24 – 28 November 2009
Unit B9, The Powerhub Business Centre, Maidstone

5-9 is a show of new, site specific, film and video by University for the Creative Arts staff and students, including work by Dominic de Vere and Sebastian Edge, Stavros Gangos, Nicky Hamlyn, Conor Kelly and Cathy Rogers.

Most of the work has been made in the Powerhub, a former commercial vehicles factory, situated by the river Medway in Maidstone and close to Maidstone East railway station. All the work is designed to be projected onto the windows of the gallery, and can be viewed from the railway footbridge opposite, as well as from inside the building.

As the title of the show suggests, it is open daily from 5-9 pm.  You can find out more about the show at www.5-9.org.uk

24 – 28 November 2009
Unit B9, The Powerhub Business Centre, Maidstone

5-9 is a show of new, site specific, film and video by University for the Creative Arts staff and students, including work by Dominic de Vere and Sebastian Edge, Stavros Gangos, Nicky Hamlyn, Conor Kelly and Cathy Rogers.

Most of the work has been made in the Powerhub, a former commercial vehicles factory, situated by the river Medway in Maidstone and close to Maidstone East railway station. All the work is designed to be projected onto the windows of the gallery, and can be viewed from the railway footbridge opposite, as well as from inside the building.

As the title of the show suggests, it is open daily from 5-9 pm.  You can find out more about the show at
www.5-9.org.uk

“-¿Qué significa “domesticar”? -volvió a preguntar el principito.

-Es una cosa ya olvidada -dijo el zorro-, significa “crear lazos… “

-¿Crear lazos?

-Efectivamente, verás -dijo el zorro-. Tú no eres para mí todavía más que un muchachito igual a otros cien mil muchachitos. Y no te necesito. Tampoco tú tienes necesidad de mí. No soy para ti más que un zorro entre otros cien mil zorros semejantes. Pero si me domesticas, entonces tendremos necesidad el uno del otro. Tú serás para mí único en el mundo, yo seré para ti único en el mundo…”

Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Casi diez años más tarde, en agosto de 2008, me enteré del Clue Train Manifesto, cuando en mi segundo día como Responsable de Marketing Catálogo de Officenet Staples, me crucé con Leo Piccioli, que relacionó una de mis escasas ideas con la genial declaración de estos 4 visionarios en 1999.
Ellos antes que casi todos. Yo después que casi todos. Ellos con una visión. Yo con alguna intuición.

Me pasa seguido.

Pero si, de algún modo siempre creí en el poder de las relaciones humanas. En el poder de los lazos.
A los 12, me tocó leer – por mandato paterno- El Principito. ( No, no era tan complicado el pedido, teniendo en cuenta que a los 14 tocaba Cien años de soledad. )
Desde ahí que creo firmemente en perder tiempo en lo importante. Desde ahí que reconozco que lo que hace a las personas cercanas es haberse “domesticado”.
Por eso, entre otras cosas, elegí el marketing como profesión cuando leí por primera vez en la UCA a Regis o a Don.

Por eso, desde que lo conozco, el ClueTrain Manifesto también es mi leit motiv..

Diez años tarde. Típico mío. Me queda claro, no soy una early adopter en estos temas.
Como diría mi nuevo amigo, Juan Carlos Lucas, se me va a notar el “acento”… Pero igual quiero abrirme mi nuevo blog antes que lo haga mi hijo Jeremías que con 5 años ya quiere un perfil en facebook.
Ojalá valga la pena.

Hace 2 días comentábamos un manifiesto independentista del año 2000. Ahora toca recoger el documento de análisis realizado por Adrián y que ha generado una interesante polémica en internet. Este texto parte de la idea de reconstruir el tejido del Movimiento de Liberación Nacional de Aragón, en base a sensaciones que demostrarían una consolidación del mismo, y cuyo ejemplo próximo sería la más que probable unión de las dos organizaciones juveniles (Astral y Chobenalla). Se insiste en el peso determinante de la juventud a la hora de liderar la revolución (habla de Cuba, “Mayo del 68″, etc.), relacionando este hecho con el papel de la misma en Euskal Herria y los Països Catalans (sic). De forma acertada el propio autor expone como es la propia Chobenalla la generadora del movimiento actual, aunque en parte confunde esa parte con el todo, cuando habla de derrumbe del mismo a raíz del proceso de expulsión de CHA. Ese momento, marca un antes y un después, aunque Adrián equivoca fechas, CHA se convirtió en un partido más del sistema en 2001, en la asamblea que permite llegar al poder a la pareja José Antonio Acero y Gonzalo Orna. CHA albergó independentistas pero nunca llegó a serlo. Luego pasamos a Astral, con una historia más corta en el tiempo, pero que le ha llevado también por derroteros similares (desvinculación de Estado Aragonés).

