buttons of steel

Some Grandmothers of Steel gave the opirg button machine a work out today, in advance of their fundraising event that will get you a workout on the escarpment rail trail in Hamilton. (Grans of Steel Theresa Randles and Ruth Green, pictured making buttons)

The Grandmothers of Steel present Hamilton's 'Kiliman' Climb, Saturday, June 20, 2009, from 9 to 11am, a fundraising effort for the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

"Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania has been climbed by many as a means to raise funds to fight HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.
Hike up the Escarpment Rail trail from Wentworth St. S. to Mohawk Sports Park (Bernie Arbor)"

So grab a sponsor sheet and register for the climb: call 905-389-1405 or 905-385-8482 or e-mail grandmothersofsteel@gmail.com or visit the website at www.grandmothersofsteel.blogspot.com

You will end up with a "today I made a difference" button to proudly wear on your lapel!

smile to a frown to a smile again

In the haste, amid the distractions, the slings and arrows, etc. we inadvertently left out Simon De Abreu's contribution to the print edition of the opirg newsletter PIRGSPECTIVES (Spring/Summer 2009) - the online copy has been altered to include his poem, so those of you who may have been puzzled to see his bio, but not his contribution, can now rest at night. Here it is, standing alone, and proud, and of course our apologies to Simon for messing up in the first place...

Simona's Serious Smile

Scales of justice, injustice abounds.
Lies, fears, dyes are cast.

Sweat of hope, tears of joy,
Memories of the past

Lies of politicians echo throughout the land.
Debt fills citizens with fear, no money in hand;

a damned-nation is reborn.

Sweet sweat of hope flows from a political messiah,
while tears of joy fall from impoverished eyes

I long for sweet sounds of my NYC Mariah!

I am what i am but who are we?
We bargain with the devil collectively.

Hearts bleed and memories fade,
Sons raise and fall, in the name of what?

A new day is dawning on the power of poetry,
that is, not was, being shared

and in the process of being drunk, poetry,
poetry,

like spirits of old – go on, on wine, on beer, on vixen.
i have been told, but who are WE,
individually?

- Simon C. De Abreu

Report from San Sebastien

The following is the second in a series of postings by Rika Sawatsky. OPIRG McMaster assisted her with some funding for this trip.

The people here in San Sebastien (2 hours outside of Caracas) are great. It has about 4000 people and is a colonial town founded in the 1500s. We get stared at a lot, and a lot of people throw out random English words that they know--a lot of ¨hello¨s and ¨how are you¨s when people are driving by, and also ¨good morning¨ in the evening. Most of the roads are really narrow with narrow raised curbs, so people just walk on the road and try to get out of the way when people try to drive by. The houses are all really colourful and have different shapes and sizes. A couple of nights ago we went to a restaurant where the waiters were all dancing, and they taught us how to dance to latin music. We were brutal, and they were laughing at how stiffly we moved. They later took us to a local bar to learn to dance some more. We learned a few dancing games, and the atmosphere was great, especially because there were people of all ages there. It truly seemed like a community place. We also went on a motorcycle tour of the city earlier that day. I would say more ppl ride motorcycles here than cars, and there aren´t car taxis but motorcycle taxis, so you see people sitting on the back of motorcycles, sometimes with even 3 kids squished in between. We also went hiking up to a cave in the mountains. It is so nice here.

The boys at the orphanage are also very kind. They are relatively older, ranging 12 to 17. They take care of themselves for the most part because the place is slowly shutting down. It is a large piece of property with only 8 boys. The government is thinking of splitting the kids up among other orphanages in surrounding cities so that it can take the land. There is also only one house mother that takes care of the place, but she also has her own family to look after. Likewise with the girl´s orphanage around the corner. There is only one volunteering woman from Switzerland who looks after the place. The oldest boy who is 17 makes sure all the other ones get up in time for school (they have to get up at 530am because their school is a ways away) and makes them food. The other ones are usually helping out here and there. The girl´s orphanage is smaller but is also too large for the five girls that it holds. one of the major concerns for girls around here is teen pregnancy, it seems. We heard from one of the house mothers that a lot of teenagers get bored and end up pregnant instead of going to school. One of the girls at the girls´ home has an 8 month old baby. For the most part, though, the kids seem really responsible. They also seem happy. They are well fed and dressed. They slaughtered their own chickens, which was a new experience for me. The chickens were kicking for over aminute after their heads were cut off.


Our team has been feeling a little frustrated because we have not had much to do. The house mothers told us that there is not much that we could do around the house because they need professional electricians and plumbers to do the repairs. They wanted us to hang out with the kids, which I have been enjoying. I think that our placement here is helpful, especially because it is at the beginning of our trip and is making sure we understand that our idea of ¨help¨does not necessarily coincide with what the locals want from us. The boys have been showing us around town quite a bit, and because we are staying at the boy´s house, we have been spending quite a bit of time with them. We haven´t seen much of the girl´s house, but there is an autistic girl and downs syndrome girl there who cannot be left alone. So, when the Swiss house mother was away earlier this week, we hung out with them and kept them company. They are really great girls. There is also an autistic guy at the boys´ home who is 35 now.

