News From the Hill

Posts Tagged ‘Communication’

I received the newsletter (copied below) from the good people at Food and Water Watch – a watchdog site in the USA that enable people like you and me to make a difference on matters that concern us – safe food and water for the generations to come as well as ourselves. Being an “armchair acitivist” is easier with the internet, however it still takes an effort and requires us to pay attention, to read relevant information and to not become so overwhelmed that we feel as though it’s all too much and we then give up. That’s why I love sites like Food and Water Watch and Avaaz – they encourage and allow me to make a difference without becoming overwhelmed, I don’t give up and I can make a difference, so can you!

Let’s keep on doing it – together WE DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

FOOD AND WATER WATCH NEWSLETTER

As I prepare to share Thanksgiving with my family this year, I’ve been thinking about the many things I am truly thankful for, and you’re at the top of the list. Thank you for all that you do to protect your food and water.

When I started Food & Water Watch just seven years ago, I knew that we would face many challenges, and I could only hope that our then-tiny organization would be able to tackle them. Now, seven years later, while the challenges are still great, I am confident that thanks to our nearly 80 staff around the world, and half a million dedicated supporters like you, we can truly stand up and fight back to protect our essential resources.

The power of you and your neighbors working together has shown us throughout this past year that we can take on the corporate control of our food and water, and together we can win.

From shutting down Walmart’s support lines asking them not to carry genetically engineered sweet corn to helping Longmont, Colorado, become the first city in the state to ban fracking, you’ve shown both politicians and corporations that together we are strong and committed to fighting for what’s right. Additionally, supporters like you have helped us move our work forward on the state and federal level by:

• Taking over 1 million actions online, from asking state legislators for fracking bans to demanding that the FDA investigate pet food-related deaths
• Making nearly 40,000 phone calls to local, state, federal and corporate decision-makers
• Hosting over 350 events in communities all across the U.S., from film screenings and activist meetups to rallies and petition deliveries

As a result of all of this amazing work, we’ve shared many victories that our organizers are very excited to celebrate with you in the coming month. But, before we begin discussing all of the things we’ve accomplished, I wanted to take a moment and recognize the people who made our victories possible. It’s people like you, from Maine to California, who work tirelessly alongside our organizers to help advance our goals. You don’t do it for personal recognition, or money, but because you believe, like I do, that we must fight for the kind of world we want and not just settle for the best that we can get.

You inspire me every day, and help me see the incredible future that lies ahead for our movement. In fact, it was you that I had in mind when I wrote my latest book, Foodopoly, which is being released in December. You and I know that the food system is broken, and it didn’t happen by accident. A handful of corporations now control most of the food on store shelves, and we aren’t going to be able to shop our way out of this system.

I have often said that I wish I could thank each of you in person, and as I travel around the country in 2013 for my book tour, I hope that I will have the opportunity to meet many of you. But in the meantime, during a season that is predicated on giving thanks, I can think of nothing else that I am more thankful for than your involvement with Food & Water Watch, and nothing that I look forward to more than working with you in the coming years.

Thank you from all of us,

Wenonah Hauter
Executive Director
Food & Water Watch
act(at)fwwatch(dot)org

I am just playing around to see if I can feed my blog posts into Digg. There is no good reason for doing this, it’s raining and I am sitting here playing so I just thought that I would give it a go…

I don’t use Digg however I thought I might learn to and if I can set twitter and digg to talk to each other then I could have a party……… I do like parties, I can bring cakes and buns and digg can bring the fizzy drinks and twitter can bring the conversation………. there now, we are all set… party at my place… http://digg.com/scribhneoir

Today we are fog bound, we can only see about 100 metres. It’s a dense, wet fog, the kind that stills sounds and feels really cold. We even lit a fire this morning and that very rarely needs to happen, especially in October.