Tras la apuesta ilusionante por unir ambos colectivos, se traslada a analizar el papel del BIC. Aquí cuestiona su función de bloque, no por los colectivos que permanecen, sino por los que pasaron. En el texto se valora la lucha del BIC, sobre todo en Zaragoza. Sigue con la disección cogiendo al tridente del Bloque (A Enrestida, Puyalón y Chobenalla) y alabando su labor activista. También empondera la labor del SOA como verdadero sindicato de clase. O el trabajo de los colectivos estudiantiles UCA y ChERA. La loa continúa con movimientos no políticos, plataformas de variado tipo, etc. Al final, la propuesta marxista-leninista recoge frases y objetivos, unos más acertados que otros pero sin justificación previa, por lo menos leyendo todo lo anterior. Un texto interesante, que analiza algo (aunque faltaría más perspectiva), sintetiza bastante y soluciona poco a corto plazo. Pero la intención es buena.

If you know me or have been reading the blog for awhile, you know I’ll be at the event below.

The University of Central Arkansas Honors College continues its Local Foods Challenge Week with a lecture by Joel Salatin, a farmer and author of Everything I Want to Do is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front, tonight at 7 p.m. at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. Salatin operates Polyface Farm in the Shenandoah Valley and was featured in Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Fore more information, visit http://honors.uca.edu/ChallengeWeek/index.html.

… have been awesome. Whenever I’m in the middle of an event (like the dirt conference, basic training, women’s event, etc), I am totally in my element, and I love it. I will expand more later, but in the midst of my eventful week, there were some random and awesome moments, all capture by my cell phone, and I want to share.

The weekend brought an awesome surprise: Cale surprised me with flowers! He had them sent to me through Tyler, who works at a flower shop and had to track me down in LR to give me the flowers. How sweet is Cale? Sending me flowers when he’s so far away..

Then, I stayed the weekend at my parents’ house and read the newspaper Sunday morning. You can always trust the Sunday paper to bring you something scrumptious like this:

Setting up for the Dirt Conference was crazy on Sunday and Monday, but once it was finished, we got to enjoy everything. Here is a little glimpse of the creative genius that was behind the conference:

All the while, it’s beautifully AUTUMN outside:

Annnnd, now ladies and gentlemen, the most random animal sighting of the week goes to: The squirrel on the steering wheel of the Physical Plant truck at UCA:

I know, I know! My week couldn’t be more amazing, could it? Well, the dirt conference ended today. It was amazing, to say the least, and now we can all breathe a big sigh of relief, and settle into the feeling of acomplishment. To reward my week, my parents took me out for sushi at Gina’s in Little Rock. (Plug: if you haven’t been there, it’s amazing… it’s on Hwy 10, right before Taylor Loop/Walgreens).  Thanks Mom & Dad!

A lot can happen in 5 days, can’t it?

The University of Central Arkansas Honors College continues its Local Foods Challenge Week with a lecture by Marion Nestle, a Paulette Goddard professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University and author of Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health, tonight at 7 p.m. at the UCA Ida Waldran Auditorium. Nestle will discuss food revolution.

Fore more information, visit http://honors.uca.edu/ChallengeWeek/index.html.

The University of Central Arkansas Honors College continues its Local Foods Challenge Week with a lecture by Woody Tasch, author of Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered, tonight at 7 p.m. at the UCA McCastlain Ballroom. A former venture capitalist, Tasch will speak about community investment.

For more information, visit http://honors.uca.edu/ChallengeWeek/index.html.

Por Rafael Menjivar.

Observador Juvenil/El Esplendor.

A los 20 años del asesinato de los mártires Jesuitas de la UCA, su testimonio de sacrificio y entrega sigue vigente para la paz y justicia del pueblo.

