages.org/2004/06/05/last-days-4/ Sat, 05 Jun 2004 10:01:01 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/06/05/last-days-4/ The last days were boring. It seems it’s summer and everybody disappears into holidays or has exams or whatever. I did not make to send it the application for the dream job. First of all, I wouldn’t have got it anyway. objective chances are probably 1:10 000 or something. Because the bad thing about dream jobs is that there are a lot of people apart from me, who want the same job, too. And when i discussed the application with some friends and gave it to them to read, basically they mentioned that the content is good as always, but the writing style is not good enough for that particular job. https://fempages.org/2004/06/04/interview-mit-richard-stallman/ Fri, 04 Jun 2004 09:14:15 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/06/04/interview-mit-richard-stallman/ Abschrift eines Interviews mit Richard Stallman, welches mit Hilfe der Informatikabteiling der Universität Edinburgh, an 27.Mai.2004 stattfand. Richard Stallman is der Gruender des GNU Project, welches er 1984 began um das freie software Betriebssystem GNU zu erschaffen. GNU ist heutzutage ein essentieller Bestandteil des GNU/Linux Systems, welches die meisten Menschen ausschließlich unter den Namen Linux kennen. Er erfand außerdem das urheberrechtliche Copyleft. Er graduierte 1974 von Harvard und wurde mit vielen Ehrentiteln und Auszeichnungen in Zusammenhang mit den Resultaten seiner ethischen Einstellung honoriert. 1.) Ein Mensch widmet nicht sein ganzes Leben dem Entwickeln einer neuen Freiheitsform ohne vorher eine existierende Überzeugung zu besitzen, die ihn dazu treibt. https://fempages.org/2004/06/01/job-application/ Tue, 01 Jun 2004 12:46:53 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/06/01/job-application/ I have found a job offer for my perfect dream job. At the moment I am trying to apply, but am just a bit down and low because I know the perspectives to actually get that job might not be too good, due to my f***** up work and educational history the last years. I am sure somebody else gets it. But if it makes sense I have to apply anyway, because otherwise, I might be wondering my whole life if I had missed a little opportunity to do something even more useful than what I am occasionally doing now and to change once again my life completely and radically. https://fempages.org/2004/05/31/quick-update-of-links-and-similar/ Mon, 31 May 2004 08:35:37 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/05/31/quick-update-of-links-and-similar/ Anyway, the last days were a bit unexciting as mostly glued in front of my computer. Trying to work with GIMP instead of Photoshop, but in a way, it is quite difficult to untrain habits… With GIMP I really like that it is so easy to do screenshots and to change the colours into black and white, but what I find more difficult is cropping and working with different layers, which I haven’t figured out yet. But, in my opinion, GIMP is also very much better at compressing for web. The file size seems to be smaller. I also did the pictures and audio editing of Stallmans talk, as well as transcribing the interview. https://fempages.org/2004/05/28/stallman-talk-and-interview/ Fri, 28 May 2004 14:43:49 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/05/28/stallman-talk-and-interview/ Richard Stallman has been in Edinburgh yesterday, for a talk at the Informatics Colloquium. I had the honour to interview him. Reading the review on Ireland Indymedia about Richard Stallman’s talk in Dublin, I have the impression that it seemed to work out quite well in Edinburgh in general. Pictures are up now on Indymedia Scotland. Alongside with an article, which has by now 73 comments (more to be expected)… Not bad for a website which has just started about a month ago. The interview unfortunately is only 15 minutes long, as RMS was late for the interview. So couldn’t ask all the questions. https://fempages.org/2004/05/23/news/ Sun, 23 May 2004 22:34:26 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/05/23/news/ It seems more and more likely that the G8 really comes to Scotland in 2005 – up to now it’s all media information, but just yesterday the Edinburgh Evening News on its Saturday frontpage had the article: “Pushed to the limit”- about police holidays being canceled for 1.-14.Juli 2005 next year, when the G8 comes to Scotland. [report]. Apart from that Richard Stallman, the founder of GNU , Emacs and particularly the GNU General Public License will be in Edinburgh, and has kind of agreed to do an interview with me. Well not really particularly with me, but with “somebody from Indymedia Scotland who is knowledgeable about free software”. https://fempages.org/2004/05/20/a-visit-to-the-scottish-parliament/ Thu, 20 May 2004 17:31:25 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/05/20/a-visit-to-the-scottish-parliament/ Today I got my brain fried in the Scottish Parliament. Scheduled was a debate on “Major Events in Scotland”. As a critical natured politica I considered of course the possibility and rumours of the G8 coming to Scotland (report in the Scotsman) as a worthy subject for this parliamentary discussion. Unfortunately, the reality was disappointing: The discussion was more focussed around the Glasgow Garden Festival, the Highland and Island Music contest, the World Bowling Championship and the Robert Burns poetry festival as well as the Young people’s rugby championship and the British Open Golfing Championship to be held in Fife, than around anything vaguely important. https://fempages.org/2004/05/19/intelligence-new-report-out/ Wed, 19 May 2004 13:21:22 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/05/19/intelligence-new-report-out/ The German government has published its new intelligence report. The secret service has to publish its activities every year to be accountable to the public. Unfortunately, it rarely is; most of the time its exaggerates left-wing activities to get more funds and resources and minimalising right-wing and neo nazis violence so to not give any foundation for embarrassment, such as when several years ago American travel guides warned any black people not to travel to East Germany because of the threat of violent and racist neonazis. Anyway, they mention Indymedia Germany alongside with the antiracist noborder camp