This week  we had a beautiful, hot, sunny day. Right from sun-rise we had a lovely hot and summery day. We were outside working on our house, putting up rafters with tee-shirts on and a water bottle up on the scaffolding with us to stay hydrated. I even had on a hat to prevent my face from sun-burn.

However we couldn’t see the valley below us because of a low lying cloud of fog that was really thick. The previous day had been foggy in the lowlands however the fog  lifted by mid-morning and we could see really far into the distance.

I went down to the nearest big town for some groceries and cat food sometime before lunch on the really hot sunny day and I put on a shirt over my tee thinking that I would be warm enough. As I drove down the hill I started to chill and regretted not having grabbed a jacket, the temperature really dropped quickly.

Town was really cold and everyone that I met and talked to in the shops (because we talk to each other in small towns, even if we don’t really know each other) was in a downcast mood.  It was as though the fog was clouding everyone’s joy.  I did the shopping as quickly as possible to get back up the hill to the sunshine.

As I put the messages (that’s what we call the groceries here) away in the van I was thinking, once again, how lucky we are to live up on the hills. The radio was on and I was listening to Today FM, a channel that has friendly morning chat and music, nothing too political.

The dj had been interviewing someone and took a break for the “good news” which was a little strange. As I listened to the news I realised why he had called it the “good news”, the newsreader spoke about a little girl who lived in Cork who had the stabilisers removed from her bike and was doing really well. There was mention of a couple who had just moved into their first house together and a beloved school teacher who had been ill and was back in the classroom. All of the stories were good news stories!

The person being interviewed was really impressed and asked if all Irish radio stations did the same thing, unfortunately they don’t – yet. The “normal” news was on ten minutes later and wasn’t nearly as much fun.

When I got home, back up the hill into the hot sunshine, I told my husband about the “goodnews” broadcast and we wondered when was it decided, and by whom, that news broadcasts should be predominantly bad/sad news. Who decided that? Why was the decision made? Who benefits from broadcasting bad/sad news to the nation, every hour on the hour?

I know that it is important to know what is going on around us however I think that it is important to know both the good and the bad news. We don’t have the balance right at all.

Most of my friends don’t buy or read daily newspapers or watch the tv news, most also try to avoid the radio news however that is lots of work as they broadcast it every hour. Thank you to Today FM and the Ray D’Arcy show for the good news! I must listen more often and find out if the good-news is a daily event.

I thought that it was quite fitting that I had driven above the fog to the sunny heights of our hill to have this chat about listening to the mass media version of news and what we are supposed to be concerned about.

Sometimes I wonder about people who listen to the media version of events every day, who read all the papers, broadsheet or tabloid, who watch the tv news – are they living in a fog?

A fog induced by a daily diet of overwhelmingly bad news, fear inducing, power-sapping news that makes them think that they cannot possible change the world, their world, our world?

If you think that there is nothing that you can do to influence change do you give up trying?

I sure hope not ‘cos a lot of people do watch the daily power-sap commonly known as The News. I know that I had to stop watching it every day as it was certainly overwhelming for me. I can only speak for myself of course.

How do you feel about The News?

Please add a comment and let me know……..

Do you often find yourself reading web-pages that have lots of ads, tabs, login buttons, animations etc?

I find that some web-pages are distracting and that it takes longer to read the story that brought me there or that it is harder to focus on the story and ignore the background images.

This situation can sometimes lead me to click on other links that lead me astray and then I become frustrated about wasting time or loosing track of what I was researching/reading.

There is a great solution to this distraction and I love it – it is called Readability and works simply by clicking on a button on your shortcut toolbar – and the web-page magically becomes simplified.

First you need to visit the Readability website and make a choice about which page format you prefer – you get to choose from a variety of styles, sizes and margin layouts. Once you have decided which style suits you best you simply add the bookmarklet to your bookmark toolbar and the next time that you are faced with a web-page like this…

Very Busy web page, lots of distraction

and turn it into something much easier to read, like this…

Clearer page, simple with just the relevant text and pictures