Gracias a Dios, el mundo reconoce el aporte de los mártires, es indudable que la esperanza que vivimos hoy, es contribución de los mártires.-

Nos llena de honor que el Congreso de los Estados Unidos, aprobó el mes pasado un reconocimiento póstuma honorífico a la vida y aporte de los Mártires. De igual forma, nos alegra que el gobierno salvadoreño otorgara también un galardón póstume.

Nos unimos a ese fervor póstume y hemos conmemorado  a nuestros mártires Jesús Calzada, Francisco Carrillo y David Fernández , que ofrendaron su vida por la justicia social.-

Oportunamente también vamos a celebrar el 16 de noviembre, un acto solemne y religioso dedicado a los mártires y a la Cruz Subversiva.-

Invitamos a la población y a los diversos sectores a participar en esta actividad en donde habrá presencia de delegaciones de Iglesias Luteranas en el mundo. El lema: Si quieres venir en pos de mi, toma mi cruz y sígueme.-

Esta obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons.

Por Leonor Cárdenas.

Observador Juvenil/Kaos en la Red.

El refuerzo de efectivos del Ejército en seguridad ciudadana fue avalado por el Presidente de la República, Mauricio Funes, quien aseguró que la medida se pondrá en marcha a partir del próximo viernes.

Según el mandatario, con dicha medida se reforzará la seguridad en cinco departamentos del país, siendo estos: Sonsonate, La Libertad, Santa Ana, San Miguel y San Salvador y de estos, 19 municipios y 28 zonas están identificadas como las de mayor incidencia delincuencial.

“Luego de una intensa jornada de reuniones con las autoridades del Ministerio de Justicia y Seguridad Pública, la PNC y autoridades de la Defensa Nacional, finalmente aprobé la ampliación del apoyo de las Fuerzas Armadas a la PNC, de modo de garantizar el orden, la paz interna y la seguridad ciudadana”, manifestó el mandatario en la conferencia de prensa quincenal.

El Mandatario explicó que el despliegue de efectivos militares tendrá una duración de 180 días, transcurrido ese plazo, y siguiendo la norma constitucional, el Jefe de Estado deberá rendir un informe a la Asamblea Legislativa sobre los resultados.

La medida dispone del aumento de efectivos militares y recursos puestos a disposición de este apoyo. “Hasta ahora, veníamos involucrando unos mil 200, ahora se aumentará significativamente el número”, explicó el mandatario, aunque prefirió no profundizar en los detalles.

El Presidente aclaró que la medida de incrementar la participación de efectivos militares en el servicio de seguridad ciudadana, se fundamenta en los artículos 168 de la Constitucional de la República.

“Según la Constitución de la República, es atribución del Presidente de la República organizar, conducir y mantener a la Fuerza Armada; disponer de la Fuerza Armada de manera permanente para la defensa de la soberanía del Estado y de manera excepcional para el mantenimiento de la paz interna, tranquilidad y seguridad publica”, aseguró Funes.

En cuanto a la función que desarrollará la Fuerza Armada en el servicio de seguridad, el Presidente explicó que esta participará en registros, requisas a personas y vehículos.

“Va a proceder a la detención en caso de flagrancia y entregará de inmediato a la Policía Nacional Civil, mediante un informe circunstancial de los hechos los que participa, va a participar en el resguardo de la Frontera Nacional y puntos ciegos, centros penitenciarios, entre otros”, agregó Funes.

Esta no es la primera vez que un mandatario recurre a la colaboración militar ante la inseguridad, en 1994 el ex Presidente Armando Calderón Sol también ocupó su potestad constitucional para los refuerzos en las zonas más peligrosas. Asimismo, el ex presidente Elías Antonio Saca, cuando avaló la creación de Grupos de Tarea Conjunta (GTC), en ese entonces dispuso también que estos grupos custodiaran zonas como Soyapango y Apopa, donde las pandillas operaban.

La medida ha generado rechazo, la Fundación de Estudios para la Aplicación del Derechos (FESPAD) cuestionó estas disposiciones que las tildó de “medidas represivas” y que no proponen una solución al problema.