in Cologne in this “monitoring report of anti-constitutional activities”. https://fempages.org/2004/05/18/we-are-all-losers/ Tue, 18 May 2004 17:20:52 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/05/18/we-are-all-losers/ “I don’t like Burger King. I don’t like anything. And I am against it.” (Ramones) Nobody seems to be interested in what I write. The last entry got 6 hits, so says my admin interface, the majority – or maybe all of them being myself. Sometimes I dream to be able to do something similar to Indymedia as a *real profession*, but guess capitalism would take out all the fun of it. The style of this blog and the Indymedia reporting is quite different, as I found out when trying to convert a blog entry as an Indymedia report, the one on the wireless network workshop. https://fempages.org/2004/05/17/dinosaur-party-community-media-radio-threatened/ Mon, 17 May 2004 14:59:27 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/05/17/dinosaur-party-community-media-radio-threatened/ Saturday was a day for Dinosaurs, see pics – it was the “international climate action day”. Dunno why I went to the demo, but I did and was very welcome because it was only a very small group at first. The whole demo stopped for me and posed for pictures whilst I was still trying to lock my bicycle and find the camera! It was amazing and I wonder if this ever happened to any other Indymedia volunteer – it was lovely 😉 The pictures turned out very well. But it wasn’t really an anti-capitalist march as such, especially with slogans like “What do we want? https://fempages.org/2004/05/15/why-people-write/ Sat, 15 May 2004 08:40:39 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/05/15/why-people-write/ “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.” George Orwell on Why I write. A bit of discussion at the moment about the Daily Mirrors fake pictures is – unfortunately also not too far away from what is at the moment discussed in small on the Indymedia Scotland email list about a feature with some inaccurate facts in it: “How much truth is there in reporting? And does it help to cling to the facts? What about if (some) of the facts turn out to be wrong? https://fempages.org/2004/05/14/gods-new-website/ Fri, 14 May 2004 16:49:51 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/05/14/gods-new-website/ Actually, nothing exciting has happened here today. As in here, I mean Edinburgh, in Scotland, UK. It hasn’t been raining, which is unusual. My monitor has given up working, but hopes are still high it’s only temporarily. This one works only under Windows, unfortunately. So my whole Linux partition is on holidays in the depths of cyberspace. The Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity event was pleasant as ever, with lots of self-made food like Guacamole, Salsa, Nachos and Tacos, and Beans and Bread and Cheese and potatoes pancakes – whatever these are called in Mexico. And lots of cake and cream, too. Also, I watched “The Sixth Sun” for the first time, it is a brilliant film, unfortunately, it has been made when the technology was worse and so looks a bit blurry- probably on High8 or Beta SP, anyway it is about the Zapatistas – but mainly before 1994! https://fempages.org/2004/05/12/edinburgh-chiapas-social-event/ Wed, 12 May 2004 15:10:30 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/05/12/edinburgh-chiapas-social-event/ Tonight there is an Edinburgh Chiapas Social event planned. Luckily, I am only roped in for transport – o no, just forgot to organise the film I am supposed to bring….need to arrange that now. The Group will be showing “Zapatista” from Big Noise Tactical and some short films made by the Chiapas Media Project and by Kiptik. Unfortunately, the venue used tonight and otherwise quite frequently is being sold – offers sought for about 800 000 English pounds. Otherwise, the new Indymedia Scotland website seems to be taking off slowly. We had at least 5 new features in the last 3 days! https://fempages.org/2004/05/11/welcome-indybloggers/ Tue, 11 May 2004 18:01:05 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/05/11/welcome-indybloggers/ It is good to see this blog now feed into Indybloggers, thanks to my good friend Space Bunny who managed to catch Rabble in Internet Relay Chat when he was briefly online from India doing good work by helping Indymedia there and Bunny asked Rabble to add it. But he did add this to a blog under Bunny’s name by mistake. Me (as AnarchoBabe) and Space Bunny are very close but we are different people. Also it seems my rss feed does not come with dates, so all titles in it get top billing on Indyboggers. I may have to work out how to pass some options to it in the URL to get a better feed source. https://fempages.org/2004/05/11/wireless-internet-access/ Tue, 11 May 2004 08:33:07 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/05/11/wireless-internet-access/ Yesterday we went to the [CCA][1] – the Centre of Contemporary Art in Glasgow. This is actually an excellent location for any revolutionary being an artist by profession, as these are one of the few Art “Museums” that don’t shy away from working-class and revolutionary art – in the real sense of the word. Although me myself being quite ignorant particularly to Modern Art, the CCA is well worth recommending a visit to everybody. Last weeks event was [Machinista][2], loosely entitled to be _“ART FROM THE MACHINE: Gleams of the Inhuman”_. Apart from this odd title and [garlic][3] in weird places it was quite a useful and fun event which was particularly used to promote GNU/Linux Software for audio, video and similar, Workshops on Open Source and Free Software, Wireless networking, and similar. https://fempages.org/2004/05/09/new-glasgow-social-centre-dublin-mayday-g8/ Sun, 09 May 2004 11:31:17 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/05/09/new-glasgow-social-centre-dublin-mayday-g8/ The new Printworks Social Centre is now open in Glasgow. The Glasgow Autonomous Project have worked very hard to open it, and they have managed to get a fantastic space in an excellent location. Also, one issue I was always wondering about got resolved via this interview: Why Kinning Park Community Centre could not be used more for activist purposes. Apparently, there was a fire in a local school and the community centre is used as a replacement location. Anyway, I tried to get in contact