ezra winton

Neoliberalism, Big Brothers, Coops, and the Canada Council

Posted by in Academix, Cinema Politica, Personal Travails, World Inc.

Neoliberalism: My PhD is keeping me busy with 250+ pages of reading per week, but I’m immensely enjoying it. The program at Carleton is what I had hoped for – four of us students in a small classroom with one professor engaging deeply with the material we’ve read for a good three hours. We just finished a great book by Armand Mattelart (pictured at left) called “Mapping World Communication: War, Progress, Culture.” Here’s my Favorite quote from this excellent historical reading of the field of communication: As we have already…read more

Oct.05
0

Concordia corruption knows no ends

Posted by in Broadsides

Concordia, how I miss thee! As I pack my bags tonight and ready myself for another trip to Ottawa for classes at Carleton, I’ve been thinking: how did things get so utterly Orwellian at Concordia? As of late, I’ve heard from student friends who were being incredibly radical by handing out flyers on campus, ones that called for “free education,” when members of Concordia’s current Student Union Executive including the easily influenced Noah Stewart and his sidekick sycophant Angelica something-or-other called security to have them removed! Damn those radicals! (the…read more

Sep.24
0

Wal-Town is number two!

Posted by in Doc Side, Projects

Just a quick hurrah: it seems that right now the documentary on the project I helped create – Wal-Town – is the number two most purchased/ordered NFB film in the educational division. This means that across Canada, teachers and librarians are ordering many, many copies of Wal-Town The Film. This is amazing news, both for Sergeo Kirby, the director, and for the gang of us who put the project into action. We always thought the film was an important aspect of reaching a wider audience, and now it seems we’re…read more

Sep.17
0

The Revolution Will Not Be Funded (But it will be fun)

Posted by in Dispatches, Doc Side

I’m writing this from the bus to Ottawa, which left Montreal at 8 AM this morning. I’m on my way to Carleton for my PhD orientation. Can’t believe it was only a week or so ago that I was finishing my MA thesis…wow. In fact, just last Friday Svetla and I celebrated my handing in my final draft of my thesis to the Graduate office and Svetla mailing her 5 kilos of immigration documents. Last night we had two visitors arrive from my hometown, Courtenay: Jim and his daughter, Lisa….read more

Sep.04
0

Bottled water and a new blog look

Posted by in Doc Side, World Inc.

You’ve probably noticed by now that I’ve switched my blog over to WordPress, and the snazzy digs have inspired me to get back into posting. Right now I’m concerned about submitting my finished thesis to the Graduate Studies Office of Concordia, but soon after that, I’ll be setting aside time to post the odd rant here. For now, I’d like to point you in the direction of a great article I’ve just found on line. I’ve been doing some research for Liz Miller’s documentary film The Water Front, and well…read more

Aug.28
0

Thesis successfully defended – Woop!

Posted by in Academix, Doc Side, Personal Travails

After a long, long hiatus I’m back to report that yesterday I successfully defended my MA thesis (picture on the left is me after defense with my profs)!! I have a few minor revisions to make, but basically I’m all set to start my PhD. I had charged my cell phone and waited for calls last night, but alas, defending a thesis seems to not measure up to getting married or having a baby. Speaking of which, congratulations to my niece, Sarah, who has just had a baby girl and…read more

Aug.17
2

Suffering Fools – Post CSU Election Rant Part I

Posted by in Broadsides

The corrupted old song has stolen the soul of Concordia’s Student Union for a fifth year in a row. I’d like to rant about how stupid Concordia students are and how they get just what they deserve, but alas, one cannot blame the oppressed instead of the oppressor. This year’s Unity slate won by apparently 1,000 votes, but it may as well be 150,000 as the numbers are a creative exercise in repressing democracy. What these vultures have succeeded in doing for another year is rigging another election in their…read more

Mar.30
0

Debating what Should be Commonsense: Another Self-Serving CSU goes for Gold

Posted by in Broadsides

It’s election time at Concordia University, where every year for the last four years, students have voted for a corrupt, inept, and self-serving bunch of miscreants. This year, some students that I actually respect as activists and organizers, like Edwin Janzen, are coming out of the woodwork to throw their support behind the latest incarnation in the Evolution/Experience franchise. What dismays and disturbs me is that well-meaning students like Janzen, who are influential on campus when they write endorsement letters to our school paper, the Link, have a complete inability…read more

Mar.21
0

Exhausted and Departing

Posted by in Dispatches, Projects

A journalist for Uptown Magazine in Winnipeg interviewed me recently about our upcoming WAL-TOWN TOUR 2007 and asked me what we wanted to accomplish with this campaign and whether we are anti Wal-Mart. I answered: We are anti Wal-Mart. If Wal-Mart was a corporation that supported it’s employee’s rights to organize, if they were accountable to the citizens in the towns they move into instead of only to their shareholders, if they had progressive environmental policies that were sustainable, if they weren’t the largest retail force on the planet that…read more

Jan.19
0
<
>