El rector de la UCA, José María Tojeira, también se mostró en contra de la iniciativa, que en un inicio él propuso, aclarando luego que su sugerencia no era sacar al ejército de “forma abrupta”.

The University of Central Arkansas Honors College will take a closer look at America’s food system and the growing issue of obesity in the U.S. as part of Challenge Week 2009.

This year’s theme ” Just Food: Farm-to-Fork Food Systems for 21st Century Communities,” addresses the “just food” movement in America. The movement calls for ecologically responsible and economically sound agriculture, better food safety, anti-hunger policy, and programs that address obesity and other aspects of healthy eating.

“In various ways, thousands of Americans are working to improve the quality of the nation’s food supply and citizens’ access to good, affordable food,” said Allison Wallace, associate professor in the UCA Honors College.

Challenge Week begins November 5 and will run through November 12.

“Challenge Week brings to campus nationally known authors to the entire community in a reflective interchange of ideas,” said Rick Scott, director of the Honors College. “Speakers present ideas and arguments to members of the UCA community and to the broader community of central Arkansas in an effort to inform and educate, and to thoughtfully address contemporary problems and concerns.”

The symposium kicks off tonight with a special screening of the documentary Food, Inc. at 7 p.m. at the Market Street Cinema in Little Rock. Tickets are $5. UCA students are admitted free with a student ID.

Challenge Week will also spotlight a series of speakers including Joel Berg, Chris Taylor, Woody Tasch, Marion Nestle, and Joel Salatin.

For more information, visit the UCA Honors College website at http://honors.uca.edu/ChallengeWeek/index.html.

Library Film/Media Podcast

10 Day Competition

The Brief

An opportunity to win a Canon Powershot SX200 IS by making a film or digital media podcast to promote the UCA Library and Learning Services to potential students.

The podcast will be used on the library website and to promote the Library and Learning Services.

Entries must portray the library in a positive and fair way and should focus on all or some of the following aspects;

• The library environment
• The library staff
• The range of books and journals
• The material delivered online
• Study skills
• The Library website

The competition closes on Thursday 12 November so you will have to be quick. The winning entry will be announced on the Library website Bulletin on Monday 16 November.

 Please visit your LLC for further details or email nross@ucreative.ac.uk for the competition rules.

Library Film Poster

Tate Modern, London
Saturday 14 November 2009, 14.00–15.30Filmmaker, artist and writer Harun Farocki is among a number of European auteur filmmakers who explore the limits of representation in so-called ‘essay films’. He once stated that his films were made ‘against the cinema and against the television’.   Farocki employs found footage and sequences that foreground the discrepancy between television style ‘official’ history, and real-life events.

Harun Farocki will be interviewed by Sophia Phoca, Senior Lecturer on the Video Arts Production course at University for the Creative Arts, Maidstone.

To find out more or book a ticket, visit http://art.tate.org.uk/index.php/landing/page/november-events/

The professional papers of former KTHV CH-11 news anchor Anne Jansen have been added to the UCA Archives. Her collection was unveiled during a reception in the Mirror Room of McAlister Hall on Monday, Oct. 26.

Jansen spent more than 25 years as a reporter and news anchor for the Little Rock television station before retiring in 2008. Archivist Jimmy Bryant said while most people have never been to an archive, the purpose is to preserve civilization. “If researchers want to know what made news in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, they will see the Anne Jansen papers at the UCA Archives,” he said.

Jansen’s collection includes interviews with well-known Arkansans including Keith Jackson, Win Rockefeller and the late Will Counts, her work during the elections of former President Bill Clinton, as well as videos and photos taken throughout her career. Reviewing the materials before she donated them, gave Jansen the opportunity to “dust off the memories.” Some of those memories included participating in telethons for United Cerebral Palsy, reporting on Bill Clinton as he became president and was later re-elected and covering the case of mass murderer Ronald Gene Simmons, who selected her to conduct one-on-one interviews before his execution in 1990.

Jansen said she was pleased that Bryant had asked her to donate her papers to the UCA Archives, but reminded the audience that the collection is not about her. “It’s about the subjects I covered. I always thought of myself as a historian as well as a journalist,” Jansen said. “I am thrilled someone saw value in my papers.”