with the Kinning Park administrator for over a month now to ask if it could be used for a weekend event and it seems quite difficult to get in touch. https://fempages.org/2004/04/28/dublin-mayday/ Wed, 28 Apr 2004 21:14:35 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/04/28/dublin-mayday/ Just got over to Dublin. Am quite exhausted as yesterday had an Avid Editing course and a community activist training on communication keeping me busy from 8 am till 10 pm. Anyway, we managed to make 2 nice clips, one is not yet finished. They need to be compressed to be uploaded to the Internet and to Indymedia, as now nearly every minute is 350 MB. Anyway it was good fun and thoroughly enjoyed it. Today luckily I got borrowed out a camcorder, so I can do video footage at the protests, if i feel like it. Unfortunately the accommodation did not work out as planned: the 10 places for Indymedia people by Ireland Indymedia seemed not to have been obviously arranged, and the squat for the activists to stay in was raided yesterday night and three people arrested. https://fempages.org/2004/04/26/weekend-in-manchester/ Mon, 26 Apr 2004 19:52:34 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/04/26/weekend-in-manchester/ Uha, I am so tired! Really I am. Friday was quite an exhausting day, with seeing my parents off and then rushing to the IRC meeting which was unfortunately not particularly enlightening, as the locals were missing. Then there was the lecture about “Radical and Alternative journalism” at Napier University, with one of the SchNEWS people talking, the journalist type of the collective, as they are on tour celebrating their tenth anniversary. Then later, they had their political cabaret in The Forest. Anyway, it took ages till I was home, and then the next morning got up early to go to Manchester. https://fempages.org/2004/04/23/diy-shelves-left-hand-column-and-bicycles-with-good-food/ Fri, 23 Apr 2004 07:38:43 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/04/23/diy-shelves-left-hand-column-and-bicycles-with-good-food/ Yesterday was a really nice and happy day. Though I was quite worked out at the end of it. The last thing I did till late in the night was sorting out my parents holiday pictures of when they went to Russia to build up a dance club there. I should definitely post some pictures here when I figure out how to include these in the blog. So this took at least several hours. Also, we finally managed to put up the curtain rails. It actually wasn’t too bad, just a bit more self-confidence and I could do it, too. And some more tricks and also it helps if you are not up to fixing the curtain rail on the ceiling on your own, as you need somebody focussed and accurate to help. https://fempages.org/2004/04/21/indymedia-meeting-and-house-ventilation/ Wed, 21 Apr 2004 21:25:12 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/04/21/indymedia-meeting-and-house-ventilation/ Our glorious indymedia meeting tonight saw disappointing 2 people, me and spacebunny as ever. Sometimes I wonder if it makes any sense trying to carry on with these meetings. It was good to get out of the house though and we just talked a bit about political stuff in general and went out for a hot drink, as the Autonomous Centre is a freezing fridge, and even outside it is warmer than inside, though it even is not cold enough to keep the milk fresh for the next day. I wonder if it might make sense to size down the Indymedia scotland subsection to Indymedia Edinburgh and to develop different policies for Indymedia Scotland as an independant collective. https://fempages.org/2004/04/20/more-indymedia-stuff/ Tue, 20 Apr 2004 21:36:52 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/04/20/more-indymedia-stuff/ Today was more or less an Indymedia day. I must have written a whole load of emails about different issues from editorial policy to IRC meetings to the dispatch system to slagging of the SWP, which is one of my favourite spare-time activities. Followed by somebody from Indymedia Leeds stating that my “post is bollocks”. As I am clearly a woman this description can only be inaccurate. Anyway, I just wanted to calm down spanner, one of our “master hider”, who is particularly enjoying hiding socialist and other dogmatic party posts. Yes, yes, I know how that feels like I have an immediate drive to hide Mick Napiers, the SSP candidate for the Scottish Parliament Election 2003, Palestine Solidarity postings on IMC Scotland every time I see one popping into the wire, and it demands a lot of self-control and self-discipline not to. https://fempages.org/2004/04/13/this-weekend-reporting-from-falluja-and-zapatistas-shot/ Tue, 13 Apr 2004 21:15:01 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/04/13/this-weekend-reporting-from-falluja-and-zapatistas-shot/ Puh, I am totally worn out. I am super behind with my spring cleaning and am fearing my parents stumbling over my mess tomorrow. There are still 3 half bicycles lying around in my living room waiting to be fixed, and also 2 carpets waiting to be fitted. Of course, there are pamphlets and leaflets flying around everywhere, tomorrow I have to politically disinfect my flat in a quickie. The last weekend, which was Easter, I had originally planned to tidy and clean up, but then I spontaneously planned to go over to Glasgow to visit the Balata installation, about the Balata refugee camp in Palestine, and also Ewa Jasowiesz was talking about the newest development in Iraq. https://fempages.org/2004/04/10/more-poems/ Sat, 10 Apr 2004 10:21:54 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/04/10/more-poems/ Submission by ab I have found nice poems. Here is the URL: http://home.snafu.de/whizkid/goldt/songs/ I really like the Hubschraubereinsatz and some of the others. Got it recommended on IRC – Internet Relay Chat, and thought I share it with you. Unfortunately this contribution was made on 17th of January, I still have to get my head round administrating the site. just in case the site ever goes down: Hubschraubereinsatz Handtaschenräuber! Handtaschenräuber! Überall, überall Handtaschenräuber! Da hilft nur noch Hubschraubereinsatz! Scheinasylanten! Scheinasylanten! Überall, überall Scheinasylanten! Da hilft nur noch Hubschraubereinsatz! Auf das Podest vor dem öffentlichen Amt tritt ein namhafter Mann, allen bekannt, https://fempages.org/2004/04/09/indymedia-blogs-mayday-g8-anticapitalist-events-in-scotland/ Fri, 09 Apr 2004 20:37:28 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/04/09/indymedia-blogs-mayday-g8-anticapitalist-events-in-scotland/ Okay, so Rabble has now cleaned up his site and put up an Indymedia bloggers site. Unfortunately, I don’t qualify as I don’t update often enough, only every now and again. Not that I don’t want to or have nothing to say, it’s just because I am so busy. For example, next week my parents are visiting. Till then I have got to tidy up and clean the whole flat, this might take a while, as I delayed this for some months. Especially as everything is covered with political flyers and pamphlets, posters, leaflets and books I either haven’t yet been finding the time to read, or they remind me of something and that’s why I don’t want to throw them away; they might still be useful some day! https://fempages.org/2004/03/22/quick-update/ Mon, 22 Mar 2004 16:51:29 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/03/22/quick-update/ Quick update for rabble 🙂 since February there has been: – the computer was hacked, which caused us to be offline a bit and rebuild all the systems, also the email did not work either. – IMC Scotland on DADA is now working: http://scotland.indymedia.org Still, we need to change the layout and figure out how to carry over all the articles and postings from http://scotland.indymedia.org.uk , also we need to decide now about the editorial policy. I quite like to experiment with voting/rating articles. – we had several success films and speakers events with the Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Campaign and a wonderful social with extremely good food! https://fempages.org/2004/01/09/winter-holiday-exciting-christmas/ Fri, 09 Jan 2004 15:47:15 +0000 https://fempages.org/2004/01/09/winter-holiday-exciting-christmas/ Just back from the winter holidays. Recognized the last entry has been months ago. Despite a lot has being happening. It must be the dark times, with the rain which just makes everything grey and apathetic as is the IMC UK Frontpage. We had basically agreed to exchange the grey for blue, but the access is limited, despite that, nobody seemed to bring up the energy for css work. However, being on holidays, I met a lot of friends and got to hear about new projects and initiatives. For example, the Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Campaign wants to organise distributing coffee throughout Edinburgh and Britain. https://fempages.org/2003/11/21/more-anarchoblogs/ Fri, 21 Nov 2003 22:15:20 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/11/21/more-anarchoblogs/ Rabble has got a blog, too. And he even links to mine! Isn’t that nice? I would really like to RSS feed, because he does really cool articles, especially about latin america, but unfortunately, I haven’t figured out how to RSS- feed headlines of news only. As soon as I find out I will try to rss-feed imcuk audio and IMC Uk middle column and lots of IMC bloggers RSS-feed. And I am very happy that Lord Rich, the author of the famous spoof BBC i-can’t website, is commenting here, too. Cheers! 🙂 https://fempages.org/2003/11/19/opensourcecms-mambo/ Wed, 19 Nov 2003 23:28:11 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/11/19/opensourcecms-mambo/ On Monday me and my friend actually installed Mambo, an open source cms. Initially, the solution was intended to be used for the Peace and Justice Centre in Edinburgh and temporarily hosted under Moving Pages, but now the whole project seems to collapse, from my point of view. The Peace and Justice Centre mainly consists of elderly volunteers, not very tech https://fempages.org/2003/11/17/edinburgh-linux-user-group/ Mon, 17 Nov 2003 23:06:46 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/11/17/edinburgh-linux-user-group/ On Sunday, there were Linux install days, organised by the Edinburgh Linux User Group, called Edlug. To give some sort of statement, I have been reading their email list in the archive, but unfortunately, they are quite tech and geek based. There is hardly any political or philosophical discussion, and most of the Edlug members seem to want to stay away from activists as far as they can without leaving their computer. At first, I just went because of my friend, but once I got there it was actually quite nice. After drinking lots of tea, I found some places on the computer and just tried out different Linux systems. https://fempages.org/2003/11/17/community-media-association-agm/ Mon, 17 Nov 2003 22:34:21 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/11/17/community-media-association-agm/ On Saturday I went to the Community Media Association, see AGM. I blacked my way in as I said I would be from Indymedia. So there were all the professional community media makers trying to make decisions, and most of them had only one aim: give more money and give a frequency. Both main objectives seem to feed primarily into one: Secure my job! Sadly enough, actually rarely anybody seemed to be concerned with Community Media as a tool for change, as a tool for empowerment. There was hardly no practical approach and so much infighting over power which doesn’t even exist yet. https://fempages.org/2003/11/15/peace-and-justice/ Sat, 15 Nov 2003 01:34:40 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/11/15/peace-and-justice/ The last days were rather uneventful if it would not have been for Edinburgh’s Peace and Justice Centre. A couple of older Quakers run this resource situated in the lower part of St.Johns church in Edinburgh. Committed to non-violence, their mission is to change the world. Their favourite groups are Scottish CND and Trident Ploughshares, as far as I know. Anyway, as I am on the computer course our final project is to build a website for a client. As I did not want to be too embarrassed, choosing something political but non-controversial, the Peace and Justice Centre asked me if I could do so when I tried booking the room for Indymedia. https://fempages.org/2003/11/09/films-good-films-anti-capitalist-films/ Sun, 09 Nov 2003 11:11:15 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/11/09/films-good-films-anti-capitalist-films/ On Friday we finally had the Lost Film Festival here in Edinburgh. It was great, absolutely fantastic! We didn’t get to see the promised “riot porn” though, but we got to see other fantastic funny