ezra winton

The Colonizing of the Developing World Continues: Have another Cigarette

Posted by in Broadsides

The IPS reports today that one of the worst threats to people living in poverty around the world – mainly in the “developing world” – is not HIV or famine, but preventable, non-communicable diseases. People dying from tobacco-induced cancer in the majority world reminds me of the kind of corporate colonialism that we’re seeing in the cultural industries. For example, as Playboy perceived an exhaustable market in “the West” it set its sights on the pure and vulnerable global south, readying the global company’s operations for India, where peddling soft-porn…read more

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RIDM Festival Wraps Up

Posted by in Doc Side

This year’s tenth anniversary of the Montreal International Documentary Film Festival (RIDM) has come and gone and I am quite pleased to have been asked to be involved as a jury member. I sat on the Caméra au Poing (Camera at the Ready) Jury with Francoise David and Sylvie Lardinois (pictured with me at the left in a St Denis café at one of our three meetings). It was a great experience to sit and discuss 20 films with two other enthusiasts of film and politics. Francoise is the co-founder…read more

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Concordia Convocation on Rememberance Day

Posted by in Personal Travails

On this day to remember the million and one reasons not to engage in violence in order to solve conflict, Concordia University also held the Winter 2007 Convocation Ceremonies for about 400 of us. It was pretty cool to see some of my cohort (pictured at left with me: Michael Lithgow now at Carleton, and Rebecca Reeve now climbing the corporate ladder with an eye for communication in San Francisco) and some of my profs. The ceremony, awkwardly but also somehow fittingly, held on Remembrance Day, was short and sweet….read more

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New Study on Israeli Soldier Violence Against Palestinians Reveals Daily Terror

Posted by in Broadsides

Last week’s Guardian published a story on a new study by former IDF soldier-turned psychologist Nufar Yishai-Karin. The report has shaken the political scene in Israel, a country whose government has always maintained that their military was the most “ethical in the world.” While activists and Palestinians have always known that in fact the opposite is true, this report offers first hand accounts from several soldiers who have admitted to enjoying atrocious acts of violence against unarmed civilians. Interviews in the report recount disturbing tales of beating on four year-olds…read more

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