Jansen’s papers will be added to a collection that includes the papers of prominent Arkansans including former Gov. Ben Laney, eye surgeon Dr. Hampton Roy, children’s television actress Betty Fowler, folk songwriter Jimmy Driftwood, and fellow KTHV anchor Craig O’Neill.

By Emily Gassman

What most see as garbage or chaos, Gene Hatfield ’47 sees as art.  Drive down Donaghey and about a block from campus you’ll find Hatfield’s house. His yard is a tangled maze of twisted metal, furniture and car parts. Hatfield has displayed his sculptures in his yard for 47 years. 

When he moved into the house in 1962, Hatfield was just learning how to weld and his yard seemed like the perfect place to exhibit his recently mastered skill. His sculptures are made from materials – he affectionately calls them castoffs – he finds discarded along streets and at the city dump. 

“People throw away such good things that I plan to do stuff with,” said the retired UCA art professor. Some of the castoffs he has collected include machine parts, hubcaps, swimming pool slides and grills.

Taking random objects and turning them into works of art has grabbed people’s attention not only locally but also nationally. Some of his sculptures are featured in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Save Outdoor Sculpture program.  “A man from Little Rock who was in charge of the outdoor sculpture preservation came and took photos to send to the Smithsonian,” Hatfield said.  “The sculpture he took photos of has now been destroyed, it was vandalized.”

Saving objects from a doomed life in a landfill isn’t all Hatfield does. He also loves to paint. Influenced by Monet’s ability to capture landscape with perfect lighting and fast dot’s, Hatfield’s landscape scenes capture the perfect lighting at St. Ives in England, the ocean along the French coast, the Rockies, the desert, and even the Old Mill in North Little Rock. 

When teaching art at UCA, he made his students memorize page 18 in their textbook. “It said, ‘Design is the use of line, shape, value, texture and color to create unity’,” he recalled, insisting he still follows those basic rules when creating a piece. “Artists put together parts into ‘oneness’ that speaks to people or causes an emotional reaction. Artists are people that are more in touch with the spiritual world than others, we look at the world in a different way.”

Even though he sees the world differently, he doesn’t think he was born an artist. “We aren’t born artists, but we’re born with tendencies that lead us with encouragement,” he said. 

Hatfield’s encouragement came from his father, Lester Hatfield, who was a local architect and who left his tools lying around for his son to find. “My dad always had chisels and hammers lying around,” he said.  And that sparked an interest in Hatfield as he began carving cedar wood sculptures. Before the cedar wood sculptures began, Hatfield said he would cut comics out of the paper and paste them together in funny ways. “I don’t pretend to be a childhood protégée,” he said.  But there were signs that pointed to his future in art.

Still, when Hatfield entered Arkansas State Teacher’s College (now UCA) in 1942, he majored in English with an emphasis on speech – not art. He was attracted to this particular major because of his interest in theatre. Hatfield completed a Shakespeare tour performing “Romeo and Juliet” and “Macbeth” around the U.S. in 1947. The next year, art professor Marie Schichtl,   recommended he become a college professor. Schichtl presented the idea to then-president Nolen Irby, who said Hatfield could teach once he earned his master’s degree. So off he went to Greeley, Colo. to pursue a master’s degree in art.

“It was the best decision I ever made,” Hatfield said.  “It allowed me to take the job Schichtl offered, and I spent my entire career at UCA where I had freedom to do all of the crazy art things I did.”

Hatfield taught at the university for 37 years in the art department as well as in the speech department doing stage design. “I took a scene craft class in Colorado, and came back and taught stage craft [at UCA],” he said.  “I was responsible for stage designs and sets for productions.”

Hatfield, who retired in 1985, donates some of his art to the university, sells the pieces from his yard, and sells additional pieces of his art in an antique store downtown. 

The 83-year-old has no signs of slowing down either. “I can’t even count the number of paintings I’ve done, and that’s after giving UCA about 200,” he said.  “Sometimes I still do five or six pieces a day.”

Along with still cranking out pieces of art daily, Hatfield is also working on an autobiography and producing paintings and sculptures for the set of a local film group.