short clips. One of the most amazing films was a small documentary about the Yes Men, who maintain the spoof website gatt.org. There are actually intellectuals falling for this website, inviting expert speakers to their conferences and getting the most amazing spoof speeches out of the assumedly WTO representatives. Also to see was the “Jerry Springer Show” spoof and the “Ring of Free trade”, which was fantastic! https://fempages.org/2003/11/04/a-day-of-receycling/ Tue, 04 Nov 2003 14:24:57 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/11/04/a-day-of-receycling/ Today was a day of recycling- both content-wise for Indymedia Scotland, various email lists, and practically. Mike stormed our flat this morning announcing he witnessed an office clearance and would like to fetch a computer table; however, it wasn’t just ONE computer table in the end, but two computer tables, 4 chairs, one wooden little flowerpot-presenter and 2 long-awaited computer chairs, and one electric heating. Magnificient! Everything else was crushed to pieces by the workers, and there was still really nice and useful furniture and office desks landing under the axe of capitalism. Furthermore, Mike gave me a present of a “Chiapas Zapatista Calendar” for next year, to say “Thank you” for immediately fetching the computer desk and in exchange. https://fempages.org/2003/11/02/mainstream-media/ Sun, 02 Nov 2003 17:16:18 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/11/02/mainstream-media/ So, yesterday was finally the day when the 5 judges selected 3 ideas out of 15 (1 person already resigned), for funding a documentary short film. Due to being scared as a frightened bunny, I left my preparations to last-minute 11 pm Friday night. In the end it didn’t matter: the BBC Gail Fraser, Mark Cousin, the Edinburgh College of Art representative = Bridging the GAP rep, the Maverick TV production company rep, the Channel4 rep, selected the 3 lamest ideas you could think of: technology/implants; ice-cream, and headscarves. I was pretty sure that they would select one idea of every one of the categories. https://fempages.org/2003/10/29/sunderland-university/ Wed, 29 Oct 2003 18:40:55 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/10/29/sunderland-university/ Me and my friend went to Sunderland University yesterday to turn up in a lecture as speakers. Sunderland is about half an hour south of Newcastle. Well, that’s what we thought and how it was described to us and looked on the map. However, we didn’t expect this major traffic jam, which seemed the last 50 kilometres seem like a 007 snail race. Luckily we dropped of the hitchhiking PhD philosophy student at the service station, good luck to him!, and made our way to this brand-new media building sponsored by Sony. Another astonishing thing actually is: I can speak for three hours nearly uninterrupted if I can speak about the things I am passionate about, and especially if it is at a university, where the students don’t have any chance to run away from my rant. https://fempages.org/2003/10/26/a-new-try-on-illness-and-blogs/ Sun, 26 Oct 2003 12:16:01 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/10/26/a-new-try-on-illness-and-blogs/ I have just typed a long article when it went down again in the depth of cyberspace. I was just surfing the Guardian online, a useful media, web and news resource, which thankfully has an open archive, which unfortunately is no guarantee to actually (re)find the article you found so amazing 2 years ago. The Herald, here in Scotland demand 2 pounds to view a past article online, I find this disgusting money making! So I looked at the Guardians “Best British Blog awards” and found some useful and interesting links I want to discuss in the following article as well as the article on “why I hate blogs”. https://fempages.org/2003/10/23/more-on-the-last-weeks-and-today/ Thu, 23 Oct 2003 20:02:38 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/10/23/more-on-the-last-weeks-and-today/ Of course, there is much more than the Ideasfactory competition. Journalist wise, of course, alternative wise, there has been today the new BBC activist page been posted on the Indymedia UK newswire. My first thought. “Well, that’s no real competition to Indymedia”. Take action: Campaign to get British people to walk on the left” and the featured special: “Speed bumps”. And: “add your comments”!. Sorry guys, but obviously they have a different target audience in mind than Indymedia. But whom? Another journalist approach has been the new Counterinformation on which we have been working. Especially Mike has been working really hard on the layout. https://fempages.org/2003/10/23/last-weeks-were-so-crazy/ Thu, 23 Oct 2003 18:22:01 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/10/23/last-weeks-were-so-crazy/ The last weeks were so crazy. In a desperate attempt to improve my life I took even part in a competition to get funding to make a documentary film. See here. Surprisingly enough, I got shortlisted and am now the subject of extended theoretical input of how the ruling elite wants us to make documentary films. First we got shipped- or better trained, to the Sheffield International Film Festival Newcomers Day. Unfortunately, the Newcomers Day proved to be as boring as it can be. Lots of professionals telling you how to adapt best to get into “the industry”. Luckily I was able to skive off and to watch “Condor- the Axis of Evil”: https://fempages.org/2003/10/01/nea-does-documentary/ Wed, 01 Oct 2003 08:05:16 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/10/01/nea-does-documentary/ Ideasfactory was launched in August in Edinburgh with a weekend full of documentary film screenings. The films were presented, and subsequent discussions were led by experienced filmmakers, who ranged from newcomers to professionals from the media, including organisers of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Lately, the Ideasfactory team were guests at the North Edinburgh Arts Centre, where they gave examples of Mark Cousins documentary film manifesto and discussed how a dream to make a film might and can become a reality. In short, clips, ranging from Michael Moore’s popular political Oscar-winning “Bowling for Columbine” which documented the high school mass murder at the hands of two local students to a musical agitation documentary “Now” about the black civil rights