We also went to a ranch in the town, which belonged to one of the guys who was at the bar. It was interesting seeing the wealthy end of the social spectrum. He is the world champion for some kind of rodeo thing where you have to take down a bull while riding a horse. His ranch just trains the horses and then the horses are sold to other competitors.

Our next stop is Puerto Ayacucho in the Amazon. We will be leaving Wednesday evening.

Recycle Merit

OPIRG McMaster project long-time volunteer wins EOY award of Merit - Congrats Dean!

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The dirt (soil) on Peter Rice TheSpec.com - Local - The dirt (soil) on Peter Rice

Cootes champion is environmentalist of the year

Eric McGuinness, The Hamilton Spectator, (May 11, 2009)

Hamilton's environmentalist of the year is Peter Rice, retired assistant director of the Royal Botanical Gardens.

He will receive the Dr. Victor Cecilioni Environmentalist of the Year Award for 2008 at a dinner June 3.

Awards of merit will go to Dean Carriere, for his involvement in the Recycle Cycles volunteer bike repair shop; engineer and environmentalist Peter Ormond; community organizer and educator Julia Kollek and to Cathedral High School's Eco Team, which helped Cathedral become the Catholic board's only provincially certified Eco School.

Rice's daughter Sarah, who nominated him, said he has been involved in environmental activities all his life -- 70 years this month.

"I have reason to believe he was born with hiking boots on, covered in dirt (or soil as my dad would correct me) and with binoculars around his neck."

He has served as president of the Ontario Shade Tree Council, as a director of the Bay Area Restoration Council and been a long-time member of the Hamilton Naturalists' Club and Iroquoia Bruce Trail Club, among other organizations.

Rice was one of the founders of Project Paradise, the RBG's effort to restore the Cootes Paradise marsh, and an early supporter of the Hamilton Harbour Remedial Action Plan, especially efforts to protect and expand wildlife habitat. The 30th annual Environmentalists of the Year Awards Dinner will be held June 3, in the middle of Canadian Environment Week, at the Michelangelo Banquet Centre.

Tickets at $30 are available in Burlington at the Royal Botanical Gardens gift shop, in east Hamilton by calling Environment Hamilton at 905-549-0900 or e-mailing contactus@environmenthamilton.org and in the west end by calling 905-648-3391.

emcguinness@thespec.com

905-526-4650

http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/563738

Letter from Venezuela

The following is the first of a series of postings by Rika Sawatsky. OPIRG McMaster assisted her with some funding for this trip.

Hello everybody,

I just graduated from McMaster´s Arts & Science program and am currently in Venezuela with a team of 7 other McMaster students. We´re volunteering at a few locations in the country under the auspices of Canadian registered charity Global Youth Network. We arrived in Caracas a few days ago and had some time to settle down and begin adjusting to the culture. My Spanish is still horrendous, but the people here are very kind and are helping us learn some things. The city is absolutely beautiful. The people are also very kind here, and our hosts made us some fantastic dishes. Our volunteering really only began just this morning. We moved to our first placement in San Sebastien, just 2 hours out of Caracas. It is a smaller town, with I believe 40 000 people.

We´re staying at a boys´home and will be volunteering between there and a girls´home a few doors down. Again, the people are great. The children have been very patient with our inability to speak their language, and we´ve been having a lot of fun trying to communicate. This is just a short update for now since we haven´t really started any of our volunteer work yet. I will be posting again at the end of the week. We will then be moving onto another town, and then into the Amazon for a couple of weeks.

cooking the books

Ndinda Msiska is excited to combine her three loves: food, community and writing as the Student Intern on the Local Food Resource Project. The project aims to liase with local farmers and chefs to create a cookbook featuring locally-grown ingredients in Hamilton, Halton, Haldimand-Norfolk and Brantford regions. A 3rd Year McMaster student, Ndinda is currently pursuing studies in Communication Studies and French and loves a good laugh and a good meal.

spring summer 2009

Signs of spring:

• red wing blackbirds
  
• OPIRG McMaster goes to a four day work week (May-August, Monday to Thursdays)
• the Spring and Summer edition of PIRGSPECTIVES is released into the world.

Grab a hard copy at OPIRG, My Dog Joe, SkyDragon Centre and other soon to be confirmed locations.

Or read it online here (it's in a layout format that means it reads in order only if printed double sided, but not in order if you read it on the screen - you can make it a bit of a game to see if you can figure out the proper order though, so have fun!)