University for the Creative Arts, Maidstone
Tuesday 27th October 2009, 1.15 – 2.15 pm

Jayne Parker, one of Britain’s leading film and video artists, will be giving a guest lecture in the Blue Room at UCA Maidstone next Tuesday.  Jayne’s early work in performance was complimented by the camera to explore space, duration and the physical body.  Jayne Parker originally studied at Canterbury College of Art, and then The Slade School of Fine Art.

The library at UCA Maidstone has a copy of the recently-released BFI DVD on Jayne Parker, which has a selection of her early work.

Find out more about UCA at www.ucreative.ac.uk

For Barbara Meadors, being the first lady of the university is her full time job. “I’m not the typical first lady,” she explained. “More and more have outside careers. First ladies are going to be a lost breed.”

The Virginia-raised mother of two grown sons takes pride in her job. She is active in community and campus affairs and enjoys working to bring the two together. While living in Pennsylvania, she helped establish an arts festival for the entire community and hosted it at the Penn State Altoona campus.

With a background in interior design, Mrs. Meadors has a strong interest in restoration and preservation, and since their recent move into the UCA President’s home, she has been looking at ways to restore the home while also making it more user-friendly for entertaining.

She also sees the campus with an objective eye and is keenly aware of how a university campus should present itself. Her experiences at other university campuses over the last 28 years helped her see things that most wouldn’t. “As a mother of two recent college graduates, I see things through a parent’s eye, so if I find a residence hall that I wouldn’t want my kids living in, I don’t want other kids living there either. If I see gum on the sidewalk in front of a residence hall, I’ll clean it up,” she said.

Mrs. Meadors has an understanding of the internal workings of a campus, which is why she is often involved in activities including alumni and campus fundraising events. She also likes to make sure the community is aware of the expertise university professors can offer. “University campuses are a great resource of experts in a variety of fields,” she said.

From the perfect storm of a downturned American economy and climbing grocery bills, a renewed interest in gardening has blossomed. Anthropology Professor Dr. Brian Campbell is nurturing this growing trend through his own research interests, which include building a bank of heirloom seeds at UCA and sharing a portion of them with individuals throughout the state.

Campbell is an ecological anthropologist. He studies how humans think about and utilize the plants and animals they live around. His focus is on traditional farming communities: people who produce food to feed their own families. In order to continue their gardens year after year, people have two options: save the seeds from each year’s bounty to produce a crop the following year, or buy new seeds. Saving seeds is becoming a lost art. “It’s very time consuming to save seeds,” Campbell said. “And as the world has become fast-paced and removed [from such traditions], people in our society save fewer seeds.”

Seeds that have been saved within a family and passed down from one generation to the next are called heirloom seeds. These seeds are open-pollinated, meaning they are not crossed with other varieties of the same fruits and vegetables. Plants grown from open-pollinated seeds will produce seedlings that will be very similar to the parent plant. The best-producing, open-pollinated seeds are saved for future crops and passed down through the family generations, becoming heirloom seeds.

Many gardeners in the U.S. will purchase packets of seeds or seedlings from a hardware or general store. Most of these seeds are not heirlooms. Rather they are hybrids, crosses between two distantly related members of the same species, selected for certain characteristics.  While a hybrid will produce very well under ideal conditions, their seed will not “grow true” to the parent plant.  Therefore, new seeds must be purchased each year. The development of hybrid seeds and their replacement of open-pollinated varieties in farmer/gardener’s fields over the last 75 to 80 years has resulted in a significant decline in open-pollinated seeds. As farmers adopted hybrid seeds, they became dependent on hybrids for future crops.  But hybrids require open-pollinated seeds for their creation.  Without access to open-pollinated seeds, hybrids will lack the genetics that provide the useful characteristics such as drought tolerance and pest and disease resistance.  Losing open-pollinated seeds makes our industrial food system even more tenuous. 

Campbell saw firsthand the devastation that can occur from the loss of heirloom seeds when he was an graduate student at the University of Georgia. “I conducted research in northern Ecuador, and you can see how modern agriculture had caused them to abandon their traditional processes, and in some cases these people were duped,” he said.