movement. https://fempages.org/2003/09/07/last-days-3/ Sun, 07 Sep 2003 18:17:34 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/09/07/last-days-3/ The last days were quite hectic, I should write down a plan of what to do… The new Independent Indymedia Site for Scotland has been set up. It is still very faulty, and i hope that after having had to wait for half a year for this page, that sorting out its mistakes won’t take as long. Now I get the hang of it the IMC UK Scotland subsection seems to be much easier in admin, and I even start people teaching the admin site. (unfortunately with limited success so far.) I wonder and hope if more people will get involved with the new site than the old one, I really do hope so, but it is all so confusing now and how to get people on board is really not a skill of mine. https://fempages.org/2003/09/02/the-panther/ Tue, 02 Sep 2003 14:54:19 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/09/02/the-panther/ The Panther _His gaze, going past those bars, has got so misted with tiredness, it can take in nothing more. He feels as though a thousand bars existed, and no more world beyond them than before. Those supply powerful paddings, turning there in tiniest of circles, well might be the dance of forces round a center where some mighty will stands paralyticly. Just now and then the pupils’ noiseless shutter is lifted. – Then an image will indart, down through the limbs’ intensive stillness flutter, and end its being in the heart. [Rainer Maria Rilke] more poems Actually it sounds odd in english translation, but it is incredibly strong in German: https://fempages.org/2003/09/02/another-waste-of-a-day/ Tue, 02 Sep 2003 13:22:22 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/09/02/another-waste-of-a-day/ I have been writing a whole long text on Sunday about EF! and environmentalism and such, but unfortunately it logged me out, Opera crashed and everything was lost. But it isn’t a huge loss, because it was all getting a bit too weird anyway.. To not make the same mistake again I’ll save the text right now. Anyway, I found out in the meantime, that any links I’ll do in the text might be displayed in the right column, which seems to be quite practical to me. What’s new? The Edinburgh Flashcrowd has announced another media stunt,.. I won’t be there, hopefully. https://fempages.org/2003/08/30/what-a-day/ Sat, 30 Aug 2003 22:47:41 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/08/30/what-a-day/ So it is Sunday now and I have already missed out a day on my internet diary. We just went to see the fireworks at the end of the festival. It got quite misty and foggy and rainy at the end, so we did not see much. The festival was so expensive this year, that I went as usual only to the stuff I could see for free, and even that I didn’t do properly. I went to see “The Girls of May” and found it fantastic, I really wanted to write a feature about it on IMcUk and ImcScotlands new culture section. https://fempages.org/2003/08/29/my-first-blog-just-got-set-up/ Fri, 29 Aug 2003 09:08:48 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/08/29/my-first-blog-just-got-set-up/ Hi, this is the first message on my freshly set up site. I am so excited. Still, I have absolutely no clue where this blog will lead me and what will come out of it. Will it be a diary? Will it be a dictionary, and moreover will I write in German or English or both? A reminder of what I have to do? Crazy isn’t it. I guess this century might develop to be one of the best-documented so far, concerning what the people living in this time actually think and do rather than the leaders. Probably blogs full with minor problems and in some time back future generations might ask: Why have they been so ignorant about the destruction of the environment? https://fempages.org/2003/08/01/argentinian-puppet-show-in-north-edinburgh/ Fri, 01 Aug 2003 12:34:17 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/08/01/argentinian-puppet-show-in-north-edinburgh/ The Argentina Autonomista Tour visited Edinburgh on the 2nd and 3rd of July, arriving from Glasgow before moving on to Ulverston. Graciela (pictured) from the Argentina Autonomista Project had a full timetable with interviews with the BBC and the Big Issue, showing slides in the Forest Cafe linked to a Q & A session, and presenting a puppet show in the evenings. Neka, from the Unemployed Workers Movement in Argentina, gave her talks in Spanish, and they were translated into English in the Q & A session. The event in the local Muirhouse Millennium Centre was excellent, and many locals helped to make it happen in a collaborative effort. https://fempages.org/2003/07/23/goodbye-lenin-is-in-the-cinemas-from-today/ Wed, 23 Jul 2003 00:58:09 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/07/23/goodbye-lenin-is-in-the-cinemas-from-today/ “Goodbye Lenin” is a film about the fall of the wall in 1989 and shows the historic events in the background of a personal story. It is a wonderful and charming film, which explains a lot about the events in autumn 1989, how it came about and what followed afterwards. The personal story is a vehicle to transport how people in the East felt and dealt with the change, and how the change dealt with them. In fact, it is a bit like a hidden documentary topped with a quite unbelievable personal tragi-comical story. The beauty lies in the contrast and honesty of describing the “real socialism” in the GDR and showing what it actually meant to people living in the system, and what it was later glorified to have been after the East has basically been taken over by the West and its capitalist values. https://fempages.org/2003/06/29/review-of-oyster-wars/ Sun, 29 Jun 2003 09:41:56 +0000 https://fempages.org/2003/06/29/review-of-oyster-wars/ From Tuesday 24th till Saturday 28th the “Oyster Wars Project” took place in North Edinburgh. This Project consisted of a theatre show, an exhibition and a community event. The main topic was the Oysters and how they defined the local community and how the oysters were transformed from a poor fishermen’s food to a luxurious delicacy, and in future might be a Genetically Modified fish-replacement being sold with chips as a take-away food. The play was written out of a local, working-class perspective and involved via time-travel the different difficulties in everyday life in various important points of the local history, including not only past time and present events, but also different possibilities for the future. https://fempages.org/2002/12/01/courage-and-consequence-women-publishing-in-africa/ Sun, 01 Dec 2002 00:25:34 +0000 https://fempages.org/2002/12/01/courage-and-consequence-women-publishing-in-africa/ Courage and Consequence:- Women publishing in Africa, by African Books Collective This book tells the astonishing life stories of female publishers in Africa in their own words. The contributors to this book write not only about the publishing and gender, but also about the political situation in their home countries, like Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Their fields of publishing are diverse: from the state, commercial, non-profit, community publishing to a women’s writers group and a bookseller. The book is easy to read, and though factual, the personal situation and individual writing style of every author of the eleven short stories provide an interesting and broad- mindening experience. https://fempages.org/2002/10/31/ken-loaches-neueste-filmprojekte/ Thu, 31 Oct 2002 00:40:29 +0000 https://fempages.org/2002/10/31/ken-loaches-neueste-filmprojekte/ Ken Loach hat anlaesslich des Kinostartes seines neusten Filmes “Sweet Sixteen” dazu aufgerufen, die Altersbeschraenkung zu seinem Film zu missachten. Der Film wurde in die Kategorie “Ueber 18” von der British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) eingestuft, weil in dem Film mehr als 200 Fluchwoerter enthalten sind. “Das Problem ist, dass die meisten der Zensoren in ihren eigenen kleinen Elfenbeinturm leben und ihrer eigenen Mittelklassenzuschauerschaft zuspielen”, so Ken Loach. (“The problem is that the censors live in their own little ivory tower and are playing to their own middle class gallery.”) “Die Sprache ist die Sprache der Strasse und des Spielplatzes, und hier gibt es kein Wort, das die meisten Kinder noch nicht gehoert haetten oder die meisten haeufig am Tag verwenden,” Der Film “Sweet Sixteen” hatte bei den Filmfestspielen in Cannes den Preis des besten Drehbuches verliehen bekommen. https://fempages.org/2002/10/06/edinburgh-theatre-play-on-global-action-day-genoa/ Sun, 06 Oct 2002 00:28:18 +0000 https://fempages.org/2002/10/06/edinburgh-theatre-play-on-global-action-day-genoa/ Theatre Workshop launched its new play “Nothing ever burns down by itself” (in relation to the Chumbawamba song “Give the anarchist a cigarette”/Anarchy) on Thursday, Friday, Saturday (3-5th October) in Edinburgh. The play broke down the barrier between the audience and the players by the total removal of seats and stage, constantly moving artists, audience and requisites around, giving the audience the feeling of really “having been there” and to “been involved”. “Before this play, I used to think theatre is like television only crapper,” Spacebunny said at the discussion after the play. “but this play was so interactive, close to reality and brought up real-life memories, that it revised my opinion on theatre”. https://fempages.org/2002/06/30/the-potatoes-on-the-top-under-these-the-leaflets/ Sun, 30 Jun 2002 23:21:35 +0000 https://fempages.org/2002/06/30/the-potatoes-on-the-top-under-these-the-leaflets/ Giacomma Castagnetti tells about her tasks in the Italian Resistenza: “I am from an antifascist family. My brothers have told me already as a little girl, that the documents and talks of the Duce aren’t true, that they are not at all expression and signs of democracy. 1935 I have heard for the first time about the war. Italy had invaded Ethopia. The keywords were saying, we would not have enough room and we must enlarge our national boundaries. The second World War then started off in 1940. I have joined the communist party at the time when I was 15 years. https://fempages.org/2002/06/30/an-italian-partisan-tellsit-was-like-a-promotion-to-have-to-go-underground/ Sun, 30 Jun 2002 23:19:07 +0000 https://fempages.org/2002/06/30/an-italian-partisan-tellsit-was-like-a-promotion-to-have-to-go-underground/ An Italian partisan tells: It was like a promotion to have to go underground Milan 1943: Milanese women collect the weapons of the escaping soldiers. Laura Polizzi, code name Mirka, comes from a family in Parma which fought against the fascists for a long time. It was two uncles, both in leading positions in the Communist Party, who introduced Laura into politics. «After the dismissal of Mussolini, my uncle Remo and another relative moved in, they didn’t feel secure anymore at theirs. Our house became the meeting point of the antifascist resistance. Many contacts arose from this time, like e. https://fempages.org/2002/06/30/women-in-the-italian-resistance/ Sun, 30 Jun 2002 23:15:13 +0000 https://fempages.org/2002/06/30/women-in-the-italian-resistance/ The original article was written by Nadja Bennewitz, a historian. The original homepage in German can be found at: http://www.frauen.resistenza.de/frau.htm more informationin about partisans, female partisans, resistenza can be found in German at: http://www.frauen.resistenza.de/ INDEX: official numbers the contribution of women What is the definition of the resistenzia? Who was officialy acknowledged as partisans? fighting female partisans female partisans in leading positions women and weapons Resistenza civile female resistance! Who are the real volunteers? strikes as a start for resistance the biggest action of disguise in history the “women defense groups” What were the tasks of the women organised in the Gddd? https://fempages.org/2002/06/14/dare-enklave-der-behinderten-revolutionaren-anarchistinnen/ Fri, 14 Jun 2002 10:33:56 +0000 https://fempages.org/2002/06/14/dare-enklave-der-behinderten-revolutionaren-anarchistinnen/ d.a.r.e.: disabled anarchist revolutionary enclave Enklave der behinderten, revolutionären AnarchistInnen d.a.r.e. ist ein etwas Älteres Theaterstueck aus dem Jahre 1997, das neu auf Tour geht. Die Handlung spielt in einer nicht all zu fernen Zukunft. Vier behinderte Anarchisten treffen sich im virtuellen Anarchist Chatroom und diskutieren ueber das neue Gesetz, welches besagt, dass sich ab sofort jede(r) einen Gentest unterziehen muss, auf dessen Basis dann die Krankenkassenbeitraege festgesetzt werden. Die vier Anarchisten stimmen einander zu, dass sie den Gentest verweigern werden, und in den Untergrund gehen werden, um gegen die Gentechnik mit deren Anspruch, “perfekte Babys” garantieren zu wollen, zu protestieren. https://fempages.org/2002/06/01/british-womens-organisations-1825-%E2%80%93-1960/ Sat, 01 Jun 2002 08:08:13 +0000 https://fempages.org/2002/06/01/british-womens-organisations-1825-%E2%80%93-1960/ Peter Gordon and David Doughan, Woburn Press Now out as paperback! A good decision, as this dictionary should be as widespread as possible. A wide range of women’s organisations is introduced and explained here: the content includes not only political groups such as the suffrage groups, the ‘Women’s Anti Opium Urgency Committee’ or the ‘Rational Dress Society’, bur also professional organisations such as the ‘Women’s Engineering Society’, sports clubs like the ‘Ladies Cyclists Association’ and religious groups. Most of the organisations are introduced with their aims, prominent members, the date they were founded, location and activities. Funnily enough even some men’s groups are mentioned here, mainly societies which were formed to participate in women’s concerns, often to support women’s suffrage, such as the ‘Men’s Committee for Justice to Women’. https://fempages.org/2002/03/30/the-scottish-suffragettes/ Sat, 30 Mar 2002 23:22:55 +0000 https://fempages.org/2002/03/30/the-scottish-suffragettes/ This is a summary of an excellent book written by Leah Leneman and distributed and published via the National Museums of Scotland Publishing Limited. It’s £6.99 at the moment. The author has written extensively on women’s issues. Other books are: “A Guid Gause- The Suffrage Movement in Scotland (Mercat Press)”, “Elsie Inglis: Founder of the Battlefront Hospitals run entirely by Women” and “Into the Foreground: A century of Scottish Women and photographs” (both via National Museums of Scotland Publishing). Short Introduction: The term “suffragette” applied only to members of the militant branch of the movement, but the book is also about the non-militant “suffragists”. https://fempages.org/2001/10/25/racism-in-german-childrens-books/ Thu, 25 Oct 2001 11:05:53 +0000 https://fempages.org/2001/10/25/racism-in-german-childrens-books/ Here’s a vague translation about an article in GrossRaum Zeitung, a left newspaper in Nuremberg, about racism in children’s books. The author is Gertrud Selzer, who is contactable via 3.Welt Saar, an organisation focussing on Third World Countries. Tel. 0049- 6872-993056, address: 3.Welt Saar, Weiskirchener Str.24, 66679 Losheim, Germany. She starts of with Pippi Longstocking, who seems quite revolutionary, but her father is the “white” king of the natives who are happily ruled by him, the natives are black and have a childish behaviour, are drumming all the times and wear skirts of bast fibres and big earrings. Famous is also the child rhyme about the ten small Negroes, which seems at first sight a rhyme to learn counting and is only on a detailed view revealing its message, that people from Africa would have to be taught order and discipline. https://fempages.org/2001/10/04/stewart-home-blow-job/ Thu, 04 Oct 2001 11:09:13 +0000 https://fempages.org/2001/10/04/stewart-home-blow-job/ Blow Job ist das dritte Buch, das im Nautilus Verlag von Stewart Home erscheint. Nach den Erstlingsroman: “Pure Mania- Purer Wahnsinn; Sexual Perversion at ist most!” folgte “Stellungskrieg” dem Schlachtruf: “Anarchie! Faulheit! Polymorphe Perversion!” Und nun, seit Februar 2001: “Blow Job”. In Englisch sind ausserdem als Roman: “Red London” (Marx, Christ and Satan united in struggle!) und, als neustes Werk “Cunt” (Fotze) erschienen, mit dem Titel zum Aufkleben auf dem Buchruecken, ihr wisst schon warum. Theoretische Buecher sind “Neoism, Plagiarism & Praxis”, “What is Situationism?” , “Cranked up really high” (Ueber Punk), “The assault on Culture”. “Blow Job” sei Stuarts bestes Buch bisher, versichert mir der Zeremonienmeister der Stewart Home Society. https://fempages.org/2001/07/01/uncomfortably-numb-a-prison-requiem/ Sun, 01 Jul 2001 23:03:36 +0000 https://fempages.org/2001/07/01/uncomfortably-numb-a-prison-requiem/ by Maureen Maguire, Luath Press Limited, Edinburgh, price £ 8.99, get via WordPower or directly from Luath Press, ca 235 pages The book is divided into different parts, giving a short overview of the life of each of the eight women committing suicide in Cornton Vale from June 95 to July 98. The book concentrates then on the life of Yvonne Gilmour, who committed suicide on Christmas Eve in 96. The book is based on the inquiries in terms of the Fatal Accidents and Sudden Death Inquiry (Scotland) Act 1976 Section 6 (I) (c) and therefore based on the questionings of inmates, prison authorities, psychologists, medics, social and drug workers, and family members. https://fempages.org/2001/05/01/pregnancy-and-birth-in-support-of-autonomy/ Tue, 01 May 2001 23:02:20 +0000 https://fempages.org/2001/05/01/pregnancy-and-birth-in-support-of-autonomy/ by WHIC, Women’s Health Information Collective, Glasgow, distributed via AK Press and printed by Clydeside Press, for the price of £3.00, ca.170 pages This is a collection of articles contributed by various women on the aspect of birth, but focussing mainly on the mother and her feelings and problems, not so much on the baby. It gives self-experienced advice on nutrition, herbs, aromatherapy, homoeopathy, shiatsu, alexander technique, homebirth, breastfeeding, vaginal birth after caesarean, and breathing, movement and optimal fetal positioning. The second part of the book is a collection of birth stories and how they wanted it to happen, their plans and how it actually went. https://fempages.org/2001/03/25/a-colourful-life-for-the-bend-line-artist-friedrich-hundertwasser-died/ Sun, 25 Mar 2001 10:49:38 +0000 https://fempages.org/2001/03/25/a-colourful-life-for-the-bend-line-artist-friedrich-hundertwasser-died/ About Friedrich Hundertwasser: a translated article from the german daily magazine LVZ (Leipziger Volks Zeitung ) A colourful life for the bend line the artist and architect Friedrich Hundertwasser has died/ public liked him, but critics didn’t His whole life he was accused of creating trash – but he was one of the most popular artist of our days. Last weekend the austrian artist and architect Friedrich Hundertwasser died on board of his cruising ship “Queen Elizabeth II” in the middle of the pacific ocean. He is going to be buried like he wanted to: in his own “garden of the happy dead” in New Zealand.