Campbell interviewed indigenous peoples in the region known as Kichwa, who had been encouraged to use hybrid potato varieties, which produced well with the chemical fertilizers provided for free the first year. Many Kichwa adopted the “High Yielding” hybrid potatoes and replaced heirloom varieties in their fields.  But the Kichwa who adopted were soon trapped in a never-ending cycle of buying fertilizers and seeds to produce crops year after year. Previously self-sufficient, they were forced to peddle their produce in order to buy the necessary supplies to grow the next crop; and in order to sell their crop, they needed the fertilizers and hybrid seeds to produce more crops.  They were now stuck on the “technological treadmill” of modern agriculture.

“This demonstrated, to me, the importance of food varieties and making sure we don’t lose them,” Campbell said. “You could see how upset these people were that their heirloom seeds were no longer available to pass on.”  Dr. Campbell’s research focused on the documentation and rediscovery of local heirloom varieties that had been lost by some families. “I would try to find and acquire seeds to distribute to people who needed them and I documented what was lost,” he said.

“In the United States, we don’t know how to save seeds and don’t know why it’s important,” Campbell said. His goal is to educate individuals and bring awareness about the importance of saving heirloom seeds. He hopes to show people that while saving seeds is time consuming, it’s not that difficult. “We also want to let people know about the seed bank,” he said. “We are using this bank to conserve the different varieties of fruits and vegetables because down the road we may need them.”

Seeds donated to the seed bank are divvied up – some go into a reserve box to be saved and another portion goes into the surplus box to be shared and planted. In a converted office space in Irby Hall, seeds of various shapes and sizes are organized and stored in envelopes, freezer bags, and mason jars. Seeds saved for the reserve are stored in a pharmacy-grade lab freezer that was donated by the College Square Retirement Community.

Campbell is growing some of the surplus seeds in various community gardens around town. In the spring, he and some student volunteers planted a small garden at UCA’s Child Study Center, a university-operated pre-school that serves as a practice site for early childhood education majors. “There’s the concern with youth not being familiar with the concept of gardening and where food comes from,” Campbell said. At the Child Study Center, Campbell and his crew planted several hardy plants that the children would be familiar with including tomatoes, sunflowers and pole beans”

They also planted heirloom seeds at the Dee Brown Memorial Garden on campus behind the Physical Therapy Center, at the McGhee Center community garden and at the Grace United Methodist Church garden. “We’re trying to grow out these heirloom seeds once every couple of years,” he explained. “We make sure that only one variety of each fruit or vegetable is planted in each garden. If two varieties of beans or watermelon or okra are planted near each other, then because of open pollination they will potentially cross.”

Campbell has found help in some of his anthropology students. Those expressing an interest in ecological anthropology assist him by working in the gardens, tracking down and collecting heirloom seeds and interviewing individuals who donate heirloom seeds to the seed bank. “We have a family in Newton County, Ark., that has been a source of a lot of seeds,” Campbell explained. “Many of the seeds [in the Ozarks] are named for family members or neighboring families who pass down the seeds. There is a variety locals call Alfred Drury corn, for example, which we have learned is a type of Tennessee Red Cob corn that their ancestors brought with them when they homesteaded the region.”

Campbell not only saves and grows plants using heirloom seeds from the seed bank, but also shares them through the seed swaps he has organized as part of his Conserving Arkansas’ Agricultural Heritage project. Two and a half years ago, he partnered with the Ozark Folk Center State Park in Mountain View to host the first Ozark Seed Swap. Farmers and gardeners with a legacy of heirloom seeds were invited to bring their seeds and stories to swap with other seed savers. Individuals without seeds, but with a desire to begin growing plants with heirloom seeds, were also invited to participate. Last spring, Campbell hosted a second Ozark Seed Swap and an inaugural Seed Swap at the Faulkner County Library.

In addition to facilitating the swap of seeds among local residents and distributing numerous varieties, Campbell collects seeds from each swap to add to the seed bank. “The seed swaps help ensure that these open-pollinated versions are grown out and distributed,” he said. “It also offers more support for these varieties that could be lost. When people trade seeds, we encourage them to also trade emails and phone numbers so they can share their knowledge about the seeds, like when to harvest or how to cook or use something.”

Campbell recalls his mother asking him how to string the heirloom green beans he provided her from the collection. “The beans we eat typically have the strings removed already, so that was something she hadn’t encountered before,” he explained. Like many in his parent’s generation, they traded the farm for urban life when they grew up.

Today, Campbell and others like him are leading a relearning process that will help people return to their agrarian roots and begin to understand and appreciate those tiny little miracles we call seeds.

Monaro Mining (ASX: MRO) advises that Vale Exploration Canada Inc. (“VEC”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Vale S.A. (“Vale”), has informed the Company in writing that it has exercised its option under the conditions of its letter agreement with Monaro’s wholly owned subsidiary Uranium Corporation Arizona LLC (“UCA”), to move to become the Operator of the project.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Vale completes Year 1 expenditure of US$750,000
• Vale elects to exercise its option to become Operator
• Recent field work confirms a number of uranium anomalies
• Exploration targets to be prioritized for drilling in early 2010
• Project demonstrates high potential for regional/multiple project possibilities

Click here to view the full announcement.

For further information, please contact:

Jim Malone
Chairman
+61 4 19537714

Mart Rampe
Executive Director
+61 2 4647 9566.

Media Enquiries:
Fortbridge
Bill Kemmery
+61 2 9331 0655
+61 400 122 449
bill.kemmery@fortbridge.com

Por Nora Méndez.

Observador Juvenil/Kaos en la Red.

En el marco de la conmemoraciòn del 20 aniversario del asesinato de los Padres Jesuitas y dos salvadoreñas, se realizarà el estreno nacional de la cantata para coro y orquesta del Compositor Carlos Colón, Las Lamentaciones de Rufina (Amaya).
Gracias a los buenos oficios del compositor Paulino Espinoza (ex Yolocamba I ta y ahora, Exceso de Equipaje) la obra será presentada en el país, junto a la conmemoración de otros mártires de la violencia estructural que sufre El Salvador desde sus orígenes. Los crìmenes del Mozote y la masacre de los Jesuitas y dos salvadoreñas, continúan impunes.

Fecha: 6 de Noviembre del 2009
Lugar: Auditorio de la UCA
Participa: El Coro de la OPES
Dirección del Concierto: El compositor, Carlos Colón-Quintana
Patrocina: Salvadoreños en el Mundo

Voy tierra abajo
No se quién soy
Voy tierra abajo
No se quièn soy.

Rufina Amaya (Morazán, 1942-2007) Campesina y única sobreviviente de la masacre del Mozote, murió a sus 64 años de un derrame cerebral y otras complicaciones. Su vida se vio marcada por la guerra, cuando  el 10 de diciembre de 1981, en su caserío “El mozote”, el Ejército  Salvadoreño “irrumpió en búsqueda de guerrilleros”; durante tres dìás mataron a más de 900 campesinos pobres, en su mayoría niños y mujeres, perpetrando una de las más crueles masacres de nuestra historia. Rufina  perdió allí cuatro hijos, la menor tenía 8 meses y se la arrebataron de sus brazos.

Rufina Amaya sobrevivió -como ella misma lo contaba- por un milagro. En varias ocasiones que birindó su testimonio en público, narró en qué forma se fueron dando frente a sus ojos señales que le dieron valor para salvarse, agachándose y caminando a gatas hacia un árbol de manzano y rodando luego, monte abajo para huir por días con hambre y el dolor irremediable de sus hijos asesinados.

Rufina vivió 25 años superando ese dolor día a día, sin descanso, contando su historia como la única forma que tuvo para resarcirse de aquel crimen cometido contra sus hijos, su esposo, sus amigos y vecinos. Nadie le ofreció disculpas, nadie solicitó su opinión en las altas esferas del poder a la hora de evaluar la situación de las víctimas de guerra una vez finalizado el conflicto; pero la voz de Rufina llegó por diversos medios, a los oídos de miles de salvadoreños, incrédulos unos, y otros que la comprendieron, pues también sufrieron bejámenes por el simple hecho de vivir en el campo, de ser pobres, de estar indefensos.

Rufina murió sin recibir justicia legal en El Salvador, pero sí el reconocimiento de instancias internacionales y nacionales que ratificaron su testimonio e hicieron del dominio público la verdad de esta mujer sencilla. Rufina nunca se dió por vencida, con una esperanza y dignidad que sirven de ejemplo ahora, a todos aquellos que se afanan por continuar la vida, aún con las pérdidas terribles que la violencia social y económica sigue horadando.

Esta obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons.